Not too long ago I raced road bikes, and was fairly competitive.  Somewhere along the line I didn’t make the time to stay in good enough shape to hang with the local Wednesday night ride, and not long after didn’t ride much at all.

I stayed in decent shape by going to the gym most weekdays at lunch, but it’s like Jerry Seinfeld said, I was only staying in shape for my next workout.

A few months ago I decided I needed something to train for on the calendar.  About that time I saw an announcement for the OVConnect 5k at Oglebay Park.  It happened to fall on my daughters second birthday, and was 11 weeks away.  Perfect motivation & timing for using the “Couch to 5K” training program.

Although at first glance it seems painfully easy, it gets the job done.  For 9 weeks you run three days a week, and build up very slowly.  The first week is three days of running for one minute, followed by one and a half minutes of walking for twenty minutes total.  Over nine weeks you slowly build up to running eight to ten minutes with a minute of walking for twenty minutes or so until you’ve eventually built up to thirty minutes of running.

This was helpful as I had been stuck on the CentreTown Fitness elliptical machine for too long.  When I did try to run outside or on the treadmill I always ended up with shin splints and then I’d be right back to square one.

Even though I knew I’d finish today’s race, I wasn’t too hopefully of finishing it quickly.  For those not familiar with Oglebay, it is fairly hilly. In fact most of the first part of the race is up hill.

After running most of the course last Saturday, I realized that if I didn’t start out under control, I’d probably blow-up halfway through and wouldn’t do very well.

Thanks to Runmeter, here is the map of the course and my stats.

Because it was overcast, and under some trees, the gps didn’t pick up the full course exactly.  I finished in 26:55, with was just over three minutes faster than I had hoped!  Of course some guy who apparently has no hips walked the course in 24 minutes, but seriously, have you seen how race walkers walk?  (The next closest walker was north of 30 minutes, so whatever).

You can see the full race results and photos on OVConnects 5k website.

Since the program worked so well, you guessed it, I downloaded the Couch to 10k app tonight.  I’d like to do the Faith in Action Caregivers Sprint Duathlon this July…

Hopefully this will get me back on the bike, and staying in shape for more than just shapes sake.

This year I am “participating” in a great fundraiser for The Mario Lemieux Foundation.  I thought this was a great idea last year, but didn’t participate for one reason or another.  I decided to try growing a beard this year, and so far so good!

Three games into the playoffs, and I’ve already been able to raise $500!

Take a look at my profile page on Beard-A-Thon dot com and see what you think.

***Update***

05/13/10

I’m very pleased to report that although the Pens fell short in reaching the finals for the third straight season, I was able to raise nearly $1,100 for the Mario Lemieux Foundation.  At last count, all “growers” had raised over $85,000 for this great cause!

I’m in San Diego this week for the 2010 “Technology Tools for Today” conference at the Hilton Torrey Pines hotel.  It is “the” tech event for the financial advisory industry, according to my go to tech expert, Bill Winterberg.  But that’s not what I’m writing about today.  (For those interested in hearing about the conference, check back this weekend or next week to learn more).

Today, I was lucky enough to play 18 holes of golf in easily the most beautiful setting I’ve ever played in before.  Torrey Pines is a municipal golf course (i.e. not a country club) and home to last years U.S. Open tournament, and the Famers Open PGA tour event as well.

The most surprising detail of Torrey Pines wasn’t the green speeds, or fairway width, although both were ridiculous.  The surprising thing to me was the fanatical protection of the rough.  Most courses prefer you keep your carts off the fairways as much as possible.  We were told at the start, and once by a marshall after forgetting, to keep the carts parked on the path or in the fairway!  They want the rough standing up, and very difficult to hit out of.  Needless to say, it’s an effective tactic.

Normally I  shoot around 100 (not good, but not terrible), and being from West Virginia, it isn’t often that I play outside of May through September.  The last time I played was on Labor Day, in a 50 degree rain storm.  Even so, I figured it’s a once in a lifetime chance, and one I couldn’t pass up.

I played with two other guys from the conference, and we had a great time.  It was sunny all day, and somewhere in the mid 70′s.  I brought enough balls to lose one per hole, but in the end, only lost one total!  Considering I hadn’t swung a club since September, and it being a pretty tough course, I was pleased to shoot a 122.

If you’re every coming to San Diego, strongly consider shelling out the money for a non resident round.  The views alone are worth it!  These iPhone pics probably won’t do it justice, but I thought I’d share a few just in case:

Here are the rest of the pictures I took today on Flickr.