100 Mile Month - Finished with a Bang!

At the start of the month I stated my goal of running 100 miles during the month of May. My long run this morning carried me over the mark. I ended the month with 106.4 miles. My highest total ever. I needed the full 5 Saturday's to get there, so I don't know if I can repeat it in the months to come, but I will try. Most marathon training programs incorporate A MINIMUM of 35 miles per week which would get me up to at least 140 miles per month. Right now I'm in the 20-25 miles/week range.

So, here is my graph with the full month of May showing.

Another item of note was my long run today. Following my race on Monday I had been somewhat lazy this week. I didn't run the day after the race. I ran an easy short run on Wednesday. And then I had late nights Wednesday and Thursday - one making a Raingutter Regatta boat and the other watching the Lost season finally. Both lead me to skip my morning runs on Thursday and Friday. Because of the light week I decided to make my long run particularly long - I planned on at least 12 miles.

I chose this distance because the trail by my house is about 6.1 miles long. I like this trail for my long runs because it is marked with signs every half mile so I can easily measure my pace. As I ran this morning I was feeling quite strong and went the full length including the .1 miles past the last sign on the far end. As I ran back I noted that I was running a faster pace than the half-marathon pace I ran last Thanksgiving. My pace then was 9:06/mile for a finishing time of 1:59:05. I then decided to double back one of the half mile sections and add 1 more mile to my run to get in a full Half-Marathon.

Of course my pace slowed a little on my way back but was still averaging under 9:00/mile when I doubled back at the .5 to go mark. I ended up running 13.25 instead of the 13.1 Half Marathon distance but even with the extra .15 miles my finishing time was faster than my Thanksgiving Day race. Based on my pace of 8:54/mile my Half Marathon time was 1:56:35. To bad my PR list is only based on "Official Races". But it still feels good to know I'm ahead of where I was last fall. I am confident that if I was actually in a race mentality and not a bit worn out from already running a hard race earlier in the week I would have done even better so I am quite encouraged...

As for my weight update: I weighed in at 194 this morning but my Google 15 moving average (this is a Google gadget that calculates a 15 day moving average to smooth out weight variation) is a bit higher at 195.8. I am hoping to get down to 190 by the end of June to prepare for the Peachtree Road Race I am running on the 4th of July. For those of you who don't know what the Peachtree is, it is the largest 10k in the world with 55,000 runners.

Celebrate America - The Results Show...

Ok, so the official race results were posted last night so I thought I would give you a breakdown. First off, I hate to argue when they IMPROVE my time by 12 seconds but there is no way my watch was off that far and my watch was within a second of the only split called out, at the 1 mile mark. The only thing I can think is that the course was actually more than 10k so they subtracted the distance and, based on your pace, reduced your time accordingly. Nothing else explains the 12 second change… Having said that, I guess I’ll take it! So, here are the numbers:

10 kilometers (6.2 miles) – 48 minutes flat or 7:43/mile (I timed 48:12 on my watch)
Runners: 478 doing the 5k, 457 doing the 10k for a total of 935 runners at the starting line(guess I can't estimate crowds very well...)

Winning Times: 15:38 for the 5k (at least I was less than a mile back at that point – just barely), 35:14 for the 10k (I was getting a drink in the middle of mile 5 about then…)

My Placing: For the 10k – 96th overall (my card said 98 so I'm guessing two unregistered runners went through the finish gate), 83rd Male, and 11th out of 48 35-39 year old men. Had I just run the 5k, my split of 23:10 would have been good for 76th overall and 8th for the 35-39 year old men.

Observations of Note: I lapped a total of 9 runners before they could complete their 5k. My improvement of 3:41 from my last 10k moved me up 69 spots in the overall and 15 spots in my age group. I ran almost the entire race within arms distance of a 59-year-old female who finished two spots and 14 seconds ahead of me when she pulled ahead on the final hill. Unlike last year when I think at least a half a dozen teenage girls beat me, this year there was only 1 and lets face it, if you run sub 40 as a 15 yr old girl, you’ve got a future in the sport! And you remember that kid I helped pull up the hill? I think that is him 1:29 behind me, 13 years old, taking 1st place in the 10-14 male category!

Race Report - Celebrate America 2008 version

I wanted to put up some pictures and a race report from my Memorial Day race. Monday morning I ran the Celebrate America 10k in Alpharetta, GA. I had been holding off putting up a report until the official results were posted but I have decided to just update the post when they are. This race represented a great measuring stick for me for many reasons. This is the first time I have run the same race for a second year – although last year I ran the 5k version. This is also the exact same course that I ran my 10k on in early March, right before I really ramped up my training efforts.

This was my first race since I started my fundraising efforts so here I am posing in my yellow Diabetes Action Team race shirt. This picture is actually in my back yard after my long run on Saturday. Knowing I had a race on Monday I forced myself to take my 9 mile run very slowly and my 1hr20min time for that run felt like a crawl – good thing since that is the exact pace I want to run my marathon at…


The other really neat thing about this race is that it is the first time I have successfully guilted, I mean, talked my wife into attending a race and she dragged the kids along to boot. That was great! The race was scheduled to start at 7:30am so we got there about 6:45. I went and signed in, got my number, 232, and my T-shirt, then went back to the van where everyone was waiting. We then got out and took the picture below of me with my personal cheering crew. When we finished it was about 7:05. Jamie went back to the van while I went for a warm-up run. I jogged just over a mile at something like 12 minute pace that felt like not much more than a shuffle but it got the blood flowing. At 7:20 I returned to the van and dragged everyone to the starting line.


