Kenosha Mayor's Turkey Trot 10K

Ever wake up and look out your window and see how miserable a day it is, and then say to yourself that you'd very much prefer to stay in bed all day? Yup, that was me on the morning of my Turkey Trot Thursday morning. Saw the first snow of the season, and rain was coming down buckets.

I dropped the blinds and dug my face in back into my pillow at 6 a.m. in the morning. I said to myself that 7:30 a.m. would be the drop-dead time for me to make the decision on running the race today. Well, after poking into Twitter that morning, I got a bit jealous of my running Twitter buddies who were running Turkey Trots in their respective cities.

A quote from a running Twitter bud @astrodad: "Go for it. After running in this mess you'll appreciate your dinner so much more! At least that's my excuse!"

Noted. Out the door I went with minutes to spare.

I should really stop being such a wuss. A little cold wind and rain never stopped me from getting out on the roads before. I'm glad I made out, actually. I would have regretted not making the race.

As for the run itself? It was very nicely organized with lots of runners in attendance. I'm really surprised how nice this area of Kenosha, Wi. is around the museum and all. The course was actually quite challenging with quite a few hills thrown in, to my surprise. Being my first 10K (6.1 miles), I didn't have a goal in mind other than finishing in under one hour. My official finish was 00:54:05 (8:44 pace).

I'm happy with the results. I was dressed a bit warmer than I would have liked, considering the SUN actually came out for a spell, and I was sweating like a pig with three layers on. I don't think I gave it my all this race, but it will do. I just have to remember that with the quicker paces I'm running lately, I warm up considerably faster than my days of running 9:30's or 10's.

Once the holiday weekend is done, I'll be starting my strength and core workouts on Monday. I don't have another race goal in mind at the moment, but I hope to do another small race before the year is out.

Hello November!

Post 6 mile run.

I headed out for a run this past Saturday, and started out with a couple of layers of clothing close to 10 a.m. As I arrived at the park, I had to switch to my sleeveless technical tee and some arm warmers. It was still a little chilly for gloves, but they came off soon after wards. The temps were near 60F, and this is November? This has been the 3rd weekend in a row where shorts were a must. Crazy!

These have been my hardest workouts to date since the marathon, and I have that dull pain in my lower legs that comes with hard workouts of 5 miles or more. It's a great feeling! I'm still on track to run my 10K this coming Thursday, and really looking forward to it- that and the turkey later, of course!

When the 10K is over, I'll be heading back to the gym to start weight training again through winter along with doing some core work. I've been doing the same routines for two years now, which have worked well, but I think I may just get a trainer this time around to mix things up a bit. I love to swim, too, but I don't have a decent sized pool near me, that I know of anyway.

Hey at least I'm running...

Ok, so NaBloWriMo has been a major fail so far :) Writing a blog post every day through the month of November has proven to be quite a challenge, as you can tell. How about a post a little more often than usual? I can work with that. I guess life gets in the way sometimes.

I did my first longish run of six miles since Chicago last weekend, and noticed that my heart rate was quite higher than it should have been for a workout of that length. It was a little bit of a shocker since it's been a while since I experienced something like that. I'm pretty sure it stems from my lack of running since the marathon. If anything, it brought me back to earth and reminded me that I should get off my ass and start working out again. A six mile run this weekend was much, much better and felt pretty strong. Hopefully, I'll get back in shape quick.

That being said, I signed up for my very first 10K race on Thanksgiving. I've yet to run an official 10K, so it's going to be a new notch in the books for me. I'm not quite sure what my best 6 mile run is, so I'll have to look it up to have something to shoot for. I'm excited!

This week is my last full week before the Thanksgiving holiday. I only have a two day workweek next week, and simply can't wait for the break. I'm a bit taken back by how early the whole Christmas thing has started this year. I saw xmas merchandise out over Halloween weekend! Still, I like getting involved in that whole Black Friday craziness. Maybe this time I'll actually get an early start on my shopping, instead of waiting until the very last minute!

Summer Garden

This is currently the wallpaper on the phone I carry with my daily.  It's one of two flower gardens outside my home.

It was in full bloom when this picture was taken over the summer.  It's now a heaping mess of dead leaves, sticks, and browning grass. A victim of a recent frost.

I'll carry the picture with me through the harsh days of winter as a reminder that the garden will bloom again come spring.  I have a feeling the winter won't be good to us this year.

And even if it's not, at least I have this to look forward to.

Jesse M.

Http://jessejstreet.blogspot.com
Http://twitter.com/jessejstreet

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Pouty Face

My feelings after not posting in three days for NaBloWriMo!

It didn't help that I never registered my new cell # with Blogger to post on the go until today.

I suppose I should get writing!

Jesse M.

Http://jessejstreet.blogspot.com
Http://twitter.com/jessejstreet

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Missing the sunshine

I don't think I'm quite over this whole time change thing. Seriously. This is all compounded by the fact that I miss heading over to the forest preserve after work to get my runs in. With the sun setting closer and closer to 4:30pm, there is no hope since I leave at 4, and the park closes at sunset.

It's time to put in the runs in the dark.

It's not that I don't like running at night, I mean, I love it. Since the time change, I've had a hard time getting motivated to put on my night running gear, and instead am resorting to running during my lunch hour during the day. Even then, I can only get, at most, fourty minutes of running in. It's fine, but it's kind of a hassle getting out of my work clothes, into running gear, and back on with the work clothes within the span of an hour or less.

I'm whining, so bear with me.

This feeling will be over soon. I'm also using the fact that they're paving my subdivision, and it's unsafe for me to get out there for fear of falling into some kind of pot hole. I hope they wrap up that construction by this weekend so I can get out there.

Speaking of weekends, I've missed a couple of long runs as well. It's strange not being on some kind of training schedule, but I like it. I know it's not going to last long since I have a few smaller races in mind for the end of the month.

I just have to get out of this funk. Perhaps a nice, long run this Saturday will help me get out of it. Sounds like a great idea.

Halloween 2009

Lynn, Matt, me and Kiersten behind the camera Justin & Kelly's Road Rally.

This year was a nice change compared to last since since I didn’t do anything for Halloween in 2008. If I can remember far back enough (in no order), I've been a vampire, werewolf, an X-Files alien, a wizard, Zorro, knight, devil, a rock n' roll star, and this year I was a fireman. Ever since I was a kid putting out backyard fires with a garden hose, have I wanted to be one.

The Halloween festivities started with a Halloween themed scavenger hunt hosted by friends Kelly & Justin on Oct. 24. Justin's parents did a wonderful job in putting together a daunting list of puzzles and hunts throughout the Gurnee/Grayslake/Libertyville area. Five teams of four hit the streets with a three hour limit to gather as many clues as possible for the most points at the end.

I was the driver for Team 4. We figured a decent strategy would be gather up the clues in close proximity to each other at each location. Once we were done with one area, we'd move on to the next. Well, it didn't work to well, and we didn't win, but it was a great time. Nobody got arrested and no property was destroyed- I think.

The holiday ended a week later on the 31st with trick or treating and handing out candy with the family, and a party at Matt & Vicki's- friends of Katie and I- later that evening. Lots of good treats to eat, awesome costumes, and a game of "Are you a warewolf?". I won't go into too much detail on how it's played, but its tons of fun around a campfire or backyard fire pit!

Thanksgiving is next, imagine that! I started seeing Christmas merchandise in the stores in early October. That was a bit much, I think. I'm not a winter person at all, and I hope it goes by quickly.

Click here for the photos!

It's NaBloWriMo time

I originally started this post on Sunday, Nov. 1, but it was my fault for starting close to 11:30 p.m. and ended up falling asleep! Must of been that whole time change thing. Yea, that's it.

As I've done the past couple of years, I'm going to log a post every day in November in celebration of National Blog Writing Month. The goal is to post every day until the end of the month without missing a day in between. I've already missed the first day, but does it count that I started writing this post on Nov. 1?

I started doing NaBloWriMo (previously NaBloPoMo) in 2007. It's a good way to keep the blog busy. The tricky part is keeping from getting burned out. It's still fun, though. We'll see what I can come up with.

Coming up this week... my Halloween fun and an update on my running. Exciting, eh? Thought so :)

Here we go...