I took last week off from blogging and it was almost everything I needed it to be. My wife and I are gearing up to be re-certified as potential adoptive parents. This marks the end of year 2 of waiting and there is a lot to do. On top of that (I’ll explain this a little further later in this blog post), I felt a need for a break at the end of the week last week. So, I took the opportunity. All the time off from blogging gave me a chance to also asses where I’m at in life and I have a lot to report on that. Let’s look back at weeks 4 and 5 of Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon training. Shall we?

Week 4

After singing at my former choir director’s memorial service, I came to work on Monday and saw this. Gotta love working at the Disney lot! Monday was a planned rest day. Unfortunately for me, I stayed a little too long after Disney choir practice that night and it ruined my chances of making the Tuesday morning run. So, Tuesday became an unplanned rest day as well.

I tried to get up early enough to run that Wednesday to make up for the missed Tuesday, but it didn’t happen. So, Thursday morning, I was determined to make it all work out.

And I did! By the way, if you can’t tell, it’s getting so dark for these early morning runs. This run was nothing particularly special. However, I got out there and got in the three miles.

The result wasn’t bad either. Ok…it wasn’t a sub 36 minute run. However, I do have traffic lights to content with. They definitely hurt my time. Even with the traffic lights, I was only 40 seconds off. I’ll take it.

On Friday, a rest day, we got treated to Star Wars Rebels cupcakes at work. Sometimes, its awesome working for the Mouse. You know what I mean?

On Saturday, I took a CPR First Aid training class to get certified. This part of what you need to keep current as a perspective adoptive parent. That class took up most of my day and I was pretty tired at the end of it. We did a lot of practice work on those dummies. However, I finished and am certified in Adult and Infant CPR/First Aid/AED. The tiredness lead to missing my planned gym workout. Oops.

By Sunday, I was dragging and felt a little overwhelmed with all Brooke and I do in order to get our house ready for the re-certification. This is when I decided I needed a week off from blogging. I missed my planned 11 mile run on Sunday because I needed time for other things and felt burned out. That’s how week 4 ended. Not so good.

Week 5

So, what did I do on my week off from blogging? A lot of planning my life out. I’ll get more into some of that in future blog posts. Monday was supposed to be an easy rest day and it was.

I tried to get up on Tuesday for a run. Normally, by 20 minutes after the alarm goes off, I’ve been able to get out and run. This past Tuesday, that didn’t happen for the first time. However, I did give it a try. I got up and believed that I’d eventually be able to wake up enough to go running. I was wrong. Wednesday was more of the same.

So, on Thursday morning, it looked as if I’d miss my mid-week runs all together. The alarm went off at 5:30am and I wasn’t feeling it. As I tried to go back to sleep, all I could think about is how it was not a good idea to skip your training runs for 10 days prior to running a half marathon. So, at 5:50am, I got up laced up the shoes and got ready to run.

Look at what happened! I had my fastest 3 miles since April! Not only did I finally break the 35 minute barrier, but I was close 34 1/2 minutes! It was a run that felt absolutely amazing! Unfortunately, it’s so dark out now that I’m using my Nike Plus App instead of the watch. If I had tried using the watch on this run, I wouldn’t have seen it very well until the end of the 2nd mile. So, the app it was. At the end of the run I was beyond happy! I had to find out how long it had been since I ran so fast. It was the training run right before the Hollywood Half Marathon in April. Good sign? Time would tell.

Saturday, I didn’t train at all. It was the Expo for the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon/Half Marathon. I decided to skip a workout in favor of fresher legs the next day. The Expo was fun. Although, I was bummed that the representatives from the LA Marathon didn’t have a booth set up. There were plenty of fun picture spots though.

Sunday, I was up before the sun to head down to Long Beach to run my 8th half marathon. As a result of finishing the Surf City USA Half Marathon and OC Half Marathon prior to this one, I also would be completing the Beach Cities Challenge. I’ll post a full recap later this week.

However, I’m pleased to report that I finished the Long Beach International Cities Bank Half Marathon in less than 3 hours! I beat my Disneyland Half Marathon and OC Half Marathon times by around 15 minutes! So, I’d say that the race was a total success! I can’t wait to share with you all that happened!

I must have blacked out on Sunday night. When I came through, I was registered for the 30th Los Angeles Marathon on March 15, 2015. Yikes! I’m registered for my 2nd full marathon! This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following along. After all, I’ve talked of my interest in running in this race several times before. I’ll get into this a little more later. However, when I first ever entertained the crazy thought of running a full marathon, it was the Los Angeles Marathon that I thought would be my first. I’ve had several friends over the years who have run this race.

Marathon Training is no joke. 26.2 miles is a long distance to run. Even if you’re a run/walk/runner like myself. I learned that training for and finishing the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon. Once the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon is finished, my training will focus squarely on the Los Angeles Marathon. This race is the source of inspiration for my next big challenge. In January 2012, I ran my first 5k (The Neverland 5K). In January 2013, I ran my first Half Marathon (the Tinker Bell Half Marathon). Shortly later, I got serious about blogging my journey towards becoming a runner. In completing the 2013 Dumbo Double Dare, I felt like my moment of calling myself a runner had arrived. Then, the journey continued towards becoming a Marathon finisher. In January 2014, I finished the Walt Disney World Marathon and joined the ranks of the few who can say they have ever finished a full marathon. Since then, I’ve been in search of the next big thing. This past week, that came into focus.

I’ll get more into this tomorrow. However, the next challenge is to become this guy again. While I can’t get younger, I can get leaner. This picture was taken on my engagement day. I weighed 162lbs on that day. Back then, I was on a journey towards 150lbs. I lost over 70lbs in that effort. Today, after the Long Beach Half Marathon, I weighed myself. I currently weight 248.4lbs. This is not cool. I want to be much leaner by the time the Los Angeles Marathon rolls around. I’m calling it the Journey to 160. I know I won’t get all the way there by the time March 15th rolls around. So, the LA Marathon is just part of that journey. These week recaps will now include the weigh in as well as the usual recapping the week. Tune back in tomorrow to get all the details.