With a 7 mile run yesterday and a 10 miler set for tomorrow I could have taken today off to give my body some recovery. However, I did not want to let my family down on what is now becoming our weekly multi-state fitness outing. My wife and I set out at 11am and logged ourselves 3.4 miles each in 55:00. The overall pace for the walk was 16:05. This definitely was one of my slower outings in some time, but that is okay because it is what I intended on at the start. With the longer runs on each side of today I wanted something slower and lower impact on my body. The slower pace I figured would be better suited on burning the harder to burn belly fat.
One real big challenge today was the wind. The winds were blowing at a 20-30 mph clip, gusting to 40.
As of this writing, my family's multi-state fitness has had 12 participants in 6 states accumulating more than 28.5 miles in just over 6 hours. I am sure there are a few more that have yet to report in. In all, more than 20 family members have banded together to be a part of our weekly multi-state fitness outing. It is great to have this family support.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Food Poisoning....Bad For Running!!!
After a great run last Saturday, contributing my 8 miles to the family multi-state relay, I decided on pizza for dinner. That proved to be the worst decision I made in my entire time in Tampa while at the Women's Final Four. Sunday morning I woke up around 5am with diarrhea and was unable to keep food in my stomach, losing my dinner out the other end as well. To attempt keeping this clean and not disgusting, I spent the entire day on Sunday this way. I was unable to keep anything in my body. I could not even sip and keep down water--it was bad. Monday morning, needing to get some nutrition, I consumed a Gu Gel pack (Just Plain) and chased it with some water. Afterward I was finally able to attempt resumption of consumption and was able to keep it down. That was at least a good step in the right direction on the road to recovery. My food intake was not great, but it was something. To wrap this up, it was Wednesday evening when I was finally back on track eating somewhat normal and it was Thursday before the diarrhea ceased. Now, you ask why you had to read through all that. The reasoning was that thanks to me getting a case of food poisoning I did not do any running for FIVE days. Unable to provide my body with any necessary nutrition I did not have the energy to sustain any kind of fitness. I was really frustrated with this because I wanted to run again in Tampa. I thoroughly enjoyed the run along the bay. It was very disappointing that I could not do so.
Upon my return home from Tampa I weighed myself. I looked at the scale and was half surprised to see it read 234. Now, I have not seen 234 with me standing on the scale since November 2002. The reason I was only half surprised at this weigh-in is because not having eaten much of anything in three days my body had turned to the stored fat to get me through when I could not eat. This weigh-in meant that I had lost 7 pounds in the 9 days I was on the road traveling. I figured that I would regain some of that weight as soon as I began eating normal again. Here I am two days later and this morning I weighed in at 235 lbs. I am happy with that and that is what I am calling my current weight.
Having food poisoning that prevents me from meeting my running objectives for the week by keeping me off the road for five consecutive days really stinks to say the least. With a full day of eating normal yesterday I finally had the energy to get out there and run today. Reworking my run plan for the week I managed to get in 7.3 miles today in a time of 1:37:09. Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 14:37
Mile 2: 12:18
Mile 3: 14:31
Mile 4: 12:32
Mile 5: 12:37
Mile 6: 13:28
Mile 7: 12:39
Mile .3: 4:23 (14:43 pace)
My overall pace for the 7.3 miles was a 13:18. The breakdown here is I walked Mile 1 for warm up. Aside for having to stop for traffic lights and crosswalks I ran the whole Mile 2--that might be why it is my fastest mile to date. Mile 3 I returned to walking. Starting at Mile 4 I ran until I was at about Mile 5.75 when I returned to walking. Wanting to finish strong I went ahead and ran the majority of Mile 7. It is great for me to see these times at what they are, consistency and improvements. For much of my training I was focused more on getting my endurance up for the distances to be covered, not speed. Therefore I was primarily walking, albeit at a fast rate. Now I am trying to transition into actual running and seeing how long I may maintain the steady speed over distance. Ultimately, this will increase the weight loss, thus allowing me to go faster, which in turn allows for more weight loss and then I cycle through it all over again.
