Runs with d6's

Excited to Start Training Again

2011-12-25T22:27:00.001-06:00

Since my last post, I haven't done much (any) training. Instead, I've been staying up late, reading lots of blogs, and taking it easy. On my walks to and from the parking ramp at work, I'll break out into a trot or a run, just to feel where my left heel is at with its repair. How annoying when it is when that familiar ache is still there. I had last stated that I would start swimming more and focus on strength training during this break, and that is still the plan. My biggest challenge in this is having the motivation to go to bed early enough that I get a good night's sleep before attempting to wake up for an early morning workout. I really am a nightowl at heart.

Cut to last night, Christmas Eve, and an early gift-opening for Meghan and I after the kids retired for the night. A brand new copy of "Daniels' Running Forumla", 2nd edition rested in my hands - which I periodically set down to sample the 15 year MacCallan single-malt scotch she also bought me (nummy). I had registered for the book on Amazon at least a year ago and still hadn't bought it myself. Being a scientist by education, a systems/support engineer by trade and a do-it-yourself geek by nature, I wasn't particularly excited about most of the training books out there. The authors tend to expound upon their years of experience, prescribing a "this is how it you should do it" schedule for runners of "Beginner", "Intermediate", and "Experienced" levels. I appreciate the simplistic distillation of all runners into three buckets about as much as I appreciate a bottle of Cutty Sark - i.e. not at all.

Coach Jack Daniels, PhD provides a different approach. Using past (and preferably recent) race performances, he rates runners upon sound scientific principles and capabilities, then prescribes training intensities that match their current capabilities! There aren't three buckets for all runners, rather a gradiation of scale that fits any runner. He emphasizes the importance of time and quality of workout rather than distance, and gives concrete principles for planning a season of training with a target performance date in mind, and the flexibility to change priorities when setbacks occur.

I'm quite impressed and have had a hard time putting the book down, except to plan for my "comeback" this 2012 season. Had I not strained my achilles, I would be out there now. Since I had, however, I've been pining about running and worried about taking so much time off. I know, you've all suggested I just take it easy, but worry is my nature. Daniels has given me a ray of hope, though, or perhaps just blew apart the clouds enough for me to see clearly a plan for the year. I have a week of vacation starting yesterday, and I plan on taking advantage of it to start focusing on not-running for six weeks - a honest-to-goodness core and flexibility plan to address my immediate weaknesses and establish a weekly focus and routine. The "running" I will permit myself is deep-water running, but that's it. The remainder of my work-outs will be focusing on continuing the PT and strength training of my left hip, core strength, and flexibility. I'll get some endurance work from twice or three-times-a-week swimming sessions, one long swim and one interval or tempo. We'll see how that cuts it. (Besides, I need to cut the 8 lbs I've gained since October!)

Winter Shufflin Blues

2011-12-05T22:38:00.001-06:00

Finally made it through my backlog of emails at work! Only took two hours after the boys went to bed. Originally thought I would hack on my own stuff, alas it was not to be. I've been sitting in front of this laptop for most of the evening, first to work on an on-call page, then to dig in to some funky unit testing for an Andriod application I'm writing - yes, this is what I do for fun. Before I got started, I wanted to bring my INBOX count down to 50 emails, if at all possible. If I can't quickly browse through that venerable folder and get a quick understand of my outstanding issues, I start to feel swamped and overwhelmed. It's been above 50 for a couple weeks now. Today was no exception; over 250. Most of the emails were either things I couldn't take care of immediately, were simply Cc's of other conversations, or things already resolved.

I'm down to 70 emails now, and I'm calling it quits for the night. Lisa Loeb is telling me to "Stay" (I loved her in the 90's). I could so easily continue working, since the well never runs dry. I'm not going to listen! No. Count Basie will be giving me the "Roseland Shuffle" instead!

Speaking of shuffling, I've been doing a bit of that lately as well. Running has been painful due to over-stretching my left Achilles tendon in an unfortunate downward facing dog pose following a 3 mile barefoot run. I didn't notice the problem until later that day, but it has plagued me since. Two weeks out, and I'm wondering how the heck I'm supposed to run a 50 miler next Fall if I can't even get out for a 3 mile jaunt. ARG! I've managed to get to the pool for a couple of 1200m swims. Mainly SKPs, but I think a 2-a-week schedule will help keep my conditioning up, especially as winter progresses.

And then there's the snow! Snow! Maybe my bum heel will allow me a bit of cross-country skiing? Perhaps! Time to check in to SkinnySki!

Discipline and Balance

2011-10-04T00:07:00.001-05:00

Tonight was the first night in weeks that I've chanted. I don't feel guilty about it, since chanting and Buddhism are tools I use to reboot my brain. I'm benefitting from the practice, but only slightly, which is to say I have need for some general system maintenance. Lately, I've been focused on family and running. My recent dedication to a runstreak has given me some much needed discipline, by removing the excuses and giving me a single path: forward.

I realized something from this approach, though perhaps not directy. Meghan recently received a record player from her mother, a cool looking thing. It is designed to look like an antique radio, though on the inside, it has a 33 speed phonograph, cassette player, and built-in radio. With no real dedicate place for it, my butsudan -- the alter I made to hold my Dai-Gohonzon -- was bumped over to the right so they should share space on the chef's rack in the dining room. When chanting tonight, it made me feel distinctly unbalaned.

Unbalanced, like my training, like my life. I need some more time to process this new tack. I know how to fix the unbalanced feeling when I chant -- find a new home for either my butsudan or Meghan's record player. I've got some ideas on how to bring balance back to everything else I do, but it'll be a challenge in time management. Discipline may be the key factor in moving forward. We shall see.

Fall Reflections

2011-10-02T14:00:00.001-05:00

Tablets and Computers
So many things to do around the house and in life; just need to take it one day at a time, one task at a time. Right now, I'm staring at a potential two or three hours backing up hosts and upgrading a workstation and server in my basement "server room" (which is really a table with a couple computers, a printer, and a really old monitor). I love having AndriodVNC, Xvnc Server, and XDMCP/X11 to get a remote desktop on my tablet. Seems to work pretty well, though I would appreciate a working CTRL key from the keyboard to my remote session. The same goes for ConnectBot, which has yet to incorporate the more traditional user interface. For the most part, I think the Andriod 3.0 on the Asus Eee Transformer TF101 Tablet is pretty solid.

Yesterday was a bit of a lazy day... Wait, no it wasn't! Yesterday morning, I sat on my work laptop monitoring and managing GovDelivery's digest email process. We're growing fast and upgrading clients from our older infrastructure to the newer one, and as a result, we're finding quirks with the environment, database, and software. It's nothing we can't manage, though. Tor, my boss, and Jesse, my coworker, both put in extra time this weekend, as well as our DBA Joe, developers Billy and Jim, and Systems Engineer Ben. We have a pretty solid team, and they're able to pull together some effective solutions when we need them most. I'm really feeling that this team has gelled together well in the last few weeks.

An Afternoon Break
...was in order, and Meghan's sister had a great idea in bringing the families to the Sever's Corn Maze, which sits right next to the Canterbury Downs race track and casino. Meghan wasn't feeling well, so I took the boys down to meet Katie, Izac, and Maizie. We arrived around 16:30 and had until 18:00 to run around and explore. The entrance fee wasn't cheap, so if you plan on taking your family down, give yourselves more than 90 minutes, and remember to bring cash if you want to feed the animals, fling pumpkins ($2/3 pumpkins), shoot corn ($2/3 ears), ride the ponies ($5/person), or ride the Super Slide ($2 a pop). Food wasn't necessarily cheap either, about what you would expect at a tourist attraction. When asked what their favorite part of the day was, both answered emphatically, "Feeding the parakeets!" I think the corn pit was a close second, though.

Running, of Course!
After getting the boys fed, cleaned up, and in bed, I changed into my running gear and headed out for a quick run. I'm starting to enjoy my runs again. With this runstreak, things have gotten a bit monotonous. I can only run the same 1.2 and 3.2 mile loops in my neighborhood before I start to get bored. I tried mixing it up last week with a run out at Battle Creek Park just east of the River and south of I94 on Highway 61. I was in no hurry and didn't sweat the details, just enjoyed exploring the park for a couple of hours. Battle Creek has some challenging hills, though nothing terribly long or tall. You get some of the feel that you might have on the Superior Hiking Trail, so this will be a good place to throw in some hill repeats over trees and roots. I only saw a few mountain bikers on the trail, and ran into a group of young adventurers looking for caves. There was one young pre-teen out on the trails all by himself. He was wearing a helmet and backpack, and seemed to be enjoying himself, but I couldn't help but wonder where his parents were. Where was his riding partner? If this had been my son, he would had a serious one to one about safety. There are too many creepy people out there to leave your childrens' future to chance. In any case, I cranked out a 2.44 mile run in a little over 18 minutes, showered up, and turned back to the computer and work.

Back to Work
I spent the night on cleaning up and improving a Perl script hack to purge out queue directories we use to send transactional messages for digest users. We had come up with a useable quick solution late Thursday night, but when scheduling it through cron, I found it taking far too long. I also wanted to make it a "real" script in that it needed a "--help", "--verbose", and "--no-act" options, as well as a way to effectively parse input from STDIN. I like xargs, but if you can avoid the forking cost when examining thousands of files, it's bound to speed up dramatically. I also found a simple way of cutting the run time by a large factor; I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Dr. Who, Torchwood, and Entertainment
Meghan and I watched the season finale of Dr. Who as I was hacking in Perl; it was awesome! I will give no spoilers, but I have to say that I'm continually impressed by the quality of acting, the solid story telling, and the engaging format of the series. I can sit down to any of the Dr. Who episodes and watch it as if I had never seen the series before, and fully enjoy myself. Unlike the new Torchwood: Miracle Day, I don't need to invest eight or more weeks into following it. Meghan and I both agree that the change in format is not as enjoyable as the solid one hour episodes with the threads of relationship between previous and following episodes that BBC favors. The American produces seem to think that the only way to gain a following is to make a huge production out of things, make it into a miniseries. I hate miniseries! I'll be happy when this whole T:MD thing is finished. I don't know what I would do without having my DVR, though. I just don't have enough interest in television these days to stay pinned to the couch at the big Network approved viewing times. Yay, technology!

Right now, I'm trying to rub out some dried hot peppers out of my eyes! Yeouch! I'm making some home-made, from scratch chili using dried chilis and a five pound top round roast that needed to be cooked. It is really starting to smell wonderful, but it has another couple hours to cook in the oven. The stovetop burner is a bit too hot, even on the lowest setting. I could pull out the slow cooker, which might be a bit more energy efficient than the stove at this point, but I don't want to clean yet another set of dishes. It'll turn out, and paired with some home-made corn bread, I trust everyone will be satisfied. My parents are coming down for a visit, and Meghan is busy shopping. The boys are playing Wii and DS, and the sun is traveling quickly across the sky. Sooner than I would like, our weekend will be over.

I suppose its time to scrounge together some sort of lunch. Mac-n-cheese, maybe.

Is he "Just a geek"? Yes, ideed.

2011-09-18T13:54:00.001-05:00

This isn't going to be an indepth book review, rather a quick recommendation to my fellow geek friends out there to check out "Just a geek", an autobiographical piece by Wil Wheaton. If you're not familiar with Mr. Wheaton, well then you've been living under a rock for the last twenty or so years, and I feel sorry for you. Wil most famously starred in Stand By Me and in Star Trek: The Next Generation as adolecent genius Wesley Crusher. Oh, poor Crusher. Such a loved and hated character of the series, and Wil, such a tormented soul about it. If you've been paying attention lately, Wil has become quite popular again, appearing in Iternet sensations such as The Guild, as Evil Wil on Big Bang Theory, and most recently as has been on Eureka. Things are definitely looking up for this geeky actor, though it has been a rocky journey.

There are people out there who are unfamiliar with his body of work, including the author of the Foreward to Just a geek, Neil Gaimon. Neil is the author of the Sandman series of graphic novels, Good Omens, a recent Dr. Who episode, and the claymation movie adaption of his children's novel Coraline. He even recently had a celebrity spot in a season 5 episode of The Guild. (And no, I did not have to look any of that up on the interwebz. I happen to be a fan.) He had never met Wil before, but enjoyed this book enough to introduce Wil's self-relized rediscovery.

The question remains, "Is he really a geek?" I can say, with the authority of being a geek myself, most certainly, "Yes! Wil is a geek!" It has taken me too long to figure that out myself. Wil earned his geek bars early on in his career when he opened his first website, eventually migrating to a blog platform. He has been sharing his undistilled self on the internet for over ten years now, to the benefit of his fans and netziens alike. Just a geek is a selection of his posts from Wil Wheaton dot Net and includes details that fill in the gaps, building a cohesive progression of his life. Even if you aren't familiar with Wil's previous body of work, I have no doubt that you would quickly become a fan based on that website alone.

I don't do many book reviews, but this one is definitely worth a read. You can also find Wil on Twitter as @wilw and G+ as himself (of course, who else can you be on G+ these days?).

Enjoy!

Race Report: 2011 Moose Mountain Marathon

2011-09-15T23:30:00.000-05:00

The Morning Before and Trip Up
Friday morning started out beautifully. It was my youngest son Ryan's first day of school, and at four years of age, he was certainly ready to venture out of the house and into the world of education. Smart little bugger, and cute as a button, he was excited to go. Connor was to have a short day at school, just two hours, but I didn't want him to miss his first week of first grade. That time is so crucial for children to get acquainted with their peers, and besides, a couple hours without children in the house would make packing easier. O.K. That's not really true. I was willing to take both of my boys out of school and head up a day early, but Meghan would have nothing of it! As a teacher, she couldn't fathom having her own child miss his first day of school! I went with it.

The alarm clock buzzed eight o'clock, and I quickly put on my running gear to take care of my runstreak obligations. The loop around the neighborhood was a standard 1.2 miles, and I finished it on a easy lope. Meghan wasn't feeling very well, but she loaded Ryan into the van and took him to school. After a quick shower and breakfast, I loaded Connor into the car and dropped him off, stopping in the office to let them know I would be picking him up early. I had a quick errand to run: pick up some Gu at a local running store. Since I was so close to Grand Avenue, I drove over to the Running Room, only to be shut down by the time of day. They weren't yet open, and I couldn't wait around while good packing time was to be had.

At home, Meghan wasn't feeling well at all, and packing her things and the kids' things was taking longer than she hoped. I told her to take her time as I gathered the things I needed for the trip. We had planned on packing up the van by 11:20, picking up Connor at 11:30, picking up Ryan at 12:15, and heading directly north from there. Time just wasn't on our side, and Meghan needed time to recover and pack. I decided to pick up both boys, then return home to see how she was doing. When we did swing back around to the house, she was still feeling poorly but well enough to go. Off to Tofte!

Connor, contemplating what to eat.

Ryan loves his chocolate milk

Seafood and pasta! Nom, nom, nom.

The drive up was relaxing, though slow due to the seemingly constant construction along I35. We may have made one stop on our way to Duluth, and stopped for dinner at Black Woods Bar and Grill on London Road some time around 16:30. The place was deserted except for the retirement crowd, as Meghan pointed out. The food was delicious, and the portions were more than generous. Meghan and I split a chocolate cake that was the size of a small dinner plate. It was so rich that the only thing saving our pallets was the ice cream scoop I ordered.

Monster chocolate cake

We got back on the road after letting Peter, our Boston Terrier, out for a break and after I grabbed a quick stretch on the Yoga mat, tending my aching hip and knee. I was a bit worried that if I didn't take care of it now, I wouldn't do well in the race at all. The way up was barred with more construction, of course. I wouldn't be making it for packet pickup or debriefing, and wasn't going to have time to visit any aid stations to see if I could catch Adam Schwartz-Lowe or Brian Woods.

