Archive for the ‘Running’ category

« Older Entries

Why you should run (Letterman-Style top 10)

August 26th, 2009

Hi.
I must apologize,there has been a total lack of bloggage lately though no one complained and I’m guessing it’s because like us, you were partaking in the sun and fun of summer. Now that the season for no shirts shorts and skirts is (almost) over…LET THERE BE CAKE!

For the folks here at cake, the fall season=marathon season and we’re all already committed to and training for fall races. For me it will be the Philiadelphia marathon and as this is my 2nd marathon training season I’m forced to reflect upon my 1st and wonder how many times this year I’m going to be asked why and how far I’m running only to hear “26 miles?!? I don’t even like driving that far!”. To which I may then say- “Great! So why not run it with me?” Jk. …But seriously… why not?

Forget a marathon, most folks I run into (no pun intended) are completely turned off to the idea of running at all. Which I get, you know I used to be one of “those guys” – it all started when I was that dude riding the bench @ football practice in high school teasing all those cross country kids with the “FARTLEK: It’s a runner thing, you wouldn’t understand” shirts to “GO RUN FOR FUN! HA HA” … little did I realize then, that while I wasn’t good enough for 3rd string on my sub .500 high school football team the sport of running doesn’t discriminate, lets everyone participate and rewards everyone with a sense of accomplishment…unlike football. Which made me realize…well, nothing. GO GIANTS! Anyway…

Here’s a quick top 10 list, Letterman-style, why you should run:

10. You may never understand a FARTLEK, but you can still wear the shirt and feel cool.
9. Even if you’re vegetarian, there is no good reason to be a couch potato.
8. Feel a little more justified eating this
7. We’re only 9 months into the New Year, still time left to make good on that resolution!
6. No phone/kids/work/spouse/gf/bf/bff…basically, no stress – no problem!
5. You ran everywhere as a kid, what’d you get old or something?
4. If you only run when you’re being chased, you’re going to get caught.
3. Because looking chiseled is better than having parts that jiggle.
2. It’s less expensive than that easily stored fad exer-machine that didn’t even work for the model advertising it, trust me.
1. Charity…that’s how we all got started.

Unlike my football team the running culture is very friendly too. I met 3 friends running and we started a blog. No kidding! You might have heard of it…

Sit for nothing – Run for anything! (yea, I made that up)
See you out there,
Banks

PS- I wanted to point out that in our absence we’ve undergone a redesign that while still incomplete includes a nifty tweet button for all you twitterers so you can spread the word and we encourage you all to follow us on twitter @isthereanycake. (Thank you!!!!)

1 comment »

Posted in Advertising, Athletes, Charity, Running, Sports

Lactic Acid + Garmin = Good Times

May 13th, 2009

“Lactic Acid!!!”  Back in high school track and cross country this was one of our favorite battle cries and was trudged through tortuous workouts.  If it don’t hurt, it ain’t working…or so our thoughts were back then.  Our workouts were hard and fast, but in the end they paid off.  Some of my personal bests include a 4:56 mile, 2:07 half mile, and 17:31 5K.  Not that those are wow, super-speed world-class times, but they’re not too shabby either.

trackshoes-smallWell, high school is far behind me…well, not that far…I’m only 29…but the speed of those days is behind me.  Or is it?  Yesterday was my first speed workout since…well, since high school.  I’ve started a new training program to get my half marathon time down to my goal of 1:44.  Up to now my best is 1:50:27.   That time was at the Long Branch Half Marathon – 2008 edition.  So it’s been a year, and I’m ready to chase after that new goal.  I’m hoping to get there by the Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon on September 6 I’m doing with Team in Training.

So back to the speed workout.  My workout was to be a 5 minute warm-up, followed by 7×400M repeats with a 2 minute jog in between each, followed by a 5 minute cool-down.  I was wondering how I was going to do this without a track.  So I’m poking around my Garmin, and BONUS!, it can do interval workouts…complete with warm-ups, cool downs, and “rest” time in between intervals.  AMAZING.  I was so excited to get out there and do my thing…to see where my body was.  It even does like countdown beeping when you’re almost done with an interval or a rest period, and a little “finished” jingle at the end.  I LOVE MY GARMIN!

So my final times for the 400s were 1:35, 1:29, 1:28, 1:37, 1:30, 1:37, 2:05.  I had to just run the last one normal  because my thigh started to twinge a little.  But I was definitely impressed with myself…I haven’t run that fast in ages.  I’m definitely looking forward to my training over the next 15 or so weeks, and I’m looking forward to the race.   The lactic acid definitely made itself known last night, but all in all it was a good time.

3 comments »

Posted in Running

Tags:

Running in the Rain

May 5th, 2009

This past weekend I ran the Long Branch Half Marathon (www.njmarathon.org) in Long Branch, New Jersey.  It was the wettest half marathon I’ve ever run…the only other wet one being when I ran the same race last year.  But lets be honest…running in the rain is what we used to love to do as kids, and now you can do it as an adult without anyone thinking your crazy.  They just think you’re crazy for running a half marathon.  Perhaps we are crazy, those 9,000 of us who were out there in the rain, but if so, than I’m OK with it.

Last year I ran a 1:50:27, a PR for me.  This year?  2:55.  1 Hour, 5 minutes slower.  You’d think I’d be disappointed.  You’d think perhaps that I got injured during the run.  You’d think I wouldn’t want to let people know my time.  Well, you’d be wrong.