Here is the field lined up to start. Can you pick me out? Remember, I’m in yellow, I’m looking generally in the direction of the camera, and your best clue is that I’m the good-looking one. I would guess there was 400-500 runners there but this was a mixture of 5k and 10k runners. The course is a 5k loop that you run twice for the longer distance. I lined up a bit further back than I should have, like I always tend to do, but it is kind of nice to spend the first mile passing dozens of people even if it does slow you down.


So for a general description of the course you should know that the first mile is slightly uphill but at a low gradient the whole way. As you start mile two you immediately drop down a good hill for a quarter mile and then run close to level the rest of that mile. The third mile in the loop starts with about .4 mile hill that is the largest on the course and then drops back to close to the same elevation by the end of the mile – net a wash but with a big hump in the middle. For the final .1 miles you climb up a little hill into the parking lot and like I said, for the 10k, you repeat the loop.

Mile 1 – The start was delayed slightly as the run organizers realized that a policeman’s motorcycle was blocking some runners and we had to wait for him to move it. As I crossed the starting line I tried to look to the curb and find my wife and kids for a final wave but I never did see them through the crowd. Apparently they saw me though because Mischa let out a "Go Daddy" that I heard clear as day. What a lift it gave me! My pace was a bit faster than I had planned especially considering the crowds I had to weave through but I didn’t feel like I was pushing it and I wasn’t winded. It was my first clue that my race was going to go well. – 7:21

Mile 2 – I cruised down the hill with long strides. The crowds were thinner now and most of the passing was done as people set into their groups. Not wanting to burn out I tried to pull back on the reigns a bit. I felt I was in a comfortable zone and I was feeling good. I passed the first water station as it was clogged with a large group of people who obviously went out much faster than they should have and were now standing at the water table instead of running past. For some odd reason the volunteers weren’t handing out cups either, letting the runners grab their own off the table. – 7:22

Mile 3 – Holy Cow, was my watch reading right? How is it that I pulled back but ran almost the same pace? As I pondered race strategy for a couple hundred yards I failed to focus on the big hill I was hitting. I finally came back to awareness I pushed into the hill knowing I could coast down the far side to regain my breath on the long downhill. Still feeling strong through this mile I remembered the struggles I had at this point last year. If you remember the famed pinched butt post and my need for a port-a-pottie, you know what I’m talking about. – 7:42

Mile 4 – As I rounded the corner into the parking lot I noted the clock for the runners finishing their 5k. Had I been in that group I would have crossed in the range of 23:10 even without a kick. That was 41 seconds faster than my 5k personal record (PR)! Was I going to die on this second lap? Just before the finish line for the 5k the 10k runners turned back out of the parking lot to start the second lap. There waiting on the corner was Jamie and the kids. They screamed and cheered and I blew them a kiss (right before the picture below was snapped) grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer and then headed back up that long slow climb again. – 8:09


Mile 5 – Crud, I just ran a mile split over 8 minutes. My goal for this race was to run sub-50 minutes and I knew that to pull that off I needed to run 8:02 per mile or better and although I had built up a bit of a buffer in those first 3 miles I could easily burn through it if I died off. Knowing I had that hill in mile 6 to climb I pushed into this downhill/flat mile. My breathing quickened a stride here but still not overly labored. I did hit the water station this time but this time there was no other runners there as I went by. I was feeling strong but would I have enough for that last hill? – 7:52

Mile 6 – With that number my confidence began to build. I knew that no matter what this hill threw at me there was no-way I was going to run a 9:20 mile and blow it. I pushed hard into the hill. A high school kid had stopped and was walking up the hill. I yelled out to him as I approached and told him to push it and I would pull him up the hill. As I went by I heard him start to run and I heard him on my hip all the way to the top. Amazingly it felt like he was pushing me, not as I had promised him… He fell back as I strided out when we crested and started our decent. I didn’t see him at the finish but he couldn’t have been too far back. – 8:15

Last .2 Miles – Crud, I thought my kick down that hill would get me sub 8 for sure but I guess that hill took more out of me than I thought. I really pushed into it with everything I had. I rounded the corner into the parking lot and my first glimpse of the clock said 47 something. Are you kidding me? I had done the math but it didn’t sink in until I saw it on the official clock. There was Jamie and the kids cheering me again. I think Caleb looked up from his DS to acknowledge me but I know the other kids were waving. I hit my watch as I crossed under the clock, 48:12 unofficial time – 1:29 for that last .2 miles. That is an average pace of roughly 7:47 per mile.

Did I expect to go sub 50, yes, did I think I would be this far under 50, no way! With that I qualify for group 1A at Peachtree next year where this year I’m in 1B. If you understood that sentence you are a runner, if not, don’t worry about it… I broke my 10k PR by 3 minutes and 31 seconds! What a great feeling! Vindication for all of my miles the last few months, not to mention the last few years! I eventually made my way back to Jamie. She will tell you that after I run, for some unknown reason, I talk like a 13 year old girl! You can’t shut me up. The harder or faster or longer I run, the more I talk! Maybe that is why I blog so much about running and they are always my longer posts… who knows?

