The End - 43 days

The streak has ended.  Yes, my body finally gave out after 43 days of running every day.  Honestly, it was bound to happen at some point.  On what would have been day 44, I got home around 7:30 and barely had the energy to walk across the garage.  After much consternation about letting go of the streak, I decided to listen to my body and that was all she wrote.  As a result of those 43 days, I have come down with a terrible case of shin splints.  This led to a new streak of not running which lasted for four days finishing the first week in January with a measly 11 miles.

Ouch!!!

However, if you know me, then you could probably guess that I'm not about to allow a little pain to get in my way.  It actually hurts a lot more when I walk then when I run.  Anyways, long story short, I'm back at it this week logging 33 miles for the week.

Whether you care or not, I am going to note that I've trimmed my beard.  In my humble opinion, the beard was awesome.  But, I felt like it was getting a little too crazy for the finance world and therefore, I took it down a notch.  Since that time, my streak has ended and the shin splints have started; could it be that much like Samson, my strength rested within the beard or is it pure coincidence?  Needless to say, I'm bringing the beard back; damn the office mores.

Moving on, so I've heard from a couple readers (literally 2) about getting back to the blogging.  I've taken an extended break from writing (I use the term loosely) for a number of reasons.

1) I kind of hate the fact that the streak ended and have been slightly pissed off about it.  Therefore, I've boycotted the writing because I'm not sure if it makes physical sense to try and start another streak.  I'm running my next marathon in March and I don't want to jeopardize my participation with this odd streak.

2) Between work responsibilities and just life in general, I didn't have it in me to continue writing the blog.  Thank the Great Spirit for long weekends or else this post may have never came to be.

3) I'm taking a class this quarter.  So combine a lot of office hours with a lot of study hours and that's what I like to call a "blog killer".

I surrender!!!!

So for all of my dedicated readers (all 2 or 3 of you), I will continue to post; however they will be posted on a completely haphazard schedule.  If you can't handle that, you have way to much time on your hands and should probably start a blog about it.

All in all I've had a great start to 2012.  I love my wife, my family, my job and my life, so I don't really have anything to complain about other than the wicked, nasty shin splints.  On a side note, my wife is training for her first half-marathon and crushing it right now, so many props to her as she continues to train for her big race.

Hands off; she's all mine boys.

Hope everyone is having a great start to 2012, Mayans be damned.  Stats below:

Monday (1/9/12) - Miles - 5.03 in 42:01 at 8:21 pace burning 776 calories

Mile 1 - 7:47 / Mile 2 - 8:25 / Mile 3 - 8:22 / Mile 4 - 8:47 / Mile 5 - 8:24

Tuesday (1/10/12) - Miles - 3 in 24:42 at 8:14 pace burning 464 calories

Mile 1 - 8:05 / Mile 2 - 8:23 / Mile 3 - 8:14

Wednesday & Thursday - Off days

Friday (1/13/12) - Miles - 6 in 52:29 at 8:49 pace burning 933 calories

Mile 1 - 8:01 / Mile 2 - 8:23 / Mile 3 - 8:44 / Mile 4 - 9:24 / Mile 5 - 8:36 / Mile 6 - 9:21

Saturday (1/14/12) - Miles - 6 in 49:51 at 8:18 pace burning 926 calories

Mile 1 - 7:57 / Mile 2 - 8:17 / Mile 3 - 8:22 / Mile 4 - 8:38 / Mile 5 - 8:18 / Mile 6 - 8:14

Sunday (1/15/12) - *Note to the reader, very sick on this run but a man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do.

Miles - 13 in 1:54.44 at 8:49 pace burning 2007 calories (wish I felt good enough to replace them....)

Mile 1 - 8:02 / Mile 2 - 8:44 / Mile 3 - 8:34 / Mile 4 - 8:40 / Mile 5 - 8:23 / Mile 6 - 8:36 / Mile 7 - 8:55 / Mile 8 - 8:36 / Mile 9 - 9:04 / Mile 10 - 9:08 / Mile 11 - 9:33 / Mile 12 - 8:57 / Mile 13 - 9:36

Until next time...

Justin