Marathon Bills Are Now Mostly PAID!!

Daily Quote:

"Dozens of local companies and organizations that do business with the Las Vegas Marathon are finally getting what they want from the event's owner.
Paid.
Devine Racing, the Chicago-based company that bought the race in 2005 and has been in arrears to vendors to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars, has finally begun to distribute about $300,000 of what it stated was about $550,000 in obligations.
Last week, Devine Racing sold the Los Angeles Marathon -- easily its most attractive and lucrative event, and one that garners 25,000 participants annually -- to media executives Russ Pillar and David Kingsdale.
Las Vegas area vendors began receiving overdue payments -- some for services rendered for the December 2007 race, and some dating to the December 2006 running -- in the past few days, via FedEx overnight or in several cases hand-delivered by race director Terry Collier.
"It was in the back of my mind that we weren't going to see anything for a while," said Paul Loebig, general manager of Bailey's Sweeper Service, which was due $11,200 from last year's race. "Then they called on Friday. I was very surprised. I didn't expect anything as fast as we got it."
Devine Racing's extreme financial woes in Las Vegas were reported by the Review-Journal on May 14. Following that report, company officials had a discussion with Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid -- a major proponent of the event -- in which Reid expressed his displeasure and demanded a speedy resolution. Devine Racing proposed a June 15 deadline, which it apparently narrowly met with last week's sale of the L.A. Marathon.
Reid is waiting to comment further until he can evaluate Devine Racing's progress in making payments.
Devine Racing CEO Chris Devine, who had been unable to comment as the company worked out its financial problems, was thrilled to be moving forward toward this year's Dec. 7 race. But he was equally humble.
"I have been a number of things throughout this process, most of all totally embarrassed," Devine said, alluding not only to vendor issues, but to problems meeting payroll for his own employees. "But we are wholly focused on fixing things in Las Vegas."
Devine insisted that the Las Vegas race has now become his company's top priority in the wake of the sale of the Los Angeles race and the Chicago Half-Marathon, deals that netted "double-digit millions." "We just screwed it up in Los Angeles," said Devine, acknowledging several financial issues with that event, as well. "In Los Angeles, we didn't grow the business, not by one entrant or even one dollar.
"But we've been lucky enough with the support of the Las Vegas community that we've taken this event from 6,000 entrants to 17,000 entrants. Los Angeles was No. 1 for us in terms of revenue and popularity. I was willing to sell that marathon in order to take the capital from the sale and use it to focus on the Las Vegas Marathon. ... Las Vegas is where we have the most potential."
Apparently, even vendors who were owed money have regained some faith in the event. Several contacted Tuesday indicated they were indeed paid and that they would be willing to provide services for this year's race -- provided there are some guarantees.
"I'm not going to do anything until I get at least half the money down and in the bank," said Loebig, adding he's still due several hundred dollars in late fees. "I don't know whether I'm gonna bust his butt on that or not. But I like having our trucks out there."
Todd Wirth, owner of Graphics 2000, received about $5,000 Monday, a payment overdue by 18 months. Yet he sounded optimistic about coming back after flatly refusing Devine Racing's interest in retaining him last year.
"Hopefully, they change their ways, and we'll take it step-by-step and see how it goes," Wirth said.
Devine said there will indeed be a new operating procedure for dealing with local vendors.
"There are a couple different ways we are going to approach our vendors," he said. "The first is, where possible, we will have face-to-face meetings to pay them. But second, and more important, we're going to prove ourselves by paying in advance. ... There will be some percentage put down (on all contracts). We will create a comfort level that is acceptable to us and the vendors."
That would mark a big shift from the company's first three years since taking over the race, as it rarely agreed to any upfront money unless pressed to do so -- as it was by the city of Las Vegas, which got nearly $100,000 in advance of the 2007 race and another $60,000 less than 30 days later.
Dozens of businesses remain to be paid, including a few companies that declined comment but whose total bill runs into six figures. And 2007 men's overall winner Christopher Cheboiboch is still due his $20,000 purse, plus an undisclosed appearance fee, according to agent Tom Ratcliffe, who said he still has not been contacted by Devine Racing.
However, most of those cited in the R-J's May 14 report have received payment, including the Las Vegas Track Club, due $16,575 for the past two years of organizing the Roadrunners program, which helped hundreds of local runners through six months of preparation for the race.
Though long overdue, the payment was timed perfectly."--Las Vegas Review Journal, June 18, 2008

I'm so relieved Devine Racing is paying its debts, I now have confidence that the Las Vegas Marathon will happen this December and I can keep my streak alive.

Normally Wednesdays are Tempo Runs, but since this week is a Recovery Week I won't be doing any speed drills, I opted for an easy Recovery Run instead.

10:00 a.m. Recovery Run. Life Fitness Treadmill set at a 1% grade. 6 miles. 3 miles at 6.4 mph and 3 miles at 6.5 mph. Average heart rate 144 bpm. Cardiac Drift: 149 bpm. Listened to the "Best of Bread" CD on my Sony Sports CD player...the music is slow beats and works well with my slower run.

Adding More Weights

Daily Quote:

"Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run."

--Jumbo Elliott

My weight training workouts had become rather easy, therefore today added five pounds to every exercise in my upper body workout stations, which are: shoulder press, chest press, lat pulldown, triceps, and biceps. I didn't have any problems with the additional weight and know that I'm much stronger than ever before! I'm an ectomorph body type and find it very difficult to add muscle mass, nevertheless, creating large muscles isn't my goal, I want to be stronger and be a lean, mean running machine.

