Good Afternoon everyone.

Well, after one week of my Project 190 i'm starting to see a little difference. This morning i weighed in at 202. One minor problem has been my complete lack of following my guidelines to lose the weight quicker.

It's mostly been because i was able to keep my goal of 25 miles for the week. By my pedometer program i use, it was about 27 miles for the week.

Sooo.... it took me a week to run as far as i'm gonna try in a marathon. Sounds real intimidating when looked at this way.

And as far as cross-training on off days, i sorta did. If golf counts as a crosstrain, hey i walked!!!, i crosstrained.

Anyway, Project 190 is a work in progress....

Sorry nothing political or controversial today

Project 190

i'm writing this down as a goal as in a weight. i'm stuck with my weight at 205, plus or minus a few pounds. i've been there for a few weeks. So i need to refocus cause i've been cheating a lot.

Plus, i think i've reached a point where the best way to improve my running times is to lose some more weight.

Here's my plan:

watch my carbs....this has always worked for me and like a alcoholic, i seem to go a few weeks and then say, just one order of fries won't hurt. Next thing i know, i'm getting a supersized portion. i need to stop this.

stop between meal snacking. Thank God, Easter is over. i should be able stop the occasional peanut butter & chocolate eggs.

keep running, my goal this week is 25 miles. i've slowed down a little since the 1/2 marathon. it's still too early to really work on marathon training. so i need to focus with thoughts on how i'd like to finish the 15k on July 8th.

Cross-train, i've got a mountain bike, a basketball, and a soloflex machine. It's time to use them again.

Quit smoking for good. 'nuff said with this one. Although, it is probably the hardest, especially while trying to lose weight.

thanks for reading.... more to come

Happy Mawlid

i took a class on Islam my last semester of college. Somehow i ended up being 3 credits short of my general education classes to graduate. So i ended up with one final semester, one class and a list of about 20 options to choose from.

Well, Intro to Islam met one day a week on Tuesday night from 6-9:00 pm. We had a winner. Not only did it only meet once a week but the prof was from Lansing and had an hour drive home. So classes ended early, even for a evening class, and the tests were all open book.

Funny thing happened. i actually learned something. A comparative study of a religion i knew absolutely nothing about gave me great respect for the followers of Islam.

btw.... mawlid means birthday and today is the day recognized as the birthday of the prophet Mohammad, or various other spellings. It is not a universally recognized day in the Muslim community, because of many reasons, one being that Muslims do not want their faith to unitentionally evolve into one that worships the prophet instead of Allah, which translates to God in Arabic. Same children of Abraham, different word.

This is a long way to get to my thought. Sorry but i needed to provide some background. i heard the phrase today, which we have all heard; RADICAL ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST, as a way to define terrorist. i can't stand that phrase, two reasons

First of all radical and fundamentalist really don't belong together. One part is... Well...i don't know, umm radical. The other is... Well...let's call it, fundamental. Do i really need to provide a dictionary to show these words go together like, military intelligence, good catholic, etc...

Second, it's not fair to Islam, and Muslims as a community. It may be borderline racial. It definitely creates fear of the Islamic community. To be fair, i'm asking anyone to stack up the number of bodies of people killed in the name of Christianity to those same numbers created by Islam, over the history of the two religions, to see which one has a stronger history of terrorism. bummer for those of you who forgot about the crusades and Hitler.

Anyway, by now, if you are still reading this you may be monitored by our own government for reading my radical, yet somehow, fundamental viewpoints. You might as well continue...

Anyway, here's the end of this thought. Really, i mean it. Let's start referring to those idiots who protest at military funerals as Radical Christian Fundamentalist. Then let's widen down the definition of Radical Christian Fundamentalist to more and more groups of people. Then Radical +Religion+Fundamentalist will work it's way out of vernacular.

I think it's a great idea. But it's only my opinion.

thanks for reading, be back soon.

Happy 4:10 day to all the marching chip alums out there!!

it's a little weird how numbers can play such a significant factor in a persons life.

L8R

Well now what.

Sorry i haven't posted in a few days. My 5 or 6 constant readers, if i may steal a phrase from Stephen King, may be getting a little restless. So here's the deal....

i felt the post race blahs most of the week. If i hadn't felt guilty about eating terribly i would have never ran this week. Fortunately my wife was very helpful in motivating me to get off my butt and go.

Next race. the 15k on July 8th, at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. http://www.cherryfestival.org

how can i not do this one?? i grew up there. i loved the cherry festival growing up. The race finishes along the parade route, just prior to the start of the parade. WAY COOL!!

After finishing i can jump in the bay to cool off, and get rid of a little of the stink.

Plus 15k, that's only 9.66 miles. Piece of Cake!!! If i ran at the same pace as the half, it'll take 1:29:26. Definitely not in medal contention but it's a goal. I've gotten some time to work towards this, while preparing for the marathon.

I'm hoping to add some interval training into my routine and i'm going to shoot for 1:20:00 for the 15 k. That's about 8:15 per mile.

Man that sounds tough.

more to follow

2:03:06

Pace: 9.24 per mile

Well, the 1/2 marathon is behind and i gotta admit to feeling real good about my time.

The run was a lotta fun and i really enjoyed the jockeying for position and passing people was real fun. i started towards to back and as the first few miles started i was able to pass a few people as i hit my stride.

Three people i need to thank for encouraging me are:

1. lisa, my wife, who has been so encouraging and supportful as i have started this new hobby;
2. lisa, my awesome friend, who has been so helpful, through emails of support and someone to run with; and lastly
3. Ashley.

Who's Ashley?

Well, she's a 20 yr old student at GVSU who just happens to be training for her first marathon. As i was jockeying for position in the first two miles, we met. She was running at a good clip and we ended up in stride together. We struck up and good conversation and ran side by side for the next 11 miles.

Like me, she has a great friend who has started her on this journey to a marathon. Unlike me, she is 18 years younger, unmarried, no kids. As we ran, i joked about me not losing to a 20 yr old kid, and she joked about not losing to an old man.

but as we ran....

She picked me up at different distances. When she had a small cramp in her side i pushed her to fight through it. Yet we both refused to let the other person hold each other back. We were able to bond on the fact that i would work to stay even with her and she with me.

At the 12 mile mark. We picked up our pace, and in a typical Mike way, i started grunting and singing to help me pick up the pace. Ashley laughed a little and mentioned to keep doing whatever i was doing as it kept her mind of being tired.

The last couple 100 yards we broke into a sprint and raced on the balls of our feet, head down, knees high, kicking, hammer down to the finish line. Again it was still a race and neither wanted to lose to the other.

we hit the timing mat together, stride for stride.

Official times for us both

2:03:06

Thanks Ashley.