So.... now what????

As I promised, here is the picture of my medal... or should I say Adryana's medal..if you click on it, you will see an up close picture of it. Yesterday was for sure my best running performance yet, and I just wanted to enjoy it because it is always so cool to see my fitness levels improve, and see it come to fruition in a race. As great as marathon training has been, I know I made significant improvements in my fitness during that time, without question... but when you can't translate it into a good race, its a bit disheartening. But I do realize that I won't always do this. Most people don't get 2 1/2 minute improvements in their 5k times over 1 year, so I realize that it is probably not an attainable goal to ask for the same improvements next year...but maybe???? Well, this is how my brain works... I have already thought of what I would like to do by the end of the summer, by the end of the year, and for next years Draft Day Dash 5k. Some of you might call me psycho.. which is fine... I call it goal driven. Once you have the goal and vision in place, you now know what you have to do to get there... and anything less than getting there is a disappointment. But if you do get there, then you smile constantly for like the last 36 hours like I have done between yesterday and today. For me, that is my profession. Everyday, I see people with injuries from minor to devastating. And the way I have my patients mentally cope with their rehabilitation is to break up their total rehab time into meeting specific goals. If we don't meet the goal, we don't move on to the next. And it gives us hope and excitement in seeing improvement little by little. That's why its such an awesome job, because if everybody puts in the appropriate effort, we usually get there and it feels good for me and obviously even better for the patient. When we don't, it is a disappointment, and we have to regroup, refocus and make new goals. Simple as that.. so for me, it's no different....
By the end of the summer, I want to have a 5k time of under 20 min. I feel that is completely attainable, but since I will not be doing a lot of speed work and more distance running, I feel as though that will not be as easy as it sounds... It's only 17 seconds, so hopefully it will be done. Hopefully after the Chicago Marathon, I will be healthy enough to just take a few weeks off and get back to running, so I will not lose much fitness and be able to pull off a 19:30 5k by the end of December 2008. By this time next year, God willing, I would like to take off 1:18 from my 5k. Yes, 18:59... not sure if I can really do that, but I'm going for it. I realize that if I am in that range, I can start looking at getting medals in races because I actually might place in my age group... I feel as though a low 19, high 18 5k, will do that for me. That would just be awesome!!!! So, that's my little 5k goals that I have for 2008.
The really challenging thing that happens after a race that you do well in, is that you have to change your training paces. For the last few weeks my training runs have been quite easy for me, reason being that my fitness had improved and everything was becoming quite manageable. But now that I have a race that has shown that improvement, all of my times for my runs have to be faster now, to continue to see improvements in my times. So this week will be a challenging one for sure. I'm kinda looking forward to my run tomorrow, which will be an 8 miler with some mid-distance interval spurts in there, but I am kinda worried about my Thursday tempo run, which has to be run at 7:00/mile for 4 miles.... sounds kinda hard to me.... never done that before, so I guess we will see.
So here is something that is pretty cool... today I was at church and Kerry and I were teaching the 3-5 year old kids, which we do like 2x/month. One of the ushers usually pass by to get a head count of the amount of kids that are in the nursery, our class, and the 2-3 year old class also. This week, when one of the ushers popped their head in, he looked at me and said, "Did you get it?" so... I'm like thinking in my head... what is he talking about??? So, I didn't want to seem as clueless as I really am... so I said "Yes!", but I honestly had no idea what he was talking about.... so he kept on talking and said that he was so happy that I got the MEDAL!!!!! I felt like such an idiot.... but anyways, he said that he was praying for me yesterday morning before my race, and it made me feel so good!!!! So basically, I tell you all that because I thank all of you that read the blog on a regular basis, and I thank you all for your prayers yesterday, and any day for that matter, and also that you would take the time to read my thoughts about something that is so trivial to most (running that is...), but so special to me right now. It's always nice to know that you could be in the midst of something, and someone might be praying for God's protection or direction on you at that moment??? The power of prayer... good stuff....

Got It !!!!

The medal is mine!!! I have never been so happy over a little plastic looking medal, but honestly I am. So I guess I gave it away, but yes, I got the medal, and I ran a personal record (PR) for my 5k. So here is how it went.

