Rise of a Champion

Flu Diet...

2011-01-14T10:45:00.000-06:00

It's the New Year... I'm finally starting to heal from my injuries... I'm slowly building momentum at the gym... And then *POW* I'm hit with a near fatal strain of the flu... great timing! I fever/metabolism + low appetite = huge weight loss!!! I've managed to lose about 7 pounds over the last 10 days.

Anyway, in the absense of any new running/mustache updates to report I'm going to post an e-mail correspondence between my friend Jay and a headhunter because I'm feeling a little bitter right now and it amused me...

Original Headhunter e-mail:

Hi John,

Hope you're enjoying the New Year! I'm reaching out to check on your job status. Are you actively looking for a new job or trying to figure out how to be happier in your current job? CareerBliss can help you. If you're ready to find a better job, then…

Check out jobs at CareerBliss' 50 Happiest Companies in America (see these companies and their job openings). Search from more than 2,000,000 jobs that need to be filled right away.
If you're not sure it's time for a career move, use our BlissFinder tool to find out and compare your job satisfaction to others, then…

Search for better jobs near your area. Look up salaries to see what you should be earning in 2011. Research company reviews to see what employees are saying about their companies. Post a review on your most recent employers (Don't worry, it's anonymous).

As the economy is improving, we can help you get on a happier career path this New Year. Cheers! Heidi Golledge

Chief Happiness Officer

CareerBliss.com

My friend Jay's response:

I left the United States because the economy sucks. The job market is continuously bleak. People in sales positions are constantly hounded by unreasonable quotas from management who are in turn hounded by unreasonable quotas from upper management. Upper management is in turn responsible for a division number to a VP. The VP's are usually the biggest assholes out of everyone. More often than not they haven't sold anything in a long time except their souls - or their own company stock - things that used to be intertwined in American business but are now equally pitiful. No good business will take anyone that's been out of work for too long unless they want to pick up a phone and cold call strangers - which never works. Why the hell would anybody buy anything from a stranger? I live overseas as a teacher having abandoned the American Dream because it is a farce unless you're willing to sell out or you're a cocksucker. I'm not sure how long you've had your title as "Chief Happiness Officer" and I sure don't mean to sprinkle a bit of winter slush upon your day of sunshine. But I'm sure you will fail to meet your quota any day now. When this happens your ass will be on the unemployment line wondering what ever possessed you to think you ever deserved a share of that American Dream. So take me off your list.
All the best!
-Jay

2011 new year's resolution obligatory post...

2011-01-04T15:07:00.000-06:00

Wow... 2011... I think this is my first time actually typing the year... it's always a little sureal when you have to recondition your mind to remember that it's a whole New Year when you date documents; but 2011!!! That's just doesn't seem right. That's like the future, man?!?
Anyway, since it's a brand new year I felt like I should try to come up with some kind of resolution and after thinking long and hard about it I decided to its finally time in my life to get up off my lazy ass and grow myself a mustache… I know it’s going to be tough, but since I already started growing a winter beard back in early November I have no doubt that I will ultimately prevail… Wish me luck!

Out of the darkness...

2010-12-31T06:02:00.000-06:00

Deep in his heart his inner runner lay dormant; a boundless spirit, free to wisp across the open fields like a brisk March wind. He daydreamed of what it could have been like living in a simpler more primitive time. A time when he could have run wildly through the forests, beastlike and savage. Adorned in nothing but his fox pelt loincloth and leather moccasins* he would bolt through the forest leaping over logs and sailing over steams, sweat glistening from his furrowed brow as he forged on in hot pursuit of some unsuspecting wildebeest.

His feet tread softly on the forest floor making scarcely a noise as he glided** effortlessly over leaf and limb. As he approached, the prey sensed the presence of the hasty hunter. It turned its head and in that moment their eyes met. For a microsecond time froze as the startled beast recognized its dire situation… And then the chase was on.

In a panic, the wildebeest broke free from the forest, galloping into the open plain. The hunter followed close on its heels***. The beast’s terror swelled as it ran for its very life, but the hunter knew that the beast’s efforts were futile. The hunter could smell the beast’s fear as he sprinted after his prey, the scent pulling him ever nearer to his victim as he used his closing speed to tighten the gap. 30 meters… 20 meters… 10… 5… and then he was upon the creature. He leapt through the air, legs spread eagle, and straddled the beast’s neck. Twisting his body in mid air he whipped the beast to the ground and choked the life out of it with a viselike scissor hold of death…

He snaps out of his daydream and back into his modern reality. The forests and plains have been replaced by cities and concrete. The wildebeests no longer roam the land. The primitive utopia is gone, eroded by the sands of time. But the passion of that primeval runner lives on, burning deep inside his heart and loins****. In his dreams he has conjured the spirits of his ancient ancestors and he has glimpsed the greatness that lies within us all. He knows that he must pursue his dreams. He has reawakened the spirit… the spirit of A CHAMPION (echos loudly with plenty of reverb)*****

* and Garmin Forerunner

** or is it glid?

*** actually hoofs would be more appropriate here but that’s not nearly as much of a cliché

****especially his loins.
*****100 blogger posts and counting?

Marathon Monday (4 week lefts... oh crap)

2010-09-13T21:07:00.003-05:00

Questions???

26 days left til the Chicago marathon... can that be right? Does that really even matter to me? Will I even be running it? Can you train and complete a marathon in 26 days?... I guess we're going to find out!

I went for a "long run" yesterday... my first "long run" in about 7 weeks... I covered 8 miles... Is it a bad thing when you experience DOMS from the first couple miles during the last couple miles? :)

The great new is... even though I'm sore today, I'm not injured sore... just extremely out of shape sore... although, I guess I can't be in that bad of shape if I can run 8 miles, Can I?... now whether or not I should be even considering running a marathon in less than 4 weeks? ~~Probably~~ Definitely not... But for some reason I just can't quite come to the decision to call it quits... So when am I gonna decide that it's not a good idea to run this marathon? Alright, that one's easy... I already know it's not a good idea to run this marathon... But when am I gonna give up the idea that I'm gonna complete this marathon? 1 week before the race? 1 day before the race? 12 miles into the race?

...and now for something completely different...
____________________________________________________

Hitting rock bottom...

So I'm feeling better than I have in quite a while and I think it's because I finally hit rock bottom of my fitness decline on Saturday night. That's right... I went to Cold Stone Creamery for the first time...

So I step inside and the place is packed! The girls behind the counter are running around bumping into each other trying to keep up with the orders and ice cream is flying everywhere... I'm not gonna lie... I really enjoy ice cream... but Cold Stone Creamery takes it to a whole other level. CSC* is a place for ice cream addicts!!!!

So I finally get up to the counter to order and I realize that instead of normal sizes, CSC lists it's sizes as 'like it', 'love it' & 'gotta have it'... Now in the past I've been opposed to these places and their naming conventions** but I decided to not be such a crumudegeon and order a 'love it' size of the Coffee lover's only ice cream***. My wife who was with me ordered a small (spoil sport) candy apple.

We get up to the register and everything is so crazy there that they forget to ring us up (the girls making the ice cream are also working the register)... So we wait... and pretty soon the next customer reaches the register and they ring him up... so we wait, trying to catch the girls attention (without much sucess). And the customer behind us says "I bet you could walk out of here without paying"

So I turn to him and explain that even though I know I could walk out right now without paying, I pretty much want to pay anyway... an not really because of my conscious... cuz honestly (an it pains me to say it****)... I'm not really a pinnacle of morality and I'm pretty sure I could steal an ice cream cone and not lose a wink of sleep about it... but because I pretty much feel that I'm at a point in my life where pulling a dine and dash on 8 bucks of ice cream just because the poor workers were busting their asses so much would be a blow to my self-respect...

Oh to see the look on that guys face... He was truly confound! I'm pretty sure he's still sitting at home wondering why on earth I didn't walk out with free ice cream... Like I said CSC is a place for ice cream addicts!

So we finally pay for the ice cream and my wife takes about two bites and announces: I'm done... it's too rich for me...

and that's where I have an out of body experience... and I look on in horror as I take my spoon and scoop her enormous 'like it' (i.e. small) sized ice cream into my even more enormous 'love it' (i.e. medium) sized chocolate dipped waffle cone.

By the time I finish her scoop I'm already full... but if you read the first part of my post you'll know that I'm no quitter... and soon I had devoured the whole thing and was finishing up stuffing the last bit of waffle cone into my sticky ice cream covered face... belly full of cream and sugar... heart full of shame...

One nightmare full, restless night later I knew I had hit rock bottom... and that's when I decided to put an end to the pity party... I spent Sunday eating healthy and exercising and now I feel much better... and hopefully this is truly the start of my next fitness revolution!

*I'm calling CSC it not because it's my trendy new hip nickname for the joint but because otherwise your google ad sense will think that you're a CSC fanatic and all your ads will be about ice cream for the next month which might cause my readers to fall into a fitness downward spiral much like the one I've previously experienced

**Damn it Starbucks... It's 7 in the morning and all I want is a small regular coffee... why do you have to make ordering this coffee more difficult than it already is?

***and just in case you were wondering I told them that I want the 'love it' size in the most effeminate voice I could muster because a) I just spent the morning watching old clips of Men on Film from In Living Color on YouTube... and b) how could I not?

****Not really

I ran today...

2010-09-09T12:08:00.000-05:00

~~I'm back...~~

...no wait...

~~training resumes now!!!~~

...nope, still not quite right...

I ran today...

...Yep, that's just about right...

It's been a tough patch. I've taken the fall from top fitness. I've been detrained and totally unmotivated... but I ran today and when you're in recovery you take it one day at a time...

Every new story has a beginning... maybe today is mine... then again, maybe it isn't... but no matter... I ran today!!!

My new passion!!!

2010-08-23T17:48:00.000-05:00

About 15 months ago I took up running... I did it to whip myself into shape, to re-energize myself, to challenge myself, and to cross marathon off my bucket list... I hit the pavement with a passion and quickly fell head over heels in love with running; I was infatuated!!!

For months and months I gave my life to running... I didn't eat - I fueled... I didn't drink - I rehydrate... polyester became my go to fabric of choice (and not just for pickin' up the ladies)... I read blogs, magazines, websites, forums, and even books about running...

But like many good relationships the initial passion that running and I shared started to fizzle.  I started to begrudge the fact that I'd have to go out and spend my precious free time with running... Running must have sensed my resentment and as backlash induced pain and suffering into my runs... the time we spent together became less and less fun, until eventually I began to hate running... finally, the pain became too much to bare and I stopped running all together!

And that's when I found my new passion... sitting around on my ass!!!

A great thing about my new passion is that I have a whole new attitude about life...Everyone expects runners to be energized, active, and full of life. This is not the case for sit-around-on-your-assers... now I can sit around and be in the most depressest, foulest, grumpiest mood imaginable and nobody bats and eye... it's fuckin' great!!!!

Another thing about my new passion is that it's really improved my relationship with my wife... my wife used to quickly grow tired of me constantly talking about running... she'd hate when I wake up early on the weekends to squeeze in a long run on when we could be snuggled under the blankets, sleeping in... Now things are much better... here's a little look into our new home life:

     Wifey: "Honey, the lawn needs mowed, the dishes are dirty, and the trash needs taken out..."

     Me: "Not now, I'm busy sitting around on my ass..."

     Wifey: "Oh sorry. Never mind, I'll take care of it"

Yep, we're communicating like never before... plus, sitting around on our asses is something we can do together... not only that, but nobody expects people who sit around on their asses to complete things that they finish... in fact, it's a victory to even start something... just like this blog post!

Injury update...

2010-08-13T15:29:00.001-05:00

In case anyone was wondering I believe I might have just self-diagnosed my random leg injury...

It's my sartorius!!!

Look at how that bastard wraps from hip across the quad and groin and down to the inner knee... I hope I'm right because it would totally explain why my hip, groin, quad, and inner knee are all randomly tight or sore all the time... now let's hope I can find some info on rehabbing it!

Also, I've ran 3 times so far this week; a 5 miles, and two 3 milers... not exactly the kind of mileage that will allow me to competatively complete a marathon in less than 2 months, but at this point I'm happy to be doing anything...

Finally (and completely off topic), the Cardinals are playing the Cubs tonight so in honor of that I'll leave with this Cubs fan hat fail... yep, that's a typical Cubs fan for ya...

I'm back?

2010-08-09T14:53:00.001-05:00

It's been 3 weeks since I went down injured!!!... talk about a long and frustrating healing process!

I was starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to train again... in fact, it's been so long I'm starting to doubt if I was ever a runner in the first place... Did I really run 1500+ miles over the last 15 months or was it all a dream?

The good news is that my undiagnosed right groin/quad/hip/knee/blank* injury is slowly but steadily healing and I even got out for a relatively pain free (if you exclude the excruciatingly slow pace) 5 mile jaunt today. It wasn't my only run during the last 3 weeks, but it was most certainly my most successful... Not only was I pain free enough during the run that I could actually enjoy it a little bit, but I am also pain free enough now (several hours after the run) that I'm not regretting the decision.

Anyway, after today's run, I'm optimistic that I might actually be able to run more than once this week (especially since it's Monday)... heck, maybe I'll even get double digit miles in... so based on my current condition, I'm going to tentatively declare myself "back".

Next on my agenda... preparation for a little local race coming up in just over 2 months (I think it's called the Chicago Marathon)... Oh well, I'm not going to worry about 26.2 right now... I'd be content if I could get in 2.6 miles tomorrow!!!

*name any random leg part

Life on the DL...

2010-07-29T18:48:00.000-05:00

If you happened to notice my recent lack of blogger activity, here's why: I'm Injured!!!

It's been a rough couple of weeks... Lack of running has left me feeling completely unfocused, unmotivated, depressed, and otherwise blah!

The good news is that I'm starting to feel better. After 8 days off (minus a 2.75 mile run/walk/disaster somewhere in the middle) I successfully was able to run 5 miles on Tuesday at recovery pace and then another 5 miles today at general aerobic pace. Just getting those few miles in has drastically improved my disposition.

So what exactly is my injury? Good question... Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure... I have a couple of theories, but all I really can say is that I have a gimp right leg... It might be a quad strain? I definitely feel some weakness in the quad, but I've found soreness in my groin, inner knee, and hip... also tightness in my hip flexor and ITB...

Not sure if the Plantar Fasciitis in my right foot caused me to modify my stride which led to my gimp leg conditions or if the gimp leg caused the PF or if they're even related at all...

All I really know is that when I ran, it hurt! Not sharp pain that I could pinpoint but just general tightness and discomfort in all things right leg.

For a while I ran through the discomfort... I found that if I could make it through 4-5 miles it would eventually loosen up and feel ok... I trained through the pain for 2 weeks, hoping it would improve... it only seemed to get worse... at a certain point I realized that my stride was changing since I was basically limping!!! So, I finally made the tough choice to stop training and let the damn thing heal...

I'm still not 100% but I'm definitely improving... not sure how this will effect the big picture of my marathon training... I'm hoping I can easy back into it over the next two weeks but I'm probably going to have to cut down a bit on the mileage and intensity... I'm just going to get back to the basics: Listening to my body, training within my limits, and let the cards fall where they may...Overall, I'm optimistic.

Marathon training update (12 weeks left til Chicago!!!)

2010-07-20T18:47:00.003-05:00

I guess it’s too late to call this a Marathon Monday post… how bout Training Tuesday?!?

I’ve actually been a little bit swamped with work (which is kinda nice for a change) and with life (also not bad) so I’m going to keep this post brief… Here’s my numbers:

Week 6 stats (2010)                                                                       Week 6 stats (2009)
50.96 miles                                                                                     20.29 mile
8:04 average pace                                                                          8:50 average pace
long run – 18.6 miles                                                                       long run – 9 miles

Looking at the numbers you’d think that I had a pretty good training week last week… and for the most part you’d be right… I had an awesome tempo run: 10 miles at an average of 7:22 including 5 miles at 6:50 pace… I also had an awesome long run: 18.6 miles at 8:13 pace…

My only problem is that my right foot is starting to experience some plantar fasciitis. It started off mild and it’s still not horrible, but running on it isn’t exactly helping it get better either… The good part right now is that it doesn’t really bother me too much during my runs (except for a little at the beginning)… I’m just wondering how long that’s going to last.

For now, I’m planning to just keep running on it while at the same time applying an aggressive treatment strategy of icing, stretching, and denial…

I'm Rick James, Bitch!!!

2010-07-16T17:21:00.001-05:00

My blog recently received a generous shout out from da "redhead" on her blog where she wrote:

"if you don't follow Ethan, you should, cuz he's absolutely friggin' hilarious!"

Over night, my blog followers swelled to a record 71*... Which is to be expected since "Caution: Redhead Running" is the 17th most popular running related blog on the Internet**

I'm honored by the complement... but at the same time I'm terrified...On one hand, I'm one of the funniest, smartest, and humblest people I know... but on the other, can I really continue to produce the brilliantly witty prose that you people yearn for, day in and day out?!?

Suddenly, I have expectations to live up to! In hindsight I wish that I had the foresight to declare my site boring from the get go; then if I happened to write a clever post on occasion it would be a pleasant surprise... but alas, I didn't, and now the pressure of these expectations is becoming a lot for this Champion to shoulder...

...Hopefully I can take it... If not, I guess I'll be forced to quit the blog and run off to South Africa, Dave Chappelle style...

*Technically 70 since one of the followers is me...

** I totally made this up... but I figured that since I built up my legitimacy as a premier blogger researcher with my "Origins of Three Things Thursday" post that I can now make up random facts about blogger and people will believe them...

Cardiac Creep

2010-07-15T09:38:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I headed out for a recovery 4 miler. I had my heart rate monitor in tow because I'm a big proponent of using heart rate training zones, especially during recovery runs (otherwise, I inevitably wind up running too hard).

When heart rate training I normally use the Karvonen formula (%intensity/100*(Max HR - Resting HR) + Resting HR) so I can base my training levels off of my heart rate reserve .

Since this was a recovery run I was targeting an intensity of <70%... plugging my personal heart rate numbers into the formula I get .7*(193-43)+43 = 148... so the goal for this run was to keep my heart rate under 148.

So I'm going along for about 5 minutes at a perceived pace that seemed excruciatingly slow but when I look down at my heart rate monitor it says that my heart rate is already over 150... so I slow down a tad and focus on really taking it easy but then I look down at my heart rate monitor again and my heart rate is approaching 160!

At this point, I'm going about as slow as I'm willing/able to go. Not only that but I feel great! So I keep a level effort and finish out my run... but by the end my heart rate is approaching 170!!!

Here's the caveat to this story: it was 92 *F out with heat index of 101 *F, and subsequently I was experiencing an acute case of cardiac creep...

Cardiac creep is a phenomenon that happens during hot weather conditions when your heart works extra hard to increase blood flow to your skin so that you can sweat and cool off. Essentially, it's a biological radiator. Additionally, as your body expels water in the form of sweat, your blood volume reduces and your heart needs to work even harder to get the required amount of oxygen to your exercising muscles... or to put in in layman's terms: a little man aka "the Cardiac Creep" with a cartoon sized sledge hammer was bludgeoning away at my heart!!!

So what does this all mean??? Basically it means that heart rate training zones are meaningless in extreme weather conditions and that you're better off sticking to perceived effort... It also means that I wasn't over exerting myself during my recovery run (which my final pace seemed to corroborate)... on the other hand I'm skeptical that doing anything outside during this heat wave can really be considered recovery?!?

Final lesson learned: I'm running today's tempo run inside on the treadmill!

Marathon Monday (3 months left addition)

2010-07-12T20:39:00.000-05:00

Lucky number 13 weeks left... I hope I can take it!

Running the razors edge…

One of the most difficult aspects while marathon training is finding just the right recipe of hard work and recovery… Train too hard and you’ll find yourself hobbling across the starting line, injured and over-trained. Don’t train enough and you’ll find yourself hobbling across the finish line, injured and under-trained. Somewhere between these two extremes lies the delicate balance that will deliver you to race day with a strong and sound body capable of reaching your current potential.
I try to “listen to my body”… it’s just that often I find myself telling my body to “Shut the F*ck up!!!”… which brings me to my predicament now: I’m 13 weeks out from my marathon, I still have the majority of my training ahead of me, and my body is already starting to feel like certain key muscles, ligaments, and tendons are being held together by duct tape… I have some very mild plantar fasciitis in my right foot, a dull pain in my right quadriceps, and a knotty left calf…
The good news is that all of my various aches and pains… hopefully nothing a couple of days off will fix… which is why I don’t feel guilty (okay, maybe a little bit guilty) when I tell you that after finishing up my 17 mile long run on Saturday, I decided to take Sunday and Monday completely off… hopefully my body will thank me tomorrow as I head out for a 10 miler.
Training update

Lots of slow, suffering, shuffling, 90+ degree miles…started off Tuesday with a 10 miler, then recovered with 4 on Wednesday before tackling a 7 miler on Thurday which included 6Xhills in the middle. Took Friday off, and then ran my long run of 17 miles on Saturday before another day off Sunday.

So that's four runs and three days off... more than I usually take but with the heat and my beat up body I'm still happy to get almost 40 miles in.
Chicago 2009 training comparison flashback

Week 5 stats (2010)                                                      Week 5 stats (2009)
38.11 miles                                                                    26.52 mile
8:27 average pace                                                          7:50 average pace
long run - 17 miles                                                         long run - 13.1 miles (Joker's Wild - half marathon)

Just over a year ago I ran my first half-marathon!

Look into my crystal ball

First 50+ week planned for this week... hopefully the extra days off last week will help me meet my target this week!

The many faces of daily mile

2010-07-08T10:10:00.000-05:00

Rant of the week... What's up with those faces on Daily Mile? If you're a Daily Mile user than you probably know what I'm talking about... if not here's the 411... Whenever you enter a new workout in Daily Mile the program asks you "How did you feel?"... And then you answer by choosing from a variety of emoticons...

The gripe I have is that the intention of the descriptions and faces just don't seem to align with the way I actually would feel during training... here, let me give you the break down so I can explain myself better...

Here's the face you get if you felt "great" during a run... but how often do you feel "great" during a run? I might feel great about a run or after a run, but the only time you'd ever see me running along with a big shit eating grin plastered on my face is maybe during my last week of marathon taper when I'm totally rested and intentionally running at recovery pace anyway... I guess I'll call this one my taper face (sounds like some kind of depraved sex act you'd find on Urbandictionary.com...)

This next face is what you put down if you felt "good" during a run... no real gripe with this one, except this is probably more of the face I'd have if I felt "great"... It's not that I don't like smiling, in fact I smile quite a bit... just not when I'm running, and certainly not ear to ear!

This face is what you choose if you felt "Alright", and here's where my problems really start to escalate... Does that dude look alright to you? To me, he looks like he just dropped his ice cream cone or his puppy ran away... and my problem with this one doesn't just end with the face... I just don't like their use of the word "alright"... ask me on any given day how my run went and I'd probably answer either "not bad" or "alright"... to me, an "alright" run is a successful run... after all, I'm not skipping through a flowery field with a bluebird on my shoulder... I'm marathon training goddamn it!!!

This is the face you choose if you were feeling "Blah"... I guess the description is okay... I mean everyone has those days where they just feel blah... on the other hand I actually have "blah" days scheduled into my plan... they're called recovery days and they're put there specifically because I know I'm going to feel blah... for instance I just ran a particularly hard interval session on Tuesday so I'm going to run a 3 miler at recovery pace on Wednesday since I'll be feeling blah... so since it's part of my plan I don't like the way Daily Mile is insinuating that "Blah" is a bad thing.... also what's up with the face? The "Alright" guy... he looks blah to me... the "Blah" guy? I've seen that face before... He looks like he's about to crap his pants!!! (shout out to Adam over at "the boring runner" on this one)

And then there's tired guy... first off, is that guy sweating or is he crying??? somebody get him a Kleenex... and for god sakes man, suck it up, the run couldn't have been that bad... Also... what do you mean tired? If I just finished a tempo run, or interval run, or medium long run, or long run, or race then you're damn right I'm tired!!! Once again, I feel like Daily Mile is insinuating that being tired is a bad thing, when really it's kind of the point of what I'm doing... I mean honestly, if I get done with a quality work out and I don't feel even the least bit tired then I probably didn't push myself hard enough!!!

Finally there's injured face... Looks like this guy took either a stick to the eye or sustained some kind of head wound... either way he probably shouldn't be running... now, I guess it could be an injury that didn't affect his running in which case I don't see the relevancy of including it in a running log... on the other hand if this is refereeing to an actually running related injury, then once again, HE PROBABLY SHOULDN'T BE RUNNING... unless of course it's just a minor ache and pain type injury... the type that inevitably comes with the territory of being a runner... in which case I could probably use this face every freakin' day, effectively rendering it meaningless... basically, no matter how you look at it, this one is completely moot!!!

Anyway, to wrap this post up I'm going to leave you with some suggestions for some emoticons that might actually fit my mood after a run a little better... take em' or leave em' Daily Mile

exhibit A: exhibit B: exhibit C:

exhibit A: I just finished a killer speed work session emoticon

exhibit B: maybe I had a bad run... maybe I had a great run... maybe a dog attacked me... or maybe someone stopped me and asked me for directions while I was running... doesn't really matter why, but sometimes I just finish up a run full of irrational anger which takes 2 or 3 minutes of recovery to dissipate.

