35 minutes on the Rack

With the shin splint issue, I stuck to the Rack (Mary's elliptical exercise machine) this weekend. Ohhhhhhh how I wanted to do the long run. I felt awful skipping the long run, but I felt it'd be prudent to back off for a bit and wait for it to heal a little. I also got a calf sleeve, which should help too.

Also, I gotta start getting some pictures in here. Text is so boring.

Now get back to work.

Shin Noise

Distance: 6.2 miles
Time: 1:05
Temp: 73 and breezy - I had not noticed this before, but there's no wind in the AM in the desert
Quality: 7/10

Got up way early for this one, 4:45am. I've decided to up the miles on Wednesday or Thursday (but I may amend this before this blog is through, you'll see). I don't plan on doing anything longer than 8 on Wednesdays, but Brice is talking about doing 10 and more. I disagree with this approach, but that's just an opinion.

I made a spectacle of myself on the run today by inhaling a bug at about mile 2. It hit me squarely in the back of my throat, which then started me gagging...a lot. What a nasty experience, but I bet it was funny to watch. Wish I had a video of it.

The run was good, but there's a little issue popping up. The possibility of Shin Splints. My right shin has been achy for the last week or so. I've been trying to gut through it, which I know is a really bad idea, but then I'm a stupid guy. So what do you expect? I really don't want to back off the miles and I certainly can't back off the pace. I'm getting passed by everything from old ladies walking their dogs to ants carrying full sized potato chips in their mandibles. I'll try ice and stretching for one more week and then I'll re-assess the situation.

Now get back to work.

10 on the AZ Canal

Run: 10.01 (do we really need accuracy down to the hundredths?)
Time: 1:41:10
Quality: 8/10

Brice and I had schedule conflicts, so I did this run solo, but aided with the GPS again. First, let me say that running on dirt paths is very, very good for anyone who has knee or hip issues. There were times when I went out of my way to find the softer dirt, just to be kind to my body.

The run itself was good. I saw 1 runner, 2 horses, and a couple walking there dog, and that was it!! Why is this place being avoided by all other runners and walkers? With it being so desolate, I can understand why women would avoid the trail, but flabby 30 or 40 something guys should hit it with a vengeance.

So I was feeling pretty good during the run and I picked up the pace for the last 3-4 miles. I was still moving slower than a decision in congress, but it felt fast for me. Anyway, I hit 9.7 miles and all of a sudden my gas tank was empty. Nothing. I let out a groan and hit a wall. The last 0.3 miles were shuffled out by my feet and I stopped.

One final note, I've added walking at the beginning and the end of my runs. I probably walked 3/4 of a mile back to the car and my body was feeling pretty good. Again, the knee is as close to great as I've seen it in a long time.

Three with Reese

I've been a baaaad boy. Here comes three listings at one time.

Run: 3 miles
Time: 36 minutes
Quality: 6/10

First, I was tiptoeing out the front door when I heard, "daddy, can I go on the run with you?" DOH!! Reese got me. So I pumped up the tires on the three wheeled stroller that is entirely too small for Reese and we went on our merry way.

One of the reasons I wanted to go solo was because I recently inherited a Timex Time and Distance GPS watch from Brice. He hadn't used it in a while and thought that all it needed was a new set of batteries for the GPS and the watch (it's in two units) and he was correct. Friday was the first day I had a chance to take it on a run with me and I was naturally excited about zooming out there for a longer run sans child.

GPS Thoughts: Talk about a love / hate relationship. I did an out and back that morning and I kept looking at the the watch, pleading with it to let me turn around, but it wouldn't speed up. Maybe I should change it to the metric system.

Now back to work!

5 at night

Run: 5 miles
Time: the challenge with having multiple watches is that you sometimes forget where the "light" button is and inadvertently turn off your stopwatch. No idea
Quality: 9/10

I have no idea what happened or if it will hold up, but ever since the 10 on the dirt my knee has been virtually pain free. I never realized how much that thing bothered me until it stopped hurting. And I feel like I can start speeding up.

I was lucky enough to do 5 after sunset with Matt Teusink. He's in kick-butt shape, but he doesn't know if he'll do the half or the full marathon. I'm not going to pressure him now that I have a new found respect for listening to the creeks and moans that your body sends out to you. Now I'll contradict myself, he'll do well in either event and I hope he does the full marathon.

I'll see if I can't get more pictures in the next blog, and better commentary. Thanks for reading.

Now get back to work.

Short, easy, and fast...sort of.

Run: 4.5 Miles
Time: 45:20
Temp: 73
Quality: 9/10

This was the first run where I felt like I was able to take my pace out of first gear. Think about feeling like you are moving in "granny gear" for almost a year and then all of a sudden you find a second gear. I wasn't going very fast at all, but as a matter of perspective I was flying. Yippee. I really hope to have more runs like that in the near future.