We arrived at Chalet LeVeaux right around 19:00. The sun was setting, and we were all anxious to get out of the van. It was a cozy little den of an apartment, with a bedroom, living room, kitchen and private bath. At $433 for two nights, it wasn't terribly expensive - better than the published rates for Caribou Lodge (though I know hear there was a discount for runners that may have made the comparison more favorable). The one element that Caribou did not have that I absolutely loved was the Lakeside view and walkout patio. The groomed lawn sported clean lawn furniture and a fire pit and an amazing view of Lake Superior. Peter enjoyed exploring his new digs, and the boys were excited about the idea of sleeping on the pullout! I could have gone cheaper, perhaps even much so, but I wanted Meghan and the kids to have fun while I was off running.

I was still trying to think of a way to get the van back to the Chalet in the morning, since there was no shuttle service, and when I asked about taxis, the hotel staff looked at me as if I were daft. Oh well. I would have to wing it. I figured that my worst and only time for a marathon run was 5:45 at Grandma's last year due to a bum knee and ITBS. I felt I was in much better shapen now, and I had a good chance of meeting or beating that time, even if this was the most grueling course on the planet. I jotted down on a piece of paper, "1:00 to 2:00 PM finish". I promised Meghan that I would text and Tweet as much as I could on the course, so Meghan would have some idea about when and where I was, but I couldn't guarantee coverage.

Sleep was fleeting throughout the night. The boys wouldn't stop talking to each other, so we split them up. Connor was a heavy sleeper, so he joined me in the bed, while Meghan slept on the pull-out with Ryan (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Meghan!). Even with a quiet apartment, I tossed and turned. When I did finally sleep, I woke up multiple times throughout the night, ready to get up and run, only to find that I was 4, 3, and 2 hours away from when I needed to wake up. Finally, at 5:30, I said enough was enough and got ready.

Volunteer at the finish line - whom I should have remembered her name!

Race Day
Caribou Lodge was only minutes away, and I was soon strolling over to the finish line. John (I don't know his last name) was there with a woman volunteer that looked like she knew her way around the course (I didn't catch her name - I'm horrible at such things). I was told that the check-in and packet pickup had moved to the starting line instead. That made since, since everyone had to check in anyway for safety reasons. Also at the starting line was a woman I had met at Zumbro 2010. She had been running constantly since, even doig solo trail runs south from Canada on the Superior Hiking Trail. Her experience would pay off later. (If only I can remember her name... Seriously, am I daft?)

Another runner, trying to check in.

Hello, woman whose name I continue to forget.

There were rumors that John Horns was on a pace to set a course record, that Adam was in third place about two hours back. I waited at the finish, but when there was no John by 06:30, I went off to find a warm place to hole up and wait for the bus driver. It was seriously chilly out there in just my warm-up jacket. I had a plan to get the van back to Chalet LeVeaux, convinced the bus driver to stop at the Chalet so I could drop off the van then hop on board. She was receptive, but hesitant, stating that she didn't really know where she was going and didn't want to get off the main track. I was stoked, but after a few moments sitting in my van mulling it over, I felt that I would be taking advantage of her volunteer service. I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable nor set a precident for other runners to make the same request next year. I parked the van and reboarded the bus, letting her know not to worry about it.

Cramer Road - The Start!
There was an advantage to being on the bus, it gave you an opportunity to chat with some of the other runners before hitting the trail. I talked with two other runners, both from the Cities area, on the way down. Everyone was in high spirits, and one runner stated he planned on finishing in four hours! That was quite a goal, but who knows, maybe he could pull it off. The check-in line at Cramer Road gave me an opportunity to chat a little with Dusty Olson (though I wasn't entirely confident it was him). I also talked to a father and son pair, the father more talkative, while the son quietly smiled and acknowledged facts. I also ran into Steve (last name), whom I had run with in the Spring 25k. We quickly agreed to pace each other and made our way to the road. There, I bumped in to Greg and Curtis, fellow DailyMile'ers. Everyone was excited to get started!

Greg and Curtis from DailyMile.com!

Joe!

I have one more person that I absolutely have to include in this recollection, Joe Weise from Ely. I met him this Spring at the 25K run both before and after the race. His enthusiasm is infectious and he's always smiling. We talked about minimalistic running and shoe strategies before the race started, and I swear he's lost weight since April. You're looking good Joe!

And... Go!
Race director John Storkamp gave us the quick and dirty explanation of the trail, the flags, and the reason for registering everyone that morning: safety. The start was an entirely uneventful, "Ok. Go." Runners laughed and started to follow Larry Pederson in his truck for a short drive up the road and a loop back on to the single-track trail. It gave the 150 runners a chance to spread out before entering the single-track trail. Steve and I found an easy pace in the middle of the pack, and getting on to the trail was pretty smooth. Trail conversation began, as we all started to joke with each other. Seven tenths of a mile later, we passed the aid station with cheers and smiling faces. It was so cool to be back on the trail.

John gives us the quick and dirty...

The first section was a hefty 7.8 miles that had some really gnarly roots and rocks to deal with, and a few peaks to climb. The dangers of a trail run aren't always at your feet, sometimes they're at your head. We had almost finished the first leg of the race, approaching the Temperance aid station. I was looking down at my feet and getting ready to jump over a branch, when I looked and noticed that my face was headed straight for an eight inch diameter tree stump! At the last second, I jerked my head to the left and avoided the collision! I was too stunned to say anything, and Steve also barely missed the hazard. We laughed it off and yelled, "Tree!", but I think we were both shaken up a bit. At Temperance Aid Station, we began stocking up when A few minutes later, a tall runner walked in sporting a gash on his head and a large blood stain drippping down into his eye! Ouch!

Steve and I didn't spend a lot of time at the aid station and were a little confused about which direction to go. Some kind folks pointed out the trail entrance, and we were on our way. We caught up with a young runner by the name of Nat out of the Cities area. We talked about brewing, running, and making your own energy gels. Anything to pass the time, really. We passed a couple of 100 mile marathoners on the way down the Temperance River, and Nat stopped to talk. He would later catch up and pass me as if I were standing still.

At some point after getting much of the way back up Temperance, I took a walking break to consume a gel, take a salt tablet, and text to Meghan and Twitter. Steve continued on ahead, and I focused on my phone. "At 10 miles in 2 he's.[sic] Carlton peak in 2 miles. #straces" I had meant to say "2 hrs", but I autocorrect thought I was misspelling it. There was no signal out on the trail, but I thought I might get luck on a peak or two and send out the messages. At worst, they would all send when I made it back to a radio tower near the road.

I knew Carlton was going to be tough, but I had little understanding as to how slow it would be to hike to the top! Wow! The following two pictures were taken from the same point, one facing up and one facing down.

Carlton Peak, looking up.

Same spot, looking down.

On my way up, I had passed a woman runner, but as I crested the peak, she shot on by looking strong. She had run the 50k Spring race and indicated that this was the point in which they turned back around and headed north back to Lutsen. The rest of the trail was familiar to her, and she gave me some pointers and insight as to what to expect. It was a huge sense of relief to me to know that most of the way to Sawbill-Britton would be downhill. I needed the break. I tried to let my hips open up and carry me down the hill, but there were so many roots, it was hard to keep up the pace.

I met up with Steve at Sawbill-Britton Aid Station, though he had arrived some five minutes ahead of me. We ate oranges, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, banannas and snacks. We filled up on water, and when Steve headed back out on the trail, I turned back to my phone to text again: "At Brighton[sic] peak aid station. Halfway there. 11:00. Beautiful out. 3 hours left or more. #straces". I was still in pretty good spirits at this point and started out in a trot.

As with any race, you chat with your fellow runners, and it was here that I learned that this was the "easier" stretch of the race. I understood soon how relative that adjective was. Tired, sore, starting to cramp up I hit my emotional low-points of the race. There were no easy stretches on this track of roots and rocks, ups and downs. Tiny little pains in my knee and hip were constant reminders that the old injury could flare up at any minute. Knowing this, I reflected upon the goals I had set for myself this year. I had completed two trail 25Ks, an 8K PR, a 2 mile PR during a triathlon in the Spring, finished in a respectable time in my first "real" triathlon, ran Ragnar Relay with my friends, and was here in the middle of the most challenging run of my life. It had been a hell of a season. Yes, I could live with myself. I would try to continue if I could, but I would feel no guilt if I had to drop out. That fearful, familiar ache never materialized, just the consistent, entire body fatigue and muscle soreness.

Oberg Mountain and a Great Motivator
When I arrived at Oberg Mountain, I didn't immediatly seek ou the race director to drop, rather walked over to the table and started to restock. This is how I remember the conversation going, but know I'm paraphrasing at best. Brian Peterson of the TC Running Room team was manning the station and asked, "Do you need anything?"

"Sure, some water. What's your name?"

"Brian Peterson. How are you feeling?"

"Tired enough to think about dropping." I smiled. Smiled?

"You're not dropping yet."

"No?"

"No. You're looking strong." He said a few more entirely encouraging and simply delivered pieces of sage advise while another volunteer was restocking my water. I just remember my answers to questions weren't entirely quick. I was somewhere in my head, thinking about dropping. Brian helped another racer, and I drank some water. I crouched to the ground on my toes and hung my head down to rest a moment. Why didn't I sit? I could, but I didn't want to.

"Hey, can I get you anything?" someone asked again.

"Um...
"Here, why don't you stand up. Come on."

"No sitting, huh?"

"Nope. Not yet. Can I get you anything?"

"Ginger Ale, I think."

He handed me the pop and offered to walk me out of the aid station. He encouraged me and reminded me that there was only seven miles left. "Hike the hills and run the flats. Everyone is hiking today." he said.

"What's your name again?" I was determined to remember his.

"Brian."

"Thanks, Brian."

I knew he was right about hiking, but I also knew what was coming: not one, but two of the biggest mountains of the run. At the time, I thought one was called Magic Mountain and the second was Moose Mountain. I later learned that it was Moose Mountain and Mystery Mountain. Regardless, I had no doubt it would take me at least two hours to finish the last leg. I texted: "Brian at Oberg. thanks for the motivation. leaving at 12:40 #straces 7.1 miles left."

The climb began immediately, and I also immediately took a wrong turn, heading up to the peak of Oberg Mountain! About a quarter mile up, a group of hikers stated, "You're going the wrong way!" I started to make my way down and stopped another runner from making the same mistake. We trotted back down the hill and turned to the left. We would trade turns passing each other for the next couple of miles. She would pass me on the uphills, and I would pass her on the downhills. My thighs were burning horribly and starting to cramp, so I shifted to using my hip flexors in a pseudo stiff-legged walk. It helped reserve my strength and avoid any real charlie horses. On the flats and downhills, I focused on ChiRunning methods, pointing my knees down, picking up my heels, and swiveling at the hips. "Cotton and Steel." I managed to actually run much more than I thought possible at this point.

I spent some more time thinking about my long term goals. I often say that I want to complete a 100 mile marathon by the time I'm 40, inspired by my friends Adam Schwartz-Lowe and Brian Woods, both of which were running Sawtooth at that very moment (Adam had completed by then, actually). If 24+ hours of running is truly my goal, I needed to learn to cope with being on my feet even when I don't want to be. I had given myself permission to drop, and ironically it made it easier to keep going. I wasn't worried about whether or not I would finish, since I was already past the point of no return. I wanted to run a 100, so damnit I would finish a mere 26.2 if I had to crawl there.

But there was no crawling involved. In fact, I continued to hike and run, hike and run. When I finally crested Mystery Mountain, my spirits soared. I didn't truly believe that there were no more uphills, but the downhill continued to carry me ever closer. I walked a few of the flats, catching my breath between the downhill runs. Then it happened; I heard the roaring of the Poplar River! What a sound! Wahoo!

I crossed the bridge with a big grin and noticed a runner on the other side taking a breather. I asked him how he was doing, and he confided in me that he was having problems with charlie horses. "Half a kilometer! We can do this!" I said, pointing to the sign and giving him a fist bump. Bob was from Minneapolis area and was running his longest trail run to date. He was 27 years old, and had spent the last eight years of his life in the military, returning from Iraq a year ago. He was strong and determined, and I heard no more about his legs. We set ourselves on an easy run and enjoyed the rest of the flat run.

This was the stretch that Jason helped me most on in the Spring, and somehow I had found someone else who was just as determined to "finish it how i started". I admire people with such drive. As we approached the finish line, he had family and friends cheering him on. The ruts in the road made it easier to treat it like a single track, and I dropped a little behind, but he waited for me. It was obvious that he wanted to finish together, but I pushed him forward. "Go, go, go. You go first!" Everyone was cheering, and I thought with a smile, "You deserve it."

When I did pass the finish line a second later, Larry Pedersen handed me my finishing token, a biased cut branch with the Moose Mountain Marathon logo burned on the surface, and congratulated me. I felt honored to be awarded by someone who has given so much to the sport. I saw Adam sitting at bench right at the finish, and he cheered me on, inviting me to sit down. On my way over, I started to have a slight asthma attack, which puzzled me. I had no allergy problems the entire run, and now that I had finished, I was having a hard time breathing? I went over to a wall and stretched my arms up to pull open my diaphragm. I made my way to the picinic table where Amy and Adam sat, vowing not to lie down. The last two races where I did, I cramped up so badly I couldn't move. Adam encouraged me to drink a lot of fluids and pointed out the lemonade. It was cold, sour, sweet, and oh so freaking good. I drank four pints in short order. I hadn't paid close attention to when I finished, and Adam informed me "about 6:45". I'm going with it. I sat there and talked shop with a couple of other runners, who had lots of questions for Adam. He quietly answered them with humble grace.

When I walked over to the conference room to pick up my sandwhich, I walked past Dusty Olson (again, who I hadn't been confident was actually Dusty, but didn't ask his name to confirm) and asked him if he finished. "Hell yeah!" he replied. "Nice!" I replied and high-5'ed him. I wasn't until later that I learned he had finished the marathon course in 3:40! No kidding, "Hell yeah"?! I'm constantly impressed by trail runners. Dusty was so easy to talk to. You can tell he just loves the sport and the people in it.

About 30 minutes into my recovery, I really wanted to get back to my famiy at Chalet LeVeaux and share news of the finish! Getting in the van was a little challenge, but I didn't cramp up too badly. Meghan congratulated me and noticed that my lips were purple, PURPLE! What the heck? After a quick shower, I grabbed a beer and went to the pool room with the boys to relax in the whirlpool. The warm water was so nice on my aching legs. Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at Moguls Bar and Grill back up at Caribou Lodge where I had a "husband fail" for not introducing Meghan to Adam. He walked by in the restaurant, and I called him over. We chatted a bit, and he headed over to the table with his wife and friends. DOH! I thought they had known each other already, since I've known Adam for many years now. Oops.

I would like to close with a congratulations and salutation to the other runners, volunteers, and race director... Special thanks to Brian Peterson at the Oberg Aid Station. He knew just the right things to say and in the right way. You were awesome, Brian. Brilliant, even. I also want to thank family for putting up with my insane hobby.

I'll be back, Superior Hiking Trail, and next time I'll be running the 50!

Thirty Days of Running, Hacking, and Other Things

2011-09-04T20:55:00.001-05:00

Good evening, everyone! It is now 20:42 on Sunday night, the 4th of September, 2011 and a gorgeous one at that. Fall is finally here! Sweatshirt weather is just around the corner, and what I consider the most comfortable season to be outside. Summer can be fun, but the muggy heat in Minnesota can be a bit too much to handle. An air conditioned house or a day on the beach are the only option for respite worthy of mention. It doesn't stop runners, though, despite the sweat inducing humidity. Our runs migrate from mid-afternoon to early morning, which mine most certainly did.

I think the most important factor to this shift in schedule was priority and time. I had finally made running itself a priority, and had given it the attention it deserved. If I waited until mid-afternoon, I wasn't guaranteed the time off from work. Production issues, high priority demands, time-dependent reports -- all quite necessary and important -- simply edged out any free time I might like to use. I could never "get out early" enough to fit a workout in before heading home, even if I did show up at 07:00 in the morning. There was always something more important.

Evenings were for family, for cooking and playing the Wii (or at least sitting on the couch) with my boys. This is always followed up with my fatherly duties of putting the children to bed, which I tend to drag out. With no other distractions, I get to play with Connor and Ryan a bit. I don't ever want to give up that time.