With 7.3 miles in the can today, I plan to contribute another 3.3 miles tomorrow during my family's multi-state fitness day and then another 10 miles on Sunday. Last week the family multi-state fitness relay incorporated 15 members totalling more than 46 miles. We now have accumulated more than 20 family members into the mix. Whether we are walking or running, skating (ice hockey) or swimming (water polo), or whatever tickles our fancy, we are all getting out on Saturday to do something that will help get us and keep us fit. The family outpouring for this now weekly event has been tremendous.
Sunday will mark 2 weeks to my first race, The Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon. I am getting excited to finally have a race under my belt, and furthermore, an official time.
Upon my return home from Tampa I weighed myself. I looked at the scale and was half surprised to see it read 234. Now, I have not seen 234 with me standing on the scale since November 2002. The reason I was only half surprised at this weigh-in is because not having eaten much of anything in three days my body had turned to the stored fat to get me through when I could not eat. This weigh-in meant that I had lost 7 pounds in the 9 days I was on the road traveling. I figured that I would regain some of that weight as soon as I began eating normal again. Here I am two days later and this morning I weighed in at 235 lbs. I am happy with that and that is what I am calling my current weight.
Having food poisoning that prevents me from meeting my running objectives for the week by keeping me off the road for five consecutive days really stinks to say the least. With a full day of eating normal yesterday I finally had the energy to get out there and run today. Reworking my run plan for the week I managed to get in 7.3 miles today in a time of 1:37:09. Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 14:37
Mile 2: 12:18
Mile 3: 14:31
Mile 4: 12:32
Mile 5: 12:37
Mile 6: 13:28
Mile 7: 12:39
Mile .3: 4:23 (14:43 pace)
My overall pace for the 7.3 miles was a 13:18. The breakdown here is I walked Mile 1 for warm up. Aside for having to stop for traffic lights and crosswalks I ran the whole Mile 2--that might be why it is my fastest mile to date. Mile 3 I returned to walking. Starting at Mile 4 I ran until I was at about Mile 5.75 when I returned to walking. Wanting to finish strong I went ahead and ran the majority of Mile 7. It is great for me to see these times at what they are, consistency and improvements. For much of my training I was focused more on getting my endurance up for the distances to be covered, not speed. Therefore I was primarily walking, albeit at a fast rate. Now I am trying to transition into actual running and seeing how long I may maintain the steady speed over distance. Ultimately, this will increase the weight loss, thus allowing me to go faster, which in turn allows for more weight loss and then I cycle through it all over again.
With 7.3 miles in the can today, I plan to contribute another 3.3 miles tomorrow during my family's multi-state fitness day and then another 10 miles on Sunday. Last week the family multi-state fitness relay incorporated 15 members totalling more than 46 miles. We now have accumulated more than 20 family members into the mix. Whether we are walking or running, skating (ice hockey) or swimming (water polo), or whatever tickles our fancy, we are all getting out on Saturday to do something that will help get us and keep us fit. The family outpouring for this now weekly event has been tremendous.
Sunday will mark 2 weeks to my first race, The Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon. I am getting excited to finally have a race under my belt, and furthermore, an official time.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The Joys Of Running
Today was a day filled with joy throughout. My day began waking up at 5am. While taking time to eat a Power Bar I laced up my BROOKS running shoes and then headed for the elevator. With GARMIN, Gu gel and some Gu 2 Go in the water bottle I set out for an 8 mile run. The concierge at my hotel recommended crossing over the Hillsborough River to get to Bayshore Drive and run along the 4.5 mile sidewalk along the bay waters. At 5:30 am I was on my guard heading out because it was still dark. Once on Bayshore I became a little more relaxed, as the safety appeared a bit more evident. On one side of me I had water gently sloshing up along the sea wall. On the other side I had four lanes of nearly empty roadway with an occasional passing car. Separating me and the roadway was a 20-30 foot grassy section with a few interspersed palm trees blowing in the breeze. Along the way I passed numerous stretching and exercise stations, in addition to waste bins (which made it easy to throw away empty Gu gel packs), and best of all, water drinking fountains. This was a definite runners spot. By 6am I had begun to see other runners. By 7am there were numerous runners. Unlike my run in Austin there were no dogs this morning.