Now get back to work.

10 Miles!!

Run: 10 miles on Sunday

Time: 1:44:40

Temp: cool

Quality: 8/10

Once you get into the double digits, you start to feel like you are accomplish something. We did the run on the Arizona Canal, which is a concrete river running through Phoenix. Only in Arizona would you find that the river is on concrete and the bike path is dirt. Shouldn't that be the other way around?

If you have joint problems, RUN ON DIRT!!! My knee felt better than any run I've had to date and this was my longest run. Unless it rains, I'll be doing my long runs there from this day forward. I felt so good at mile 8 that I wanted to overtake a runner who was about a minute in front of us (Brice and I); however, we decided that it'd be better to not be crazy.

After the run I was talking to Eric and he asked me how my toenails were doing. Why would he ask such a silly question? Well, when you start tickling 10+ miles, you are bound to lose a toenail or two. And it looks like I'm headed down that path with one on my left foot. Eric also said that I'd now realize exactly how often my kids step on my toes through the course of the day. Fun, fun, fun.

Now get back to work!

Gravity is a Constant???

Run: 4
Time: 46:10
Temp: 73
Quality: 4/10

I know that Newton proved a long time ago that gravity on Earth pulls on everything with the same force: 9.8 m/s^2 or 32 ft/s^2, but ask any runner about gravity and you'll get a completely different response. I'm sure that the "gravity fairy" came by and tagged me with about 2g's this morning. Physics was not playing fair and I think I know why. The culprit turned out to be a bottle of Martin Ray Russian River Pinot. It was sooooo good. I had two glasses, which I normally don't do the day before a run and the result was not only the gravity issue, but also I beat the tar out of my snooze button this morning. Maybe the equation for gravity is G=G*d, where d is the number of cocktails consumed the night before a run.

So while I was on the thinking about gravity this morning, I started to think about super powers. Why? Well I'd like to have the super power of gravity manipulation. Think about how powerful that'd be. Some time ago I want the ability to heal others, but then the cynic in me caused me to believe that I'd end up locked up in the White House somewhere taking care of George Bush's hemorrhoids. So I flipped back to the manipulation of gravity. Here's a question to y'all: What super power would you like to have? Let me know.

Now get back to work! After you ponder the above question.

Mistake or Master Plan?

Run: 5.1
Time: 50:25
Temp: 73
Quality: 7/10

So a friend of mine, Matt Teusink, inherited a Garmin 301 from a guy who got a Garmin 405, and Matt decided to hand down his Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor to me. It is a very cool device and it's been fun to see how my actions and form during a run can affect my heart rate. Let's just say that I know for certain that efficient form + appropriate pace = good heart rate.

However, I am having one little challenge with the watch. It calibrates your VO2-Max (a super complex equation meant to make runner, bicyclists, and other athletes feel smarter than nonrunners - all it really says is how efficiently your body uses the Oxygen it gets) by looking at your resting heart rate, and I don't think that it does it accurately. Why? I spend most of my runs looking down at my heart rate of 144 blinking incessantly at me, which means that if I don't slow down and get my heart rate lower I'm about to die. After 35+ minutes on the brink of death, I start to get a little annoyed. There is a silver lining to my demise during my run. I seem to be burning tons of calories during my death march. Does this mean that I can go back to drinking more beer?

I know I can manually set the target range, which I'll do, but this brings me to the "Mistake or Master Plan" question. Freud once said that there is no such thing as a mistake. Meaning that we do everything (good, bad or otherwise) on purpose. When we got home from Newport Beach I realized that I left the transmitter for my heart rate monitor back in Cali. Doh! Did I leave that there because I'm stupid and absent minded or did I leave that there because I didn't like what it was saying to me? You be the judge. My wife leans heavily to the stupid side, but she's only one vote. Yes?

Now get back to work!

Newport Beach

View of the condo - to the right of the telephone pole


View of the beach

I'm pulling an "Eric" and posting three runs at one time:


Friday's Run: 5 miles
Time: 55:24
Temp: 69, foggy, and comfortable

We spent the weekend at a friend's, Bryan Shirley, condo that is directly on Newport Beach. People thought I was exaggerating when I said, "right on the beach," but it was precisely that. We had a few of our SoCal friends stop by and they couldn't believe the location of his condo. Bryan has a little slice of paradise there.

Newport run observation: If America is getting obese in epidemic proportions, you wouldn't be able to know by strolling around Newport Beach. All the girls were in bikinis and they had the bodies for it, and all the men were tall with mesomorphic bodies and great tans. It was crazy.

Newport run observation 2: What an insane plot of real estate? During my run I saw homes that were about to fall down (probably could be purchased for $2.5mil) next to homes that were on two plots of land, with a full basketball court with NBA style hoops, fire pits, and every other amenity you could possibly imagine...and it was a weekend retreat, not a primary residence. I couldn't fathom the price of those places.