& exhibit C: Not sure if this one pertains to running, but I think it pertains to me... cuz "that boy ain't right" and neither am I!

Marathon Monday (Tuesday edition)

2010-07-06T10:40:00.000-05:00

After a fun but exhausting 4th of July weekend/beer, brat, and chicken wing binge it's time to get my (aching) head back into the game... less than 14 weeks to marathon time!!!

FIRECRACKER 5k RACE RECAP

About a month ago the company that I work for announced an inter-office virtual race. Anyone from the company who wanted to participate could run a 5k and then the top 3 times from each age group would score points for the office "team". The winning office receives "bragging" rights and gets to hold onto the trophy for a year...

Since then, I've had it in the back of my mind that I was going to run a 5k. I initially planned on running it 2 weekends ago at a race where several of the other participating members of my office were going to be running. However, the time didn't work particularly well with my training schedule, plus the race was 45 minutes from my house so I said "screw em'"...

Instead, I settled on a local Peoria race called the Firecracker 5000 because it was only 4 miles from my house, the course was advertised as "Flat and Fast", there was 100 dollars of prize money offered to the winner (I didn't expect to win but I figured it would provide a stronger field for competition), and it fit much better into my training schedule.

I woke up at 5:30 on Sunday morning and ran four miles from my house to downtown Peoria where the race was being held. Since the race was scheduled for 7:30 am I was hoping for some decent temperatures but as the start time approached the temperature was already creeping into the 80s...

I lined up near the front, the air horn sounded, and we were off... the local elites blazed ahead and I soon found myself in the midst of off-season undertrained high school kids and ex-high school cross-country running college kids. I did my best to ignore the surging and faltering around me and focused on dictating my own pace. I hit the first mile marker at 6:00 flat.

The course was essentially an out and back loop with one block separating the out from the back. The first 1.5 miles we ran from West to East, right towards the hot and blinding sun, so I was relieved when I finally hit the turn around point. I turned right, headed down a block, and then made another right onto a walking path that follows along the Illinois river as I finished up my 2nd mile for a 6:10 split.

As I hit the 2 mile point the wheels started to come off. I think that I can attribute my downfall to multiple factors: lack of taper, my recent increases in mileage and intensity, the heat, my lack of actual speed work... Regardless of the cause, I was suddenly suffering and my pace slowed down considerably. "keep going... almost there" I kept thinking to myself, but my legs wouldn't respond... and that's when I totally got chicked!!! I'm at about the 2.25 mile point and the female winner blows past me... I briefly consider trying to stick with her, but ultimately just wind up eating dust... leaving me to struggle on to a 6:30 3rd mile followed by the final .1 mile kick to the finish line at a 5:40 pace (where was that extra energy at when I was getting chicked?!?).

After the race I stuck around for the awards and lucky for me I'm only 31 years old so I wound up getting a medal 1st place in my age division! I say lucky for me because I would've came in 3rd if I was between 40-44, and I wouldn't have placed at all if I was between 45-49... I guess I'll need to get fast enough to place overall if I want to get away from the arbitrariness of the age divisions... of course, the top two runners both went sub-16:00 so I guess I have a ways to go.

Final Stats:

Distance: 5k

Time: 19:18 (11 second PR!)

Div. Place: 1/46

Tot. Place: 20/667

Ultimately I've got to call the race a bittersweet success. On the one hand I PR'd by 11 seconds and took home some first place hardware... but on the other, I hit mile 2 averaging a 6:05 pace and then totally crashed... as the saying goes: in a 5k you run the first mile with your legs, the second with your mind, an the 3rd with your heart. This time, the heart just wasn't there. Next time, hopefully it will be, and I'll go sub-19.

Training update

For the third week in a row I got into the gym on Monday for some weight work... My running week began Tuesday with a 7 mile run which included 3 tempo miles @ 6:43 pace. Wednesday I ran an easy 4 mile recovery run so that I'd be ready for Thursday's moderately hilly, 10 mile, medium long run which I ran at medium hard pace (7:34). Friday was my usual two mile recovery run with the dogs (find that I actually feel better Satuday if I run 2 easy miles on Friday as opposed to taking the day off). The four generally base pace miles on Satuday before wrapping up the week with a 12 mile Sunday which included running to the race, racing a 5k, cooling down, and finally running back home.

Chicago 2009 training comparison flashback

Week 4 stats (2010) Week 4 stats (2009)
38.49 miles 29.17 miles
7:54 average pace 8:13 average pace
long run - 12 miles (plus a mid-week 10) long run - 11 miles

uh oh... the weeks are starting to look comparable... then again, this week was a step-back week for me this year, and last year it was a step-up week...

Look into my crystal ball

48 miles planned for this week with a mid-week hill workout and long run of 18.

Race Packet 1up

2010-07-03T15:25:00.000-05:00

This quick post is dedicated to Anabela Neves from "It's Life, Max It Out" who recently wrote a race report on the Tim Horton's Peachbud 10k in which she ranted about the contents of the race kit she received... more specifically she said that she was:

"disappointed in the actually race kit......It was a reusable bag, a magazine and yes there was also a yard waste paper bag... And the magazine is actually a magazine about triathlon......why would I want that! This was a 1K, a 5K and a 10K race."

I suppose she has a point about the magazine thing... then again, I suppose that at least some of the runners also probably participate in triathlons so the magazine was at least close to reaching the right demographic...

I reference this because I picked up a race packet today for the "Firecracker 5K" that I'll be running tomorrow in downtown Peoria, and I also was a little bit surprised by the magazine contents of my race packet... Check it out:

Like Anabela, I'm a little confused why I would want the self proclaimed "world's largest gun sales publication!"...

But then I remembered that it was a 4th of July race... so I figured what better way to honor our countries independence then to celebrate our 2nd amendment rights by carelessly firing semi-automatic rifles into the air?!?

Oh Well, HAVE A HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!

Origins of Three Things Thursday

2010-06-30T07:55:00.001-05:00

You seen it before: “3 Things Thursday”… the generic template post that has been taking the running blog world by storm. Last Friday morning I wrote my own post, titled “Four Things Friday”, that questioned who the creator of “3 Things Thursday” was… Little did I know that the 20 minutes I spent writing that post would ultimately lead me into hours and hours of internet research as I attempted to unravel the origins of “3 Things Thursday”…

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Celebrity rumors, urban myths… they spread like wildfire but where do they start? Who was the first person that claimed that you get straight A’s for the semester if your college roommates kill themselves or that Richard Gear stuck a gerbil up his butt (Richard Gears ex-publicist???)? Someone must have said it first but tracing the origins of such things would be damn near impossible… So, when I question “Who invented 3 Thing Thursdays?” I didn’t really expect to get an answer… so when Adam over at “I am boring” commented that Morgan over at “CAUTION: Redhead Running” had first started the “3 Things Thursday” trend my interest was peaked… Could this be true? Did Morgan really start this blogger craze that is exponentially spiraling out of control?

I decided I'd be best off going right to the source so I e-mailed Morgan and asked her if she created "Three Things Thursday"... here's here reply:

"I am in fact the creator of 3 Things Thursday and I came up with it as a way to convey a few things when I didn't have anything noteworthy to write a whole post about. It's come in handy, for instance when I was moving and had nothing running related to talk about but wanted to check in."

So to sum it up, "3 Things Thursday" is like blogger crack... no need to spend hours carefully constructing a post... all you have to do is wait till Thursday, spurt out three unrelated things, and Viola... you have yourself a post... not only that, but judging from the response across the blogosphere people can't get enough of it!!!

I decided to dig deeper… multiple hours and several dozen internet searches later here’s what I came up with… a by no means comprehensive list of blogs that have incorporated “3 Things Thursday” into their rotation:

Blog Title:                                     First 3 Things Thursday Post:

       Special note on these first 5 blogs because they actually attributed the idea to "The Redhead"

Running Laur                                12/03/09
Dietician on the run                       04/29/10
Runner Nic                                   05/20/10
morning runner                             10/29/09
Mission to a(nother) marathon       09/10/10

        and the list continues...

Melissa Nibbles                           12/03/09
run, courtney, run                         04/08/10
racing with babes                         02/18/10
running in pigtails                          01/28/10
MCM Momma                            12/10/09
Eating Good Stuff                         09/17/10
My own party of 5                       10/15/09
dare to tri                                     01/07/10
running off at the mouth                02/11/10
I have run                                     02/04/10
50 sticky fingers                            03/11/10
running rambles                            06/24/10
carpool queen                              05/27/10
I run because… I can                   01/28/10
Tall Mom Running                        04/15/10

        I'm going to look at these next few in a bit more detail because I was entertained by the way that they initially broke into the world of "Three Things Thursday"

adventures of badger girl              01/21/10

Badgergirl writes: "So many other bloggers do this, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon." ...It's the beginning of 2010 "Three Things Thursday" is already becoming a craze!

lizard runs 03/25/10

Lizard writes: "Can just anybody do these blog themes? I hope so, because I’m about to"
...Lizard is obviously tenative about his first hit off the "3 Things Thursday" pipe but ultimately he can't resist its sweet nectar!

a code geeks tail 03/11/10

Wes writes: "In the past, I've avoided these "templates" for blog posts, primarily because with my ever running mouth and thought process, I had no shortage of material. Now, with time being in such demand, I'm rather liking the framework of this one, and no doubt others will follow." - Wes has published ThreeThings Thursday 7 times since he wrote this back in March!!!

and finally...

redhead running 07/01/09

But here's the twist... 07/01/09 was actually a Wednesday!!! Never the less, this was the first occurance of "Three Things Thursday"... or was it?!?

As I dug deeper into my Google search I came across this:

hear me in harmony 02/05/09

Melanie says "Some of you “long-time readers” may remember a feature around here called Tuesday’s Things to Be Happy About. I stopped doing it about a year ago, but I decided I wanted to bring it back, both because I miss it and because I feel like I need something that forces me to post when I otherwise might let posting slide. I was going to call it Ten Things Tuesday, but I like the alliteration of this a little better, plus it’s not so ambitious, which will help me not feel not so much pressure."

Turns out Melanie wrote a "Three Things Thursday" post almost 5 months before Morgan's first post. My conclusion here is that Melanie and Morgan both came up with Three Things Thursday on their own.... and wouldn't be suprised if I dug deeper and found even more spontanious occurances of "Three Things Thursdays" in the blogger world. It's just such an obvious blogger device that somebody (or multiple somebodies) were bound to come up with it...I will say that "Three Things Thursday" has definitely made it's mark on the running blog community and that Morgan can definitely be given the credit for creating and popularizing it in this context!

Marathon Monday (15 week out edition)

2010-06-28T10:28:00.001-05:00

Another week in the books... 15 weeks left!!!

Running Naked :(
I'll spare you the lame jokes and sexual innuendos and jump straight to the point...

Last fall I wrote a post about how sweat got into my first iPod and fried it. The picture on the left shows how I was planning to MacGyver my new iPod in order to make it more sweat resistant... That's when Morgan over at CAUTION: Redhead Running swooped in and spared me the embarrassment and hassle of running around with a ziplock bag duct-taped to my arm by recommending the sleek little neoprene carrying case you see on the right brought to you from the folks at grantwood... The case worked amazingly for the last 8 months, but even minimalist waterproof neoprene is no match for my sweaty monster self...Yesterday at 9:45 am I officially killed my second iPod as sweat moisture wicked through the velcro armband into the neoprene case and eventually into my shoddily made iPod :(

So it looks like I'll be running naked (sans iPod) for the next few weeks as I save up some funds and I try to figure out which portable MP3 player to purchase next... my choices are buy another iPod and do a little MacGyvering to my neoprene arm band to further prevent sweat from reaching the electronic components, but I kind of feel stupid shelling out hundreds of dollars to Apple for a device that can't handle a bit of moisture even though it's marketed as a music player to use while working out... either that or I try to find something more reasonable priced and durable... then again the iPod's are so shiny and sleek and cool looking... oh, decisions, decisions...

It's not all bad though... you know what they say... when life gives you lemons, make lemoncellos... so now that I won't have the music of my iPod distracting me I plan on using the next few weeks concentrating on my form (though maybe I shouldn't be messing with perfection).

Weekly Recap
I had an awesome week of training... after hitting the weightroom on Monday I started off my running week on Tuesday with a general aerobic 9 miler on the treadmill at sub 8 minute pace... Wednesday I headed for the hills for a brutal 6Xhill workout (as previously documented on this blog)... After a recovery 4 miler and 2 miler ran respectively on Thursday and Friday, I decided to skip out on a 5k I was contemplating running on Saturday and instead opted for a 6.2 mile marathon pace/steady state run (aka 10k aka 109.36 football fields) at 7:06 pace (still 10 seconds faster than my intended pace but actually not a bad pacing effort relative to what I normally do)... Sunday I finished out the week with an 18 mile long run.

Chicago 2009 training comparison flashback

Week 3 stats (2010) Week 3 stats (2009)
45.01 miles 16.6 miles
8:02 average pace 8:31 average pace
long run - 18.14 miles long run - 6 miles

Gotta be happy about that comparison... last year I was seriously feeling the effects of the increased mileage. Luckily it was a step-back week so I took an extra day off and still struggled through the 6 mile "long run"... This year, now that I'm actually going into marathon training with an adequate base I can handle 40+ mile weeks and still knock out several quality sessions... last year my marathon training peaked at a 50 mile week with a 22 mile long run... right now I'm almost to 50 miles and have already hit an 18 miler... I pretty much feel like if my marathon was just 2 weeks away instead of 15 weeks away I could taper right now and already beat my PR of 3:39... definitely a good place to be at this point in my training cycle.

Look into my crystal ball

The plan for Week 4 is to hold steady in the mid 40 mileage range but to step back the intensity just a hair... I still have a tempo run planned for Tuesday, but I'm limiting the tempo section of the run to about 3 miles... I also 5k planned for Sunday to access my current fitness... I'm cutting my long run back down to 14 miles (which I'll be incorporating my warm-up, 5k, and cool down into). However I also have a medium long run of 10 miles scheduled for mid week.

Four Things Friday

2010-06-25T09:15:00.001-05:00

As 5 hour energy begat 6 hour power, and as 8 minute abs begat 7 minute abs... now, one time only, the makers of Three Things Thursday bring you FOUR THINGS FRIDAY!!!

1. When I first started reading blogs I'd come across a weekly phenomenon on one or two of the blogs I'd follow called: Three Things Thursday... as I got deeper into the game I began to see more and more blogs that followed the blogger ritual of Three Things Thursday...

2. A quick Google search for "Three Things Thursday" yielded 302,000 results... and judging from the first 10 search results it definitely seems to be primarily a runner blogger phenomenon (I know, not super scientific of me, but it's not like I'm submitting this research to a peer reviewed journal or anything)... I noticed that Google has a new search option where you can narrow down the time window of the search so I figured I'd search older and older times until I found the original post... after several search interations I finally narrowed it down to one search result back in June 2006 from Jess over at 21 days... I was excited!!! So I head over to 21 days to check out my searched out result...FAIL. Turns out the phrase "Three Things Thursday" that Google was detecting was actually in her "other blogs I follow" sidebar and that the "Three Things Thursday" word string was actually detected from a blog entry written yesterday... I guess this means that Jess has one of the oldest running blogs on Blogger... it also means that if you write a post today, it could update a webpage written 5 years ago (basically time travel!!!)... it didn't however bring me any closer to the origins of "Three Things Thursday"

3. So why "Three Things Thursday" anyway... why not "Four Things Friday" (8,750 google entries or about 3% of the amount as "Three Things Thursday") or "Two Things Tuesday" (66,700 google entries or about 22% of the amount as "Three Things Thursday")???... seems like people are just fascinated with 3... after all so many things come in 3's - Time (past, present, future), Life Cycle (you're born, you live, you die), Religion (the father, son, holy ghost for you Christians out there, or the three "fates" for those of you who still follow Greek Mythology), the Primary Colors (red, blue, yellow) Freud's division of the psyche (Id, Ego, & Super-Ego)... 3 points define a plane, 3 strikes you're out... 3 times a charm... 3 is a magic number... the list goes on and on and on...

4. Anyway, that's enough rambling for one day... don't feel like I came any closer to figuring out the mysteries of the origins of "Three Things Thursday"... also aren't sure why I'm so fascinated... I guess I'm a bit of a blogger sociologist (unfortunately for me since my mother-in-law is a sociologist)... How bout you? Do you know the origins of "Three Things Thursday"... if so, please share!

Quest for the Maximum Heartrate

2010-06-23T17:22:00.000-05:00

Quick note before I start my actual post... How bout team USA soccer, huh? Some people say that watching soccer is boring because of the low scoring, but you can't really beat the excitement of a buzzer beating goal in the 91st minute to win the game and the group and send your team to the next round!!! Plus, I've been known to sit down and watch entire marathons on Universal Sports and my favorite professional sport is baseball so soccer is right up my alley! Anyway, on to my post...
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It’s been over a year since I’ve come anywhere close to maximum heart rate, a 190 bpm effort during my finishing kick at last years Steamboat Classic 15k. These days I’m lucky if I hit 180… even during my most recent 5k PR I only was able to achieve 181…
Not that this is a problem by any means... in fact I take is as a positive because I assume the fact that my heart rate peaks so much lower than it did a year ago can be attributed to my drastically increased level of fitness. Also, peak heartrate during a given run is more or less meaningless...

So why am I talking about this? Because last Sunday I called my father (who’s also a runner) for father’s day and he wound up going into a story about how he had recently went to the cardiologist to get his heart checked out… They put him on a treadmill for a stress-test and eventually he gets his heartrate up to 183, which he holds for over a minute (meaning that his actual max is probably even higher). 183?!? Did I mention that the dude is 63 years old? So much for 220 minus your age (which would put him at a max of 157)…

That got me thinking… what if my max heart rate is actually higher than the 193 that I’ve been estimating it at??? That could really change-up what my heart rate zones are! Only one way to check… time to head for the hills… And wouldn’t you know it, I had 6Xhill repeats on my schedule for the week!

So today, I jog a 2 mile warm-up over to Reservoir Hill (pictured above) for some top quality hill work... The hill is about a 7% grade and 300 meters in length and so I decided to approach my workout like this: For the first three repeats I'd run the entire 300 meters at a moderate pace, turn around, and jog back down the hill. Then for the next 2 repeats I would increase the pace but only run 200 meters of the way up the hill, thus maintaining a similar overall intensity but shortening the recovery period. Then for the last repeat I would keep the same intensity as my previous 200 meter repeats but when I hit the 200 meter mark, instead of turning around and jogging back down, I would sprint all out for the last 100 meters up the hill.

On the right you can see a Garmin chart of how I did... I covered nearly 2 miles (about 1 mile up and 1 mile down) and ultimately achieved a peak heartrate of 191. One thing I found interesting about the graph was that both my peak heart rate and minumum recovery heartrate on each hill seemed to increase basically linearly.

So ultimately today was a success! I achieved a 191 recorded heartrate, one bpm higher than my previous record... on the other hand it doesn't seem to indicate that my actual max is any higher than the 192-193 bpm's I originally thought it was, so I guess I didn't inherit by dad's beast heart... then again, I wonder what might have happened if I had tried just one more hill repeat after I had hit the 191??? Seems like a sequel to this saga might be in the works... not anytime soon though... my heart, body, and mind have had enough for now, especially with weather conditions like these!!!

Marathon Monday (16 week out edition)

2010-06-21T11:05:00.002-05:00

Just in case you haven't noticed (new banner, training schedule link above blog, constant references) I've been gearing up for the Chicago Marathon for quite some time... now with 16 weeks left I'm ready to get super-duper-uber-serious by starting a weekly segment called marathon Monday where I can post training updates and put down general thoughts on my upcoming marathon.

Unveiling my marathon goal!!!

I should probably plead the fifth here but... I'm just going to be straight up honest instead.

In my heart of hearts I really want to qualify for Boston!!!... now sure, lots of people want to qualify for Boston and that doesn't mean it's going to happen but... in my heart of hearts I feel that I might actually have an outside shot of doing it and here's why:

My Mcmillan 5k PR (currently 19:29) predicts me at a 3:09:56... My Mcmillan'd 8k PR (currently 32:19) predicts me at a 3:11:09 (ok, not quite a BQ but close enough for my heart of hearts)... I still have 750+ miles of training planned before the race and I've only been running for a little over a year so I'm still improving very quickly...

However, my brain of brains has a different opinion... here's what it thinks:

Sure you're 5k time predicts a BQ but basing your marathon pace off 5k time just about absolute nonsense! Now a half-marathon, that would be a decent predictor... and your half-marathon time of 1:34:37 predicts that you're going to run a 3:19:33 which is nowhere near a BQ and even with an additional 5 months of training that's a lot of time to trim... not only that but your marathon PR is 3:39:34 so you're talking about trimming 30 minutes off your time and more than a minute off your pace... not nessessarily realistic goal setting if you put it that way...

Now if I was truely being realistic I'd say that 3:15 would probably be a tough but attainable goal time for me... however, if I show up on marathon day, run with the 3:15 pace group, feel great, and finish strong with a 3:13:xxish time I would really regret not going for the 3:10...

I guess ultimately I'm going to cop out on this whole goal setting thing and say that I'm going to wait to see how my training goes before picking a goal.

and... my first marathon training update

Week 1
Now technically my self-authored training grid started 2 weeks ago but since the Madison to Chicago 200 Relay fell during my first week of training it kind of mucked things up... my mileage suffered that week... on the bright side all the miles I did wind up running were of quality. During that week I ran a sub 6 minute mile anniversary time trial, some hills, 2-a-day tempo runs, and ended it with a sub 8 minute 12+ miler on tired legs!!!

Week 2
This relay induced intensity launched me into training week 2 sore and tired. I took Sunday and Monday off to help aid my recovery and followed up with a recovery paced 4 miler on the treadmill on Tuesday. By Wednesday my legs (especially my quads) still felt pretty trashed but I decided I had to get some mileage in regardless so I went ahead and set out for a easy 7 miler... the first couple miles started out rough, but then suddenly my legs loosened up and I miraculously felt 1000% better. About 5 miles into this run I had to tackle one of the tougher hills in the area (one that I normally fear) and climbed up it smoothly with no problems!!! Thursday I had a 5 mile fartlek scheduled... my legs still didn't feel completely recovered but I figured I'd at least squeeze in four or five pick-ups during the run... I took off from my house and even though my legs felt stiff and sorish I felt like my turnover was faster than normal and spontaneously I inadvertently found myself smack in the middle of a tempo run! I hit the first mile at 7:20 pace and after loosening up I finished out the last four miles of the run at a 6:55 pace and wound up running 7:00 pace flat... this left me tired for Friday and Saturday and I wound up running 2 miles and 5+ miles respectively on those days at recovery pace... I finished up my week Sunday with some good ol' fashioned LSD (long slow distance)... 15 miles at 8:40 pace with the first mile ran at 8:42 and the last mile ran at 8:38 (significant because I was able to exhibit the control and consistency that is normally lacking from my long runs)...

Chicago 2009 training comparison flashback

Week 1 stats (2010) Week 1 stats (2009)
28.45 miles 24.17 miles
7:34 average pace 8:24 average pace
long run - 12.23 miles long run - 8 miles

Week 2 stats (2010) Week 2 stats (2009)
38.73 miles 25.47 miles
8:18 average pace 8:43 average pace
long run - 15.02 miles long run - 9.4 miles

Look into my crystal ball

Going into week 3 I feel like the relay is pretty much behind me and I can really focus on following my plan... except for the fact that I have a work-related 5k thrust onto my calendar for Saturday (there's always something, isn't there?!?). Other than that a pretty cut and dry training week, just over 40 miles with a hill session and a 16 mile long run...

Uh Oh... Who put that guy in charge? (plus bitch, bitch, bitch)

2010-06-18T08:32:00.002-05:00

This Saturday the Steamboat Classic 4 mile and 15k race will be taking place right here in Peoria, Il!!! Now normally I'd be running it, but after last weekends relay I decided I wasn't quite ready to race again just yet, so I decided to do the next best thing: Volunteer!

This is my first time volunteering at a race so of course they put me into one of the most crucial jobs... traffic looker outer guy. The roads the race is run on are initially closed but at a certain point the cross streets open up and that's where I come in. I'll be standing at one of the corners watching for runners, watching for traffic, and making sure the two don't mix! That's right... I'll be preemptively saving lives!

All kidding aside, I am excited that I'll still get to participate in the race because it's actually a pretty decent sized event (by Peoria, Illinois standards anyway). The four miler is billed as one of the "fastest four mile road races in the world", in fact from 1986-2005 the world record for the four mile road race was held on the course (current course record is 17:24)... because of this the race has a decent sized purse and an elite athlete budget. At the same time the race is still fairly small (2800+ finishers last year) which allows better than normal access to the elite runners (like you can stand right next to them at the starting line)... Last year I was even able to get Constantina Dita (the 2008 olympic gold medalist in the women's marathon) to sign my race number!

