Running All Over The States

Holy crap!!! My first race is only 24 days away! HOLY CRAPPOLA!!! It's been 27 days since I last typed a true blog for you all. My sincerest and deepest apologies for the lengthy absence. "No excuses!" Right? Wow! There is so much that has happened and so many things I have learned it is hard to pick where to begin. I am bound to leave out some details that would have made it here if I had blogged in a more timely fashion.

Let's start with some numbers. 4 states, 6 cities, 13 runs, 70.4 miles. That is what you have all missed. Or rather not received details on. In the past four weeks I have now traveled to Florida twice, running in Fort Myers (4 miles), Orlando (4 miles) and Tampa (2 miles to date). I have also run in Emporia, KS (8.5 miles), Austin, TX (6 miles), and my home of Norman, OK (10 miles). (Mileage in parantheses represents my longest run in each location during my blogging absence.) I have surpassed the century mark twice. The first time celebrating 100 was when I reached my first overall 100 miles. The second was when my ASICS hit their first 100 miles. I have now had two 20-plus mile weeks and set to have a third by this week's end. GARMIN has told me I achieved my first 12:30 mile, along with many more miles that were sub-13:00. My run temperatures have ranged between 36 and 80 degrees, with most of those in the 60-72 range. And one final number to dish out is 241. When I left home on Monday this week I weighed in at 241 pounds, giving me a total weight loss of 11 pounds. How did you like me sneaking in that extra number? Better yet, this one - 5 lessons learned, keep reading to see the lessons.

Transitioning out of the numbers with the weight talk, it may appear I have only lost 2 pounds since my last real blog, but there is some reasoning behind that. For nearly a week my wife and I were on the road in Florida, eating three meals a day, with little control over how it was prepared. We did our best to watch what we ate and the quantities, but nonetheless, upon our return home I had put back on about three or four pounds. This I figure was due in part to the eating out. But it may also have been related to a lighter run load that week - only 8 miles. Needless to say, I did lose it again once I got home and back on running track. Lesson number one I learned here is to do a better job in watching my food intake while traveling. This will be a major stepping stone for me since my job pretty much has me traveling a LOT.

My second lesson I learned comes from a run up in Emporia while visiting my sister. To you women readers this may not be a surprise, but to you men it may. You want to protect your nipples. What do I mean by that you may ask? Let me tell you. Runner or not, I am sure you are aware of chaffing. Well, when you run, particularly longer distances, the constant bouncing up and down can cause a lot of friction rubbing between your upper-body clothing and your nipples. Without some kind of protection the nipples will get a little raw. Fully aware of this fact and body glide stick in my toiletries bag, I set out on my 8 mile run in 42 degree weather wearing a tech shirt and sweatshirt to keep me warm, but NO body glide. By about mile 6 or 7, I was wishing I had remembered to apply the glide prior to my run. End result after 8.5 miles? Sore nipples for a few days.

A third lesson I learned came all the way from Super Target. Or rather to and from Super Target. You see, last Sunday I set out for my long run while at home in Norman. I was scheduled for 8 miles, but was targeting 10. My run took me from home, through part of the OU campus, through downtown Norman along the railroad tracks, past the Norman Aiport and finally to the Super Target. Once there I turned around and retraced my steps to complete what I now call the Target 10-Miler. The weather was a little humid to start and a bit breezy throughout. The cloud cover was non-existant. I know all about the importance of applying sunscreen before you go outside in the sun, especially for a prolonged period of time. Guess what! I did not apply any. Why? I don't know. Here is the big lesson though I learned, do not leave home without a hat! For some unknown reason I left the house without putting on my Fenway Park running hat. This proved to be a mistake twofold. Reason one is the obvious one I have foreshadowed with the lack of sunscreen. The second is the hat helps to keep sweat from running down the forehead and into the eyes. While out running I could not for the life of me figure out why I was having to wipe my face more often than usual. It was when I got home and looked at my Rudolph-like nose, my egg-frying forehead and my Oklahoma red neck that I realized I forgot to put on my hat. What an idiot! Furthermore, because I did not wear the hat, it allowed my face to take on extra color where it normally would have been shaded, even without the sunscreen.