I will put up my official results including place, field size, and all that jazz once the race organizers put it up. Until then, all I know is that I think I was 98th overall for the 10k based on the number on the finish line card I had to complete and I’m guessing I was 5th or 6th for my age/sex based on the number of cards in the box already when I turned mine in. Lets see how close my estimates are…

First Donor

I sent out my emails last Friday letting everyone in my address book know about my fundraising efforts through the Diabetes Action Team. I heard from a couple people almost immediately via phone and a handful told me they would be making a donation for which I am very grateful. The website emails me each time a donation has been made in my name. Less than an hour after the email went out I got word of my first donation.

If you visit the donation site you will see that single donation scroll by on the continuous "Honor Roll". The donor requested anonymity on the honor roll so I won't reveal his identity here but I will say I was a bit surprised. Not that this guy would donate, but that he was the first to respond. My anonymous donor was a college classmate that I haven't seen or spoke to in over 12 years and I have only communicated I think 2-3 times via email in that time frame. I am honored that someone so remote in my past would contribute to my effort.

I am not a good fund raiser. My kids NEVER sell magazines, candy, or anything the school wants them to hock for the "Super-Seller-Reward". In high school my ROTC program had to sell raffle tickets and everyone was required to sell at least 10. I think my parents bought 9, if not all 10 every single year. It is very humbling for me to ask my friends and family to support me in this and I will never be "pushy". If you got an email, you are not going to get another one, if you didn't get an email, it is because I don't have your address or I had an old outdated one as a few got kicked back to me (there are a few that my wife may have that still may get an email as well).

But I am on my way. I am now 2.5% closer to my goal. I hope no one feels pressure to donate as I appreciate your support in whatever form you give it be it donation, good wishes, or silent prayers... For those of you plotting my downfall, that may be a different story!

CAR ACCIDENT!!!!

Grab your attention? Don't worry, it is not that bad, I just wanted to scare ya. Of course that assumes you care enough to worry. I guess it had to happen eventually, given the wonderful world of statistics. For the first time in my life I was behind the wheel of my car when it and another vehicle collided with enough force to leave a mark. Sure I’ve had my share of parking lot bumper bumps at 1 mph that don’t leave a single mark. And less than a week after I got my new truck a few years back I sideswiped a telephone pole trying to squeeze through an opening that in hindsight was too narrow. But this was the first time I have had a two man insurance seminar with an unknown driver. Thank goodness it wasn’t my fault, unfortunately it was my damage.

Driving to work last week I was behind a large 10 wheeled mobile fuel truck. Approaching an intersection I saw the light turn yellow from green and estimated that I would easily be in and probably through before it turned red. Apparently the truck driver in front of me didn’t make the same assessment. I saw red lights come on and all 10 tires lock up and smoke begin to rise. I braked hard and stopped a good 10-15 feet behind the truck. I was, however, in his blind spot.

The truck protruded beyond the white line, partially into the intersection. He was not blocking traffic but vehicles would have to alter course slightly to get around him. Not wanting to be a bother, the truck driver decided to back out of the intersection. (You see where this is headed don’t you…) Not seeing a car in his rear view mirror he started to back up.

At this point my heart skipped a beat. Was I really seeing his reverse lights??? Crud, he is moving! Backwards!!! I felt like Hunt for Red October and this "Crazy Ivan" was clearing his baffles. The movie changed however into Austin Powers and I was the security guard, incapable of moving while the steam roller slowly approached him. The car on the cross street saw what was happening and laid into their horn to alert the truck driver. Unfortunately the driver interpreted this as a request to clear the intersection more hastily. After awakening from my brain stutter I simultaneously laid on the horn with my left hand, checked my rear view mirror, hit the gear shifter with my right hand, and slammed my foot onto the gas.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that I was rushing and looking at the mirror instead of the gear shifter I only managed to reach neutral instead of reverse. My engine roared with a full whiff of fuel but no gears engaged to consume its energy. My second attempt to find reverse succeeded at precisely the same moment as the rear of the truck found its mark. I stared in horror as I watched a protruding point gouge into my hood. After 6-8 inches of gouging I was finally retreating faster than he could advance I watched as he came to a stop a good 5 feet further back from where he first made contact with me, oblivious of the entire incident. I stopped another 10 feet back and jumped out of my car to observe the damage.

I can only imagine the other driver’s thoughts when he saw a man doing jumping jacks in his side mirror. He got out and walked back. I think the implications of realizing that there had been someone behind him hit him as I saw the concern on his face grow as he approached me. He was a good guy and I don’t envy anyone that has to tell their employer that they hit someone while on the job. We both pulled into a neighboring Publix shopping center to exchange information and I don’t think a single sentence came out of his mouth that didn’t include the word sorry somehow.

So both my wife and I were in car accidents within 2 months of each other. Of course, unlike my wife’s accident, I am only getting a new hood instead of a new car. Oh well. As everyone always points out, in both incidents, at least no one was hurt…

Diabetes Action Team

The votes are in. Maybe you didn’t see the evolution as closely as I did but things changed over the week of voting quite a bit. Autism jumped out to an early commanding lead but diabetes won with a 1 vote margin getting a come from behind win on the final day of the poll. As I reflected on the results the more I realized that I am happy with the result. That is not to say any of the other causes are any less important but what really got me running? Fear of diabetes. What really sustained me in my weight loss efforts? Not wanting to diabetes to dictate my life.