All in all it should be a fun event and I plan on running down to the race from my house so I'll still get plenty of my own running in... but wait, there's more... for volunteering I get my very own volunteer t-shirt... and that's what it's really all about, right?

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Adding this to my post... seems like a lot of people have already read today's entry so maybe I'll be able to achieve blogger nirvana by bitching my ass off and venting my frustration while not subjecting any my readers to my pettiness... anyway... please feel free not to read this next part!

so today I'm out for a little 2 mile recovery run with my dogs... I'm going along minding my own business and up ahead I see this youngish avon sales-representative looking woman (this is not supposed to be a diss necessarily she was just dressed like a make-up saleswoman i.e. white blouse/name tag/wearing way too much makeup and hair care products) outside of her house with her two little dogs (not on leashes of course)... so as I approach her one little shit dog decides to come up and fuck with my 2 little shit dogs... ok, so not really a big deal, my dogs occasionally get free and go bark at the neighbors dog or someone walking by or something and I have to run out and grab them and apologize... but here's the part the bothers me... the woman basically does nothing to try to control her dog; she says nothing to the dog, she doesn't come over and try to intervene... she just stands there. I keep jogging along, hoping that the dog will go home after I pass, but the dog keeps following and meanwhile I'm doing all I can to stop my dog from attacking it's little bitch ass... and then the lady says to me in a snotty voice "if you keep jogging it's going to keep following you" (no "sorry about my dog" or anything like that)... so I stop and squat down and yell right in the dogs face "bad dog... go home". That pretty much took care of it and I continued running, leaving the lady (pouting because I yelled at her "snookems") and her stupid shit dog behind... the nerve of that lady "if you keep jogging (in her snotty nails on a chalkboard tone of voice)"... next time I'm going to actually stop, because my little 10 pound terrier gets very protective when she's on the leash and another dog comes up to her owner and she would not hesitate to go all Michael Vick on that little fur-ball... not that I condone violence against animals... just that you should control your fucking dog!!! and if you can't control your dog then don't let them out into the front yard without a leash!!!! PHEWWW.... I feel much better now! sorry bout that!

MADISON TO CHICAGO RELAY Race Experience Recap

2010-06-15T09:06:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure where to even start with this whole fiasco... How bout with some lessons learned!

-Speeding tickets in Wisconsin are ridiculously expensive… my buddy got clocked going 81 in a 65 on the drive up… in Illinois that would have cost him 75$ in Wisconsin the price of the ticket is 250.90!!! Oh well, at least we started fast… it was all downhill after that.
-Waking up at 5am for a race sucks… waking up at 5am for a race when you aren’t scheduled to run for another 13+ hours really sucks!!!
-Always remember to pack an extra pair of running shoes… you never know when the runner you’re supporting might decided to flash his balls at you mid run causing you to back into a giant puddle of water 20 minutes before you’re about to start your own leg. (Luckily I did have an extra pair of shoes with me).
- Normally people find us annoying, offensive, and juvenile… but at 5 in the morning we’re comedy legends!!! - It was five in the morning and our 12th runner had just finished his leg. He was standing outside of the van with a towel wrapped around him so that he could change out of his running shorts. However he was delirious from extreme physical exertion and sleep deprivation and subsequently finding it nearly impossible to get his boxers on. Jokingly he shouts into the van… “Could somebody help me put my boxers on?”… Right at this moment a woman from another team walks by and overhears him and just about falls over laughing… she looks into our van and says “You’re all guys aren’t you?” and continues to laugh even harder…
-There’s nothing more surreal than pulling a van full of runners into a parking lot full of vans full of runners… everyone wandering around dazed, half dressed, in their shorts and sports bras… powdering their neither regions with no shame… people sleeping in fields, on benches, on the concrete… fog, and mist, and lights shining… I’m pretty sure I just experienced what the Zombie Revolution is going to feel like!

-If you’re going to write a rap song specifically for an event and if that event is going to last for over 36 hours you better damn well make sure that you make that song as good as you possibly can because you best believe that you are going to be hearing it over and over and over again until you might just feel like you’d be better off sharpening two sticks and jamming them deep into your ears!!!!

And now... A Graphical Representation of my Mood During the Event...

Next On the agenda--- The Tale of 2 VANS!!!

It was the best of vans (Van 2, my van), it was the worst of vans (Van 1, the “other” van).

Van 1 shenanigans:

-Not bringing toilet paper even though it said to in the handbook… taking half of van 2’s toilet paper… immediately losing the toilet paper and asking for more at the next meet-up.
-lead runner running 1-2 minutes per mile slower than his predicted pace, despite the fact that he had racing flats and a Garmin GPS on and talked a huge game before the race started.
-Getting a hotel room because they didn’t want to sleep in the van or inside the high school gym and weren't comfortable using the communal showers in the locker room and then oversleeping and not showing up to the 3rd handoff in time.
-complaining that "porta-potties are nasty, why can't they have more places with regular bathrooms", even though it must have taken extraordinary effort to get multiple porta-potties delivered to 36 different locations!!!
-having their “feelings hurt” after we relentlessly ragged on them for getting the hotel room
-not showing up at the finish line in time to finish with the rest of the team because they had once again overslept
-2 of the runners not showing up to the finish at all
-Continuously misplacing their possessions and then calling us to see if they were in our van even though none of their runners spent anytime in our van what so ever making it physically impossible that any of thier possessions could possibly be in our van...
-Complaining that the relay was 205 miles instead of 200.
-realizing after one of their legs had started that they had forgotten to bring along their GU, stopping running completely, and waiting on the trail until the support van could find them and bring them the GU
…I’m thinking that next year we might want to think about “cutting the fat” and running the race as an Ultra team!

How about the running???

Almost forgot to talk about the running... this supposedly was a race afterall... So here's a quick recap of my legs...

Leg 1: 5.74 miles

Planned on going out at 8-8:30 pace... by the time I ran I was so hyped up that I took off at 7 minute pace instead... Then I started passing some runners... after that I couldn't slow down because I didn't want to can passed back by someone I had already passed... the only thing that slowed me down... the 88 degree heat!!! Brutal, just brutal... I ended up running a 7:15 pace (half-marthon pace) but my heartrate was up in the 95% zone for the final two miles...

Leg 2: 4.95 miles

Run started at 4:20 in the morning and in was amazing!!! The air was finally cool and the ground was covered in fog... my headlight bounced off the water in the air and made it seem like I was running through a cloud... plus my legs felt great... I took off at 7 minute pace and this time I held it... I could see the flashing lights clipped to the reflective vests of the runners ahead of me... one by one I chased them down and picked them off... I think I passed 12 people on this section (+/- 2)...

Leg 3: 7.51 miles (that turned into 8.5... that turned into 12.23)

Leg 35... last run before the last run... I was sore and tired from my previous two tempo paced runs... despite that I still was able to maintain a 8:00 minute mile pace... I felt a total disconnect from my legs as I strode along... Up until this point in the race there were plenty of runners around and the way was well marked with signs and arrows... so I decided that I wouldn't bother carrying my map with me... big mistake!!! For some reason there were no signs on this stretch... Me and another runner got lost about 4 seperate times... I finally had to call my van from my cell and have them direct me to the end (when I finally made it to the end, one of the volunteers at the handoff said that a lot of people had complained about the stretch and that she though that maybe some of the signs had been stolen)... I wasn't happy with finishing up my final lost by getting lost so after grabbing some water I hopped back out of the van to run with our anchor runner... I considered finishing the whole race with him but my legs were getting really tired and I decided it wasn't worth risking injury over so I stopped after about 4 miles.

NEXT UP... SOME PHOTOS

The Aftermath...

Damn am I sore!!! I'm not going to say that I'm marathon sore, but it's pretty close... I definitily going to take it easy this week... and don't be suprised if I'm absent from the blogsphere for the next week either... I think I need a quick break to regroup and refocus on Chicago 10/10/10...

Happy Anniversary to Me!!!

2010-06-08T18:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my wife Natalie and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary... three years ago we took a trip to the courthouse* and legally committed to spend the rest of our days together in civil union and guess what: She wasn't even pregnant!!! I mention this because when we were talking to the office clerk who entered us into the state computer system as a married couple I happened to glance at her screen and noticed a small button on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen that had a picture of a shotgun on it. I asked her what that was for and she said "we click that if one of the parties getting married is under 18" i.e. "Shotgun wedding"... we also got a pamphlet in the same envelope that they put our marriage certificate in warning against the dangers associated with drinking while pregnant... oh the joys of living in Southern Illinois...

But anyway... I'm not here to talk about my inconsequential little wedding anniversary that happened yesterday... I'm hear to talk about what's truly important in my life: RUNNING!!! That's right, today is my official 1 year anniversary of running!

On June 8th, 2009 I got serious about running as I dove head-first into Hal Higdon's Intermediate I training program in preparation for the 2009 Chicago Marathon... In retrospect I probably should have listened to everybody else in the running world's advice and done some base training before jumping into a marathon training cycle... Those first 6 weeks of training were pretty brutal as I jumped from the 0-6 MPW I was doing before the training started to the 25+ MPW the training plan called for... I was pretty much a wreck... luckily for me the economy was also a wreck and I was laid off at the time so the only other thing I had to do besides run was lay around the house and complain about how tired and sore my legs were... (it really is a wonder that my wife and I made it to that third year anniversary)...
Eventually my body began to adapt and by the time the marathon came around I was feeling pretty good... that was until mile 18 of my marathon when I realized that getting through the four months of training without any previous base build-up was not enough mileage to allow me to attain the 3:30/8:00 minute pace goal I had set for myself... I crashed hard and jogged, shuffled, and limped (although I never walked) through the last 8.2 miles and eventually finished in just under 3:40 despite the searing ITB pain in both legs... it took me nearly 3 months to fully recover... oh well, lesson learned... but if I could go back and change anything I probably wouldn't...

Now, one year and 1250+ miles later, I'm ready for round 2!

One of the benefits of being 1 year in is that now I have 1 years worth of training log. This means that I can look back and compare last years workout to this years workout to see how much I've progressed...

Here it is:

Last year (6/8/9): This Year (6/8/10):
Distance: 5.02 miles Distance: 5.39 miles
Duration: 41:29 Duration: 39:00
Pace: 8:16 Pace: 7:14
HR Avg\Max:160\188 HR Avg\Max: 161\181

I actually ran a very similar course to the one I did a year ago but the workout was totally different... Last year I ran along at a 8:16ish pace for the entire run as my heart rate steadily crept upward until I got to reservoir hill (a steep hill where I do my hill workouts) which caused my heartrate to spike up to 188 which is damn near my max even through I was only going at a 8:50 pace... I then headed home at a labored 8:30 pace until I got to the last mile which I kicked in at 8:00 pace...

This year I started off with a mile warm up at 8:14 pace (already faster than last years pace except this time it's my "easy" pace)... then I ran a 5:49 mile that took my heartrate up to 181... I then slowed down to 7:30 pace and headed to reservoir hill... this time I took the hill at a 7:40 pace and my heartrate only went up to 175!!! I then headed home at 7:30 pace till I got to the last mile which I kicked in at 6:30 pace...

What a difference a year can make! And the great thing is that my journey's just begun... I'm just now, finally starting to feel like a runner... my legs are getting stronger and starting to get a bit of that runner's tone... my recovery is taking shorter and shorter... and I'm no longer too tired participate in non-running related activities (even after a long run!!!).

*We had just graduated college so we couldn't afford to have a wedding... we decided to have our ceremony exactly a year later on 6/7/08.

Counting down to M2C relay, plus the grand premier of the M2C rap song!

2010-06-04T17:24:00.005-05:00

In less than one week from now (6 days and 23 hours) my team will embark on the Madison to Chicago 200 relay… a 200 mile, 12 runner, 36 leg relay event spanning the distance from Madison, Wi to Chicago, Il via Milwaukee…And the good news is that as of right now it seems that despite all the bitching, moaning, and complaining our entire team is more or less healthy and ready to run (knock on wood).

Personally, I’ve been preparing by running 2-a-days every Friday for the last month (6ish miles in the morning and 5ish miles at night)… Time will tell if my training strategy will pay off but regardless I have determined one thing: I really like running 2-a-days… It turns out that even though I feel a bit more fatigued on that second run my resulting pace always turns out to be about 10 seconds faster in my evening runs even though I run at the same perceived exertion level… Admittedly, it’s kind of a moot point right now because my mileage level isn’t really high enough to warrant 2-a-days but maybe one day it will be!

But enough about me… back to the relay team! We’re all ready to go… we got the team together, we got our vans reserved, we got our legs assigned… So at this point I’m 95% confident that we’re at least going to start this race… whether or not we’ll actually finish the race is whole other question and not just because we’re egregiously undertrained… Just look at these rules!

It’s like they took a list of everything we were planning on doing during the relay and made a rule against it… especially troubling were the two rules I circled! Seriously, I even had to take out one of my favorite lines from my rap song…

We’ll be drinking and peeing and peeing and drinking
Drinking and peeing and pooping and stinking*

Of course even with the limitations set upon our team with these so called "rules" I’m sure we’ll come up with plenty of other juvenile and disturbing antics that aren’t on the list… something tells me that rules list might just be quite a bit longer next year after we’re done with this bitch!

And speaking of rap... guess what... I finally finished my rap song and figured out how to share it... For some reason I'm not 100% satisfied on how it turned out, but at a certain point you just have to say fuck it! I'm thinking my biggest limitation (besides talent) is my 15 dollar microphone!

Despite my lack of total satisfaction with the finished product it does have it's moments (if I do say so myself)... For example, here's on one of my favorite lines:

I never false start cuz I'm packing the gun
get that Dick out of your Beardsley as we duel in the sun**

Stuff like that just can't be taught... either your born with it or your not! But enough with the "Amuse-Bouche", let's bring on the meat... so with no further ado... The official rap song of our Madison to Chicago relay team: "From the 608 to da 312" (Madison and Chicago’s respective area codes for those of you unfamiliar with hip-hop culture)

*Actually, that line was never in the song… I just came up with that right now, on the fly! Yep, that’s the kind of rap genius you guys are dealing with…

**Believe it or not this line is in fact in the song...

May Stat Recap

2010-05-31T21:31:00.000-05:00

Once again its time for the end of month stat keeping...

The mileage is building and I'm feeling good...19 weeks till the Chicago Marathon... "official" marathon training cycle starts next week...BRING IT ON!!!

My Commitment to Pace

2010-05-28T17:12:00.001-05:00

Lately the quantity has been thriving but the quality has been lacking so this week I decided to cut back the mileage a bit but up the quality of the runs... It’s all part of my cutting edge, make It up as you go, pre-marathon prep work. In just over a week I’ll go back “on the grid” again as I begin my 18 week countdown to Chicago but for now my “run whatever workout comes to mind” approach has been serving me just dandy.
Today, as part of quality week, I attempted to run a 4 mile tempo workout... I say attempted because what I ended up running was not really a tempo workout at all... it was more like a 4 mile time trial… and of course it was all Pepito's fault. Here’s how it went down.
I started by Mcmillaning my recent 5k time to find out what my tempo pace should be: 6:36-6:53... I figured since I'm ultimately focusing on my marathon performance I'd stray to the slower end of that spectrum and shoot for 6:45 pace...I headed out the door and after a 1 mile warm-up I turned on my Garmin and set my virtual partner "Pepito" to run a distance for 4 miles and knowing that rivalry with Pepito would induce me to run about 5-10 seconds faster than whatever pace I entered into the Garmin, I went ahead and set Pepito's pace to 6:56... Then I hit the start button and we were off...
4 miles later and here are my splits: 6:20, 6:25, 7:00!!!, 6:25...
Once again I let Pepito goad me into starting off entirely too fast. Subsequently I crashed at mile 3 and wind up slowing way down... and although I did manage to pick the pace back up for the last mile, I'm still, once again, running too fast... Another tempo run failure!
Honestly I’m starting to get frustrated in my lack of self-control. It’s like I got two speeds, fast and slow, and I just can’t seem to hit anything in between… and if, by chance, I do happen to hit that in between speed (like in my most recent half-marathon), I find myself ill-prepared to mentally handle the hard but not too hard pace… Bottom line is I have to take control! So right here, right now, I’m making a commitment to my pace… I’m going to put the S back into LSD (long slow distance)… I’m going to take control of my tempo runs… I’m going slow down my recovery runs… I’m going to hit my mileage totals, and I’m going to get in my quality work! I’m going to train like a champion and when race day finally comes I’m going to smash through the wall and perform like a champion!!! Q.E.D.

Foreshadowing the relay... plus Athlinks.com

2010-05-25T18:13:00.000-05:00

Here are some excerpts from a recent e-mail chain being circulated amongst my Madison to Chicago 200 relay teammates:

Stik: I'm pretty sure I pulled my groin during my recovery from mono runs. The people at the gym called the cops. I got about 2.5 miles in today and my inner thigh hurts. The point of this long whiny e-mail is that my mile time estimates are off

Trevor: Anyone want to switch with me and give me a shorter overall distance (In the 14-16 range)? 19.32 may kill me, especially since I've been slacking in my training :)

Timmy: Bad news. So, I managed to injure my calf muscle a couple weeks back, and have been trying to take some time off for a while to let it heal. Everything felt fine going into Sunday's run - I stretched well, took it nice-and-easy, and still managed to re-injure it within the first 1/4 mile. At this point, I'm concerned about being able to finish ramping up my mileage in time for the race. (The longest run I've done this year was only about 6.4 miles.)

Maybe I'm just a pessimist but I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this...

______________________________________________________

Also, I wanted to give my praises to the site Athlinks.com. If you haven't checked it out before, its basically a site that compiles race results from a bunch of different sources and then you can look up your times (or other peoples times) by name... I particularly impressed with them because I used the "add a race" feature to add the Bulldog Dash 5k results to their site and provided them a link to the excel spreadsheet on the Germantown Elementary school home page and 2 days later they replied to me by e-mail that the results have been posted...

Anyway, it's a free site and a convenient way to keep track of your racing history, so go check it out if you're interested.

The Next Episode...

2010-05-24T12:05:00.002-05:00

Last Friday I mentioned that I ran 5.74 miles and hinted that there might be some significants to the figure... well wonder no longer, the mystery is about to be revealed (first LOST and now this?!?)

On June 11th, I'll be running the Madison to Chicago 200 (M2C 200) relay! A 200 mile 12 man, 36 leg relay that covers 200 miles between Madison, Wisconsin to Chicago, Illinois (via Milwaukee)...

The significants of the 5.74 miles is that its the distance of the first leg I'm going to run (I'm runner number 11 and will be doing the 11th leg (5.74 miles), 23rd leg (4.95 miles), and 35th leg (7.51 miles)...

And the reason I ran the 5.74 miles on Friday morning is because I figured "what better training than to run the three legs of the relay in a 24 hour span to see where I'm at"... Specificity in training right?

So Friday morning I ran 5.74 miles (8:06 pace), Friday evening I ran 4.95 miles (7:51 pace), and Saturday morning I ran 7.51 miles (7:57) pace...

Here's some notes on the run:

Friday was my first 2-a-day workout ever! I felt tired on the friday evening run yet I still ran faster than I did on my morning run... Probably no reason to include 2-a-day workouts on the regular at this point, but maybe someday if the mileage warrants it!
Including those 3 runs I got 50 miles total in this week for my most weekly miles this year (previous high was 40)... on top of that I didn't even log a long run this week (7,10,7,rest,10,8,8)
Despite my mileage being so high this week (for me anyway) I was still able to maintain a 8:00 minute average pace for my three practice legs.

Anyway... a lot more on this in the weeks to come but for now I'll leave you with a few teasers

We are not going to be a competitive team... in fact we'll be lucky if we can finish!
Our team is semi-officially sponsored by Goose Island Brewery
I'm currently working on our own official rap song for the team which I will release on this blog sometime over the next few weeks (assuming i can figure out how to share audio)

And just when I thought it was over...

2010-05-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

...MORE RUNNING SHAME!!!

It's the end of the week so I decided to move on and put last weeks 5k and 2k shamings behind me... so I changed up my banner, set my sights on the future, and went for a nice relaxed 5.74* mile run.

So there I was mid-run, cruising along, jamming to my i-pod, and generally enjoying myself... I was approaching a bus stop where a lady was waiting for the bus to arrive... as I approached, the lady stepped into my path and says:

"Excuse me, do you know what time it is?"

Me: "No, Sorry"

Then she glances down at my giant brick-sized GPS watch...

Now I'm forced to try to explain on the fly how this is a GPS watch and that I don't know how to get it to actually display time of day... and of course this explanation has to take place over my shoulder in the 2.5 seconds available before I'm past her and on my way (heaven forbid I break stride)... I'm not even sure what I said to her but I do know that it probably sounded nonsensical and pathetic...

...So then I'm stuck feeling like a complete tool for the rest of my run as I contemplate about how much of an asshole she must think I am for not telling her the time even though I was wearing a giant comically sized watch!

...Other things that came to mind when I was finishing up my run...

Why couldn't she have asked me if I knew the exact latitude and longitude of the position she was standing instead?...
I should have said: "Sorry, I don't know how to read digital watches."
Do you think Flava' Flave knows what time it is?
or I could have said "Time to get a watch!"... booya lady!

*more info on the significants of the 5.74 mile run coming soon

Further Shaming at the Bulldog Dash...

2010-05-19T14:03:00.002-05:00

In my previous post I recapped about how I was defeated, shamed, and humiliated at the hands of my running nemesis, Robbie...

Unfortunately for me, my 5k racing failure was only the start of the humiliation that I experienced on that fateful day...

The next chapter in this spiral of shame starts almost immediately following the conclusion of my 5k... I just got bested by my arch foe, my clothes are soaking wet from running in the rain, and I'm freezing cold... Of course I can't leave the race because we have to wait for the awards ceremony... and to make matters worse there's still a 2k that has to be run before before the awards are announced...

And that's when I get my brilliant idea: I'll run the 2k!!! Since I spend most of my efforts training for longer distance events my body recovered from the 5k almost immediately... Great, I'll get in a little extra speedwork and mileage for the day, I'll set a automatic PR for a 2k, plus I'll stay warm and kill some time before the award ceremony... What could possibly go wrong? So, I negotiate a reduced rate entry for the 2k since I already ran the 5k, swapped out my race bib, and I was ready to go...

At 10 o'clock they announce that the 2k is going to start and I head over to the start line to scope out the competition... and that's when the humiliation begins... I'm the only adult registered for the race!!!

At that point I considered just going back to the shelter of the gazebo and not running (which is what I should have done in hind sight)... but WTF, I had already shelled out 15 bucks for the race, plus I really did want to get in a little bit of extra quality running... so I decided I'll just line up behind the kids (not that I really had a choice) and there'd probably be a least a couple of kids who could run sub 7 minute pace for a 2k and I'd just stay behind them...

The gun goes off and the kids take off sprinting... and I follow behind at a 7:30ish pace... And of course after about 100 meters most of them either slow way down or stop entirely... and next thing I know I'm in 10th place... so I slow down to a 8 minute pace... but even then kids keep dropping off 1 by 1 and next thing I know I'm in 3rd place...

So now it's just me with a couple of 10 year olds about 20 feet ahead of me... and now we exiting the park, and there's cops and firemen on every turn directing the race, and I'm running past them surrounded by kids with a big shit eating grin on my face and feeling like a complete ass!!!

By now I'm down to a 9 minute mile pace because I don't want to win this race and take the opportunity away from one of these kids...And then one of the 2 kids in front of me stops to ties his shoe... and now I'm in 2nd place... so finally I just stop, get off to the side of the course, wait till about 20 of the kids pass by and then start walking... and when the course finally gets back to the gazebo I drop out and head for shelter.

Man, what a disaster! The only saving grace from the whole fiasco was that my friend Scott, who had been taking pictures, had ran back to his house to pick up my wife (she didn't initially go with us because she wanted to sleep in) so at least I don't have any pictures of my shaming (although they would be pretty funny)...

Bulldog Dash 5k: Race Report

2010-05-17T10:07:00.002-05:00

This weekend, I traveled down to Germantown, Illinois to battle with an old rival, Robbie Vonalst, in a local 5k.

I stayed at my buddy Scott's house... and woke up 2 hours before race time to the sound of thunder and torrentially pouring rain!!! Perfect... I had travelled 3 hours to attend this stupid race and now it was going to be rained out?!?... Scott made some calls (Scott's cousin was a volunteer at the race... which would seem like a handy coincidence except that I'm pretty sure that in Germantown, Il everyone is related to everyone in some form or fashion) and we found out that the race had not been cancelled as of yet...

So I had a bowl of raisin bran soaked in water (Scott's one of those bachelor types who only has condiments in his fridge)... and then we headed over to the race course... Fortunately, by now the thunder had passed... Unfortunately, it was still 50 degrees and pouring rain... But like I said, I drove 3 hours to attend this stupid race so nothing to do but man up!

I head over to the registration table to sign up and there's Robbie... needless to say, he was surprised to see me. We spent the next half hour cracking jokes and talking shit to each other and then headed over to the starting line...

