June 28, 2007 by jon.

  Been a while since I posted.  Some travel, some weather and some baseball has been distracting me.  First the baseball.

  Softball actually.  Robyn had her first (And second and third) game in the last few weeks.  She is doing pretty good.  She’s played most all positions including catcher.  She like it a lot and I think she looks cute behind the plate in all that gear.  (Don’t tell her that)  She has done well hitting and base running.  They don’t keep score in this leage so it’s all about fun and she’s having in.  I’m proud of her for trying it out.

   Brad is now in the throes of the playoffs.  We’ve had a bunch of rainouts recently so the schedule is pretty mixed up and cramped.  When it’s all said and done, they played two games on Sunday, won both and then played today and lost.  Double elimination so they play again this Saturday.  If they keep winning, it can potentially be double headers for a few days.

  As for how he’s doing, it’s pretty good.  The last two games he pitched the first two innings to lead off the games.  A total of four runs scored over 4 innings.  Not too bad.  He also has caught for 2 innings for every game.  I think he still really likes catching.  Today, at the plate, he got a little frusted today because he struck out on calls he didn’t agree with.  I keep telling him he needs to protect the plate when he has 2 strikes against him.  He’ll learn.

  The family also went to the Midwest League All Star game.  It was hosted by the local Kane County Cougars.  I was away at some meetings so I couldn’t go, but I think they had fun.  The kids got 20 autographs between the two of them.

  I’ll do an update on my running a little later.

Posted in Baseball | Print | No Comments »

June 13, 2007 by jon.

Brad had another game yesterday.  (Same time Robyn had practice and Kala worked.  Dad played shuttle driver.)  Again he played catcher for two innings.  I really like him as catcher.  Brad has a good grasp of the game and is learning the position.  For example, he tried a snap throw to first early on to catch a runner leaning the wrong way.  Almost got the runner too, but Brad’s coach told him to run the ball out towards the runner to force him back.  At this level there is too much chance in throwing to first  like that.  Brad took the advice to heart and everytime someone was on first, he would advance a little to get them to go back.  It’s great that he listens.

Well as he was catching a batter from the other team laid down a perfect bunt.  About a third of the way to the pitcher’s mound.  Brad and the pitcher both went for it.  Brad got there first, took another step or two toward the mound to get the angle and then fired a stike to first.  The first baseman dropped the ball but otherwise the runner would have been out.  It was perfect execution for a bunt.

After the inning I asked Brad how he knew to play a bunt like that because it was never practiced and we didn’t even know the kids could bunt.  He said he learned it playing MLB on Playstation….I had no response to that…

The Braves lost again and are in a 4 game losing slump.  It’s like the kids haven’t showed up for the games.  They just aren’t there mentally.  Brad even had a few gaffes during the game.  Something’s come over the team and they need to break out of it before the playoffs which start in a week.  Of course, it’s just kids baseball but it’s fun to watch them at this level.

BTW - Robyn’s practice went well.  She got her uniform (Orange number 5)  Her first game is this Saturday.  Stay tuned for blow by blow updates!

Posted in Baseball | Print | 2 Comments »

June 12, 2007 by jon.

I was kind of surprised to check my running logs and see I am only 5 miles behind last year by June 11.  I would have thought I’d be farther behind in miles but this year I am at 170 so far.  Of course last year at about this point I started stacking on the miles to get ready for the marathon.  I don’t think I’ll be putting on as many this year.

For one thing I am pretty sore.  A big part of it is that my back is still not 100%.  Don’t quite know why as I am doing my stretches, but maybe I just need to take it easy.

Speaking of taking it easy Sunday I ran 7 miles and this morning I did intervals again.  My pace times for the 5 intervals were  7:20, 7:30, 6:06, 6:32,6:33.  The 6:06 interval I tried a quicker turnover on the steps.  Seemed to work, but I was tired.  These were 2 minute intervals with a 1 minute walking rest.

So where does that leave me?  For the upcoming relay, I need to be able to run 3 times in 24 hours.  My legs are 3.2 miles (All up hill), 4.3 miles (Down hill) and 3.8 miles.  So just over 11 miles in 3 legs.  Should be ok except for the elevation…  I think instead of racking up the miles on the long runs, I’ll stay around 6 or 7 miles and then work on running consecutive days.  As we get closer to Aug 5, I’ll try running 2 times a day for a while just to get ready.

Keep on running

Posted in Running | Print | No Comments »

June 11, 2007 by jon.

What a wonderful weekend!  Started with Brad’s All Star game Saturday morning.  Brad was on the National League team as was 17 other kids.  They picked 3  players from each team so it was a little crowded.  Brad’s coach also was coach of the all star team so Brad felt a little more comfortable.  I really like how Coach Bob did the lineup.  He had players from the same teams play together on alternate innings.  So Brad was on the field with his friends each time he was in the field.  Brad also got to play on the same team as his friend Michael.

