The Midnight Runner

So Sore

2010-03-21T11:21:00.000-06:00

We had our annual Alumni Basketball tourney the last couple of days. It is always a great time. Reliving the past, catching up with friends, playing some ball and realizing just how old and out of shape we really are now. Our team did pretty good this year and we ended up playing in the championship game, which we lost (and I hate losing). So that means that we played one game Friday night and three games throughout the day on Saturday.

So while it is always a great time playing it comes at a price. Those four games over the weekend sure take their toll. Let's see if I can list all of the parts of my body that are sore. My neck, my back, my arms, my quads, my calves are unbelievably tight, the balls of my feet and I have a couple blisters on the tips of my toes. But it is totally worth it.

When I got up this morning I sure wasn't feeling any looser. But I went on a nice and easy 2.75 miles run with Amy and I feel a lot better now. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to be plenty sore the next few days. I plan to spend the rest of day with my foam roller and doing some yoga, we'll see if it helps.

It's Been Awhile

2010-03-18T01:38:00.000-06:00

It sure has been awhile since I posted anything. I have been running quite a bit and learning more about it though. I guess I just haven't really had anything to say about it though. I do plan on sharing some of the information that I've been acquiring in future posts.

I signed up for the Lincoln Half Marathon and have been working hard at getting ready for it. I'm pretty excited about it, but I think Amy might be more excited than I am since she ran it last year and had an awesome experience. And I'm actually more excited now than I was even an hour ago, I just found out the race is going to finish on the 50 yard line in memorial stadium. I always thought that would be the best way to finish it.

For my training plan I start off following Hal's Novice Half Plan for a couple of weeks. I switched for a couple of reasons. Hal's plan only gets up to 10 miles, which is almost a quarter of the race short. While I'm sure the excitement of race day could push me through the last 5k, I'd feel a lot better about the race if I had run closer to the actual distance. Hal's plan wasn't fitting into my schedule very well either. I usually ended up running Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with a long run either Saturday or Sunday. Sure I was supposed to cross train on those off days but I wouldn't get that done very often.

When I found the half plan from marathonrookie.com I liked it a lot as it fixed both issues I mentioned above. With it I'll get up to 12 miles while still increasing mileage at a reasonable rate. It fits into my schedule much better too. I have every other Friday off from work and those are my rest days with this plan. Since I was working out at the gym on base while it was still cold and snowy out I would usually end up taking that day off from training instead of heading back to work on my day off.

My training has been going well so far with just a couple minor setbacks. I use runningAhead to map out all my runs so I know how long they are. There is a bike trail about a mile from our house that I've been running on. Since we're still pretty new to the area each time I run farther on it is a new adventure. Looking at the trail on Google Maps (which runningAhead uses) it looks like it is paved, but I've found out a couple times that isn't always the case. The first time it wasn't a big deal, instead of pavement it was a rock trail, so I just went with it. The next time it happened it was a bit more of a problem. I set out for a 6 mile run, my longest at that point, again the trail switched to rock. But then I had to cross a street and there was a bar across the trail that said 'No Trespassing' so I crossed to the other side of the creek and ran along the trail on the other side where it was paved. Well the landmark I was looking for to know when to turn around was on the other side, so I missed it. I ended up running 7.6 miles instead of 6 and ended up with a few real nice blisters. With about a mile to go I could tell I was going to have them, so if I would have ran the correct route I would have been fine.

Last weekend I set out on an 8 miler, pretty much the same route as the 7.6 miler from the week before so no surprises. My blisters were still pretty far from healed so I'm not sure if I was compensating for that or what, but after my run my the outside edge of my right was bothering me, it felt bruised. When I ran Monday night it hurt quite a bit when I ran on the road, so I ran on the grass along side it as much as possible. I've been icing it a lot and instead of running I'll continue to use the elliptical until it's better. It seems to be much better now so hopefully will be better next week if for no other reason than I'm not a fan of the elliptical, I just can't seem to figure it out. I think that my stride is too long for it or something so it feels really unnatural.

500 Reps

2009-11-11T00:58:00.000-06:00

Zunana from bodyrock.tv posts daily workouts and the one she posted for today was a 500 rep workout. I've been sitting on the sidelines planning for too long so I decided to give her workout a try.

Here is the workout. And to keep things interesting you are supposed to see how fast you can do it, while keeping good form of course. It took her just under 36 minutes.

Prisoner Squats – 50 reps
Sit Ups – 50 reps
Backward/Forward Lunge – 25 on each leg (one time back and forward counts and 1 rep)
Push Ups – 50 reps
Reptile (Plank Knee to Elbow) – 50 reps switching the legs
Turkish Get Up – 50 reps
Side V – Crunch – 25 reps on each side
Split Push Ups – 50 reps total
Jump Forward and Two Jumps Back – 50 reps total
Reversed Plank Knee Tucks – 50 reps total

If you want to see a video of her doing the workout and her words of wisdom head over to her site, it is much more entertaining than mine.
http://www.bodyrock.tv/2009/11/10/five-hundred-rep-workout/

Otherwise, stick around and read about my experience.

I didn't give the workout much thought before I started it, like how long I expected it to take or anything like that, I just got going. I'm glad I did because I might have talked myself into only doing 30 reps instead of 50 or something like that.

Prison squats - I didn't think these were too bad. My quads were burning a bit toward the end but I could have done a lot more. My knee has been bothering me a bit lately and I was worried about how it would handle them, but it didn't hurt any more than normal. I tend to stay away from squats because of my knees, but maybe if I do them without any weight I can strength the muscles and that will fix what ever is wrong.

Sit ups - When I do sit ups I usually don't go through the full range of motion like she did in her video. It was hard not to use momentum and just use my tummy muscles to pull myself up, but I don't think I did a great job. I had to take a break in the middle of these because I was really feeling the burn.

Lunge - For this one I did 5 reps on a leg then switched. Since the squats didn't bother me too much I didn't think these would either, but halfway through it was all I could do to get through the 5 so I could switch over to the other leg. These burned like hell and I was starting to wonder what I got myself into.

Push Ups - I've been trying to do a couple of sets of push ups to failure in the morning. I've been doing an okay job and do them around 3 times a week. I usually do between 40 and 50, so I figured these shouldn't be a big deal. I was wrong again though. I took quite a few breaks and had to do a couple of them on my knees so I would keep going. I managed to get through them though.

Reptile - I had never heard of these before so I didn't know what to expect. But since my arms were dead from the push ups, I figured they would be interesting. I didn't really feel these anywhere but my arms, but I'm not entirely sure I was doing them correctly. I did have to take a break or two because my arms were so tired.

Turkish Get Ups - I'd seen these but never done them. I grabbed on of Amy's 8 pound weights and almost started one get up before I switched over to one of her two pounders. (Actually they might only be one pound, they don't say) That was more than enough weight, my arms were so completely dead by the end of these I could barely lift the weight anymore. I managed to get through these with only a couple of breaks.

Side V - For these I did two sets of ten on each side and then a set of five. By the end of each set I was feeling it, so switching sides was a nice break.

Split Push Ups - These completely kicked my ass. My arms were so dead when I started them I wonder how I was ever going to get through them. I managed to, but all but about 10 of them were on my knees and the form on about 10 of those was far, far from perfect. Breaks were frequent and long during this exercise.

Jumps - I liked this one. It was tough and my jumps were quite a bit shorter at the end than the beginning but I only took one break this time. My balance isn't great so I had some extra hops and steps that others probably wouldn't have needed.

Reversed Plank Knee Tucks - This was kind of an awkward position. My arms were still dead so that didn't help anything either. I didn't think this was awful, but I had to take a break in the middle because my lower back was starting to hurt. Hopefully that means I was strengthening it, because I tend to hurt it more often than I would like.

My total time was 66 minutes and 35 seconds. So I managed not double her time, but only by a few minutes. I'm not sure that this post accurately described how completely dead I was while I was doing this. It really amazed me, but I'm not sure why. My heart was pumping extra and I was completely drenched with sweat by the time I was done. I'm sure that I am going to feel it in every part of my body tomorrow. I thought it was a great workout but it just goes to show how far I have to go before I am in good shape.

If you decide to give the workout a try let me know how much faster you were than me.

Do the Little Things

2009-11-05T01:34:00.002-06:00

When I used to play basketball one of the things my coaches stressed was "do the little things". The little things are the things that are easily over looked in the big scheme of things. Things like chinning the ball, keeping your head on a swivel, ball fakes, crisp passes, going to the ball, boxing out, etc. If you don't know what those things are, that's part of the point. Everyone knows how exciting a dunk or steal can be, but for those things to happen consistently the little things need to be done first. Our team took great pride in doing those little things even though our fans didn't notice them and they didn't make the highlight reel. However, our fans did notice the results those little things produced, a state championship.

The last couple training cycles I went through, all there was to running was to run. That did work for me, I was able to bring my times down quite a bit. As I'm getting back into running again though I'm starting to realize that I need to do the little things for running too. Little things that will help me produce better results more consistently. Some of the little things I'm focusing on (or need to) are my core, total body strength and flexibility.

For my core I started doing the Ab Workout for Runners from About.com after my runs. It only takes a few extra minutes and if the amount of hurt is any indication, I'm sure I will feel and show results soon.
Here are a few ab workouts from Runner's World that I plan on stealing parts of to incorporate into my routine over time to mix things up and keep my workout fresh to avoid muscle memory.
Abs Plan
The Ultimate Ab Workout for Runners
Ab-solutely Necessary

While I'm still trying to develop a plan to follow this winter I know I'm going to be incorporating some strength training into it once or twice a week. Until I find something better I'm going to be following Skip's Dumbbell Training Workout. I like it because they are simple exercises and pretty much every muscle group gets hit at some point. My plan is to do two sets of 12-15 reps on my strength days.

I've talked about flexibility, or my lack of, before. I really think that being more flexible will help me as a runner. It will help prevent injuries and help me have better range of motion, which would make me faster. I don't have a plan for this one yet though, so if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. What I would like is a series of stretches (static or dynamic) to do after my core workout (or before my run) that would take a few more minutes. Then in addition, I'll do yoga once or twice a week.

I'm sure there are a ton of other little things to do too, like diet and sleep, that I either don't know I should focus on, or don't know enough about so I can focus them. So if you can think of any that I missed let me know.

Normality Restored

2009-10-25T23:51:00.003-06:00

The last few months have been really crazy for us. I finished my bachelor's degree in May, then during the summer I found a new job in the Omaha area. So that lead to Amy needing to find a job and us needing to find a place to live. We wanted to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit for buying a house but we thought that'd be too much to do from 3 hours away, so we just got an apartment. Amy had a few interviews, got a couple offers and accepted a position. In the middle of August we moved to our apartment in La Vista, and started our new jobs about a week later. We decided to start looking at houses a little bit and found one that we really liked, after a couple of rounds of negotiations we came to terms (on Amy's birthday) and we closed at the end of September. So we got another chance to move, yay. Once the house was ours we spent a little more than a week cleaning and painting and we finally got somewhat moved in (on my birthday). It's been three weeks since then and we are finally mostly settled in.

So now that normality has been restored, we have time to get back to some of the other things in life, like running. I have access to a very nice fitness center there and I can get Amy in as well. The place is huge. When you first walk in there are a ton of cardio machines, treadmills, elipitcals, bikes, stair climbers, etc. Then there are racket ball courts, tennis courts, weight machines and free weights, volleyball courts, basketball courts and a indoor soccer field. The whole area is surrounded by a .4 mile track that is 2-3 lanes wide. They also have a 5 lane lap pool. So it is a pretty nice benefit that we'll be taking advantage of this winter.

It seems like I have a ton of time and a big weight off my shoulders now that I'm out of school. So I've came up with quite a long list of things (probably too long) to fill the time. I really didn't work out much during my last couple of semesters so getting back in shape is high on the list. I don't have a plan for that yet though. While I plan on getting a bulk of my exercise from running, I also want to mix some other things in. I'd like to swim from time to time, which could be interesting because I am not much of a swimmer. I also want to do some weight lifting and I like doing yoga, so I'll have to work that in too. I've been looking at the P90X program and it is something that I want to do. But I don't feel I'm in good enough shape to do that yet at this point. So I think maybe that will be a new years resolution.

Oh yeah, I'd also like to work on getting on a normal sleeping schedule. But I am pretty close to scrapping that idea. For as long as I can remember I haven't slept normal. And a normal schedule kind of conflicts with my other hobbies of programming and poker. If I'm the middle of a programming problem or playing cards the time seems to just fly by and all the sudden it's three in the morning and I'm wide awake. I'm not a big fan of using drugs to help either. After I take them Amy tells me stories that I have little to no recollection of. I'm somewhat inclined to believe her because they are too crazy for her to make up. Even after I take them I'm not wide awake and ready to go the next day, so what's the point wasting time sleeping? Also I'm writing this post at one in the morning. (Yeah I probably need help, but denial and justification are easier than fixing the problem.)

So I guess my next course of action is to come up with a workout plan that will get me back in shape and also allow time for me to whittle away at our ever growing to-do list of house stuff.

Good Idea, Bad Idea

2009-07-10T22:35:00.002-05:00

It's time for another edition of Good Idea, Bad Idea.

Good Idea
- Going on a walk.

Bad Idea
- Going on a 2.5 mile walk wearing jeans and Birkenstocks when the temp is pushing 90 and the humidity is about 60%.

I now have at least three blisters on my right foot and two on my left. There is one in the middle of the bottom of each foot. So things could be interesting the next few days as those heel and I keep running.

Happy Summer.

Havelock Charity Run

2009-06-08T22:23:00.003-05:00

This last Saturday was the 31st annual Havelock Charity Run. There are two races, a 10k and a 3k. Since I'm just getting back into things I opted for the 3k. Going into the race I really didn't have any expectations or even a goal time. For some reason, I think it is just because it is a round number, I picked 15 minutes. I really didn't think I would come in under that though because I've been running about a 9:30 pace and I probably been pushing a little too hard at that pace.

Since I'm 6'5" I have a somewhat large stride and hate having to shorten it because I'm running behind someone. So I started up toward the front of the pack even though in the past this has caused me some hurt. I actually did a good job of holding myself back though and not taking off like everyone else. In fact I felt like I was holding myself back a little too much, but I decided that was okay because I would rather finish strong than putter out and die or end up dry heaving partway through the race like I did a few years ago.

One of the problems with starting out toward the front is that all those people that didn't do that, they pass you. And that can be pretty discouraging. But since I didn't realy have any expectations it didn't really bother me too much. I just tried to keep my pace steady and keep going.

Partway through the race there was a sign that had the number one on it. I didn't know it that was one mile or one kilometer though. I checked my watch but it wasn't much help, it read 7:14. So I was thinking, if that was a mile then I went out a lot faster than it actually felt like, but if it was just a kilometer then I was going way too slow. Going out too fast was a lot more likely so I was guessing it was probably a mile. That meant that my goal of 15 minutes actually seemed possible for the first time. I had to tell my legs to take it easy though, they were all exicted and want to make sure we got to the finish in time, silly legs.

The course was pretty much just a rectangle. So if we call the first stretch side A, then side B was pretty much a gradual incline. I finally passed a few people going up that and I felt like I was going to be able to pick it up a little bit along side D.

My plan was going great then I started dry heaving a bit. So much for that holding back thing stopping that from happening. I tried to run through it but then it got worse so I had to stop. I had a few somewhat strong ones then I felt fine was on my way. In the meantime, all those people I passed along side C had passed me back, plus a few more. I did try to push it a little bit harder the rest of the way and I finished in 14:22, for a 7:43 pace. That put me in at 112 out of 616 and 94 out of 261 guys.

I guess I was happy with my run. It's hard for me to be happy getting beat by so many people. I am fairly certain that I left all I had out there on the course and is really all I should ask of myself. I would rather get my ass kicked now and take things slow than to push myself too hard and get hurt, so I'll take what I can get. And for me running isn't about how I do compared to others, its about being active, getting in shape and improving against myself.

Just a little over two weeks until my next race, a 5k in the Kearney Community Olympics. I have some work to do since I haven't ran more that far for over seven months.

HIIT

2009-05-27T00:13:00.004-05:00

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I've ran across it a few times over the last couple of years and thought is looked interesting. The way that they work is after you warmup you have 6-10 intervals of going all out for a short period of time, then you take a little time to recovery at an easy/medium pace. They say this jacks up your metabolism for the next 24 hours so you can keep buring calories and it is also supposed to be some miracle workout that helps well trained athletes cut their time down 2% in just 7 weeks. All this stuff came from the Wikipedia article, check it out here.

Anyway, it was actually kind of cold out today and rainy this tonight. And on top of that tonight's game had already start by the time I got up from my nap (have I mentioned I don't sleep normal?). So I decided to give the treadmill in our clubhouse another shot.

Ok, let me back up a bit. I tried to run on the treadmill in our clubhouse awhile back (on 5/12 to be exact), but it didn't go great. The treadmill acted funny for me. I don't really know how to explain it, but I'm going to try. As I was running it was like I'm too fat for it or something and the tread would slow down when my foot landed. I had to catch myself a few times so I wouldn't fall. But Amy ran 5 miles on it last night and didn't have any problems.

And now back to the post. I decided that Tuesdays are going to be speed days for me and I had seen some HIIT podcasts before so I talked to my best bud, Google and he pointed me to GetFitPod. It had exactly what I was looking for, thanks again buddy. They have a 25 minute HIIT treadmill workout (get it here) which was exactly how long I wanted to run.

