Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Marathon:

So I wanted to update everyone on how my marathon went this past weekend. I don't know if everyone knew, but I ran the City of Oaks Marathon here in Raleigh this past Sunday. I ran it with one of my groomsmen named John. We had been training all year although within the last few months we've somewhat fallen off. I can honestly say that I didn't prepare for this one as well as I did for my first one back in 2005 but going into it, I still felt like I could do it. This race however was much more difficult than my first one. It was much more hilly and part of the race was on a gravel/dirt trail so that made it tough as well. For anyone interested in seeing the course, here it is:

http://cityofoaksmarathon.com/course_info/

We started off rocky. John has had knee problems in the last few months and within the first .5 mile he said it started to hurt. Although as we went on, it didn't get worse so he continued. We made it through the first half in 2:08 which is a great pace and exactly where we wanted to be. Around mile 15 we started to alternate between walking and running. And somewhere between there and the finish line my left foot started hurting. It's known as plantar fasciitis. It's basically pain in the ligament or tendon that connects to your heel from the balls of your feet. We finally hobbled in, finishing the race in 4 hours and 47 minutes (27 minutes slower than my first marathon).

Now 3 days later the pain in my foot is still there but it's healing up. The marathon is a funny race. I realize this is going to sound ridiculous because not everyone can run 26, 13 or even 3 miles, so stick with me when I say this. The first 13 miles feel fantastic... I don't feel tired and I don't feel winded. If I stopped, my muscles would be sore but it wouldn't be a big deal. But that second half is when the muscle pain really comes. It's a feeling you just won't forget. It's a feeling you never want but you have to have in order to finish such a grueling race. I can't imagine ever being in good enough shape to ever not feel tired during the second half of the race. Although I trained really hard for my first race, around mile 20 I completely hit the wall. My muscles would not function and running was an impossibility. This race however I never hit "the wall" however my muscles still were in pain but not enough that I couldn't easily keep going. So it's interesting to me that even though I didn't train as hard, I never hit the wall. So will I do another one? Probably but whether that's sooner or later, I don't know. It's such a commitment to train for that I don't know if that's something I want to put myself through again anytime soon.

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Dog Experiment:

So there are a few behaviors in our family that have become readily apparent to me in the past few days and I am on a mission to fix them, or at least run an experiment for one full week to see if I can fix them. These few things are as follows:

• I do not like getting out of bed in the morning.
• Liz does not like getting out of bed in the morning.
• Daisy loves getting out of her crate in the morning.
• Because of our work schedules, Daisy only spends an hour or two between getting up and getting in her crate for the day, so she's understandably wound up when we get home.
  
• Daisy is not great on walks. She smells things too much, will not keep walking when I tug on her, and she also likes to run ahead, pulling on the leash.
• I do not eat any breakfast in the morning.
  

So because of these things I have decided to run an experiment with Daisy. Here it is, and probably far too structured for a blog:

Purpose:
To change my view of getting up in the morning from being tired to being awake and ready for the day. This is also to see how Daisy's behavior changes not only towards me as her Dad but also towards Liz and the day in general as she gets a little more exercise in the morning. It is also to change her behavior on our walks. See procedure below.

Hypothesis:
Daisy will not be as wild and wound up when we get home from work. She will also become very pleasant to go for a walk with. I will have a reason for getting up in the morning and getting a small breakfast and it will not be as hard to start the day. Liz will be happier to not have to get out of bed on the mornings she usually takes Daisy out.

Materials:
Ms. Daisington and her leash as well as very warm cloths.

Procedure:
Every morning at 6:30AM I will get up and take Daisy downstairs. I will get a glass of water and a snack before doing anything. I will then take Daisy out on a leash and walk at least the small loop around our neighborhood with her. Whenever she starts to sniff or smell I'll try using our "Daisy come" command and when she does, I'll praise her. Whenever she runs out ahead I will stop in my tracks and will not keep going until she sits, stays and stops tugging. When we get back, I will not get back in bed.

So that is the extent of my experiment. In exactly one week, that being next Wednesday night, I will let everyone know how this experiment goes. I will include the Results, Conclusions and Acknowledgments.

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By the way, during this post, Daisy wanted to help, so she laid her head on my laptop. Check it out(too cute, Liz came over and said, "I had to take a picture"):