I slept great last night, but I woke up around 5:15 am, and couldn't go back to sleep. I wasn't thinking about the race, but I had a lot of work stuff that was going on in my head. I know deep down that I was thinking about the race though... so I went upstairs and watched SportsCenter for the next hour or so. Around 7 am, I got ready and left the house for the race.
When I got there, there was a good crowd of people at the south side of Raymond James Stadium. I would estimate that there was around 1500 people that showed up for the race. Just a guestimate... maybe a little more or less... I found Cheryl (the Office Manager at the clinic that I work at), who was there with her 3 sons (21 year old triplets) in which 2 of them were competing in the race. They are fast as lightning so I kidded them that I would trip them before the start of the race so I could beat them. Their goal was to finish in the top 10 in the race, but they told me that there were some pretty fast people out there today (I guess they know all the fast people, because they ran cross country in high school). So anyways about 10 minutes later, we lined up for the start of the race. Spurlock, the BUCS player that ran back the first kickoff return for a TD, said some pep talk stuff before the race, and then we got ready. I was at the front, but all the way to the outside of the starting line. Again, my goals was to break 21:00 and get a medal, and once the gun went off, I just saw so many people sprint way out ahead of me, and I was just like whoa.... It felt like about 200 people just sprinted fast out of the gates, and they weren't letting up at all. I was pretty nervous, my legs felt weak, and I felt like my breathing wasn't normal... I'm just not used to racing and I have to get myself comfortable with racing.... it's so different than just doing my training runs by myself. I knew I was ok, just hopefully it would all go away soon. I passed a few people during the 1st mile, but a decent amount of people passed me also. I got to the 1st mile split in 6:38. So far so good... but could I keep that up??? During the 2nd mile, at least 1/2 of it was run on the practice field of 1 BUC Place. That was pretty cool. Even though I felt a bit winded, I felt like I could probably keep it up, but I ran it slower than the 1st mile. I think it was like 6:42. At that point all I had was a little over a mile left, and I knew what my splits were, and I felt as though the 21:00 goal was probably going to happen. The bad thing was that it seemed as though there were so many people in front of me, that I thought I had no shot at getting the medal. I definitely did not think I was in the top 100. So I figured, why not just go for it.... when I knew I had around 3/4 mile left, I just tried to start picking off people. Unfortunately I wasn't able to pass anyone until about 1/2 mile left, but after that I probably passed around 6 or 7 people, which was pretty cool. Then we went through the tunnel, and ran towards the 50 yard line..... I gave it all I had for those last 50 yards or so.. and I finished...... in my best time ever.... 20:17!!!! I think... When I looked up at the clock, it said 20:15, but when I stopped my Garmin after I finished, my watch said 20:17.... so let's go with 20:17. Anyway you look at it, I was absolutely floored. I actually crossed the finished and once I stopped and looked at my watch, I was just so pumped at how good I did, and how I felt.... As I started to walk, a guy gave me a card and said... go pick up your medal!!!!! I was so happy!!!!! I was the 79th male to finish the race, so that was awesome. I promise at some point this weekend, I will take a pic of the medal, and post it on here, but right now my kids are fighting over who is wearing it, so I'm not going to burst their bubble right now. I will get it from them when and if they actually take a nap today. As for Stephen and Billy(Cheryl's kids), they finished 11th and 12th overall with a time of 16:59 and 17:10 respectively..... fast as the wind!!!! Billy got his personal record for a 5k, so congrats to him also. All in all, a great morning for me, and that is one race time, that I am extremely proud of.
Ok, I'm gonna go chill, watch some sports and play Xbox with Arjay....
Later.....

Gimme dat medal!!!