10:30 a.m. Recovery Run. Life Fitness Treadmill set at a 1% grade. 4 miles!! Speed was 6.1 mph for all miles. Average heart rate: 138 bpm. Cardiac Drift: 142 bpm. (Note: my maximum heart rate is 190 bpm) This week is a Recovery Week and I'm cutting mileage in all my runs, normally my Recovery Run is six miles, but today just a very easy four miles. I have so much energy I feel like I'm going to burst...can hardly wait to add higher mileage next week.

Recovery Week

Daily Quote:

"Any idiot can train himself into the ground; the trick is working in training to get gradually stronger."

--Keith Brantly, U.S. Olympic Marathoner

Today is my first day of my Recovery Week, my training is three weeks of gradually adding mileage with the fourth week being a recovery week.

I'm at a loss to say about my training this week as it'll be rather ho-hum, no mileage milestones, no pressure, just taking it easy with cutting back my mileage and smelling the roses, or in my case as I'm in the gym, smelling the rubber burning on my treadmill belt.

Today's Medium-Long Run is only 10 miles and it's going to be slow.

9:45 a.m. Life Fitness Treadmill set at a 1% grade. 4 miles @ 6.1 mph, 4 miles @ 6.2 mph, and the last two miles @ 6.5 mph. Average heart rate: 141 bpm. Cardiac Drift: 150 bpm. (note: my maximum heart rate is 190 bpm) I listened to the Rolling Stones CD, "Voodoo Lounge" that kept me distracted from the normal gym background noises. No aches nor pain and had plenty of gas in my tank.

Father's Day Weekend

Daily Quote:

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."

-- Bill Cosby

Didn't have much time to log onto the computer due to Father's Day Weekend, but did manage to run Recovery Runs for both Saturday and Sunday of six miles each. Nice recovery and this coming week is my cutback/recovery week. (I increase mileage for three weeks and the fourth week I reduce mileage then start the cycle all over again)

My daughter, Lisa, bought me two movie tickets and my wife and I saw the movie, "Don't Mess with Zohan." The movie was good escapism, but the laughs were due to the shock value...plenty of shock and lots of laughs.

Progression Run

Daily Quote:

Progression runs aren't new. Paavo Nurmi, who won nine Olympic gold medals, used them back in the 1920s. Over the last few years, they've seen a resurgence, popping up on the schedules of top athletes and in programs designed for recreational runners. Why? Their versatility. "You can do an infinite number of progression runs, different lengths and different intensities," says Greg McMillan, who coaches elite and recreational runners in Flagstaff, Arizona. Long runs, tempo sessions, and base miles can all be turned into progression runs. And they can be used at any time throughout the training cycle

--Alex Hutchinson, Runner's World Magazine article

Today is a General Aerobic Run that'll be done in progression.
10:30 a.m. Life Fitness Treadmill set at a 1% grade. 9 miles. 3 miles @ 6.3 mph, 3 miles @ 6.4 mph, 3 miles @ 6.5 mph. Average heart rate 151 bpm. Cardiac Drift: 162 bpm. Run went well, no aches nor pain, and I'll add more progression runs to my training routine next week.

I'm planning on an easy Father Day weekend, with Saturday and Sunday being Recovery Runs.

Improved Tempo Run

Daily Quote:

If your idea of healthy eating is a bar of dark chocolate every day, you might want to re-think. A study at the University of Western Australia found that eating chocolate on a daily basis could reduce bone density in women. The researchers believe this could be because it contains substances that prevent calcium substances that prevent calcium from being absorbed properly. However, running and other weight-bearing exercise increases bone density, so the more you run, the more chocolate you can eat.
--Runner's World Magazine (England Edition), June 2008

Today is a Tempo Run, which will be exactly the same distance and pace as last week.

10:00 a.m. Life Fitness Treadmill set at a 1% grade. Total Distance: 6 miles. Warm-up: 2 miles at 6.3 mph. Tempo: 3 miles at 7.4 mph. Cool-down: 1 mile at 6.3 mph. Average heart rate: 156 bpm. Cardiac Drift: 169 bpm. My tempo run this week has improved from last week as my heart rate numbers are lower!! Last week my average heart rate was 159 bpm, and my cardiac drift was 172 bpm. I'll either increase my tempo run to 4 miles next week or perhaps increase the pace to 7.5 mph.

I noticed that my blog photo had somehow disappeared, hence I added a new photo, which is my last push during the 2008 Boston Marathon.

Shift Bid

Daily Quote:

"A good breakfast doesn't just set you up for the day, it could also stop middle-age spread. This comes from a study of 7,000 over-40s in Norfolk. Despite consuming more calories each day, those who ate the biggest breakfasts had the lowest BMI and gained least weight over the next few years -- suggesting time of consumption was significant."

--Runner's World (England Edition) June, 2008

Today is Shift Bid! Every six months Checker Cab Company has shift bid that determines what shift (time of hours, day or night), my days off, and what will be my assigned taxi. Everything is based on seniority, since I've been driving for Checker Cab for 18 years I pretty much get what I want in shifts, days off, and a new cab...and everything went as expected...I'm still working Monday through Friday, 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., and driving the new Checker Cab #3977! Also, my seniority number has gone up by two (one driver died and another driver is in jail for going berserk and trying to run over two motorcycle cops); out of 859 Checker Cab Drivers my new seniority number is #34.

Since shift bid starts at 6:00 a.m., I was only able to get three hours of sleep last night, therefore, I decided to take a Rest Day and return to bed.