I started out on the treadmill, went through the warmup and the first interval, with the treadmill doing the same damn thing it did before, but only it only happened when I was going fast. Then on the second interval it was doing it a little bit more and then it just shutoff. I must have tripped something in it because I had to reset it after that. Anyway, that was it, just 5 minutes on the treadmill, and those will be the last five minutes I'm ever on it. So I moved over to the Elliptical machine and started over. I was able to complete the workout without killing the machine or anything like that, but it did sound like it was going to fall apart when I was going all out.

The podcast was great. The dude talking told you a little bit about what was going on during the warmup and then pretty much just left you alone until it was time to speed up or slow down. This workout was in a ladder structure, the hard parts where 30, 45, 60, 90, 60, 45, 30 seconds with a minute of recovery time between each.

I loved the workout. When I was going as hard as I could for 90 seconds (and the intervals after that) my legs burned like hell and I felt like I was going to die, IT. WAS. AWESOME. I'm going to make my Tuesday runs be HIIT workouts for the foreseeable future. I highly recommend checking them out.

Pushup Update - Week 2

2009-05-25T23:53:00.004-05:00

Week 2 of the hundred push up challenge didn't exactly go great for me. In fact I think it would be fair to say that it completely kicked my ass.

On day one I missed the minimum for the max on the last set by 4. I manged to do a total of 58 though.

On day two I took tons of time between sets instead of just the 120 seconds I was supposed to, probably five minutes at least. That helped me come up just three pushups short. My total that day was 68.

Tonight I did day three. Well that isn't quite accurate, tonight, I attempted day 3. I knew from the very first set it was going to be a tough workout. I had to take a break halfway through the third set, manged a few more after that and then I quit. It just wasn't going to happen tonight. I did 11 out of 14 for the third set, skipped the 4th set of 14 and didn't even attempt to max. So I only manganged a total of 44.

Since I was so brutally defeated by week I'm not even going to attempt a max to see where I'm at like I'm supposed to. I'm just going to pretend that it never happened and do it again.

P.S. How do you spell pushups anyway? Is it pushup, push up, or push-up?

2009 Kearney Community Olympics - Schedule

2009-05-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

In a recent post I presented some of the information I had on this years Community Olympics. Here is the tentative schedule of events. Apparently it may be altered slightly depending on the number of teams entered.

Friday, June 26
5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. -- Jazzercise, Kearney High School
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. -- Men's Doubles Pickleball, Horizon Middle School Gym
6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. -- Track & Field (Long Jump, 200M Dash, 4x400M Relay), Kearney High School
7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. -- Women's Doubles Pickleball, Horizon Middle School Gym
8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. -- Women's, Coed & Men's Obstacle Course, Harmon Park

Saturday, June 27
7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. -- 5k Run/Walk, Good Samaritan Hospital (east parking lot)
9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. -- Coed Inner-tube Water Polo, Harmon Pool
9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. -- Mixed Doubles Tennis, Harmon Park
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. -- Men's Two-Person Scramble Golf, Elks Country Golf
12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. -- Women's Two-Person Scramble Golf, Elks Country Golf
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. -- Men's Croquet, Harvey Park (west soccer fields)
3:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. -- Coed Kickball, Harvey Park
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. -- Women's Croquet, Harvey Park (west soccer fields)
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. -- Coed Doubles Horseshoes, Fairgrounds
7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. -- Coed Doubles Cup Stacking, Harmon Park Activity Center

Sunday, June 28
7:15 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. -- 3 Mile Mtn. Bike Ride, Cottonmill Park East Shelter
7:15 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. -- 3 Mile Wellness Walk, West Lincolnway Park
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. -- Women's Kayaking, Harmon Pool
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. -- Men's canoeing, Cottonmill Park Marina
10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. -- Women's 6-on-6 Hard Court Volleyball, Horizon Middle School
11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. -- Men's Over-the-Line Softball, Harvey Park
12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. -- Hot Shot Basketball Competition, Sunrise Middle School
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. -- Kearney's Best Dance Crew Competition, Merryman Center
5:15 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. -- Barbecue and Awards, Harmon Park Sontorium

100 Pushup Challenge

2009-05-17T21:48:00.004-05:00

Last year I was working on completing the hundred pushup challenge. But I got busy with school and I couldn't commit myself to finding time to do my pushups. It's actually kind of weird. I would have had plenty of time to do it, but I just had so much stuff to do for school that I was always stressed out about it. Now I have all the time in the world. Since school got out I've been learning about web developement and am starting on a couple personal projects and I also started working out again. I think it was just the stress of school that stopped me from doing this stuff before, but I'm done now :-).

Sorry for the tangent, back to the post.

I started doing the hundred pushup challenge again and I just finished day one of week two. I amazes me how quickly the number of pushups I can do increases. When I did my initial test I managed to do 18 reps, which was more than I expected. I felt it for the next couple of days though. For my last workout I did a total of 58 pushups in 5 sets with shorts breaks between sets. So I did substantially more than I did that first day. With each workout that I have done I have been less and less sore afterwards.

I still have a very long way to go and 100 pushups without a break still seems impossible to me, but I'm going to keep plugging away at it until I get it done.

2009 Kearney Community Olympics

2009-05-17T21:11:00.003-05:00

There doesn't seem to be much information on the Kearney Community Olympics that are held here every summer. This year I have some of the information early, instead of the day of like usual. So I thought I'd share it with the world.

PURPOSE: To encourage exercise, community spirit, teamwork socialization and fun.

TEAMS:

Team members must be 18 years of age or older as of June 26, 2009.
Teams are usually comprised of co-workers, neighborhoods, service clubs, churches, friends, etc.
Teams must consist of at least 10 people, but no more than 30.
Each team shall appoint a team captain and an assistant captain.

EVENTS:

Jazzercise	Pickleball	Track & Field
Obstacle Course	5k Run/Walk	Inner-tube Water Polo
Tennis	Golf	Kickball
Croquet	Horseshoes	Cup Stacking
Mtn. Bike Ride	Wellness Walk	Kayaking
Canoeing	Volleyball	Over-the-Line Softball
Hot Shot Basketball	Kearney's Best Dance Crew

I'll get the tentative schedule posted sometime in the next couple of days, but all of the events will take place June 26th, 27th and 28th.

I'd love to be able to just link to the Parks and Rec page with all of this information but I haven't been able to find it online. This page is all that I could find on it: Park & Recreation. If anyone knows of a better source of information please let me know.

Flexibility

2009-05-10T22:44:00.003-05:00

I may have mentioned it before but I'm pretty much as flexible as a board. I always have been. I decided to do a little test. I sat with my heels against the wall and a ruler between my feet and I reached as far as I could. Now most people wouldn't be able to do the test this way because they would hit the wall. However, I was 3 inches short of it. According to this article, that is actually Fair for a guy.

I haven't done any research on it yet, but I suspect that I can improve my flexibility by just stretching more. I enjoying doing Yoga so I figure that will be a good way to improve my flexibility. YOGAmazing is a site that has free podcasts and stuff and he has one on Flexibility that I liked so I'm going to plan on doing that once or twice a week. Then I'll measure my flexibility the same way I did before to see if I improve any.

I Graduted

2009-05-08T23:31:00.003-05:00

I am finally done with school. Today I received my bachelor's degree in Computer Science. It was a long road, 9 years and 4 schools. But I stuck with it and finally achieved my goal. The last semester I was extremely busy with three classes and working 40+ hours a week. So that didn't leave me much time for working out. But now I'm done and I feel like I have all the time in the world, so I'm going to start training and blogging about it again.

Last weekend Amy ran her first half marathon and she did great. She had an awesome experience and ran about 10 minutes faster than she was expecting to. It was definitely a motivation to see all the hard work she put in really pay off.

I've decided to train for the Buffalo Run. It is a 5 mile race in Lincoln on 9/13. So if I start the clock on Monday 5/11 that gives me 18 weeks to get ready, which should be plenty of time. I think I'm going to follow Galloway's 10k training plan. It is only 13 weeks long though so I'll have to make some adjustments to it. I might just do the first few weeks twice to get back into the swing of things. I also decided that I'm not going to worry about monitoring my heart rate for now, I'm just going to run.

That's all for now.

Weekly Recap Week 4

2008-08-03T17:11:00.000-05:00

This week was my first fall back week and it was great, but I'm looking forward to getting my mileage back up again.

Monday 7/28 - An easy two miler. I ran with Amy as usual but I couldn't keep up with her, my legs where tired and I didn't feel like going after it. I took an ice bath after my run too. I kind of like doing them, it's only the first few seconds that are bad. But I don't fit in the bathtub very well, it's a little bit too short. Someday when we move out of this apartment and get a house I'll probably do them in a trash can standing up, or figure out someone to sit in one. Until then though I'll have to settle for just having most of my legs under the water.
Distance 2 miles, time 20:47, pace 10:24, average heart rate 145.

Wednesday 7/30 - My sleeping is starting to get really messed up. I took a little nap after work for a couple of hours and I was really out of it for awhile after I got up. I finally got my run in around 11. I love running at night, it's just me out there all alone with an occasional car. It was a beautiful night too, clear sky with lots of stars shining.
Distance 2.5 miles, time 27:13, pace 10:54, average heart rate 151

Thursday 7/31 - About an hour and a half of ultimate. Good times and lots and lots of sweat.

Saturday 8/2 - Man it's August already, that sucks. It means school is starting soon and I have to get my project from last semester done still (or take a C, which is very tempting). We were in Lincoln again this weekend and it was extremely hot. So instead of running in 100+ degree heat we paid a visit to Amy's parents and used their treadmill. It has this nice little feature where you can set the number of miles you want to run. Once you hit that point the treadmill alerts you of that by promptly stopping. I didn't fall though, just almost. Being inside in the air conditioning with no hills or anything really keep my HR down.
Distance 2 miles, time 21:00, pace 10:30, average heart rate 138.

I think I might start doing these posts more than once a week, like after each run instead. The way I've done my last couple is that I start a post, write about a run, then save it and add to it the rest of the week. So I figure, why not just post it instead of saving it?

Pushup Challenge Phase 1 part 2

2008-07-31T23:40:00.003-05:00

I've joined the 100 push up challenge group on RunningAhead. It's nice to have other going through this too in case I have any questions or if I struggle.

This week things went a lot better than last week. I was able to complete all the workouts successfully and I did more than the minimum max each day so I'll be moving onto phase 2 starting Sunday.

I guess I should explain the phase thing. In the forums on the RA group people started referring to the weeks as phases since they were repeating weeks also. I think it's a good idea so I'm going to do it too.

Here are the boring details that you don't really care about.

Day 1
Planned 7 - 7 - 5 -4 - Max (5)
Actual 7 - 7 - 5 - 4 - 8
Total of 31

Day 2
Planned 9 - 8 - 6 - 5 - Max (7)
Actual - 9 - 8 - 6 - 5 - 12
Total of 40

Day 3
Planned 10 - 8 - 8 - 5 - Max (10)
Actual 10 - 8 - 8 - 5 - 15
Total of 46

Weekly Total of 117
Combined Phase 1 Total of 222
Grand total of 239

Book on the Run

2008-07-31T23:33:00.000-05:00

I don't read as much as I should or as much as I like to. Ok wait, let me rephrase that, I don't books as much as I should. I read all the freaking time, really it's about all I do. But I don't read books much, I just surf the internets finding all kinds of interesting stuff. If you'd like to be as cool as me check out reddit, digg and use stumble upon. I also lurk in the forums on RunningAhead quite a bit as well, but I think I'll become more active there one of these days. One of the best comics out there is XKCD too (reading and understanding this one definitely puts you up there on the coolest list).

Why was I writing this post? Oh yeah, since I don't read books too often I figure running is a great chance for me to "read" some. So I get books from the library, rip them to MP3s, put them on my Cowen D2 and listen to them while I'm running.

Another side note. I know that it is technically illegal for me to rip the CDs to MP3s, I guess I could just download them in a format that allows me to do what I want instead, though I doubt that would be better. In my defense, I only put the MP3s on my MP3 player and delete all traces of them once I'm done listening to the book. I never share or distribute them. Occasionally I will return the CDs before I'm actually done listening to the book, but that's just cuz I'm a nice guy and I don't want some little kid left out in the cold wishing she could listen to Harry Potter but can't because some guy in his mid 20s is listening to it for 30 minutes three times a week which will take him more than two months to finish. Actually that hasn't happened yet, Harry Potter is always checked out :-(

I've added a little link thingy on the right hand side of my blog titled, Book on the Run. Which is a link to the book I'm currently listening to on Amazon. For purposes of total discloser, I'm an affiliate on Amazon so if you buy a book through that link, or any other link from my site, I get a little money. I think so anyway, but it's never actually happened and I don't really expect it to, but if it does that would be awesome, cuz I like money. I'll probably try and post a few paragraphs about the book once I'm done, but book reports have never really been my thing.

Weekly Recap Week 3

2008-07-28T22:04:00.000-05:00

It was a good week, nothing newsworthy though. I ran a total of 9 miles for the week. Wow, I have a ways to go to get back to where I was last summer. I actually ran 10 miles in one shot. Oh well, slowly but surely I'll get back there. It was also my first week of the 100 push up challenge, look at my last post if your interested in knowing more about that.

Monday 7/21 - Easy run with Amy when it was pretty hot and humid out, even through we didn't go out until around 8:30 at night or so. I have a feeling it's going to be that way for a couple months at least, I shouldn't complain though, I love this weather compared to winter. Nothing special about our run really, it was pretty slow, but my HR was up a bit cuz of the heat though so it was probably a good thing it we didn't run any faster.
Distance 3.13 miles, time 36:47, pace 11:46, average heart rate 145

Wednesday 7/23 - A nice little 3 mile easy run, same course at Monday actually. We ran a little faster than on Monday, but I'm not really sure why, just one of those things I guess.
Distance 3.13 miles, time 34:23, pace 11:00, average heart rate 155

Thursday 7/24 - We played a pickup game of Ultimate Frisbee again. Man I am so out of shape for that. It's fun though and if I keep playing and running maybe I'll get back in shape a little bit. I'm sure the fact that a few of the guys that play are current or were recently cross country runners at UNK doesn't make me look any speedier.

Saturday 7/26 - We were only supposed to run 3 miles, but I through together a course that went around a nearby lake that was a third of a mile too long. Really what's a third of a mile in the grand scheme of things? So we ran it. It goes along a bike trail that runs next to a little channel thing and went by campus where there is a bridge near a dam, it's pretty cool I think. To get down to the bridge you have to run down this really steep hill with just a dirt path and grass, err weeds, that are more than waste high.
Distance 3.34 miles, time 38:45, pace 11:37, average heart rate 145

This upcoming week, the one starting today, is a fall back week. I'm looking forward to it because my legs are getting kind of tired. I'll only be running 6.5 miles and I plan to take them all pretty easy.

Pushup Challenge Week 1

2008-07-24T21:33:00.001-05:00

I completed week 1 of the 100 push up challenge today. To summarize the week in three words or less, I'm a wuss. (I'm only counts as one word even though it replaces two right?)

And now a few more details...

Day 1
During my initial test I was able to do 17 push ups, way more than the 10 push up cutoff for column three of the workout plan. The first day I was supposed to do sets of 10, 10, 8, 6 and then max out, resting 60 seconds in between sets. The first two sets went fine. I struggled a ton and only managed to do 7 for the third set. Then I rested a few minutes and was able to do 6. For my max I was able to pull off 2 whole push ups before my arms were completed drained of all strength. Which was slightly below the 7 minimum the site says I was supposed to be able to do.

Day 2
I was pretty sure day one was just a fluke, I used to be able to do 50 push ups everyday after a couple few hours of practice (about 8 years ago). So I stayed on column 3 and was supposed to do sets of 12, 12, 10, 10 and max with 90 secs rest between them. Again the first two sets were too bad. However I could only do like 2 on the third set. So I quit. I decided I'd try again later but do column 2. I played on the Wii Fit for around a half hour or so and gave it another shot. This time it was sets of 9, 8, 6, 5 and max, again with 90 seconds rest. I was able to get through each set but my max was only 4, it was supposed to be at least 7.

Day 3
I decided I'd do my push ups during lunch today. I'm pretty certain that in my current state I am not where I need to be to do column 3. So I swallowed my pride and dropped down to column 2. The sets for column 2 are 10, 8, 8, and then max. I was able to get through all of but I was only able max out at 7 and I was supposed to do 10.

Since I'm such a wuss I'm going to start over and do week 1 again and this time I'm going to do the second column all three days. I think I'll feel a lot better about it if I'm able to finish my workouts.

Amy is doing this 100 push up challenge thingy too, and she is a doing a lot better than me. Her initial max was only 2 push ups, but she got through every one of her workouts successfully and did more than the minimum max all three days.

Why I run

2008-07-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

I started a "series" of posts awhile back on why I run. I think I only wrote one though so I'm not real sure that qualifies as a series.

Anyway another reason that I run is because I can. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on this post. This is actually my second time writing it. I had Amy read the first one and we decided it probably shouldn't be posted, too much personal information. Don't get me wrong I have no problem letting people know what I think and where I stand. However there was info in it about other people and I don't think it is my place to write about them.

So here is attempt number two. I run because I can. It might sound like kind of an jerk reason or something but it's really not. There are many people out there that aren't able to run, some of them used to, some of them might wish they could and others could careless. Whatever the reason they are out there and we all know too many of them. There are all kinds of reasons maybe they have an illness or decease, or maybe they were injured, or maybe there is some other reason. When I do think about skipping a run or doing it later I think of them. I say to myself, "Self there are people out there that can't run so get off your lazy ass and go run, if you can't do it for yourself then do it for them."

