Run Streak Challenges and Pay-offs

I'm now going on my 37th day of my #runstreak, but I haven't yet picked out my workout. We have a house showing again today (no offers yet), so things have to look spiffy; no running this afternoon. Nora was squawking at 06:30 this morning, but she let me sleep in until 07:40 or so; I appreciated it.

As of yet, I'm still living like a night-owl. Most ultra-runners and long-distance runners seem to get their feet moving in the early morning light of dawn or pre-dawn. I just cannot seem to buy into it, valuing my "quiet time" after the children are asleep to watch television, sit on the computer, what-have-you. Yes, I realize that if I went to bed when Nora went to bed, I could get up and run before anyone wakes, but I never manage to follow through.

The runstreak has forced me to be consistent with training, however. Its is quite obvious with a rule like "run one mile every day" that consistency would be the outcome. The graph above is taken from my training log on DailyMile.com, and the trend is quite apparent; my training is right where it needs to be during the beginning phases of any program. With an average of five miles each day, or 50 minutes of running at a 10 minute mile, I'm looking at close to six hours of training. What is missing in this equation are generally my long runs. I haven't pulled out an LSDs beyond a ten miler in weeks.

In truth, what's missing is a coherent plan. I have some back-of-the-envelope calculations and general assumptions about races landing somewhere in October, November, April, June, and if I must, July, but races aren't my focus; distance is. Over the course of this weekend, I plan on spending time with Daniels' Running Formula, a spreadsheet, and a calendar. With consistency in my pocket now, it's a matter of defining how the next months will play out.

Blogstreak Broken, Runstreak Live On!

If you're paying close attention, you'll notice that I have a couple days where I didn't post to the blog. The streak is broken! I wasn't outwardly avoiding it, but I'm finding it hard to come up with interesting things to share on a daily basis. I'm developing a new found respect for professional writers, who routinely face this challenge as a way of life. How do you find new and intriguing stories, things worth highlighting?

Rather than walk you through "a day in the life of" each night, I am working to refocus these posts around specific topics. Yesterday's product review is a good example of this. If anything, expect to see things have a bit more direction and structure over the coming weeks as I fumble through this.

In any case, the #runstreak is still unbroken at 21 days! I'm planning on analyzing the last week of training on Sunday and goal setting for the upcoming week.

Reaching for the Jack Daniels

With as sore as I feel, my 17th day #runstreak turned out to be stellar! Although I don't have any concrete plans as to how far I should be running (other than 1 mile per day) or how fast, I still have some inkling as to where I would like to be. 30+ miles per week seems like a nice round number, as did the 10 miles I ran today. I know it's not a big number for Long Slow Distance, but it's where my body is letting me be right now.

If you've read this blog, you know that a while back, I purchased the Daniels' Running Formula a while back. I really like the book and think it has some sound training principles. Identify your current fitness level and train to reach the next one. Train for time on feet rather than distance. Include at least two quality workouts a week, with easy running in-between. Build up your distance gradually. These are all horribly paraphrased from what I took away from the book, so don't quote me specifically. If you're a rabid do-it-yourself'er, this is definitely one for the bookshelf.

The title I chose for this blog post is accredited to my desire for a more structured program. A runstreak takes away the guesswork as to whether or not you're running for the day, but it doesn't really give much more than that. I've been loosely trying to get at least three one-hour runs in per week, with half-hour runs in-between, and a long run on the weekend. Using the long run over the midnight hour trick, I've been able to squeeze in some "rest days" despite running each day.

I'm sore. My muscles ache. My tendons are strained. I've been switching between shoes and barefoot, especially when my feet feel pounded. I was dreaming of an ice bath tonight, so things must be bad. Last time I tried one, I couldn't keep my legs submerged for two minutes. I could go buy a couple bags of ice and sit in the tub, but that brings up the next factoid: I'm tired. I just want to crawl into bed and not get up until mid-afternoon. It won't happen, of course, but at last I'll get eight hours tonight.

Most of the Daniels' programs have a 7-day running program per week, so it covers the #runstreak. Additionally, most days include at least one hour of running. I'm working up to it, reaching for it. Now that I'm consistently running every day, I'm realizing the flaw in my logic about running in longer and longer races without really building up my strength and endurance appropriately. Sure, I complete the race, but it's always at what seems like a death-march pace. I go out strong-ish but basically crawl to the finish. For my first 50 miler, I want not only to complete it but also do so with some gas left, as if I know what I'm doing. I don't of course, but wouldn't that be nice? This Fall. I don't have a race picked out yet, but I'll put a fuzzy circle around mid-October to early November.

A Tricky Runstreak

Two times in one week, I've pulled the same runstreak trick: span one run over midnight to qualify as two days of running. It may seem like a cheat, but it has legitimate benefit. Think of it this way: a runstreak is running a minimum of one mile per day, every day. If you're training for anything other than a 5k run, most of your runs will be longer than one mile. We know that our bodies require rest periods to heal from the stresses we put it through, and training does this by design. A runstreak, therefore, is in direct conflict with the concept of "rest days".

