Miguel’s posterous

I ran this past weekend in the Aces Wild Series Race, Ace of Diamonds, with an official time of 1 hour.  Funny story; really.

I woke up on Sunday at 5:30AM and drove down to Clearwater and got lost.  The directions I downloaded off of Google was incomplete and didn't really help identify exactly how to get to the park where the race would be held.  I asked for directions and the locals didn't even know what park I was talking about or the major road it was on.  Once I found the park, I thought I was cutting it close and that the race would be starting at 8AM.

I started jogging toward a crosswalk where everyone was crossing over.  It looked to me as the runners on the crosswalk were getting ready for the start of the race and so I followed suit.  As I crossed the crosswalk I soon found that the race had already begun and that I had missed the start of the race by 20 minutes.  I started running the race by myself and had to find the route; I ran more than the course and only logged about 2.5 miles on my Nike Sportband.

Later that night, due to my geographic adventure in Clearwater, I ran my own 5K and logged my time at 22:49.

I now know how to get to that park again for the next couple of races.

As a part of getting more physical fitness training in my life, I have managed so far to keep running and to enter into 2 5K races as part of my New Year's Resolution (Your Year in Review).  I have registered for a series race in Clearwater that starts this weekend (Back on Track...) and am pretty excited to see how I've improved over the past 6 months.  In preparation for my upcoming 4 races, I've been working on distance with my longest distance being 8.5 miles at an 8:35/min pace, and on speed with my average pace for shorter distances being 7:30/min.  I have, surprisingly, hit a 6:30/min pace during one of my runs, but that was short lived and caused me to run out of gas for the remainder of the run.

As far as being more socially involved, I have setup an account on CrowdRise, http://www.crowdrise.com/miguelfeliciano, and will be setting up a project to help raise money for a charity for the half marathon I will be running as the last series race.  I don't know what charity I want to raise awareness & money for, but I need to figure that out very soon.

On the procrastination part, I'm guilty.  I've started several different projects and have not completed many of them.  I still have some time this year to complete them, but again; I need to get off my ass and finish.

Have you kept up your resolutions?  What charity would you like to see me raise awareness and money for?

Well, I decided to just let the loss of 8.5 miles go and keep running.  Last night I dug deep to run through a really bad cramp and complete 5 miles instead of the scheduled 7.  I'm happy with that and with the 5 miles last night I completed the 210 miles for 2010.

I'll be working on my 5K time for the next week and a half in preparation of the first race in a series (Aces Wild in Clearwater, FL).  The series consists of a 5K, 10K, 15K, and a half marathon.  You can either signup for all 5K races or run a progressive track, which is what I'll be doing (5, 10, 15, and a half).  Click on the link above to learn more and signup.

Some more motivation here, http://www.bayshoresolutions.com/news/2010/healthy-workplace.aspx.

Last night at around 9:30PM I finished an 8.56 mile run as part of my training through Nike+.  My iPod Touch froze around 4 miles and now the file that gets created for the run is completely gone; nothing to upload.  4 out of the 8.5 miles logged would have given me my 210 miles for 2010 and also put me about 60 miles in front of another runner in a challenge I created.  I even tried to add a run file from NikePlusEdit.com and that's not even working.

All-in-all, I'm seriously pissed with the Nike+ app.

I have not been posting anything for about a week and I forgot to update this blog with my progress of my New Years Resolution and here it is.

I have been running since about the middle of January and have decided to run in the Gasparilla Distance Classic and do my very first 5K.  On Saturday, Feb. 27th at 9:30AM, I will be down in Tampa with hundreds of people running or walking; in my case running.

I used to run back a few years ago and now I'm a little more motivated to turn my running into a habit.  I've purchased 5K apps for my iPod and even hooked myself up with the Nike+ kit.  Yes, you read that right; I bought more than one 5K app.  Here's the breakdown:

1. The first app was $2.99 and I had to buy $0.99 training plans (two of them, one basic and one with cross training).  This didn't track the time I was running or my pace.  $5.99 total - great features but useless to me.
2. The second app was again $2.99 and actually tracked the amount of time I have been working out.  It tells me when to walk and when to run and even lets me tweet about it or share my experience with Facebook.  Says it supports Nike+ but I can't seem to get it working.
3. Nike+ Running Kit plus a pouch for the sensor to attach to my sneaker ($43 for the kit, $5 for the pouch, $3.99 shipping per item - total $56).  Since I have an iPod Touch that automatically connects to the Nike+ sensor, there's no need for me to have the dongle that attaches to the iPod.  I could have save about $25 as the sensor alone is about $18.

The great thing about the Nike+ is that it tracks my time, pace, and distance.  Once I sync my iPod with the data collected through the Nike+ app on the iPod, I can go to NikeRunning.Nike.com and track my progress, the total distance I covered, and my placement in various social challenges available.  This should have been the first place I looked as I found that there are training programs for 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons, and full marathons.  I am completely impressed with the way Nike turned a sport and hobby into something social with a gaming style element to it through the challenges.

Here's where I'm at with my training and my involvement with the Nike Running community

• I have joined the following challenges:
  • 210 miles in 2010 - I ran 12.5 miles
  • Guys vs. Girls - Guys ran 19,666 miles and Girls ran 18,365 miles. All since Jan. 1, 2010 and ends Dec. 31, 2010.
  • Help for Haiti - 82,298 miles run so far
• I have run 12.5 miles so far with the Nike+ kit, but closer to 20 miles since I started training for the 5K
• My best time is 23 min 5 sec for 5K - 3.1 miles
• My best mile is 6 min 57 sec

Just under 3 weeks until the race and I'm scheduled to run today.