Lesson four comes from the treadmill, or maybe not. Over the past 13 runs totalling 70.4 miles, only 18.9 of my miles came while on the treadmill. I am happy to say that I have discovered the joy of running outdoors more than indoors. In the beginning I prefered to be on the treadmill, but now I prefer to be outside. I find myself now trying to find new places to run (doing longer runs aides in that drive) to help prevent boredom of the same course. One great place I recently ran was in Austin, Texas - across and along the Colorado River and through Town Lake Park. It was by far the most pleasurable run I have had thus far. The running path is loose dirt, not asphalt or concrete. The parks department was even out grating the trail and keeping the maintenance up while I was out. I must have seen about two to three hundred people and about fifty dogs along my six mile excursion. Another great thing about this particular run was the company RunTex has a table set up with about 20 5-gallon water/gatorade jugs set up on a table for the runners to help themselves to when needed along the trail. I was very impressed. I wish Norman could do something like this.

A fifth lesson I have discovered is also related to treadmill/no treadmill situation. Not only am I faster off the treadmill, but I almost always negative split on my runs off-treadmill, without me even thinking of doing it. I guess that as my body loosens up and warms up in the begining I manage to pick up speed going deeper into the run. Not a bad thing I think, is it?

Just a few more items I would like to share as I try to wrap this up for the evening. While in Austin, heading out for my run down to Town Lake, my GARMIN kept going into "auto pause" and "auto resume" at times it should not have been. I was in the city and there were some tall buildings around, so I understand the issues of it having difficulty in locating the satelites. But, if it had already located the satelites and was running, why would it go into "auto pause" while I was moving along at an approximate 15:30? Also, while standing completely still at a crosswalk awaiting the little white illumination to tell me I could cross GARMIN would "auto resume", adding time to my run that wasn't going anywhere. I don't know, I guess I will chalk it up to being in the city and GARMIN having difficulty with the satelite locations.

Another item of run blogging interest comes from the shoe department. With my ASICS having celebrated their first centennial I felt it was a good time to go ahead and begin breaking in another pair of shoes. After all, we are hitting the rainy season in Oklahoma and I would like to have more than one pair of shoes to run in in the event one of them gets wet during a rainy run. When my sister came to visit back in February, I had purchased my first pair of shoes at the running store in Oklahoma City. They only had two types of shoes for me to try on there. Therefore I wanted to try the Norman store this time and see what they had to offer up. I have read and heard that once you find a shoe that works for you you should not alternate or continually try the newest, latest and greatest shoe just for the sake of doing so. However, I am not completey sold on the idea that my ASICS are THE shoe. Making my Maine-like long story short, I purchased a pair of BROOKS Addiction 7. I have now worn these out on two runs and love them so far. For now I am designating my BROOKS shoes as my longer running shoes, while the ASICS are destined for the shorter runs. Upon hearing of my BROOKS purchase my wife got all excited because we were now a complete BROOKS household, since she too has a pair of BROOKS.

And finally, I love my family. Last Saturday, while out on my 5k run around the block I received a call on my cell phone. I did not answer it at the time, but when I got home I retrieved the voicemail. The call was from one of my sisters asking me to join her and the rest of my sisters for a Saturday family run. What was so great about this is we all live in different states. I called her back, reaching her amidst her run, and informed her I did not answer the phone because I was out on my run at the time. She then told me one of my sisters had already run in her local town's 5k that morning in Massachusetts, another sister was going out for a run in Georgia, and another one was going to hit the pavement in Kansas. The end result was a four state family run. To me, that was just so cool. Although I was already on my run when my invite came, thank you for including me in on the run. I had a great time and I hope we do all get to do another multi-state family run soon. I know we will be doing the family run together in person come Disney, but until then, let us keep having these family runs.

Thanks to you all for your patience. I hope this has helped get you caught up. I will do my best to not let as much time expire between updates again.