Newport run observation 3: Having money doesn't mean you have taste. Life sized sculptures of Botticelli's Venus is not a good thing. Fountains belong in parks, not taking up half of your backyard. Just because you love the crazy colors of the homes on the Italian Riviera doesn't mean that your neighbors will share your excitement when you paint your house a color that can be seen 5 miles out at sea.

Needless to say, I don't remember a second of my run. It was totally erased by the sights and sounds of Newport.


Sunday's Long Run:
Run: 8.7 miles
Time: 1:43:10
Temp: 66
Quality: 7/10

Running early on Sunday morning offers you a new perspective of Newport Beach, the aftermath of Saturday Night. I ran past a strip of very popular bars and had to dodge not one, but sections of sidewalk that were hit hard by someone who drank too much the night before (use your imagination). I also ran past one person who appeared to have passed out mid-stride while walking on the beach. I don't think he had a very event filled Sunday.

My run was sloooooowwww. I was passed by everyone; old ladies, old men, young men, young ladies, I barely edged a power walker (why is that an Olympic sport) and even an exceedingly old lady walking her little terrier proved to be a challenging target to overtake. Oh well. My mantra right now is "distance, not speed; distance, not speed; distance, not speed".

I also discovered how climate can dramatically affect the run. I usually kill the 50oz CamelBak through the course of my runs when I'm in Arizona, but it is hot and dry here. I drank fluids as if I were in the desert and needed to stop twice for potty breaks, which never happens in AZ. People always talk about the importance of drinking tons of fluids before a marathon or a long run, but I'm beginning to realize that you need to consider temp, terrain, and humidity before you start diving into the electrolytes. I've had some very forgettable marathons where I had to pee every 2 miles because I had totally saturated my body with water. Not fun. Learn from my mistakes.


Tuesday - Back in Arizona

Run: 3 miles
Time: 36 minutes (but I stopped to pet a dog and I was pushing Reese in the stroller)
Quality: 8/10

Reese got the stomach flu yesterday and slept for the better part of our 6 hour ride home from California, which meant that he was up before dawn and very eager to join me on my run this morning. Needless to say, my initial plans of doing 5 were downsized due to the additional 45 pounds I had to push. He's getting big. Still, we had fun. We also got a chance to pet our favorite blood hound, Katie. She was happy to see us and eager to sniff every part of Reese, which tickled him and caused him to laugh nonstop through the entire experience.

Now get back to work.

Wednesday Run

Run: 5 miles
Time: 55:36
Temp: 70 Things are cooling off
Quality: 8/10

I've had a string of good runs. And now that I've jinxed myself, I can't wait to see what happens on the next run. Still, it's undeniable that the long runs on the weekend (still only 8 miles) are making the weekday runs seem a little easier. Is it possible that I'm getting in better shape?

I've been reading Eric's Blog and the insane splits that he's putting together on his short and long runs, which got me to thinking about my crappy little 10 minute miles...10:30 to be exact.

Sure he's been putting in more miles and more years. Also, I could go down the "I'm bigger than him" path, but in all seriousness, he's always been a better runner than me. This statement has no emotion around it, it's just a factual observation. And as I thought about it more, I came to a conclusion about what makes him so good at running. Now I didn't say that this is the correct conclusion, but I'm going with it.

I think his temperament is better suited to running than mine. More specifically, he gets angry (might not be the best term) when someone is beating him and I think that that pushes him really hard. If he sees a target in front of him or if he feels that someone is pushing him, he pushes himself beyond reason to win. Try it sometime. The next time you see someone in front of you or you hear footsteps, get passionate or angry. Get really worked up and you'll see what a potent tool this is. Now do that for an entire run and you are getting close to Eric. He's kinda like the Hulk in the form of a runner. This may also be one of the reasons why he pursues meditation so passionately, trying to control the Hulk outside of the athletic arena. Nonetheless, the Hulk and Chi running form can be a very powerful combination. Anyway, I've been impressed with Eric's efforts and I was thinking about it, so here it is in the blog. I know he'll qualify for Boston this year and he'll do it with a 10 minute comfort margin. Go get em Eric.

Running in the Dark

Run: 4 miles
Time: 42 minutes
Temp: I don't know for certain, but it had to be around 70.
Quality: 9/10

It isn't often that work can penetrate the safe haven that I create when I run, but it did today. Too much going on in my head. I tried to focus on form and other things to get my mind off work, but no luck. Oh well. The run still felt good.

Hey, a note of safety to all pre-dawn runners. I hate wearing a reflective vest or a headlamp, but I also appreciate being safe. I've been using a little red strobe from CMI, which costs about 3 bucks. I hook it onto my watch, which leaves my hands free and it does the trick very well. I highly recommend it if you are going to be running in the dark because people will not see you.

Football starts this week Yippee!!! Now get back to work!