By spanning a longer run over the midnight hour, I get to accomplish a couple of very important things: blow off steam, qualify two runs in one outing, I get to try out my new headlamp, and give myself at least 32 hours before I have to run again. If I had run in the morning on the day prior, there would be another 32-38 hours between runs. In the span of four days, I still run every day, but rather than having them evenly spread in 24 hour segments, I get longer rest periods in between.

To take this strategy to the extreme, consider that running every other night starting prior to midnight with sufficient time to finish at least one mile would allow almost 47 hours between runs. It still counts as a run per day, but it also gives an exceptional amount of rest between.

So, if you're getting burned out from running every single day and need some time off, consider a run that spans the midnight hour. Even one of these in a week is enough to give you a "day off" while technically qualifying as a run per day, keeping your streak alive!

8th Day Streaking!

The 8th day of my #runstreak was spent at a good clip looping from my house around Lake Como and back. It's a route I travel often, and frequently at night. I don't however, generally go out on a Friday; the traffic is awful! The two-plus miles to and from the lake are filled with stop lights and stop signs, the ever repeating grid of streets and sidewalks. Knowing this, I wore my headlamp and reflective vest to give me the maximum chance of being noticed. I'm alive, so it must have worked!

After seven days of running, my calves and Achilles are a bit sore, but surprisingly my left hip is relatively OK. The 200 yds of swim with a kickboard on Tuesday seems to have helped. A good stretch before I turn in for the night should help as well.

It really was a beautiful night out tonight, especially coming off a long stretch of hot and humid weather. Kevin Smith read JLA #13 and #14 on his podcast, "Fatman on Batman." I'm going to have to go out and buy JLA #15 now!

I find that three hours is not enough time from your last meal to wait before strapping on your shoes and running. I had heartburn from ten minutes onward. Not a great way to spend your time on the road. I managed through it and rewarded myself with a plain yogurt, fresh mango, chocolate chip, and shredded coconut "sunday" when I finished the run. Yum!

And for those counting, this is indeed my 8th blog post in 8 days! Streak on! (For some reason, I'm craving a steak.)

Last Year of My Dirty 30's

Here I am in the basement of my house once again, typing away on the computer in an uncomfortable folding chair made slightly more comfortable by old couch pillows. It's far from quiet due to the constant droning of fans from the old SunFire X2100 I obtained while working at Zayo Managed Services. It was a neglected machine in the hosting center, destined for the scrap heap, but it was a solid piece of engineering that begged to have Linux installed on it. Today, it hosts my website and acts as a local network host: overkill.

Its presence was appreciated when my hand-built whitebox workstation gave up the ghost, as was the Buffalo NAS. The real hero of the story was the little emachines desktop workstation named `icarus', after Connor's favorite Nintendo 3Ds game, an AMD Athlon II X2 220. With it, I was able to recover all of my personal data from `skuld'. Now that I have redundant backups in place, I'm finding the little workstation quite useful.

The basement is a familiar setting, one I haven't frequented in the last few years. I attribute this to family, laptops, and mobile devices. It's far more comfortable to sit on the couch, watch television, watch my children, and generally be around than to try to retreat to the cave. Oh what I wouldn't give for a proper office.

None of this is really relevant to the title of this post, which is "Last Year of My Dirty 30's". Let's give credit for this title where credit is due, my wife's post on Facebook. Was the last nine years of my life really all that dirty? And will the upcoming year be any worse? I'm curious to find out!

The first day of that journey began today, and with it a number of challenges I've placed upon myself. I've logged 512 miles of running so far this year, I've made a great start toward completing a 1,000 miles by December 31. To help me along the way, I have started a run streak — one mile per day, every day. Today's run was a 5K Birthday Run! My penultimate goal is to complete a 100 mile marathon before July 12th next year, but you already knew that.

My second challenge is a blog streak. You've guessed it: a blog post a day, every day. I'm not really sure I have enough material that is worthwhile to write, let alone worthwhile to read. I've given myself some loose rules to follow:

• Micro-blogging does not count, obviously.
• Provide some value to the reader, even if it is only me reading it.
• Find out what it means to approach 40.

Hopefully that means I'll be somewhat entertaining, but at least I'll be consistent.

I had a few others that didn't make the cut: a beer streak (I already like beer way too much to have another excuse to drink it), 100 push-ups (although I may do this anyway), 100 pull-ups (pull-up bar necessary), 100 sit-ups (see a trend here?), a photo a day (not really a shutter-bug - this would just be work).

With the conclusion of this sentence, the journey begins!

Thirty Days of Running, Hacking, and Other Things

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!

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.