We get to the starting line and the line is jam packed with little kids (the race is a fund raiser for after school programs at a local elementary school so a lot of the kids showed up to run)... I could tell that is was going to be an annoying start but whatever; this wasn't my town and all the parents were either in the race or mulling around near the start so I figured I'd just deal with it...

The gun goes off and predictably the kids take off at a full sprint for about 50 meters and then slowly one by one start walking... I soon find myself off to the side of the road, sprinting through puddles and mud to avoid stampeding the little shits... by the 800 meter mark I've been able to get around them all and settle into a pace but by now I had used way more energy then I would have liked (my heart rate had ballooned up to 188/98% of my max during the first 400 meters from sprinting before settling back down to 170)...

The one good thing was that Robbie had been held up by the kids as well and all the dodging and surging had allowed me to build a small lead... Unfortunately the lead did not hold up for long and by the one mile mark Robbie and I were running side by side. First Mile: 6:11

By now, I'm starting to pay for the fast start... My legs are burning and I'm in oxygen debt... I look over at Robbie and despite the fact that he's running is a soaking wet long-sleeved cotton t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts, the bastard seems totally comfortable! Doubts start creeping into my mind but I fight them back and decide to hold on for as long as I can... Robbie and I forge ahead and pass several runners on our way towards the Two Mile Make. Second Mile: 6:29

We continue on into the third mile. Robbie turns it on and surges ahead... and I decide that I've had enough and just let him go: FAIL!!! I watch as Robbie pulls away and catches up to a group of two runners who are 25 feet ahead of us... For the next mile Robbie stays with them and I stay 25 feet behind them. I look behind me and see a runner about 25 feet behind me so at least I have motivation to keep pushing. Third Mile: 6:26

As we pass the third mile mark we turn a corner and head towards the finish... I watch up ahead as one of the runners Robbie is with breaks away from the group... Robbie follows suit and finishes between the two of them... I turn on whatever I have left and squeeze out my own little kick. Final .1: 5:20 pace

-My Final Time: 19:29 (6:16 pace)

-Robbie's Final Time: 19:21 (6:14 pace)

Cold, wet, and ashamed I wait with Scott and Robbie for the award ceremony*. I've been training for over a year now, non-stop... meanwhile Robbie hadn't run since the Chicago Marathon last October and had just started up again about a month ago and still had no problems beating me... To make matters worse, Scott (who had been spectating and taking pictures during the race) tells me that he had overheard some other spectators commenting on how impressive it was that "the big guy" was doing so well during my finish (the big guy meaning Me!!!! FML)...

Finally the awards are announced... 1st place in the 30-34 age group, 5th place overall... Robbie Vonalst... 3rd place in the 30-34 age group, 7th place overall, Ethan Zeman!!!

I let out a sigh of relief... I knew I had finished 7th overall but 7th is the first spot that's not guaranteed a medal; top 3 get overall finishers trophy's so if the next four finishers are in the same age group the 7th place spot gets nothing... and I figured with the way things had been going that would be just my luck... Fortunately the 4th place runner was 35... so I WON A MEDAL!!! The First hardware I've won in 13 years!!!! (not counting the ones you get for just finishing the race)...

I guess 30-34 M is a competitive age group in Germantown Illinois... The first place in our group, Robbie, finished in 19:21, the second place guy finished in 19:23, and I finished in 19:29... Only 8 seconds separating the three of us...

So in conclusion: Not a bad race at all... I won my first medal... I scored an almost 3 minute PR in the 5K... and I'm 8 seconds slower than an untrained Robbie... Now if I can just keep training and maybe lose some weight so I'm not "the big guy" anymore, I might actually have some success at this running thing!

*Actually I had an even more ridiculous and embarrassing experience while waiting for the awards, but I'm going to save that one for my next post...

Let's get ready to rumble!!!

2010-05-11T18:59:00.001-05:00

Does anyone have one of “those guys” as a running friend? You know the type that are just built for running… the type that retain a level of 10% body fat or less no matter how many times they super size their value meals… the type who can take 6 months off from running, slam a six pack the night before, and then go out and whip you in a 5k? Well, I do and his name is Robbie… and this weekend I’m planning on getting my revenge!

Some back story:

When I got back into running last year it was partly because I had signed up for the Chicago Marathon with my two close friends, Robbie and Symons (we were all ex-high school x-country stars who met during freshman year of college). As we started our training cycles Symons and I struggled to whip our lazy fat asses back into runners… meanwhile Robbie would be would be whipping out 7 min mile paced training runs like it was nothing.

Last July, Symons and I traveled down to Robbie’s hometown of Breese, Illinois to participate in a half-marathon in nearby St. Louis. After the half marathon (in which Robbie beat us with ease) we went back to Robbie’s house to hang out and that’s where we saw Robbie’s Bulldog Dash medals…

The Bulldog Dash is a local 5k that takes place in Robbie’s neighboring town of Germantown, Illinois. Robbie has participated in the Bulldog run for the last 5 years and even won the event once! When Symons and I saw the medals last July we started a long running joke (literally) about how we were going to show up and beat him in the Bulldog Dash someday… and we’ve been joking about beating him in the Bulldog Dash ever since… but this Saturday the joke becomes a reality… and let me warn you: It’ll be no laughing matter!!!

The current story:

Luckily enough for me I have another friend, Von Bokel, who lives in Germantown too. Using Von Bokel as an inside man I determined that Robbie will in fact be participating in the Bulldog Dash this Saturday… Monday I e-mailed Robbie under the guise that it was 5 months exactly till this years Chicago Marathon (we’re both signed up again) and that I wanted to see how his training is going… Robbie replied that he had just started training about a month ago (he’s an accountant so he is usually swamped up until April 15th)… he also relayed that he was “in the worst shape of his life” and the he “sucks”… Bingo!!!

The plan:

Drive down to Germantown, Il (about a 3 hr drive from Peoria) Friday night after work to stay with my friend Von Bokel. Show up to the race at 7:45 when race day registration opens… jog the course… hide out… and then make my way to the starting line 5 minutes before the start of the race… if at all possible I’ll try to maneuver myself so that Robbie doesn’t even know that I’m there until the race has started and he’s eating my dust… Afterwards, I plan on doing a victory dance, hopefully with my very own Bulldog dash medal draped around my neck!!!

Either that or he’s totally going to whip me… after all he has been training for almost a month now and he is one of “those guys”…

Warning: This might offend some people…

2010-05-10T17:11:00.004-05:00

But here it goes… I can't hold back any longer so I'm just going to go out and say it... You actually named your Garmin? They're a freakin' tool!!! You wouldn't name your wrench if you were working on your car would you?
No sir! My Garmin is just a fancy watch, and I call it "my Garmin"... Seriously, lay off the crazy! Sorry, but it’s just a pet peeve of mine…

And now that I got that off my chest let me tell you about the little man that lives in my Garmin...

See there's this little man who lives in my Garmin. His name is Pepito. His Mother was a Tarahumara Indian and his father was a member of the Kenyan Kipsigis tribe. He used to train in the high altitude conditions of Mexico City but then he signed a contract with Garmin and now he lives inside my watch and serves as my "Virtual Training Partner"...

Mostly, I like training alone, so I don’t normally run with Pepito but every once in a while, during a time trial or tempo run, I’ll invite Pepito along because Pepito is an excellent pacer... In fact Pepito is such a good pacer that he can keep an exact pace over any distance and for any length of time… you just tell him what pace you want and how far your going and he’ll do the rest!!!
Now you’d think that with a skill like this Pepito would make an excellent training partner… and for the most part you’d be right, except for one thing: Pepito is super competitive! In fact, Pepito is so competitive that you could almost consider it a character flaw… and it actually presents quite a problem and here’s why… let’s take the other week for example:

Pepito and I set out for a nice half-marathon paced 5 mile tempo run… for me that was supposed to be 5 miles at a 7:15 pace. But before we start Pepito goes and start running his mouth, talking about “You can’t keep a 7:15 pace for 5 miles!!!”, “You'll start too slow and then you'll never be able to catch up!!!”, and “I’ma Gonna win!!!” (in a Wario voice)… He kept harassing me and goading me and egging me on until I got so worked up that when the run finally started I took off way too fast and found myself way ahead of Pepito… And then once I was ahead I knew I had two choices… I could either slow down and give Pepito a chance to catch me and embarrass me or I could keep pushing the pace until Pepito was so far behind that he’d never stand a chance of keeping up…

I chose the 2nd of course and wound up finishing the 5 miles at a 6:55 pace. It was great at first as I reveled in my victory but later on I realized that all of Pepito’s competitive shit talking had caused me to totally blow my tempo pace… very poor training indeed!!!

See: here's a picture of us doing battle...

So now I’m stuck with a conundrum: do I continue to train with Pepito even through every time we train he tricks me into running too fast? maybe I should tell Pepito a slower pace than I actually intend to run so that the joke is on him? Or do I just man up, ignore Pepito’s constant harassment and self doubt inducing remarks and just stick with him as he paces me?...

I just don't know... Has anyone had any similar experiences with their virtual partner? What would you do?

Illinois Marathon race photos and lessons learned

2010-05-06T07:23:00.000-05:00

Here's some pictures from the half... I think my favorite is the one in the upper left where I'm just entering the shot, leaping through the air at full stride, ready to kick on some foolz :) (tip: you can click on the photo if you want to enlarge it... just in case you really wanted get a good look at my ugly mug)... Also, here's some post race thoughts and lessons learned.

At a medium pace: I felt a brand new kind of pain during the half. It wasn’t the throbbing behind your eyes pain you feel during a faster race like a 5-10k and it wasn’t the “my legs are so tired they don’t work no more” pain you encounter at the end of a marathon… This pain was unique because it was gradual, annoying, and not quite ignorable (like an itch you can’t quite reach) which would have been tolerable except that it lasted for over an hour… Now normally, I don’t mind the pain so much (it’s just part of racing, in fact in a strange way I kind of enjoy it), but since this experience of pain was unfamiliar to me it made it more difficult to process… This helped me identify a gap in my training! All my runs are either fast for short amounts of time (tempo runs at 5k-10k pace for 20-40 minutes) or slow for long amounts of time (Long runs at MP+)… what about the middle ground?

Boston Qualified?: Double my Sub 1:35 in my half and you get sub 3:10 for a marathon aka BQ!!! So now at least I know what Boston Pace feels like… not so bad… for the first 5-6 miles at least!!! Yeah, I have a ways to go… but on the other hand I did come into my half-marathon recovering from a small head cold, and I did have some extra energy to screw around during the race, and I do have about 15 more pounds I could stand to lose, and I do have 5 more months and about 800 more miles of training I’m going to have under my belt before Chicago… oh well, I think I better let this one go for now… but interesting none the less… very interesting…

Strength training: The fact that I'm more sore from doing 13 push-ups in the end zone after the race then I am from running the actually race itself can mean only one thing: Time to get back into the weight room and do some strength training!

Death of Superman: Sadly I think its time I retire my superman shirt… First off I’m finally starting to concede the point the technical fabrics are indeed much better suited for running apparel then cotton and not just some scam created by athletic wear companies… Secondly, as I’m getting faster and subsequently racing harder I’m enjoying the attention the shirt brings me less and less… It used to be that I’d be running and a spectator would shout “Go Superman!” or “Looking good Superman” and then I’d smile and wave. One time at a race there was even a little kid who actually thought that I might be Superman and was super excited!!!... Now a days, when I get to mile 12 of a half marathon I’m in no mood for antics… Spectators are shouting “Let’s Go Superman” every 20 feet and I’m thinking “F*ck off… leave me alone… this sucks! When is this going to be over?!?”… I know, I know… not very Superman-like at all… Was that Kryptonite flavored Gatorade at that last fluid station or something?

Illinois Half Marathon Race Report

2010-05-02T09:52:00.000-05:00

Pre-race:

The usual... drive to destination, sleep in hotel (no problem getting to sleep!), wake up, shower, coffee, food, poop, stretch, jog, drive to race, wait at porta potty, jog a little more, fidget around at start line... national anthem... wait, wait, wait (come on this is taking forever)... pee in bush, jog back to start line... wait, wait... runner's take your mark... Go!!!

The race:

The gun goes off and I tuck in behind the 3:10 marathon pace group... about 20 marathoners with their eyes set on qualifying for the Big B... and a few of us half-marathoners (us interlopers and imposters) tagging along for the ride. The pace group strategy pays off big time getting us out in a very controlled and exact 7:15 first mile and saving me from my usual way too fast start... the next two miles were spent methodically passing the handfull of runners who had not been able to hold themselves back and were now resigned to suffer through that mistake for the next 11.1/24.2 miles...

I stuck with the pace group until mile 4. At this point the average pace was down to about 7:09. No problem for me, but I think that I would have been bothered if I was a marathoner. 24 seconds in the bank may not seem like a big deal but in this age of the Garmin, where just about every runner has thier own personal means to keep pace, I feel like the pacer quickly loses thier function if they go out too fast... but more on that later.

At mile 4 we hit a water stop... during my planning I wasn't sure if I was going to take water this early in the race, but it was incredibly humid and I my cotton (gasp!) Superman shirt was already drenched in sweat so I figured I better take in all the fluids I could! I moved ahead of the pace group so that I would have more flexibility in accessing the water... and as I moved ahead I felt this wave of freedom and energy pulse through my body. The first four mile I spent tucked into a pack; all of us focused on the runners directly in front of us. Each stride dictated by each others. Now that I was ahead of the pack, I was free to run my own race. No longer did I have to worry about making the marginal adjustments mid-stride to avoid clipping heals. It was just me and the open road.

From there I just tried to stay loose and keep a consistent stride and effort as I coasted along for the next couple miles... It was all going incredibly well... until it wasn't.

At mile 6 I hit my first wall... Suddenly I was struggling to keep pace. Doubts started creeping in. if I'm hurting this much already how am I gonna keep pace for another 7 miles?!?... had I trained too hard the last couple weeks and not tapered enough... maybe my endurance was not quite where it needed to be yet... I started playing the running bargaining games with myself... Just push through till the 8th mile and then you can let up... Just keep pace till the one hour mark and then you can let up... I started doing mental mathematics... If I can hold this pace for one more mile then I can slow down to 7:20 pace and still meet my goal... if I can hold it till mile 10 then I can slow down to 7:25 pace... how fast do I have to run so that I can slow down to 8 minute pace at mile 11?... etc... And I continued to beg, bargain, plead, chastise... until... miraculously I was over the wall and once again running freely... the burden lifted as the endorphins started to surge through my body... I slightly picked up the pace and forged ahead.

At mile 8 we entered a park; I felt another surge of energy... I started gradually and methodically passing people as I contuned along the one mile loop through statues, trees, and Illinois wild prarie grass...

At mile 9 I approached a gazebo... there was a rock band setup there, playing for the runners... As I passed they broke into the intro powercords to "Eye of the Tiger" and I completely lost it!!! I started shadowboxing, dancing around, and finished my display with a surge that propelled me past about 5 runners... 20 seconds later I was out of the bands auditory radius, the hype wore off, and I began to pay for my transgressions!

I looked down and my heart rate had jumped from the 88-90% range that I had been steadily holding for the last hour to the 95% range!!! Uh Oh... I thought... maybe I shouldn't have done that... I shook out my arms, eased up my stride, and focused on implementing a bit of active recovery without giving up to much pace... the course turned back out of the park and around a bend and then I was at mile 10.

...And right around mile 10 I hit my second wall... I only had 3 miles left, but I was suffering again... my first wall was more of a mental lapse but this wall was a physical one. I had only done 2 long runs of 13 miles or greater (the previous 2 weekends) and I had never ran this far at anything remotely resembling this pace... my fitness was running low, and I was forced to rely on my natural abilities and my guts!

The stretch between mile 10 and 11 was a long straightaway down an open road. I moved over to the far leftside of the road (most of the other runners were running on the right for some reason) so that I had an unobstructed view, focused on the next turn way up ahead, and then kicked it into auto-pilot.

I felt like I was still maintaining a steady pace but as I neared the turn I heard a voice behind me quickly approaching... someone behind me was just monologing away as if they were out for easy stroll without a care in the world... They were talking about marathon's past, and ultramarathons, and trail running... And then as I finally reached the turn I was overtaken by a wave of runners as the 3:10 pace group streamed past me; the voice behind me: the pace leader.

I felt a wave of anguish... had I really slowed down that much and given up so much time over the past mile? I latched onto the pace group once again and struggled to keep up... and then we passed the 11 mile mark... "about 1 minute ahead of pace" someone says... "Oops" says the pace leader "guess I got to talking and let the pace get away from me on that last mile" (turns out they had just ripped off a 6:55 mile)... Now I was really glad that I wasn't trying to BQ with this pace group!

At the 11.5 mile mark the half-marathoners and marathoners parted ways as the marathoners turned right and the half marathoners continuing straight towards the finish... The field thinned considerably after the marathoners split off... at this point I could see about 15 runners ahead of me and none of them looked like they were running particularly strong.

By know I knew that I had about 30 seconds in the bank on my 1:35 goal time plus an additional 59 seconds leeway on the 1:35:59 time I needed to qualify for the Chicago Marathon Corral B... now that the pressure was off I could relax and just focus on maintaining a decent pace while preparing for my 50 yard. I coasted on mile 12, passing a struggling competitor now and then, and then started gradually picking it up again on mile 13 knowing that the finish was at hand.

As we approached the stadium, Garmin was telling me that I had about .5 mile to go which equated to one lap around the outside of the stadium before we entered for the final 50 yard sprint to the finish. I looked behind me... nobody within reach of catching me... In front of me... about 7 runners loosely grouped together. I steadily picked it up until I was on the heels of the nearest runner as we rounded the final turn and headed toward the entrance of the stadium. We entered the stadium and as my feet touched down on the turf I geared it into overdrive and kicked it into overdrive... I sprinted past all seven runners nipping the last one right before the finish line (he was on the 20 yard line when I started)... Of course it helped that nobody else was kicking at all (mostly they were plodding along and I'm pretty sure they were just happy to be done)... I jogged through the chute, receiving my finishers medal, and then continued on to the end zone where I proceed to do 13 push-ups (one for each mile run)...

I'm sure I looked like a complete jackass, but at that moment of time I was a champion in my own mind. I had pushed through fatigue to finish the half-marathon and achieve my goal time!

________________________________________________________________________

And now... da stats...

Final time: 1:34:37 (PR of 5 minutes and 2 seconds)
Pace: 7:13
Overall Place: 106/5622
Division place: 19/320
Age Grade: 63%

Mile splits

Mile 1: 7:15
Mile 2: 7:12
Mile 3: 7:10
Mile 4: 7:07
Mile 5: 7:05
Mile 6: 7:10
Mile 7: 7:29
Mile 8: 7:10
Mile 9: 7:12
Mile 10: 7:13
Mile 11: 7:14
Mile 12: 7:26
Mile 13: 7:10
Last .07: 6:28 pace
Last 50 yards: 3:30 pace

All aboard the taper train...

2010-04-28T06:57:00.000-05:00

Insert: go check out Adam's 50$ giveaway over at I Am Boring

Next stop... Plansville...

Halfway through taper week... less than 72 hours from race time (breath, breath...)

Training mileage down a
Obsessing over upcoming event up a
Productivity at work down a
Blog posting up a

So as I mentioned in my last post, I drove to Champaign over the weekend and ran the half-marathon course... So now that I have the course committed to memory I'm able to mentally run through my race anytime (i.e. during meetings at work, while I'm laying in bed trying to sleep, when my wife is telling me about her day, etc.)... Ultimately, I'm hoping to go into the race on Saturday with a solid plan on how I'm going to approach each section of the race and follow it to my goal. So far, this is what I've come up with.

My goal: 1:35:29... significant because it's the goal I need to achieve to get into Corral B of the Chicago marathon this year (currently I'm in Corral C). I McMillan'd my recent 8k time of 32:20 and it tells me that an "equivalent performance" in a half-marathon would give me a time of 1:30:41... Not sure if I could actually hit the 1:30:xx mark quite yet (which would be a 9 minute PR), but with 5 minutes to play with I'm feeling relatively confident that I should be able to go sub 1:36 relatively easily if I can put together even a semblance of a decent performance...

My goal is also significant because it's the pace I'd need to maintain for a entire marathon in order to qualify for Boston...

My Plan: Lucky for me the marathon has a 3:10 pace group... so plan should be simple enough... start out with the pace group and use them to keep me from going out too fast... work my way to the front of the pace group by mile 8 (the first 7 miles are run on city streets but mile 8 enters into a park and we run on a paved trail for about a mile. The trail is narrower than the streets and I could definitely see congestion being an issue especially if people are running in packs).

Exit the park at mile 9 and then break away from the pace group and gradually start to pick up the pace. From there I plan to methodically pick off as many runners as I can, but all the while trying not to let my pace get too out of control because: I want to make sure I save some extra energy for a strong kick at the finish... having this bit of energy for the kick is particularly important because they'll be displaying the finish on the stadium screen as we sprint towards the 50 yard line of the football stadium.... So obviously I have to make sure that I have the energy to make anyone in front of me look like a fool as I sprint past them... but even more importantly, I have to make sure that nobody makes me look like a fool (read: I really really really don't want to get chick'd on the football field while it's projected on the big screen... oh please, oh please, don't let me get chick'd on the ol' grid-iron!!!).

So that's the plan... I'm just hoping that if I go over it enough in my mind I can convince myself to stick to it after the gun goes off!!!

Taper Madness

2010-04-27T09:37:00.000-05:00

My left knee just started aching last night which can mean only thing: It's taper time!!! And I have an acute case of TAPER MADNESS!!!... (which I just found out has it's own website www.tapermadness.org and forum... kind of like a support group for taperers!)

...Aches, pains, doubts, and strains springing abundantly like the weeds in my meagerly tended garden as the hours, minutes, and seconds slowly melt and drip together like a Salvador Dali painting on mushrooms (or wait... maybe that would make it look normal)... but I digress...

...except, what was I talking about again?... Oh yes... drug induced flashbacks... and why would I be talking about drug induced flashbacks? Because this Saturday I'll be running the Illinois half-marathon in Champaign, Il; home of the University of Illinois where I did my Undergrad (5+ years of my life that would be better off forgotten, and so I subsequently have).

But seriously, I'm super excited to be going back to my Alma Mater to burn up the streets of my old stomping grounds (except this time with no rioting)! So excited, in fact, that I drove into Champaign this past Saturday (about 100 mile drive from Peoria where I currently live) to survey the course... figured it be the perfect way to accomplish my last long run before the race... that and I wanted to make sure I was prepared to stay the course come race day, especially after reading a recent blog entry about someone who got misdirected during a recent half marathon and subsequently missed a top ten finish and a PR!

Some notes about the course: It takes us through campus, through the historic district of Urbana (think old brick buildings, and funky houses), then through seedy town (past the "Silver Bullet" strip club, the 'nicer' strip club in town; not that I would know anything about that), then through the burbs (think McMansions and golf courses), then on a one mile loop through a sculpture park (where these kids I knew used to go get high; not that I would know anything about that), and then back towards campus where the course wraps around into the football stadium and finishes on the 50 yard line.

Also, the course is extremely flat... In fact I don't think I encountered a single hill!!!

Let's just say that I think this race is going to be fast... how fast? More on that in my next post... as I continue to fight my Taper Madness by blogging away the hours, minutes, and seconds before race day...

Break out da funk..

2010-04-19T07:13:00.000-05:00

Last couple weeks I've been in a running funk. The kind where it takes all of your will power just to lace up your shoes (actually just tie them... it's not like I unlace my running shoes every time I run... in fact who am I kidding... rarely are they even untied; read: cram my foot into my running shoes and force the backs over my heels)... and then even after you force yourself out the door your pretty much consumed with thoughts of walking and/or turning around and cutting the run short through the entire run. The kind of funk where you're perpetually tired, aching, and unmotivated. Worst possible timing too, because I have a half marathon coming up in 13 days.

Fortunately, I think out of the thick if it (knock on wood)... I used some various tricks to help me snap out of it, which I'll share now.

Started running with my dogs: I've felt guilty for neglecting to get my dogs the proper exercise they deserve so I started taking them out for a 2 mile "warm up" before completing the rest of my run (warm up in quotations because the dogs are pretty much set on running sub 8 minute miles).
Switching up locations: I drove to a couple of the local parks to do my training runs. Definitely a welcome change of atmosphere as opposed to my mundane loops around my surrounding neighborhoods which I've run about umpteen times!
Slowing down and turning off the I-pod: left the I-pod at hope and tried to slow down a bit and simply enjoy running during this beautiful spring we're having! (as opposed to pushing the pace till it hurts behind my eyes and then cranking up my I-pod to distract me from the pain)
Drawing upon blogger buddy inspiration: I got home Thursday from my "warm up" with my dogs and seriously considered call it a day... I went to my blog with the intentions of venting out another crabby whiny entry (95% of the reason to have a blog in my humble opinion). Then I saw the 8 comments from my last crabby whiny entry as thought "Screw these people, I'm going running!!!"... Seriously though... it was more like an ah-ha moment: Am I really going to blog about how crappy I've been running or am I gonna man up, hit the road, and then blog about how great I've been running! so THANKS!!!!
Go Long: The long run is my favorite part about running... I just love going out and running non stop of a couple of hours... partly because it amazes me that I (or anyone really) could ever do this (sometimes it's hard just to get up off the couch!)... partly because it's so liberating... and mostly for the endorphins: seems like it takes about 7 mile start feeling the flow and after that my pace picks up, my stride smoothes out, my heart rate drops, and I get in this place where I feel like I'm effortlessly gliding along and that I could pretty much maintain it forever!
Dream Big: I came into Sunday with 25 miles on the week... so I decided to shoot for an even 40 (looking back at my training log I realized that this would be only the 5th time I went over 40 miles for a week and the other 4 times were during the peak of marathon training). In order to hit the 40 I'd need to do a 15 miler; 3 miles longer then my longest run all year and my longest training run since September 20th. So I went out and I did it... and now I feel great... In fact I negative split the run and finished the last 4 miles at a 7:45 pace!

