Kensington Hill Challenge

It was an amazing turn out today for the Kensington Hill Challenge! We had competitors hailing from at least three different zip codes.

Mike Anderson pulled away early on then held a steady lead from the group finishing as this week’s champion. To everyone’s surprise, New Comer Chase Desilets, rallied and made a very strong push for seconds place. Rumors about Chase saying he could do this course in his sleep, spread quickly as photographers actually snapped a picture of Chase sleeping while climbing the hill. Mike Anderson better lookout if Chase decides to stay awake for these nine grueling miles.

Has-been, Jordan Desilets, had a very unimpressive 3rd place finish. The medical staff was actually on standby as it looked like Jordan might collapse at any moment.

Ken Larscheid, a favorite for the number two spot today, just didn’t have it. It looks like his cardio is getting better, which he proved on the flats, but he just needs to add some more to his strength to help him power up those hills.

Mark Savedes aka “The Ghost” he’s so old he might actually be a real ghost. Although he finished 5th again for the third week in a row, don’t let that fool you. His overall times on the flats and the hills were much improved week over week. At one point fans were saying Savedes was clocked around 6:10/mile pace. It just seems that everyone kicked it up a notch today. It could be due to the new blood in the group just getting in there and shaking things up a bit.

Thanks for tuning in!

The Turning Point

I feel like that past few weeks have been one day of running than one day of resting the foot for pain. I have been trying to ease into running again as I know there isn’t really any hope of me getting into shape for a competitive track season this spring…even in the back of my mind there is that little voice pushing me to try.

Today the weather was just beautiful and for some reason my foot didn’t really hurt that bad and I just went out and hit the dirt roads with some steam. Creeping a little faster each mile and just feeling better and better. The results were a solid 5 miles under 6:00/pace per mile. I am so pumped about this run.

5.5 Tempo

Had a nice little 5.5 Mile tempo down the hilly dirt roads. Also had the worlds biggest Rottweiler come at me while it’s non caring owner couldn’t get off of the cell phone and hustle over to get it…instead took her time and waddled on over not breaking phone conversation while this Rot and I danced in the middle of the road.

A Week of Running

I had my first week of “Real” running. Two weeks ago I hit 18 miles and on Sunday I finished a week of 7 days straight of running and hitting 28 miles.

I know some of you might have run 28 miles just on Sunday …but I’m getting there. I even tossed in a little long run of 6 miles on Saturday.

Happy Training!

The Odd Night

Ok…running 3 miles whatever…so then I try to go to sleep at 10:30PM. I’m not really tired so I bang out two episodes of Breaking Bad on Netflix. It’s now a little after midnight and I try to sleep…I’m just tossing and turning and my mind enters that limbo mode where your not quite asleep but you’re dreaming…the random guy in Matrix gave it a name.

So this un dream was of someone’s stealing the Escalade with Chase in it. Me chasing them down on foot. I was able to catch them by hopping over the fences in the neighbors yard (and of course my feet don’t hurt in my dreams)

Ummm skipping the details for my wife’s sake, Chase died in a very bad way and it felt very real to me. So real I got out of bed and just stood over his bassinet…watching him sleep. “huh” I thought to myself as the dog got up with me and sat by the bedroom door. Quickly forgetting about my dog as I turned my attention back toward Chase as he started to rouse for his midnight feeding. Jamie said there was a bottle in the fridge.

As I’m preparing the bottle Boogie, my dog, starts to growl out the window. “Fu€#ing raccoons.” I say to myself…then I hear my garage door shut and I see a shadowy figure emerge through my yard. I instantly went into cage fighter mode as I reached for my mag light, tossed some flippyfloppys on and darted out the door after this Ass Clown.

I would say I was fearless in chasing down this dip shit, my wife would say I’m an idiot…tomato toma’to.

Any how, the only part of me that resembled a cage fighter was that I was still in my underwear…just my underwear.

Sadly the d-bag hopped a fence and got away and I was not about to risk screwing up my foot even more over something stupid. Plus those houses have pitbulls…just not something to mess with, even for a outta shape distance running hasbeen such as myself.

I went back to the house, called 911, while NOT comforting my worried wife. Cops were there in less than 60 seconds. Pistol drawn entering my garage to clear it.

Luckily the only thing that I have noticed missing was two macheties. One from Meijer, $5.99, that was used as a fire poker and the other was from the Dominican Republic…most likely made in China…so I guess it was a good thing I didn’t catch up to him. Maglight VS Twin Machetties.

Is there a point to this post…I don’t know…”It can happen to anyone” or “Take Care of the little things.” such as the battery for the wireless alarm in the garage, which had died and I neglected to replace it, the door was not locked, and someone accidently turned off the automatic flood lights.

“If you dream of chasing someone down it might happen” “Always carry a hand gun when making baby bottles” The really amazing thing is that my dog new something was up. Their hearing and alertness is amazing.

All in all the family is safe the cops dusted the door knob for prints and they think they know who it is. I’ll let you know in a week.

Thanks for reading this long Odd Night and remember to keep what you love and covet close to you and remember the rest is just stuff.

You Gotta Start Somewhere

I wanted to post this run because I feel that there are so many of you out there who always talk about how you gotta get back into shape, you gotta find the time but right now is not a good time it’s just to _______right now or I have to much _____ going on in my life.  Some of you are maybe working out but keep saying “This is going to be the year I run my first 5k , 10k, 1/2, Full”  Then the time comes and you let that cowardly sentence roll off of your tongue “My training is just not where it should be.”

P.S. that is the number one excuse I hear when I have to downgrade the distance of someone’s race.