Late evening quickly approaches, with time going to cleaning the kitchen and finally settling down for private time. The last thing I want to do is head out for a run. Night running can be relaxing, but I'm usually already tired. So, the morning run has been getting a lot more attention lately, and I think the shift is a good one. Until the temperature dips down into the single digits, I'll probably stick with it.

After thirty days (thirty one now - 9/5), I have to say that I'm definitely enjoying this runstreaking! I love seeing that weekly bargraph on Dailymile.com fully populated. I've experienced some sore arches along the way, and my left tensor facia latae and illotibial band have made their discomfort known. With yoga and 'off' days of a single mile, I've been able to keep injury at bay.

I'm pretty excited about this upcoming weekend, where I'll be taking on the Moose Mountain Marathon. 26.2 miles along the Superior Hiking Trail, some of the gnarliest elevation changes and tree roots around. I'm stoked! My New Balance MT101's are itching to get back out on the trail for some serious work! Wish me luck!

Runstreaking!

2011-08-15T23:40:00.001-05:00

runstreak - n. A number of consecutive days, typically 365 days, in which an athlete runs at least one mile each day.
I've been racking my brain for a way to stay motivated and consistent with training, and although signing up for races has its own inherent value for forcing a schedule, it doesn't seem enough to get me out there with reliability. For the last 316 days, I've been following an author and runner by the name of Tim Cigelske, otherwise known as The Beer Runner blogger for Draft Magazine, during his pursuit of this seemingly intangible goal. A couple of months ago, Tim issued a challenge on bolder.com. If 30 people accepted the challenge to run for five days consecutively, he would run a Beer Mile.
Beer Mile - n. Run a total of one mile as quickly as you can, stopping every quarter of a mile to drink a serving of beer. (Presumeably after having a few beers already. Why else would you volunteer to do such a thing?)
Tim's challenge was accepted by over 60 people, and he obligingly ran an astoundingly successful, and I'm sure eventful Beer Mile. I hadn't given it much thought other than a passing fancy, could I run 365 days? With much of July having slipped away without any real improvement in my base mileage, and a relatively good but not stellar showing at the inaugral Graniteman Triathlon Big Lake (sprint distance), I felt I needed something concrete, something tangible to help drive me forward.
It wasn't until the day after the triathlon that the plan formed. I knew I needed to do something to prepare me for Moose Mountain Marathon on September 10th, something that would get me out the door every day, regardless of how I felt.. I need to strengthen this weak and tense tensor faciae latae into something I can rely upon for 26.2 miles of hilly, rocky, and rooted trails.
That night, while browsing my Twitter feed, I saw that people were still taking Tim up on his challenge, long after he completed his Beer Mile. I thought, simply enough, 'Why the hell not?" I had just completed a seven mile run that afternoon, so technically I was already two days into my runstreak. From that day forward, it was no longer a question of if I run, rather how far do I go? Even that answer is easy: at least one mile.

What to eat? A Food Recipe Challenge!

2011-07-09T23:22:00.001-05:00

In his recent blog post titled, "Learn from Success, Not Failure", author and runner Matthew Patten wrote about a recent conversation he had with someone unsuccessful in their own diet giving him advice on his. Whereas he focused the article on the nature of relationships and where to seek advise base on success or failure in a given subject matter, I couldn't shake the topic of his introductory discussion: diet.

I've been reading up and focusing on diets, the number and variety, over the last week or so. In part for my own edification, but also to understand what my wife is going through. The theories and strategies people employ are innumerable, confusing, contradictory, and even fanatical. What I assume is "unhealthy" is "scientifically proven" to not only be healthy, but is the way everyone should eat. Atkins, Paleo, Archevore (Paleo 2.0), South Beach, or something else? The Hacker's Diet? What should Meghan be following?

Perhaps the quotes around "scientifically proven" is a bit unfair, since food and diet is probably one of the largest and most prolific bodies of work in the science field. What I generally have an issue with is how people use and interpret this information, which is often done to push a specific viewpoint or opinion. With the advent of the internet, information is more readily available to the common person than any other time in history. How does one approach such a vast set of knowledge and opinion? How can the gems of objectivity be separated from cruft of subjective opinion?

To frame the discussion, I want to start out with a simple, commonly understood formula regarding weight change:

pounds in weight change = (Calories in - Calories out)/3500

Food Calories are actually kilogram calories (or 1000 calories per gram), but in the interest of brevity, the food industry has chosen to drop the appropriate prefix of kilo. Maybe it sounded too metric for the American public. The number 3500 is the estimated number of Calories per pound of human fat. Calories in are the result of consumption, and Calories out are the result of those burned simply living (eating, sleeping, sitting on the couch) as well as any other exercise or activity you partake in (running, walking to the car, etc).

That's the whole discussion in a nutshell. To lose weight, you eat less or burn more. To gain weight, you eat more or burn less. All diets are ultimately dependent upon this formula, though not all diets focus on it. In fact, there are very intricate shell games being played in many diets, perhaps to take people's minds off the task at hand, make the "math" easier, or give them a "cheat" every once and a while, a reward.

Some diets play physiological games, forcing your body to change the preferred metabolic pathway to energy. Atkins forces the initiate into a fatty acid cycle by inducing ketosis in the first two weeks of the diet - denying all but the equivalent of a single banana (27 grams) each day in carbohydrates (max 24 grams). Given that carbs exist in pretty much every food item, including lean animal meat, you're on an all fat/protein diet for two weeks.

Runners and predominantly aerobic athletes are fortunate to enjoy a sport that requires long a calorie burn. We equally exercise the glycolitic pathway as (carbs) well as the fatty acid pathway (fats), but we have an entirely different initiation phase... running, running, and more running. Our benefit is that the "simple formula" of calories in v.s. calories out becomes an afterthought. We're always running, always burning, and in some cases, can't eat enough to keep our weight up. (One of my problems last year.)

So is there something to the whole discussion about "good foods" and "bad foods"? Is there really something we should be eating v.s. something we shouldn't? Lots of fat and protein v.s. lots of carbs. We all want an answer to these questions, but we don't always get them, or rather we get too many of them. How do you begin to contribute to the discussion without sounding like an advocate or fanatic?

The Challenge

I have an idea, a challenge that will result in an exchanging of tasty knowledge.

Pick a food item and discover the basic nutritional information about it.
Take a week and make that food a focus of your meals, discovering or creating four recipes or ways to prepare that item:

breakfast
lunch
dinner
snack or desert

Optional: Add in the calorie profile for each recipe per serving.
Optional: Cheat and reference a recipe from the internet (but give due credit)!
Let us know about your approach to diet and why it works (or doesn't work) for you.

I look forward to hearing about what you bring to the table!

Afton 25k Trail Race Report (Long Overdue)

2011-07-02T13:32:00.000-05:00

[Originally posted on DailyMile.com]

What a brutal race (but fun)! This is my second 25k trail race this year, and it was by far the more challenging of the two. As some of you may know, the State of Minnesota shut down and as a result, the State Parks were also shut down. Race Director John Storekamp and volunteers did an awesome job prepping 2 (yes two) race courses for the event. When it was clear that we wouldn't be able to run Afton State Park, Afton Alps Ski Resort let us use their mountain bike trail!

I can't say enough how awesome this race was. It was gnarly. It was hot. The volunteers were professional, helpful, and great. I started out far too fast (of course), and soon found myself sucking wind. I just was not prepared for the insane elevation changes, and I've never run so many switchbacks in my life! I am not ashamed to say I walked, a lot. Cardio-wise, I was fine once I backed the pace down. Where I lacked was in leg strength and endurance.

I also made a mess-up in not taking in enough salt and electrolytes. I had two 20oz bottles of nuun, but it's sometimes a bit sweet, and I don't always drink enough liquid to ensure I've taken enough salts. When I finished the race, my whole body was buzzing from effort and lack of electrolytes. I laid down in the grass and put my feet up on a picnic table bench, and when I tried to get up 10 minutes later, both quads cramped up. OUCH!

I would definitely do it again! :) Here's a Shout Out to Brian Woods and Adam S. for their work volunteering at the race! Thanks, so much!

Final Results: Placed 121 of 236 with a time of 3:20:26 (12:55/mile).

Footnotes in the Results PDF: (REVISED COURSE - 2011 was a revised course from previous years due to the Minnesota State Government Shutdown which closed Minnesota State Parks. An alternate location was used for the race - Afton Alps Recreation area. This was 7.75 mile loop and was a more difficult course than the normal course which resulted in slower than normal times.)

What to Buy a Geeky Runner Dad?

2011-06-18T00:05:00.002-05:00

It would be so easy to rack up a large balance on my credit card, to buy the toys and essentials that a geeky dad might like to have. On the other hand, I'm relatively frugal, perhaps a miser when it comes to spending money. With Father's day this weekend and my birthday coming up in July, I figured I would list a few of the things I've been eyeing and restraining myself from buying!

Guitar Lessons, JamPlay Style
About 10 years ago, I bought a Mitchel acoustic guitar from Guitar Center with the intent of being proficient enough to play a song or two. You would think that in 10 years, I would have picked up some substantial skills. Alas, the opposite is true, I know barely enough to strum a few chords and pick a few measly licks. JamPlay is an online guitar lesson site that I've been very impressed with. At $19.95/month or $139.95/year, it is quite affordable and offers a lot more flexibility than in-person lessons. (Visit the Store for a gift card!)

ASUS Andriod Eee Transformer Tablet!
This tablet is by far the coolest thing I've seen in quite some time. It's a 10" multi-touch tablet with Wifi, GPS, accelerometer, 32GB of memory, and touts the Andriod 3.0 operating system, the same one that runs on my hacked MyTouch 4G phone. Why not an iPad2, you ask? Apple just isn't my thing, I guess. I've been a Linux geek for too long to look back now.

What sets this tablet apart from other devices out there? There's a detachable keyboard and battery (purchased separately) that converts the tablet into a laptop! There are times when I like to have a keyboard, and times when I don't. This manages to do both! Trust me. So cool! It's a bit expensive, though... I may end up just having to save for a while to buy this one.

Learning Chinese from a Pod
Really, you ask? Chinese? Yes! I don't know how to really explain it other than that general desire to continue learning, exploring, and connecting with other people. What better way to do this than to learn the language and eventually travel there!

I have fortunately found a very good website for this very task: ChinesePod! My free trial account (which I encourage you to do as well) has long since expired, but I learned what I needed to know: it is a quality program that offers downloadable content, interactive on-line lessons, a supportive community, and access to teachers!

The Basic package costs about $14/month, but the Premium package at $29/month includes a cool Andriod application! I haven't found a way to purchase these as Gift Cards, but it's still a cool site that I would love to subscribe to.

Running Gear
What kind of runner wish list would this be without some running gear?! First up, the "Ultimate Direction FastDraw Plus Handheld Bottle", now on sale for $13.95 at Zombierunner.com. I'm enjoying my Nathan waist pack, but as with all waist packs, they get a bit annoying, bouncing all around. It isn't until after about 30 minutes of running does it seem to settle in, or perhaps I don't find it as annoying by that time. Regardless, I'm starting to dig the idea of running with less around the waist and having the bottles in my hands. A pair of these would allow me to try that out! You would be enabling scientific experimentation! O.K. Perhaps it would be more subjective observation.

The next item on my running gear wishlist is this cool adaption from Hydrapak called the GelBot. Yeah, I know, how many water bottles can a man have? Just check it out:

I have to admit, I grabbed this idea from trail runner Scott Dunlap's blog about this very product. I'm not a big fan of the litter you create by using gel packs, so if there's a way I can be more "green", I'll do it! Combine the FastDraw bottle holders with the GelBot bottles, and you have a fast exchange at aid stations and no trash!

Now, I haven't put on enough miles to think about using this next product for unsupported runs just yet, but I do run as a mode of commuting to work, and I'll be ramping up this effort this summer. However, it often means I have to carry my clothes or rain gear with me. I can leave certain items at work or the YMCA locker room, but I can't always plan ahead for these things. I would love a flyweight or midweight fast-pack. I did find this useful review article from Running Times that's more to the point. The Osprey Talon 33 looks more to my liking!

Another item by Nathan Sports would help me out quite a bit, actually, a smart-phone armband called Frequency. I use my Andriod phone for its GPS, music playlist, and periodically a picture here and there. The GPS isn't all that accurate when taken from my waist pack, though.

The Wallet That Beats All
I did buy myself an early gift, a new wallet from ALL-ETT. It's a simpler than most, with only four pockets for credit cards, and two sleeves. One is larger for receipts, and one for cash. Made out of nylon spinnaker cloth, the same material they make sails out of, it is extremely lightweight, durable, and water resistant. This is my third one in about seven or eight years. Don't tell my dad yet, but I bought him one too!

Happy Father's Day!
I'd say that's a pretty good list for now. I'm hungry and tired, and it's time for bed! Enjoy your Father's Day weekend, running dads. I hope you spotted something useful in this list and can give a big hint to your loved ones!

Race Report: Spring Superior Trail Race 25K

2011-05-21T22:39:00.000-05:00

What a blast! For my first trail race, I couldn't have picked a more technical and beautiful trail to run! Jason, a friend and runner, and I agreed ahead of time that we would try to run the race together, just enjoying the experience and give each other support along the way. The plan worked beautifully, and I believe I am fully hooked on trail racing now.

The weekend started with me leaving work early on Friday to head home and pack. I was to meet my parents at 3:00 PM in Hinkley, MN to drop off my car and carpool with them up to Grand Marais. I had made good time in the car and was only a couple of minutes late. We stopped by Dairy Queen for a late lunch and headed North. We did catch an outstanding meal in Beaver Bay at a little place called Northern Lights Cafe. I had the Norwegian Salmon with a mango fruit salsa, greens, bread, and garlic herbed butter. Yum!

We continued North and stopped by the Onion River Road, where the Oberg mountain turn-around was locate, and at Caribou Heights to scope out the Start and Finish lines for the race. They were very close to each other by car, so Mom and Dad would have no problems driving to Oberg to meet me at the half way point during the race.

It was a lot of fun spending time with my parents on the road. We hadn't "road tripped" since I was probably in college or even high school, so we were able to catch up on all matters of old and new family news. We crashed that night at the Best Western, right on the lake for a somewhat restful night. I tossed and turned a bit, but I managed to sleep through most of it.

Jason and I met up at the starting line the morning of the race. We both debated with ourselves about what clothes to wear and equipment to carry for the trip. Jason tried a jog test on a new waist belt he had just purchased, but it bounced around like crazy. He opted to simply carry his water bottle as I had planned. I put on my fuel belt to carry my phone, which I planned on taking pictures with and perhaps stuff some gels into. I had two additional water bottles, small ones, just in case my large one ran out.

Jason and I have similar plans for pace, and we set at a comfortable speed, if not a bit optimistic. My legs felt fresh and strong for much of the first half of the race, and we fell into pace with a small group of runners: Kelly, Kim, Ed, Jim and Steve. Things went well for our group, as we called out branches, trees, rocks, and other hazards for those running behind. Positions shifted more out of courtesy and safety than competitive spirit, but at some point, I found myself out front.

The next thing I knew, I had picked up my pace and was flying along the trail. What a feeling! We had come off of a long ascent and were on the back side of the hill, running down some long switch backs and into to some boggy areas with plank bridges. Whooosh! The scenery flew by, and I believe I yelled some profanity comparing the hell that is road racing verses the beauty of the trail. I whooped and hollered, and had another runner doing the same in short order! I made some drastically good time, and even though I walked up Oberg Mountain, my legs still felt pretty strong.

I ran in to the Oberg Mountain aid station feeling fresh, but I took my time there, eating potatoes in salt and grabbing some more water. Jason wasn't far behind, and he saw that I wanted to get going again. He loaded up on a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich and a banana. In hindsight, I should have fueled up more, but I wasn't expecting two and a half hours of running to sap me out badly.