Maybe after this first one I will turn and do additional marathons raising funds for other causes. Who knows? I hope none of you are disappointed that I haven’t chosen the cause that has impacted or is impacting you and your family. Heck, I even went against the vote of my own mother on this…

Where do I and hopefully you go from here? I have set up a website with the Diabetes Action Team. It is a tax-deductible non-profit organization supporting research and education of diabetes. Through that site you can make a secure online donation. If you are not comfortable with that, let me know and there is a way to make offline donations as well. I am asking for your support in reaching my fundraising goal of $1,000. If I get there quickly I may raise my goal, but for now, having never done this before, 4 figures is a bit of a stretch. Anything you are comfortable giving would be appreciated.

Let’s face it, not too many people read this blog so if you do you most likely will be getting an e-mail from me as well. Please don’t feel pressured to donate, that is not my intent. I’m just trying to do the most good with the efforts I am putting forward. Thanks again for all you do to support me.

200 miles... this year

Short post here, just noticed that with today's run I just went over 200 miles for the year. Remember this post? How was I in awe that 100 miles was so amazing? By the end of the week I will exceed 400 miles since I started to keep track.

Un-Official Personal Record

Just a quick entry here, I just wanted to write about my run last weekend. It was an 8 mile run, but more significantly I ran a 10k (6.2 miles) as fast as I could and then coasted the last 1.8 miles. My splits for the 10k were as follows:

Mile 1 - 7:57
Mile 2 - 7:55
Mile 3 - 8:00
Mile 4 - 7:59
Mile 5 - 8:21
Mile 6 - 8:30
Last .2 miles - 1:42
Total 10k time 50:24

If you look to the right you will see that my official PR (personal record - clocked in a race on an official course) for the 10k is 51:43. That was set just in March. A whole 1:19 slower than my run last weekend. By besting this in a training run where I wasn't even motivated by all the things a "race" involves has me VERY excited that breaking the 50 minute barrier in my Memorial Day race is a real possibility. Although I hit a bit of a wall at the 4 mile mark I didn't die off completely and I definitely didn't sprint or try to "finish strong" on my run which could have cut quite a bit else off. Also, after considering this during my run last night I realized that probably 80% of my runs are less than 4 miles. My body was hitting a wall because I don't train the longer distances as much.

In looking at my training log I am definitely seeing that I am ahead of where I was last fall. In the fall (Aug-Nov) 19 of my 37 training runs (51%) were slower than 9 min/mile pace where this spring (Mar-May) only 9 of my 33 training runs (27%) have been slower than that pace. If you wonder why that is such a magical number for me... My half-marathon was run at 9:05 pace to get me in just under 2 hours. My goal is a sub-4 hour marathon this fall so I don't want to train much slower than that on my short runs and no more than 20-30 seconds per mile slower on my long weekend runs. (You think this engineer gets caught up in the numbers sometimes?)

As for the poll, this is the last day so if you miss it, don't blame me. I will declare a winner tomorrow! I'm worried because for right now it is a tie and then I am back in the same boat. So, if you haven't voted, please do so. If you feel the need to change your vote, feel free to do so. But it all ends tomorrow morning... And don't worry, my wife had a good idea that whatever I don't do this time I could do for my second marathon... , and third, fourth, etc.

And BTW, for my weight, I've broken my plateau and I'm down in the 196 range again and seem to be dropping fast. Hopefully I can ride it all the way down to my goal without another plateau...

80 Mile Month

Wow, what a rewarding month. For the first time ever I logged 80 miles in a single month. My previous high for mileage was 63 in the months leading up to my Half-Marathon. Below is my graph of running since I started keeping a log in late August.




Some interesting things you can see in the graph is that my long runs (I define a long run as anything over a 10k or 6.2 miles) have become less of a component of my monthly mileage and my daily runs a larger part. In graph form my falling off the apple cart after my Half-Marathon is quite obvious as well. The slightly lower mileage in November is because I didn’t run the rest of the month following the Nov 22 Race. I then roughly double my mileage each month January through April (10, 22, 42, and 80). Don’t expect the same doubling for May. My goal, which by stating publicly I am giving myself accountability, is 100 miles for May.

In April I ran on 19 of the 30 days during the month. If you discount the 4 Sundays, I missed 7 actual running days and never more that 2 days in a given week. In hindsight I should have missed a few more days (only took 1 day off for a back pain I fought for a week and I ran a 5 miler the same day I donated blood – NOT RECOMMENDED) but at the same time I felt good about pushing through some things I would have used as excuses in the past.

If you do the math you will see that I averaged just over 4 miles per day that I ran. So, I can make the additional 20 miles of my goal in 1 of three ways. 1) If I miss 5 less days during the month that will give me the extra 20, 2) Since there are 5 Saturdays in May, hopefully I will get more long runs in, 3) I can drop some of the shorter 3 and 3.2 mile neighborhood loops from my morning rotation and only do the 3.4 mile and up loops, my average morning run lengths will increase. My guess is that to reach the 100 mile mark it will have to be a combination of all three of these. Wish me luck.

As for my weight loss, because I know you all are just SO interested, I think I am finally starting to break my plateau. For my run last November I got as low as 198. When I stopped running I actually drifted a little lower down to about 196.5 as I think I lost some muscle mass. By the end of January I was back over 200, by February 202. In March I started running again with some regularity and what happened – up to 204 by my birthday (I did visit and "enjoy" France during that time). For the bulk of April I held almost a constant 202-201 and was getting quite frustrated that I was putting in 20 mile weeks and not seeing any results. You can only tell yourself that muscle weighs more than fat so much! In the last week I have finally seen the scale dip under 200 and this morning’s 198.4 was the best I’ve seen since January. Maybe the fat to muscle conversion is done now and I can resume my march to 183… Once again, wish me luck. Just struck me, can you call an 80-100 mile month "luck"? Maybe I should switch to something like wish me strength/success/perseverance… or is that what "luck" connotes?