That's all I want tomorrow.... I know, kinda stupid... but that is the main reason why I signed up for this race. Last year around this time, I did the May Classic 5k and finished in 22:59, which is still my PR for a 5k. I was elated with my time, but remembered thinking to myself after the race that I would like to take another 2 minutes off of my PR (personal record) by time I do this race again next year. Well, after a full year of training for marathons (not 5Ks!!) I feel as though that is an attainable goal for me... the only thing is that it is going to have to happen tomorrow, instead of next week, as I won't be doing the May Classic 5k this year. I will be running the 1 mile fun run with my daughter... so this Draft Day Dash race gives a finishers medal to the top 100 men that finish. Looking at last year's results, it seems as though to be in the top 100, you have to finish in the low 21's to achieve that... and ironically, that is what I would need to reach my goal of shaving off 2 minutes from my PR. Actually, I need a 20:59, and that is what I am going for. I need to average 6:45/mile to get that, and I have never come close to doing that in any of my hard training runs, so it seems quite daunting honestly. But so did doing 22:59 last year. So if all goes well tomorrow, I will get my medal and a PR improvment.
Since the intervals on Monday, I took off Tuesday and ran Wednesday am and Thursday pm.
Wednesday was a great run... I had no goals, or time to be out there. I just wanted to be out there. I enjoyed my run so much, I decided to make it longer than what I initially set out to do, and kinda got carried away, because I came back home a little late, and was pressed for time to get to work. But luckily, it all worked out and I got to the office with some time to spare before my 1st patient.


Last night was supposed to be a tempo run for me, but I didn't want to run so hard with the 5k being tomorrow, so I decided to run at a slower pace, but again, since I was already home, (and got the ok from wifey to go run) I decided to run a little longer than what I initially intended. That is the nice thing about when you aren't really training for anything in particular. You don't have to follow any program to a "T". If I want to run longer, I can... if not... I go home. But this week has just been one of those weeks where everything is just feeling good and you just realize how good running can feel on your body.
Here is my Ivy Lake/Suncoast Run from last night.

Let's see what happens tomorrow....

Long Run and Intervals.... Back 2 Back

This was a pretty big couple of days for me, because I can't say that my body is very used to running consecutive days. Over the last month or so, I have started to run 4-5 days per week, instead of my usual 3 days/week program. I am not running as hard as I used to, but I am definitely logging more miles... which honestly I am enjoying as much or even more. But Sunday and Monday was the most pounding that I have put on my body in consecutive days...ever!!!
Sunday morning, I met up with Chris and went out for a Suncoast Long Run. Lately, I have been running by myself, so it is always nice to have some company out there and talk about whatever comes to our mind...usually work stuff, but it could be anything.... so the good news is that I was able to keep my heart rate extremely low (for me that is... ) throughout the whole run. I was able to average 151 bpm, and we averaged a 9:20/mile pace for 12 miles. I guess the good news is that I used to be about 15 bpm higher about 3 months ago, running the same pace. So, I know that I am making significant improvements in my fitness. I promised one of my clients that I would run with her Monday, so I knew that I had to recover quick on Sunday, and be ready for a tough run Monday morning. So Monday, I left my house at 5:15 am and drove down to Davis Island, to go run with a client of mine. It actually was a very good run.... we did 8 mile intervals. It was her first time doing intervals, but she is an extremely strong runner, faster than I am... so I was actually happy that it was a workout that she wasn't too used to doing, because she would've blown me out of the water.... and left me stranded on Davis Island somewhere. Luckily, I was able to hang with her throughout the intervals...so I got through everything unblemished... Thank God!!!


My body feels pretty good now, and I have taken off today from all working out.... Tomorrow, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do, either a tempo run or an 8 mile easy run. I just know that I will do one tomorrow, and one on Thursday, rest Friday and race the Draft Day Dash on Saturday morning.
So as for this 5k I am doing on Saturday....the main goal is to get a medal...the top 100 male finishers get a medal, and it is a very cool medal... I want this thing sooooo bad!!!!! I looked at the results from last year, and it looks like I would need to finish in under 21:00 to get a medal. I think that's pushing it for me, but I will do my best to get that medal. My kids love when I finish a race and come home with a medal. They think that I have won the race....no sense in bursting their bubble, so I just agree.... in their eyes, I'm an elite runner... ha ha!!! Ahh... nothing like your kids making you feel like a million bucks!!!

My stats....

I was just loading my workout that I did earlier today on my computer, and I was able to look at some interesting stats about my running since I got the Garmin Forerunner 305 watch in November. It showed me the totals of all of my running since I initially loaded my 1st workout on this watch.... so here are some of my stats.....