My parents were waiting at the aid station, and they were having a great time talking to other parents and spectators. They told me of a woman they met who was crewing for her boyfriend, a pacer for the famed Scott Jurek. They didn't catch his name, but I'll take a look at the roster to see if I can't figure it out (could it be Dusty Olson?). She asked about me, and Mom and Dad filled her in about my Grandma's race. When she learned that this was my first trail race, she declared that I would be hooked.

When I saw them, I quickly handed them my coat and fuel belt. I wanted to take on the second half without them. When Jason entered the aid station, he left his coat with them, too. They didn't realize it, but I had just enlisted them as my crew. :) They told me about the declaration, and I grinned affirmation. Yes, I think I'm hooked.

Right away on our return trip, I recognized my mistake in pushing it so early in the race. My legs were drained. Jason, Steve, and I plodded on and back into the woods, up the hills that I had just blasted down. My left hip was starting to fatigue, followed a few miles later by my right hip. Jason was tired and trying to look around at the scenery to enjoy himself a bit, but each time he let his mind wander, he would trip. He had dropped back at one point, and I thought I had lost him for a while. Steve and I talked some more, and he was kind enough to share a Hammer gel with me -- since I had forgotten to grab some for the run back. It definitely helped.

Jason soon rejoined us, and Steve went off ahead shortly after Jason tripped badly one more time. Jason and I slowed down to a walk for much of the switch backs in the last three miles of the race. Better safe and slower than fast and broken. We stopped at a summit overlooking the hills and valleys for a picture, and Ed joined us for the picture. We again stopped at the bridge right off Poplar River that runs past Caribou Heights. I tightened up the laces on my shoes, since they were feeling really sloppy. I was beginning to feel the heat of blisters forming and lamented the fact that I should have done this adjustment back at Oberg.

The last half mile of the run was all road, and for some reason, my body was giving up. I just couldn't keep going. I wanted to stop and walk, but with Jason's encouragement, I kept going. One stride at a time, we kept on jogging right up to the finish line. We held our hands up and crossed the finish line together in 2:55:20!

At the finish line! (Photo courtesy of Jason Tintes.)

We hung out at the finish line, and my parents went to the lodge to get some food. There was chili, fruit, and water for the racers, and I downed an entire orange in about two minutes. I was so famished! I had laid down in a grassy patch in front of the conference room with my water to let my body recover, but when I tried to get back up, my hip flexor cramped up, twice! About fifteen minutes later, my thigh cramped up! I definitely left all my energy out there on the trail!

Would I do it again? Hell yes! The wheels in my head are now turning over the new data as I start to plan trail training runs and camping!

Linux Printing Has Come a Long Way

2010-12-27T01:17:00.004-06:00

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) has a whole new meaning...

Back in 1999, I had given up on Windows. It had crashed on me one too many times, the hideous "blue screen of death." I had been playing with a dual-boot system with Debian GNU Linux and Windows 98, but the "burn it to the ground and re-install" cycle with Windows had left me distraught and down-trodden. That fateful Winter night, I had wiped Windows from the hard drive completely.

Linux had many challenges in 1999, not the least of which was printing. In general, if you wanted to print from Linux, you had to make certain you had a supported printer or a network-enabled Postcript printer. I happened to be using an unsupported HP Deskjet 722C, an inkjet printer that used a proprietary protocol over a parallel port cable. After a bit of searching, I found a filter application for Ghostscript called pnm2ppa. It was a hack, a crack of the protocol that enabled me to print in color to the relatively expensive printer I was in no hurry to replace.

Over the years, that printer has moved with me from apartments to houses, and it has performed with reliable quality. Regardless, I had always wanted to pick up a copier/scanner/printer model, or at least pick up a copier/scanner. Whenever I asked Meghan about it, she would "poo poo" the idea. What we had worked just fine, plus I knew that buying any hardware that I intended to use with Linux would require some research to ensure it would perform.

At some point, I must have mentioned it to my mom in conversation. She squirreled that fact away and later produced an awesome and unexpected Christmas present: an Epson Stylus NX420, an all-in-one inkjet printer! I brought it home excited and unsure, but optimistic. At worst, I could use Meghan's Mac Mini as a printer server, and at best, I might get lucky.

In the last few years, there have been a couple of very important changes in printer technology in the *NIX world. The fist is the advent of the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS), a new print server software. It made setting up printers and sharing them on the network quite easy. The second most important thing that happened was the adoption of the CUPS software by Apple for its new OS 10 platform. With a popular hardware and operating system vendor championing the product, the printer vendors started supporting *NIX through proxy of Apple!

I shouldn't have been surprised when five minutes into researching driver options for the printer, I was able to find this gem: All-in-Ones (Multifunction Inkjet Printers) | AVASYS CORPORATION. This company provides not only the printer drivers for Windows and Macintosh, but also provides Debian and Red Hat packages! The scanner as well was supported by another set of packages!

What blows me away about this is that my mom, who is not a very technical person by any means, had simply picked a printer off the shelf that she thought was a good value. Not only did it turn out to be good, but excellent! Thank you Mom and Dad!

Waxing up the Skiis!

2010-12-07T09:33:00.001-06:00

It's that time of year again, and by golly, I'm going to be out on the trails on my almost new, five-year-old classic cross-country skiis! I bought a pass last year and used it once! Once! Not again! I'll be hitting the trails with vigor, especially with all the beautiful snow we've received in Minnesota already! The temperatures are perfect, and the classic trails are ready. Jessica Dunn pointed me off to Skinnyski.com to get trail conditions; what a great site!

Ski on!

CM6.1-RC1 2708port (for new radio+spl) - CyanogenMod Forum

2010-11-12T00:49:00.000-06:00

CM6.1-RC1 2708port (for new radio+spl) - CyanogenMod Forum

Simply enough, I followed these instructions for installinig a new radio, SPL, and modified CyanogenMod 6.1-RC1, and my old T-Mobile G1 is ROCKIN'! I love open-source!

Week in Review - Tapering?

2010-11-06T01:01:00.000-05:00

It appears that I'm in a taper, again. This week has been a tough one for me. The last three weeks, I had started back on the path to building up some basic mileage; I am a distance runner for crying out loud! I encountered a few blockers this week, mostly my own fault: poor nutrition, poor sleep, and some over-training (yeah, that last one baffles me, too). It appears I've have picked up a cold, to top it all off.

One of the marked differences between this effort and my last is that I'm committed to running as close to barefoot as possible. My guidance is a book titled "ChiRunning" by Danny Dreyer. Danny's focus is on applying the principles of Tai Chi to running. Some of the key concepts are "Cotton and Steel", "fall forward" and let gravity carry you, "land underneath your knees", "shorten your stride", and "high turnover".

I am changing my stride from a heavy-heel striker to a light mid-foot to fore-foot striker. The goal is to run injury free for life! I like running far too much to risk not being able to do it into my 80's and 90's!

The odd looking Vibram Five fingers you see here, which I purchased in June, are quite comfortable, and well worth the $80! If you're following trends, you'll probably recognize these shoes, but rest-assured, I'm not simply trying to follow a trend. I'm trying to fix my stride. These shoes, and running barefoot in general, seem to force me to run "better". The principles of ChiRunning seem to fall naturally when running barefoot, whereas trying to apply this change in stride in traditional shoes is just hard!

I have noticed two things with this running style, though. The first is that my calves kill me after long runs! I've been able to build up to a seven mile run barefoot, but it leaves me limping for days afterwards. Ice, ice, and more ice certainly help, as does Ibuprophen.

The second is that I get blisters! This is more of a factor of the shoes themselves and my soft-padded feet. Over time, I've been able to build up some callouses, starting with low mileage runs and ramping it up. I can now run up to 3 miles without socks, but anything over requires me to put on the Injinji's. As winter approaches, I'll probably need one or two layers of socks anyway. Wet and snowy days are going to be a bother. Time to find a new pair of shoes for the Minnesota Winters.

Last week's Sunday run left me really sore, both in my calves, but also in my right hip. I'm exercising muscles I don't use effectively, it appears. My left hip was the problem one earlier this year, so maybe this means that this strength training is actually paying off. My left hamstring is starting to feel better, perhaps stronger. I'm just looking forward to the day when I can strap these shoes on and head out the door without worrying about aches and pains.

The pain, the fatigue, and nutrition -- fast food this week -- have all left me a bit ragged. I took Wednesday through Friday off. This doesn't get me off the hook for my Saturday core workout, but it does mean I'm going to have to reevaluate my training schedule. I'm starting to get my head out of the clouds with this pipe-dream of the Superior Sawtooth 50 by 2011. I think a more realistic goal would be 2012. Next year may be the "Year of Half's and Tri's". One solid year of building up and aggressive cross-training.

I still haven't gotten that 5k out of the way, but the Living History Farms Cross Country Race is fast approaching! I can't wait to get out and race again. Hopefully, I'll be able to get out and train more effectively for the next two weeks. Wish me luck!

Runs with d6's: Gaming

2010-11-06T00:16:00.001-05:00

Runs with d6's: Gaming: "I'm big into table-top games! Yes, big! My sophomore year in college, a group of friends introduced me to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd..."

Possible Rune Magic for GURPS - Thoughts

2010-10-31T11:32:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know or guess by the title of my blog, I'm a big fan of table-top role playing games such as GURPS ¹ and Dungeons and Dragons ;² I've been playing such games for years. Recently, my cousin Dwayne expressed interest in playing in a Mage campaign in a fantasy setting with a special interest in a character that practiced Rune Magic. Although there are published rule options for Rune Magic in GURPS and possibly D&D, I have not yet obtained these alternate rules. I thought I might take a stab at the mechanics to support Dwayne's view of how the ritual of casting might happen and with what I know of Runes in general.

Runes are letters in a real-world alphabet Germanic in origin that predates the adoption of the Latin alphabet. There are a number of versions of these alphabets tied to different Germanic cultures and times, and the Elder Futhark, the Younger Futhark, and Anglo-Saxon Runes are commonly referenced. Cultures typically handed down the meaning and use of runes through poetry known as Rune Poems. These meanings were used to apply Runes not only for use in literature but also in divination rituals and magic.

By in large, magic in GURPS is handled through an advantage called Magery, which can be purchased in levels for character points. It accounts for the character's ability to cast magical effects, which are considered extraordinary compared to the average human. Different levels of Magery can be purchased to represent power and accessibility to certain spells. Spells are learned as Skills, which describe the difficulty for casting, the spell's affects, duration, range, prerequisite skills that the character must also have, and cost to cast. In general, GURPS magic does not distinguish on the style of play or source of magic. The spells available to a magic user are the same for a cleric, someone who receives this ability through the favor of the divine, a mage, someone trained to cast magic through ritual, or a sorcerer, someone who simply "knows" how to perform magic.

To be a Rune Mage in GURPS may simply involve describing your character as drawing runes, or calling out their names, perhaps using a piece of wood, a coin, or some other object that represents the rune while casting the spells. You would still purchase Magery and the spell skills as defined, and fulfill the prerequisite ladder to have access to more advanced spells.

Random Draw!
The problem with this approach arises with how Dwayne wanted his character to use runes, to have a bag of inscribed runes from which he randomly draws at the time of casting, trusting in the gods to provide the tools to defeat his enemies. For example, the runic mage Egill draws the three runes while in combat with a group of giants: Uruz (ᚢ), Raido (ᚱ), and Isaz (ᛁ). These runes might represent strength or the ox, travel, and ice. Perhaps the spell effect would be to call forth a giant oxen made of ice, who can charge the giants at exceptional speeds. The challenges here are interpreting the runes, then deciding what scope of affect the mage has ability or access to cast. If the mage has no experiencing in summoning, then Uruz might simply represent an increase in personal strength and speed.

So, we've raised two concerns: meaning and affect. Now, what about cost to cast? Access to individual runes themselves? Time to prepare? Action to activate? How do you translate the above action into dice rolls? Arg! A simple concept can quickly become complicated. Hmm... "trusting in the gods". Problem solved, it's GM choice! I do think there's a mechanism that can be defined here, but it will take some thought...

...or reference! After preparing much of this post, I decided to splurge and pick up Phil Masters' "Thaumatology" for GURPS 4th Edition. In it, he describes a Symbolic Magic system that uses runes in pretty much the same manner I outlined above. Cost is determined by what the rune represents: noun, verb, and scope. Affects are defined by combining runes, as listed above. Definitely worth it. It also turned out that Dwayne wasn't really interested in a random-draw casting, rather more structured. I think we have a good fit!

Divination
Another part of rune magic is divination. This type of use generally departs from the magic systems established by gaming systems. A divination example could be taken directly from many of the published Rune books in the Alternative section of book stores. There's almost no reason to further explore the ritualistic aspects of this for gaming purposes. Essentially, a diviner forms a question in his or her mind to ask the gods or goddesses and casts either a set number or the entire lot of runes within a circle, upon an animal skin, or other sanctified ground. Different casting patterns are used for different purposes or types of questions, and the runes are interpreted by the diviner. From a game mechanics point of view, the only thing important here are the Magery ability and a Divination skill.

All in all, I think a Runic Mage is entirely workable.

Footnotes

Generic Universal Role Playing System by Steve Jackson Games.
Dungeons and Dragons was originally created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson for TSR. It is now owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.http://sjgames.com/gurps/books/thaumatology/

How Do I Get Ready for an Ultra?

2010-09-30T00:05:00.000-05:00

I feel stalled. I'm sure it has something to do with training setbacks from Grandma's Marathon, but I'm a bit tired of talking about it. The drive to run and compete has winnowed down to a smolder rather than the fire I had earlier this year. If you've been following this blog or my DailyMile training, you would know that I had my eyes set on ultras and and that the triathlon holds little appeal to me for some reason. Developing overall strength and versatility, not to mention a stronger upper-body is a nice outcome of CrossFit and CrossFit Endurance, but none of it seems to bring the much needed oxygen to the fire. What is it that I need right now to get me moving again, rather than haphazardly trekking out for a run here and there?

I need a goal, an outcome, something to reach for, something attainable yet challenging. It's not enough to work-out, rather it needs to have meaning. I really want ultras, but I know my body isn't ready for it now or even the near future. My current comfortable distance for my knee and hip is seven to eight miles, the distance it all fell apart this June. That's one-seventh the distance of a 50 miler, which is obviously not going to happen any time soon. I think that is what my problem is. I can't see far enough out to say when it's going to happen.

Is one year enough? 50 weeks of training between now and the Superior 50 miler next year, less than that for the Northface Endurance Challenge. Surely, two years would be more than enough, but too far to keep me driven? How do I put together a plan I know will work, that will keep me motivated and pointed in the right direction, while maintaining injury free performance?

I'm trying to look back at how I trained for my first half and my first marathon, what mistakes I made, and places I could improve. I've read prolifically on training, and I've got a relatively good idea about how to go about it. With that in mind, I'm going to try to rough out a plan to move forward. The key principles I'm going to apply are:

5-6 days of training. At least one planned day off per week.
Alternating hard and easy days
3 week cycles of increasing distance, 20% in week 1 and maintain for 2 (Lydiard)
Plan my peak performance and health for my goal race
Develop my distance in stages (5-8k, 10k-Half, Marathon-Ultra)
Cross-train like banshee (swimming, Crossfit, whathaveyou)
Set realistic, yet challenging goals at each stage
Be patient with setbacks and generous with recovery
Finally, don't overdo it!

What I need right now is a 5k or an 8k race to suss out my current fitness level, my current pace. Any suggestions?

Can't We Find Better Things To Worry About?

2010-08-19T23:13:00.003-05:00

I'm going to have to throw my support to Wulfgar's statement from the 11th of August, "I've Had Enough." Honestly, what is wrong with our culture when The Washington Post publishes articles like Elizabeth Tenety's "Under God: Obama's religion: does your president's faith matter?" I have nothing against Tenety's article, just the simple fact that someone had to write it. In fact, she opens up with a quote from the constitution, Article VI, Section 3: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

I find no relevancy in this question to President Obama's ability to lead this country. Unfortunately, not everyone believes in the separation of Church and State or even religious pluralism. Judging by the Constitution, it appears that the authors at least understood the importance of these concept insofar as to limit its influence upon secular politics. Despite their best intentions, the political stage in the United States does not embody "freedom of religion." Why not? Perhaps it is because the body of citizens aren't chosen for their neutrality and solid grasp on reason; they're not chosen at all.

