5:30 AM Run

This morning Nick & I met in the Valley and ran the towpath. I called Nick and told him I wanted to be "The Fastest Man In The World" again. Nick's job was to pace me at a fast speed. Our workout; the first mile was our warm up, then 4 miles at 7.30 pace then a mile cool down. Our plan looked better on paper. We start our warm up to fast. We did hit some 7.0 min/miles for some of our laps. Our final time was 8:33 min./mile for 6 miles. Still very good pace for me at flippin 5:30 am.
Thanks for the run Nick see you later.

Bark At The Moon

Just wanted to post this note.....

One of my trail buddy's, 9 year old Sara (she's on the right in the picture), has been at the Vet's office since Monday morning. Thursday night she got sick, and the last day she ate anything was Friday at breakfast. They have her on IV fluids for now and are trying to get her to eat.

I don't want to go into all the vet and medical problems, but she' really sick and I'm hope she can come home soon to run Pine Lane with me & Monet (she's on the left in the picture).

FOR SALE

This morning I had to kill two birds with one stone. I needed to drive my car to an empty lot near Silver Lake. I'm selling my Honda so Rt. 59 is a great busy road to try and sell a car. I also had to get a few miles in today. So I drive the car the the lot and started to run. I could repeat my pace from Monday Night, but I kept a 9.26 min./mile for 3.6 miles. I'll get out later tonight to run another 3 miles.

THE FASTEST MAN IN THE WORLD!!!!

Monday Night 9/17/2007
Tonight I was the fastest man in the world!!!!
OK maybe not the fastest. The plan was to run 5-6 miles with Vince at his house(no trails until after Akron Marathon). Once there one of the gazelles (Arron) from the Sat. AM group run shows up. My thoughts..."Great I'll be running alone." Then I thought I try to keep up with them and see how far I get. I know the neighborhood so it doesn't matter if they loose me I'm just without and ipod.
The first mile I know I would be bailing out a 3 miles. But what really happened was I stuck with them.
I felt really good, no pain, no stomach issues, I drank(water) all day. I was right with them. I wish I would have brought my Garmin. Vince said I would have my PR for my 5k, 4 mile & 5 mile runs. At the end Arron was pushing & coaching me a long. I was determined to stick with them all the way. Vince's Street has a nice down hill run. I started to fad but thought I would run my hardest back to his house. I thought for sure I was gazelle material, and I was for a few seconds...then they reminded me why I call them gazelles to begin with. The hammer came down and they were strides ahead of me.
Vince said we were sub 7 min./mile coming down his street and avg. 7.3-8 min./mile for the run.
THANKS GUYS GREAT RUN, I NEEDED THAT....

running with knives & fire

Sat. 9/15/2007
Group run our last long run before the marathon. It looked like about 15-20 people running with us. I stuck with Melissa & her Dad John. I wore my garmin, I thought for sure it would stop working. Our route today was North on the towpath then loop carriage trail and back. 14 total miles. The garmin kept a signal the whole time. Our avg. pace was 9.30 minute/mile.

SOUZOUKAKIA (meatballs in wine sauce)

Akron's Greek Festival is coming up soon. I thought I would share one of my favorite Classic Greek dishes with you.

Chef Bill Bailey version of
Souzoukakia (Meatballs in Wine Sauce)
1 1/2 pounds ground meat (ground twice)
4 slices white bread, crust trimmed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 egg
2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for frying
Soak bread in cold water and squeeze out the excess.
In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the meat, bread, garlic, cumin, onion powder, wine and egg by hand.
Shape into long meatballs (football shape), about 3 inches in length.
In a deep pot, add tomato sauce, water, salt and pepper. On medium heat, bring sauce to a gentle boil. Reduce heat.
In a large frying pan, heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Fry meatballs until brown on all sides. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and place meatballs in the tomato sauce. Simmer until sauce looks thickened and meatballs are completely cooked.
Serves 6.
Note: Souzoukakia are typically served over long-grain white rice in Greek homes, but they can be also served on a hard roll with a little sauce.

Akron Marathon Training 2007

I'm still getting behind on my blogging. I'll see if I can get some time back in the computer room...I need a laptop that would make things easy. I think Santa reads my blog :)

Monday I ran with Hob-a-long Rucci. He was hobbling on sore legs from his 50K he ran on Sat. We ran a 5 mile loop around Silver Lake.

Tuesday I met Vince & Mike "the mailman" for an 8 mile run in Sand Run. Boy was it crowded. All the parking spaces were full. I said to Vince "what are all these ya-hoo's doing out here training for a marathon?" "Where are the all in January when were out training for BT50K?"
The Ya-Hoo's were all on the parkway path and we hit the trails.

Thursday AM I met Nick to run a 10 mile there & back route on the blue line from Sand run up to the west Akron neighborhood we will be running in the Marathon. I had some problems with my hip & IT. I got it stretched out after getting home seems to be OK.

Today I ran a 6 mile neighborhood run down around Mike (fitfromfat) & Tony's house.

FYI: Akron Life & Leisure write an article about VR Trainings running group. It's in the Sept. 2007 issue. There's a great picture of the group run and A few of us have some quotes. Pick up a copy or just read one while sipping a cup of joe at boarders book store.

Sat. will be a 14 mile long run with the group.