First Thing - RUN, Don't JOG

One of my commenters (okay, so I only have two) asked a question that I felt was good enough for a post instead of just a response in the comment field. The question was "Do you have any advice for a beginning runner like me?"

Before I get to the advice, I wanted to point out a psychological element of the question. You are, as you asked, a beginning runner, not a jogger. What is jogging? You often see people "jog" their memory by hitting the side of their head. That doesn’t sound enjoyable. Kids in a playground don’t "jog and play". Running denotes freedom, choice, enjoyment, where jogging denotes punishment, sweat, and no other alternative. One running shoe company has an entire marketing campaign based on that distinction. I’ve read somewhere that the 7-minute mile is the line between running and jogging but I disagree. The line is psychological not measurable.

Anyway, I am certainly no expert (unless 1 year of High School Track, two semesters of college running class, and 1.5 years of weight-loss exercise qualify). I will start this post with the disclaimer that perhaps your best bet is to stop now or face the potential bad advice that may follow. But of course, let’s be honest, if you were concerned about bad advice you would never read my blog in the first place…

In fear of potential lawsuits my first and probably only valid suggestion would be to visit your local running specialty store. I have had wonderful experience with Fleet Feet as you may have read in past posts but there are many good ones to go to. I’m not talking shoe store or sporting goods store, I’m talking about a running store. They LOVE to help new runners and will have many good suggestions.

What are they going to do for you? First and foremost, they will get you in the right shoes. Everyone’s foot is different, as is his or her stride. Most shoe manufacturers make shoes to match your specific needs based on those factors. The running store will help you identify your needs where a shoe store may not be able to do that. I know the allure of running is the relative "free" nature of it but I promise you that the right shoes make a difference. I’m not saying you need $150 shoes but really, if you are not paying at least $60 or so, you WILL invite injury.

Next, clothing - Ask any runner and they will tell you that cotton is EVIL! Okay, maybe not that bad but certainly not ideal. Find a shirt, shorts/pants, socks, that are made from some kind of synthetic material that wicks moisture away. This will add comfort and reduce odor, blisters, and chaffing. I start with shoes and clothes because they will also make you feel more like a runner instead of a shlub that decided to go out for a jog.

Start Slow – Don’t go out today and expect to run a 5k tomorrow. You may be able to, but it may not be the best idea. If you are running and you are having a hard time breathing, walk for a while, then run again. Over time the running periods will lengthen and the walking breaks will shorten and/or go away. Don’t climb your mileage too fast. Increase your distances slowly. I would say no more than 25% each time. As your mileage climbs you can even slow that rate to 10% increases. The main point is that just because you can run 3 miles feeling GREAT doesn’t mean you can run 10 without some real potential for injury.

Log it – So I’m an engineer that loves the numbers but I find it really keeps me motivated to know how far, how fast, for how long I ran. Looking back gives a great sense of accomplishment. Did you realize I have run over 330 miles since last August? I couldn’t say that unless I was keeping track of it. If you are not running on a track or a measured pathway Google Earth has a great measuring tool you can use to see how far you went. It may not be perfect, but good enough for government work… You can log your data on a calendar, on an Excel spreadsheet, or there are even several free online Training Logs. Milestones and improvement over time help make a desire into a habit.

Stretching – This is critical and I think one of the more common things I think beginners mess up. You watch runners before races and what are they doing, stretching, but what you don’t see is the warm-up run they did before that. You can’t stretch cold muscles! What does that mean? Don’t spend 10-15 minutes stretching before you start your run. You may actually do more damage than good. Always stretch AFTER your run, or at least after some warm-up miles. My rule of thumb is if I run less than about 3 miles, I stretch afterwards. If I’m tackling more than that I may stop 2-3 miles in and do 5 minutes of stretches and then again at the end of my run.
Injuries – I won’t say much more than don’t run injured. You can run hurt or in some pain but not injured. I’ll let you and your doctor draw that line. That is why so many of my other tips are related to avoiding injury, all the desire and good intentions can’t overcome serious injuries.

Race – This gets back to that runner/jogger element I talked about earlier. Joggers don’t race. Go to active.com, find some local race and sign up. A race is the validation of your hard work, efforts, and time. Any hey, who can say no to unlimited bananas at the finish line? (most of the time)

I’m not sure if this is what you were looking for or if it even helps but those are my thoughts. I have countless other tips but if I start sharing all my stories I may start sounding like a kook…

Any runners who may have had the unfortunate experience of stumbling upon my blog while you were looking for something of value, please add your two cents in the comments as well…

How Google See's my Blog

I don't know if I should be insulted or not but I can't say I was excited when I noticed the first banner add that Google chose to place on my blog. More out of curiosity than anything I went ahead and added an AdSense banner ad space on my blog. They had a public service announcement the first few days until they had time to review my blog then they assigned what they felt was the most applicable ad from their list of clients to put there. Go ahead and take a look at it real quick. It's a couple inches down on the right... I'm not sure if it will stay the same or if it will change periodically but is that really the most applicable ad?