So right now I feel pretty great... I'm going to take today off, rest up, and watch the Boston Marathon on Universal Sports (which BTW is costing me $4.99... What ever happened to free?!?!?... Oh well, small price to pay I guess... I just hope the streaming audio/video works better than it normally does now that I'm paying for it!!!) Good luck to everyone running today... I'll be watching for/thinking about you and hoping to join you in Boston one of these years!!!

__________________________________________________

Update on Boston marathon coverage... in a word: "shitty"... for some reason they heavily favored the women's race showing mostly either split screen or full screen of the woman's leaders... now nothing against the woman's racers, but the woman who won (Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopia) made a breakaway at mile 15 and didn't have anyone near here until mile 25 when the second place runner finally closed within 16 seconds of her. So basically I was just watching Teyba Erkesso running for about an hour straight...

...meanwhile the men actually had a pack, had surges, recoveries, lead changes, strategic moves.. or so I hear since they didn't bother to show most of it.

The announcing was pretty bad as well... it would be nice if they could find some guys who actually were a little more familiar with the runners and the race... it hardly phased them that the male winner ran a 2:05:51, a course recorder by over a minute and damn fast time on a notoriously tough Boston!!! They were much more interested in the fact that the winner, 21 year old Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot of Kenya has a very similar name to Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot who had won Boston 4 times in the past (in fact, I think they mentioned it about 100 times!!!)... they also conjectured that Meb Keflezighi must be hurt since he finished well behind the winner with a time of 2:09:24 even though he was only 9 seconds off his PR for the marathon, set last fall when he won the NYC marathon in 2:09:15...

P.S.: Sorry about the photo... but nothing says "Funk" like George Clinton in a man-diaper... Also, I actually saw George Clinton and the P-Funk All-stars perform when I was a freshman in college. I got a free ticket to the show just by signing up for a credit card... best 4000$ worth of interest I've ever spent!!!!!

Working hard or hardly working

2010-04-13T09:51:00.000-05:00

Its been a whirlwind couple weeks for me… adjusting to working second shift (2:30-10:30) and the subsequent lack of sleep its resulting in, four 12 hour shifts, three day weekend on the roof, then a week full of yard work and garage cleaning by day, real work by night… and right now I’m in jury duty by day (they have laptop access!) and working by night… and all the while the laundries been piling up and the sink is always half-full of dishes… and the result: My running has been suffering!!!

it started with the roofing (all daylight hours on the roof + not trusting the drivers around my neighborhood to be attentive and sober even when it is light out = no running)… after the roofing was done I was sore!!! Working on a slant for such a long amount of time really did a number on my tendons, so I decided (after one horribly depressing and uninspired 3 mile run/walk) that I better take a few more days off.

So I took about a week off (minus the 3 miler)… so I should be refreshed right??? But actually I’m tired (from my random schedule and total lack of routine), rusty (from my lack of running), and cranky (also from my lack of running)… Turns out I’m more of endorphins addict than I though.

Plan for this week… get through jury duty, get back into training mode (at least 30 miles with a long run of at least 12), catch up on my blogging, start using daily mile… and of course have tons of fun!

Rambling on the roof

2010-04-05T17:24:00.001-05:00

Today is my fourth day off from running in a row :(... Why?... Because I just spent 44 of the last 74 hours re-roofing my garage... And the worst part of it all is that my entire body is sorer now than I've been in years (since the summer of 2002 to be exact, when I graduated with my Bachelor's degree and immediately took a general labor position working concrete)... I definitely renewed my appreciation for the fact that I don't work manual labor jobs anymore. I remember the old timers in the concrete yard who had been working there for 20+ years... they were pretty haggard; bad backs, bad arms, (and I don't even want to know what 20 years of breathing concrete dust does to your lungs).

Oh well... at least I finally got my garage roof fixed... A tree fell on it last spring and knocked a hole in it and it's slowly been accumulating water damage ever since...

Some notes about the job:

-I had 500 dollars in Lowe's gift certificates from refinancing my mortgage last year so the whole job only cost me 60 bucks, including 21 bundles of shingles, flashing, and 4 sheets of new plywood to replace the old rotted boards.

-I saved an additional 10% by going to the post office and picking up a change of address packet (these contain 10% coupons off of all purchases at Lowes among other things)

-They now keep the change of address packets behind the counter at the post office (the lady behind the counter told me that people were taking them all and then selling the coupons on ebay)

-When I went to Lowe's to buy the shingles (I picked up 18 bundles on the first go around) the checkout person asked me if I needed any help loading the singles... normally I say no, but I had been pulling shingles and plywood off my garage roof all day and decided it would be nice to have a hand since each bundle weighs about 80 pounds... I pulled my truck around to the exit and started loading shingles... after I had loaded about 5 bundles a kid came over to give me a hand... He lifted one bundle and put in in my truck... I loaded about 4 more bundles as he stressed and strained and finally loaded a second bundle into my truck... I loaded 6 more bundles as he attempted to load a third bundle... he managed to slide it off the rolling pallet and onto the concrete of the parking lot and then continued to stress and strain as he frivolously attempted to get the upper hand on the bundle... he strained to lift the bundle off the concrete far enough so he could get his hands under it but ultimately was only managing to bend and mangling my shingles... Finally after I had finished loading the rest of the shingles I told him to stand back and lifted the last (slightly mangled) bundle myself... Some help that guy was. I'm thinking he might want to look for another job.

-The funny part was that loading the truck wasn't even the hard part... when I got back to my house, I still had to hoist each bundle up out of the truck, balance the bundle on my shoulder, and then climb up a ladder with it to get it onto the roof...

-Before I started the job I was afraid of heights... I had actually been putting it off for over a year because everytime I got up on the roof I felt like I was about to fall to my death... I finally manned up a got to work... after about 3 hours I up there I was more or less comfortable and by the end of the third day I was dancing around on the roof like a fool.

Hopefully, despite my full body soreness, my running specific muscles have gotten a rest... I plan testing this theory my doing 5 mile tomorrow and 15 on Wednesday.

switching it up

2010-04-02T11:03:00.001-05:00

Got tired of looking at myself sitting on top of Mt. Lassen so I switched my banner image to a picture I took after a long ascent up a bluff in the Negev Desert.... plus I had to change my mission statement to reflect that I'm no longer a mid-pack runner but am now an upper-mid-pack runner...

Also, added a daily mile widget... I've been on the daily mile for a couple months now, but haven't started using it yet... maybe now I will.

2010 goals revisited... plus March stat update!

2010-03-31T15:30:00.000-05:00

As March comes to a close its time to do some end of the month blogger paper work.

At the beginning of the year I posted my goals for 2010... now that 2010 is 25% done let's see how I'm doing...

Goals:

1. ~~Break 20 min in the 5k~~... Booya foolz!!!! Now technically I haven't even competed in a 5k this year... but since I ran the first 5k of my 8k under 20 minutes I have no trouble crossing this one off my list... maybe this needs to be revised to sub-19???

2. Break 1:35:00 in a half marathon... I guess I have to run a half marathon first... check back in with me on May 2nd!

3. Break 3:20:00 in the Chicago marathon... see above... check back in with me on 10/11/10...

4. ~~Join the local running group~~... check that one off my list... plus I got the 10% discount off my shoes to prove it!

5. ~~Donate to charity through running~~... first race of the year equals first donation... 16 dollars for the 8k, plus 8 more for the PR... although, technically I haven't actually donated the money yet... I'd like to wait till at least my half-marathon is over so that I can donate in a larger chunk

6. hit the track... although I have done some speed work I have yet to hit the track... mostly because my work schedule is 2:30 pm to 10:30 pm and I don't really feel comfortable hanging around at the High School track while school is in session... check back with me come summer

And last but definitely not least...

7. Have loads of fun... Well we're only 1/4 of the way through the year so I can't exactly cross this one off, but so far so good... I've been having the most fun I've had in a long time, not just in running but in life in general! Plus I have a lot of exciting activities lined up for the future... Good riddence to 2009, Hello 2010!!!

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Next on the agenda March 2010 stat corner...

This month I decided I'd go ahead and use a picture of myself running instead of a picture of Albert Pujols so I dug up my rookie card from my old high school year book (although I still secretly wish I was Albert Pujols)...

March was definitely a good month with a mileage increase from February's 85 up to 125... also several break through workouts and a couple quality long runs... Hopefully I can continue these trends through April as I slowly approach the beginning of my Marathon training plan.

Confessions of a technology addict

2010-03-30T19:32:00.000-05:00

I had quite the scare today… I was in the midst of getting geared up for my scheduled 4 mile recovery run… I had my IPOD charged and freshly Loaded with Jay-Z's “The Blueprint: III"... I had my heart rate monitor strap tight and safely adjusted to the locked position… but then as I tightened up my Garmin Forerunner 305 around my wrist and tried to turn it on I realized I had a problem… My Garmin would not respond… Nothing but blankness!!! Oh the terror!!!

I held down the "On" button for 15 seconds… still nothing… I began to panic… I started to mash the buttons in random order… I could feel my heart rate increasing (at least I think it was… no way of telling for sure without the Garmin to display the signal from my heart rate monitor strap)…

Thoughts started cascading though my head: How could this happen? It was fine yesterday… was the battery dead? I had it plugged in! What if it were dead? I guess I can still run today but how about tomorrow??? Do I have enough money in the bank right now to buy a new Garmin??? Should I buy it on-line and have it overnight shipped??? Or should I go to Best Buy??? How will I ever run again!!!!

I tried everything I could think of (mashing buttons… unplugging and plugging the USB connector… smashing the Garmin with a brick*)… nothing was working… there was only one hope left… Google…

I typed “Garmin 305 forerunner won't respond” into Google’s omnipotent search window, clicked “I’m Feeling Lucky”, and prayed…

.3 seconds later I was whisked away to “FAQ: Why won’t my Forerunner 205/305 turn on after charging?” ... 8 seconds after that I had my answer.

Turns out that you can "reset" a Garmin by holding the "Mode" and "Reset" buttons at the same time for a couple seconds... I held my breath and pushed the buttons... and guess what: It WORKED!!!!!

I was back in business... but my nerves were frazzled... luckily there was nothing left to do but settle myself with an (exactly) 4 mile recover run at a 75-80% of maximum heart rate effort!

*FYI... the picture I used for this post is a picture of my Garmin

Progressing through Progressions

2010-03-29T10:29:00.000-05:00

So I'm running a half-marathon all the way off in May... Oh crap! That's like a little more than a month away!!! Time to get training...

So last monday I sat down to review my 2010 training log and what do I see... let's see:

Speed

3 - interval work outs a

3 - tempo runs a

Shamrock Shuffle: 5 miles at 6:30 pace a

Endurance

January 18: 10 miles

February 15: 10 miles

March 6: 11 miles

COMPLETE AND UDDER FAILURE (moo)

I had the best of intensions to work in some more long runs but then life (spending 16 hrs 2 Sundays ago driving back and forth across central Illinois to help an old college friend move) and running (last weekend's race fell on long run day) got in the way... so with 5 more weeks of training until race day it was time to re-evaluate my plan and start building up some stamina.

My solution: back off on tempo runs, increase mileage on Wednesday's mid-week run, & go long on Sunday's NO MATTER WHAT!!!!

So last Wednesday (3/24), instead of going the 5 GA I had scheduled, I squeezed in a 10 miler... turned out to be a good run at a good pace, but by the end I could definitely tell my stamina was lacking.

Then yesterday (3/28), I hit the Rock Island trail for a 12 mile progression run...

So, just in case you don't know, a progression run is a training run where you start off slower and then finish faster... there are multiple ways to accomplish this: 3/1 ( run the first three quarters of the run at long run pace and the last quarter fast), thirds (break your long run into thirds running each third faster than the last), super fast finish (run most of the run at long run pace but then run the last 3-5 miles at near race pace), etc...

For yesterday's run I choose to use my own personal spin on thirds/halves: First four miles at MP + 10-20%, second four miles steadily build up the pace, and final four miles really push it in...

Here's the splits:

First Third
Mile 1: 8:20
Mile 2: 8:04 (a little too fast, but I had to pass someone on the trail who was running just slightly slower than me)
Mile 3: 8:20
Mile 4: 8:24

Second Third
Mile 5: 8:17
Mile 6: 8:15 (gradually picking it up before the halfway point)
Mile 7: 7:46
Mile 8: 7:28

Final Third
Mile 9: 6:51
Mile 10: 7:14
Mile 11: 7:07
Mile 12: 7:10

To sum it up: great confidence building run, though i'm not going to lie... it took a lot of focus to maintain pace and form during the final two miles.

Also of note: first 12 miler ever!!! I checked my logs and I had seven 10 milers, a few 11 milers, a couple of 13 milers, but absolutely zero 12 milers!!!

Finally: Great week of working out, but I think I need to CHILL OUT... I feel great about my progress as a runner, which results in harder and harder training runs... I have to remember to slow it down sometimes and get in some easy runs (easier said than done)... otherwise it's only going to lead to staleness, burnout, or injury!!!

and Lastly: Thanks to anyone who read these random training ramblings... I think I need to start using my daily mile account, because I'm thinking that detailing my runs on a mile per mile pace basis does not make the most interesting blogger material :)

Shamrock Shuffle in photos

2010-03-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

Check it out... my electronic chip time (32:23) is actually SLOWER than the clock time!!! There can only be one logical explanation.... I RAN SO FAST I BENT THE RULES OF SPACE AND TIME!!!!

A Few more photos during and after my run... you best believe i GIMP'd those "proof" stamps right the f*ck out of my pictures... yeah right I'm going to pay 20 bucks for a photo... who's the sucker now!!!

<--- Charging up "Mt Everest"

Too tired for the paparazzi --->

<------ And here's a picture of lil' Paulo... don't be fooled by his stature; the kid is an animal... He ended up running sub-32 minutes!!!! Plus he's even shorter than he looks in this picture... Take note of how his feet are about a foot off the ground while he's in mid stride; that's levitation holmes!!!

UPDATE: Last night I went ahead and e-mailed in the photograph above of me crossing the finish line at 32:20... today I checked my results again...

I gained 4 seconds and 10 places through my "patented virtual e-mail kick"!!! Now, I'm in the top 500!!!! I feel better now, but it makes me wonder... what could my time be if I send in the picture below!!! :)

Shamrock Shuffle aftermath and what's up next...

2010-03-24T13:57:00.000-05:00

Shamrock Shuffle finally posted my results... chip time 32:23... which puts me in 501st place... lol... funny thing was that I probably could have kicked past a couple of people at the end of the race but consciously decided that there was no good reason to put forth that little bit of extra effort. I was thinking that in a race with a 36,000 people field it couldn't possibly matter if I end up ahead or behind 1 or 2 of them... If I could have passed just one more person I could have been in the top 500 (for whatever arbitrary value that's worth) ... oh well, now I have a goal for next year... plus it serves me right for being such a whiny pussy at the end of the race!!!

(and speaking of whiny pussy)... man my calves hurt... I would think that after putting in nearly 1000 miles over the last 12 months the muscle soreness I'm feeling right now would be a thing of the past... I guess that just goes to show that it takes a lot more muscle force to propel my body at a 6:30 pace as opposed to my usual 8:00ish training pace (Meow).
_________________________________________
Ok, so now that my racing season has officially started what's next??? The Illinois half-marathon, that's what!!! And what better way to both prepare for running the Illinois half-marathon and celebrate the University of Illinois Men's basketball team's advancement to the not-so-ELITE 8 of the NIT than buying a brand new pair of customized NIKE LUNAR-ELITE's...

That's right... I'm going to be stylin these bad boyz out all the way to the Chicago Marathon Corral B with a sub-1:36 half-marathon PR...

Shamrock Shuffle 2010 Race Report

2010-03-22T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Race: Bank of America's Shamrock Shuffle 8k (4.97 miles)
The Site: Downtown Chicago next to Millennium park... same starting and finish points as the Chicago Marathon
The Time: 8:55 am (5 minutes to race)
The Location: The front of Corral A... reserved for me, the elitest of the non-elite, and anyone else who can run faster than 22 minutes in a 5k
The Weather: A surprisingly pleasant overcast day with a temp of about 38 degrees (after a previous day of sleet and freezing rain)

I was near the front so after the “gun” went off it only took me about 5 seconds to cross the starting line… not bad for a 36,000 people race… of course with only a hundred or so people in front of me the 36,000 people field was basically a moot point… for now anyway...

One of the few people in front of me was Paolo Tiongson, 11 years old, from Skokie, Illinois… It was pretty funny because the kid must have been about 3 ½ feet tall max and also kinda scary as he was swallowed by the stampede of runners charging out of the gates.

I tried to keep my pace under control and not start too fast. I focused on keeping my breathing relaxed, my upper body loose, and my stride fluent. Only problem was that everyone else must have been going way to slow because I was passing people right and left. Soon I passed lil’ Paolo (actually I probably could have hurdled him with out breaking stride) and I was well on my way to the race of my life!

As we approached the 1 mile mark I looked down at my Garmin and realized that something must be wrong… the Garmin said that I had already run 1.25 miles but my time was only at 5:40 (Downtown Chicago does a number on a Garmin… more on that later). I passed the mile mark at about 5:55, a new one mile PR!!! Great… except now the prerace adrenaline was starting to wear off and my “relaxed” pace wasn’t feeling nearly so relaxed anymore… FAIL!!!

Knowing that I still had four miles left and considering that I was beginning to feel sick to my stomach I knew I had to slow down… problem was, when you go out waaayyy too fast, and your in the front of a field of 36,000 people you’re inevitably going to start getting passed. I hate getting passed so I tried to hang on as best as I could for the next mile and subsequently hit the two mile mark at 12:25… a new 2 mile PR!!! Great… except now I was really starting to hurt and I still had about 3 miles left.

At this point I was just trying to hold on and not slow down too much… but as I lumbered along, I was really starting to get passed…. Chicked on my left, senior citizen on my right, senior chicked on my left again… and then here comes lil’ Paolo again blazing past me… Groan… very demoralizing yet I still forged on… and passed the 5k point at 19:55, a new 5k PR by over 2 minutes!!!... Except now I realized that before... you know, when I thought I was hurting... well, I was wrong because now I was really actually hurting…

And now the mental games started…. If I can just slow down and maintain a 7 minute pace for the next 1.85 miles I’ll still break 34:00, but if I can get to the 4 mile point in under 26 I can maybe break 33:00 I tell myself. So I keep the legs going, trying to keep at least some semblance of good form… plus I start randomly grunting and muttering obscenities at the course to distract myself from the pain I’m feeling.

I hit the four mile point at 25:50 and change and know that if I can just hold on for 1 more mile I can break my super secret goal time of 33 minutes and if I can push it at all during that last mile I might even break my double super-duper secret subconscious (secret even to myself) goal time of 32:30…

I continue on, fighting for each breath, willing my legs to keep turning over. I turn the corner onto Michigan Avenue and begin my final approach down the last long straightaway on my way towards Roosevelt hill and then the finish line. As I trudge down this final straightway, still cursing and grunting, still wanting to quit, and still getting passed on my left and right, I raise up my hands in an attempt to hype up the spectators(anything to distract from the fact that I’m about to keel over and die)… and then finally we make it to Roosevelt Rd… I’m almost to the finish… just one obstacle left… Roosevelt hill…

Anyone who’s ever ran the Chicago marathon is probably well aware of Roosevelt hill… most notable as being the only hill on the entire 26.2 two mile course and for the fact that it shows up right when you’re in your most vulnerable condition, making what normally would be a unremarkable incline into the “Mt. Everest of Chicago”.

As I turned on to Roosevelt hill I decided that I had quite enough of getting passed… it was time to do some passing!!! So I started charging up the hill… for about 10 meters… at which point a harrowing gust of Lake Michigan wind (“Windy” city ring a bell anyone) threatened to knock me on my arse. My charge was thwarted… so I just put my head down and forced my way up the rest of the hill at a pathetic saunter… And then I had crested the hill and I was making the final turn towards the finish… 300 meters and I'd finally be done with this whole debacle… finish line in site, it was time for the "legendary" kick… I picked up my pace, dug deep, and reached for that last bit… only to find that there wasn’t anything left… 10 meters later and I had slowed back down again and was resigned to just half-ass it in to the finish… I leaned forward letting the dead weight of my blood deprived head carry me as I stumbled on towards the finish line… until with about 100 meters left I heard my friend Symons’ fiancé, Julian, yelling at me to push it… Damn it… I never should have talked all that shit about my “legendary” kick… oh well, I had to at least try... so I dug down once more, even deeper, and found that I did in fact have just a little bit of gas in the tank (inferior grade E85 at the very least)… and unleashed a “pretty much unexceptional, never to be spoken of again” ~~kick~~ slight but marginally acceptable speed up that carried me through to the finish.

Final Stats:

Distance: 8K (4.97 miles)
Clock Time: 32:25, Garmin Time: 32:20, Chip time: XX:XX:XX???!!!!????!!!?? (a 5 minute impovement over last years race!)
Pace: 6:30 miles
HR Avg/Max: 176/187

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Epilog:

As of now I still don't have any results from my race even though the results have already been published over at active.com. I called a complaint line and they told me that they've been having a lot of problems with results not registering, mostly because they switched from the Champion Chip timing system to the disposable D-tag timing system... Supposedly the D-tags are cheaper for the race organizers than the Champion chips... too bad they couldn't pass along some of that savings through the 45$ sign-up fee (grumble grrr...). I've been assured that they're working hard to fix the snafu so hopefully I'll get some official results eventually. After all if I wanted to rely on my Garmin to measure and time a race course I wouldn't have to pay 45$ race fee, 20$ parking fee, drive into downtown Chicago twice (once to pick up the packet and once for the race)etc... I could just head out the door anytime that I'd like... oh well, hopefully they can work out the kinks now, so that it doesn't happen to me again in the Chicago Marathon...

Speaking of Garmin, here's a picture of the elevation profile my Garmin captured while running through the city.

For those of you unfamiliar with the city of Chicago, let me assure you that there are not multiple 1200ft peaks to climb, unless of course I was superman and I was amusing myself by hoping over the Sears Tower... (but of course I'm not superman... or am I????)...

Also, after the race I was supposed to meet up with my friend Symons(who ran a 5 minute PR with a time of 36:45, BTW!!!) and his fiancé Julian at Buckingham Fountain... again for those unfamiliar with Chicago, that's the fountain most notably know from its apperance in the intro to the greatest sitcom of all time "Married with Childern"... (I'm being sarcastic there BTW... or am I????)...

Anyway, I wound up waiting at the fountain for 20 minutes before Julian eventually showed up so I spent my time doing a little two mile cooldown (or rather since the fountain sits right in the path of the freezing Lake Michigan winds and I was only wearing a t-shirt I should probably refer to it as a "stay warm" instead of a "cool down" since cooling down was not the issue)...Anywho, it was a real cool course so I decided to share it just in case one of you guys are in Chicago and want to run an awesome 2 mile loop(s)...

haha... that's it for now... hopefully I'll have some pirated race photos and some official results to share in the next couple days.

I won...

2010-03-19T17:23:00.000-05:00

...third place in Razz's "Global Warming, My Ass*" 6.66 mile virtual race... (although according to his site my bizarro world evil nemisis ESEthan actually won)

I got to admit I feel kind of jaded... I was looking forward to the day when I was finally fast enough to enter a race and win some hardware (I was thinking like 3rd place in my age group in a local 5k or something)... I was going to write a blog post about it; talking about how I was a rising champion, slowly moving from the middle of the pack to the front of the middle of the pack.

Instead my first racing sucess comes in a "virtual" (read: not real) race in which most of the people running weren't even trying very hard... which makes the fact that I placed almost kind of embarassing.

Oh well, at least I got a real race this weekend although with 36,000 people signed up there's zero chance of me placing... In fact I could be in the top 10% of the field and still have 3000 people finishing in front of me... which is good! Because that ultimately means that the person I'm truely competing against is the one that matters the most: Myself (plus my buddy Symons of course)

Dance like a butterfly, sting like a Bee

2010-03-17T18:35:00.000-05:00

I’m ancy with anticipation. Why? Because my “unofficial” racing season officially starts Sunday at which time I will be traveling up to Chicago and participating in the Shamrock Shuffle.