From November 1st - April 15th

Miles run: 564

Calories burned: 78,297

Total Time that I have run: 82.34 hours

It seems as though that is a lot when you think about it.... but I know some folks on Runners World Forum that have put in over 1100 miles in 2008 alone.... freakish!!! Its kinda crazy to think that I have put in over 2 full work weeks of running since then. Well, IMO it has been over 80 hours of good times (except for about 2 hours at Disney, where I was like...what the heck is going on?)
So as for this week.... good week of running for me.... I was able to do close to 8 miles on Tuesday (with 3 miles of intervals) I was able to do those fast miles in around 6:45 per mile avg. The last mile was extremely tough because I was going into the wind, and I felt like I couldn't move.... I think I did it in around 6:55. Felt like 15:55. So here it is...


This morning, I ran a Ivy Lake Tempo Run, but it was my longest mileage I have ever done for a tempo. I only ran 4 of the miles hard, but I ran 5 miles for warming up and cooling down, for a total of 9 miles. At the end of my 4th hard mile, I felt like something was irritating the arch of my foot... It actually felt like a pebble or something was in my shoe..... or I was developing arch pain. Anyways, once the last mile was completed, I stopped and took off my shoe and wiggled around my foot and shaked whatever might have been in my shoe out. Once I put the shoe back on, I didn't feel anything anymore. So, after 2 more miles of easy running, I was at my house....stretching and cooling down. This time, I worked my way into the hard tempo miles and didn't push it nearly as much as what I did last week, and I felt so much better. My body felt great after the run, and continues to feel good now. Tomorrow, I am scheduled to run around 8 miles, then I will take off Saturday. Sunday, I will probably run around 12 miles before church....maybe at a new place just to change it up a bit...who knows???

To run or not to run???

Today I had a really good run of a little over 8 miles.... I was planning on doing 10miles, but I woke up a little late, and I had a meeting to be at by 8:30 in the South Tampa clinic, so I had to cut it short. It was probably my best run in the last 2 months. Not that I ran really fast or anything like that, but I tend to look at my heart rate as a sign of improvement with my fitness, and I was able to keep my heart rate under 160 beats per minute throughout the run. Even better, I was able to keep my pace at an average of 9:00/mile, which I have never been able to do. It was just perfect pace, and I'm not sure if it was because the weather was a little cooler than usual, but anyway you look at it, I'll take it. I'm so happy about the run. So here it is....
Ivy Lake Easy Run

Even more important than today was on Thursday. Because I worked for Mike at the South Tampa clinic on Monday, he gave me off Thursday, so I was able to take my family to Busch Gardens. We had a great time, and got to see so many cool things there... I haven't been to Busch Gardens in like 3 years or so, so alot of things were fairly new to me. I had never been on Sheikra, so I was able to conquer it for the 1st time. Unfortunately, Kerry and I weren't able to go on it together because one of us had to stay back with the kids, so I didn't enjoy being in the line by myself and not having her to talk with. But the ride was great!!! Short, but intense....


I guess the most ironic thing about our time in Busch Gardens was that we spent about 80% of our time in the kiddie area. It's funny how when your life changes with having kids, how certain things that you never used to pay attention to are now a consistent part of your life. I have been to Busch Gardens at least 8 times over the last 12 years, and I never even noticed they had a kiddie section. Now, it's the main reason for me to go.... interesting, huh? I would have it no other way though, and I had more fun watching them have fun, than going on Sheikra... kids are such a blessing!!!!






Kerry and Adryana enjoying a ride together.....









Adryana and Arjay stopping to pose for a pic.....










The kids racing on the track in the car....