I find it terribly interesting that this headline follows a proclamation by Interview with a Vampire author Anne Rice. "Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out." I had caught an interview on National Public Radio a couple weeks ago, and it gave me quite a bit to think about. At the time of writing the The Vampire Chronicles, she was an abashed Atheist, later to become a reborn Christian and devout Catholic. I encourage you to read or listen to the NPR article, which goes into depth as to why she made this statement on her Facebook page:

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."

This statement didn't earn her many fans on the Christian side of the isle, and I can't say I disagree with her. The same could be said for many organized religious groups. Personally, I find it hard to stay involved with any religious group. As some of you may know, I'm a Nichiren Buddhist, only loosely involved with the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) - USA community. Loosely because although I enjoy meeting with like-minded individuals, I place higher priority on other things: family, friends, work. I enjoy personal pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment, but the truth is that I'm not passionate about it; certainly not enough to evangelize about it (this will probably be one of the few times you'll hear me mention it). There are many good things I can say about SGI, but I'll save that for another time - only if you really want to hear about it.

With President Obama, I think we'll be just fine. Others agree. Let's hope the rational citizenship pays no further heed to such headlines and judges our President on the merit of his Administration rather than breed of his Religion. Really, don't make me give up!

Grandma's Marathon - Race Report

2010-07-05T18:02:00.002-05:00

(Continued from "Grandma's Marathon - Pre-Race Report".)

A few short moments after the fly-over, the racers started crowding up to the front of the chute. It was time to begin running! Or, maybe walk for a bit. "Hurry up and wait" came to mind as Clem, Dave and I chuckled and joked about the pace. When we did finally get moving, I was feeling pretty optimistic. My knee was feeling pretty good, and having great company definitely helped.

Clem did his homework regarding the pacing, and I learned that the 3'50" pacer's name was Jack. The strategy was to stay within sight, either in front of or just behind Jack. This went well, and the first few miles disappeared into the past. Around the second or third mile, I recognized a slight discomfort in my left knee. We met another runner by the name of Chad, also running his first marathon, one by the name of Dan, a young 20-something kid, first time marathoner, and I believe a marathon veteran by the name of Darin. Chad and Darin sported their names on their jerseys/shirts, and Clem was a veritable chatterbox.

By mile six, I voiced my discomfort to Clem's question. "I'm feeling it." He expressed his concern. "I'll stay on pace as long as I can," I said, but I told him to run his own race. Right around mile 7 or 8, I started to drop back. Clem was on pace, and he looked back to find me. I waved him forward and he nodded acknowledgement. Someone would need to finish on goal, and it wouldn't be me this day.

When the knee pain did arrive, it came quickly. Illotibial Band Syndrom (ITBS)is a relatively painful inflammation of the Illotibial Band, the tendon that runs from your hip, outside your thigh, and wraps along the outside of your knee, attaching to your tibia. When you run, this tendon can get inflamed in two spots, at your hip, which causes a painful bursitis, or at your knee. I encountered the bursitis last Fall while preparing for the Monster Dash half marathon. It took me out of the running for months. I didn't speak with a doctor or physical therapist about it, opting to try to fix the problem with cross training and stretching. Apparently, it only partially worked.

By mile 9, the pain was intense. I decided that it was time to try something, anything to reduce the pain. I had seen a National Guard first aid truck on my way through the mile 9 water station. I turned back and limped to the truck. Inside was a ratherdespondent runner. When I asked what was wrong, he didn't respond verbally, but indicated that his quads hurt. It was likely he was one of the 27 elite Kenyan runners invited to run Grandma's this year. This would be the closest I would come to meeting one today, unfortunate circumstances, indeed. I pointed at my knee while the trooper prepared the ice for me.

I walked away from the truck, sat at the side of the road, iced my knee and watched runners flow by. I could drop out here and no one would fault me for it, but for some reason, I wasn't ready to give up. The minutes ticked by, but I exercised restraint and continued to ice the knee for a full 10 minutes. I couldn't wait any longer. I ran through the water stations for a second time, this time with a pleasantly numb knee. Rather than pain, it felt like there was a rock underneath my tendon. Weird.

The race changed dramatically for me from that point on. It was a race of little goals. My family was waiting for me at the finish line, and I wanted more than anything to run through the chute. From the beginning of the race, I either passed or was passed by people wearing pink shirts, cancer survivors or cause shirts. I knew I was in pain, but I kept thinking that there were others in greater pain than myself who couldn't or wouldn't have the opportunity to run a marathon. I wasn't running for them, but I wasn't ready to give up either. Emotionally, I was an inspired wreck. I acknowledged that my body might not carry me that far, but I was going to try. I resolved to make it to the half-marathon point, which also happened to be close to first of the medical drop-out points.

The miles didn't tick off as quickly as before, but I tried not to stop running. Where running was painful, starting and stopping was more so. At the 11 mile aid station, I tried to do get an ITBS support-style taping, but I was too sweaty and hairy for it to work. Instead, the aid volunteer ACE-bandaged my thigh. I took a couple of Tylenol to dull the pain, which I think helped slightly. The wrap didn't really do anything, but mentally it added to my effort.

The half-marathon point came and went, and the medical drop-out point loomed ahead. I stared hard and long at it as I jogged on by. "Not yet," I told myself. Walk, jog, walk jog. By mile 16 or was it 15, I felt I had to do something else to manage the pain. The wrap wasn't working, and I had some longer stretches of walking I wasn't happy with. I turned and walked back to the aid station... again. This was the Cadillac of aid stations. They had recliner chairs, potato chips, and gummy worms. I iced my knee in luxury. The people there were great and quite familiar with sports injuries. They identified my hamstring wrap as unhelpful and instead re-wrapped it as a knee-compression wrap.

"How does it feel?" the aid volunteer asked. "It feels!" I grinned and thanked him. More optimistic, I set out again. I was going to finish this race! I hoped. The next four miles were filled with running and walking. I passed the same runner and walkers when I ran, only to be passed when they ran. We were the back of the pack, the injured, and the determined.

At mile 20, my right quads were cramping up and I began walking again. I called out to a fellow walker, a long-haired runner wearing a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. His name was John Gannon, and this was his first marathon in the barefoot-style shoes. We talked quite a bit. I asked him about his shoes, and he asked me about my knee. He brought my spirits back up from a very low point, and for that I'm truly thankful. He pointed out that I had already succeeded, that I had already won. My family was waiting for me at the finish line, and I had just completed 20 plus miles on a bum knee. I couldn't fail; there was no stopping now. Although my quads weren't participating, and my knee wasn't happy, I could still succeed. I only had to walk across that finish line; I didn't have to run.

Run I did, for another half mile, before walking again. I managed to do this for another two or three miles, but finally my quads gave up. I walked and reached out to another walker for conversation. Hannah was also a Duluth alumnus running her second or third marathon, I believe. She was having a good time of it, relatively speakingg. We walked and talked, laughed at the college spectators' jokes. Like many runners, we walked up Lemon Drop Hill, where Clem told me later his own quads gave out on him. At St Benedict's sandwich shop, Hannah started running again, determined to finish the race sooner than later. I tried to keep up, but my quads cramped up again. I was going to walk it in, it seemed. Emotional low point; I was glad I was wearing my new sunglasses.

At mile 25, I met up with Dave Mari again. He had been running on a stress-fractured toe and was still taking pictures with people. I waved him to go on ahead of me, letting him know I would be walking it the rest of the way in. He made me smile, and I was resigned to my fate. I simply wanted the race to end at this point. I knew there was only one way to do that: keep walking.

Walk I did, until I rounded the final bend and was looking at the finish line. For some reason, I couldn't just stroll in, I had to at least try to jog. I coaxed my knee and my quad into action one last time. Starting was always the most painful part of the days' run, but I had yards to go. On the left, I saw my whole family cheering me on. We exchanged high-fived, and I smiled my way across the paint. I had done it. Somehow, I had managed to push past the pain, past the emotional low points, and drag my sorry carcass across the finish line [Edit: in 5:45! Only two hours later than originally planned!]

Links:

My Daily Mile Race Report
Grandma's Race Results (5266 of 5611 runners)

Next: Grandma's Marathon - Post-Race Report

Grandma's Marathon - Pre-Race Report

2010-07-03T12:50:00.006-05:00

This race report is long overdue, but I wanted to write it down while it was still relatively fresh in my mind.

Despite a known issue with ITB Syndrom in my left knee, I decided to make the attempt to complete the 2010 Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN. Being an eternal optimist, I envisioned finishing in my goal time of 3:45. Being a realist, I knew that I was going to have problems, I really just wanted to finish.

On suggestion from a few friends, I visited the Tria Orthopedics in Edina and met with Dr. Robert Jones. He tested my knee, its stability, and pain threshold; he gave me the "All Clear" and an order for four PT appointments. "You're going to be in pain," he said frankly, "but maybe we can help you a bit before you try."

I didn't manage to get an appointment until late Wednesday. After a quick strength check, my physical therapist Eric stated, "You're strong, but not strong enough for twenty-plus miles." He did ultrasound treatment of the ITB near the knee, gave me a few exercises to strength my glutes and muscles involved with the ITB, and wished me luck. He did also offer a Cortizone treatment, not the shot but some sort of patch. I passed, thinking it was a bit premature for me to go down that route.

The clinic and PT were both very well run, and the Doc and PT were receptive and knowledgable. I would definitely recommend them to anyone.

It is a well known fact that Duluth goes through mini-inflation during large tourist events, such as the marathon. I figured correctly that for a couple of days, I would easily spend $450-600 on lodging alone. Rather than dump that money into the tourist economy, we rented a friend's house for a week! Yes, it was a perfect time to incorporate a vacation, something we haven't had much of in the last two or three years at this house. (Thank you, Bakers!) How can you beat a three bedroom house on the beach a mere block away from Canal Park?

We arrived in Duluth in the mid-afternoon on Thursday the 17th, well ahead of any traffic issues due to the construction. My sister-in-law Katie, her husband Izac, and their one year old Maizie joined us for dinner at Little Angies Cantina and stayed through Sunday. Dinner was pretty good, but I wouldn't say stellar. Meghan enjoyed her fajitas, but the rest of us had a mediocre experience. Connor and Ryan did enjoy their Kidoritas! I had asked for a tall beer, and man was it
tall!

Meghan and family left me alone to finish my beer and go pick up my race packet. Rather than sit alone at the table, I went up to to the bar, where all the other lonely people go to drink their time away. There I met a couple in their 50's who were in town to cheer on their daughter who was running the marathon as well. It was a time for parents, apparently, since my own dad call at that time to iron out plans for meeting up on Friday night. I was going to have a rather large cheering section for the marathon on Sunday! Angie, Chris and their children would be up as well! My entire immediate family would be there to cheer me on. I wouldn't realize how important that was to me until Saturday.

Race packet pickup was rather uneventful. I "test drove" a pair of Newtons in the convention center and received a few pointers on mid-foot strike running. I found I was still heal striking, big surprise. Packet in hand, it was back to the house and then off to the grocery story for food, diapers, pull-ups, and assorted essentials. I could deal with a few chores with vacation. The day was long, so when I turned in for the night, I slept like a log.

Friday was a day for the beach, swimming, and simply lounging about. I ran barefoot up and down the beach with Peter, our Boston Terrier, partly to feel out my knee as well as wear the dog down; he gets a little high strung at times. My knee felt good, with no recognizable pain. Maybe things would work out! Connor, Meghan, and Ryan looked for beach glass and played in the surf.

When Ryan took his nap at 3:00, I went in to the kitchen and prepped for a baked, stuffed chicken dinner. Yes, I was cooking on the night before the marathon -- which I thought was fitting. I'm told not to change things up drastically before a big race, and since I'm the cook in the house, why not keep things as normal as possible.

At 3:45, I strapped on the shoes and headed out to the DECC to meet up with some of my friends at Daily Mile. It was great to finally meet up with people I knew only through a social website. After a few pictures, we walked over to Grandma's Sports Garden for a beer and conversation. Jeni managed to get everyone's names and profiles linked in a note on the site here. Everyone was pretty psyched for the race to come! If you can't get excited under these conditions, you need to check your pulse and make sure you're still alive.

I headed back over to the DECC to do a little shopping. I needed some new racing socks and a pair of sunglasses. There were plenty of vendors to choose from, and the place was a lot busier than Thursday night. Mission accomplished, it was time to head back to the house to resume duties as cook.

My parents had come in to town and set up the 5th-wheeler at the boat marina down the street from our rented house. They arrived at the house just before I made it back from the DECC and took the boys back out on the beach while I prepped dinner. It was a bit of a challenge finding all of the supplies I needed for dinner, but I managed to pull off a stuffed chicken dinner with salad, mashed potatos, and asparagus. I didn't fill up, just topped off. No need for a huge dinner before a bit race.

I didn't get much sleep that night. Although I turned in early, I couldn't seem to calm my mind enough to drift to sleep. I woke up multiple times, and generally tossed and turned all night. At 5:00 am, it was time to get up, get dressed, and make my way to the bus that would take me and the other runners to the starting line just South of Two Harbors.

The bus trip up, I met a veteran marathon runner about my age by the name of Bob (I didn't catch his last name). One of the most enjoyable part of these races is talking to new people. What wasn't so wonderful was the school bus. They really don't place the seats far enough apart for people over five feet tall. My 6'2" frame didn't quite "fit" in the seat, and I was reminded of all the uncomftable rides to and from games or track meets during high school. If I never ride in a school bus again, it'll be too soon.

We arrived at least a half hour before race start, and although I saw Clem walk past the bus I was in, I didn't run in to him until we lined up in the chute. I did run in to Dave Mari, yes the famous Marathon Maniac. He's hard to miss in his monkey T-shirt. Although I didn't realize it at the time, he's been making quite a name for himself. What I did recongize immediately was his propensity to take a lot of pictures using the same pose. A double peace sign and a big smile or pursed lips. Look for him at your next marathon, and you just might see him.

Dave and I met up with Clem again just behind the 3'50" pace runner, Jack, snapped a few more pictures, and waited in excitement for the race to start. Clem cautioned me to be careful and listen to my body. I agreed and said I would stay on pace as long as I could, but would let him know when to simply take off. The National Anthem was sung, sans flag, and at its completion a pair of Thunderbirds, the acrobatic jets, flew overhead. What a way to start the race!

Read on in Part 2 - the Race Report!

Training - Cross It Up

2010-05-10T00:44:00.000-05:00

After two weeks of some major mileage, my left hip has acted up again. It's generally sore, but not to the point of limping like last October. Rather than tough it out, I've been laying low and running slower shorter distances this week. I even managed to get in to the pool on Tuesday, but I've been feeling general workout withdrawals because of it.

I know it's probably time that I commit more energy to core workouts and strength training. I've proven to myself that I can put in the requisite time to run 20+ miles, and I understand under which conditions I'll feel well during those performances. A light week of running followed by a rest day before a Long Slow Distance (LSD) leaves me with energy and feeling generally indestructible. Well, that might be a bit too far fetched, but I certainly feel good enough to sing and smile while I'm running. Something must be right about it. I'm still pursuing consistency with a mid-foot strike, and will be looking for a more minimalist approach to shoes this coming season -- hopefully one that won't break the bank.

At a mere 177 pounds, I'm the heaviest I've been in two months, averaging around 173 to 175 depending upon when I weigh myself. At 6'2", I've become damned skinny once again - time for new jeans. This was to be expected, though, with the number of miles I've been putting in. Growing up, I had never had the problem of thinking I'm not skinny enough, rather the opposite one. I was the tall beanpole with no muscle mass and whose only talent, discovered late in my high school years, was for running long periods of time. I was never that sprinter, and even though I was a two-way lineman on the football team my senior year, it was more out of team numbers than size that put me there.

I find running "easy", relatively speaking. Sure there's work and pain involved, but its something I know how to cope with well enough to stay healthy and continue enjoying it. However, I think I've come to a realization that skinny and long slow distance isn't enough anymore. What is missing is general core strength and conditioning and more intense interval training.