This will be the third consecutive time I run this 8k (4.97 miles) event, which starts and ends and the same location as the Chicago Marathon and boasts a field of 36,000 runners. However, unlike the other two times I've ran this race, this time I'm actually in shape!

I don’t really have a goal time in mind, because I’m not exactly sure what my capabilities are at this point but I’d like to think that I could at least break 35 minutes. What I do know is that I’m ready to race! I’m ready to compete. I’m ready to get out there and toe the line with the baddest of the bad…. And when that gun goes off, you’d best believe I’m going to take off like a bat out of hell. I’m going to push the pain threshold to the very limits and then I’m going to push it some more. I’m going to be running like a madman down the streets of Chicago, passing foolz left and right, all the way to the finish line… and when the finish line is in my sights? Uh Oh… you better watch out then because I’m going to unleash my “legendary” kick!!!

Alrighty then… I feel much better now. I got the hard part out of the way a.k.a. talking mad shit… now all I’ve got to do is back it up.

6.66 Virutal RR

2010-03-15T12:01:00.000-05:00

I signed up for the race innocently enough… a 6.66 mile virtual run? Sure sounds fun. Count me in… But then I started to see the signs. I had stumbled onto something big. Something dangerous, yet alluring… I started to recognize patterns…

It started with the title: “Global Warming, My Ass!* 6.66 Mile run”… but move the comma and you get… “Global War, Ming my Ass!* 6.66 Mile run”… A running ritual which, if successfully completed, could set off a chain reaction resulting in a global war that could set human civilization back to the Ming Dynasty!!!
That’s right, the Ming Dynasty 1368-1644… you know who else was alive during the Ming Dynasty? LEONARDO DEVINCI (made famous in the Devinci Code by Dan Brown)
But let’s take a closer look at the name Dan Brown. A two syllabic name, Daniel, shortened to Dan, followed by a single syllabic last name, Brown. Guess, who else’s name follows this pattern? Al(bert) Gore! Creator of both Global Warming and the Internet… The two phenomena which make this little event possible… Plus you know who else’s name follows this little pattern (or "code" if you will) Thomas Hanks. That’s right the notorious Forrest Gump himself!
Now let’s take a step back to the whole Ming Dynasty thing… Who would benefit from sending us back to the Ming Dynasty? An Archeology Student Of Course!!! Why study the past when you could live in it!!! And you know who’s a archeology student? Xenia, the person who suggested the distance for this race (the conspiracy deepens!!!)
And speaking of Xenia, do you happen to know who Xenia’s BFF is??? Beelzebub!
And now let’s go back to the all-important comma. Without it there would be no asterisk in the race title… the final clue that busted this whole conspiracy wide open… go over to Razz’s blog and check out the asterisk. Looks harmless enough, right… but when I zoomed in and enhanced… here’s what I got.

There was no doubt in my mind. I had somehow been invited to take part in an ancient (circa 1996) runner’s ritual; a ritual where runners across the blogosphere sacrifice their time and effort to the Running God’s. I knew the dangers I would face if I continued down the path I was on. Unfortunately, I had already committed myself by heedlessly typing “I’m in” in the comment section of a blog. It was too late to turn back now! I must run the virtual race and see how it all played out.

I scheduled my race day for Saturday, a day when I was already scheduled to do a 5 mile tempo run. Appropriately, it happened to be cold and rainy on Saturday… (feel free to read this part out loud in a Dana Carvey church lady voice) how convenient! I was therefore resigned to head to my gym to complete my virtual race on the (cue thunderous echoing voice) Dreadmill of Doom!!!

I stepped onto the Dreadmill of Doom!!! and attempted to program in a custom distance of 6.66 miles… and after some head scratching, cursing, and button mashing I was on my way. A nice 6.66 mile tempo run at a 7:16 pace.

It took about 15 seconds for the treadmill to get up to speed. So I figured I’d briefly knock down the pace a tiny bit to make up for lost time. I was now at 7:11 pace.

The first mile went by without a hitch. The pace was brisk but manageable. This isn’t so bad I thought to myself… but then, suddenly, at the one mile mark exactly, the treadmill started to slow down to a 15:00 minute pace... all by itself!!! (read: having nothing to do with my inexact abilities to properly program a treadmill) That’s right, the Dreadmill of Doom!!! had become possessed by a demonic spirit.

The slowdown was fairly brief, but now I had lost even more time. There was only one thing to do… Bump up the speed again, this time to a 6:58 pace. I figured I’d maintain that pace till the 30 minute mark and then start easing back down, thus accomplishing a solid (if a little fast by my standards) tempo run.

I continued on at this clip until the 3.33 mile mark. Halfway done but now I was beginning to hurt and I was starting to regret those last 5 beers and steakburger with cheesefries I had consumed the night before.

At this point I decided to check my heart rate with the hand grippers; big mistake! As I5 curled my fingers around the metal grips I got a reading, 165, but after releasing the grip the machine continued to register a heartbeat. There was only one plausible explanation: the daemon spirit in the treadmill had stolen my heart!

It was now 30 minutes in and I had gone about 4.25 miles. I was also starting to get extremely tired and dehydrated. However, I couldn’t risk slowing down now. If the treadmill were to stop at this point I could only logically assume that my daemon possessed heart would stop as well!

I told myself that I should just hold on till the 40 minute mark. I forged ahead. As the 40 minute mark approached I was starting to question if I was going to be able to finish. Luckily at this point the treadmill reached 5.66 miles and the daemon decided it was time to take over again! Again, the treadmill began slowing down to a 15 minute pace... all by itself!!! This time I was ready however, and quickly bumped the pace back to a 7:30 clip. With one mile left I clenched my teeth and finished out the race. As the 6.66 mile mark approached the machine began to count down: 3,2,1… and then mercifully the belt slowed to a stop. I had done it! I had survived the virtual run, beating the daemon and escaping its icy grasp on my way to a brand new 6.66 mile PR!!!

Final results: 6.66 miles, 47:16, a 7:06 AKA 6 minute and 66 second per mile pace

Epilog: If your reading this it means you are one of the few survivors of the global war. Welcome to the second Ming Dynasty. All in all it’s not so bad here. Sure, the zombie emperor can be cruel at times and eating with chopsticks is a pain in the ass, but you get used to it. And hey, look on the bright side… the vases are amazing!!! Just becareful not to break one… it might just contain your soul!!!! HAHAHAHAHA

Too much time... Too little time

2010-03-11T17:38:00.000-06:00

Warning: Stream of consciousnessy type post

Lately I've found myself posting on this blog a lot... Pretty much because a) I enjoy it & b) I've had a lot of free time on my hands and screwing around on the internet always seems a lot more appealing than actually attempting to accomplish anything productive.

Got me thinking about some of the elements that actually go into creating a successful blog.

1. You have to be at least marginally interesting (although this is the internet after all so the bar isn't exactly set very high, especially considering that this guy has something like 10 million views on some of his youtube videos).

2. You have to maintain the blog through frequent updates. Otherwise, people will lose interest.

3. You don't want to post too often otherwise you'll over saturate the market and people will lose interest. Also you'll be contributing to "blogger guilt". That's when you're too busy doing "real world" activities to keep up with your own blog or comment on the blogs you follow. Yep, that's a real thing! Urbandictionary.com says so, and it's on the internet so it must be true!!!

...so that got me thinking about "Tivo guilt" ... Yep, that's real too, and even has it's own CNN.com story. That's when you have a Tivo full of shows and not enough time to watch them.

...which led me to think about how sad we humans are and how we'll never be truly happy...

We can transmit our thoughts to billions of people worldwide, we can watch 1000's of television programs on 100's of channel at anytime we want... and are we satisfied??? No... we're guilty!!!... Hate to be cliche but what would the starving children of Africa say about that?

I say this all in a tongue-in-cheek way but it is funny how easily we begin to take the miracles in our lives for granted (cars that can take us anywhere we want whenever we want, planes that can fly us halfway around the world, even television) and start focusing on the negative (the price of gas, cramped airline seats and flight delays, there's nothing on tv tonight or my screen is only 42 inches 720p and i want a 55 inch 1080p.

Anyway, that's enough about me being a bummer for one day.

I think I'm going to ignore it all for now, enjoy the simple things in life, and go for a run!!! All I'll need to be happy then is the great outdoors, a soothing wind at my back, and the warm sun on my face...

...plus of course a wrist mounted GPS device that can pinpoint my location anywhere in the world within 10 feet while recording my heartrate... and BTW, can't they make this thing any smaller?!? IT'S LIKE WEARING A DAMN BRICK ON MY WRIST!!!!!

Tales from the Gym (part 3)

2010-03-09T20:50:00.000-06:00

This will (hopefully) be my last tales from the gym for the foreseeable future… I’ve ran the last 4 days (24 miles) outside and I think I’ve successfully readapted for the time being…. But for now... here it is... another exciting installment of TALES FROM THE GYM!!!

Chapter 3: Track Bowling

My gym has a indoor track - 13 laps to a mile - which means if you try to run anything much faster than an 8 minute mile pace you begin to feel like you’re running in the gravatron…

Here’s a little diagram I mocked up of the track setup.

Now this track has 3 separate lanes and it’s common policy at the gym for all runner’s to occupy the outermost lane while walkers use the inner two (which are 14 laps to a mile and 15 laps to a mile). This is fine except, as you can see, there are 5 separate doorways that all open onto the outermost lane of the track. --- So that means that if I wanted to run a mile… hmmm, lets see… that’s 13 laps… times 5… carry the 2… = ABOUT A GAZILLION opportunities for people to step directly in front of you while you’re trying to run!!!

Now sure… they’re multiple signs hanging on, around, and in front of each doorway advising members to “Caution: Please Watch for Runner’s When Entering Track”. However, if you’ve read my previous “Tales From the Gym” post, then you’re well aware that reading and following signs is not a forte for many of the people who frequent my gym... which leads to the phenomenon that I’m going to discuss today: Track Bowling.

Definitions:

Track Bowling - When you're running around the track and run smack into someone as they step out in front of you.

The Spare - When they step out leaving me just enough time to channel my inner Barry Sanders (or for my younger readers: Chris Johnson) and nimbly dodge out the of way... sparing us both from injury and disaster.

The Strike - A direct hit!!! When they step out in front of me at I don't have enough time to dodge, but do have enough time to get my guard up to protect myself as I run them over!!!

Foot Fault - They step one with just one foot, giving me time to either hurdle, parry, or stomp the offending foot.

The Sleeper - When you dodge around one person only to run into another who is occupying the middle lane.

The Hook - When one of the walkers in the middle lane is too occupied texting on their cell phone to notice they're coming up on a turn in the track causing them to walk straight into the outer lane while allowing me to follow the curve and hook into them.

7 - 10 Split - When the same person walks out in front of me on one side of the track, walks across the inside of the track through the exercise equipment area, and then walks out in front of me again as I come around on the other side of the track... normally some meathead going from the stretch room to the weight room or vise-versa.

The Turkey - When the same person walks out in front of me three times in a session... Funny thing is that they always have that shocked deer in the headlights look when they realize that I'm barreling down on them... common buddy, three times in one workout? WTF... are you the guy from Memento or something?

Gutter Ball - When the entire track is occupied because "El Gordo" the fat trainer and his buddies are standing around in front of the weight room shooting the shit and you are forced to run off the track onto the exercise equipment area to get around them.

The 300 game - When I complete an entire indoor track workout without running into or dodging anyone!!! (BTW, has yet to happen)

Something that always amazes me at the gym: How people can manage to be so completely self-absorbed while simultaneously lacking any semblance of self-awareness…

The smell of fresh air, roadkill, & exhaust (plus global warming is real!)

2010-03-06T16:16:00.000-06:00

Finally a run worth blogging about!!!

It was a beautiful day today. Full sun and 49 degrees! You know what the temp was when I went running last Saturday? 29 degrees. That's a 20 degree swing in one week people.... and global warming is a lie???... Global warming is real!!! And I have the data to prove it!!! In fact at this rate of global warming we can expect temperatures in the 160's by the end of April!!!... but I digress.

49 degrees, full sun, put on some shorts its time to run.

I had a 4 miler scheduled for today but decided that since the weather was cooperating so nicely I would switch it up and do the 11 miler I had scheduled for Sunday instead.

First outdoor long run of the year and longest of the year! I started out "easy", watching my heartrate, trying to keep in around the 140 BPM range. After the first mile I realized that I was running a 8:00 pace, not a tempo pace by any means but probably faster than long run pace, but the heart rate doesn't lie so I kept going.

I headed out into the countryside. The air was clean and fresh, at least until I started passing the dead raccoons... ahhh the smell of roadkill. There's nothing quite like a lung full of that. Oh well, better than concentrated gym member B.O.

Hit the 5 mile point at 39:00, one minute ahead of 8:00 pace. By now my heartrate was up to 150... still not bad though. I told myself I'd try to keep up the pace till mile 8 and then I'd ease it in... Oh the lies we tell ourselves while we run.

At mile 7 I came out of the countryside and back into the city. I was greeted by the wonderful smell of car exhaust. Yum!!!

At 7.25 miles I hit a monster hill (.4 miles long according to Garmin). This slowed my pace and upped my heartrate to 170. By mile 8 my heartrate had crept back down to 160 but I had lost some time and was now only 10 seconds ahead of 8:00 pace. Oh well, time to ease it in right? Wrong!!!

I heard somewhere that it's good to finish long runs at a strong pace so that you're body could adapt to maintaining speed when you're fatigued... So I went ahead and kicked it up a notch and sped up to a 7:30 pace, ending my run winded, tired, but satisfied. All in all, not as fast as I hope to be, but a lot faster than I expect to be considering it's the first week of my training cycle and my longest run in 5 months!

Any other smells that I enjoyed during my run; the smell of a guy standing on the corner smoking a Swisher Sweet and the old lady across the street, getting into her car, who was wearing way too much old lady perfume (funny enough, of all the smells I encountered on my run, this one was by far the worst... I literally had to hold back a gag!).

Overall stats: 11.01 miles, 1:26:17, 7:51 pace, HR avg 152, HR max 180

Back to the Gym

2010-03-05T17:40:00.000-06:00

As mentioned in my previous post I’ve been recently experiencing the trauma of transitioning from running on a treadmill to running outdoors. I had expected that my body would be somewhat resistant to the change, so my original plan was to battle through for a couple of runs until my muscle and tendon conditioning caught up with my ambitious training regiment. However, after what happened last night I’m thinking I might have reevaluate my approach.

Let me set the scene for you… it was late last night. I had finished my Chamomile tea and was feeling sleepy so I changed into my flannel Batman pajama’s (with the footies of course), donned my nightcap, and entered my bedroom chambers for good nights rest.

I climbed into my most comfortable bed, complete with bunches of billowing blankets and pillows a plenty, and settled in under the sheets. I let out a deep sigh and prepared myself for the warm embrace of deep soothing slumber.

…But then, just as I was drifting off, I noticed a slight feeling of discomfort in my lower legs. I twitched slightly, trying to shake it off, but that only seemed to amplify it.

“I must be laying in an uncomfortable position” I thought to myself as I turned onto my side.

…And thus began the multiple hour fiasco of me tossing and turning in my bed trying to attain that just barely out of my grasps feeling of leg comfort. Yes, my friends, I was dealing with an acute case of RRLS (Runner’s Restless Leg Syndrome).

Not sure how many people out there have experienced RRLS before. For those who have, you have my deepest sympathies… If you haven’t consider yourself lucky… And if you’re not sure what RRLS is here’s a rundown for you.

RRLS is a special case (extra special since I made it up) of the more encompassing medical condition called Restless Leg Syndrome (as seen on TV)… I first encountered it when I began training for my first marathon back in June of 09 when my mileage jumped from 6 miles a week to 25 miles a week… For the first 6 weeks of training I spent just about every night tossing and turning to no avail trying to find that perfect position (my wife will testify to this… and she had the bags under her eyes and bruises on her shins to prove it). Eventually my body adapted to the training but those first 6 weeks were a nightmare… I’m talking about a serious case of the Jimmy Legs (John Stewarts moniker for RLS)!!!

I thought that RRLS was behind me, but now it appears to have reared it’s ugly head again… and so I must decide what approach I’m going to take to rectify it. The way I see it I ultimately have to pick between two unsavory choices: I can either power through and keep running and deal with the consequences of a broken sleep cycle, potential injury, and a grumpy sleep deprived spouse OR I can temper my transition to the pavement by heading back to the gym and taking a more calculated approach of slowly weaning myself off the treadmill*…

After tasting the freedom of outdoor running, the idea of returning to the treadmill is not exactly palatable but the proposal of powering through until my RRLS self-corrects is pretty much out of the question (if I value my marriage that is)… So there you have it… looks like I’m heading back to the gym for one last hoorah!!!

*Funny enough, after writing this post I found an article in this months Runner's World where Jeff Galoway details a plan for transitioning from treadmill to pavement. His plan starts with going outside once the first week you start the transition and running a minute, walking a minute, etc... Then you slowly build from there. I figure at that rate I'll be running fully outdoor just in time for next year winter!

Word Verification of the Day

2010-03-04T17:13:00.000-06:00

As I've mentioned before I have an excessive infatuation with the “Word Verification” feature on blogger (the fake word that you have to type in order to post a comment). An infatuation so excessive that it’s warranted me to write not one but now two posts completely dedicated to the phenomenon… At this rate expect to see a weekly column dedicated to “Word Verification” with in the month (Wordy Wednesdays seems to fit the unwritten guidelines of a blogger weekly reoccurring column), followed by an entire blog dedicated to the “Word Verification” feature by the end of the month.

For now though I’ll just focus on the post at hand.

Today, while signing up for Razz’s “Global Warming, my Ass!* 6.66 Mile Run” I happened upon a “word” that left a particularly foul taste in my mouth.

That word: teobagr

Not quite sure what a teobagr is but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with when you drink too much during a college party and pass out on the couch (not that I would know anything about that).

Anyway, just had to share.

*The views expressed in this race title are the views of the race director, Razz and do not neccesarily reflect the views or policies of the author of "Rise of a Champion"

Re-acclimating to the Great Outdoors

2010-03-02T17:07:00.000-06:00

As of late I’ve resumed an old running habit of mine; namely running outdoors.

The recent weather has still been sorta crummy but now that I’ve officially started “training” I decided a reasonable dose of “manning up” was in order… And so for the past not one, not two, but three runs I’ve braved the elements (slightly icy with temperatures in the upper 20’s) and headed outdoors for my runs…

Because this was my first winter of consistent training, I was surprised to find that transitioning from the treadmill to the pavement has proved a more taxing task than what I had originally anticipated. I had read that outdoor running can present an increased challenge in comparison to treadmill running because factors such as wind resistance, uneven footing, varying terrain, etc… Academically this all makes perfect since to me… Yet it was still easy enough to gloss over those facts when I was sitting in the warm comfort of my office, sipping cocoa and designing my training plan. In the end I was ill prepared for the initial toll that the transition would put on my body.

First off, I’ve rediscovered muscle soreness in places I haven’t felt for a long time… There’s this one spot on my upper calves, another on my right foot, and yet another at the front of my shins; basically all the muscles that I haven’t utilized while running on a treadmill but have suddenly called on to keep me balanced and upright as I navigate the gravelly, post-winter potholed streets of my neighborhood.

Also there’s been the re-introduction to hills… I mean WTF?!? I mean check this out dude… I’m running along and suddenly I’m running at an incline and then next thing I know I’m running down a decline…
“So, what’s the big deal?” you might be thinking to yourself…
Well, get this… I didn’t even touch the incline adjust button on the treadmill. The road just magically changed its slope all my itself!!!

Finally, (and let me warn you, I saved the "best" for last) I became re-acquainted to a particularly nasty old running buddy of mine… today a phenomenon that I’ve previously seen referred to the “poopy cramps” struck me halfway through my 5 mile loop… Luckily, it was a gaseous false alarm and I was able to quell it with just the right amount of butt clenching… However it did get me thinking about how an emergency situation just doesn’t have the same gravitas at the gym because you’re always with 100 feet of a bathroom (BTW, for the benefit of my general American reading public, that's a third of a football field)… Of course if you do find yourself having to pass a gaseous unpleasantry at the gym you still have to concern yourself with releasing it with just the right amount of pressure to render it silent and just the right amount of trajectory so that the hot chick running on the treadmill at your left could plausibly believe that the source of the abominable perfume could be emanating from the sweaty dude on the treadmill at your right… a attained and refined skill all in itself... but I digress.

So to sum it up: Running outside is really doing a number on me so far. I’m sore!!! I mean, at least it’s a good kind of sore… the kind of sore that’s really just your body's way of letting you know that it’s adapting… but sore none the less.

So now the question is: How is this going to affect my training plan? Hopefully not much… Hopefully in a few weeks time I’ll have worked the kinks out and will be back to my old pavement pounding self. For now though, I’m thinking I might have to reevaluate the next week or two of my training regiment… possibly schedule an extra day or two of rest in there? I have seven months of hard training ahead of me that leaves plenty of time to make up lost miles assuming that I’m healthy!!!

February Stat corner

2010-02-28T22:18:00.000-06:00

If my running stats were put on the back of a baseball card it might look a little something like this... Not overly impressive, but a good start to the year.

Wrapping up my "vacation"

2010-02-26T16:40:00.000-06:00

Next week I get serious... I go "on the grid". I start training 4 real!

This means I start following my plan as best as I can. No more unscheduled days off. No more cutting runs short. No more whining! (yeah right... I'm a whiny baby, especially when I start upping the mileage... just ask my wife!!!)

This means I got to take it off the treadmill and onto the streets. Time to re-introduce myself to the pavement(I'm guessing it's still there, somewhere under the piles of ice and snow). Its time to remember what a hill is and how much I love running up them (I do love running up hills right? I remember I either really like it or really hate it... one of the two anyway)...

But for now I'm still on winter "vacation" so this week I made sure I took full advantage. So far this week I've ran every other day starting with Monday off and I got to tell you I feel pretty good. My legs are rested and I'm feeling spry! So I say bring on the next 7+ months of hardcore marathon training. This champion is ready to rise!!!

One goal down...

2010-02-23T14:51:00.000-06:00

Big news today... It's my b-day! The big 31... I've been running about a year now and I gotta say, I feel a lot better (physically and mentally) turning 31 than I did when I turned 30.

So as a present to myself I decided to finally dole out the 15 bucks and complete the first (and easiest) of my 7 goals for 2010 ... namely: Join a local running group... I am now officially a member of the Illinois Valley Striders.

Now to be completely honest, joining the IVS by paying 15 bucks on-line over at GetMeRegistered.com does not really capture my intentions for joining a local running group. Sure, I'm pleased that I am able to contribute some money to support local running, but my true goal is to become socially involved in the local running scene... maybe make some even make some training buddies?!?

Nevertheless, paying the 15 bucks to become a member was the first big step... the following step will be to become involved with the local group... hopefully, I'll pursue this step in the near future... if not there's always next years goals!

Adding Insult to Injury

2010-02-19T12:24:00.000-06:00

I got my finally got my Chicago Marathon official results program in the mail. Kinda a cool bonus because I wasn’t expecting it . Of course when you drop 125 dollars on a race (and BTW it’s 135 dollars this year) I suppose you should get something besides a nice medal and the pain and agony of running 26.2 miles.

Anyway, I was excited to have it… that was until I opened it and started reading the highlighted runners sections. I guess the people putting together the program decided to get some background information on some of the more interesting or unique participants who ran the marathon last year, which is why they chose this guy:

I guess this guy was training 100 miles a week in preparation for Chicago but then got hurt in the last month so decided to run for fun instead wearing a grim reaper costume… ha ha very funny….

Only problem was his finishing time was 3:35:00… meanwhile my finishing time was 3:39:34… now let me also mention at this point that my goal time was 3:30 and I was right on pace up to the 20 mile mark when I hit the wall… so combine all these facts and what do you get???

Me, shuffling along (basically on death's doorstep) somewhere around the 24 mile marker as an asshole in a full grim reaper costume runs effortlessly past me.

Guess he figured that if he couldn’t run his best race because of his injury he might as well make other people feel miserable about their race as well.

Benchmarkless

2010-02-18T12:25:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: I google image searched "Benchmark" and this was the first picture on the list. Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

For the last few months I’ve been strictly focused on base building (read: squeezing in whatever miles my body/motivation would allow). Starting in March I begin my aggressive half-marathon\pre-marathon training schedule. As for now I’m in the process of transitioning from my haphazard free-for-all winter training to my militarily structured, no-nonsense spring/summer training.

I’ve started this transition process by beginning to loosely structure my week into various types of training days. For the last few weeks Monday’s have been long runs, Wednesdays have been speedier runs, and Friday’s are an off day. Everything else is still open for interpretation.

On one hand this reintroduction to structure in my running plan has been nice; the quality of my runs is definitely improving and as quality improves so does my mileage and motivation. On the other hand the sudden resurgence of structure is causing me some confusion as I realize that I have no clear picture of where my fitness level currently stands.

During last years training cycle I was spoiled by months of Garmin supplied data mapping out my course, distance, elevations, heartrate, pace, external temperature etc, which I could use to analyze and plot my progress as a runner. When winter hit I packed away the Garmin and hit the indoor track and treadmill. Suddenly all the self-recording data and numbers I had so heavily relied on were no longer being supplied. Now I’m feeling a little bit lost. I’m benchmarkless.