The entire run along Bayshore was lit with street lamps spaced about every 50 yards. I mention this because after my first two miles I decided to get in some interval work during my run. I started out with running two light posts, then walking for two. I repeated this four times and then stepped it up to three run and one walk, again repeating four times. After that cycle I remained in a walk mode for a bit while I consumed a gel pack. Shortly afterward, I went to a run four light posts and walk four. I did this until I reached my four mile halfway point. Upon turning around I wanted to push a little harder and went to a run six light posts with a three light post recovery. I did this for nearly three miles.
One of the greatest surprises I have received while out on a run came when I turned around at the halfway point of the day’s run and began my second four miles back to the hotel. When I turned around, still in the dark but with a slight glimmer of daylight beginning to crack the horizon, was the beautiful nightlight skyline of Tampa, Florida. Seeing it just overpowered me. I was blown away with the sight. I guess because inside I was thinking "Wow! I ran that far? " Knowing I was staying in Downtown Tampa, the center of the skyline I was gazing upon, it just amazed me I had gone out so far.. It just sort of put the distance traveled into a different frame of light. What made this sight even better was that I got to look at it for the next four miles as the sun began to come to life on the horizon.
With a great feeling of energy at the conclusion of my run I made my way back to my room to clean up and head off to work. I can tell you today’s run was by far the sweatiest I have ever done. I do not think there was an ounce of dry clothing on my body, including my Fenway running hat. Something I may take as a lesson is to have a visor as opposed to a cap when on my warmer weather runs. I found myself to be a lot warmer wearing the hat, where a visor would allow more heat to escape the head while running. Now I just need to find me an appropriate visor to my liking. After the shower, I did a quick download of GARMIN to the computer. Here are my mileage splits today:
Mile Time
------ ------
1 16:11
2 14:57
3 13:26
4 13:19
5 12:52
6 12:31
7 12:35
8 12:40
In addition to analyzing my split times, I got a better sense of the elevation graph today. Normally when home in Oklahoma I run at an altitude between 1100 and 1200 feet above sea level. Today I ran between 5 and 40 feet. It also made me realize that next weekend will be a bit tougher as I will be running in the mile-high air of Denver, Colorado.
Done with the initial analyzing, I packed up the computer and walked close to another ¾ miles to work at the St. Pete Times Forum, host location of the Women’s Final Four. This is where the day really became joyful. A quick back story first. Last weekend three of my sisters, in three different states, set out on a run together at the same time. It was to be a family support fun run. Knowing someone else in your family was out there running with you, but not with you, was to give you the extra boost to keep you moving along. Upon their completion of their runs they found out another sister and I had completed our runs within an hour of theirs as well. It all sounded pretty cool and we decided to do it again this week. Now, back to today. Four of the five from last week committed to today’s run. In addition, we recruited a few more family members (cousins, parents, siblings and spouses). We started the day with what we thought would be seven runners. With us in different time zones and different work and immediate family time requirements we were not all able to run at the same time. Therefore, we decided to email and text one another when we set out for our runs. My cousin in Oregon I am sure to say was happy to receive my text at 230am his time when I set out on my run. Throughout the morning hours while at work I was logged into my email, reading everyone’s mention of heading out to run. As people began to conclude their runs they emailed or texted their mileage total, some included their time. With each report that came in I would calculate the time and distance and send out an email update. I half jokingly asked if we would be able to complete a marathon today with the seven of us running. The day moved along, the updates kept going out, and to my surprise, more and more reports kept coming in. One even got on the treadmill for a couple of miles in guilt for not taking part. By the day’s end we had had 15 family members take part in our relay fun run. Not only did we make the marathon, we surpassed the Disney’s Goofy Race and Half Challenge distance of 39.3 with an accrual of 46.18 miles in an estimated 11 hours of run/walk time. In all we had participants in seven states: Florida (1), Louisiana (2), Kansas (1), Maine (3), Massachusetts (5), Oregon (2) and Texas (1). It was so heart-warming to see the family support grow throughout the day as more and more people took part. The end result of it all was a successful one because we got people up and moving. There was no shame in the distances traveled or the time it took to cover it. Everyone was very supportive. I am hoping next week we may reprise the family run again and maybe shoot for the 50 miler, or better yet, the double marathon (52.4).