I started down the route of cross training hitting the pool for recovery workouts this winter; it was and is a good direction. With training and time, I've found another sport that I thoroughly enjoy, something that is a close sibling to running in many ways. With very little change in the mechanics, you can go from a long, slow, endurance workout into a very demanding anaerobic one. Bicycling as well falls in this category. Triathlons are a possibility now that I have a very nice entry-level road-bike (Thank you, Meghan!) -- which I have yet to take out this year.

Through my recent trail running experience at the Zumbro 100, I learned about another fitness program from Matt Patten called Crossfit and a sister site called Crossfit Endurance. I've been trying to wrap my head around its general approach. Crossfit has three Fitness Standards:

"Crossfit's First Fitness Standard: There are ten recognized general physical skills. They are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, ﬂexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. (See “General Physical Skills”, pg. 4, for deﬁnitions.) You are as ﬁt as you are competent in each of these ten skills. A regimen develops ﬁtness to the extent that it improves each of these ten skills...

Crossfit's Second Fitness Standard: The essence of this model is the view that ﬁtness is about performing well at any and every task imaginable...

Crossfit's Third Fitness Standard: Total ﬁtness, the ﬁtness that CrossFit promotes and develops, requires
competency and training in each of these three pathways or engines [Phosphagenic, Glycolytic, and Oxadative]...Favoring one or two to the exclusion of the others and not recognizing the impact of excessive training in the oxidative pathway are arguably the two most common faults in ﬁtness training." -- Glassman, Greg. "What Is Fitness", Crossfit Journal, October 2002

The primary Crossfit site is a bit intimidating, however. The Workout of the Day (WOD) consists of those more appropriate for Olympic weightlifter's and gymnasts. I can handle the multi-modal sprinter workouts, but the other two scare the hell out of me. The high school football I mentioned left me with a left shoulder that likes to sublux on occasion. Skiiing in college left me with a right shoulder that periodically dislocates if I decide to throw a fastball or go up for a rebound in basketball. And there's something genetic about my body composition that thrusts my left hip out further than my right and dips my right shoulder lower than my left.

I remember trying to do a handstand once in high-school track, just after said football season. My left shoulder slid out of socket, and I had to do a pseudo Lethal Weapon move to get it back in. Surgery didn't fully correct my right shoulder problems, and several dislocations later, I've learned that sports that demand upper body strength are simply excluded from my regimen. The prospect of doing handstand pushups, or handstands for that matter leaves me more than a bit worried. Olympic weightlifting moves like the snatch and the clean and jerk send my shoulders into nervous spasms just thinking about it.

There are some other oddities about the Crossfit programs, departures from general sport-specific training, but despite the fear of complete shoulder destruction, I'm intrigued. I'm not so stupid as to think that I can or ever will try some of the WOD's on the Crossfit site, but finding suitable and safe alternatives for my own body quirks might be a workable solution. It is something they encourage. With access to most of the required equipment at the YMCA, I may soon turn my attention more seriously to strength training and weightlifting.

I know Meghan won't object to me turning down the mileage and focusing more on cross training. She's not at all impressed with my desire to run ultras, but as I start to focus my attention at trail running, more minimalist approach to gear, and a heavier focus on cross training, maybe I won't destroy my hips before I'm 50. Beginning this week, I'll be commuting to work on my bike every chance I can get and continue to incorporate swimming into my workouts.

Now that I have a pretty solid aerobic base, it's time to start looking at interval training, perhaps a bit too late to benefit in time for Grandma's though. I'm pretty psyched to run the upcoming marathon! It has been a while since the question of "Can I finish?" turned into "What time will I finish?" Any finish will be a PR for me, since this is my first Marathon event. 3:45 seems entirely attainable, but who knows. :) We shall see!

If any of you have had experience with Crossfit or other cross-training programs, please pipe up and let me know how it's working for you!

Zumbro 100 - A Pacer's Recollection (2 weeks later)

2010-04-25T00:13:00.004-05:00

"You're going to do what?" was a frequent question I had regarding plans to pace for Adam Schwartz-Lowe on his journey to complete the Spring 2010 Zumbro 100 mile ultra-marathon. Why I would want to run 20 miles in the middle of the night on some pretty technical trails, headlamp strapped to my head, seemed an unanswerable question to my friends and family. This was eclipsed by the fact that Adam was going to run in addition, 4 times that distance! "I need to make sure he doesn't hallucinate and try to chase a dryad off a cliff in the middle of the night." For some reason, rather than laughs, that comment only drew disbelieving stares.

The race is held in the Zumbro State Wildlife Area Southwest of Wabasha, Minnesota. We arrived in the West Assembly Area in the late afternoon for packet pickup and a welcome dinner. Larry Pederson, his wife, volunteers, and racers were gathered around picnic tables and a smoky campfire enjoying the cool evening. This certainly wasn't the type of race packet pickup I was used to. Absent were the vendors pushing their wares, people corralled into lines delineated by subsets of letter ranges, "A-E", "F-J", "H.." to pick up a plastic bag filled with fliers in addition to their race materials. No, this was a handshake and a smile, and exchange of stories, and a feeling that you were immediately welcome.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

After getting our fill of food, Adam and I split off to settle into camp. The entire area was as of yet unclaimed. At $16 for a night of camping, it was also quite cheap! 50 yards away from the Start/Finish shelter, we put up Adam's tent, threw in our sleeping bags, and went back to the shelter to chat. Over the next few hours, I listened to John Taylor spin tales of seemingly impossible feats of endurance and willpower racing completely unsupported over 130 miles pulling a sled in the frozen North at a race called the Arrowhead. Matt Patten, John Storkamp and other seasoned runners chimed in with their own amazing tales.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

I was honestly awed at both what I was hearing, and at how open and inviting these people were. The fact that I was standing there seemed good enough to be welcomed in to the group. Runners are truly amazing people.

The night brought a chill and eventually some frigid temperatures neither Adam nor I were prepared for. I think my sleeping bag is rated for 20F at best. I was in three layers of clothing and was getting ready to put on my down vest in order to stay warm. Adam and I both tossed and turned that night, and I worried for Adam's sake. He had a very, very long day ahead of him and needed his REM sleep.

It was a frosty morning when we finally got out of bed. Adam got ready and I wandered over to the Start/Finish shelter. It took a good hour or two for my toes to feel warm again. I couldn't complain too loudly, though, given the stories from the previous night. If only I had invested in a bivy sack or brought another sleeping bag to double-bag!

Matt Patten brought out a very welcome sight... A row of coffee machines! If anything could warm us up, it would be a fire (thanks to John Storkamp!) and coffee! These machines were destined for the other aid stations, which had more powerful generators to power the Kuerig single-cup brewers. (I love those things!)

From 2010 Zumbro 100

Not everyone in the race camped overnight, and soon the place was starting to get a bit busier. Granted, we're talking about a couple to few dozen runners and their families or support crews. Runners were lining up in shorts and t-shirts, and I stamped the cold out of my feet. Larry gathered everyone to explain the rules of the race. They were simple and to the point, then he led them out a few yards away from the shelter, past the small cabled fence and launched the runners in a highly unremarkable start. To a person used to seeing 5k, 10k, or even marathon starts, it would appear that these runners were simply going out for an afternoon jog!

From 2010 Zumbro 100

And that was it! I was "free" for about four to five hours until Adam completed his first loop. What the heck was I going to do with myself?! I decided to pitch in and help Larry's wife, Caroline (Is that her name?!) set up the Start/Finish shelter as an aid station with her daughter, volunteer Misty and veteran runner, volunteer Donny. We unpacked the support trailer, set up tables, and prepared a bag lunch for the volunteers at the other aid stations.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

Donny Clark and I fell into a long conversation about running, family, and life in general. His forays into Alaska were highlighted by his fatherly pride for his sons. His camp stove wouldn't start after losing its flame, so I offered up Adam's camp stove to finish off his potatoes and sausage breakfast. (Thanks, Adam!) A simple recipe, but wow was that delicious.

I had managed to eat up a couple hours of time, but had some more waiting to do. It hadn't warmed up appreciably yet, but it was getting there. I wanted to wait until Adam finished his first loop before trying to catch a nap in the sun-heated tent that afternoon. I grabbed my journal and headed back to the shelter. There I found Misty, trying to catch a cell phone signal.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

It was a futile attempt. The high-ridged hills weren't letting any wayward signal reach my T-Mobile phone. She managed to get SMS messages to send and receive, but couldn't establish a signal to make a phone call. I did say I wanted to be un-plugged for the weekend, and I got my wish.

John Storkamp surprised everyone by blasting in through the chute at 3:10! Kyle Gulseth came in some 15 or 20 minutes later, followed by Brent Bjerkness, and Bob Triplett about 10 minutes apart. These guys were haulin! I have to say I was a bit surprised when Adam came trucking in at about 4 hours! I knew he said he would be running 15 minute miles or slower for the night run I would join him in, so 12 minutes per mile seemed a bit fast. I would later learn that this indeed was faster than he planned on going.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

I had Adam's bottles prepped and clothes laid out for him as we had discussed. The stop went smoothly, and he was back out for loop two! I stuck around and took photos of the next few runners to enter and leave the station, including a chatty runner from St. Cloud named Brian Woods. Little did I know we would have much more time to talk later that night.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

I did manage to catch a few winks that afternoon in a much, much warmer tent. So warm in fact that I couldn't actually sleep in my sleeping bag. I didn't, however, get a very long nap. I had too much to think about, apparently. I had a bit of lunch, and headed back over to the shelter. I prepped Adam's fuel bottles again, and waited for him to arrive.

He wasn't running 12 minute miles any more, and was much closer to his predicted 15 minute miles, though still running faster. I don't recall the exact time, but I think it was closer to 4:40 split his second time around. He looked worn out and told me as much. "You're going to have to push me out of the shelter the next lap," he said with a grin.

At around 20:00, I changed in to my running gear in preparation for joining Adam in his third loop around the wildlife area. It would be his 61st mile, my first for the night. I was getting excited and was having trouble containing myself.

At 21:15 or so that night, a car pulled up next to the shelter, and I watched a cold, tired, and haggard Adam slowly get out of the passenger door. He looked awful! As we shuffled him off to his equipment crate to get warmer clothes, he relayed a tale of GI distress. He had gotten dizzy at around mile 45 and tried to push it a bit further, but it just wasn't going to happen. For 45 minutes he battled with it, and finally decided to throw in the towel at one of the aid stations. We bundled him up in warmer clothes and fed him soup. He suggested that if I really wanted to run, that maybe I could offer to pace for Brian Woods. Why not?!

One or two more runners filtered in to the shelter after Adam arrived. Finally, somewhere around twenty after ten, Brian trotted in with a smile on his face, eager to get fuel and get on his way. Immediately, I posed the question to him, "Want a pacer?" He was concerned over Adam, but was happy to have company for his fourth loop. By 22:30 we were on our way on a comfortable pace, not overly fast, a quick jog.

Over the next five and a half hours, we talked almost constantly. I learned that Brian had not really taken up running until six or so years prior, and that he had been a two-a-pack-a-day smoker. I find it terribly interesting that there is quite a few runners in their 30's and 40's that never ran in high school or college, and that many of them were either overweight or heavy smokers. What is it about running that is so therapeutic, so healing that these stories are not uncommon? What draws people to the road and trails, to lace on a pair of shoes and run? Brian excelled at his newfound sport, and in short order was entering marathon and greater length races.

By aid station four, Brian no longer had a sweet tooth. Nothing sounded good to eat, but he managed to have some soup and coffee. Believe me, coffee at that time of night is definitely welcome! Up and down the trails we ran, over rolling rocks, hidden roots, and leaf covered sticks. I don't recall at which point exactly it happened, but I do recall the environment.

Brian had me running lead to keep the pace up. We were running through an old hardwood grove, thick with leaf litter, when I took my one and only header for the night. My left foot landed on what I thought was a root, and my right foot was instantly caught by the business end of a hidden branch. I was launched in to the air and landed flat upon my left shoulder and side. It was so fast, that I almost rolled completely out of it into a run again. Instead, I opted to slowly rise from the ground rather than risk another more serious tumble. Had that happened on one of the steep, rocky descents, I would have been one hurt boy. As it stood, I was simply shaken up a bit. Technical trails, indeed. I later joked that I bounced off the ground so hard that I probably sounded like a handsome male grouse thumping on a log for the ladies.

The rest of the loop was eventless, which is how you want it, especially after a tumble like that. We arrived five and a half hours after we started. Brian thanked me for pacing him and said to look for him in seven hours. He wasn't going to push his last lap too hard. The guys at the shelter teased me for leaving my runner, then handed me one of Matt's homebrews. Did I mention that the volunteers at this race were amazing? No? Well, they were. I managed to stay awake for another half hour, then retreated to the tent for some sleep. It took me no time at all to fall fast asleep.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

Adam and I woke up about the same time, too late to see John Storkamp finish in first, but early enough to watch Brad finish in second. Bob came in third and Brian, the first time'er from St. Cloud came in fourth!

From 2010 Zumbro 100

His family was there to congratulate him and give him some well deserved pampering after his long journey.

From 2010 Zumbro 100

I have to say that this whole experience was exciting, painful, fun, and wonderful. Matt had read the fun I was having on my face and predicted that I would probably be running longer distances soon enough. I have a feeling that he is absolutely right. I've already got plans to run a 50k or 50 mile race this Fall in the same fashion that I had planned to run Ragnar Relay shortly after, or was it well before, I had completed my first Half Marathon. Perhaps I'll tackle Zumbro on my own next year... Who knows.

I do know that I've been uploading photos and typing for the last couple of hours, and I have a long, slow 18 miles to run tomorrow. Time for bed!

-- Chad

Lunch in the Lobby

2010-04-14T13:51:00.000-05:00

Just taking a quick break for lunch before heading in to a two hour meeting; mandatory training. Work has been very busy lately, and we could really use a couple good Support Engineers to balance the load. I'll be sliding over to Systems Engineer when te positions get filled! (I'll post the job link later.)

Stepping out of the office I find refreshing, time to focus on other things and decompress for a while. The weather held out long enough for me to sit on a park bench and have lunch, but not long enough for me to type this. The pigeons were entertaining, with their Spring colors and haughty attitudes. It seemed that the ladies weren't too impressed, though perhaps that's the way of a city bird.

There wasn't enough time to get a lap swim in this afternoon, but maybe this evening. The difficult part about swimming isn't the exercise, rather being on-call. Most pool areas are surrounded by thick concrete walls, making receiving a signal a little iffy. Tomorrow's my last Tri-Swimming class for this session, and I have yet to sign up again. I need to; such a great class!

Tonight is Meghan's Night Out, so the boys and I will need to find something to do. Should be interesting. ;)

A Week in Review...

2010-04-11T23:38:00.000-05:00

I've cracked open the computer for leisure time for the first time since Wednesday night! What a challenge it was at first to unplug, since there is always a couple dozen things that need to be done at work, and a half-a-dozen things to do personally. Right now, I'm sitting on the bleachers at the YMCA indoor pool while my two sons have their respective swimmigng lessons. Connor in Rays, for the 4-5 year old children, and Ryan in Pike I, for the "just beginning". It's a good time for reflection over the past week while watching their progress and encouraging them to have fun and pay attention to their teachers.

The week itself started with Easter Egg Hunting at Maime and Papa's house at around 15:00 on Sunday. Ellie, Ben, Connor and Ryan all thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of finding so many eggs! Connor created a new variant of the "Freeze Tag" game called "Super Mario Brothers Freeze Tag". He was Mario and Ben was Luigi, each with a special power. Mario with freeze ball, and Luigi with fire ball. The rest of us ran around like loonies while Connor froze us, and Ben thawed us! There was more to the game, complete with sound effects, but I think you needed to be there to really enjoy it! I enjoyed visiting with my family and being able to rest on the recliner while they played with their cousins and catch a few winks. At 19:00, we packed it up and headed down to Grammy and Papa Stokes for a quick visit. It was a busy Easter, to say the least.