Although not exactly what I'm trying to say I think this quote from Steve Prefontaine is great and can be looked at along the same lines, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

Weekly Recap Week 2

2008-07-22T00:21:00.003-05:00

Last week was a good week, all of my plans went well and were on schedule. My cousin got married on Saturday and I got all prettied up in a tux. We had a good time at the wedding, lots of good memories. Other than that nothing real exciting happened. I guess I borrowed a car from my folks that I'll use until I get one. We are thinking we are going to get a 2009 Honda Fit once they come out, which will hopefully be soon.

Monday 7/14
Best run in a long time. I love rain and thunderstorms and ever since I started running again I've wanted to run in the rain but it hadn't worked out. Well Monday night I had my chance. We went on a 2.5 mile out and back run. It was raining when we started but it was coming. Actually it was probably pretty stupid for us to be out running since there was quite a bit of lightning. It started sprinkling a little a few minutes into our run then it start coming down pretty good. It was really windy too, but it was okay because it was at our backs. Ah, but you might recall that just a moment ago I wrote that it was an out and back run. Well the back part wasn't quite as nice. It was like we were getting pelted by little rocks or sand the whole way back because the rain was blowing the rain so hard. It was a great run though and I loved every minute of it. The only thing I would have changed is I would have like it to rain a little bit harder.
Distance 2.5 miles, time 29:28, pace 11:48, average heart rate 146.

Wednesday 7/16
Must not have been an eventful run at all, I don't remember anything about it (other than it was the loop). I don't even remember if I ran with Amy. I don't think I did though because I didn't head out until 9:30 and that is getting to be a little past her bed time.
Distance 2.5 miles, time 25:18, pace 10:08, average heart rate 158.

Saturday 7/19
We were in Lincoln again at my parent's so we ran along the same trail as a couple weeks ago, just a little bit farther. We ran in the morning since we had the wedding in the afternoon. It was only about 9:00 when we ran (which is pretty early for me) but it was already really freaking hot out and pretty humid.
Distance 2.98 miles, time 33:18, pace 11:11, average heart rate 150.

Oh yeah, I started a new book this week too, Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. I'll have to update my little Book on the Run thingy on the right sometime. So far it's pretty good. I'm not sure I'd say it is a literary masterpiece, but it is a good book to listen to on the run.

Weekly Recap

2008-07-17T06:40:00.001-05:00

I really want to write up a post each week saying how my runs went the week before and what my plans are for the upcoming week. So for this post my last "week" will really be a couple of weeks.

Week 0 of my plan. Why 0 and not 1? Well two reasons, I'm a computer programmer and a lot of times we start counting at 0 for arrays instead of 1. The real reason though is that Amy was busy all week and couldn't get the runs in so I added a week before the plan so we could be on the same schedule.

7/1 - The first day of the plan. I ran what I like to call "The Loop" it's a 2.5 mile run along the bike path nearby and it kind of goes in a circle, hence "The Loop".
Distance 2.5 miles, time 24:31, pace 9:49, average heart rate 163.

7/3 - A nice 2 mile jot around the neighborhood. There were a few people shooting off fireworks but it was nothing compared my my forth of July run last year.
Distance 2 miles, time 19:03, pace 9:47, heart rate 150.

7/5 - I was supposed to run 2.5 miles but Amy already had a 2 mile run planned so I just tagged along. We were in Lincoln so we ran along a bike trail near my parent's house. It's a nice trail runs a long a little creak thingy, probably more of a drain. Anyway there were cute little baby duckies and stuff along it in a few places.
Distance 2 miles, time 22:09, pace 11:05, heart rate 145.

That took care of week 0. It was a pretty good week and it feels really great to be running regularly again. Total mileage for the week was 7 miles.

Now for week 1.
7/7 - The Loop again. I really like this run so pretty much any 2.5 mile run I have will be on this course.
Distance 2.5 miles, time 24:31, pace 9:49, heart rate 164.

7/9 - Nice easy 2 mile run with Amy. I like going out on runs together. We both have our headphones on so we don't talk or anything, just nice to hang out I guess. I annoy her when we run together though (and most other times really). I run about three steps in front of her the whole time. I don't do it on purpose, I think it is just because my stride is so much longer than hers.
Distance 2 miles, time 23:31, pace 11:19, heart rate 139.

7/12 - The Loop again (I told you I like it). I mixed things up this time though and ran it backwards. It's a little tougher that way though. It wasn't really my intention when I started my run but it kind of turned into a tempo run and I was pushing myself toward the end. It felt great, in that my legs burn like hell and I can't breath sort of way.
Distance 2.5 miles, time 22:17, pace 8:49, heart rate 161. Strange minute faster pace but a lower heart rate. I just don't get it.

Well I guess that gets me caught up on the past weeks. This week (which we will pretend isn't almost over already) I have two 2.5 milers and a 3 miler planned. I'm in a wedding in Lincoln this weekend, but I should be able to get my run in on Saturday morning without much trouble. I really need to look for some new shoes when I'm there though, I have over 360 miles on my current pair.

100 Push Ups

2008-07-17T00:32:00.004-05:00

While I was stumbling tonight I came across the site, hundredpushups.com. It has a six week plan to increase the number of push ups you can do to 100. Since I've thinking a lot lately about doing more to get into shape than just running, I figure this is a good way to start.

I can't do the program justice in just a few sentences (but I'm going to try anyway) so make sure you check it out yourself if you're interested. Here is my attempt. You start off by seeing how many push ups you can do without stopping. Then based on that number you do a number of sets and reps three days a week. After a couple of weeks you test yourself again and adjust the column you follow accordingly. Then after six weeks you test yourself again and you're supposed to be able to do 100 push ups.

I don't know about you, but 100 push ups seems like quite an impressive feat. Being able to do that many push ups in one go in just six weeks seems a little unlikely to me. But I'll give it a shot, I got nothing to lose.

Like I said you start things off by doing an initial test to see how many you can do. I managed to 17 of them before my arms were shaking too much to push myself back up. That gives me a rank of 3 and I'll start off in the third column. I'm planning on my three days a week being Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I'll start things off on Sunday.

There has been this little voice in the back of my head for a couple weeks now telling me to do before and after photos. I honestly I have no idea why. It's not like I'm going to be losing any wieght, I mean I'm 6'5" and I weigh 175 pounds. That gives me a BMI of 20.7 and my bathroom scale says I have only have 8% body fat. I have this dellousion that I can get ripped someday. So we'll see if I can get Amy to take some pictures sometime.

Thanks Jim

2008-07-11T00:07:00.002-05:00

I meant to post this a few days ago but I'm just getting around to it. One of my interests besides running is personal finance and making sure Amy and I do stuff the right way today so we don't have to worry about stuff in the future (or at least not as much). There are a ton of great personal finance blogs out there. One of the blogs that I subscribe to is Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. A little more than a week ago Jim reviewed Financial Infidelity then had a drawing for a free copy of the book. I was lucky and won the drawing and received the book last weekend. It's a nice hardcover edition even. I probably won't get to it for a few weeks because I'm reading a couple of other books now, but I'm looking forward to it. Amy started it and thinks its interesting so far. So thanks for the book Jim, keep up the great work on your blog.

Ultimate Frisbee

2008-07-10T22:46:00.002-05:00

We had so much fun playing Ultimate Frisbee in the community olympics that we put our names down to play in pick-up games and stuff. Well tonight we got together for the first time and played a couple of games. I guess to start things off I should talk a little bit about what the game is just in case you don't know.

Basically you run all over the field throwing the frisbee to your teamates trying to get into the endzone. After catching the frisbee you can't run or anything like that, you just have to pass it on. If your team doesn't complete a pass then the other team gets to be on offense. So the pace of the game is similar to basketball. If you want to know all the rules and everything check out Wikipedia or the Ultimate Players Association website.

There were 8 of us that played tonight, 4 girls and 4 boys so it worked out pretty well. It is fun to get out of the house and meet some other people, we don't do that too often. Amy and I were far from the best out there, but since this is only the second time we've played I'll cut us a little slack. We need to work a little bit (or maybe a ton) on catching the frisbee. The other guys that were out there are (or were) cross country runners from UNK and the intermal champs so they could run all over and knew what they were doing. Me and Amy, however, got tired as hell after not too long and dropped a lot of passes that we shouldn't have. We had a great time though.

Every once in awhile I'll play some basketball, but I usually don't run up and down the court except for once a year at our alumni tournament. Amy always makes fun of me because I am like completely dead about 3 minutes into the game. After we played tonight she said she never really played a sport like basketball or soccer where you have to stop and go and change direction and all that fun stuff and pretty much just run your ass off. But now she knows what its like and I don't think she'll give me too hard of a time when I'm dead five minutes into the first game at next years alumni tournament.

I really have no idea where I'm going with this post. I really just wanted to say it is a ton of fun and if you can get a group of people together to play go for it, you won't be disappointed. If you are in the Kearney area feel free to join us. You can just show up next Thursday, July 17th, at Baldwin park at 7:00.

Running Plan

2008-07-01T22:36:00.003-05:00

I found a running plan that I think will work for me and I started it tonight. I'm not training for anything in particular right now, I'm just running. (It's hard to type a Forest Gump accent). The plan I'm going to follow is the intermediate plan from runninginjuryfree.org.

There are a couple things that I like about it. First off it will get me to a weekly mileage base of 24 miles. Which is a good place to be if I ever decide to train for a half or a full marathon. Second it gets me there slowly, which is probably the best way to avoid getting hurt doing it. I know I said a couple things but I'm going to through in a third as a bonus. It is pretty even mileage throughout the week. Meaning I'm not going to have three or four 3 mile runs during the week then a 10 mile long run on the weekend to get my mileage in. This is one of the thing that the guys at the Hansons-Brooks distance project talk about. I can't find the actual article right now but I know I read it on there someplace.

I'm not quite at the starting point for the plan yet though. So I added a few weeks in front of it to build up to it slowly. I put everything together on a Google Spreadsheet to keep track of how far I should be running and when. I'll probably keep some notes on there as to how well I followed the plan each week. Feel free to check it out here if you'd like.

Kearney Community Olympics

2008-06-30T19:52:00.003-05:00

We had a great time at the Kearney Community Olympics again this year. I am felling it though. I really need to get back in shape. I'll try and remember everything that we did. We started things off with some stretching, then we sat around for a few hours until it was our turn to do the obstacle course. That was pretty fun but I messed up with the soccer dribble part and that hurt us a lot (sorry, it's been since about 8th grade since I played last). It was fun though. During our wait we watched the tug-o-war and our team got first in one of the brackets.

The next morning we had the 5k. I've only been running again for a couple/few weeks after almost a year off so I wasn't expecting much. I ran the mile or so (there weren't any markers of type on the course) with Amy then I took off on my own. I should have just ran the whole thing with her though, I finished in 27:55 and she only finished a minute and half behind me. Even though I was getting close to running a 5k in 20 minutes last summer I'm not disappointed. That was my longest run since I started running again. Maybe I'll be able to keep running all year and be ready for a good race next year.

Let's see what else did we do, we played ultimate Frisbee and that was a lot of fun. I got called a dirty player and stuff but whatever. Just because I'm bigger than someone and they fall down after running into me doesn't make me a dirty player. Amy and I really enjoyed playing though and put our names down to get into a league or play some pick-up games once in awhile. Then I played a little badminton and Amy went and did water aerobics. We lost our first badminton match. We had a nice comeback but came up a little short. Then to finish off the day we played a little volleyball. It was fun but we lost our first game again. The other team was pretty bad, but we were a little worse. We went over to one of Amy's coworkers after that for dinner and hung out for awhile. It was a pretty busy but fun day.

We started things off Sunday morning with a nice little 2 mile walk. Then we went and did the Adventure Race. We got put on it because no one else wanted to do the 1.5 mile run, a couple of other people got stuck doing it with us too. We were looking forward to it and thought it'd be a lot of fun so we were glad to take one for the team. It started off with a "surprise event", which was pulling apart a frozen t-shirt and then putting it on one of us, I was the lucky one. Then we were off for the 1.5 mile run. That went pretty good for us, we all finished it anyway. Little did we know the hard events were yet to come. We had to carry a 5 gallon bucket of water on a wooden pole with one partner over a course of sand, through water, uphills and down hills. It was pretty tough and that bucket got pretty damn heavy by the end of it. After that we had to run all over the park to try and find three people that were hiding to get stickers from them. That doesn't sound so bad but we had to carry a short little rope with us that all four of us had to hold onto the entire time. I don't know what our final time was but we were in the middle of the pack. It was a lot of fun but it was a ton harder than we expected it to be. Dodgeball was the last event that we did. That was good times. I couldn't believe how tired I was by the end of it though.

I think these games are such a great idea, it's a great way to get people off the couch for a weekend and show us all the different stuff Kearney has to offer. There are a few other towns that are going to start doing them too, like Grand Island, York and someplace in Missouri.

Back at it

2008-06-27T00:48:00.002-05:00

Man it sure has been a long time since I've posted. A lot has happened since then. I'll get into a lot of it but not quite everything.

As I feared my last semester was brutal and between it and work I had very little time for anything else. I ran 22 miles in January and then stopped until a week or two ago. It was the most involved semester that I have had since I've been in college, and I've been in college for 8 years. I had my first math class in 5 years and it was a 400 level one. I worked my ass off to get through but I got through it with a B- and learned a few things along the way. My other class was a lot of fun and a ton of work but I'm not actually done with it yet. I had to take an incomplete because of some family things that came up. I have the rest of the summer to get my project done, if I don't I'll get a C. Needless to say my goal of 1000 KM this year is not going to happen.

A couple weeks after the semester ended Amy and I went to Ireland for two weeks and had a wonderful time. It was an incredible experience that will provide a lifetime of memories.
I'll post more on it later but words can't explain how it really was and the pictures didn't capture it.

While we were on the other side of the pond there was some excitement here at home. A tornado, ok actually 6 tornadoes, hit our town. My car is now famous. It was picked up by the tornado and placed on top of a couple other cars. The picture of it was all over the place, including CNN (my car is the one on top). We would have had to put $800 into it to make it road worthy and it would have needed probably another $500 to fix some other stuff. Since it is 15 years old and we only had liability we decided it wasn't worth it and sold it for $300. Which was just enough to cover the towing and storage bill of $260. We are currently in the process of looking for something to replace it with but it is slow going. We'll probably end up getting a Honda Fit or Civic though. Fortunately no one was hurt and nothing happened to the apartment we live in. The building next to ours and our clubhouse weren't so lucky though. Everyone in the building next to ours had to move out because part of the roof got blown off and our clubhouse was destroyed.

I did start running again a little bit now that we've been back. I don't really have a plan right now though so I've been pretty inconsistant. It is just nice to get out there and run. In the next week or two I'll try and figure some new goals and get a plan to help keep my going.

Back in School

2008-01-15T22:52:00.000-06:00

Well school started up again this week. Let's see, this will be my 16th consecutive semester of college, not counting summer classes. Too bad I'm still working on my bachelor's degree. I did get an associates degree in the middle there and I've just been going part time since then, but I think it is fair to say I haven't always been the best student.

The line from Tommy Boy is very fitting. Tommy says "You know a lot of people go to college for 7 years." To which Richard replies "I know, they're called doctors." Oh buddy, that's good stuff. If you haven't seen that movie you are missing out.

This semester will be pretty busy. I'm taking an artificial intelligence class and I will have a lot of work to do in there. For instance I get to build a robot that plays basketball. If you're at all interested, you can see all the rules and stuff here (pdf). At least I have a little more than three weeks to design a robot, figure out how to build it, figure out how to program it and then actually make it play basketball. And in case it didn't come through in plain text like this that was blatant sarcasm. I do think it will be fun though.

Because of all the work that I will have to do for school I'm a little worried that I will put my running on the back burner like I did last year. I am going to work really hard not to do that though. I think the goal I have of 1000 KM for the year will help keep me motivated to at least run once in awhile. Running does clear my mind too. Now if I can just figure out how to program while I'm running....

I don't get it

2008-01-07T23:06:00.000-06:00

I'm kind of a stats junky, I just like numbers. I find different correlations interesting. I don't keep track of a lot of stats for my runs though, mostly because I'm too unorganized/lazy to do that. Mostly I just keep track of the distance I run, the time, and my average heart rate. I keep track of it all on RunningAhead.com, it is an excellent site. There are a lot of other fields that I don't worry about too much, but it would be interesting to see the correlation if I took the time to input that data for every run.

On Saturday afternoon I ran 2 miles on the treadmill at 6 miles per hour with an incline of 1 like I normally do. The run felt quite a bit harder than the last couple and my average heart rate was 163. I checked it a few times during the run and it was up close to 180. When I tried to find my max heart rate last year I came up with 184 so 180 was really up there.

Tonight I ran 2.25 miles, again at 6 MPH with an incline of 1. Except tonight I felt pretty good and kicked it up to 8 MPH for another quarter mile. My average heart rate this time was only 156. I didn't check it too often during the run though and I never really saw it higher than that.

So even though I ran farther and faster my heart rate was higher. I find that pretty interesting. Makes it easy to see why heart rate training is becoming more and more popular.

I'm trying to figure out what all went into the difference and I can't really think of anything special. Actually I would have bet that tonights run would have been "harder". Friday night was my Christmas party for work, but I didn't have as much "fun" as I did last year. I was home around 11 and I only had about 6 beers (party started at 6 so that's not as bad as it sounds). I didn't have anything going on Saturday and I just woke up around 9:30 and took a nap for about and hour or so after that (sometime around 11 I think). Then I went for my run around 2:30.

Last night I was up until about 3:30 playing Final Fantasy III on my DS (I have got to quit doing that). Went to work at 8 and skipped lunch. In the afternoon my stomach was hurting and I just felt kind of crappy. Actually it's kind of weird, that actually happens quite a bit when I hardly sleep and don't eat. I came home, ate and took a "nap" for about 3 hours. When I got up I still kind of felt like crap but I went for my run anyway. And then I had a real good run. I don't get it.