How fast should my speedwork be? What’s my current marathon pace? How slow should I do my recovery runs? What’s general aerobic pace?

Lucky for me I have plenty of months of good training ahead of me to find out… however, for now the anticipation is killing me!

Ladies and Gentlemen...

2010-02-16T12:21:00.000-06:00

For the last few months I've been adrift... floating around in a sea of training with no clear goals and no clear plan. I've pretty much been running when I feel like it, taking the day off if I don't, and picking my daily workouts and plans on a whim. The freedom has been a nice reprieve from the rigors of marathon training and I feel like I did a decent job of building my base, maintaining fitness, and healing up...

...However, with race season quickly approaching its time to focus! Its time for a plan!

So yesterday afternoon I spend some time surfing the net and blogosphere for training ideas and after hours of research and deep thinking decided to put together my very own “Grid” (big-ups to the Running Laminator for the spreadsheet format).

So without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce you to... "My Grid" (and "My Grid Jr.")

My Grid is comprised of a 22 week training plan that will take me from May 10th all the way to the Chicago Marathon... The Grid Jr. is a 10 week preconditioning plan to help me build up my mileage and prepare me for the Illini Half-Marathon.

Also, way to early to know for sure but my tenative time goal for Chicago is currently 3:20:00. That'll require slightly faster than 7:40ish pace... not sure if that's too lofty but that's what I'm doing for now. Pre-training begins in less than two weeks!

Managerie Monday...

2010-02-15T08:42:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to expunge some random thoughts that I've accumulated over the weekend, and what better forum to do it on than my very own personal blog.

Weather

First off the weather... a couple days ago you might of read my post about how weather.com is slowly teasing me into a frenzy with their empty promises of future days above freezing... Well, just in case you thought I was exaggerating.

(click on the picture if it's too small to see... or I can save you the trouble and explain its contents for you)

Here's the run down... Friday afternoon I went to weather.com to check the weather 10 days out and it tells me that in 10 days (Feb 21st) the weather is finally going to get above freezing (32 degrees, technically still freezing but I'll take what I can get...).

Then Monday morning I check again... Now that Feb 21st is only 7 days away it's not predicted to be 32 anymore, instead they're saying its going to be 29 degrees... However, 10 days out (Feb 24th) is now conveniently predicted to be 34 degrees (the warmest day of the 10, and the only day above freezing, may I point out...)

Basically this tells me one of two things... either weather.com has no better handle of what the weather is going to be in 10 days except that they know that its inevitably going to warm up eventually OR weather.com is run by a bunch of DICKS!!!

Football Fields

Moving on…

Being an engineer and a runner I feel like I have a pretty decent grasp on measurement systems especially distances… now I admit, I’m still an American, and I like most Americans grew up using the “standard” system (which is probably could be more accurately referred to as the “American customary system”, since metric is the scientific standard and is used pretty much everywhere else in the world) but I feel that I at least have a basic understanding what a kilometer is.

Well, watching the winter Olympics this weekend I discovered that America sports journalist use neither the metric or standard system of measurements. They use a third system called “football fields”…

For example explaining how they shortened the luge course by “two football fields”… or during the Nordic Combined event the lead skier was ahead by “a football field”…I’m assuming using the “football fields” unit of measure gives the general American viewing public a better point of reference of what the distances really mean.

So from now on when you’re talking to your non-running friends don’t tell them you ran a 5k last weekend, tell them you ran 54.68 football fields (actually 54 football fields before being stopped short at the 32 yard line in the midst of your 55th football field). And a marathon… 461.5 football fields!!! Yep, that should make your accomplishment so much clearer to the “average Joe” who probably asked about your weekend just to be nice, and not because they really gave two shits…

Fickle Sports

Finally in the world of Fickle sports… the winter Olympics. [disclaimer: no offense meant to any winter Olympians who happen to be following this blog]

So how do you win a medal in the winter Olympics anyway…

1. You need to grow up somewhere where there’s snow and mountains…
2. You need to be from a wealthy enough upbringing that you can afford the expensive specialized equipment required to succeed in a winter Olympic sport
3. you have to work really hard at becoming one of the top competitors in whatever sport you choose
4. …you flip a coin and pray

Seems like there’s a lot of random occurrence that determines who ultimately medals in the winter Olympics for example:

-Biathlon: Pray that you have good weather during your heat, but it snows during the other guy’s heat subsequently slowing down his skiing while making his shooting more difficult.

-Ski jump: Pray for just the right gust of wind as you plummet down the slope.

-Short-track ski skating: Stay close in contention and hope that the guys in front of you crash just before the finish line…

Not to mention that most of the events are based on judges scores which in turn are based on a bunch of purely subjective criteria…

Honestly though… who’s to say that I don’t contain the innate natural abilities to be the best luger in the world and just never got the chance…

Also, I wonder how some of those East African endurance athletes would do if you slapped a pair of Cross-country skis on their feet?

Anyway, not to take away from any of the winter Olympic athletes. I realize that they’ve worked hard their whole lives, committing themselves to pretty much thankless sports, in order to get where they are now… still…

_______________________________________

So I guess I better wrap it up... if you're still reading by now than congratulations, you've managed to waste almost as much time reading this blog as I did writing this blog. I guess we need a hobby, and as luck would have it I heard the 2014 curling team is in need of a player... See ya on the shuffleboard court!

Taming the Monkey...

2010-02-12T11:34:00.000-06:00

This may come as news to some people (those of you who are in denial) but here it is: We're all (myself included) addicted to running...

This is were I could go into a "you might be an addicted runner if:" Jeff Foxworthy parody and then go on to talk about pre-race rituals, milage logs, training plans, Garmins, etc... but I'll spare us both the embassement.

Now some of you readers might be thinking this statement doesn't apply to you. If so here's a simple one question quiz which will determine if you are or are not an addicted runner... ready for it??? Here it is:

Do you ever read and/or write blogs about running?

If the answer is no, or if you still refuse to admit your addiction please feel free to navigate away from this page now...

...Alright, well if you're still reading then we've all made an important breakthrough... as you know the first step to taming an addiction is accepting that you have a problem.

So from here the line of thought goes something like this... Alright, so I have a running problem. So What! There's a lot worse things to be addicted to (like biking for instance).

Let me try to shine some light on the dangers of that lie of thinking: Have you ever headed out the door for you scheduled run even though you were nursing an injury and your better judgement knew damn well that you'd be better off taking an extra days rest? Or have you ever missed a scheduled run for reasons beyond your control and spent the rest of your day disgruntled, moody, and just plain unpleasant to be around because you didn't get your daily fix? Or have you ever felt so good on a long run that you decided to put in a few extra unscheduled miles and wound up *gasp* OVERTRAINING!!!

The urge to overtrain is the demon that I'm battling right now. For the last several months I've been suffering through minor aches and pains as I slowly but steadily recovered from the marathon I was ill prepared to run, but too hard headed not to. This past week I've finally turned the corner. My runs have been feeling great, my legs are feeling fresh, and my motivation is soaring. All the while the evil monkey on my back is egging me on... more miles, more miles, harder, faster, longer (that's what she said)...

I've put in 20 miles so far in the first four days this week (not a lot by some standards, but enough considering that I'm already at my weekly record for the year)... my legs are a bit fatigued (especially after my personal record 34:50 five miler I put in on Wednesday) but my muscles are still twitching with anticipation at the urge to get out and run again.

Now's the time I have to make a stand and take control! I can either curb my inner yernings and force myself to take a day off (or at the very least compromise and x-train) or I can succumb to the monkey and keep hurdling down the road towards overtraining and certain injury... Ultimately the choice is mine, but will I have the strength the make the right one?... I guess history will be the judge!

Oh what a night!

2010-02-11T12:02:00.000-06:00

Man I had a great workout last night! It was awesome!!! I was super-motivated and now I'm even more super-pumped to tell you about it, but first... I know I must sound like a broken record right now, record right now, but I’m beginning to think this winter just isn’t going to let up! It was 2 friggin’ degrees today when I left the house to go to work (and for my huge European fan base let me just note that I’m not talking Celsius either). I checked the 10 day forcast on weather.com like I do everyday, and it’s not supposed to get above freezing until 10 days from now (10 days from now they’re predicting it’s going to be 33!)… Of course that brings me to another gripe: Weather.com.

As I said I check the 10 day forcast everyday, and everyday for the last week they’ve been telling me it’s going to be 33 degrees (read 1 degree above freezing) 10 days from now… it’s like some kind of carrot on a ten day stick! Only thing is 33 degrees isn’t even that great of a carrot… it’s more like a turd painted orange (similar to whatever that thing is standing in the doorway in the picture above, except painted orange).

In the end I ultimately have no choice but to keep hitting the treadmill day in and day out until Punxsutawney Phil finally decides to give us all a break. Problem is my first race of the season (the Shamrock Shuffle) is less than 6 weeks away and I’d really like to get in some real training!

At this point I guess it’s at least worth mentioning that last years Shamrock Shuffle was held in 30 degrees temperatures mixed with a healthy dose of sleet. When I finished the race I was freezing and my shoes were soaking wet, which ultimately resulted in some sort of foot tendon strain that laid me up for about a month… With that in mind, maybe running outside in the 2 degree temps and a foot of snow is exactly the training conditions I need to prepare for this race. Nevertheless, running can be uncomfortable enough and I refuse to subject myself to any additional suffering from such horridly untorrid conditions.

Anyway, this entire rant was meant to be a prelude into a post about how I overcame the weather conditions and still managed to crank-out an awesome (albeit treadmilled) 5 mile speed session last night. However, I think I pretty much used up my daily word quota (as well as most of my lunch break) bitching about the weather again, so I guess I’ll have to save the positive self-empowering workout report for another day (possible 10 days from now)…

Word Verification

2010-02-10T12:00:00.001-06:00

Totally running unrelated, but is anyone else as amused as I am about the "word verification" you are sometimes required to enter when you comment on someone elses blog... For some reason I really get a kick out of the random "words" that blogger comes up with, so I started appending the word to the bottom of my comments.

Also have you ever tried clicking the "handicap" icon which is next to the "word verification" box which is put there for the visually impared? I have and let me tell you, it's kind of creepy. Sounds like a message conveyed by a "spirit energy" communicating from the "other side"... you know, the kind of thing you would hear on one of those paranormal shows on A&E or in a Nicholas Cage movie.

Back in the zone

2010-02-09T11:00:00.000-06:00

Just dropped an Ocho on the treadmill last night and it felt amazing! Following a tip I’m pretty sure I read in this months Runner’s World I started the treadmill at 7.0 mph (8:34 pace) and bumped it up by .1 mile per hour every half mile until I got up to 8.2 mph (7:19 pace). Then I slowly scaled it back down from 8.2 – 6.5 over the last 1.5 miles.

Overall I wound up running 8 miles in 1:03:45 (7:58 pace), while efficiently including a good warm up, some quality intensity, and a decent cool down.

The best part was how great I felt. I’ve been battling shin splints since about September. I took some time off in December hoping that would allow them to heal up but when I started running again they came back immediately. Lately they seemed like they were getting progressively worse despite my daily icing and stretching. I thought maybe old shoes were the culprit so I purchased some new ones. After running a couple days in the new shoes my shins were hurting worse than they had before. I was limiting my runs to 3 milers and hurting the entire time… Friday night I finished up my run and the pain continued for 45 minutes even after I stopped. I was forced to lay on the couch with ice-packs on my shins till they finally tamed down.

This weekend I bought some Dr. Scholl’s arch supports for the new shoes and I think I might of finally found a solution. Saturday I tried my first 3 miler with the new supports and while I still felt some pain it considerably muted. I took Sunday off and then popped a couple Ibuprofen before last night's run.

The first half mile or so I felt a little bit of pain but it quickly subsided. Next thing I knew I was running pain free! I realized that this was the first pain free run that I’ve experienced in the last 4-5 months… I was straight up loving it! The endorphins were flowing, I had my headphones on, and I was singing along to my Ipod… I’m sure the other people around me probably thought I was either completely crazy or totally annoying but I couldn’t care less…. I was in the zone!

It was just what I need. The kind of run that reminded me why I’m training in the first place. The first “great” run of the year… the first of many!

oops I did it again...

2010-02-02T14:22:00.000-06:00

lately I've been feeling like my running has really been lacking. my mileage and my motivation has been down. my aches and pains have been up (my hamstring and achilles tendon in my right foot have been hollerin' at me when I use them to control the gas pedel as I drive to work of all things)... I've been trying to figure out where it all went wrong, so I took a look of my running journal for a month to month analysis:

April 2009: 45 miles
May 2009: 60 miles
June 2009: 102 miles
July 2009: 140 miles
August 2009: 179 miles
September 2009: 180 mile
October 2009: 75 miles
November 2009: 75 miles
December 2009: 45 miles
January 2010: 58 miles

So there you have it... I've guess the usual rule of thumb for mileage increases is the 10% rule (add 10% of your previous weeks mileage to this weeks mileage). This whole time I've been blaming my marathon for gimping me up but now I'm thinking the marathon was just the breaking point following a long series of haphazardous overtraining...

So now that I'm starting to see the big picture what did I decide to do???

Sign up for the 2010 Chicago marathon of course! I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

At least this time I won't be starting from scratch so the mileage jumps won't be so sudden and shocking to my system... of course I could always up my mileage even more...

Wrapping up January

2010-01-31T13:46:00.000-06:00

Last day of January! I struggled through but I made it... Now if I can just push on through February I might just be able to start doing some real running.

I capped off the month by venturing outside for the first time this year for a brisk 2 miler with my 2 dogs (a Jack Russell Terrier and a Chihuahua mix). They've been sadly neglected as far as outdoor activity has been concerned so as we headed out the door they were raring to go. We hit the first mile in 8 minutes flat and then finished up with a 7:15 second mile. I couldn't believe it but those little dogs were pulling the whole way. When we got back to the house they weren't even tired. I don't understand it... all they do is lay around the house pretty much all day and then they can go out and whip out a 2 miler like it was nothing... a short but sweet way to cap off the end of the month.

I finished the month with 58 miles run. Not great, but not a bad number to build on. Here's looking forward to February!

Low mileage is better than no mileage

2010-01-25T18:42:00.000-06:00

I've been a bad runner lately... 43 miles ran so far this month and averaging about 3 times a week. And despite the low milage my legs are feeling pretty battered. Still I'm not too disappointed. After all, low mileage is better than no mileage. If I can just keep it going a little while longer I'm confident that my enthusiasm will return as the weather begins to become more accommodating.

Not only have I been a bad runner, but I've been a even worse blogger! It's funny how 50 hours of employment can really cut into what previously felt like limitless free time. On top of that I have yet to get a computer at work which makes it extremely difficult to accomplish my job and nearly impossible to ~~spend all day screwing around on the internet~~ read and write blogs. And then, when I finally get home, there's my wife also returning from work and for some reason she doesn't appreciate it when I head directly to the computer and start blogging (especially if I just spent an hour at the gym running). She says that she "wants to spend time with me" because she "loves me"... Sheesh, the things I have to put up with!

But enough excuses. Bottom line is that I need to start adjusting my schedule. I need to make more time for running. After all my first race of the year is coming up in less than 2 months and I'm hankerin' for a PR.

New Shoes

2010-01-18T19:55:00.000-06:00

Today I bought a brand new pair of shoes today. Adidas Supernova Glides. I immediately headed to the gym to break these bad boys in. 4 miles on the indoor track. 5 miles on the treadmill. 1 last mile on the indoor track. First 10 miles logged on the shoes. The run felt good. Feet are a little sore. I'll need to break them in some more tomorrow.

Blah Blah Blah...

2010-01-15T16:36:00.000-06:00

Blah Blah Blah Blah.... running in the cold.... blah blah blah... blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...hate the treadmill... blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah... forcing myself to maintain some milage... blah blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...waiting for spring...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...15 degrees...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...blah blah blah...

Yep that pretty much sums it up.

Clean Slate Revisited... Goals for 2010

2010-01-05T11:48:00.000-06:00

When I mentioned that I wanted to start 2010 with a "clean slate" in my previous post I meant it metaphorically. Today as I wake up with sore quads and hamstrings from the easy 3-miler I put in yesterday I'm wondering if it was more of a self-fulfilling prophesy? 2 weeks off and now 3 easy miles makes me sore??? Really?!? Come on body!

In spite of my soreness I'm still optimistic for 2010. 2009 was my awakening as a runner. 2010 I will begin my rise to greatness!!!

It all begins with goals. Most people begin the New Years with a New Year's resolution... usually it amounts to some kind of lifestyle change, breaking of some bad habit, or a commitment to try something new. Now that I'm a runner I'm glad to know that I no longer need to make a resolution. I'm already resolved! Instead I set goals for the New Years.

Now I realize that New Year's resolutions and New Year's goals seem like pretty much the same thing. However, to me there is a subtle difference. New Year's resolutions seem to typically consist of some paramount change of body and soul (usually something that is destined for early February failure). As a runner, New Year's goals are made to focus the efforts that I am already committed to. No matter what I'm going to continue and run and exercise this year. The goals just help define the "Why?". They'll also help to push me out the door on those days when the bed is feeling particularly snugglely and the pillow is feeling particularly soft. They'll push me to venture onto the track instead of the road, and to squeeze out an extra 400 meter repeat. They'll push me from conventional weekend warrior to running greatness!

So without further ado... EZEthan's goals for 2010.

1. Break 20 min in the 5k... Currently my 5k PR is 22:11 from the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure last May. However, I'm pretty sure I've run consistently faster than that in Tempo runs during last years marathon training. Shaving 2+ minutes off my 5k PR may seem ambitious but I feel that it's realistic. Hopefully my feelings are in line with reality.

2. Break 1:35:00 in the half-marathon... Current half marathon PR is 1:39:29. However, this was run on an extremely difficult course (the race was advertised as the toughest half-marathon in Illinois)... My next half will be on am extremely flat course. Also the race is May 1st so I would expect decent weather conditions.

3. Break 3:20 in the 2010 Chicago Marathon... Four solid months of training got me to 3:39:34 this year. Hopefully 1 year and 4 months of training, actually having a running base, and previous experience will help me shave 20 minutes off that. I'd like to say I could qualify for Boston this year but I'd like to keep the goals realistic... I still got 9+ months of training ahead of me so plenty of time to revise this one.

4. Join a local running group... Namely the Illinois Valley Striders. My transformation into a runner started in my own mind. I then ventured out into the blogging community. The next step is to announce my presence on a local level. I'm ready to get more involved. Maybe work some races. Hopefully make some running buddies and do some group runs.

5. Donate to charity through running... The Emerging Runner had a great idea to "Pledge your own race miles in 2010" . I plan to follow his lead. I'll pledge 2 dollars for every kilometer raced in 2010 with a bonus dollar per kilometer for every PR achieved.

6. Hit the track... With only four months to train for my marathon last year I decided to avoid speedwork for the most part. I did a few fartleks and the occasion hill sprint during some of my tempo workouts but for the most part stuck to building endurance. Now that I'm in better condition I think its time for some real speedwork! Soon as the snow melts and the spring birds start chirpin' I'm hittin the track!

And Finally...

7. Have loads of fun... Definitely needed to shout out to Kenley over at Essence of Running who reminds us that despite of how serious and focused we can get about the sport that we're all pretty much running for recreation and that we should remember to enjoy ourselves (even when we're puking on the track after that last 400?).

So there you have it... goals for 2010. Have a great year everyone and let's hope that we can all achieve!

Clean Slate

2010-01-04T14:05:00.000-06:00

If you follow this blog then you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for the last 2+ weeks. No worries… I was on vacation; both figuratively and literally.

As some of you may or may not know I’ve been laid-off from work for the last 9 months. I used those 9 months to the best of my abilities… I got myself into shape, became a runner, finished a marathon, completed plenty of projects around the house, honed my cooking skills, and did some volunteer work… but despite efforts to remain productive I have to say that all in all 2009 pretty much sucked and despite the fact that I haven’t been gainfully employed for the last 9 months that period of time was hardly a vacation. Now don’t get me wrong. All in all I had it pretty good; I have a loving wife with a stable job to provide us with income and health insurance. We pinched pennies and got through 2009… Still being laid-off is depressive and it’s hard not to feel a little down, frustrated, and worthless in spite of the fact that the situation was more or less completely out of my control.

But the last 2 weeks have been different. In 2 days (Jan 6), I start a new job. So for the last 2 weeks I haven’t felt laid-off anymore. I’ve felt like I’ve been “on vacation”. I got to enjoy the holidays with friends and family. I spent New Years in Chicago visiting friends, and getting krunk on all you can eat Sushi and all you can drink Saki.

Also, I decided to use this “vacation” as an opportunity to take a long needed vacation from running too. I ran the Chicago Marathon on October 11th and have been nursing various nagging injuries pretty much ever since. Shin splints, ITBS, tight hamstrings… pretty much one thing after another.

I knew that it was in my best interest to take some time off and let myself recover but I couldn’t bring myself to stop. There were just too many reasons to keep running. For one, I was in the best shape I’ve been in for a long time and I didn’t want to let any of that fitness go. Secondly, with the lay-off, running was the only thing keeping me sane. It gave me a purpose, a routine, and a sense of achievement. Lastly, I’m a total endorphin addict! I needed that feel good feeling that I get from a ball-busting workout… I need to feed the beast!!!

With the holidays I finally got the excuse I needed to take a break from it all. No more blogging about running, reading blogs about running, reading books about running, looking at the latest running gear on-line, and especially no more running!!! I was finally on vacation!!!!

But today, I’m back. I started the morning by getting on-line and registering for some 2010 races. First race on the docket: An 8K (the 2010 Shamrock Shuffle on March 21st) and a Half-Marathon (the 2010 Illinois Half-Marathon on May 1st). Then I got on my running shoes and hit the gym for an easy 3 miles (I’m finally feeling good and I’m going to ease into building the mileage back up). And now here I am blogging again.

Today I’m renewed. I have a clean slate. My legs are fresh. My spirits are rejuvenated. 2009 is over and I’m ready to stride into 2010. Vacations are good but it’s great to be back!

What a difference 10 degrees can make...

2009-12-19T09:39:00.000-06:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I dislike running on the treadmill. But I tolerate it... And you want to know why? It's because I HATE the cold! It's like my own personal kryptonite... And so it was totally out of character for me when I decided to man-up and try to tough out a run through the cold two days ago on Wednesday.

I figured: I'm a runner now, I'm strong, I'm tough, I've ran 26.2 miles non-stop, I ran hill workouts in 106 degree weather this summer, I CAN DO IT!!! So I put on my gear (1 pair tights, 1 pair warm-up pants, 2 pair sock, 1 long undershirt, 1 t-shirt, 1 hooded sweatshirt, stocking cap, and mittens A.K.A. 1 load of laundry) and headed out into the 26 degrees of winter cold for a nice four miler.

It didn't go so well. The first mile I was freezing. I thought to myself "You'll warm up as you keep moving"... WRONG. I just felt like I was getting colder... and colder and colder. By mile 2 I was starting to get tin-man knees and there wasn't an oil can in sight. My mile 3 I was running on popsicle sticks. By mile 4 I felt like the Encino Man (I'm talking about the part where Pauli Shore finds him frozen in a block of ice, not the part where he's dressed up super cool and riding on a skateboard).

So bottom-line: it was miserable. I was running along and hating it. It was the type of run that made me question why I was doing this in the first place. Made me question what's the point of any of this... That was Wednesday.

Friday, I decided to try again (good thing us runners have such short memories). This time it was 36 degrees instead of 26 degrees but I gotta tell you... What a difference 10 degrees can make! I guess it's the whole freezing point thing... you know, under 32 degrees F, where water vapor freezes like ice-cubes in your lungs, and icicles form on your mustache (if this happens to any of my female readership let me offer my condolences right now). Below freezing, where the body (which is made up of over 50% water), begins to turn into a block of ice. Below freezing, where you can slowly feel yourself dying from hypothermia every step you take... (did i mention that I hate cold).

But 36 degrees. Man! How toasty! I felt great! I whipped out 6+ miles at an 8:05 pace with my heart-rate at 78% of MHR. No treadmills, no El Gordo the trainer, no naked old dudes to avoid... just me and the open road. So I just gotta remember... I HATE the cold, but I LOVE running. So I just got to power through. Keep building that base. Keep working that core. And if I can stick with it, then come spring I should have a frontier of speedy-fast races within my grasp just waiting for me to PR them.