With all the joy in the day, I almost forgot the little bit of frustration with GARMIN. I am really getting tired of it taking so long to locate satellites. When I am ready to go for my runs I am far too often finding myself having to wait anywhere from two to five minutes for GARMIN to lock in. It gets aggravating when I am ready to go. Also, I once again point out that GARMIN does not function well in the city – at least around tall building as they warn (this is true for my auto GARMIN as well). Once I did finally lock in the satellites and set out on my run it would tell me to speed up or slow down. It would tell me I traveled five feet, then nothing, then ten feet, then nothing. This morning it was really acting stupid until I got out away from the buildings. I am finding that not only does it have difficulty finding the satellites, but the tall buildings bounce the signals around, ultimately confusing the machine, therefore frustrating me. Okay, rant over.
Thank you for taking the time to read. See you again soon on the runners’ blog.
The entire run along Bayshore was lit with street lamps spaced about every 50 yards. I mention this because after my first two miles I decided to get in some interval work during my run. I started out with running two light posts, then walking for two. I repeated this four times and then stepped it up to three run and one walk, again repeating four times. After that cycle I remained in a walk mode for a bit while I consumed a gel pack. Shortly afterward, I went to a run four light posts and walk four. I did this until I reached my four mile halfway point. Upon turning around I wanted to push a little harder and went to a run six light posts with a three light post recovery. I did this for nearly three miles.
One of the greatest surprises I have received while out on a run came when I turned around at the halfway point of the day’s run and began my second four miles back to the hotel. When I turned around, still in the dark but with a slight glimmer of daylight beginning to crack the horizon, was the beautiful nightlight skyline of Tampa, Florida. Seeing it just overpowered me. I was blown away with the sight. I guess because inside I was thinking "Wow! I ran that far? " Knowing I was staying in Downtown Tampa, the center of the skyline I was gazing upon, it just amazed me I had gone out so far.. It just sort of put the distance traveled into a different frame of light. What made this sight even better was that I got to look at it for the next four miles as the sun began to come to life on the horizon.
With a great feeling of energy at the conclusion of my run I made my way back to my room to clean up and head off to work. I can tell you today’s run was by far the sweatiest I have ever done. I do not think there was an ounce of dry clothing on my body, including my Fenway running hat. Something I may take as a lesson is to have a visor as opposed to a cap when on my warmer weather runs. I found myself to be a lot warmer wearing the hat, where a visor would allow more heat to escape the head while running. Now I just need to find me an appropriate visor to my liking. After the shower, I did a quick download of GARMIN to the computer. Here are my mileage splits today:
Mile Time
------ ------
1 16:11
2 14:57
3 13:26
4 13:19
5 12:52
6 12:31
7 12:35
8 12:40
In addition to analyzing my split times, I got a better sense of the elevation graph today. Normally when home in Oklahoma I run at an altitude between 1100 and 1200 feet above sea level. Today I ran between 5 and 40 feet. It also made me realize that next weekend will be a bit tougher as I will be running in the mile-high air of Denver, Colorado.