New Year's Resolution

2008-01-01T22:34:00.000-06:00

Well it's that time a year again, we all make promises for the year that we will keep for a few weeks, maybe. I'm jumping on that train too.

I've been quite the slacker lately (when I say lately I mean the last few months) when it comes to running. But I'm starting up again. I'm going to keep things simple. I am going to run every other day. I want to get to a point where I run 3 miles two runs in a row then 5 miles, the two 3 mile runs again. It will be a little while before I'm to that point though. It amazes me how fast I get out of shape. Tonight I just ran 1.5 miles.

The only running goal I have set for myself this year (so far) is to run 1000 KM or 621 miles over the course of the year. There is a user group (here) on RunningAhead of people that have this same goal. It has a nice page that shows the users progress and a pace bunny that makes it easy to see if you're on pace to meet the goal.

I'm going to start posting on here again with some regularity. I'm thinking two or three times a week. Hopefully I'll stick to it better than last time I said that. My next semester will be kind of busy so we'll see how it goes.

I hope everyone has an excellent year.

A Much Needed Run

2007-08-24T01:47:00.000-05:00

I got done with a nice 3 mile run not too long ago and I definitely needed it. Today was a pretty crappy day at work so a run was a great way to get my mind off things and put things back in perspective.

I'm also taking tomorrow off from work and I am looking forward to that. Amy and I have tickets to a volleyball tourney in Omaha to watch the Huskers play. There are 4 teams in the tournament and 3 are in the top 25, with Nebraska and UCLA ranked 1 and 5 respectfully. So there should be some real good games.

We are going to stay in Omaha tomorrow night after the first round games and spend Saturday at the zoo before the second round games. It will be a nice break from things before starting a new top priority project at work and classes.

I probably won't post again until Sunday when we get back into town, so I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

I'm Back

2007-08-22T00:22:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted and I thank those who have bugged me about not posting. I don't have any excuse really, I've just been lazy about it and did other stuff instead. Mostly played poker online (shhh, don't tell though because the leaders of our great nation have deemed my hobby illegal).

Running has been going great. I went out for a 6 mile run this last Sunday, I made a wrong turn though and only ran 5.7 miles. I may out my runs online and planned to run a loop around a neighborhood. As I go to there I noticed the road was extremely freaking hilly, steep hills too. Hills are not good for keeping my hear rate down. So I look at the road sign and it's named 'Rolling Hills Rd.' DOH! From now on I'll be sure to look at the road names when I'm mapping out the my run.

That run put me over 200 miles for the year (which didn't start until 3/31 for me). I'm pretty proud of that. Counting tonights run my total mileage for the year is 203.1 and it has taken me 31 hours and 55 minutes, or at least that is what I have in my log. Amy also broke a milestone the other day and has logged over 100 miles this year. She started running after I did and had to take some time off because of shin splints.

I have though about my blog a lot and where I want to go with it and I'm not completely sure. I figure that since classes at UNK are starting back up again I'll need another excuse to procrastinate (that's another hobby of mine, and I'm one of the best) so I'm planning on posting regularly again.

I will keep posting about my running but I want to do more than that. I have been listening to books when I run so I'll try and write up some posts about those once in awhile. A lot the thinking I do when I run is about our country and the direction I think we are headed and I'm not a fan of what I see. So I feel I have to share my thoughts and try to someway make things a little better. So once in awhile you'll probably see a post about some of those things. I'll be sure to put something in the first line of the post so you know that's what it will be about right away and can skip it if you don't want to read my rants.

Well that's all for now, I'm glad to be back and I look forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences with you again.

Happy 4th

2007-07-04T22:18:00.000-05:00

My run tonight was by far the coolest run I have ever done. I took off at dusk just as most people were starting to light off their fireworks. So for 35 minutes I got to see all kinds of fireworks going off and lots of people out enjoying them. So I just took things easy and enjoyed the shows. There was a big show put on by the Country Club that I got to watch for the last mile of the too.

One of the neighborhoods I run though had lots of people outside with a bunch of chairs setup. There was a light on the sidewalk near them I thought it was the glowing remains of a sparkler or something but it was actually an extension cord. Just as I was running by a guy picked up a box that was attached to it that had a bunch of switches on it. As I ran a little farther I figured out what was going on. There was little clearing that had all kinds of fireworks setup so the box must have controlled them. Sure enough, later in my run there was all kinds of neat stuff lighting up the sky from that area. I wonder what it would cost to get something like that setup and how to do it.

Because tonight run was so awesome I think I'm going to have to make it some sort of tradition to go for a run on the fourth and enjoy everyone lighting off their fireworks. I can just do that instead of buying any of my own and save a bunch of money. Of course I won't be able to go for a run when we can make to the fourth party that we usually attend.

I hope everyone else had a safe a fun fourth and that no one lost more than two fingers.

Week in Review

2007-07-02T21:30:00.001-05:00

Since my training for the week is going to be pretty boring for the rest of the year. I think I'll just post a summary of the previous week every Sunday or Monday. So here is my summary of last week's (6/25 - 7/1) workouts. It might be worth mentioning that if for the training program my week starts on Mondays.

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 1.5 miles in 15:23 (10:16 per mile) with an average heart rate of 139.
Wednesday - 3 miles in 33:04 (10:34 per mile) average HR 141.
Thursday - Watched a bunch of crap on T.V. instead of running
Friday - should have rested but had to run since I didn't on Thursday. 2 miles in 22:10 (11:05 per mile) average HR of 144.
Saturday - 4 miles in 42:00 (10:29 per mile) average HR of 142.
Sunday - played a round of disc golf with Amy.

During my runs I listened to book the first, 'The Bad Beginning', of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. The book was pretty good, but it will probably be quite awhile, if ever, before I listen to another one of those books. I started listening 'Tuesdays with Morrie' on Saturdays run. So far I like that book a lot and I'll probably read it sometime, listening to it just isn't the same. All of my runs went pretty well, except I had a slight pain in my knee during Friday's run. I iced it after and it didn't bother me at all on Saturday.

New Training Plan

2007-07-01T23:38:00.000-05:00

For the rest of the year I'm going to be training to build my aerobic base. I've posted on that before here. In order for the training to be the most effective I'm not going to be doing any anaerobic workout, with means no speed work and no races. At least that's the plan, if I start to lose motivation or get bored I'll probably have to change that plan.

I'm going to use Hal Higdon's Novice Supreme training plan. It is a 30 week plan that is designed to get someone ready for their first marathon, but I'm just using it to build up my weekly mileage slowly. I actually started on week 4 of the program because of the mileage I've done the past few weeks. If you look at the plan you'll see that there are a lot of 3 miles runs (36 of the 96 total runs). So I'm going to have to find quite a few different 3 mile runs around here to keep things interesting. So if all goes well I'll be running over 30 miles a week toward the end of the year.

For all of these runs my goal will be to keep my heart rate under 150. So far this means that I have to walk up a lot of hills during the second half of my runs. I try to run slow enough to keep my HR down, but if it doesn't work I switch to walking, usually my pace picks up at then though (but my heart rate stays down). My average for the first 8 runs where I kept my HR under 150, an average of 140, I ran a pace of 11:40 per mile. The six runs since then had an average pace of 10:30 per mile and an average HR of 143. So my time seems to be coming down pretty quickly so far. I'm anxious to see what kind of pace I'm running at the same heart rate by the end of the year.

The reason that I'm training like this is because I've decided to run the Lincoln Marathon next May. I figure I'll be 26 then so what better reason to run 26 miles? I'm planning on following an 18 week training plan so this training will take me pretty much right up to the start of that. My base should be built up enough to be able to do the tempo runs and speed work that I'll need to.

One of my coworkers said he is going to plan on running it with me. He has ran a few marathons before so it will be nice to have an experienced runner as a reference. I probably won't run with him much though, he lives in Utah and is just here in Kearney during the week. He is just a consultant too and I'm not sure how much longer he'll be working with us, but the internet makes the world a pretty small place. I like the idea of training with people, even if we don't actually run together, so anyone else want to plan on running it with us?

It's been awhile

2007-07-01T22:45:00.000-05:00

Man, it's been over a week since I last posted (so this post is going to be a little long). Let's what kind of excuse can I make up? Well my power cord for my laptop went bad (again) so I couldn't really use it all week. So I'll go with that. (We'll ignore the fact that Amy has a laptop and I brought my work laptop home every night.) The real reason is probably that I watched T.V. all week instead of doing anything productive. But I have a new AC adapter and I'm tired of watching T.V. so everything should be back to normal.

I hate T.V. There are a few shows that I enjoy watching but the other 99% of stuff that's on is crap. I hate planning my life around some show. So instead of doing that I try to avoid watching T.V. at all, then I don't have to worry about it. It's such a waste of time watching T.V., I think it's one of the reasons there are so many things wrong with our country. I'm not going to get into that at all though. So instead of wasting time watching T.V. I read all kinds of useless stuff on the internet, but at least I feel like I'm learning something.

Amy told me that she thinks I sound "irritated" in my posts (ranting about how much T.V. sucks probably won't change that). It bothered me a little when she told me because I consider myself a pretty content guy. I have no idea why I do, because that clearly isn't the case. When I was out running yesterday I think I kind of figured it out though. I'm pretty good at ranting (and really, I enjoy it) so that's what I do. I'm not real good at talking about positive things and I have no idea why. Let's take my job for example. If you ask most people that no me, they will say that I don't like my job. And they have no reason to think otherwise I complain about it more than anything. While I do have plenty to complain about (like co-workers that are a little over sensitive to having the sugar they put in their coffee replaced with salt), I really do like my job. My co-workers are great and I like 90% of the work that I do. I work for a good company that is growing fast. While there are some growing pains, I'd rather be in that situation then the opposite. So I'm going to work on focusing more on the positive than the negative (but don't worry, I'll get my rants in, I have way too many to hold them all back).

I'll start by going back to my race from last week. In my last post I was very disappointed with how it went. But I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I did take five and a half minutes off of my previous 5k time and ran my fastest mile since I started running again. I know every race can't go perfect so I'll just have to take what I can get and 5:30 off my PR is awesome. I wasn't too happy about how I finished either, even though I don't have any exact numbers. But I was measuring that against how I've done in the Lincoln races. There is a big factor that I hadn't considered before. All the races I've done in Lincoln have had two races going on at the same time and for the most part the better runners were in the race that I wasn't doing. This race only had the 5k so everyone did it. So there were a lot of runners that would have been doing the other race that beat me in this one.

The Kearney Community Olympics where a great time and I'm looking forward to next year. I want to talk about how I did pretty bad at everything I did, but I won't since I'm being positive and stuff. I'll give a quick summary of how each of the things I did went. Ti Chi was a little different, it wasn't nearly as intense as I expected it to be (but I just pulled that expectation out of thin air). Next we played Pickle-Ball. That was pretty fun, it's kind of like badminton except with oversized ping-pong paddles and a whiffle ball. We won our first game, but then we played a team that had a guy that knew what he was doing and they crushed us 11-0.

We had the 5k Saturday morning (I think I've talked about that enough). I also played some inner-tube water polo. That was a good time, and I'm sure it was plenty entertaining for those watching. I had a little trouble getting onto the inner-tube, but not as much as one of the girls on our team. I think she tried seven or eight times before giving up. It sure was a different group of muscles that I used, and I felt it for a couple days. We got beat pretty bad, 6-0 I think. But it was fun and that's all that matters. Then I shot 25 free throws. That didn't go good at all, I couldn't even make half of them. But that's the first time I've touched a ball since March (and that was the first time in a year) so I didn't expect it to be much different. I used to play on a team with the guy that won, he made 23 out of the 25. So congrats Mucklo. Then we played softball. We won our first game, actually we mercy ruled them. Our second game didn't go quite as well though. The other team pretty much got a base hit every time. Since you pitch to your own team there really wasn't anything we could do about it.

Amy played volleyball Sunday, she had fun but they only got to play one game because they got beat. I played a round of disc golf and that was a lot of fun. I'm going to start playing it more often, I played today in fact. There where a lot of other events that neither of us took part in that sounded like people had lots of fun with. Things like dancing, an Iron Chef cook off and kayaking. There was also tug-o-war and an obstacle course and it looked like everyone had fun with those. After all the events were done there was a BBQ and award ceremony. The top three finishers in each event got little medals which was pretty cool. Our team got 12 out of the 29 teams, but we were third out of the workplace teams. So we got a little plaque for that.

Since this post is so long already I'll post about my running in another post because I have a lot to write about for that too.

Race Report

2007-06-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

This morning I ran a 5k for the Kearney Community Olympics. I was hoping to finish in a decent place to get my teams some points, but wasn't really counting on it. Only the top three finishers in each age group get extra points, I'm in the 0-29 age group. But more than caring about my place my goal was to finish the race in under 21 minutes.

I'll sum up my run quickly in just one word, shitty.

Before the race my stomach felt weird, I'm sure it was just nevers though. I guess the thought of trying to finish in the top three got to me, I've never really felt nervous before a race that I can remember.

I started up way to far in the pack apparently because everyone took off, including me. I felt like I was holding back a little but still running at a pretty good pace. As we got close to the first mile I checked my watch and DOH!!. I was on the wrong mode so I start the timer. So I had no idea what kind of pace I'd been running other than how it felt, which was a little fast but not too bad. I went ahead and started it a little after mile 1 so I could figure out my first split later.

That feeling of not too bad quickly changed to am I done yet? The thoughts that were running through my head were why am I so damn tired? I can run 3 miles without much trouble and my heart rate wasn't up too high, around 177 or so. I didn't sleep great last night, I woke up off and on. I did however go to bed early, it was before midnight even (ok early for me). I figured it was just one of those days.

I walked through the water break, which was at about the halfway point, so I could get a little water in me (but mostly because I was dead). I felt a little better after that, but that feeling passed quickly as well. I ran the second mile in 7:21, which was too slow for my goal pace. I was getting passed by all kinds of people too, which is always pretty discouraging. I really wanted to go with people when they passed me but my body said "ain't happening dude."

I can handle getting passed by girls, that doesn't bother me at all. But I got passed by a baby, that's right a baby. The kid couldn't even walk, his dad was pushing him in a stroller. Here I am completely dead and pissed because I'm running bad and a BABY passes me. We where just a few blocks from the finish and I said there is no way I'm going to let a baby beat me. Then I thought, but that's not fair, how do I out kick a baby that can't even walk on it's own? I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, so I eased up and let the baby win. (Really that's what happened, I wasn't 100% drained). My watch said 17:22 at the finish which means I ran 10:01 for the last mile (I ran two miles faster than that Wednesday night while keeping my heart rate low at under 150). Very disappointing to say the least. However the race clock said 23:32. Hoohah, that means I ran the first mile in 6:10. That is 9 seconds faster than my fastest mile time trial, no wonder I was so dead the rest of the race.

Anyway I'm really disappointed how I did and now I'm going to just build my base for the rest of the year and hope to crush that time next year. I have to go partake in the rest of the Olympics now (that means no time to proof read, so sorry about the typos). I'm not real sure what I'm going to be doing though. I'll give a report how those go later, so far it's been a really good time.

Kearney Community Olympics

2007-06-19T17:36:00.001-05:00

If you are looking for the 2009 schedule click here.

I finally have all the info on 2007 Kearney Community Olympics. There are a ton of events (ok, I know 18 isn't really a ton), I've listed all of them at the end of this post. Things get going Friday night at 5:30 and there is a barbecue and awards ceremony Sunday evening starting at 5:15. We compete as a team and get points for each event we compete in and then some events give extra points depending on how you place. I'm signed up for six events, Qi Qong, coed doubles Pickleball, the 5k run, free throw contest, softball and disc golf. I have no idea how to play most of the games but we got a packet that explains all the rules for each event (I have some studying to do) and the ones I do know have different rules. Softball for example, you pitch to your own team and the batter only gets two legal pitches. So that will definitely speed up the games.

The 5k is normal though. There wasn't a map included with anything though so I did some investigating on my own. A Google search found that one of the items agenda items for a 2005 city council meeting was to approve blocking off some roads for the Good Sam 5k (which is the race in the Community Olympics). That info lead me to the minutes for a meeting from this year with the same agenda item. The course they laid out doesn't make complete sense though (go west to get to a road that is actually east?). I made some assumptions as to what I thought they meant and came up with the course below (if the map doesn't show up right you can click here). I'm planning on driving along it later this week to get an idea what it's going to be like. It looks like it's a little downhill for the first mile and a little uphill for the last one but a very gradual incline.

I'm not sure how much of this Amy is going to be able to do though, she has shin splints pretty bad. It would be a shame if she wasn't able to play pickleball with me, then I'd have to go to the Deaf Peds concert instead. I'm just kidding I'd rather her be healthy then go to a show, I'm a nice guy like that. I think this community Olympics idea is a really good one and should be a lot of fun. I'll let you know next week how everything went.

Here are the events:

Qi Qong	Tennis	Pickleball
Tug-of-War	Obstacle Course	5k Run/Walk
Inner-tube Water Polo	Horseshoes	Bowling
Softball	Volleyball	Free-Throw Shooting
Mountain Biking	Disc Golf	Iron Chef
Soccer Shoot-Out	Dancing Like a Star	Kayaking

Nike C8 Revisited

2007-06-18T23:01:00.000-05:00

When I first reviewed my heart rate monitor I didn't have any big complaints. Last nights run changed that a little bit, as I mentioned in my last post I lost the data for my last run. The memory bank can only store ten runs and mine was full. So I started the stopwatch when I started my run last night and hit the split at the halfway point then stopped it once I was done. I had the final time I ran but to look at my splits and average heart rate and whatnot I had to switch to Data mode. Before I do that I always save my run, but since my watch was full I couldn't. Some sort of warning that it was full would be nice (there could be one that I missed, I haven't played with it to see).