The National League was behind the whole game.  Brad got to play 3rd, catcher, and outfield.  He was the only one to get an extra base hit.  His came in the last inning with 2 outs.  He hit a RBI double to kick the rally off.  Brad also had some good plays at third and catch.  Even though they lost, it was a lot of fun.

Oh, did I forget to say it was Robyn’s birthday?  The big 8.  My little girl is growing up.  What did we do to celebrate?  Robyn went to softball practice.  Then we went to TGIFriday’s for dinner.  They sang to her, but she was a little shy.  Her birthday gifts from the family included softball items like a bat bag, visor and water bottle.  All pink of course.

Sunday, Brad had another game (Lost 11-10).  I really enjoy watching him play catcher.  I think he does a great job and has a good feel for what’s going on.  After the game, we rushed home so that we could go to Robyn’s birthday party.  Robyn decided she wanted a Shrek birthday so we had 12 kids go to the movie theater to watch Shrek 3.  That was crazy.  Robyn didn’t quite know what to do with all of the girls vying for her attention.  I guess since she was the princess of the evening, all of the girls wanted a part of her.  That was not a position Robyn is used to being in and she was a little shy.

The movied ended up to be pretty good.  Robyn got to start the movie by pushing the big green button AND she got to take home a part of the movie (They cut off a few cells to give her)

Another busy weekend but it was a blast.

Posted in Baseball, Announcements | Print | No Comments »

June 7, 2007 by jon.

I think this year I’ll actually work a training plan rather than just have a goal of doing a certain amount of miles a week.

Today I attempted a Tempo Run.  Basically, after a warm up I ran at just below race pace for a while and then did a cool down. The purpose of a Tempo is to increase the Lactate Threshhold to improve race performance.  Basically it gets you used to running harder for a longer period of time.

After thinking about it, I believe that most of what I’ve been doing up to this point have been tempo runs.  I normally will just head out and run hard.  Usually around 8:00 - 8:30 miles except for my long runs.  By doing a warm up slower, a tempo and then a cool down, I hope to decrease the stress on my body yet still improve my performance.  We’ll see.

So today I ran 3/4 mile at 9:00 pace.  Then I ran 1.5 miles at 8:00 pace and then finished with 3/4 mile at 9:00 pace.  Felt pretty good and the fast pace really wasn’t that hard.  Maybe I need to do it faster.  I’ll keep playing with the pace to see what works.

Posted in Running | Print | 1 Comment »

June 6, 2007 by jon.

Recently I moved from HRH’s Schaumburg office to the Lombard office.  In Schaumburg, there was a gym and showers and I could go for lunch-time runs.  Lombard doesn’t have that, but it does have an open stairwell and 9 flights of stairs.  So when I can, I try to get in a few flights for exercise.

I just completed 18 flights and feel it in my legs.  Good stuff and it will help to get me ready to run the Wild West Relay in Colorado in a few months.  (Not looking forward to the hills)

BTW - I did some interval training yesterday and I think I’ll try to continue that at least once a week.  I ran 5 repeats of 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking. My pace while running was 7:15, 7:00, 6:15, 6:30 and 6:30 in that order. (Min per mile)  Not bad after a slow start.  That’s one way to get in some speed work.  I then cooled down by jogging about 2 miles back home.  All around about 4 miles on the road.  Felt good, but I was tired after.

Posted in Running | Print | No Comments »

June 5, 2007 by jon.

No, I am not doing this bike tour, but a good friend Richard is.  Richard and I worked together when he was at HRH and he’s since moved on.  When I was in Richmond last January, we toured some Civil War sites together.

Anyway, Richard used to be a runner until he needed something less stressful on his knees.  He took up biking and has put on tons of miles.  Well, he is now doing the MS 150 tour to raise money to fight MS.

As you may know, my father has had MS for 14 years now and it’s an ugly disease.  I’d love to see a cure or even effective medicine developed in the near future, but it can only be done with support.

So if you can, please support the National MS Society and Richard as he tries to raise some money to beat this disease.

Jon

Posted in Announcements | Print | No Comments »

June 2, 2007 by jon.

  I had a low mileage week which was pretty good after have shin and back issues the week before.  I ran almost 4 miles with Aunt Julie in Mt. Pleasant, MI and then another 6.0 today with Scott on the Great Western Trail.

  Julie normally does 3 miles on a treadmill and wasn’t quite sure about the 4 miles but there was a good 4 mile loop that I wanted to do and she wanted someone to run with.  A lot of what we did was along side roads with no sidewalk so we were going a little slower.  A pretty good 9:30 pace though.

  We ran on the day of the funeral for my other aunt, Aunt Nancy.  We were all in Michigan and I wanted to take the opportunity to get in a run.  It was good to get out as the rest of the day was sad and a little stressful.

  So add Michigan to Illinois, Colorado, Florida and Virgina as that states that I’ve run in so far this year.

Posted in Running | Print | No Comments »