Day 16: 4 mile run

Due to the new quarter beginning it's been tough to get on a good running schedule so Ben and I decided to go on an earlier morning run. Just as we we're about to leave we saw there was snow on the ground but we decided to run anyways. 4 miles in 30 degree temperature was unbearable. We finished in 40:43. The mile splits were as follows:

10:16
10:22
10:21
9:34

Next run will be on Sunday because I'm going to Cleveland with Tracy and Emma on Saturday for the White Sox vs. Indians opening weekend game

Day 15: 3 mile run

Yesterday was an interesting day. I got back from my JNF ASB in Israel trip around 2 PM. I immediately took a two hour nap, went for a run, ate dinner and fell asleep around 7 PM. This Jetlag is about to be brutal. The 3 mile run was from high to 12th, 12th to cannon, cannon to woodruff, and back. I will post Israel pictures soon. Also Azilli released its polo and hat line yesterday which is pretty sick. Can't wait to wear the originals.

Day 14: 6.5 Run

Today's run was my last before I leave for Israel. I ran 6.5 miles in 56 minutes. The run went from high to buttles, buttles to neil, neil to 3rd, 3rd to Olentangy River trail, and Olentangy River trail to Woodruff. It was great to run through Victorian Village which is where I will be potentially living next year. Can't wait for Israel tomorrow.

7 Weeks until the race.

Day 13: 3 miles / end of winter quarter

Today marks the end of my winter quarter senior year. After cramming last night for my counseling exam and getting 2 hours of sleep before my 7:30 AM exam, I'm glad it's finally over. The counseling exam was pretty tough and I'm kind of nervous because in order to graduate with honors I need an A- or higher in this class. If I end up getting a B+ then I will have to take another Psych class in the Spring which would be bullshit.

My 3 mile run today was easy and it was all on campus which was cool. I finished the 3 miles in a little over 25 minutes which is good for me. To celebrate the end of the quarter Jeremy, Joel, BHo, and I are hitting up Quaker Steak and Lube for all you can eat wing night. Gotta make sure to stay away from the "atomic" wings this time...

Day 12: 10 miles- double digits

I knew today's run was going to be difficult. Not only is it the farthest I will run until the race on May 7th, but also Ben is in Austin so I had to run by myself for most of it. Jeremy had a plan where him and Zach would run 2 miles with me at different times and then drive to the next spot where one of them would meet up with me and take their turn. I thought that would have been a pretty funny alternative. I ended up running the first 5 1/4 miles by myself down by Victorian village, through the med center, through campus and then I picked up Melissa at her house and we ran the next 4.86 miles together. Our path was lane to Beekman Park and then Beekman Park to Woodruff and Woodruff back to campus. Overall it ended up working out really well. I'm taking the next two "push" days off because of my trip to Israel but I'm excited to continue when I get back.

8 weeks until the race!

Day 11: 4 mile run

I ran today's 4 miles on the treadmill at Hillel and it was excruciatingly boring. I finished in 39:24 which is pretty good for me on a treadmill. I also have started to put together an iPod playlist for the half marathon. I decided that like running landmarks, I want to have some music landmarks so I approximately know how far I am into the race. Since I'm going to run the first 3 miles of the race just talking, I want about 10 different genres of music to cover me the rest of the race (each genre accounts for 1 mile). Some of the genres I'm liking right now include a 90's music mile, Michael Jackson mile, Classic Pump-up songs mile, possibly even Sklar Brothers stand-up comedy for a mile. Should be pretty fun to put together. On another note I'm glad marketing is coming to an end tomorrow. I'm tired of having to memorize the color of the car on page 38 for exams and knowing DTP's philosophy on businesses giving to charity. Also I never thought I'd say it but this buy one get one free Chipotle is honestly killing me. I've had Chipotle 5 times in the last 3 days. My body is beginning to hurt. If I eat another burrito I think I'm going to turn into this guy ->

Day 10: 3 miles/Weekend

Today's run went really well. I ran 3 miles on the treadmill at Hillel in 29 minutes. I'm going to try to go to Runners World this week to try to pick up new running shoes so I can work them in before the race.

Overall it was a really good weekend. Blake's AEPi initiation was on Saturday. It was cool to see him go through the same process as me and see all of his hard work pay off. We can now do the handshake in front of my parents and they'll have no idea what's going on. I wish I got to celebrate with him after but it was AEPhi formal which was a lot of fun. There was a party bus and bar crawl for all the seniors before the event. I definitely would want to do something like that for our house in Spring quarter. I also watched 2 movies I really enjoyed this weekend, Up in the Air and the Social Network. Very Recommendable.

Day 9: 9 mile run

Friday's run was brutal. It was probably the toughest run I have ever done in my life. It rained all morning and was finally beginning to slow down as we left around 3:00 P.M. As we got into downtown it started to downpour. While I didn't really mind the rain some of the paths we ran on were completely dirt so a few miles were ran in the mud. It was really gross. Ben made a joke that we were going to have "trench foot" by the end of the run. What made the run worse was that Ben's iPhone (our navigation system) died in the middle so we ended up getting lost and backtracking a lot. We finished in about 1 hour and 25 minutes. I immediately went to Chipotle after and then took a two hour nap. 