In case it has changed by the time some of you read this the ad in question reads, "Prevent runner's diarrhea, Learn what causes runner's diarrhea and how to prevent it"

So as you read my blog are your first thoughts, "Hmmmm, that boy sure enjoys running, I wonder if it ever gives him diarrhea?" or "Sounds like he likes to run. I would run more if only it didn't give me such bad diarrhea..." or "Boy, this guys writing about running stinks and his use of run-on sentences flows like diarrhea."

Okay, so a goodly number of my posts are related to running. I admit that. But really, don't they have ANY other sponsor related to the topic? Online shoe sales? Discount workout clothes? Subscriptions to running magazines? Surely Google has lots of clients. Is that the best they could assign to my site or is that all they deemed it worthy of?

So the big question is, Would you click on a link with the word DIARRHEA in the headline? Couldn't they at least add one of those dancing characters you see in other banner ads? They at least look like they have diarrhea...

Okay, sorry for the vent...

Proud of my Daughter

I know this is a reposting of the same picture my Wife put up but hey, you wouldn't deny a father the chance to thump his chest for a daughter that I can't be any more proud of. I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize her on April 12th.



This is us just before the service. She was baptized in a service with two other youths. My brother from Charlotte and his family came down for the service and visited for the weekend. All in all, it was worth missing my Saturday long run... easily, and thats saying something if you just read my last post.

Already Seeing Results - Running BUG

Well, it hasn't been a perfect month so far in terms of getting up EVERY morning, but I haven't missed more than 1-2 days per week (of course not counting my Sunday Rest Day). And all of the days I have missed had extenuating circumstances (aka "excuses" like too cold, stayed up late night before, and back pain) but hey, I'm improving. Slowly but steadily I am noticing improvement. April is already my highest mileage month to date (over 65 miles month to date) with a week to go. Yesterday I ran a two mile interval in 14:45. Nothing to brag about but certainly the fastest two miles I have run since High School. Based on that I have no doubts that I will improve on my 5k PR the next time I have the opportunity to run the shorter distance.

They say anything done for 21 days becomes a habit. Given I have missed a few days I don't think I am there yet, but I am getting close. I now find myself craving my morning run and the peace and solace I find during that run. When I miss it I feel "off" for some reason. You know I got the bug when I was reading the running commentary of the Boston Marathon on Monday. Why should I care? I DON'T KNOW! But I do. More than anything I was jealous that I'm not fast enough to join them. I have dropped my Sports Illustrated subscription in favor of Runners World. I find myself now debating if I will play church basketball next season as I don't get the same satisfaction out of it and I used it as a reason to not sustain my running over the winter this year. I also found that I enjoyed reffing the games more than I did playing in them.

One interesting thing of note is that of the 65 miles in April, not 1 has been on a treadmill. I have found that the draw of the road, trail, OUTSIDE, has been a big part of my sustained effort. Where last fall I only had the draw of that next race to motivate me to jump on the treadmill and stare at a wall for 30 minutes, I am slowly turning a corner where the race is the celebration at the end of training but the training is part of the joy as well.

Hey, who knows how it will be going this time next month, but for now, I am loving it. Even if my toenails are dying and falling off... but that's another story.

Early Morning Running

Okay, I think I have written before about the struggle I have had motivating myself to run ever since my Half Marathon last Thanksgiving. Here is the accountability:

December: 3.1 miles, 198 lbs
January: 10.7 miles, 200 lbs
February: 25.8 miles, 204 lbs
March Weekly Mileage: 4, 18.2 (France and Race week), 6.9, 0, 9.5 (38.6 for month), 202 lbs
April Weekly Mileage: 12.7 (so far – tomorrow’s run to add), currently 200.5 lbs

Even with the slowly increasing miles, it is inconsistent at best. I don’t know if it was the letdown after the peak (as I previously attributed this too in my earlier post), the cold weather, or just me choosing to be lazy, but I did know I wasn’t happy with what I was doing and I craved to be out there running again. I missed the high that my 15-25 mile weeks had given me last fall leading up to my Half. I got a taste of it that week in France but failed to follow through even the very next week. So what have I done about it?

I told myself that any morning over 40° F I would run before getting ready for work. At 5 AM! It was the start of last week when I made that commitment and I even bought some additional running clothing and a head-lamp to accommodate this running pattern change. The first part of last week didn’t meet the temperature cut-off and then I was getting over a cold so my first day of actually running was last Friday, the 28th. That run and a Saturday long run account for all of last week’s mileage. This week I have run 4 out of 5 mornings.

My problem has always been squeezing in a run around being a father, husband, and other distractions of life. In the past I actually felt guilt about abandoning my wife with the kids while I was out there enjoying my solitude. (Whether she felt abandoned or not) I justified it as I needed to loose the weight "for them". That may have been partly true but not the whole story. I also didn't derive much joy from a 9 or 10 PM treadmill run. At 5 AM they are all fast asleep, no guilt, even more solitude. On the 5 mornings I have run so far I have seen more deer than humans (including a nice buck). What a great time to be out there.

Yes I know 1 week does not a long-term commitment make and I may weary of this routine, but for now, I love it. I used Google Earth and measured the distances of various routes around my neighborhood. With that variety in hand I have only once ran the same course more than once. Each of my runs range from 3 to 4 miles in length and take me anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes to complete. I am home by 5:45 each morning, the time my alarm used to be set for. I have found more spring in my step at work and even more focus on my morning drive to work.