The button I usually hit to save the data actually said it was going to clear it. As a computer programmer I look at user interfaces slightly different than most people, and I feel that's a bad design. If it were me I wouldn't have that button clear the run, just display an error message that the run couldn't be saved. That would save lots of runners the frustration of clearing a run as soon as they finish instead of saving it like they meant to.

Since I couldn't save the run I switched over to delete a run so I could save that one. If you continue to hold the clear button down after clearing one run it will clear all the runs saved (a very nice feature in my opinion). So I went ahead and did that. Then I went back to my run and IT WAS GONE!! That meant I lost my splits and my average heart rate and my time in the zone and all those fun little stats that I get. I haven't played around to see if it was clearing all the runs that clear it or just leaving that mode. Either way it's pretty annoying.

I'm not trying to pass the buck or anything like that, it was my fault for not ensuring that I had an empty data slot before going for a run (something I'll make damn sure of in the future). I just think the watch could have been designed better to not lose the current run data when that situation comes up.

Building a Base

2007-06-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

I only have two more workouts and a 5k before I start focusing on building up my aerobic base. I've done some reading on low heart rate training and I've decided that's how I'm going to try and build my base up. I'll link to a couple of articles at the end of this post that have really given me a lot of very good information and convinced me that this is the right way to do things (if you're short on time you'd be better off skipping to the end and following them). They recommend during a couple base building sessions a year of 8-12 weeks. But since I'm so out of shape that's all I'm going to do for the rest of the year before I start training hard next year.

Basically what it entails is running all of your miles at a pace that keeps your heart rate low. The formula is 180-age, but there is some tweaking depending on your level of fitness. I won't be doing any tweaking so the max for my heart rate will be 155. I'm going to set my the top of my zone at 150 though so I can slow down before I get over my limit. Right now my average pace is 11:40 at a heart rate of 140. I know that's under my target but if I try much harder than that my heart rate seems to jump up into the high 150s. My run this last Sunday went really well though, I'm guessing my average heart rate was 145-147 but I ran a pace of 10:36 for three miles. I can only guess what my heart rate was though because of a little issue I had with my watch (more on that shortly). So hopefully that wasn't a fluke and I am starting to be able to run faster at a similar heart rate.

Follow the links below because they really do give a lot of very good information and what I type here won't even come close to doing them justice, but I'll try anyway. What's going on is that by keeping your heart rate low you are building your aerobic base. They say that the 5k is 95% aerobic and the marathon 99%. When you have a big aerobic base you are able to maintain your pace for a longer period of time. If you want to know if you have an issue with your aerobic base you can use a running calculator like, McMillan's, to see if your race times have a relationship similar to what they predict. If not then it's likely that you need to work on building your base.

Something that I have experienced so far in doing this is that at first it really sucks (great selling point huh?). It is really hard to run as slow as they say I should. During the second half of my runs I have to walk up hills to keep my heart rate where it should be, and walking hurts the pride a little bit. I've comments from quite a few people who have experienced the same thing but they insist that it does get better. So I'm going to spend the next 5 months or so running extremely slowly in hopes that I will have a very big base built up before I start doing speed work again. I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it goes.

Here are the links
Want Speed? Slow Down! by Dr. Philip Maffetone - This is the article that convinced me to give this type of training a shot. If you are going to follow any of these links follow this one. If it doesn't peak your interest then this probably isn't the training for you.
Low Heart Rate training FAQ by formationflier - He has put together a very good FAQ that has answered a lot of questions that I've had since I first read about this.
Low HR Training group on RunningAHEAD - This is a group of runnings that are currently doing low heart rate training, some of them have been doing it for years. They seem more than willing to help people out by answering questions and giving advice. I'll be joining the group late this week, so far I've just been lurking around there.

Looking Back

2007-06-16T14:49:00.001-05:00

Since I started running again I've been showing pretty rapid
improvement. Which I suppose is to be expected going from doing
nothing other than sitting on the couch to running 4 days a week. It
has me looking back on my running during high school. I was decent
but, but far from good. During my best cross country season I think I
was running 17-18 minute 5ks, which was good enough for me to be a
backup at state. During track I ran 52 second 400s and 2:03 800s. That
was good enough to put me on the 4x800 team that finished 7th at
state. I've been wondering, what could I have done if I cared enough
about being a good runner back then to do something about it. All I
did was ran at practice and that was because I ran with a great group
of friends, but my focus was on basketball. Even if I could I wouldn't
change anything though. There is no way I would give up the hours I
spent on my driveway or in the gym playing ball and there is
absolutely no way I would give up our state championship and all the
great memories that came along with it.

I know there is no way to find if I could have broke 2 minutes in the
800 if I just would have trained harder, I'm sure I could have but
that doesn't count for anything. What I do though is see where my
limits are today and that is something I've been thinking a ton about
lately. Can I ran a mile in under 5 minutes? What about a marathon,
can my body take the punishment of training to be able to race for 26
miles? Can I get back down to my high school 5k times, or better? Will
I ever realize there are actually races between the 5k and the
marathon? Basically, I want to find out what my limits are and then
break on through to see what they truly are.

The hardest part about that these questions is that there is no easy
answer. I can't just use Google to see if I can ran fast enough to
qualify for Boston. The only way to answer them is to train and train
some more. So that is what I'm going to do, I'm going to run and I'm
going to find out what I am capable of.

Nice Easy Run

2007-06-16T01:04:00.000-05:00

I went for a nice and easy 2.5 mile run tonight. I ran the loop for the first time in quite a while. In fact, it's the first time that I've ran it in the dark since I got the light that clips on the bill of my hat and it worked great. I finished in a time of 29:40 with an average heart rate of 142. My plan was to keep my HR under 150 and I was above it for just under 7 minutes, but I was only a couple beats above each time. I did walk up a hill toward the end to keep my heart rate down. It still amazes me how much my HR jumps up when going up a hill, even though it doesn't feel like I'm working any harder. I'm happy to report that I didn't have any pain in my knees at all, or anywhere else for that matter.

We're heading back to Lincoln again tomorrow, this time for a wedding. It should be a pretty good time, I just hope I can stay "hydrated" for a low price (i.e. free). It will be a very short trip because Amy and I both have to work Monday morning.

I have one week until my 5k for the Kearney Community Olympics (I'll post about them in the next couple days). So I'm going to take things easy this week. I'm only supposed to do a 3 mile run and a 1.5 mile run before the race. I don't think I can just sit around for that long do I'll through in an extra run early in the week, probably the loop. Since I run my easy runs extremely easy I'm sure it won't hurt anything.

Knee Pains

2007-06-15T01:21:00.000-05:00

First things first. GO SPURS!!! WOOHOO!!!! They put on an impressive show sweeping the Cavs to win their fourth championship since '99. Ok so it wasn't the most impressive offensive series, or anything remotely close. But the way that the Spurs play as a team and always find someone to step and their ability to shut down the other teams is very impressive. I'm going on the record now, if the Spurs make it to the finals again next year to repeat I will do everything I can to get tickets to a game, in San Antonio. And not nose bleed tickets either, I'm talking first 20 rows so I can actually see the game.

Now, back to running. Since I started running again a big concern that I've had is how my knees will hold up. I have a history of knee issues. Back in high school I battled with pain in both knees my junior and senior years. When I was going to community college a few years ago I was playing basketball a few nights a week and my knee got so bad that I couldn't put any weight on it for a few weeks. I'm a ~~real man~~ idiot and didn't let that stop me from playing though, it always seemed to loosen up after playing for a couple minutes. Basketball is a lot different from running in that regard though. With ball it's all kinds of different stuff that your knee goes through, so what ever is causing the pain gets a break once in awhile. When you run you just keep pounding away at it, step after step after ever more painful step.

In an effort to avoid hurting my knees again I've been doing a decent job of stretching to try and loosen up my legs a little. I'm still stiff as a board though. Up until this week everything has been going great, no pain at all. My right knee has hurt a little during my last couple runs though, at the top of the kneecap. That's the same place it hurt in high school. It only hurt for short periods of time though, maybe a minute or two during the middle of the run and that's it.

Tonight I ran some hills to see if I could get closer to my max heart rate than last time. I couldn't even get up to my average heart rate of 182 from the 3k. The hills were about 150 meters and I ran 5 of them all out. Just jogging back down for rest. I also warmed up for ten minutes first and cooled down for another ten minutes after. My knee didn't bother me at all during my workout. I got home and drank some water, took of my shoes and walked around in the apartment a bit and I had a sharp pain in the back of my right knee toward the inside. I have never felt a pain like that before so I'm a little concerned. It didn't last very long and I iced it right away. I'm hoping its just a fluke thing but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Since my knee started hurting I've been running in the grass instead of on the bike trail or road as much as possible. I've also been trying to read as much as I can on injury prevention. If anyone has any suggestions on what to do or can recommend any websites or books I would love to read about it in the comments.

Sleep Issues

2007-06-13T12:35:00.000-05:00

I don't sleep normal (that may be a bit of an understatement). I'll run through a typical day for me quick. I get up about 7:30 A.M. (after hitting snooze for about 20 minutes) hop in the shower and get to work a little after 8. I come home for lunch and take a little nap for about 20 minutes and head back to work. Then after work I usually end up taking another "nap" for a 2-3 hours. Then I'm usually up until 3 or 4 before I go to sleep for 3-4 more hours and start the cycle all over again.

When people hear that the first thing they say is well don't take a nap then you won't be up until 3 or 4. That sounds great in theory but it always seems that no matter how much sleep I get the night before I get tired in the afternoon. So I force myself to stay awake and am pretty much just a zombie the whole evening. Then 10 or 11 rolls around and I catch a second wind or something and I wake up. I try to go to bed but I just toss and turn and after an hour or so of that I get up until 3 or 4 again. So then I missed out on a few hours of sleep after work but I still didn't get anything done because I was too tired to focus. This is how I've been since at least my sophomore year of high school.

If I weren't married I don't think I'd have a problem with my sleep pattern at all. Really I kind of like it, it's like I have twice as many days as everyone else. The problem is that the only time Amy and I are both awake is when we are at work. Since we don't work together we don't spend too much quality time together. I doubt that sleeping this way is the best plan for productivity at work or recovering after runs either. So I'm on a quest to fix it.

Here is an article on LifeHack.org that pretty much describes how I sleep exactly and has a solution on how to fix it. Sit in front of a light for 30 minutes every morning. Even though that sounds like loads of fun I'm not sure I want to drop $300 to do so. I'll explore some other options first. In fact that's part of the reason I haven't been posting much the last few days. I've been going to sleep early, around 1 in the morning (well, early for me) and haven't had naps in the evening. So far it seems to be going pretty good.

If anyone else has/had similar sleep issues how do you deal with it or how did you over come it?

Race Results: Havelock Charity Run

2007-06-09T14:30:00.000-05:00

This morning was the Havelock Charity Run in Lincoln. We ran the 3k version. This event had the extra feature of running as part of a team to earn money for a charity. The way that the charity piece works is that Pinnacle Bank donates $50 to your selected charity. Then if your team beats their team (who is always pretty slow) then they will donate an additional $25, for a grand total of $75. The Charity we chose to run for is the Matt Talbot Kitchen. Their mission is "to serve the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of Lincoln's working poor, and homeless through outreach, advocacy, education and the provision of food and shelter.

Amy's brother puts our team together and had enough people this year for two teams. One of the guys that ran with us was our former high school track and cross country coach. It was nice I'm happy to say that both teams beat the Pinnacle Bank team. The team I was on got second and the other team got 5th. We had all men though and they had two girls, they were the second coed team.

This course is pretty much flat, there was one hill but it wasn't very steep at all. My goal for this race was 13 minutes. I really wanted to make my goal 12, but I didn't think I could pull that off and wanted to keep things realistic. My watch time was 12:03 and I'm pretty sure my chip time will be about the same. So I made my goal of 13 but I'm upset that I didn't run just a little faster and break that 12 minute mark. I'm pretty sure I could have but I didn't know the course and I thought there was another turn before the finish line so I held back a little bit until I realized that I was wrong. I'll need to make sure I get a map of the course sooner and study it better next time.

Amy had a good race too, she ran a 16:37 which is quite an improvement over her two mile time of 19:55 from April 21st.

Next up is a 5k for the Kearney Community Olympics on the 23rd. According to the McMillian Running Calculator my 12:03 translates to a 21:01. So I'm making my goal 21 minutes, but I have a secret goal of breaking 20 minutes.

Random Updates

2007-06-08T00:59:00.000-05:00

My leg stopped twitching after lunch. I'm guessing that MVTruman was right when he said it was either Fatigue or an Electrolyte Imbalance that caused it. It would be hard to eliminate either one of those things because my sleep schedule and diet are so messed up.

We had another softball game tonight. We played a lot better and actually got to finish the game instead of losing to the mercy rule after three innings. I actually got a couple hits tonight for the first time this season. My rib cage is a little sore now though. I don't really believe in stopping when I'm running the bases, once I get going it's like 5 steps between the bags. So I was on my way to home and I thought I had plenty of time but I was running pretty much all out anyway. Someone yelled at me to stop and go back to third (like that would happen) and then the pitcher was in the baseline getting ready to catch the ball. I knew I wasn't stopping in time to avoid him so I braced for impact. Yep that's right I didn't let the fact that he was 6'4" and about 275 slow me down. He didn't move at all even though I was running at close to full speed, but I bounced off him pretty good. He didn't catch the ball (I know it's cuz he was scared) and I scored.

After the game I kind of watched the Spurs beat the Cavs in game one of the NBA finals and kind of took a nap. The Spurs sure are looking good, I have no doubt the Spurs will win their 4th championship.

After the game I went for a nice and easy 1.5 mile run. My time was 17:40 (11:47 mins/mile) with an average heart rate of just 135. My legs are a little tired still from Tuesday's hard mile and I want to be pretty fresh for Saturday's 3k so I made sure I ran really easy.

I found out tonight that the 5k Amy signed me up for is on the 23rd at 7:00 in the morning. I don't understand why they always have these races so damn early. Can't they do some at midnight when normal people are awake (I reject your reality and substitute my own (stolen from Mythbusters))? I haven't set a goal for that race yet, I'd love to break 20 but I don't think that's realistic at all. I'll see how this race goes and then figure what I'll shoot for in the 5k but it will probably be in the 22-23 minute range. I'm also planning on going to a concert the night before it. The Deaf Pedestrians are playing here in Kearney for just $10. But you have to get tickets at the door, last time they played in G.I. 200 people were turned away. Hmm, that's interesting. According to the tour schedule on their site they are playing in G.I. again. Oh well, we'll see what happens. I don't have my hopes up much on going to that show. But their CD is headed my way and will hopefully be here next week.

Well I better try and get a little sleep so my leg doesn't start twitching again.

What's wrong with my leg?

2007-06-07T01:49:00.000-05:00

Since I got home tonight (about 8 hours ago) the muscle on the inside of my left leg just above the knee about an inch has been twitching. Every few seconds it just tenses up. It doesn't hurt but it is really freaking annoying. Doesn't matter if my leg is straight or bent or even if I'm standing. I took a nap for awhile but as soon as I woke up it started happening again (not sure about during the nap because, umm, well I was sleeping). There have been stretches of a few minutes when it wouldn't do it but it has always started up again. I punched it once to make it stop, yeah that wasn't a good plan. Then it hurt and twitched (note to self punching your self is bad umm kay). I have no idea what caused it to happen, why it is or how to make it stop. If anyone has any ideas or wants to make up something I'd love to ~~hear~~ read them. I'm willing to try pretty much anything (I punched myself) to make it stop before it drives me completely insane. I'm going to go do some yoga to see if that will help at all.

Review: Nike C8 Heart Rate Monitor

2007-06-06T23:27:00.001-05:00

I've had my Nike C8 heart rate monitor for a couple of week nows and I've used pretty much all of the features and I'm ready to give you my thoughts on it. To summarize, I really like the watch and would recommend it to others. It has lots of features for the price and is very easy to use.

As a watch it has all your standard features, time, date, two alarms, backlight (that actually stays on long enough to read the display) and two time zones. It's pretty easy to set the time and alarms. I never thought I'd use the two time zones but it was pretty nice when we were in the mountain time zone. It also has an auto off feature to save battery life, it can be set to shut off after a certain number of hours of inactivity, up to 24. The watch is designed for a man and has a huge face, which makes it very easy to read while running.

The heart rate monitor is pretty comfortable and I hardly notice when I run. I haven't had any problems with it staying in place. However Amy has used it a couple times and said it slipped down a little bit, but not enough to stop and fix while running (I bet she just doesn't have it tight enough). The readings have seemed pretty accurate most of the time. In order to get actuate readings you have to get the sensors wet, I get my chest wet too. I haven't had any problems getting accurate readings when I have done that (but without doing that my heart rate jumped up to 230 in a few minutes of really easy jogging). Unlike a lot of other HRMs, you can change the batteries on your own, saving you time and money from having to send it in. The manual says the watch battery will last 1.5 years depending on usage and the monitor battery will last 1 year with one hour of use a day (I busted out my trusty TI-85 and that's 365 hours). The strap comes off the monitor easily and you can toss it in the washer with your other running stuff. I've never been around anyone else with a HRM so I have no idea about interference.

Other than time the watch has three modes: Run, INTR (Interval), and Data.