So after a long day at the park, we worked our way home and we were tired and exhausted... Unfortunately the kids took a little nap in the car, so they were revitalized once they got home. I told myself that I would go for a run at some point after I got home, but I kept on putting it off. Finally after 8 pm, we got the kids to bed, and I had to make a decision.... should I run? I wasn't really tired, but I just felt lazy.... I didn't have anything else really to do, I just felt like I had to make a choice of whether to sit down with a bag of Doritos and watch the Rays game, or go out for my scheduled tempo run.... This was one of the few times that I didn't really want to run....so I had to make a decision... I almost felt like I had the angel and the devil on both sides of my head, pulling me to do one or the other. Well after about 5 minutes of contemplating, I decided...
"Let me do my Ivy Lake Tempo"
So I guess the perfect ending to the story is to tell you that my run went fantastic and that all my hopes and dreams came to pass....well the run was difficult, I ran too fast, and I felt like garbage when I finished. I got home at 9:15 pm, took a shower and stretched a bit, and got in the bed. But you know what???? I think a few months from now, that run might have been my turning point with taking myself to another level with my fitness and training for my running. If I didn't run, it probably wouldn't have changed a thing with my fitness, no one run will really have that much of an impact on my overall fitness. I didn't lose any weight or get stronger abs... or anything like that.... but what I did get was a little bit more discipline. If I start to get into the habit of missing one run here, another one there.... then my fitness and overall potential of doing extremely well with my races will collectively suffer, and I don't want to be full of excuses. Sometimes, it's about doing stuff whether you want to do it or not. The closest analogy that I can think of for me is reading my bible at night sometimes. Most nights, I want to read my bible and find out more about the word of God. But sometimes, I'm tired, just want to get to my bed and that doesn't seem as important. But if every time I didn't "feel" like reading the word, I didn't... then it would become more routine to just "tank it" on a routine basis....the totality of that could affect me on a whole, because I try to rely on the word of God to guide me throughout my everyday life. So basically what I'm trying to say is that I think we all have things that are good for us that we usually like to do, but sometimes don't want to do... and I think that is normal, but if it's good for you, do it...don't sell yourself short. Hopefully, when I feel like that again.... I will go back to this blog to remember what I felt like.... Have a great weekend!!!!

Two very good websites...

Since this blog is called running and rehab, I want to give you all two very cool websites (one related to running and the other related to rehab) that I ran into this weekend. I can't take one ounce of credit for finding these sites. Both of these sites were brought to my attention from a current and former patient of mine. So, here they are:

This website is perfect for those of us that suffer from RSI (Repetitive Strain Injuries). Most of my neck and back patients suffer from ligament based injuries that lead to bulging/herniated discs in the spine region. Most of these injuries arise from improper posture and prolonged sitting. Most of us are at a computer for a good part of the day, and one of the biggest ways we can combat RSI is to take frequent rest breaks. The website shown above downloads software into your computer station at work that basically reminds you to take breaks every ..... minutes. You tell the software how often and how long you need your breaks to stretch and get up from the prolonged sitting posture that you assume throughout the day. No more excuses for forgetting to get out of your chair......

The second website deals more with running. Here it is
This site allows you to map a run anywhere you want...whether it is around your neighborhood, or at work.... doesn't matter...wherever google maps, you can map it. It will tell you the actual distance, elevation, etc... It will also allow you to find runs that other people have mapped in your area. So you can try new routes that you are not used to doing. This is extremely important, because you want to always try to break up the monotony of running the same route all the time. That's why I like the Garmin watch so much. It gives me the freedom to run wherever I want, and I know exactly how far I am going. Speaking of Garmin, on the website, if you find a route that you would like to try, you are able to download into your Garmin watch....Garmin has a compass feature that directs you on running the route accurately.... how cool is that????? I tried it today and it works... can't wait to actually do the route my patient sent to me.... hopefully sometime this week.
Well, hope you get to look around these sites, and hopefully, you find one of them, if not both, beneficial to you in some way.

It's time to ramp up....

Luckily for me, I was able to get in a good run this morning, before the rain started. I started out at about 6:30 am, and ran from my house to the Suncoast Trail, which took me about 2.5 miles and ran about 5 miles north on the Suncoast Trail. I turned around, headed back home, and the run was a little over 14 miles.

This has been my longest run since the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon, and my body felt pretty good overall. My knees were a little achy during the run, but like all long runs, you feel something and then it goes away, then you feel something else, and that goes away... and the process continues throughout most of the run. It is so interesting that it was around this time last year that I was conquering my 1st 10 miler, 12 miler, 14 mile run, and it was so daunting and almost frightful every time I went out.... just not knowing whether or not I would survive the runs. And it seemed as though every time Chris and I ran together when we did one of these long runs, something bad happened to one of us. It was just so hard to complete these runs. Now, the 14 miler felt like a walk in the park.... how times have changed.... I mean don't get me wrong, you are fatigued at the end, but last year, if I would do a 10-14 mile run, I would crawl into the shower and then curl up in my bed for like 2-3 hours after the run, and I would limp all day... I remember going to church and people would ask, "are you ok?"....seriously... just brutal.... As I am writing this blog, I have very little to no soreness in any part of my body.....and I say these things not to brag in any way...it's just that I think it is always important to look back on where you were and how far you have come, so you can focus on the positive improvements that you have made. A lot of times I have to do that with patients. They might come to the office and be in agonizing pain, and then like 3 weeks later they have a couple twinges here and there, and get down on themselves that there is still discomfort at times. I have to remind them of where they started, and it helps them to realize that even though the goal has yet to be achieved, they are getting closer and closer.... There is hope for all of us.