I have also gone ahead and signed up for my Marathon (Chickamagua Battlefield Marathon) that won’t be until November 8th but now I’m financially committed as well. Other races on my schedule include a 10k on Memorial Day close to my house and the 55,000 runner strong 10k Peachtree Road Race on the 4th of July in downtown Atlanta. It is the largest 10k in the World and you have to apply within days of the application being published if you have any hope of getting in. Not only have I been accepted, my qualifying 10k time was fast enough to earn a Group 1B slot and a timing chip. There are 9 Groups and only those in Group 1 (Invitees-Elites-1A-1B) (1B=50-55 minutes) get a timing chip.

As you can guess, all of this has me excited about running again for the first time since November really. So, who’s going to join me?

Paris, or at least the Eiffel Tower

I promised way back when that I would write about my trip to France. Of course it has taken me close to a month to sit down and write about my trip. This was definitely a business trip as I had very little time for sightseeing. I didn’t have a car or a window of time larger than an hour at a time to get out. I was in Paris for a training conference to join my company’s Environmental, Health, and Safety Internal Audit Team. I have mentioned before that I started to work for a French owned company in the middle of last year. Their corporate offices are in Paris, just blocks from the Eiffel Tower. My hotel was located about halfway between the tower and our offices. You can see the relative locations on this map. The red line is a rough course of my daily runs. I would do 2-3 laps around the gardens each day I was there.
I arrived on Monday and had about 4 hours to roam before dinner with the group. Had I known how much I would be able to visit the Eiffel Tower the rest of the week I would have been better served to try and get to the Louvre, Notre Dame, or the Arc de Triumph that afternoon. But no, I went to the Tower and walked the grounds all the way around, roamed a little into the city to the west, and came back along the river. This is probably the best of the pictures I took that day.
I was in class each day from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm and then would meet the group for dinner at 7:00. I squeezed my daily runs in that 6:00-7:00 pm window before dinner. Luckily it was actually meet at 7:00 in the hotel lobby for drinks, leave for the restaurant at 7:30. Since I wasn’t drinking, it was a good excuse to avoid the awkwardness of that social time to say I had to get a run in.

Although I didn’t see many sights, I did experience France in other ways. The food was excellent to say the least! I took a picture of my lunch one day because I got such a kick out of what they considered "Fast Food". Our lunch was brought in each day on these trays with food superior to 95% of American Restaurants. For dinner during the week I tried several different meals including: escargot, duck, "flat fish", and beef sirloin. Each of those was top notch. You add the yogurt, fruit desserts, excellent cheeses and breads, chocolate mouse, and other pastries to the mix, and I was in heaven. All the running in the world didn’t stop me from gaining several pounds while I was over there. Oh well, when will I get the chance to do that again?

As for some of the other pictures I have: of course the tower at night and a picture of me, at sunset, with the tower in the background taken from a deck at our corporate offices. I really didn’t get to see that much else. I saw the tunnel and monument where Princess Diana died so tragically. I saw the Arc from my taxi but wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of it. Same thing for the mini-Statue of Liberty they have commemorating the building of the real one given to the US. I did find it odd that the French don’t have a single TV channel with English programming like they did in both Spain and Hungary when I visited those countries.

All in all it was a great experience but one that left me wanting more. This is yet another place that I will return some day with my wife to share that experience with her. And for all the time I spent in and around the Tower, I never went up, because that is an experience I want to have with her.

Return to Racing

Well, I had to get back in the game and force myself to start running races again so I will resume my regular running routine. So I signed up for a local 10k, the Jog for a Cause. The race had many benefits, close to my house, supporting a cause (cancer) that has been more important to me lately due to my brother, it was a 10k instead of the more common 5k races offered, and it was not too far out in the future which got me off the couch and running back in mid-February. The race had some unforeseen downsides however that made it quite memorable. It ended up being the Saturday morning after I returned from France (blog with pictures to come soon) on Friday, so jet-lag had me quite messed up. Jamie’s grandmother passed away on that same Friday so we hastily planned a quick trip to Indiana the following Monday. And lastly, it was SNOWING and 22° F when the race started.

All of these challenges added to the experience and perhaps to the disappointment of the result. It’s not that I did terrible, it’s that for the first time I ran a race and didn’t meet the goal I set for myself. My hope was to run sub 50 minutes. The only other 10k I had run was a trail race last fall which I ran in the 54 minute and change range and I figured I could cut the required amount based on this being a road course and relatively flat. Of course, when I ran the trail race last fall I was in the height of my Half-Marathon training and this time around I have only been back running sporadically for roughly a month… Anyway, suffice it to say, I didn’t run sub 50, I came in at 51:43 which is a 8:20/mile pace. Not bad and a personal record for the distance, but not my goal.

The course is a 5k loop around a shopping center and subdivision that you run twice if you are completing the 10k race. I had run the course for a 5k once before with not the best of memories (remember the pinched butt episode?). But the hardest part of the run this time around was the weather. Not only was it snowing and cold but we had 30 mile an hour wind gusts and I swear I was running into the wind all the way around that loop!!! The final mile to the finish line was into a stiff wind that felt like it was blowing me back each time I took a stride. I had to squint my eyes to keep the blowing snow from getting in them. What a memory…

Anyway, it was good to get back in the saddle. I’m aiming for a race a month leading up to a Marathon towards the end of the year. I’m sure I’ll miss a few months here and there but that is my goal. As for my overall results in this race. As I said before, 51:43 was my time. That was good enough for 62nd out of 270 for the overall results and 9th out of 25 for the 35-39 year old men. I should have stopped at the 5k point as my 5k split time would have given me 4th in my age group… If you want to see me running you can go here and search for bib number 249… The pictures are copywritten so I can’t copy and past it into my blog... Happy running to all of you.