Done with the initial analyzing, I packed up the computer and walked close to another ¾ miles to work at the St. Pete Times Forum, host location of the Women’s Final Four. This is where the day really became joyful. A quick back story first. Last weekend three of my sisters, in three different states, set out on a run together at the same time. It was to be a family support fun run. Knowing someone else in your family was out there running with you, but not with you, was to give you the extra boost to keep you moving along. Upon their completion of their runs they found out another sister and I had completed our runs within an hour of theirs as well. It all sounded pretty cool and we decided to do it again this week. Now, back to today. Four of the five from last week committed to today’s run. In addition, we recruited a few more family members (cousins, parents, siblings and spouses). We started the day with what we thought would be seven runners. With us in different time zones and different work and immediate family time requirements we were not all able to run at the same time. Therefore, we decided to email and text one another when we set out for our runs. My cousin in Oregon I am sure to say was happy to receive my text at 230am his time when I set out on my run. Throughout the morning hours while at work I was logged into my email, reading everyone’s mention of heading out to run. As people began to conclude their runs they emailed or texted their mileage total, some included their time. With each report that came in I would calculate the time and distance and send out an email update. I half jokingly asked if we would be able to complete a marathon today with the seven of us running. The day moved along, the updates kept going out, and to my surprise, more and more reports kept coming in. One even got on the treadmill for a couple of miles in guilt for not taking part. By the day’s end we had had 15 family members take part in our relay fun run. Not only did we make the marathon, we surpassed the Disney’s Goofy Race and Half Challenge distance of 39.3 with an accrual of 46.18 miles in an estimated 11 hours of run/walk time. In all we had participants in seven states: Florida (1), Louisiana (2), Kansas (1), Maine (3), Massachusetts (5), Oregon (2) and Texas (1). It was so heart-warming to see the family support grow throughout the day as more and more people took part. The end result of it all was a successful one because we got people up and moving. There was no shame in the distances traveled or the time it took to cover it. Everyone was very supportive. I am hoping next week we may reprise the family run again and maybe shoot for the 50 miler, or better yet, the double marathon (52.4).
With all the joy in the day, I almost forgot the little bit of frustration with GARMIN. I am really getting tired of it taking so long to locate satellites. When I am ready to go for my runs I am far too often finding myself having to wait anywhere from two to five minutes for GARMIN to lock in. It gets aggravating when I am ready to go. Also, I once again point out that GARMIN does not function well in the city – at least around tall building as they warn (this is true for my auto GARMIN as well). Once I did finally lock in the satellites and set out on my run it would tell me to speed up or slow down. It would tell me I traveled five feet, then nothing, then ten feet, then nothing. This morning it was really acting stupid until I got out away from the buildings. I am finding that not only does it have difficulty finding the satellites, but the tall buildings bounce the signals around, ultimately confusing the machine, therefore frustrating me. Okay, rant over.
Thank you for taking the time to read. See you again soon on the runners’ blog.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Brief Check In
It is midnight now and I reall have to be going to sleep. I am waking up in four hours to catch a plane to Austin, TX for work on College Baseball and Softball. From there I head off to the Women's Final Four in Tampa, FL. I told myself I could not go to sleep tonight until I blogged. I promise all you readers out there that there is more information to come. I have been making notes over the past three weeks of my blogging absence. I have been keeping up with my running and can say that I am on track for the OKC half marathon in less than four weeks. Thank you for your patience. I will get you more detailed updates from the past few weeks shortly, but for now, I must get to sleep. Sorry this is so short and non-descript.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Great Workouts and a Plan
Nothing long today. Just a short note to keep you updated. Yesterday I put in a 5.8 mile run with the cooldown. Today I put in a cross-training session. I spent 20 minutes on the stationary bike, 40 minutes on the eliptical and did 3 sets of my strength training weights. The run yesterday felt great after the first two miles. I kind of did not want to stop, but it was getting late and I did not want to end up eating dinner at 11pm. The cross-training session also felt great. Exciting info of the day was stepping on the scale and seeing 241. I am not making that down officially yet because I want to see it couple of more times before I change the total in the sidebar. I am still officially calling myself 243.
The workout plan for the rest of this week and all of next week is going to be modified a little because of having to work on Tuesday and Thursday next week. I will be doing 8 miles on Sunday this week, followed by another 2 miles on Monday. I will be off on Tuesday for work, Wednesday will be a 6 mile temp run, Thursday again off for work. Friday I will get in a 2 miler with some strength training before visiting with my sister. Saturday will be a fun day and then I will finish the week out next Sunday with a 7 miler. This next week is the first week on my training schedule that calls for me to run on 4 days, so it is making it more of a challenge as my work schedule this month is picking up a bit more.
That's all for now. Check with you later.