Monday at work seemed pretty normal. Sunday morning I had put in some extra time to stage and hopefully finish a long standing project. I fleshed out the final touches by the end of the day, but I didn't want to execute anything without having a full day to iron out wrinkles. I wouldn't get the chance. That very night, a 4:00 AM on-call page started my day in a firestorm. By 9:00 AM, I had already put in five hours of work on about 2.5 hours of sleep (My mind was racing as always, and although I had gone to bed at 23:00, I recall looking at the clock at 01:30 and thinking, "WHY CAN'T I SLEEP!?"). I finished the day by a little after 13:20 and took a long nap at 14:00, the same time as Ryan.

It was Tuesday afternoon, and my youngest son made a milestone with his third birthday! He is growing up so quickly, and I don't simply mean stature. His vocabulary and curiosity grow as well. He's a counting madman and is learning to sing songs in tune! The kid has a natural talent for pitch; his mother is quite proud. :) His birthday was low-key. We ordered McDonalds for the boys, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents. He liked gifts and couldn't wait to play with them outside in the light of day.

They had to settle for playing with their hand-held games. Both of our kids have absorbed technology as if it were second nature. We have two of the Leapster platforms, the Didj and the Leapster 2. It didn't take long for both of them to understand the basic of side-scroller games, and the Leapster platform is excellent for providing education as well as entertainment. Connor is learning to spell and read with X-Men Wolverine, and Ryan is learning his shapes, numbers, colors, and letters with Diego and Finding Nemo. If you have kids, these are definitely the toys that I, as a parent, have no qualms letting them play.

I was hoping that Wednesday day would find me finishing that long-time project, but it was a day of putting out fires again. I didn't leave until late, but when I did finally arrive home, I was able to switch gears quickly. Meghan went to Katie's for her "Mom's Night Out", and I worked on Taxes. I have used TaxACT Online for the last few years with great success. I couldn't find a couple of documents, so I had to hold off finishing until Thursday morning. To celebrate and unwind, I mixed myself a white russian and waited for Meghan to return. It was still hard to unplug from work, but I tried my best. It was, after all, the beginning of my first real day off in months, and it was a welcome event.

When she did arrive, we talked a bit about running, family, and other things that we were thinking about. I really value our evenings together, as I do our daily family dinners around the table. It would be two nights before we would have the chance again, as I would be in Wabasha with Adam Schultz-Lowe running with him in his effort to complete a 100 mile marathon in a single day (stay tuned for a blog update on that one alone).

Thursday morning found me making a few phone calls to finish up with taxes and pack for my trip. For such a short week, so much happened. I am so thankful it did. Stay tuned! (Pictures to come.)

Burning It Up - Sleep, Food, and Nutritional Facts?

2010-03-27T18:51:00.001-05:00

Time to start paying more attention to food and sleep! I've proven that I can "burn it up" as a DailyMile'er friend Leigh put it, but I don't want to burn out. I'm exhausted today, and I felt pretty down in the weather yesterday. Only two weeks from my last bout with the flu, I'm struggling to keep healthy this weekend. It's discouraging!

Gone are the days when I could stay up until two in the morning and still get up in time for a seven o'clock class. I'm not eighteen anymore, and my body is telling me in no uncertain terms that it is unacceptable for me to get less than seven hours of sleep.

With my increased focus on swimming and increased mileage with running, I haven't successfully increased my caloric intake. Instead, I keep dropping in weight, down to 178 pounds. I haven't been this light since I graduated from college in '97. To put this in perspective, last year at this time, I weighed around 195. Weight loss was not my focus for running, rather finishing a marathon. Now weight loss has become a concern.

So, this week's focus will be getting to bed before 11:00 pm, and making sure I'm eating many small meals throughout the day. I often skip breakfast, and sometimes skip lunch -- if I'm too busy at work -- then have a large evening meal. From what Meghan has been reading, this is entirely backwards. Adelle Davis, the renown (or notorious) nutritionalist and biochemist, is quoted, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper."

I've heard this phrase before but didn't know its origin. I was about to leave the blog post at this, but like a good researcher, I dug a little deeper. What was the premise for this statement? How really does this benefit us?

(Image linked from Wikipedia.) Google to the rescue, or perhaps not, as the waters are now muddied by QuackWatch. "Despite this training, she promoted hundreds of nutritional tidbits and theories that were unfounded. At the 1969 White House Conference on Food and Nutrition, the panel on deception and misinformation agreed that Davis was probably the most damaging source of false nutrition information in the nation.[emphasis mine] Most of her ideas were harmless unless carried to extremes, but some were very dangerous. For example, she recommended magnesium as a treatment for epilepsy, potassium chloride for certain patients with kidney disease, and megadoses of vitamins A and D for other conditions." You should definitely read the entire article. It paints a very unflattering picture of Professor Davis.

So, where does this leave us with nutritional advice? Looking for more. As I understand the diets of Ultra marathon runners such as Scott Jurek, they incorporate more beans, legumes, and vegetables in their diet than what most Americans are used to. I can't say I'm ready to tread the path of a vegetarian, but I'm perfectly happy to add more vegetables. Especially if it produces results like this.

I have no illusions of grandeur here. I won't be winning any ultras any time soon; I just hope to remain healthy and have fun along the way. If I'm going to run 8 miles and burn a thousand calories, I should definitely replace them or find myself feeling like I do today! *BLEH*

One other adjustment I think I need to make is to stop burning so hot. I have been keeping my pace too high on what should be long-slow-distance (LSD) runs. I'm not trying to do race specific training before Grandma's, rather just build up a nice base of mileage while cross-training with swimming. It's time to keep the miles up, but slow the pace down appreciably. If I'm planning on finishing a marathon in sub-4 hours, I should be training slower than that, rather than faster... I've been doing it backwards yet again. It's just so fun running fast!

Anyway, time to prep dinner for the family before tonight's Nickelodean Kid's Choice Awards, an event that Connor is quite excited about! Yep, I'm a dad... :)

Potholes

2010-02-23T23:36:00.000-06:00

The sun was just extending its arms into the sky when I got up this morning. Early! With triathlon swim lessons scheduled for Thursdays at 6:45 in the morning starting next week, I figure this week is a good time to program my body for this new early schedule. It is less likely that I'll skip the lesson if I get up at the crack-o-stupid every day.

Yesterday was my first day on the new schedule, and I started out punching the keyboard shortly after seven in the morning. Wow! It was quite nice being able to get some focus-specific work done without anyone there. No interruptions lent to some good productivity. When 11:45 rolled around, I was more than ready to take my lunch. As life would have it, I didn't leave until almost 12:45. So be it. I still managed to get in a great swim, get back to work, and solve problems. The evening found me cooking again, but I threw in a twist: chicken breasts with a side salad, croissants, and croissant-covered, baked Brie. Yum! All in all a great day!

From Drop Box

Although I didn't get to bed until close to midnight last night, I was still confident that getting up early would pay off. The morning started out fine. I steamed along at work, attending emails and trying to move forward on a long-standing task. I didn't get as far along as I wanted, and the dreaded Tuesday meetings started. Soon enough, it was noon, and I was stuck in a 90+ minute meeting. We did get lunch, but I wasn't knocking off tasks as I would have liked. Right after the meeting, Jesse and I spent time with co-workers explaining some of the more interesting and confusing characteristics of HTML-based email. Not a half hour later, I was in another hour-long meeting.

Four thirty was staring at me, and a high-priority fix consumed another hour. Conspicuously missing: my workout! My run! It didn't happen. In fact, I didn't get out of the office until 18:00! Arg! I started out early hoping to carve out time in the afternoon or leave early and neither happened.

"Block out time, at the same time of day, every day, and people will schedule around you." This was the advice given me by my boss about a month or so ago. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Life, and all that comes with it, sometimes shuffles priorities and timelines around you. I said I wanted to complain, and if I left the post here, it might qualify.

In fact, I headed home in a sour mood, forewarning Meghan before I got there. I wanted to order supper, deliver, and then run while everyone ate. That's when I learned that our back door was stuck. Connor had slammed the door once too many times. The hinges had loosened in the old frame, and the doorknob bolt was stuck in the extended position. I couldn't have a fire hazard in the house over night, so back to work I went.

It just so happened that I had a set of new door locks awaiting installation from last August or September. After cutting out the old slide with a saws-all and remounting the door, I picked up dinner at McDonalds and finished up the lock installation by around 20:45. All in all, I've had approximately 30 minutes of down-time today.

The whole day today has been about dealing with the pot holes on the road that life takes you. One after another I dodged, swerved, or jumped over them. I'm not always graceful, and I don't always land on my feet, but I always get up and keep moving.

Tomorrow? Another early day. In fact, it's time to turn in. I have a plan, and this one involves a morning run while dropping off the car to get an oil change. I know I'll make this one, since there won't be any interruptions from work to deal with -- lesson learned. Still, who knows what's going to happen.

From Drop Box

I've finished my favorite night-cap, so it's time to say good night! Here's to a pothole-filled day!

Chad

Bigbee's Sloppy Joes

2010-02-10T23:57:00.001-06:00

Night had arrived early, as it does this time of year, and brought a howling wind to toss the new snow about. Even with proper attire, you would be hard pressed to stay warm. As I began cleaning the kitchen to prepare for dinner, a solid knock was heard above the ruckus outside. On the stoop leaned an older man dressed in strange attire, carrying sacks and bags over his shoulder and attached to a wide army belt. His grey beard whipped about, and tufts of grey hair stuck out from under his stocking cap. He coughed before speaking.

"Pardon me, but my car has broken down around the block. No one is answering their doors tonight. Could I be so bold as to ask to stay inside and borrow your phone to call a towing agency?"

Normally, I would ask for the person to stay on the stoop and hand the phone to him, but it was not a night for leaving someone out in the cold. He didn't seem drunk, nor was he trying to sell me anything.

"Please. Come in. My name is Chad, and these are my son's Connor and Ryan." Peter was jumping all over the man, of course. The little Boston simply can't contain his excitement.

"Oh, ho, little one." The name had a pleasant smile and a crackly chuckle. He reached down to pat the incorrigible dog. I tossed him the wireless phone and invited him to make himself comfortable.

"Pardon me, but I've got supper to make. Connor, Ryan. Tubby time." I figured having the boys in the bathroom and not in the stranger's way was a good move. The boys hopped to, happy to have time in the bubble tub. Meghan was off at Katie's for the night, her Wednesday routine. I'd definitely have to tell her about our visitor when she got home.

Time to turn back to dinner, or rather deciding what to make with the meager pantry. I had hamburger, bread, some ketchup and and onions. I needed something that was quick and delicious to a 5 year old and toddler.

"Could I be of some assistance?" The old man still wore his coat with its many assorted, draped bags and sacks. "I believe this should work nicely." He handed me a 3x5" recipe card with the following inscription:

Bigbee's Sloppy Joes

1 lb ground beef (93/7)

1 small onion, diced

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup beef stock

1/2 tsp Worchteshire sauce

1/4 tsp ground mustard seed

1/2 tsp chile powder

1 tbsp packed brown sugar

1 tsp cider vinegar

salt and pepper

Brown the beef and drain. Saute the onions in a little vegetable oil. Mix the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, mustard seed, and chile powder. Return the beef to the skillet and add stock and ketchup mixture. Simmer 5-10 minutes. Serve on toasted bread or hamburger buns.

Bigbee? Now, where have I heard that name before? The old man smiled and nodded. "Thanks for letting me borrow your phone. The wrecker will be here shortly. I'd best be at the car when it arrives."

I escorted the old man out the front door and locked it behind him, shook my head, and prepared dinner. The boys ate with gusto, leaving not a morsel behind. It didn't hurt serving the sloppy joes with tater tots. Ever since that night, I've wanted to properly thank the man for such a kind gift, but I never heard from him again.

Slow workout week on account of busy...

2010-02-01T00:30:00.000-06:00

Busy. Always busy. This is something I think everyone has to struggle with, how to accomplish all of the goals you set forth for yourself through the week and beyond. This week was a tough one for me. I seem to lose momentum on the weekends, as Saturdays are generally reserved for taking care of the boys while Meghan gets a day to sleep in and then run afternoon errands. I plan on running my long-slow-distance on Sundays, but that rarely comes to be. It has been my day to sleep in then cook an afternoon brunch of waffles, pancakes, Eggs Benedict or other terribly satisfying and lethargy-inducing food. It was waffles today.

Monday's weight-lifting workout did happen, but it was in the early evening rather than mid-afternoon as planned. We had a potential issue at work that needed investigating, one that I thought had a higher priority than it actually proved to be. I managed to eek in the workout before heading over to my friend's house for late night Cribbage game and a little Scotch. Yes, "Dad's Night Out" can be quite rewarding!

Tuesday, I missed my afternoon run with the gang on account of busy! This one was perhaps my fault. I scheduled a production release of software before lunch, which can sometimes run long for unforeseen issues. I should know better. Lunch didn't happen until 14:30 CST, just two hours before I had to leave to bring Connor to swimming lessons. I was going to leave at 15:30 to get my workout in, but had another deadline to meet by the end of the business day. I didn't get out until 16:30 anyway. My boss' comment, "Make time for yourself. Plan to be gone and people will adjust around your schedule." Lovely! I immediately blocked off an hour and a half for lunches every day.

Wednesday, I made it for my swimming workout! Wahoo! It seems that I am effective in applying the "Total Immersion" principles to my swimming. I spent a lot of time focusing on form and keeping my head down, as if I were trying to hold an orange between my chin and my chest. I aimed deliberately for arm re-entry and tried to remain balanced in the water. I did falter a bit when I got tired and sub-luxed my left shoulder (a half-dislocation), and I'm still feeling the after-affects today. I may have over-worked my shoulders on Monday's lifting workout, and the moment I lost my concentration was when it happened. I just need to remember that with good form, I prevent injuries, my efficiency improves, and I swim better. The results showed this: two 400 meter legs with only a five minute break between them. My goal is 1600 meters, 64 laps, in an hour -- no stopping.

Thursday was a nice run with our afternoon "club". We ran West along the river and back again. The pace felt a little fast for me for some reason, I think perhaps because I didn't have a good breakfast at all and had coffee all morning. I really need to eat healthier throughout the day if I want to get the most benefit out of these workouts. It's early in the season, so I can afford to make these little mistakes and adjust accordingly.

Friday was a loss on account of busy. This time it was a company lunch! I knew ahead of time, though, and should have adjusted my workout to the morning. Failing to do so meant lost potential and momentum.

You of course know what happened Saturday, my rest day, and today: waffles. So, what dos this tell me about the upcoming week? Plan effectively, eat healthy morning meals, and remember that form is everything. Oh, and waffles are REALLY tasty!

Chad

Helping out a Debianite!

2010-01-31T23:35:00.001-06:00

The week started out busy and stayed that way. Sunday afternoon, I spent my time helping out a good friend Renee with her Debian desktop. Years ago, she and her beau (now husband, IIRC) had been pinched for cash and tired of the BSoD's. Carl, an old co-worker of mine, and I suggested Debian as an alternative. About once every two or three years, they ask for a tune-up, and Sunday just happened to be that day. She was having issues playing sound and installing fonts. Usually easy things to fix, I spent the better part of the afternoon debugging the sound issues.

Carl and I apparently weren't very thorough with our initial setup. With the Gnome desktop, there is a nice little utility called gksu that prompts the user for either the root password of the system, or ties in to sudo, which apparently I mis-pronounce as "pseudo" rather than sue-doo, to allow a privileged user to enter their own password. This is the same type of setup that Apple's Mac OS X uses. Renee and Chris couldn't find the root password (easy enough to change), and gksu wasn't configured to use sudo! Awkward. As a result, over 460 packages needed to be updated for security or usability reasons since the release of Debian 5.0 (Lenny).

The second mis-step in our setup was forgetting to assign Renee's account to all the right local hardware access groups, such as "audio", "video", etc. Sound setup in Lenny was a bit weird anyway, so I downloaded and installed the PulseAudio packages. Took me a bit of hoop jumping and research to figure out all the right things to do -- turned out that it was a simple answer of adding Renee and Chris to two groups rather than one. Only took me a couple hours to find that one.