Ok, so enough of that... now it's time to ramp it up with my running. I have been around the 30 mile/week mark for the last few weeks and my body feels pretty good. I will now do two hard workouts (or quality workouts) every week for the next month. That means workouts where I will work mostly on my speed. These workouts take a lot out of you, and they never get easy. But I think I'm ready to get back into it full speed ahead...no pun intended. Once I do this for about 4-6 weeks, I will take it easy for 1-2 weeks, and that should take me to the beginning of my 18 week training schedule for the Chicago marathon. My main focus, as always, is to stay injury-free...second objective is to get fast!!!!! So let's see what happens.

Perks of the job....

A few hours ago, I went on cnn.com and started to browse the website, like I usually do daily and saw a poll question... re: Do you like your job? I was able to pick from the following:
1. Hate it
2. Don't really care for it... but it's a paycheck
3. I'm living my dream

I would say for me it is usually #3, but I think we all have days that 1 or 2 sometimes pop up for various reasons. For me, my primary job of treating people with different orthopedic ailments never gets old, and it is always so cool, when you can get someone to feel better and get back to the things that they love to do. People are usually so appreciative of that. On Thursday, I worked at our South Tampa clinic and got to run 8 miles on Bayshore Run before I started my day, saw a lot of my former patients, and got to work with my co-workers who are good friends of mine....we always trip out when I work down there.... fun times....
Last night, I was able to run with a former patient of mine and help with her running form as she has been recovering from a nagging injury. It's nice when you have the same passion as someone else, and you are able to help them with your training. On Wednesday, I saw a new patient that came in for a few ailments that developed while running. Before I could even say anything to him about my running, he said to me, "Even though my MD told me that I should come to this facility, I wasn't completely convinced until I went on your website and saw your blog... I then knew that you had the same passion about this as I do" I felt as though he realized that I could relate to him, and I just thought that was great!!!


The days that I hate my job, is when I don't have the ability to treat someone the way I want to because of insurance. Some people come in our doors and have some serious ailments, and you know from experience that they can get better, but it will take time. Unfortunately most insurance companies don't care, and the patient might have insurance benefits (we shouldn't even call it benefits anymore) that allow them to come for 2 or 3 weeks, even though the MD and myself feel as though they need to come for therapy for a few months. So, sometimes we are slaves to the insurance industry, and they try to take away your expertise and force you to treat patients the way they want to pay you... it's just so frustrating....ugh!!!! The health care industry is so unstable because at any time, an insurance company can drop your reimbursement by as much as they want, and there is virtually nothing you can do about it.
If you really think about it, how crazy is this concept???
If I owned a pizza shop, and the price of cheese and meat and bread went up by 50%, what would I do? You got it.... raise my prices for the pizza.... but in health care, we continue to get paid less every year for doing the same treatment on patients... but patients have to pay more for their insurance...so obviously 2 of the 3 people in this equation aren't happy (the health care provider and the patient), but the insurance industry is laughing all the way to the bank. It is extremely frustrating to even talk about it, but when a frustrating situation comes up for a patient that needs care, I feel like I hate what I do....at sometimes I wish we didn't have insurance, and that people would just save the money that they use to pay their premiums to insurance companies in health savings account. When they got hurt, they would pay health care providers from that stash of money... when they aren't hurt, keep the money in the stash... I think it would give people more incentive to try to live healthier lifestyles... but that's just my opinion...whatever....
For me #2 answer doesn't come into play. It's either I love it or hate it... it has never just been a paycheck for me.... I'm dealing with people here!!!!
All in all, I realize we all got problems at our respective work places... whether its my issue, or having jobs shipped overseas, or greedy corporations trying to lowball their employees... it just stinks sometimes... but it's all good... I'll just continue to have fun and keep running!!!!!