Now some of you might think this song is about you and some of you might be saying “those people are so annoying.”  but the reason for the this post and the run attached with it is to show you we all have to start somewhere…I would say I’m an accomplished runner with a few good times and titles under my belt but it has now been a few months since I have done anything to raise my heart above 80bpm, so I have to start somewhere.

I know as sort of a joke, I Facebooked that I power walked a mile the other day…as funny as that was, it was a huge accomplishment for me.  I was so excited to do something outside with out the walking boot on my foot.  Yes I have lost a lot of muscle mass and yes my foot still hurts a bit so I do need to take it slow just as you do when you are starting up…don’t go out and run 6 miles day one like superman/woman that is called fishing for injury.

Also if you do that then I have to hear say “Running is soooo hard, how do you do it.”  I know all of you athletes out there have had that conversation with an old classmate, friend, family member and you always think of something witty to say “I just put one foot in front of the other {fake laugh} {awkward silence} how about those Red Wings?!”

The truth of the matter is it always sucks coming off of injury or coming back from a lengthy time off.  I think as athletes we know that we will get to where we want to be if we just maintain our discipline and get out the door everyday.  Those un-athletes or one night stand exercisers never made it to the point when it becomes enjoyable.  Most people quit there new found exercise program after two weeks and they were never able to truly see the fruits of their labor…don’t be that guy/girl.

I’m sorry for the rant and lengthy post but I really want this to be looked at as having a goal in mind, starting from zero, training smart, and turning your dreams to goals and goals into accomplishments/realities.

It has taken me two weeks to get to this distance and pace…Yes it was hot as shit out (roughly 98.6 degrees) and I was pushing Baby Boy in the stroller but I got it done.  I wanted to go farther but like a good man named Kenny once said “Know when to fold em.” so in the essence of training smart and slowly testing the foot I put “Pride” in the time out chair and stopped at one lap.  Also in doing so I was able to turn a quick post into a long drawn out post that most of you will not even finish and some of you will probably repost this Garmin link on Failblog.  Anyway cherish those miles, encourage others, and get your ass out the door because YOLO.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

What’s New?

So it’s been a very long time since my last post and a lot has happened…some good some bad but a lot.

Last summer my foot started to bother me and I ended up dragging myself through the season. I took a little time off and spent a lot of time doing PT. I thought the problem was getting better and began training for the Olympic Year.

Turns out the problem never got better…only grew bigger. I began seeing Dr. Larry Nassar (USA Olympic Gymnastics Dr.) and he did wonders for me. I have also never had a Dr. Spend more time with me and take a case so personally than he did. With Dr. Nassars help I was able to get spikes and have some good workouts. As time went on I was able to train harder, longer, and faster…then I hit the plateau.

I was able to run 53 min. Ten mile runs but not 51. I was able to run low 15 min 5k but not mid 14 min. Anytime I would really start to push myself the pain would get overwhelming. Hurdles…FaGetAboutit. From 8 months of favoring one leg, my good leg began to hurt. This went on for a few more weeks then during a work out 6×1,000m I made it through about two of them before stepping off of the track. I limped over to my coach and said “I’m done”. There was an odd pause then I think he saw the tears in my eyes and knew I didn’t mean just for the day.

I had been pushing so hard on the pain I began to hate what I once loved. I never talked much on my runs anymore, I couldn’t wait till it was over, and I knew getting out of bed in the morning was really going to hurt. My coach told me to keep my head up and reminded me that I had had a pretty nice career and I did make it to the Olympic Trials finals twice. As true as his words were they didn’t make it any easier…I would not see a third Olympic Trials. For those of you who have never ran in front of a packed stadium screaming the top of their lungs, the only way I can describe it I you feel like a gladiator in the coliseum.

I called up Dr. Nassar and said it’s time to meet with the surgeon. Fast forward a few more weeks and here I am laying in bed with my foot elevated and in a cast. Dr. Swords (how cool of a name is that) cut open the side of my foot and shaved down the bone and scraped the scar tissue off of my Achillies tendon. There was no amount of PT that was going to fix bone and this was inevitable. I also found out my cat had cancer this morning and we put her down and my wife’s aunt had a heart attack this week 🙁

I did however mention some good things also happening. In 2011 RunSignUp grew around 330% over 2010 and we are tracking +70% for 2012.

My beautiful wife and I had a beautiful baby boy Chase Jordan Desilets (steeplechase :-). He did however get hospitalized for 6 days with RSV.

I set up a fundraiser to send USA’s number one track fan to the trials, Derek Rubis. The track community raised $1,500 to help him get there. He is also going to be able to interview some of the athletes, which he is pumped about.

I also helped my man Brian Thomas set his fundraiser up for his colon cancer run from Florida to Michigan which they are starting pretty soon. If you would like to donate shoes, money, or gift cards (Meier/Walmart for food and drinks for the road) contact me on Facebook and I can point you in the right direction.

Time to sign off for now…hopefully there will be a post of some cross training soon…no matter how many times we Desilets get knocked down we will always rise up and become stronger than we were before…or was that Rocky 😛

Easy 5K

In regards to me being sick and not racing at GVSU this weekend…I would like to post that I at least had a nice workout at the start of the week. I ran a smooth cut down 5k. 4:57, 4:54, 4:50, 34 = 15:16.31 followed up with a few 300M strides at 45, 44, 42.

This workout felt comfortable and relaxed and got me all excited to race this weekend…O well time to get ready for January.

2 X 3 Mile Whaaaaaat

So after failing hard at a 4 mile tempo a few weeks ago running 5:05, 5:00, 5:16, DNF. We came back this past week running 2 x 3 Mile 5:05, 5:04, 5:03 then coming back in 5:00, 4:53, 4:55 Bringing the revenge like BOOM!