Lastly, of course, was trying to get Flash 10 working in Lenny. I found "The Perfect Desktop - Debian Lenny" to be extremely helpful. The difficulty with Debian in general continues to be its strict adherence to what it considers free. Adobe's Flash Player is definitely not free, and thereby does not warrant support. However, your browsing experience is seriously impinged upon if you do not include the latest Flash and Shockwave language. Free software has a natural latency to this level of support, it's always behind when trying to provide compatible variants to otherwise restricted rights software.

I can only think of one acceptable alternative to Debian, though: Ubuntu. Being a Debian-bigot, it's a natural fit for me. For the average user, not the monkey-wrenching geek like me, Ubuntu has all the benefits of the Debian operating system with the polish and support you would like to see in a desktop operating system. Ubuntu package selection is a bit more strategic than Debian's when it comes to "fitting in" to the current computing environment. This has earned Ubuntu the "black sheep" stigma from some hard-core Free Software pundits, one that is undeserved in my honest opinion. (I can guarantee you that it isn't on Richard Stallman's Top 10 list of Linux derivatives.)

Ubuntu would be a great fit for Renee and Chris. I'm using it on my laptop and my work-desktop right now! Works great! Perhaps the next time they need a tune-up, I'll convince them to switch over. Wulfgar, if you're reading this and tired of the BSoD's, look to Ubuntu!

Chad

Swimming in a Runner's Shoes

2010-01-23T00:12:00.001-06:00

The last couple weeks have been interesting for me, as I started training in earnest once more. On the night of the 13th of January, I was successful in registering for Grandma's Marathon 2010! A few days later, we also confirmed an agreement to rent a house on Park Point for a week spanning the race weekend. The stage is set for my first Marathon, and I hope to stay health enough to not only make it to the race day in once piece, but finish the race in a respectable sub-four hours. We'll have a few days following the race to enjoy the North Shore and visit with old friends. It is a vacation we greatly need. I'm looking forward to having campfires on the beach, listening to the waves roll in and roasting marshmallows with my family. Too bad it's five months away.

Staying healthy while training for this marathon is my focus. I'm told that a big 6'2" frame is tough on joints for runners, and last year's bursitis is a good affirmation of that statement. Every time I write that, I feel older than I really am. For that reason, I've mixed swimming into my training schedule, an activity I've always generally enjoyed. As a child living on a lake, I swam almost ever day. Waterskiing, tubing, fishing, and swimming were standard activities on Lake Mitchell. Despite this, I never really enjoyed swimming laps nor understood why anyone would want to swim an endurance event. It was too much work and too tiring to enjoy anything other than screwing around.

Why in the world would I try my luck with it now? The primary benefit is that of an aerobic work-out without the impact on my joints. Believe you me, that it's quite effective in depleting my muscles of glycogen! This is definitely what I had in mind two weeks ago. What I wasn't certain of was whether or not I could deal with the mind-numbing and exhausting work of swimming back and forth, back and forth.

Like anything I do, I try to "do it right," but what did that actually mean with swimming? I decided to take a scientists approach to it. Each time I entered the pool, I tried something different to see what worked best. I would come home to Meghan, excited about what I had found while she was there baffled that I "didn't know that?" I had no idea that I was supposed to have known apparently what she learned on the swim team. Hmm...

In any case, I kept at it and asked questions of anyone who was willing to give answers. A triathlete friend of mine, Jessica, suggested I take a look at Total Immersion, a program put together by Terry Laughlin. She commented on how my stroke looked much better Wednesday afternoon. Encouraged, I took her advice and checked the site out that night. I watched the six-part video segment on Perpetual Motion Freestyle. Although Terry didn't go into great detail about the drills in his program, the demonstration videos were rich on content, hitting some of the primary principles of swimming efficiently in the water. It was exactly what I needed. I couldn't wait to put his principles to test on Friday. If it worked out, I would consider purchasing his training materials.

Thursday's run with Jason and Amanda almost didn't happen on account of the freezing rain earlier that morning, though I would have been stuck on a treadmill rather than swimming; I hadn't brought my trunks. The run went well, despite the slick sidewalks. Most places were dry and traction was adequate. I really enjoy running with our afternoon group. We run at an easy pace and talk about anything under the sun. There are days when I don't want to run, or when I feel work is too busy to get out. I can count on Deb and Brett to get me out the door.

In any case, I did get to try out some of the principles today's swim. At noon, all of the lanes were occupied, but was offered to share a lane right away. In a few moments of conversation, I found out that I was swimming with another runner, and one that was familiar with the Total Immersion program and focusing on triathlon training. Crazy! We swam a few laps, and he pointed out that I wasn't keeping my head down enough. "Envision holding an orange under your chin," he said.

The next lap I swam, everything clicked, an epiphany moment. I already had a pretty good stroke, good extension, and I understood how to breath. Everything Terry had said about balancing in the water, moving with purpose and efficiency, and staying on target rushed back into focus. I felt like I truly was floating on the water, rather than plowing through it. I really enjoyed myself today, and I didn't struggle after 200m or even 300m. I basically lost track of my count, so I can only estimate that my final distance was between 800m and 1200m. Next Monday, I want to see how far I can go in my 40-50 minutes at lunch!

Excited about my new success, I brought up my findings at dinner to Meghan. She once again couldn't believe that I "didn't know that?" Swimmers.

Chad

Beery Good, Spicy Italian Spaghetti

2010-01-07T20:34:00.001-06:00

Time for a recipe! This one turned out beautifully today!

Beery Good, Spicy Italian Spaghetti
1.5 lbs spicy Italian sausage (6 links)
1/2 vadalia onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1/2 bottle pilsner beer
1 large can of tomato sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp Savory, dried
1/2 tsp Thyme, dried
1/2 tsp Oregano, dried
1/4 tsp Rosemary, dried
1/2 tsp Marjoram, dried
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
1 lb Spaghetti
Parmesan Cheese

In a 12" skillet, brown the sausage in a little olive oil. If you're using links, heat them up first as links, then take them off the heat. Let them cool and slice them up. Clean the skillet and sautee the onions in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until soft (5 min), add the minced garlic until fragrant (30 seconds). Add the sliced sausage back to the pan and pour in the beer. Reduce, 5-10 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and herbs, sugar, and salt and pepper. If you didn't have minced garlic, add the dried garlic now. Mix, cover, and simmer 15+ minutes. Cook the spaghetti in boiling water until slightly al dente. Transfer the noodles to the skillet with the sauce and add 1/2 cup of pasta water (the water you just boiled the noodles in). Cook for 5 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl! Garnish with Parmesan and serve with a lettuce salad, maybe some garlic bread.

Remember to add pasta water if you need to thin out the sauce.

Sketching out Training for 2010

2010-01-03T22:54:00.003-06:00

I've nailed down a few races now, but not many. I've got some aggressive goals for 2010, apparently. I ran just shy of 550 miles last year, starting in February and having a hiatus for hip bursitis. I'm pretty sure I over-trained in the second half of the year before Ragnar.

Version 1 of my training schedule is modeled off Hal Higdon's 18 week Intermediate - I schedule, date shifted forward to match Grandma's Marathon.

I get just a bit over a week before The Lakes 8k in Big Lake, so I won't be running that race very hard at all. I've included a couple pre-marathon races, and may add in a half-marathon if I find one that matches the training schedule. Of course, this is all dependent upon how my body reacts to training. This one is rather run-heavy, though if I want to pace for Adam in August, I'll want a good base mileage to work off of.

I do plan on including more cross-training, including biking to and from work, some free-weight training, and swimming. Version 2 of this schedule will likely have a more balanced approach, closer resembling a triathlete's training. I may include Wednesday's as "Cross" days rather than runs, giving me 2 "Cross", 4 "Run/Pace", and 1 "Rest" each week.

On thing to consider is that my commute to work is 5 miles, approximately. I can get there in about 15-18 minutes in the morning, and back home in 18-22 minutes. I would like to work up to riding every day of the week while not compromising my running training.

Let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

Chad

P.S. I found a nice site: Beginner Triathlete. Might be useful!

Ribbit, Ribbit Green Frog

2010-01-03T19:38:00.001-06:00

I came up with the following song when Connor was three, partly because I was tired of singing "Bah, Bah Black Sheep". It became an instant favorite, and I've sung it to both boys nightly since then. When Ryan was inconsolable on the emergency room bed, getting his eyebrow stitched back together, I sang him this song. When he wouldn't sit still for the hair stylist, I sang it again. Try it out! You won't be disappointed in your child's reaction.

Ribbit, Ribbit Green Frog

(Sung to the tune of Bah, Bah Black Sheep)

Ribbit, ribbit green frog,

have you any flies? (*Slurp, Slurp*)

A dozen or two,

I tell you no lies.

They're crunch and they're good

and I eat 'em all the time.

You can have some,

you can have some of mine.

Ribbit, ribbit green frog,

have you any flies? (*Slurp, Slurp*)

A dozen or two,

I tell you no lies.

-- Chad Walstrom, 2006

Finding Races for 2010?

2010-01-02T00:09:00.000-06:00

I've been mulling over which races I plan on running for 2010. Having done this last year, so I remembered a few sites that can be helpful for a Minnesota runner to find local races. Let's face it, as much as I would like to race around the states, I can probably only manage a few of these special trips a year.

The first site is called Apple Raceberry JaM. It has a pretty good collection of race information across the state. The site is very low tech, circa early 90's, but it wins in content. One intersting Marathon of note I found through this site is the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon on May 8th, between Holdingford and St. Joseph, MN. It's scheduled two months before Grandma's, and still five months away. These are the schools we used to race against in High School. It would be interesting to return as a much older (and slower) man to run again.

Another site that is useful is The Sporting Life Events. It catalogs races managed by The Sporting Life crew. I ran The Running of the Pigs last spring with Connor. We had a great time, so I would recommend these races to anyone. Of the races here, I'll probably run the Frigid 5 (or 8) in February and the St. Patrick's Day Human Race in March.

The Minnesota Distance Running Association also hosts a bunch of races throughout the year and list them here. All races are free if you register as a sustaining member, so if you plan on four or so, you may as well just become a member. One cool thing they do is Dome Running! $1 per night gets you three hours of running from 17:00-20:00 Tuesdays and Thursdays up through March 11th! So, for those really cold days, we can run inside instead!

So far, the only concrete race decisions I've made are to run in Grandma's and the Lake's 8k in June, and pace for Adam (Wahoo!!!) at the Leadville 100mi Trail marathon in August. I've added a few tentative races on my Fitness calendar (ala Google), which is embedded on this blog. A couple friends of mine offered up a couch in Florida so I could run the Gasperilla 15k in late February... I might take them up on it. :)

Chad

Push-ups and Sit-ups, How Good Are They?

2009-12-30T23:56:00.001-06:00

Push-ups and sit-ups are the most basic of exercises we learned to hate as a child. We were introduced to these seeming tortuous wastes of time by the sadistic discretion of phy-ed teachers. Of what use are they really?

Apparently, they're quite underrated. The standard push-up engages a number of core muscle groups to keep your body in a straight plank, and serves as an excellent workout for your pecs and triceps. Of course, you knew that. You probably also knew about the One Hundred Push Ups training program, a site that provides you a schedule toward completing 100 consecutive pushups.

The initial test is simple enough, do as many pushups as you can. Use that number to determine where in the schedule you should start. Five sets of varying reps for a week at a time. Fun stuff!

In likewise fashion, there is also a Two Hundred Situps training program, Two Hundred Squats, and soon to arrive Twenty Five Pullups sites give you schedules for similar physical feats of endurance.

I wouldn't be posting about this if I hadn't started, of course. 33 push-ups for the initial test moved me to week three. I tried Day 1 of the program, and didn't quite finish my fifth set: "at least 20". We'll see how Day 2 goes on Friday. I did better with the situps Day 1. I haven't tried the squats yet, but I might as well add that one in two. The triumvirate complete.

Chad

A Runner's Glance Back at 2009

2009-12-27T23:31:00.000-06:00

Running! Who knew I liked it so much?! O.K. I guess that's not really a genuine statement, since I've had a spotty, if not fond history with running most of my life. On a few occasions, I've stepped out the front door and ran a few miles, keeping up the routine for a week or three. Some reason or excuse would surface that allowed me to drop out of the race, figuratively. Why I never stuck with it seemed a mystery to me, until this year. I needed to remove the "figurative race" and replace it with a real one, a bunch of them.

As a result, I've accomplished quite a bit in this last year. I raced in not one but two 13.1+ mile courses, the Minneapolis Half-Marathon and Ragnar Relay Great River Race, as well as three 5k's and an 8k. I really committed myself to success! I missed the last half-marathon I had signed up for, Monster Dash, on account of hip bursitis, most likely caused by over-training.

This next year looks promising! My hip is back to almost-normal, and I've been running during lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays with friends in the Saint Paul downtown area. I hope to run at least one 5k or 10k each month starting with the Polar Dash 5k on Jan 1. There's a 15k in the last week of February in Florida that a friend of mine suggested. With my wife's gallivanting about the country this last year, I feel that some travel is due to come my direction sooner or later.

My focus run this year is Grandma's Marathon. It's something I've wanted to do for quite some time now. If you live in Minnesota and are a long distance runner, it has crossed your mind no less than a few dozen times. I'm no exception, obviously. Registration begins in mid January, and although they didn't fill registration last year, the same may not be true for this year. I'm anxiously awaiting the 14th!

I might consider running the Minneapolis Half Marthon again in May as a training race. The Minneapolis Duathlon is in August, and it sounds like a fun change of pace from just running. I ride my bike to and from work in the nicer months of the year. Finally the Monster Dash Half Marathon is in late October, the race I missed this year. Four of these races fall under Team Ortho's Marathon Marathon Series, which if I sign up for by tonight, I'll get some fancy Merch. Woohoo...

Rather than focusing on Merch, I want to make sure I'll be healthy to race, and perhaps mix it up a bit with different races. There are so many events across the country that it seems a shame not to try them. Ever hear of the 50/50? 50 marathons in 50 states? I also think it would be awesome to run as a pacer for my ultra-marathon friend, Adam! His run is in August, I believe. If I'm in shape for it, and if he would have me, I'd love to do it. (Hint, hint.)

Am I crazy? Probably, but there are worse things to be crazy about.

Keep Moving Forward!

Chad

When is a Holiday Ever a Vacation?

2009-12-27T23:10:00.000-06:00

I know, I know. A Holiday is no guarantee that you get to relax and kick up your feet. It is simply a time when you're not expected to go to work -- unless you're on-call, that is. This season was no exception. November and December are pretty much non-stop for our family. Not only do we have three major holidays within 45 days of each other, but we also have no less than six birthdays. Our children aren't really school age yet, but Connor did have a holiday concert as well. I can only imagine what our calendar is going to look like in a few years. Add on top of that my wife's fan-girl trips to other states to see a certain group of British musicians, and life's been pretty full-up lately.

I guess I shouldn't gripe much. I knew what was going to happen over these two months. We've been pretty fortunate lately. I've found a job that not only do I like, but pays well, includes a team of exceptional talent, and challenges me day in and day out. I managed to leave behind a position that wasn't really going anywhere for a product that was seen as the black sheep. I hated leaving my friends behind to deal with it, but I liked my sanity more.

I've accomplished quite a bit in this last year with respect to running, which I'll cover in another post. There are friends out there who don't care much for the details, and I get pretty geeky when it comes to things I like. The short of it is that I had a great year, finished a bunch of fun races, made some new friends, and over-trained! I'm recovering and expect to enjoy some new races next year! I may even enter a duathlon or triathlon! Hopefully Grandma's will be on the list! We shall see!

As for things I didn't accomplish this year? I didn't get my SCJP, nor did I hold a conversation in Chinese. Not bad, really. I did get a new job, learn some new stuff on my guitar (very beginner-level stuff), and of course ran my ass off.

I hope your year was a fruitful one for you, and if not, I hope this next one will be!

Cheers,

Chad