I love that girl....

Since I have done this blog, I have tried to keep everything running related...but not this entry. I had the most incredible day yesterday....
Yesterday marked my Anniversary to my best friend for 7 years.... it honestly felt like we just had our wedding .... I can still remember my wedding day, which was the first time I actually cried for joy... will never forget that...I didn't even realize I had that emotion in me.
So luckily for me, I usually work a 7-7:30 shift on Monday, but this week, I was able to have someone work for me in the morning, because I have to help out at our other clinic this Thursday. That allowed Kerry, myself and Arjay to go out for breakfast (Adryana was at school). It was just so nice for us to be together and talk/reminisce on everything. At breakfast, we exchanged cards, and as always, my wife wrote the most touching, beautiful things, which makes me feel like a million bucks... she never fails to boost my confidence and make me feel so needed...
Yesterday also happened to be our busiest day ever at our Wesley Chapel clinic... it was steady and it wasn't overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I realized that a lot of people came in for the day. So needless to say, even though it was a shorter day than usual for me, I was pretty tired, and I didn't finish any of my notes. I hate to not finish my notes before I leave work, because it tends to bother me all night... because I feel like I left things not completed for the day. I usually don't sleep too well when that happens. Something told me to go home, and not finish my notes... at that point it was already past 8:00 pm, so if I stayed and finished my notes it would have been close to 8:45 pm before I left the office. So on my way home, I usually talk to my wife, but I had to take care of some work stuff on the phone. When I got home, opened the garage, it was to my surprise that my kids weren't running out to come and greet me. Usually by that time, they have had their bath and are waiting for me to get home. Even better, Kerry was waiting for me, dressed up stunning as usual, and brought me into the kitchen... the lights were dimmed, candles were lit, and she had my Ipod playing with some of our favorite songs. She basically made a special dinner for the both of us and made me my favorite foods, which are chicken parmesan, garlic bread and garlic mash potatoes. It was awesome... we also played the song that we danced to at our wedding and we danced together in our kitchen... incredible!!! Just like our wedding...except we know each other even more, love each other even more, and have 2 beautiful kids that are a part of our lives. God is good...and I thank him so much for my wife, who is my backbone, my biggest supporter, and my personal comedian (makes me laugh at least 2x/day). I am so thankful that God allowed me to meet her, and put her in my life.
I also want to say that she didn't pull this off by herself... her best friend, Keveta, took the kids out while we had our dinner, and treated them to McDonalds and had a little field trip to Target at 9:30 at night!!!! It almost felt like we were at a restaurant by ourselves, and then we didn't even have to drive home!!!Thanks Keveta!!! I almost forgot to mention that my daughter made both of us personalized cards that was at our table when we ate... just a fantastic day for me.... Kerry, I love you so much... thank you for a beautiful day yesterday and I hope, God willing, we will be able to celebrate many more of these days together.

Getting back to race form....

Great Run this weekend for me!!!! It capped of my highest mileage week ever at just under 38 miles. The good news is that my body feels great. I feel as though I can get my body to do close to 50 miles per week, if I gradually build myself up to that level... slowly and carefully. I was able to put in 4 miles on Saturday Ivy Lake Easy Run and 12 miles on Sunday before church (Ivy Lake Long Run). I have never attempted to run back to back days with so much mileage, but I believe the key is that I was running fairly slow and controlled. It's amazing how your body bounces back so quickly when you put in low intensity with mileage.
Today, I ran a little less than 8 miles, with approx. 3 of those miles really fast. It is the first time I have done speedwork in over 2 months... and it showed... it was a struggle for me to keep the times that I used to keep when I was training for Disney. Did I say it was hard? It was good to get a gauge on where I am at, and what I should shoot for when I do the Draft Day Dash at the end of this month. I think my goal should be to get under 21:00, which would be about 6:45/mile. I initially thought I might be able to do 20:30, but after today I realized that there is no way I would be able to come close to pulling that off. If everything goes great....I could do under 21 minutes, which would be 2 minutes faster than what I did last year.... that would be awesome!!! So here is the run from this morning.