Final Weigh-in of the Weight Loss Challenge

2009-12-15T11:17:00.000-06:00

Last night I went in for my final weigh-in... 6 weeks of hardcore dieting, excessive exercising. 1 week of eliminating all sodium from my diet. 1 day of hardcore working out in two layers of gym pants and 3 layers of sweatshirts... and it all came down to this :

Week 0 (Nov 2nd): 179.4 lbs, 22.4% body fat, 30 BMI
Week 1 (Nov 9th): 173.6 lbs, 20.2% body fat, 28.9 BMI
Week 2 (Nov 16th): 168.8 lbs, 18% body fat, 27.3 BMI
Week 3 (Nov 23rd): 167.7 lbs, 16.6% body fat, 27.1 BMI
Week 4 (Nov 30th): 166.1 lbs, 16.9% body fat, 26.8 BMI
Week 5 (Dec 7th): 162.9 lbs, 19.8% body fat, 26.3 BMI

Week 6 (Dec 14th): 157.4 lbs, 15.4% body fat, 25.4 BMI

A total weight loss of 12.25%. All in all not bad, but still not enough to win the 500 dollars. Turns out someone had dropped over 40 lbs for an over 20% weight loss. Analyzing my strategy I'm pretty sure i could have squeezed in another 5 or 6 pounds in by adding a little more weight on the initial weigh-in and losing a few more pounds during the 6 weeks, but it still wouldn't have been enough to win.

Also, just to make sure everyone is clear, I didn't actually lose 22 lbs of body weight in 6 weeks. Because first off I "gained" 6-8 pounds on the day of the initial weigh-in by drinking several pounds of water and eating several pounds of food. I Also sweated off an additional 4-6 pounds on the final day of the weigh in... so all in all I lost more like 10-12 lbs during the 6 weeks which is actually a lot more reasonable in terms of healthy weight loss.

I'm a little disappointed I didn't win, but I'm pretty happy about losing the weight. Hopefully I can continue to lose weight over the next couple months. I'm weighing in at around 161 as of this morning, but I'd like to get that down by spring for the sake of my running speed. Judging my before and after shot I'd think I could probably stand to lose another 10 pounds before I get to true running sleekness.

Nature pic of the month

2009-12-14T09:45:00.000-06:00

Totally brief and non-run/exercise related... but I just couldn't resist showing off some of the truly stunning nature photography I captured last night...

just for clarification sake that's my spayed female dog doing the nasty with my spayed female cat... oh man, the fun just doesn't stop around here.

In other news I stepped on the scale at around 162.5 this morning... final weigh-in for the weight loss challenge is tonight. I have all day to sweat off all the extra weight I possibly can (without putting myself into a coma at my wife's request).

Tales from the Gym (part 2)

2009-12-12T16:12:00.000-06:00

Chapter 2: El Gordo the Fat Trainer

Here follows the second installment of my multiple part "Tales from the Gym"... in my previous entry I discussed my thoughts on the rather liberal nature that some of the older gentleman display themselves in the locker room... (As an addendum to that post I would like to add that they have now taken up dehumidifying their post shower neither-regions with the hair dryers that are conveniently located right next to the locker room scale which I occasionally like to use)...

In this follow up post I would like to change topics and present you with the tale of one of my favorite employees at the gym...

At my gym there is a personal trainer who I call El Gordo (The Fat Man). I call him this because he is obese. Now I don't want to sound fat bias. I've struggled with my own weight from time to time and I can only admire and commend the overweight people at my gym who are working hard to improve their physical condition. That being said, I have to draw the line at fat personal trainer.

How are you supposed to listen to fitness advice from someone who doesn't even follow it himself? Case in point, he is the guy who is in charge of running the weekly weigh-ins and during one of the weigh-ins he was eating a plate of chicken nuggets and fried rice... I mean seriously man? You're eating fried food at a gym while you're supposed to be overseeing a group of people who are participating in a challenge about losing weight?

But what's worse than his obesity is his attitude. I might be able to overlook his portly nature if he brought something else to the table (besides deep fried twinkies, shame on you Good Morning America) but the guy also happens to be the most annoying guy at the gym. He's always goofing around with the patrons, loudly telling inappropriate stories, sitting around on the machines, and stepping out onto the indoor track and conversing with his buddies while people are trying to run. Come on... if anyone should know better it should be a gym employee!

And on a personal note, this is the same guy who keeps telling me I'm overweight because my BMI is over 25, and believes that my body-fat percentage jumped from 16% to 19% in one week even though I lost 4 pounds over that time.

So listen up boys and girls... if you're at the gym running on the treadmill or laying on the benchpress and you here creaking floor boards and a loud and jolly laugh (did I mention he has a really loud and annoying laugh which is nearly constantly erupting from his fat face) you may be in the presents of El Gordo... Be afraid... Be very afraid!!!

I just got some real bad news.

2009-12-11T09:52:00.000-06:00

Okay, lets start with a little back story...

As you may or may not know the country has been going through a bit of a recession and here in Peoria, Illinois where the whole city revolves around Caterpillar it's been pretty hard to miss. Last December I was working for a engineering outsourcing company that dealt primarily with Caterpillar. At that point Caterpillar and in turn the company I was working for began having waves of lay-offs. I remember going into the office everyday, stressed out, wondering if I would be the next one to go. Pretty much all my co-workers felt similarly and lets just say the atmosphere of the office was downright depressing...

Then in March everything changed for me.... One day I came into the office, stressed out, bags under my eyes from lack of sleep caused by anxiety, and I found out that I wouldn't need to come in to work anymore. It was fantastic!!! Not only did it free up about 40-50 hours a week for me to do whatever I wanted but all the stress of possibly getting laid off was lifted... On top of that, the government decided to pay me 10 dollars an hour not to work!

So I decided to start marathon training. Now normally they don't recommend you jumping from 6 miles a week to 40 miles a week in such a short time, but when all you have to do all day is run, stretch, ice, and recover it's actually possible. Over the next few months I improved my running tremendously. I also built a deck, ripped up the carpet in our house and refinished the old wood floors, and remodeled the kitchen. My wife also appreciated how the dishes are always done and the laundry is always clean, folded, and hung.

The marathon came and went so I needed a new way to spend my time. Enter the weight loss challenge. The last few weeks I've been spending about 4 hours a day at the gym doing weight work and cardio circuits and I've been burning upwards of 2000 calories a day just from exercise (not even including the weight lifting)...

Then today I got a call... turns out my dream life is coming to an end.

See a couple days ago my daily routine was rudely interrupted by this little annoyance called a "job interview"... and today I got a call with an offer for a job. I accepted the job immediately and am now dealing with the fact that come January 6 I'm going to have 40-50 less hours a week to exercise and otherwise screw around...

I know you all must feel real pity for me right now... try to be strong (as will I) and we can get through this little set back together.

The Road to Recovery

2009-12-09T17:35:00.001-06:00

For the last couple weeks I've really gotten serious about doing my ITB stretches multiple times a day, stopping running as soon as I feel even the faintest twinge, and really working the tendon out with a foam roller that I found at my gym (...man, I'm really falling in love with the foam roller... it hurts like a mutha-f*cka when I'm applying it but the aftermath of feeling my ITB tension release is somewhere close to orgasmic). Still it just didn't seem like it was improving... And just as I was finally starting to let the frustration and self pity of my ITBS get the best of me I received a glimmer of hope in the form of a stellar running workout...

Check it. Today I get on the treadmill ready to try my usual recipe of walking a quarter mile, running a quarter mile, rinse and repeat. So I start running my first mile and when I come to the end of it I realize that I feel great; not even a hint of ITB pain. So I turn up the speed by :34 seconds per mile and decide to try a second mile... finish up the second mile and still not pain so I crank up the pace by another minute per mile and pound out another mile, and then another, and then another... now I'm feeling tired so I back the pace off 30 seconds and proceed to crank out two more miles... for a total of SEVEN MILES!!!!

At that point my ITB still wasn't bothering me, but I was starting to get tired and I figured I had already overdid it by about 5.5 miles so I better stop...

So the tricky part now is to force myself to proceed with caution... I got the ice on right now, and I plan on doing only cross-training tomorrow no matter how great my legs feel or how much I want to run... and after that I have to somehow will myself to take it easy for the next couple weeks. I'm finally on the road to recovery, but I know from experience that it's one road that you don't want to race down.

Week 6 of the Weight Loss Challenge

2009-12-08T09:28:00.000-06:00

Last night we once again weighed in for the weight loss challenge at my gym... 5 weeks down, one final week to go.

This previous week did not contain the diet busting temptations of a Thanksgiving feast or the schedule disrupting factors of a 18 hour drive from NYC to Illinois so I expected to have some decent losses. Here's how I did.

Week 0 (Nov 2nd): 179.4 lbs, 22.4% body fat, 30 BMI
Week 1 (Nov 9th): 173.6 lbs, 20.2% body fat, 28.9 BMI
Week 2 (Nov 16th): 168.8 lbs, 18% body fat, 27.3 BMI
Week 3 (Nov 23rd): 167.7 lbs, 16.6% body fat, 27.1 BMI
Week 4 (Nov 30th): 166.1 lbs, 16.9% body fat, 26.8 BMI

Week 5 (Dec 7th): 162.9 lbs, 19.8% body fat, 26.3 BMI

Not bad! I dropped another 3.2 lbs, in spite of the fact that the body fat measuring device tells me that I gained about 3% body fat... I once again told the trainer overseeing the weigh in that their device was completely inaccurate (I tell him this every week) and he once again gave me a dumbfounded stare like I was full of it (he gives me this look every week).

So reviewing the numbers... a 1.9% weight loss for the week and a 9.2% total loss for the competition.

Looks like I'm shooting for under 160 for the final weigh in. During the next week diet is going to be key. I'm going to continue to eat clean, but I'm also going to begin eliminating as much sodium out of my food as possible. I'm guessing that this change alone could allow me to drop several pounds of water weight... looks like I have about 6 days of unsalted boiled chicken breast to look forward to.... groan.

A blog about running???

2009-12-05T11:31:00.000-06:00

When I first started this blog I had just finished running the Chicago Marathon. I had just run 26.2 miles straight (no walking, hopping, skipping, jumping) although to be honest there was quite a bit of run-hobbling, grimacing, groaning, and grunting.

My thoughts at the time were: "What's next"... check the URL: http://beyond26point2.blogspot.com/

The idea at the time was that now that I had completed a marathon, the next step was to complete another one... except this time I want to do it fast... fast being a relative term of course, but in my case (as for so many others) I'm thinking Boston Qualifying...

And I'm not strictly sticking thinking marathon's either. I want to PR some 5ks, 10ks, 15ks, half-marathons. And on top of that I want to place in my age group. Heck I want to win my age group.... In fact, I'd like to win an entire race (btw anyone know about any obscure races?)

I mean check out my banner... This is supposed to be "the awe-inspiring musings of a midpack recreational runner during his meteoric rise to elite status and beyond!".

I mention all this because I haven't had much to say about running lately. This is because I've been struggling on and off with IBTS for the last 2 months. I've still been getting in some milage (maybe 10-15 a week) but it's been pretty pathetic milage (mostly running a mile or less then walking then running then walking... etc). Mostly I'm just getting frustrated... I really love to run now and I especially love long runs so all this stop and go on the treadmill is driving me crazy.

Fear not though... I realize this is just a shortterm roadblock in a long road of progress and that I'm going to eventually overcome it... just know that I'm looking forward to the days when I can start posting about the killer run I had, or the amusing antidote that happened to me while I was out on the road...

Until then, it's off to the gym for some more treadmill and crosstraining... Blahh!!!

One year later...

2009-12-04T10:53:00.000-06:00

It's the beginning of December... Significant to me because I suddenly realized that I've been exercising and working out consistently for over a year now. Which caused me to reflect on my epiphany that caused me to exercising in the first place...
________________________________________________
It happened on a Sunday afternoon in November. It was one of those brisk Midwest autumn days; the type of day where you just have to be outside. The sun was out and the air was crisp. Sweatshirt weather. My wife and I were out that afternoon enjoying a friendly game of Frisbee golf (my favorite kind of exercise at the time) at Washington Park, near Peoria.

I was teeing off at the third hole. I judged the distance, reached back for a little something extra and let the Frisbee fly. I’m still certain to this day that the Frisbee was sailing on its way to a hole in one if not for the sudden crosswind that caught my Frisbee in mid-trajectory and sent it drifting into that pine tree.

Looking up into the tree I could clearly see my Frisbee secured in the grips of a forked bough about 15 feet up.
“No problem” I thought to myself “I’ll just climb up a couple branches till I get to the one that seized my Frisbee and then shake it out.”

Sounded easy enough. What followed was not a pretty site.

Reaching up I grabbed a low hanging branch and attempted to hoist myself up into the tree. After some extreme and wasted effort I realized that I no longer possessed the strength to pull my own bodyweight up into the tree. No problem though… I next attempted to use the trunk of the tree to walk my legs up to the branch I was hanging from. After some kicking and squirming I was able to walk my legs up onto the branch and wrap my legs around it, all the while hanging on with my hands. I was now dangling from the branch by my arms and legs but still a long ways away from actually climbing into the tree. I spent the next minute squirming and rocking, trying to somehow get the leverage and momentum I need to hoist my bodyweight over the branch and into the tree. Finally I succumbed to defeat. My arms and legs were scraped from the rough bark, I was huffing and out of breath, my self-respect was decimated, and all the while my wife stood by laughing and jeering at me… truly pathetic!

Suddenly I felt old. As a kid I used to climb trees all the time. I didn’t even have to try. I was like a human freakin monkey or something. I even remember climbing a tree or two in college (while possibly being inebriated to boot)… but at some point in my life I had lost that ability. Some unknown morning I had woken up and unbeknownst to me I had lost the physical ability to climb a tree.

It was at that moment as I stood there huffing and puffing, hands on my knees at the base of that tree that I knew it was time to do something about myself. C’mon… I’m about to turn 30! I still have plenty of life to live… but there I was a shell of my formal self… I had let myself become a sedentary, middle-aging, slightly overweight pud… this was NOT OK!!!
______________________________________________

Fast forward to today... While I still haven't attempted to climb a tree I'm pretty sure that I could do that with no problem... in fact on somedays I feel like I could probably swing through the forest like Tarzan... But what's really important is how I feel. I used spend my days feeling lethargic, having to force myself to gather the energy to complete even the simplest of tasks. Now I'm full of energy! I'm steadily approaching the age of 31 but feel a lot closer to 21 then when I was turning 30.

I want to say that I feel like a whole new person but really I think it would be more accurate to say that I feel like myself again...

Week 5 of the Weight Loss Challenge

2009-12-01T11:32:00.000-06:00

Starting Week 5 of the Weight Loss Challenge... only 2 weeks left.

Thanksgiving provided a bit of a hurdle this week but I still managed to get my cardio in and keep my diet in check for the most part... here's my new stats.

Week 0 (Nov 2nd): 179.4 lbs, 22.4% body fat, 30 BMI
Week 1 (Nov 9th): 173.6 lbs, 20.2% body fat, 28.9 BMI
Week 2 (Nov 16th): 168.8 lbs, 18% body fat, 27.3 BMI
Week 3 (Nov 23rd): 167.7 lbs, 16.6% body fat, 27.1 BMI

Week 4 (Nov 30th): 166.1 lbs, 16.9% body fat, 26.8 BMI

Despite my deep-fried turkey and the literal pound of butter I used while cooking Thanksgiving dinner I still managed to lose some weight although supposedly the body fat percentage went up a little bit??? Still weight loss is weight loss in this competition and I lost another 1% this week and am sitting at 7.4% for the competition...

I have no idea what other people are doing so I'm not sure where I'm sitting but I'm pretty sure I'm really going to have to focus and pull out all the stops for the next two weeks if I want to have any shot at winning the 500 dollar prize.

Week 4 of the Weight Loss Challenge

2009-11-24T09:47:00.000-06:00

Another Monday, another weigh in... and the results

Week 0 (Nov 2nd): 179.4 lbs, 22.4% body fat, 30 BMI
Week 1 (Nov 9th): 173.6 lbs, 20.2% body fat, 28.9 BMI
Week 2 (Nov 16th): 168.8 lbs, 18% body fat, 27.3 BMI

Week 3 (Nov 23rd): 167.7 lbs, 16.6% body fat, 27.1 BMI

Only lost about a pound this week, a percentage loss of .7% for the week and total percentage loss of 6.5% for the competition. Not bad really considering that I was off diet and exercise for four of the 7 days... Still with Thanksgiving coming up it's important that I really focus the next couple days to at least maintain what I've done so far, and hopefully knock off a few more pounds.

Back on the wagon

2009-11-23T12:43:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how easy it is for me to lose focus during a diet. When I'm eating clean I love it... I rarely crave bad foods, I feel healthy and energetic, and I lust for whole grains, fruits, and vegetables... But as soon as I break diet and lets pizza or burgers or chicken wings enter my stomach it turns me all Mr. Hyde and I start drinking out of the deep fryer like a lunatic...

So not surprisingly an impromptu 48 hour adventure to NYC last week caused me to fall off diet hard... It started on Wednesday morning with two McDonald's breakfast burritos (my friend who bought breakfast ate 4 McGridles!!!), culminated with a 12 beer 12 bar Wednesday night tour of lower Manhattan sandwiched between two unfortunate consumptions of unidentified NYC street meat, and ended with a chicken wing and gas station sandwich pit stop. Combine that with a 6 hour Wednesday morning flight, 5 hours of sleep on the floor of a buddies closet sized Manhattan apartment, and an 18 hour partly hungover Thursday morning drive from NYC to Peoria via St. Louis (my friend had extra frequent flyer miles so I flew out to NYC with him to help him drive back a Honda S2000 that he bought on eBay)... Needless to say my body was not happy with me...

I spent Friday recovering physically (laying on the couch all day with my dogs) and Saturday recovering the mental fortitude of the diet (after one last half pound, grass-fed, local farm raised double cheeseburger mmmmm...)

Sunday I finally felt like myself again. In fact with the increased calorie consumption and rest from the daily exercise I felt pretty great. I decided that since I was back on my game I'd head to the gym and make up for some lost time. That's how last nights melee of exercise endurance began...

I started with 1.25 miles on the treadmill with a incline of 3.0 and an 8:34 pace. Then I hoped on the exercise bike for 20 minutes on the random hill setting. I then returned to the treadmill and ran another 1.25 miles this time with an incline of 5.0 and an 8:34 pace. I then got back on the exercise bike for another 20 minute session on the random hill setting. Then I returned to the treadmill and ran 5 miles at a .5 incline at a 8:00 pace. Then back to the exercise bike for one final 20 minute random hill session. And finally capped it off with 3.11 miles on the treadmill with the first 1.61 miles at 7:47 pace and the final 1.5 miles at 7:03 pace.

In the end I had run 10.62 miles, biked 20 miles, and burned about 2000 calories. I was exhausted, my legs were jello, but mentally I felt great! I'm back to craving healthy foods, back on my workout schedule, and back on the wagon... which is crucial because I'll definitely have to hit it extra hard during the next 5 days since I'll be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the family this weekend and diet or no diet I'm cutting out all the stops!!!

Week 3 of the Weight Loss Challenge

2009-11-17T07:06:00.000-06:00

Went to the gym last night for another exciting weigh-in... Had the opportunity to literally size up some of my competition as I waited in line to weigh in. There were two ladies in front of me; one a heavier set older lady and one a skinny younger lady. The older lady lost 2 lbs this week even though she "had some bad days". The younger lady went from 127.8 lbs to 127.4 lbs... I think to myself: If this is what all my competition looks like then the 500 dollars is as good as mine!

Then it was my turn to step on the scale... I walked into the weigh in office and El Gordo (the fat trainer) was chowing on some fried rice, cream spinach, and some sort of chicken nuggets... real professional man... but onto my results:

Week 0 (Nov 2nd): 179.4 lbs, 22.4% body fat, 30 BMI
Week 1 (Nov 9th): 173.6 lbs, 20.2% body fat, 28.9 BMI
Week 2 (Nov 16th): 168.8 lbs, 18% body fat, 27.3 BMI

a 2.8% weight loss for the week and a 6.9% total weight loss so far in the competition. Still not confident on the body fat measuring device, but if its even close to right I suppose that it's the real indicator that I actually lost something besides water weight.

So far I've been keeping my diet in the 1500 to 1800 calories a day range and doing about an hour a day of cardio and 45 minutes a day of weight lifting. Up till now the program has been very successful... Yesterday though I finally noticed the calorie restriction and increased exercising starting to take its tole. I started to feel pretty lethargic and low energy as I labored through my workout at the gym... I think that part of the problem is that now that my ITB isn't bothering me anymore I've really upped the running (38 miles last week) and now my body is starting to pay the price.

Luckily I'll be out of town tomorrow and thursday so hopefully I can get in one more good workout today and then use the next two days to allow my body to heal.

There's still 4 more weeks left of the weight loss challenge. I need to continue to lose weight at a fast pace but make sure I don't burn out too early because I know I'll need plenty of reserve at the end for the final push!

Da Great Outdoors

2009-11-14T12:10:00.000-06:00

I think I finally turned the corner on my ITBS. I've been running relatively pain free since last Friday. I still feel the reminisce of something going on but it's hard to tell how much of that is real and how much is in my head. Also, I'm not sure if it's a coincidence that the pain went away at the exact time that I started taking Naproxen, but I haven't been brave enough to find out yet by not taking a Naproxen in the morning... I guess I'll save that trial till next week.

But for today's trial... My first attempt to run outside since my walk of shame...

It's a lovely day. The air is a crisp 57 degrees and the sun is out in full force. A beautiful day for a run. I decided to run my 5 mile route; one of my favorites because it's flat and because I ran it so frequently during my marathon training that it provides me with a good benchmark for my performance. I strapped on my Garmin (oh how I've missed you) and headed out the door... The run was fabulous. It was so great to finally run free, away from the constant methodical cycling of the treadmill. I was free to feel the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. I was free to choose my own pace and to speed up and slowdown at will...

Also this was my first real outdoor run since marathon training... and I realized how nice it was to be running simply for the sake of running. I had no concrete goal. No milage I had to reach for the week. No tempo or pace that I had to keep.

I ended up running 5.25 miles pain free and at a good steady base pace (I'm not even going to put how fast it was because it doesn't matter!)...

Sitting here blogging now, shortly after my run I feel exhilarated. I feel that I'm finally starting to get in shape. I'm eager to spend this winter building my base, pushing my fitness, drop some extra pounds, and working my core. I'm excited because my running "career" is just starting and I'm confident that next spring I will be ready to really start competing and setting some PRs!!!

MacGyvering the Ipod Sweat Issue

2009-11-13T10:16:00.000-06:00

(Quick observation: Don't you think this guy looks a bit like Nitmos?)

Before I start let me just say that I love my Ipod! It has the ability to hold more songs than I'll ever own in my lifetime (My first ever MP3 playing device I owned back in college only held 8 songs). It's orange (go Illini). And it's so damn sleek and cool looking... it's like some kind of alien music playing technology from outer space... or the future... or BOTH!!!! So now that I got that out of the way let me just say...

I HATE MY IPOD... Ever since I got it it's been a pain in my butt. First of all I bought the sports band so I could listen to it while running... Works great except the plastic cover of the band was so thick I couldn't adjust the volume control. Also, the sports band wicks sweat right into the Ipod. Turns out that Ipod's are not intended to be dunked in water and let me tell you... after a run on a hot summer day I'd probably be better off dunking the Ipod in water instead of having it strapped to my sweaty arm.

Luckily my Ipod has not sustained any extreme damage yet... so far the only thing that's malfunctioned is that the lock button doesn't function anymore. Not too much of an issue except that when it gets sweaty the Ipod suddenly goes into permanent lock mode and I can't use it until it dries out.

Another problem I have is with the ear buds. I can never get the apple issued ear bugs to stay in my ear while running. After trying multiple pairs I finally found that the 10 dollar pair of Maxwell brand headphones they sell at Walmart work great for me... only problem with them is that all the jostling and bouncing from running tends to wear out the wiring at the point where the head phones wire connect to the 1/4 inch jack, so after about a month of use either the left side or the right side of the headphones inevitably cuts out...

I've been battling these problems for about 6 months now so I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and called on my inner MacGyver.

First off I took a pair of scissors and cut a circular hole into the plastic of my Ipod arm band so that I could access the volume control. Next I took some electrical tape and reenforced the connection of my headphones before looping the headphone wire back around and taping it in place so as to remove the stress from the joint where the wiring meets the quarter inch jack. Finally I took a zip-lock back and tightly wrapped my Ipod in it. I then cut the bag off to size and used painters tape (only tape I had handy at the time i.e. Macgyver style) to seal the cut ziplock bag tightly around my Ipod.

And like that all my problems are solved... either than or the tape will speed up the degradation of the headphones, the Ipod armband will tear apart due to the hole I cut, and moisture will slowly seep into the ziplock bag through the hole where the headphone jack plugs in and over time will retain enough sweat that my problem will be worse than before I messed with the stuff... on top of that my warranties will all be voided and I'll be out 200 bucks... oh well, either way.

God Bless Naproxen (5.5 miles!)

2009-11-11T17:50:00.000-06:00

Huge accomplishment in my marathon/ITBS recovery progress today. I ran 5.5 miles non-stop at 8:20 pace... and I had to stop at 5.5 not because my ITB was hurting but because a tendon in my foot started bothering me. Not too worried about the foot tendon but I figured I better stop while I'm ahead.

I guess it's either healing on its own or it's the Aleve I'm taking... I've always been an Ibuprofen man but it seems like Naproxen might be the way to go.

At this rate I might even get in a couple more runs outdoors before winter (fingers crossed)