Run Mode
This is the stopwatch. It has 50-lap memory and all kinds of other neat stuff. You can setup one heart rate zone, the max value is 240 bpm and the low end is 30 bpm. If you have the zone setup you can turn the alarm on or off so it will beep at you if you get out of the zone, it beeps at you even if you haven't started the time yet (I haven't decided if that's a nice feature or not yet, I'm leaning toward not so much). You can set which is displayed larger, lap time or total time. You can also setup 'My View', with that you can choose what is on the big display and what is on the little one from the following categories: LAP, HR, Time, or Total. You can't have the same category on both, which is kind of annoying if you are switching the two. There is a button that allows you to switch between views quickly. I think it is pretty hard to press, but it has gotten a little easier since I first got the watch. You can switch between Lap/Total, HR/Total, and 'My View'.

Interval Mode
This is a more advanced version of a countdown timer than I had seen before. Actually it's just two countdown timers (called segments), one goes off as soon as the other is done. I've used this for a fartlek and it worked pretty well for that. It will be really nice to use once I start doing interval training. It only has a countdown mode. I've used Ironman watches before and they have a couple other modes, like it counts up after counting down to zero and some other one. The thing I don't like about the interval timer is that if you want to store your run (see below) you have to switch to Run mode and start the timer. But you can change the view to display your heart rate along with the time remaining on the current segment. It would also be nice to be able to setup a different heart rate zone for each segment.

Data Mode
You can save up to 10 of your runs in memory. Then you can use the data mode to review those runs. Here is the data that you can review: total run time, average split time, average HR, best split and average HR for it, time in, below and above your heart rate zone, each split and the total time at that point and average heart rate for it.

Complaints
I really don't have any major complaints about this watch. If I was going to get another one (in this price range) I wouldn't hesitate to get this same one. Really the only things I would change is to have more statistical data (but I'm pretty nerdy like that) and have a separate zone for each interval segment. It would be really nice to be able to see what the max heart rate for each split and run (and that falls under the more stats complaint).

This watch retails for $120, but I found it at WatchNThings for $82.95. I was really happy with their service, I ordered the watch on a Friday morning and got it the following Monday and I only paid $5.99 for the slowest shipping. They also sent along two extra batteries. I very highly recommend them.

Hopefully I covered everything you want to know about the watch, but if not leave me a comment with what you want to know and I'll find the answer for you. (I reserve the right to just make something up if I can't find a real answer.)

An Almost Consistent Mile

2007-06-05T23:17:00.000-05:00

If you recall my post last week I had a little (ok tons of) trouble running consistent quarter mile splits for the mile I ran. I found the article I was looking for on how to train yourself to run consistent laps for a mile. On the schedule for tonight was another mile "fast" (it's only fast compared to my other runs). So I figured it would be a good time to try some of the things that Jeff Galloway suggested in that article. As opposed to just going off memory like last time I figured out what I wanted to run my mile in and how that broke down to 400 and 200 splits. I decided to go for a 6:25, about 10 seconds faster than last week, so that meant 400 splits in 1:36 and 200s in 48 seconds.

We jogged the half mile to the track as a warm up, I jogged another lap, did some stretching, ran some strides, then it was off to the races. I didn't go out like a race horse tonight, but I did go out a little fast. I was pretty consistent the next few 200s then picked it up a little last one. Here are my splits, total time and average heart rate for each 200.

So my average time for each 200 was 47.41, each 400 was 1:34.81 and average HR was 173. I was a lot more consistent than last week, but I still have a ways to go until all my splits are within a second or two of each other. My time was 16 seconds faster than last week but I'm pretty sure that was because I ran at a more consistent pace not because I've improved that much in less than a week. Still tonight's run makes me pretty confident I'll reach my goal of 13 minutes for the 3k Saturday.

I struggled through the run a lot more than I was expecting to though (ok, expecting isn't the right word, more like hoping). I'm going out on a limb and saying the reason I struggled was because I didn't go to sleep until about 4:30 this morning and went into work at 8. I skipped breakfast like usual, and had a few cups of coffee once I got to work. Then I didn't eat anything for lunch (again, like usual) had a few handfuls of pretzels at work and a little 6oz. thing of yogurt when I got home. Then I went and ran a mile fast and didn't expect to struggle with it?

Easy Runs At My Pace

2007-06-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

After getting my HRM I wanted to do what the books and websites said, that is keep my heart rate under a certain level when running. I ran 4 easy/long runs with my average heart rate right around 140, my average pace for those runs was pretty close to 11:30 per mile. I felt like I could run forever at that pace and hardly felt like I had done anything once I finished. In fact it was really hard to run that slow, I had to walk occasionally to keep my heart rate as low as it should be. I tried doing that for awhile but it have a couple races coming up that I want to do decent in and I don't feel running that slow will help me with that.

I've ran one long run and one easy run since then by what I felt was an easy pace. I used the conversation test. Basically that is if I can carry on a conversation without having to pause frequently to catch my breath then I'm going about the right pace. (I get strange looks when I test that out since I run by myself.) My pace for both those was right around 10:20 a mile. My average heart rate for the easy 2 mile run was 151 and 161 for the 4 mile long run. Those runs felt so much better, I felt like I actually worked out a little bit (got a tiny bit of that runner's high). I still felt like I could run for a very long time too.

My long run cemented the fact that my aerobic base sucks (sitting on your ass for 7 years will do that). I averaged a heart rate of 150 for the first half of it, but the second half was a different story. The average for it half was 169, with 173 being the highest that I saw. I kept a pretty even pace the whole time so naturally my heart rate would be higher for the second half, but I didn't expect it to be that much higher. So after these upcoming races I'm going to work on building my aerobic base up for the rest of the year (it could be a long six months). I'll layout my whole training plan in a later post. That will give me an excellent base to build some speed on in 2008 (at least that's my hope anyway).

Transendence

2007-06-05T12:41:00.000-05:00

You might have noticed that I've been slacking off on my postings for a little while now (I've still been running though). The reason for the lack of posts is that I've been playing a game called Transcendence whenever I have free time. It's strangely addictive, you pilot a space ship and blow stuff up, then loot the leftovers. Then you can sell what you take and buy upgrades for your ship so you can blow up bigger stuff and get even better loot. You can check out the game here. It's free and you don't have to install anything, you just unzip it and play, so you have nothing to lose (except your free time).

I get burnt out on games pretty quick though, so I'll be tired of it in a few days and things will be back to normal. But since I'm so far behind on my posts I'm not going to play tonight (yeah right), I'm just going to get caught up.

I have work to do

2007-06-01T07:42:00.000-05:00

My run for last night was one mile fast. We jogged about a half mile down to the track and I did some strides to get warmed up. I was thinking my last mile was a 6:48, so I was hoping to run a 6:40, which would be 1:40 for each lap. I have a little (and by little I mean a tons of) trouble with running consistent laps though. My first 200 only took about 35 seconds, oops. I slowed down a little and hit my first lap at 1:21. Since I went out so fast on the first one I slowed down for the next two too much and ran the second in 1:48, followed by 1:54 for the third. Then I let myself go on the last one and ran a 1:30. Final time - 6:35. So even though I beat the time I was shooting for I wasn't happy with my run, I have to get more consistent. I read a pretty good article on how to train yourself to do that but I can't find it now, oh well I'll have to look for it later.

I checked my log after I got back and it turns out I ran a 6:34 mile on 5/1, the 6:48 was a couple weeks before that. So perhaps I'll check out my log BEFORE I run next time.

My goal for my 3k next weekend is 13 minutes and I still have a little work to do to get there. According to The McMillan Running Calculator my 6:35 translates to a 13:04 3k (but that's for people that are in shape and I have a ways to go before I am). If I don't start out so damn fast and let the competitive juices flow I should be pretty close to getting there. If you've never played with that calculator give it a try, it's pretty fun to do.

Giving up on Low HR Training (for now)

2007-05-31T00:05:00.000-05:00

I ran two miles tonight with my HRM and a goal to keep my heart rate under 149 again. I was getting pretty high readings right away again, but I made sure the sensors where wet and then everything seemed to be fine. I really struggled to keep my heart rate down though. It's so hard for me to run 11.30 miles. A couple of times I had to walk to get my heart rate down to where it should be. The thing is I'm pretty sure I actually sped up once I started walking. So I'm going to stop worrying about my heart rate until after my next two races (3k on 6/9 and a 5k on 6/24). I'll be sure to do my easy runs easy but I'll at least feel like I ran once I'm done.

I'm not giving up on low heart rate training all together though, just until I'm done with my races. I really like everything that I've read about it and feel like it is the right way to do things. So after the races I'll watch my heart rate again as I work on building my aerobic base (more on that very soon).

Catching Up

2007-05-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

I had a very nice weekend out at Amy's grandparents. We just helped them out around the farm and relaxed. I haven't posted about my runs lately so to get caught up here is a summary of my last few runs.

Thursday - May 24th
I ran my second run with my HRM. I went 1.5 miles with the goal of keeping my heart rate under 149 (70% of my max according to the 220-age formula). My watch started beeping at me after just a few steps, I checked it and it said I was at 183. I knew there was know way that was right so I kept going, but it kept beeping. I stopped and walked and it went down to about 115 right away. But as soon as I started jogging again it jumped up to over 200, I just keep going and it kept going up. I think the highest it got to was 232. I walked for awhile again and it dropped pretty much right away. When I started jogging again it stayed about where I expected it to. The whole way back it was fine. The only thing I can think that it might have been is that my HRM didn't have a good connection, but once I started sweating a little the connection was better. Anyway, it was a lot easier for me to keep my heart rate under my target on the road than it was on the treadmill, well once it quit acting up anyway.

Friday - May 25th
No run, I just rode in the car for about 6 hours.

Saturday - May 26th
I ran a 2 mile fartlek on the country roads. I used the nifty interval feature on my watch. I ran easy for 3 minutes then hard for one. I'd say I went ran at about 90% for the hard parts. I couldn't quite to it for the whole minute for the last one though. The whole run took 18.22 and my heart rate averaged 163.

Sunday - May 26th
Repeat of Friday.

Yesterday - May 27th
We went out to Yanney park and did a 3.5 mile long run. I look forward to my long runs because it is really nice to run out there. It was an out and back run again. My target heart rate for the run was 149 again, I'm going to keep using that for the next few weeks for all my easy or long runs. On the way out I tried to keep my heart rate under 140 so I had a little room to work with on the way back. I did a pretty good job of that. I turned around in 19.17. My heart rate crept up on the way back but I only went over 149 twice for a total of 30 seconds. My final time was 40.09, or 11.29 per mile. It's hard for me to run that slow but as my aerobic base gets built (more on that later) my times will come down, or at least that's what I've read.

Today
I took the day off from work and I was pretty much just a bum all day but I plan on doing some yoga later tonight. My MP3 player came today and I went out picked up a new pair of headphones, a couple technical shirts and a pair of shorts (adding another $60 that I've wasted on stuff for running). I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out my plans after the races I have coming up in June. I think I got it all figured out today, but I'm going to leave you in suspense...

Memorial Day Weekend

2007-05-25T09:59:00.001-05:00

We are heading out of town to go visit Amy's grandparents near Hemingford, NE. They don't have internet out there so I won't be posting for a few days. I have two runs planned when we're out there, a 2 mile fartlek and a 3.5 mile run. I'll also be sure to wear sunscreen when I'm working out there this weekend.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe memorial day.

Yoga

2007-05-24T00:49:00.000-05:00

A few months back Amy and I used to do yoga on a somewhat regular basis. I don't know anything about yoga other than what is on the DVDs that we have so I'm sure I'm did all kinds of things wrong, but I enjoyed doing it. I never did improve my flexability much, but my posture did improve (and there is tons of room for improvement) and I felt better about myself. Those effects wore off since I stopped doing the yoga though. Since I'm trying to improve my general well-being I've been wanting to start doing it again. Since I didn't feel like just sitting around tonight I figured tonight would be a good night to start.

So I got out our MTV Yoga DVD and went through about half of it. It's kind of weird how it wears you out just stretching and doing different poses. When we first started before I couldn't get through the whole thing either, but after a short while I could. So I figure I'll be able to get through the whole thing if I do it once a week in a month or two.

Here are a few articles I've read on yoga and running.
Yoga for Runners on Run The Planet
Yoga for Runners on Yoga Journal
Flex Time on Runner's World

If you have any recommendations on websites, DVDs, books or anything else on yoga and running share them in the comments.

1st Easy Run with my HRM

2007-05-22T23:33:00.000-05:00

On schedule for tonight was a 1.5 mile easy run. After getting my heart rate monitor and trying to find my max heart rate yesterday I was anxious to see how an easy run would go. For easy runs I'm supposed to keep my heart rate under 70% of my working hear rate which comes out to 144 beats per minute. It was raining out tonight and the Spurs game was on so I ran in the clubhouse on the treadmill.

In the past I've been doing my easy runs at about a 9 min/mile pace, 6.6 mph, and that has felt really easy to me. So that's what I started out with tonight. After running for a couple minutes my watch was beeping at me for going too hard. So I slowed the pace down to 6 mph and rate at that speed for a few more minutes before my watch started beeping at me again. So I slowed down even more. After running about a mile I finally just stopped to let my heart rate go down for awhile because I had dropped the pace down to about 4.5 mph, and I can walk that fast if I try a tiny bit. After the rest I ran the last half mile at about 4.8 mph, but I still pushing 70%. I don't even feel like I ran at all tonight, but I suppose that might be the point.

Tonight's run makes me feel even more certain I didn't get up to my max heart rate last night. If I would have used the highest number from the formulas I only would have had an extra 7 beats per minute to work with. I'm thinking about running an extra 1.5 this week at that pace just to see how it feels. I don't think it will hurt anything to stray from my program by adding an extra easy run. What do you think? Will it hurt anything if I add in an extra 1.5 miles this week? Should I go with the max heart rate from one of the formulas or the use the max I calculated?

Heart Rate Monitor

2007-05-22T01:44:00.000-05:00

My heart rate monitor came today. So instead of doing the 1.5 mile fast run that was scheduled I tried to find my max heart rate(MHR). I found a couple of sites with different methods on how to find it. There are a lot of different ways to just calculate it based on your age. Here are a few that I came across.
220-age=MHR
205-(.5*age)=MHR
210-(.7*age)=MHR

I'm 25 so these calculations come out to 195, 192, 192 respectfully. Obviously these calculations are very general. I did some research and come up with a couple different methods to determine your MHR by doing stress tests on a treadmill. I found a couple other methods that don't involve a treadmill that I'll probably try out later too. But I think it would be easier to use a treadmill, so that's what I did.

One method is after a good warm-up to run as fast as you can for three minutes, rest for two or three minutes, then run for another three minutes at your max pace. During the second three minute run you should hit your MHR. As I found out it's hard to pick the perfect pace for this. As I tend to do I made my pace too fast, which meant I didn't get to my max heart rate because my legs where too tired and I completely died. Amy watched my watch for me and came up with a MHR of 180. I think it would be pretty easy to pick too slow of a pace also.

I was pretty tired so I just sat down and watched the Cavs/Pistons game for awhile. After a quite few minutes I felt pretty good so I decided to give it another go. This time I used method number two. I modified it though, because I didn't remember how it was supposed to go exactly. I started walking at 3 mph with the incline on the treadmill at 1. Every minute I increased the incline by one and every other minute I increased the mph by one. I kept that up for about 10 minutes before I couldn't go any longer. That got my heart rate up to 184. After reading how I was actually supposed to do it I bet I can get it higher than that. So that will probably be my next hard workout.

Overall I wound up running about three miles tonight trying to figure this out, instead of the 1.5 I was supposed to run. But a little over a mile was a warm-up and then there were the easy parts of the first method and the first half of the second method was pretty easy. So I'm say I ran less than 1.5 miles hard but I feel like I got in a pretty good workout.

I calculated my resting heart rate (RHR) as well. This one was a little easier, I just put the HRM on after I got home from work (not the ideal time to find your RHR but you have to play with a new toy once you get it right?) and the lowest heart I hit was 54. Like my max I'll use that until I can prove that it is something else. I'll try and get into the habit of taking my heart rate every morning to see what I come up with.

Why do I care about my max and resting heart rates you might ask? Well when I run I either want to run hard or I want to run easy. There isn't much benefit to running in the middle. When I run easy I want to ensure that my heart rate stays below 70% of my working heart rate. For hard runs I want it around 85%. The following equation is how you can determine your working heart rate.
((MHR-RHR)*intesity%)+RHR=Target Heart Rate

Well I think that's enough info for tonight. After I get a chance to play with all the features on my new watch I'll give a full review on it. I'll continue to write posts about training with a heart rate monitor as I learn more about that too. If you know of any good sources for more information (books, web sites, old guy down the street, etc.) I'd love to read about them in the comments.

3 Mile Milestone

2007-05-20T21:42:00.000-05:00

I ran 3 miles tonight for the first time since I ran the 5k that got me back into this whole running thing about 6 weeks ago and it'd been a long time before that (probably not since high school and I graduated in 2000). It's not really that big of a milestone but it something I've been working slowly towards for the last month. I hope that each milestone I reach is as easy to get to as this one was.

We went out to Yanni park and ran an out and back route along the trail there. It was a really nice run. The trail runs along the creek that is out there and it really flat. I'll probably end up doing quite a few of my long runs out there. I took it easy and ran a time of 28.34. I turned around right at 15 minutes so I pushed a little bit harder on the way back, but still keep it pretty slow.

Today's run was the first one of week 5 of my training program. That means that I'm halfway done with it. So far I've only missed one run, and that was during the first week. So I'm pretty happy with myself for sticking with the plan. I'm starting to almost feel like a runner.

