Yes I have been working out this winter.

I guess I should talk a little bit about what I have been doing this winter to stay in shape. I have never been a big fan of core workouts. Sooo... I started doing yoga. Power and yoga butt. I have really started enjoying the challenge. One thing I have found with yoga is you can make it as hard as you want to. When I first started going to class I spent all my time watching the instructor and trying to learn all the different moves. After the first couple of classes, I just didn't think that yoga was going to be difficult enough for me. Well, after learning the moves, I started learning how to work each pose. Yoga is kicking my butt. Best part is my core is getting stonger.

And I have been doing some winter hill climbing. We have a hill with rough trails in our town that measures 920 feet. I started out by putting 25 pounds in my backpack and hiking to the top. I now can pack up 45 pounds. This weekend I'm going to be doing 50 pounds. It has been a blast doing a low impact workout and enjoying the winter. I have been doing most of my hill work at night, So I had to go out and buy a headlight so I could see. I just put on my ipod shuffle and go. I went down to my local 2nd hand store and picked up a set of used ski poles for a dollar, and they have helped a ton going up the real steep part of the hill and it's a great upper body workout.

Monday, Wednesday. Yoga
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Hill climbing.
~Thumbs Up~

Seattle Marathon

Yes I did It. Marathon number two. 26.2 miles in beautiful weather. We arrived in Seattle a day early and thanks to my lovely wife - that just happened to run the Half Marathon - and her ability to plan all of our hotel reservation for all of our events throughout the year, our accommodations were extremely convenient, she nailed this one perfectly. My step daughter Hannah has always loved to see the Space Needle. Well, all she had to do was look right out our window and the start line was 1 block away. Nice job babe.Every time I do an event I learn something big or small. Well, what I learned this time was always stick to your plan. Even if some skinny guy is standing next to you while you are watching all the half marathoners start, and he says. "I always try to start up with the faster runners that way I get a bigger jump on the pace runners that I was going to run with the whole race." Hmmm, that sounds like a good idea 10 minutes before you start a race that is going to take you more the 4 plus hours to complete. That sounds like a good idea for a race that you have been training for for months and you just want so bad to beat your bosses best time of 4:15. and someday just someday beat 4:00 hours. Oh and can see it on your face now, you are saying to yourself as you are reading this - OH Scottie just stick to your plan you should know better by now that you always stick to your plan. Well I didn't. Greed got the best of me. First off let me say that I really did put in the miles for this one. This was the most running I have done for a race of this magnitude. I was training on hills. Long slow going hills. I was feeling the strongest I have ever felt before. I was proud of all the hard work I had put into this and I wanted the best time I could possibly put out. I really was not sure what my time could be, I just knew this was my big shot to prove to myself that if you put in the time and pain you will succeed.

The race weather was about 38 degrees. I had my Garmin Forerunner 305 that I just can't live without. Tells me heart rate and pace. Everything started out great. I felt good, I was hitting all the water stations. In hindsight, with the weather being cooler, I don't think I was taking in enough water. I was drinking at least one cup of water or Gatorade at every station. I remember Texafornia saying something about splitting up your sugar intake. So if you take gel follow it up with water not Gatorade for at least 20 to 30 minutes and then after that you can take Gatorade at the water stations. I'm a big guy, 205 lbs. Not fat, just lots of mass. So someday I might figure out how many fluids I should be taking in. I was also taking in 300 calories every hour. If someone out there can help me with this I would put them on my Christmas list for life =). One neat thing about doing Seattle's Marathon was being able to cross over the I90 bridge to Mercer Island. I thought it would be so cool to do that, the half marathoners don't get to so it was like a bonus to be able to cross it. Unfortunately, when I was on the bridge I was running and taking off my under shirt and I lost my Ironman stocking cap out of the back of my shirt. Sad day. I would like to take this time to reflect and have a moment of silence for the loss of my Ironman Winter hat.

5,4,3,2,1... and now I can move on.

Ok, back to the race. I hit mile 13.1 at about 2:03. Not bad and I was still feeling good and having lots of fun. The run around Seward Park was very beautiful. Well, around mile 18 is when the hills started. What a nasty place to start hills. Some of these hills I found it just as easy to walk up because I was just wasting energy trying to run up them. Needless to say, this did hurt my time. One cool note, my friends Sam & Kendra and their kids Taylor and Gavin were waiting for me at mile 25. It was so nice have friends standing out on the course rooting me on, I really needed it. They both ran the Seattle Half. I would like to congratulate Deanna (my lovely wife) and Sam and Kendra for completing the Seattle Half. Good job. I finished the race with a time of 4:28:39. This is a personal best for me. My last marathon was Portland in 06' and I finished with a time of 4:50:08. But at the end of this race the lactic acid just ripped through my legs. Ouch Ouch Ouch. But after about 20 minutes I was all better. I had a great time at this race, I was on that runner high and I was loving it. Thumbs Up!!!~Thumbs Up~