The workout plan for the rest of this week and all of next week is going to be modified a little because of having to work on Tuesday and Thursday next week. I will be doing 8 miles on Sunday this week, followed by another 2 miles on Monday. I will be off on Tuesday for work, Wednesday will be a 6 mile temp run, Thursday again off for work. Friday I will get in a 2 miler with some strength training before visiting with my sister. Saturday will be a fun day and then I will finish the week out next Sunday with a 7 miler. This next week is the first week on my training schedule that calls for me to run on 4 days, so it is making it more of a challenge as my work schedule this month is picking up a bit more.
That's all for now. Check with you later.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Life, Lewis and the Pursuit of Cross-Training
So it has been a few days since I last posted. Strength training did not happen last Friday. Life, Huey Lewis & The News, and work got in the way. I did get my six miles in on Sunday. I spent the first half of it with my wife as she busted out her new running shoes and her own GARMIN. We covered what I call the 5k loop around the block. It really is more like 3.3 miles, but makes for a nice warmup, run, cooldown. The only downfall to it is there is a lot of concrete sidewalk, some asphalt, and a little bit of dirt/grass along the roadside. I made two laps around the loop, while my wife only did the first lap. She's training for the OKC 5k the same day my sister and I are doing the OKC Half (04/27).
Monday I was hoping to cross-train, but again, life got in the way. Waking up and having to wait at home for the cable guy to arrive, then there was the whole process of setting up my newly installed TiVo, and by the time I got done with all that I had to go do the grocery shopping for the week. Yes, these are excuses. BUT, they are excuses for cross-training. I have still been getting in my runs when they are due. I have not been cheating myself there. It was a bum deal that I did not get to cross-train Monday because I was all jazzed up to do it. You see, in the morning when I did my weigh-in, the scale read back to me a weight of 243. That means I have lost 9 lbs. since I have started my more concentrated effort to get my weight down and train for the Goofy Challenge. I was so pumped I wanted to go pump some iron.
Today, Tuesday, I was only on schedule for 2 miles. I did a total of 5 laps around my condo complex, each lap is .56 miles. The fifth lap was a cooldown lap. Even with the cooldown lap I knocked off about 50 seconds from last week's 5 laps of the complex. That was cool to see since I was not trying to beat any time. Thanks GARMIN for that knowledge. I also managed to do the laps at an overall average pace :07 faster than last week. Another thing I took note of is with each lap I was getting faster. This was the same situation last week, and I was not intentionally trying to make that happen. Again, another GARMIN nicety I have been enjoying. Following today's run around the complex I did do some strength training in the fitness room.
With work tomorrow (Wed.) and another run on Thursday it will be Friday before another cross-training session takes place. That's all for now.
Monday I was hoping to cross-train, but again, life got in the way. Waking up and having to wait at home for the cable guy to arrive, then there was the whole process of setting up my newly installed TiVo, and by the time I got done with all that I had to go do the grocery shopping for the week. Yes, these are excuses. BUT, they are excuses for cross-training. I have still been getting in my runs when they are due. I have not been cheating myself there. It was a bum deal that I did not get to cross-train Monday because I was all jazzed up to do it. You see, in the morning when I did my weigh-in, the scale read back to me a weight of 243. That means I have lost 9 lbs. since I have started my more concentrated effort to get my weight down and train for the Goofy Challenge. I was so pumped I wanted to go pump some iron.
Today, Tuesday, I was only on schedule for 2 miles. I did a total of 5 laps around my condo complex, each lap is .56 miles. The fifth lap was a cooldown lap. Even with the cooldown lap I knocked off about 50 seconds from last week's 5 laps of the complex. That was cool to see since I was not trying to beat any time. Thanks GARMIN for that knowledge. I also managed to do the laps at an overall average pace :07 faster than last week. Another thing I took note of is with each lap I was getting faster. This was the same situation last week, and I was not intentionally trying to make that happen. Again, another GARMIN nicety I have been enjoying. Following today's run around the complex I did do some strength training in the fitness room.
With work tomorrow (Wed.) and another run on Thursday it will be Friday before another cross-training session takes place. That's all for now.
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