Day 8: 4 Mile Run

It was nice to be running outside again. Today's run went really well finishing 4.1 miles in 39:23. The mile splits were:

Mile 1: 9:37
Mile 2: 9:51
Mile 3: 9:42
Mile 4: 9:38

I've been really tired and hungry after running lately. I'm guessing this means that I should be eating more to compensate for the amount of calories I'm burning. That just sounds awesome. 9 miler on Friday!

Day 7: 3 mile run

They say if you don't like the weather in Columbus just wait an hour. According to weather.com it was supposed be 60 degrees today but it turned out to be in the low 40's so I decided to run on the treadmill at Hillel. The run wasn't too bad finishing around 30 minutes. Also, pretty excited for the doubles ping pong tournament in table tennis later.

Day 6: 7 Mile Run

Going into today's run Ben and I decided that when we completed today's 7 mile run we were going to register for the Cap City Marathon. While it was pretty cold outside my body warmed up after a mile or two. The beginning of the run was sweet running down high street into the downtown area. It's funny that we always take a cab to all the bars downtown and had never thought it was physically possible to get there by foot. After running into downtown we ran through victorian village and into Granview Heights before running along the Olentangy River on the Olentangy River trail. It was awesome getting to run along the river for a few miles. My iPod also died half way through which kind of sucked but getting to talk made the run go by a lot faster. The 7.43 miles was finished in 1:12:44 and the mile splits were as follows:

Mile 1: 9:34
Mile 2: 9:34
Mile 3: 11:06 (stopped for a minute to look for Ben's earpiece)
Mile 4: 9:43
Mile 5: 9:46
Mile 6: 10:07
Mile 7: 9:25
Mile 8: 8:07

I am officially registered for the Half Marathon and can't wait for the rest of training.

10 weeks till the race!

Day 5: 4 Mile Run

Today's 4 miles was not too bad. I finished in 37:43 which is very good for me. It's still pretty cold and icy outside so I ran at the RPAC on the track. After running outside for a week going back to the track was miserable. I don't think its possible for me to do 7 miles on the track. It would be way toooo boring. It's supposed to be mid 40's on Saturday so we might push the run back to then and fight the cold weather. I also have a new running pet peeve. When there are 4 lanes on the track (2 for slow, 2 for fast) I hate when someone walks in one of the faster lane. If you're going to walk on the track do it in the walking lane!

Day 4: 3 Mile Run

I decided to not go to the RPAC today because I wanted to go back to sleep after my Counseling 540 midterm (Mom or Dad if your reading this, I actually do study). Instead, I decided to go to Hillel and run 3 miles on the treadmill. I finished the 3 miles in 30:42. Probably the easiest 3 mile run yet.

Day 3: 6 mile Run and Phi Trotters

The weather was again unbelievable on Friday getting into the high 50's so Ben, Danielle, and I decided to do our run outside. The plan was to run from Indianola to Lane, Lane to Olentangy River Rd, Oletangy to 3rd, 3rd to high and high to woodruff. The run ended up going really well and we finished the 6 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes. It was awesome to run by all these restaurants and stores that I would never imagine being able to get to by anything but a car. I really wanted to make a quick stop at Cap City Restaurant get some Bagel and Lox and then finish the trip. While the run itself was pretty easy, walking around our house the next few days was unbearable. I have a feeling that after the half marathon is over I will physically not be able to get my legs out of the car after driving home.

This Saturday was also the annual AEPhi philanthropy basketball tournament. As you all know basketball is not my strongest suit so KJ and I decided to have Azilli sponsor a good teams in hope for some viral marketing. Our coaches and t-shirts were awesome. There was even a "let shmeef play!" chant which was pretty sweet. Between that and Semi-Formal it was a really good weekend.

11 weeks until the race!

Day 2: 4 mile run (Outside!)

The February heat wave continues today with a smoking temperature of 47 degrees. Ben and I decided that we were going to do our first outside run of 2011. We started at the RPAC and within 15 seconds of being outside it started to rain. The rain ended up feeling really good and stopped about half way through the run. Being outside was completely different than running on the track and the constant incline changes are something that I'm going to have to get used to. We finished the 4 miles in 38 minutes. I'm pumped for the 6 mile run this Friday (farthest run of my life). The plan for Friday is to run part of the route of the race to get a feel for it because we usually run the same campus routes.

Day 1: 3 Mile Run

Today was a pretty easy 3 mile run. Even though it was in the mid 40's today it was still a little chilly to run outside. I'm hoping by the end of this week it will be nice enough for a run outside. I finished the 3 miles in 26:45 which is a very good time for me. I feel like I need to start stretching more over the weekend in between the push day and the Monday runs because my legs felt like jello for the first couple of miles. Anyways, pumped for A-team basketball against Sammy tonight.

