New Family Blog

My wife has given me the go-ahead to keep track of and blog about her progress in reaching her goals as mentioned in my previous post. I'm very excited about this as she will do some guest posts about our journey as well.

Our discussion about blogging and documenting our adventures together prompted Anette to write a story that's been bugging her for a very long time. We were thinking about posting it here on my blog but then decided to start a new blog for non-running and non-training family and other matters.

The new blog is called "Family Fumes and Musings". Anette's story, "Are our children important to their schools and educators" is the first post for our new family blog. We have some exciting and fun ideas for this blog. Please check it out and follow our new blog.

Running:
I'm running the Alberton City Half Marathon on Sunday. I'm looking forward to writing regular race reports from next week onward. It's been slow and silent in that department and I don't like it.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

No Pikes but lots of positive plans.

As you may or may not know, I did not get an entry into the Pikes Peak Marathon in the end. It was quite a sad story as I actually entered in time but then my payment from South Africa failed to process in time. Jill and Ewa got in and I am very happy for them. But we were all geared to meet and run together so yes, a huge bummer! :(

At first I was really sad and went through a downward slump for a day or two. Since then I have re-looked at my goals and with the help of my lovely wife Anette, re-worked and planned the year and even years ahead. I did not marry any ordinary girl for sure!

January 2012.

Anette made the suggestion that we should rather travel to the USA when she is ready to run a trail race there with me. Awesome! This means there are some serious planning going on.

Anette is no couch potato. This karate black belt has done some great sprint and other tri's as well as two 94.7km cycle races. Training hard to reach a goal is nothing new to this beautiful wife of mine.

2006 Nationals - Anette on the left.

As she was cycling next to me on my run last Saturday we discussed all of this and made some interesting plans. Anette came up with some challenges and goals of her own:

1. Run a marathon with me.
2. Complete the 94.7km cycle race in November this year in sub 5:30. (I am willing to do this with her if she goes for it)
3. Reach her dream weight of 60kg as she was while in top form for karate and also some photo shoots a few years back. Oh yes, I married a stunner!

2009 photo shoot.

The bummer of Pikes Peak has had a very positive spin-off for us. Anette has her sights set on a trail race in the USA with me and I might start some cycling with her. The bottom line: we both want to get back into top form.

We both finished our planning with a mention below the bottom line of doing an Iron Man together one year...maybe...oh yes...and there is also Badwater...

Quick Update

Although I haven't run any races  recently, I've been training hard and doing some LSD runs every weekend. My lovely wife Anette has been supporting me on her bike and this works really well. No time for me to be lazy!

Good times!

On Thursday registration for the Pikes Peak marathon opens. I really hope I can secure myself a spot. It will be very exciting if we can travel to Colorado in August to run this little mountain!

Happy running everyone!

Three Things Thursday

Alyssa from Diary of an Average Runner sent me a whole lot of GU just because she wanted to do so! Thank you so much Alyssa! She also included a sweatband and some information cards for the San Francisco Marathon that shows the route as well...tempting indeed… GU is really expensive here in SA so that is a wonderful gift to receive.

Spiral is doing fine with his broken leg although he did eat his cast and it had to be replaced. He also had to wear a cone on his neck to stop him from eating the second cast too. Good news is that he is at the vet as I’m typing this for an x-ray to see if they might remove the cast today. Let’s hold thumbs for that one!

With running I am currently in the process of deciding on and reviewing my main 2012 goals. Training is going well but I need to get my plan for goal no1, the Pikes Peak Marathon, in place. My original goals include the Comrades Marathon on 3 June, but preparing for that might leave me with too little trail and mountain runs and too many road runs. So I am looking into my Pikes Peak training deeper to see what my options are. Pikes Peak remains my main 2012 goal and yes, I will skip Comrades to prepare properly for it if needed.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!

Keep it going!