Spending Money

2007-05-18T17:54:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't been posting the last few days. I've been installing and setting up Ubuntu Linux on my laptop. I think I got most everything setup how I want it with the exception of a few little bugs.

To follow-up my post about how running is the most cost effective activity I'm going to tell you about all the money that I spent this week. As you know from a previous post I bought two pair of socks Monday for about $16.00. That was just the start of things.

On Tuesday I bought a light so I can see when I run in the middle of the night for $10.00 from Wally World. It's not one of those miner's headlamps (sorry Annie), it clips on the bill of a hat (so it still looks a little goofy). I think it will work pretty good for what I need it for. I have a few different hats, but none that I would want to run in for too long. So on my way home from work on Wednesday I stopped by a couple sporting good stores at the mall, but no one had a technical hat. (Here is a good little article from Runner's World that defines what technical clothing is.) I stopped in Target looking for a couple other things and was surprised to see that they have quite a bit of technical clothing, including hats. So I picked one up for about $13.

As I indicated in a previous post I've been looking for a heart rate monitor. I did a little bit of research and I've chosen the Nike C8. I ordered it today and I should get it Tuesday or Wednesday, there went another $90. I'll definitely be writing more about this later.

But wait there's more!! I complained in the past that I've been borrowing Amy's iPod Shuffle when I want to listen to music on my runs. Well, I won't have to do that too much longer. I ordered a Zen Stone and an arm band to go with it today as well. It will be 6 to 10 business days until I get those. Adding that $60 brings my grand total for the week to right around $190. I'll put up a review of this sometime as well.

Oh yeah, Amy and I paid our entry fees for our next race, the Havelock Charity Run, too, another $28.

So it ended up being a pretty expensive week. But I'm confident in the quality of pretty much everything I bought (except maybe the light from Wal-Mart) and they should last me quite a while. I still have a number of things on my list that I "need" to get, but those will have to wait until I win some more at the poker tables.

As for the running side of things everything has been going good. I'm just doing easy runs this week and my weekly total will be 7 miles after I run 2 miles later tonight.

Best Burn for the Buck

2007-05-15T17:22:00.000-05:00

I just got the June 2007 issue of Money magazine and it has a short article on how many calories different activities burn per dollar. Running comes out way ahead of the other activities by burning 1100 calories per dollar. Second place is In-Line Skating which burns 625. They assume that the only money spent on running is $80 for shoes. You can check out the article on page 23.

The Sun Is Not Your Friend

2007-05-14T22:52:00.000-05:00

Well I had a very nice weekend. I got to spend lots of quality time with family. It turned out that having the concert canceled wasn't all that bad.

I spent all day Saturday at my Grandma's farm helping plant rocks and flowers, chase chickens around and various other little things. I'd planned on getting my run (2 mile fartlek) in out there on the dirt roads. We got out there around 11 so I wanted to wait a while until it cooled off instead of running during the hottest part of the day.

We were pretty much finished with the work we needed to have done by around 6:30. So by the time I figured out where to turnaround for a two mile out and back and got my shoes changed it was about 7. It was by far the worse run that I've had. I probably started out a little too fast because that's what I do. I could hardly run anymore once it was time to turn around, I was completely dead. So from there on I had to throw in walks with the fast (which weren't really fast any more) and slow runs. I ended up with a time of 17.13. Which is a lot better time than it felt like it should have been. Maybe I turned around too soon and didn't actually run the too miles or maybe I started out a ton faster than I thought I did.

I'm pretty sure a couple of things contributed to the bad run. The first one is that I was in the sun all day and got a little burnt. The second one being that I ate breakfast at about 10 and didn't eat anything else until about 10 that night, I stayed pretty hydrated though.

I'm hardly ever in the sun. We don't have any windows at work so I don't get any sunlight that way. Because of my messed up sleep pattern (I'm planning a post about that sometime) I usually end up taking a little nap for a few hours after work and by then the sun is down. Even when I'm up after work I'm not outside because we don't have a yard or anything like that. So Saturday was pretty much the first time I've been in the sun for more than a few minutes since last summer.

Even with my lack of exposer to the sun I didn't think I needed to use sunscreen. I did leave my t-shirt on so I didn't fry my back though, although had I taken it off I would have used sunscreen. After awhile I could tell my neck was starting to burn so I put some on it, but it was too late. My right arm was also getting pretty red. I have no idea why just the right one got burnt, I wasn't in the same place all day or anything like that. Once I started running I could tell that the back of my legs were burnt. But it was okay because it only hurt every time shorts rubbed against them, and that only happened when I took a stride. Even if I wouldn't have been stupid and used sunscreen I never would have thought to put any on the backs of my legs.

As for the not eating all day thing, I do that a lot so I don't think that had nearly as much to do with the bad run at the sun did. My diet is horrible. The fact that I actually ate breakfast that morning is pretty surprising, I do that about three times a year. Since my sleeping is so messed up I usually take a nap at lunch instead of eating too. Then after work I'll snack on some chips or something until I fall asleep for my evening nap. By the time I get up Amy usually already ate something so I'll have a bowl of cereal of a salad and then snack on stuff off and on for the rest of the night until I go to bed (well, fall asleep for the night anyway).

So the moral of the story is wear sunscreen on all parts of your body that are not covered up and eat once in awhile.

We stopped by Lincoln Running Company on our way out of town today. They only had Nike heart rate monitors so I tried one of those one. I really liked how it fit so now I have to add that one to my list of ones to chose from. I picked up a couple pair of socks while I was there too (why does writing about socks make me feel like such a loser?). Ann highly recommend Features! Light, they are a thin sock that's wicks moisture. The most important feature is that they come in my size. So I went with those and they do feel better to run in than my normal ones.

This week is a real easy week to recover a little bit, just 7 miles spread out over 4 runs. I moved Sunday's 1.5 mile run to tonight and ran it on the treadmill so I could watch some of the Spurs game. It's amazing how easy it is to run at the right pace on a treadmill, I hit my 9 minute mile mark perfectly for a final time of 13.30. Since it's just an easy week I probably won't post about my runs much which will give me time to get some other posts I've been planning done.

Mother's Day

2007-05-12T06:24:00.000-05:00

Don't forget that Mother's Day is tomorrow.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

If you don't have anything for your mom yet you could always take a picture with your siblings to give to your mom. Here is a YouTube video of a couple brother's doing just that. (Please note, I have nothing to do with the video I just enjoyed it and thought you would too.)

Why I Run

2007-05-12T01:45:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of different reasons that I run. Every once in awhile I'll post about one of them.

I'm a very laid back person, I just go with the flow. If you graph my emotions throughout a day it would pretty much be a flat line. It's not so much that I hide my emotions as it is that I don't have any to show. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a robot. From time to time I do have emotions and I'm not afraid to show them. When my Grandpa died I cried, when I gave a speech at my wedding I got choked up (some might say I cried). When I found out about that I could go to Ireland with Amy and get school credit for it I was ecstatic. When the trip was postponed a year I was disappointed (I'm not real confident it is ever going to happen, but I am very hopeful). Both times I found out my favorite band, The Doors, were going to play close by I was excited, when both shows were canceled I was disappointed and upset. I rant about things with some regularity but they don't really bother me enough for me to do anything about them. To Amy's dismay it's just that I enjoy ranting.

When I run I feel a lot of different things though. Sometimes I'm excited about an upcoming run, sometimes I dread it. When a race is coming up I get excited and full of anticipation. As I'm running I'll feel pain and have to fight through it. If I do fight through it I feel a certain amount of joy and pride. If I let it get the best of me I get frustrated and/or upset. Of course I have to mention the runner's high that one gets after a race knowing they left it all on the course.

I run so I can feel.

I'm not trying to say the pride of breaking through the wall compares one iota to the joy of finding that special someone and marrying them. Or that the disappointment of giving in when it hurts and walking up that hill or skipping a run is even a fraction of a percent of the pain that comes with losing someone you love. But when I run I do feel something, and that keeps me running.

Why do you run?

Softball and 2.5 miles

2007-05-11T19:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry I didn't post last night my internet connection was down. Last night I had a softball game with a team from Amy's work. I'm not really a big fan of softball, mostly because I'm not any good at a couple minor aspects of the game (catching, throwing and batting). It's fun to just hang out with people though. Our game wasn't scheduled to start until 9:30 but the games before it ran long so we didn't get going until after 10. They had a couple of innings where they scored quite a few runs and the mercy rule came into effect so we didn't play the seven full innings that were scheduled.

We got home a little before 11 and I still needed to run, but I didn't really feel like it. I have a rule for myself that I can't take two days off in a row, so I made myself go out for 2.5 miles at my easy pace of 9 minute miles. It was a beautiful night out, not a cloud in the sky and the stars were bright (I think the moon took the night off though because I couldn't find it and it usually tends to stand out). I decided to mix things up and ran the loop backward. It's a good thing I've ran that route so many times because it was really dark out. I'm going to have to get a headlamp or something so I don't hurt myself. Another thing about running when it's so dark out is that headlights on cars are really bright. There were a couple times when I had to slow down because a car drove by and blinded me a bit. If anyone has any suggestions on how to avoid that from happening I would love to hear them.

I took my splits kind of weird. Since I usually run the course the other way I know where the mile markers are, but I'm not so sure about backward. So I took my splits at the .5, 1.5 and 2.5 mile marks. My splits were 4.29, 9.06 and 8.45 for a grand total of 22.22. So I was right on pace for a change. Despite the fact that it was an easy run it was a tough one to get through. My messed up sleeping schedule had been extremely bad all week so I'm sure that was part of it.

I'm headed to Lincoln this weekend so I'll have to find a couple routes there to run. I have a 2 mile fartlek tomorrow and an easy 1.5 miles on Sunday. I still owe you guys my analysis of the log sites and I promise to get that done sometime.

MyHealthIQ

2007-05-10T02:58:00.000-05:00

They are implementing a wellness program at work. So we had to answer some questions about our lifestyles, have some measurements taken and some blood work done. Based on the measurements and blood work we get a score. If we score better than 71 we get something, they have to figure that part out still.

The measurements they took were all pretty basic, height, weight, neck size, waist size (measured at the belly button) and blood pressure. My measurements were as follows:
Height: 6'5.75"
Weight: 179 (I don't see how that could be right. I weigh myself every morning and my average is right around 170)
Neck: 14.5"
Waist: 33" (would have been really easy to manipulate that one)
Blood Pressure: 116/58

To determine our score they calculate stuff like BMI and body fat percent and do tons of different tests on our blood. For each category they have different ranges and points for each range. Apparently I'm a pretty healthy guy. I was in the minimal risk range for every category except for one, so I got the full points for all of those. The only category I am a moderate risk for is body fat percentage. I lost four points for that so I ended up with a score of 96 out of 100.

My scale tests body fat also, it varies from day to day but it averages about 8%. However according to their tests my body fat is 13%. To fall in the minimal risk category I have to have less than 13%. I was curious to see how they came up with that percentage. In the results they said they use a modified version of the U.S. Navy's circumference-based formula to calculate body fat percentage. I found this online calculator that also Navy's method. I entered my measurements and it only came up with 9%. A couple of my coworkers tired it and it came up with the same percent that they had on their reports. I'm not unhappy with my score or anything like that, I just find it strange that those numbers don't match for me. If I would have guessed where I would lose points body fat would have been very close to the bottom of the list.

I had never had my cholesterol tested or anything like that so it was interesting to see those results. I won't bore you with the details (if you really want to know leave me a note and I'll post them). For the most part I was well below the cutoff for the minimal risk range in every category.

Instead of writing up my analysis of the log sites I spent most the evening trying to figure out which HRM to get. I have it narrowed down to a couple but I think I'll try and find them in a store to get a real feel for what they are like. I did get my data entered on all the sites though. So hopefully I can get that post done tomorrow.

Shopping

2007-05-09T01:13:00.000-05:00

I've been running for a few weeks now and there are a few things I want to buy. So I've been doing some shopping online to try and find what I need.

The first thing I want is an mp3 player. I really enjoy music and I use Amy's iPod shuffle once in awhile but it's hers so I don't have control over it. This is the easy item. I've been doing the research on it for a couple years so I have a pretty good idea what is out there. I'm not a big fan of the iPod. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that it was introduced and revolutionized the music industry. I just think there are other mp3 players out there that are priced about the same but have many more features and less vendor lock in. I'll skip all the boring reasons why and just jump to the good stuff (if you want the boring stuff let me know and I can post about it). I've decided on the iRiver Clix2. The original Clix was pretty successful and the second version has a few improvements that separate it from the pack a bit more. Currently the 4 gig version is the only one that is out but an 8 gig model is supposed to be released in June. I was content with waiting until June for the 8 gig model but due to recent events that I don't care to discuss, the material I have available to put on the Clix has been greatly reduced. So I might have to reconsider just going with the 4 gig version, that would save me $50 too. Another option that I just found about about is a small 1 gig flash player, the Creative Zen Stone. It's price tag is right at only $40. If I decide to wait for the 8 gig Clix I'll probably get one of those. Heck I might even get one anyway.

I haven't worn a watch for quite a few years. But now that I'm running it's pretty much a must have. I've had a Timex Ironman something or other in my car for at least three years so I replaced the battery and have been using it. It isn't quite perfect though. I hit the wrong button a lot when I'm trying to do splits. It doesn't actually make any noise when an alarm goes off, count down timer reaches zero or the stopwatch starts which really defeats the purpose of a couple of those features. The Indiglo light only stays on for a second, and since I ran at night that is a pretty important feature for me. I can get the light to stay on for three seconds every once in a while but it resets to just one usually about the same time I start my runs. I tried taping the light down so I could see it whenever I need to but then none of the other buttons work. I could go on (and on and on) but I to keep things short what I'm trying to say is I hate everything about my watch. So the next thing I'll be shopping for is a new watch. This will be a little harder for me since I'm not quite as familiar with the technology for them as I am with mp3 players. I've been reading a lot about heart rate monitors (HRM) and how they can be used to ensure coefficient training and I've convinced myself I need one of those. Since The Riders on The Storm concert got canceled I'll get my $80 back I paid for those tickets (minus a $4.80 processing fee that Ticketmaster feels it can't refund but I'm not bitter (for future reference, if I ever say I'm not bitter then I really am)), so I'll probably use it for a HRM. I've been trying to find some reviews but I haven't tried too hard and haven't had much luck. From what I have seen though, I'm leaning toward getting a Polar. The basic features I have to have are a back light, stopwatch with splits (probably at least 25), ability to set target zones (either by percent of max or beats per minute), ability to store percent of time in the target zone and max rate. It would be nice if it had a countdown timer, well that is as long as the speaker works. If anyone has any recommendations as to which one to go with I would really appreciate it if you would leave a comment.

I never thought this next item was something I would care much about, let alone actually research on the internet and then write about it. But I'm looking for some socks. All I've ever done when I needed socks in the past was buy the cheapest pack I could find in my size (not always an easy task). I found this sock review on Runner's World (seriously who reviews socks??). Of the ones listed there number 3. The Best Road sock seems like the pair for me, but they want $12 for one pair of socks! That seems insane to me, I usually spend that on 6 pair. I know, I know these ones will keep my feet cool and last for a lot longer, but still. Now my next challenge will be to see if I can find a pair that will fit my size 15 feet. I'll probably head to the Lincoln Running Company when I'm in town next weekend and see if I can find a few pair there that will work. I'd also like to get a couple of technical shirts to keep me cool and dry when I'm running this summer but I can't justify spending the kind of money they want on them right now.

One of the things that got me back into running and something that I've heard many times before is that running is cheap, you just need a good pair of shoes. But if you look at just the few items I "need" above I'm going to end up dropping about $400. Amy is a very frugal person, which is great because that's not so much the case with me. So to avoid fighting over money we each get an allowance that we can do what ever we want with. I also get to spend money I make playing poker however I want. I've been playing pretty good lately so I'll be using that money for this stuff. But if I keep finding more stuff that I "need" to have I'm going to have to play a lot more cards and win a little more often. So if you know of a game let me know.

Repeat 200s

2007-05-08T21:46:00.000-05:00

According to my training plan I was supposed to run one mile fast tonight. I'm kind of bored of doing that so I decided to do some repeat 200s instead. For no real reason I decided to run six of them. I ran a 200 hard, then jogged the next two. I hit stop after the first one instead of the split so I don't have that one time for sure, it was something like 34.6. The rest went 39, 38.8, 37.7, 38.1 and 35.6. So they were pretty consistent, except for the fist one, but I just expect that now. It took me about 80 seconds for each 200 that I jogged.

It felt good to run fast, or at least a lot faster than when I run my miles. I almost said that I miss the 200 repeats that I did in high school. How can I think that!? Every year me, Amy and one of the other guys on the team would get craps in our calves, usually on the same 200 even. I have experienced very few things in my life that have hurt more than those and there is absolutely nothing that could be done about them at the time. When both calves cramp up the only thing you can do is try to get to the grass, fall over and cry. My calves would be sore for days after those workouts. What in the hell possessed me to do 200 repeats tonight?

Tomorrow is a rest day so I think I'll use the elliptical machine for awhile. I've gone through one of the sites and set up all my runs so far. I'll do the same thing at one of the other ones tonight (maybe both) and post about my initial thoughts tomorrow.

Log Site Experiment

2007-05-08T02:37:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks I've been using Gmaps Pedometer to plan my courses. And I've been using a spreadsheet to log all my runs. While reading some other blogs and forums, I came across the following three sites that people said they use:
MapMyRun
RunningAHEAD
Favorite Run

The Gmaps site has worked ok so far, but I've been far from impressed with the interface. So I've decided to setup accounts at all three of the sites about and enter my past runs starting with the Novartis Run (if I can) and keep track of all my future workouts. I'll try do this through my next race so I can make sure I take advantage of all of the features each site has. I'll post about my experiences and what I think of the sites as I go along. At some point I'm hoping that one site separates itself from the pack. At that point I'll probably start using it exclusively. Who knows, if none of the sites impress me maybe I'll just have to write my own that works how I think it should.