This year I had the honor of helping my girlfriend achieve her PR in the race.  Together, through almost 3 hours of rain and wind, we pushed through it all to help her knock 21 minutes over her previous time.  That, by anyone’s standards, is an amazing feat.  What made it even more amazing was that in the 14 weeks we were training, she missed 2.5 weeks due to sickness, one week due to vacation, and struggled throughout with a resurgence of asthma.  But through it all, she stayed focus and positive, and I’m proud to say she kicked some butt!

See, happiness in running is not always found through your own successes.  Sometimes, and probably the luckiest of times, happiness in running is found through someone else’s achievements, through someone else reaching their goal.  I was proud and excited to help her reach her goal, but not only that, I actually was able to enjoy the race.  I wasn’t huffing and puffing and hurting and struggling to reach a new PR for me.  I was able to run easy, and take time to enjoy the simple act of running.  I was able to fully appreciate the beauty of 9,000 mostly complete strangers coming together for one purpose, one goal…to cross the finish line.  Sometimes when you’re too focused on yourself, you miss the bigger, and oftentimes greater, picture. 

Take the time to help someone else reach their goal.  Through their achievement, you too will feel like you accomplished something great.

 

“A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.” 
 - Jackie Robinson

8 comments »

Posted in Running

Tags:

I think I’ll go to Boston…

April 30th, 2009

So, I am getting married in 24 days… and this weekend is my bachelorette party… when asked where I wanted to go for the weekend extravaganza, all I could say was “I think I’ll go to Boston”.  I absolutely love the city, and have already planned out where I am going to be running on Saturday morning while the other 7 girls are asleep (although if I do enough convincing I may be able to get 2 of my companions to do a shorter version of my planned run).  Vacationing becomes interesting once you become a runner… my plans always tend to revolve around when I can get a run in and where I may be able to run.  This is something I research for weeks before making my journey to whatever my destination is. 

Running is something that, once you start doing it, becomes a part of your soul… it is something you can never do without… its part of your identity.  This is the first time in 2 years that I have not planned my vacations and events around and the races I would like to run, but am planning my running around my wedding and that of my cousin’s in August.  Spring events were off because I wouldn’t be able to commit enough time to training coming down to the wire… an event too early in the fall wouldn’t work because I would miss some of the most important long runs between my cousin’s shower, bachelorette and wedding… so that leaves just one race for me for this year!  Its not necessarily a race I was ecstatic about, not my first choice… but the circumstances of the important events in my life right now have led me to it…. the Philadelphia Marathon.  Now that I have been led to this race, I am getting very excited about it… its right before Thanksgiving, which makes eating a whole turkey that day acceptable… AND I may just run up the stairs of the museum and pretend to be Rocky, even though this isn’t a part of the actual race itself (it should be!)

Anyway… this brings me to a completely different point entirely dealing with the 2 cities mentioned above… Boston and Philly…. they get my vote for most angry/passionate sports fans, although Philly beats out Boston by leaps and bounds… who gets your vote?

No comments »

Posted in Life, Running

Tags:

Looking at our “Cake”

April 26th, 2009

If you’re living in the Northeast this weekend you couldn’t help but notice that summer came early. This weekend has been B E A U T I F U L…a little on the hot side but I can deal with that.

This past Saturday you may have seen EJ and myself running a 15K in beautiful Clinton, NJ…I was rockin’ my “Is there any cake left?” performance T (for sale soon – all proceeds going to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!!!) and if you’re here because you saw my attempt at advertising – Welcome and thanks for coming!! Likewise if you saw Lungs running the “Quest for a Cure 5K” in Moutainside, NJ…

During my race I ended up pacing myself for a bit with a nice young woman who made a move to pass me around mile 7 and commented that she was looking at my cake. All I gotta say is HELL YEA THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! We want folks to look at our Cake! Thanks for pushing me, if I weren’t frantically looking for fluids and shade right after finishing I may have chatted more.

And while I’m making shoutouts – I’d like to thank the women of the Clinton Haircutters…Kathy and company do a fantastic job cutting hair, are great for conversation, and have always supported my efforts with the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. I told them that we created isthereanycakeleft.com and they said they’d spread the word. Thank you ladies. I highly recommend stopping by and seeing them if you’re ever in the area.

If you are new here you should know that for every comment you post to any of our blogs we’ll donate $1 to help the fight against blood cancers. It’s the easiest charity work you’ll ever do, and we all appreciate it.

In other news…

This time of year marks the anniversary of tremendous turning point in my life – it was this same 15K last year where I committed to running a marathon with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Societies Team in Training Program, which is where I met my blogmates and the rest is Cake…I didn’t see the Team in Training tent this year at the 15K, probably because they hosted a 5K on Sunday as I mentioned above, but I thank them also for all they’ve helped me do for others and realize about myself. It is because of them and their cause that isthereanycakeleft.com was possible and all of us here are forever grateful.

This blog will have to be continued…I wanted to get a point across but I don’t want to write a book and this is long enough already. Besides, it’s so nice outside – what are you doing on the Internet? Get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Till next time…
Banks

PS – Look to see everyone minus EJ running NJ Marathon next week!

No comments »

Posted in Advertising, Charity, Innuendos, Living in NJ, Running

Tags: