Remembering Others and the Building Phase

Hello Readers!

Wow, has this year flown by or what? We find ourselves one week before Thanksgiving. I wanted to remind everyone what this time of year is all about. As the holiday season comes upon us we need to remember others. In one week I will be running a 5K with my best friends and their families. While running a 5K is not out of the ordinary the point of the race is to raise money for a great organization. The event will benefit Harvesters. This is one of my favorite charitable organizations in Kansas City, they are the largest food bank in the area. They will be collecting cans that day, they also collected cans at the Girls on the Run 5K I completed last weekend. This time of year we need to remember that everyone wants to celebrate the holidays with their families but not everyone has the means to do this. I urge all my readers to compete in some sort of event or do something for a charitable organization that they might not normally do. This is the season of sharing after all and we have the ability to make the season incredible for all families.

Ok, off of my soap box and back to training. Exactly one year ago this week I was in San Antonio finishing my first marathon. As I continue preparing for Little Rock in March, I was thinking back on last year and how I am going to improve my time. My goal is to take 20 minutes off my time from 4:49 to 4:30. This is a lofty goal, but I have developed a strategy to achieve this. I completely tuckered out last year on the race, I took it out in a very quick pace and didn't have the gusto to finish strongly. I am going to stress pacing this year. Currently I am in the building phase, my miles are ramping up. I have been working on not necessarily worrying about how quick I am but maintaining a solid pace. This has been a difficult concept for me as I always want to do everything at 100% but I know this will benefit me in the end. Something else I am really incorporating into my training this time which should prevent me from tiring out is lifting. I have been hitting the weights three days a week. Don't get me wrong I am not bulking up, but rather I am cardio lifting which should really show results come March.

In closing this week, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Have fun celebrating with your friends and family. Be safe in celebration!

Life is short, live it hard!

Ryan

Fall Fun

Hello Readers!

It is the first week of November now. I am hoping everybody is doing well. It once again has been a while since I posted but want to let everyone know that training is going well. I am right on schedule for Little Rock. I actually ate lunch this week with my great friend who will be running with me Jen and we are both excited for March 4th. Recently I have been providing updates of what I have been doing, but I find this to be slightly boring for my readers. I always tell people to live life hard but I rarely let anybody into my own personal life. I let everyone know about my training but this week I will let people know I am actually a real person and do enjoy my life and live it as hard as I preach.

First I just wanted to mention that this is the busiest season for half marathons and other races. About three weeks ago was the KC Half Marathon and Marathon. This was a rare occasion when I didn't participate in a race I actually went out and watched runners. That day reminded me just why I love running so much. Runners support each other. I ended up seeing about 20 people i knew on the course and really enjoyed seeing each of them reach their own personal goals. Congrats to everyone!

As I mentioned earlier, I do love living life to its fullest. I always speak of my training and believe me this is important but I think it is truly important to let people know I also love living and there is so much more to my life than just working out. The past few months have been difficult on me from work perspective, but this has not let me stop living. I wanted to mention that I passed my AAP Exam which is an important and difficult certification. My friends have kept me busy, we have had Halloween parties, we went to see my favorite teams play such as the Monday night Chiefs game agains the Chargers, the Sporting KC Eastern Conference playoff game against the Houston Dynamo, and my trip to Phoenix for the Mizzou/ASU game. Thanks to my brother and all my friends for taking my mind off of daily stresses and reminding me of why I put in all my hard work.

A couple weeks back I mentioned that one of the reasons I am doing a spring marathon is that I want to make sure I hold myself accountable during the holiday season. I wanted to remind everyone that daylight savings time rolled back yesterday. This makes for a difficult time of year as the days are shorter and many of us are saddened by this. I am also this way, but this means it is time for us to increase our activity. It is very easy to slack off as it is dark so much of the time, do not let this happen! Listen to my advice here, switch up your routine but find something to keep you active as you will be tempted during this season to eat more, drink more and be inactive due to the weather. Live life hard and make the most of every day.

LIfe is short, live it hard!

Ryan