Last Trial Run: 5 Miles

Well it's official. Barring any sickness or injuries I will be running in the Capital City Half Marathon on May 7th! Today's run could not have went any better. I usually have to run while listening to music but Ben and I tried running the first mile and a quarter just talking. It actually worked really well. The first mile seemed to fly by really quickly and that made the last 4 miles pretty easy. One problem that I seemed to have was that around the 4th mile my hip facing the inside of the track hurt every time I made a turn. While this was very irritating, I know that once I start running outside this will not be an issue. I finished the 5 miles in 51:21. It's weird to imagine that I ran for almost an hour. When the run was over my body felt pretty good, but I had never been more hungry in my entire life. Passing Miccy D's on the way back to our house was torturous. I think running has given me a bad case of the "munchies". To combat this I have started making a list of foods I am going to eat immediately after the half marathon is over. My first selection is an entire XL cheese pizza from Ohio State Pizza.

12 Weeks till the race!

Day 5 of Trial Run: 4 miles

After a difficult run on Monday, I was nervous about the 4 mile run today. I made sure to stay hydrated and eat a good breakfast this morning because a few of us participated in birthday festivities for Scott's 22nd birthday last night. Overall the run went really well and finished the 4 miles in 39:13. I'm pumped for my first 5 mile run on Friday. The plan is to register for the half-marathon after the next run. Below is the route I ran. Hopefully it will get a little more exciting when the weather gets nicer.

Day 4 of Trial Run and Best Super Bowl Ever?

Today's run of 3 miles was surprisingly difficult. While I finished the 3 miles in 27:10 which is a pretty good time for me I actually felt like my whole body was moving "slower". Whether I'm still soar from last weeks runs or 3 miles is actually more difficult for me than I think, I'm going to have to put the blame on last night's Super Bowl. Last night was without a doubt the most entertaining and interesting super bowl I have ever watched and it had nothing to do with the teams playing in it. I was rooting for Green Bay to lose but I didn't care if the Steelers won.

The night started off with an Aircraft Carrier from Wings Over Columbus. This includes 60 boned wings, 6 pounds of boneless, 2 full slabs of ribs (sadly they are pork), fries, onion rings, and 3 two liters of pop. This was split between 10 of us in our house. I don't think I ever ate more wings in my entire life.

What made it really exciting was the betting on the game. After coming back from Vegas this summer I came to hate most forms of betting except for sports betting which I found will make every sporting event exciting. My roommates and I placed a bunch of ridiculous bets on the game, commercials, half time show, and even the coin toss. I can truly say that I enjoyed every second of the game. This is the outcome of my bets placed last night:

Bets Won:
First Soda commercial in first half (Coke or Pepsi) : Pepsi
First Car commercial (Mercedes or Ford): Ford
First Song played at half-time show: I gotta Feeling
MVP (QB vs Field): QB

Bets Lost:
Coin Toss (Whats the odds of losing the coin toss?!?!)
First Penalty Committed: Steelers
First non-football related celebrity shown after kickoff: George Bush
First Soda commercial in second half: Coke
First turnover committed in second half: Steelers
Who starts with ball in 4th quarter: Steelers
First commercial (TV vs movie trailer): TV - Chicago Code
First Car commercial (US vs foreign made): Foreign -VW (hilarious darth vader commercial)

Interesting bets I didn't place:
Team with first injury (whoever roots for an injury is sick)
First team with ball to start play on 33 yard line
Color of Gatorade shower: Orange (who even drinks orange Gatorade?)

Day 3 of Trial Run: 4 miles

Yesterday was my 3rd day of my trial runs and the plan was for 4 miles. It was technically the first "push" day even though every week from now on that distance will be run every Wednesday. The weather was pretty nice out but the roads were still icy so Ben and I decided to go to the RPAC to run on the track. Overall the 4 miles went pretty well. There were slight pains on the bottom of my feet when I was done which makes me think its time to buy new running shoes. Also I am still looking for a way to make running on the track less boring and tedious. Any suggestions?

13 weeks till the race!

Day 2 of Trial Run: 3 Miles

Today was another "Ice Day" so I decided not to make the long trek to the RPAC but run on the Treadmill at Hillel. The plan for today was 3 miles. While this would normally be pretty easy, I would rather run barefoot over a bunch of eggshells than on a treadmill. I hate having to run in one place constantly looking at the same scenery for half an hour. The time seems to go so much slower as well. I made sure to get a good playlist on my iPod and finished the three miles today pretty easily. I also managed not to slip on the ice on the way to Hillel or on the way back.

A Half Marathon

I always talked about wanting to run a half marathon but never actually committed to a particular race or training schedule. After a month long winter break of constant video games, movies, and a traditional Jewish mother's cooking I decided that my New Years Resolution would be to start running again. I never had a set running schedule. It was always more of an impulse decision when the whether was nice or after a full day of sitting at a desk at work.

Through the month of January I have constantly run 10 miles a week. Four times a week for 2.5 miles each. Three days ago my roommate Ben approached me about running a half marathon on May 7th. At first, I thought this notion was ridiculous but after some research and the creation of a running schedule from now till the race it actually did seem feasible. We decided that we're going to give our schedule a 1 week test run to see if we can commit for the shorter distances before we decide to register. Below is the planned running schedule for the next 14 weeks.