If anyone has any other sites they use leave a comment and I'll add those ones to the list.

Lincoln Marathon

2007-05-06T22:53:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to everyone that participated in the Lincoln Marathon this morning!! Here are the results. It's always nice to see former teammates do well and a couple of my high school classmates finished pretty high in the half and the winner of the men's was a just couple years ahead of me. One of my coworkers from the Lincoln office had a pretty nice run as well. Whether they know it or not they inspire me to keep running in the hopes that one day I can put up a decent time as well.

It blows my mind to see the kind of times these people can run. Mike Morgan won the half at a pace of 5.11 per mile. I can't even do one mile in 6 minutes let alone 13.1 of them in a row at any pace. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to try and run the half next year or not. I still have quite awhile before I have to make up my mind though.

My First Fartlek

2007-05-06T21:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry I didn't post yesterday like I said I would, I'm lazy. I did run my first fartlek ever though. Here is a what About.com has to say about fartleks.

"Q. What is a fartlek? A. Fartlek (which means “speedplay” in Swedish) is a speed training method, in which the speed and intensity varies throughout the run at unplanned intervals. For this program, a 2 mi fartlek would be run by starting out at your normal pace and then speeding up and slowing down at random times throughout the 2 miles. For instance, run to the 1st stop sign and then sprint to the 3rd lamp pole, etc."

My run didn't go too good for me though. I think I ran the hard parts too hard because during the second half the slow parts were way too slow (I might have walked a bit). But I feel I learned a little so maybe it will go better next time. My final time was 16.23 for the two miles.

I ran a nice and easy 1.5 miles tonight, just out to the corner and back. I even managed to hold myself back to about the pace I was supposed to. I ran to the corner in 6.48 and then back in 6.35 for a final time of 13.24. Since my easy runs are supposed to be at 9 minute mile pace I was pretty much right on.

In case you were wondering I still don't feel any better about the concert being canceled. I read in the forums that is was canceled for one of two reasons. 1. Not enough ticket sales or 2. Problems getting a permit. I find the second reason very unlikely since it was being put on by a big radio station down there and it was supposed to be their 150th Anniversary concert. Also the concert was supposed to be at the City Market, which is owned by the city. The city gives out the permits, so that would mean they wouldn't give themselves a permit. Anyway I don't really care why it was canceled, I'm just disappointed that it was.

I'm not a happy person right now

2007-05-05T13:27:00.000-05:00

I'm a huge fan of The Doors, I have been since junior high. I saw Robbie Krieger, their guitar player, play at Knickerbockers in Lincoln a few years ago and it was by far the best show I've ever been to. Two of the former members, Ray and Robbie, got back together a few years ago and started touring. They were scheduled to play in Omaha a couple years back but that show got canceled so I was pretty disappointed. Recently they got a new lead singer and started touring again. I check their website pretty frequently to see if they are going to have in shows in the area. A couple months ago they put announced their tour schedule for for the US this year. I was delighted to see a few of shows scheduled in the midwest, Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago.

With the KC show being on a Saturday and the closest one we decided to go to it. As soon as tickets went on sale I ordered a pair for me and Amy. I've been putting off getting a hotel room because of school and stuff but one of my goals for today was to get one. I went to Ray's website again to check out the forums and I found out that the KC show has been CANCELED!! It's too late to get tickets and rearrange our schedules to make it to the St. Louis or Chicago show. So I'm going to miss out on seeing them again. So I'm pretty bummed right now. Maybe I'll feel better after I run today.

The Departed

2007-05-05T01:01:00.000-05:00

Well I took the night off even though I feel pretty good after yesterday's run. Amy and I rented The Departed, got some ice cream and just hung out, it was a good night. I'm not sure what to think of the movie, I must have missed some stuff or something because it just didn't make a lot of sense to me. Oh well, what do you do?

I kind of want to go for a run now, it's really nice out. Most people probably wouldn't think so but I love this type of weather. It's about 65 degrees out and there are thunderstorms. It's not raining too hard though, just enough. I wish we had a porch or something so I could sit outside and just enjoy the rain.

Well, I'm going to do the abs yoga and then go to bed. I'll do my two mile fartlek tomorrow. I'll get one of the other posts I've been planning done as well.

Classes are done!

2007-05-04T00:37:00.000-05:00

I had a great run tonight. According to my schedule I was supposed to run 2 miles tonight. The bike trail near our apartment has a really nice loop that is right at 2.5 miles, so I ran that. The plan doesn't specify the pace but I was planning on running at an easy 9 minute mile pace. But it's hard for me to run slow and I was feeling good. I'm sure the fact that I had just taken my last final of the semester had something to do with that. One mile in I was at 7.39. I thought I stopped my watch instead of just getting the split so I stopped to figure out what I did. Everything was fine except that I wasted about 15 seconds. My split for the 2nd mile was 7.44 so I stayed pretty consistent. So I covered the two miles in 15.23. Really that's pretty good considering that not even two weeks ago I ran a two mile race in 14.53, and the loop is a lot more hilly than those two miles were. I'm sure I could have pushed myself quite a bit harder tonight too. The last half mile was quite a bit slower though, 5.11 for it. Since I wasn't suppose to run that last half mile and quite a bit of it is uphill that doesn't bother me too much. My total time for the 2.5 miles was 20.35.

Tonights run put me over the 50 mile mark on my shoes. So far my shoes have been great and I look forward to putting many more miles on them. It was kind of rainy out tonight and I haven't ran much in the rain with them. After I got done and I was walking back up to the apartment I noticed that the right one was squeaking so I hope that's not a problem.

My last run this week is a 2 mile fartlek. I've never ran one of those before so it should be interesting. I'm not sure if I'll run it tomorrow or Saturday. I guess it depends how I feel in the morning. Since I'm done with classes for the semester I'll have some more time to post. I have a few things that I want to post about so be on the lookout for those.

I'm a wimp

2007-05-03T04:28:00.000-05:00

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'" - Peter Maher, Irish-Canadian Olympian and sub-2:12 marathoner

Well last night I was a wimp. It was a day off but I had planned on using the elliptical machine for 25 minutes or so. I went down to the club house and Amy showed me how to use it, then she used it for a half hour or so. I studied for my history final while watching the Spurs crush the Nuggets to move onto the next round. I finally got around to using the machine and it's a lot harder when you do it right. After like two minutes on the lowest resistance my quads burned like hell. So I decided I've been working out pretty hard lately and today is supposed to be a rest day so I'm just going to take the day off (which is just a nice way of saying I wimped out).

I'm supposed to run 2 miles tomorrow night. Since I have my history final tomorrow night too I'll probably end up doing a midnight run.

Whartons Performance

2007-05-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

Tonight I went down to the track with Amy and ran a mile fast. I was a little bit surprised that she wanted to run tonight. Yesterday she was saying that she thinks she is getting shin splints. They didn't seem to bother her too much tonight so maybe she's fine, something to keep an eye on though.

Like Friday night I was shooting for a 7 minute mile. You'd think I learn, I keep going out way too fast. Here are my quarter mile splits, 1.27, 1.42, 1.50 and 1.34, for a grand total of 6.34. After the first split I held my self back to about where I was supposed to be for the 1000m. Something about being on a track and rounding that last turn though, I couldn't hold myself back any more and I pushed hard for the last 200. I really miss that runner's high I'd get after pushing myself to the limit. Hopefully I can get to a point where I get that high after a road race.

I found this article, A new Training Model, on RunnersWorld.com. It goes through a series of exercises that are intended to build flexibility and strength in order to improve performance and prevent injuries. These are both very important things to me, if I do something I want to be good at it. That's probably the reason I don't do a whole lot, I like to refer to myself as a procrastinating perfectionist (not a good combination). I went through all of the exercises in the article and I enjoyed them. I'll be definitely be looking into The Wharton Performance Plan more.

Tomorrow is an off day so I'll go down to the clubhouse and watch the Spurs finish off the Nuggets. I'll try and talk Amy into heading down with me and showing me how to use the elliptical machine correctly too.

New TV

2007-05-01T22:50:00.000-05:00

I didn't post last night because I had to study for my Operating Systems final today. I didn't study for it, but that's why I didn't post.

I went down to the clubhouse last night to use the Elliptical machine and found out that they put in a new big screen TV. So that's pretty cool. I hardly ever watch TV, I find it more annoying than entertaining. There are a few shows I enjoy mostly sitcoms but none that I adjust my schedule around. I do like to have it on when I'm working out though. I usually try and find some sporting event to watch. This time of year I try and tune into the NBA playoffs. I've been a Spurs fan since I first got into basketball in like third grade. I went down late enough to watch the first half of their game against the Nuggets but I couldn't watch the rest since the clubhouse closes at 11. It's too bad I didn't get to see the end of the game though, the Spurs had a nice comeback to take a 3-1 lead in the series. They'll close it out tomorrow night at home. Hopefully I'll get to see most of that game since at starts at 8.

Last night was the first time I've used an Elliptical machine. I used it for 35 minutes and it was a decent workout. I'm not sure I did it right though. It was nice that there was no impact but I didn't really like it all that much. It doesn't feel natural or something. I'll have to have Amy show me how to actually use it and maybe I'll get used to it over time. I can see how it would be nice to use for cross training.

Running, Stretching and Yoga

2007-04-29T23:28:00.000-05:00

Run 1 of week two of my training schedule is to run 1.5 miles. I really wanted to run more than that, 1.5 miles doesn't seem like enough. But I'm sure that who ever came up with that plan did it for a reason. I really don't want to push myself to hard and get burnt out or hurt myself so I just did what I was told.

I ran down to the corner and back again trying to pace myself at 9 minute miles. I thought I started off at about the right pace and I even slowed down a bit to make sure I wasn't running too fast. I got to the corner (.75 miles) in just 6 minutes. Too fast again, it should have been more like 6.45. On the way there I stopped and gave Amy the key to the apartment because she was on her way back from her run and probably didn't want to wait outside for 15 minutes for me to get back. Anyway, I ran back in 6.45 which was about right the pace, I'll just have to try and remember how that felt for next time. My total time was 12.45, about 45 seconds faster than it should have been. I'll keep working on it though.

Since I'm almost as flexible as a 2x4 I decided I'd work on that a little bit. I found this stretch routine on the Cool Running website. I went though it after I got back and I'm going to try and do it before and after my runs. I also wanted to work my abs a little bit tonight. We have an Abs Yoga with Rodney Yee DVD that I think is pretty good. I got through about half of it before I just couldn't do anymore, it's pretty tough stuff. The DVD title says it is for beginners but I have a very hard time beliving that, but maybe that's just because I'm trying to make myself feel better for not being able to do it.

I also have a problem with some of the poses. I'm a pretty tall guy, about 6'5". A couple of the poses that he shows I can't exactly do. Not because of the whole flexible as a board thing, but because our apartment is just too small. There is no place I can go to be able to extend my legs in front of me most of the time and then once in a while extend them out to the side. We could probably make it work if we got rid of our bed, but I don't think Amy would go for that.

Tomorrow is a rest day so I'll probably try and do some strength building exercises I found and maybe I'll try out the Elliptical thing in the clubhouse for a little while.

1 mile fast

2007-04-28T00:33:00.000-05:00

To make up for the run I missed earlier this week I had to run 1 mile fast tonight. I ran easy for about 5 minutes to warm up then I stretched and ran a few strides. I started my mile way too fast and I paid for it later. I ran down the block a half mile then turned around and ran back. The nice thing about that first half mile is that the last block or two are downhill. I got to the halfway point in 3.01, my plan was to run a 7 to 7.15 mile, see way too fast. The horrible part of the second half mile, after running too fast for the first half it that the first block or two are uphill. I hurt on the way back but I kept pushing and I even found a little something so I could pick it up a bit at toward the end. My finishing time was 6.48. I only ran .97 miles, but that's close enough for me. (Ok fine, it's not but I'll do better next time).

One goal that I have in the long run is to complete the second half of my runs faster than the first half. I think that will help me finish strong when I race. However, I knew that wasn't going to happen tonight, not after going out in 3 minutes. I forgot to grab Amy's iPod before I left but instead of running back up to the apartment to get it I decided to run without it tonight. When I hurt during a run I really miss having the music to push me. This blog helped though, when I was thinking about slowing down I knew I would have to write about that after I got back. I didn't want to let all of my faithful readers down so I kept pushing. (Shhhh, I know that I don't really have any faithful readers, but if I say it out loud maybe I'll actually realize it).

Well I think I'll take tomorrow off and finish this week one run short. Oh yeah, looking at the plan I made for when I am going to do I runs I think I need to revise it. I had planned on running on Tuesdays and Wednesdays then taking Thursday and Friday off, before running again on Saturday and Sunday. That doesn't make any sense so I'll run Tuesday and Thursday, take Friday off then run Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure I'll have to adjust that from week to week depending on what's going on but that's my plan for now.

I finally ran this week

2007-04-26T23:31:00.000-05:00

Well I finally ran again today, it was my first run since Sunday. According to my training plan I missed two runs but I'll make one of them up tomorrow. Let me explain why I missed my runs.

I'm currently working on my BS degree in Computer Science. Since I work full time I'm only taking a couple of classes a semester. This semester has been a pretty tough one for me. My classes aren't bad at all. It's just that I slacked off a tremendous amount this semester. I just couldn't get myself to do my homework when I needed to. I had a paper due for my history class last week but I didn't get it done. I went to Lincoln over the weekend so I didn't work on it then either. So every evening I wouldn't let myself go run until I did a certain amount of work on my paper. And well, I hardly touched it which meant I didn't run. I finally got it done tonight and turned in and I finally got a run in this week.

One of my major goals this summer is to improve myself so I don't have semesters like this in the future. It is really stressful going through school the way that I do. It would be so much easier for me if I would just work on stuff a little bit at a time instead of saving everything until the last minute (or after that) and doing a crappy job on it. I do think running will help me with that.

Well I stuck to the plan and ran an easy 1.5 miles tonight. I found a calculator on RunnersWorld.com that told me what pace to run based on one of my race times. I did a real quick look for the calculator but I didn't find it, I'll post a link to it later. Anyway, the calculator said I should run my easy runs at a 9 minute pace, so for 1.5 miles I should have about 13.30. Most of the training I've done the last few weeks has been on a treadmill so I haven't had to worry about pacing myself. It was a perfect night to run tonight (and the clubhouse closes at 11 so I couldn't have used the treadmill anyway) so I ran on the bike trail outside our apartment. I was pretty worried about pushing myself too hard since I haven't ran for awhile and I like to run hard so I was constantly holding myself back. At the halfway point I was a little fast, 6.15 so I eased up a bit more on the way back and ended up with a time of 13.12. Really I'm a little surprised that I was that close to where I should be because I've never been real good at pacing myself. I'm sure that will come with time though.

Training Plan

2007-04-24T03:17:00.000-05:00

The next race I'm planning on running is the Havelock Charity Run. My brother-in-law gets a team together for this event every year. I couldn't make it last year but I ran a 13.49 in 2005. I'll post later on what charity we'll be running for. Our team will run in the 3k event and I have about 7 weeks until the race.

I'm not sure what I want to focus on right now, running farther or running faster. I want to run a marathon someday but since I've only been running for a few weeks it will probably be a couple years at least before I do that. So I'm leaning toward running faster and getting some of my speed back so I can post times that I'm a little bit proud of. I'm going to set my goal at 13 minutes. That would be cutting off almost a minute per mile from the pace I ran last race. I think it's achievable though because it is a shorter race and I'll have a lot more miles on my legs.

Since I'm not an expert on running or anything remotely close I did what I do best, search the internet. I found a number of different training schedules and I've decided to go with About.com's beginner 5k program. Since it is an 8 week plan and for a 5k not a 3k I'm going to skip week seven. I decided on this plan over others (someday I might post about them) for a couple of different reasons. This program is pretty simple compared to some of the other plans. I like that they have some speed work involved, most of the other plans were just about adding miles. The miles that it suggests I run seem about right to me, especially since I'm training for a 3k.

I'm going to plan on doing Run 1 on Sundays. I'll do Run 2 on either Mondays or Tuesdays, but Tuesdays are more likely. Run 3 will always be on Wednesday and Run 4 on Saturday mornings.

First Post

2007-04-24T02:45:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my blog. I'm going to use this blog mostly as my running journal. Hopefully it will keep me motivated and accountable for my training and my goals.

--- A little about me ---
My name is Brandon. I'm 25 and I live in Kearney, NE with my wonderful wife Amy. We've been out here for a couple of years now. I'm a computer programmer at Cabela's and Amy runs a daycare and teaches preschool for the kids of the staff at a nursing home.

Earlier this year I decided to start running again. I signed up for a 5k and started training. That lasted a couple weeks, then I took the month before the race off but I ran the race anyway. I was hurting a few minutes into it and I stopped and walked many times during it. I ended up running a 29:09 and feeling like a loser. This actually motivated me to run because I did so bad I realized how out of shape I really was. Amy decided to start running after that race too.

We both signed up for a two mile race that was three weeks after my 5k and set somewhat lofty goals. I wanted to break 15 and Amy wanted to break 20. We both ran pretty consistently for the three weeks until the race and it paid off. I ran a 14.53 and Amy ran a 19.55. I'm still a little surprised that I actually made my goal. That run was just this past Saturday so that pretty much takes us to today.