Un-Tagged Response

I have been tagged I don't know how many times by various people (usually my SIL or my wife's college roommate) and I never respond, evil blogger that I am. So when I saw this exercise on my wife's college roommate's blog I thought it was quite an interesting exercise and struggled with the one word format for some of the questions. Though I wasn't tagged, I hope this makes up for some of the times I never responded in the past. Only rule is one word answer to however you interpret the question - harder than you think - common acronyms acceptable right? Only having one word actually forced me to change my interpretation of the question for some. And harder yet to make them understandable without further explanation. I think I only stole one or two of her answers...

1. Where is your cell phone? hip

2. Your significant other? yang

3. Your hair? nonbalding

4. Worst bad habit? competitiveness

5. Favorite food? edible

6. Your favorite thing? running

7. Your dream last night? romantic

8. Your favorite drink? Dew

9. Your dream/goal? marathon

10.The room you're in? office

11. Your ex? past

12. Your fear? ineptitude

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Cruise

14. Where were you last night? cubs

15. What you're not? socialite

16. Muffins? blueberry

17. One of your wish list items? HDTV

18. Where you grew up? Deseret

19. The last thing you did? commute

20. What are you wearing? jeans

21. Your TV? cableless

22. Your pets? gecko

23. Your computer? laptops

24. Your life? enjoyable

25. Your mood? optimistic

26. Missing someone? Twin

27. Your car? functional

28. Something you're not wearing? hat

29. Favorite Store? electronics

30. Your summer? training

31. Love someone? multiple

32. When is the last time you laughed? breakfast

33. Last time you cried? movie

34. Who will/would re-post this? wife?

Travel Time

One of the greatest things about my job change last May was that my travel went from roughly 60% to almost non-existent. It has been fantastic to not miss all those little things with the kids that I was depending on my wife to provide the parental face for. She definitely pulls more than her fair share of that still but I have been FAR more available to participate in my kids lives over the last 9 months. Before last week I think I had made a three day trip to New York, and 2 or 3 overnighters in that entire 9 month period. I think that is what is making last week and next week feel so painful.

Last week I spent Monday through Thursday in Greeneville, TN at a company safety conference. Very enjoyable, great hotel, learned quite a bit, but still much harder than a 4 day trip was just a year ago. Having got out of that routine, it was VERY hard not to come home to a wife and family every night. Combine that with a buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and the associated impact on the scale upon my return) and you have a depressing trip. I did have my highest mileage running week since my race last fall but that was not enough to offset the additional calories from an "I can resist anything but temptation" buffet table.

Next week I fly to Paris for a company meeting. Since this is a bit nicer location than Greeneville, TN, I am trying to stay on the positive side and focus on the experience. It will be very hard to enjoy the "experience" however, without my wife. Spouses are welcome to come along for this meeting and I invited mine but all with an air of reality that there are 4 little ones that we can't just dump on someone, during a school week, while I drag my wife to the other side of the world. I have done this kind of trip in the past, Hungary, Spain, England, without my wife but somehow Paris is different. I feel like my wife should be with me on my first trip there somehow. Nothing I can do about it now I guess, other than to promise her that someday she and I will visit these locations I enjoyed so much... plus others.

So this post has no real theme other than the joys and frustrations of travel, for business, not pleasure. It is most definitely not one and the same.

But for now, any of my French friends have suggestions as to what I should try and see on Monday the 3rd? I arrive late morning and will have the rest of that day to go sightseeing before my meetings the 4th through the 6th. So, if you only had one afternoon.... what would you go see? And don't say the Eiffel Tower, because that, I am saving for my wife...

kodiak73

I once had a secretary that was fairly straight laced only to find out her email address was something like toohottohandle@asdfjkl.com. Have any of you ever wondered where my screen name came from? If not, stop now, if so, you may be more bored than you usually are to visit my blog. If you think it is because I am hairy enough to be mistaken for a bear, I am offended... I think. But you would be wrong.

The kodiak comes from one of the ferrets we owned when we lived in New Mexico. He was a big male that I thought had the best temperament of all the ferrets we owned. He love to be held but was not lazy and could be very playful. Most of our ferrets were either feisty (Laska, Snickers) or shy/lazy (Detmer, Sarah, Opal) but Kodiak seemed to have the best of both worlds. Also, kodiak is just a cool name that exudes masculinity (I know there are female brown bears but they are not what comes to mind when you say KODIAK!) The funny thing is that the first time I used this as my screen name for a website (remember the old go.com?) I misspelled it (kodiack) and my wife has used that unique spelling ever since, even though I corrected to the proper spelling after that first site.

The number 73 is just a throw back to my high school football days. At the time I was picking a number I thought that it was a good number for many reasons. It was the highest prime number I could think off the top of my head at the time (I know there are many, i.e. 79, very close to it but hey, I was still a kid!), also I like how many biblical references come in sevens or threes. I think seven or three are most people's luck number, why not have both? I'd probably just use the kodiak if I could, but as you can imagine, at most websites "kodiak" is already taken so I had to add a unique number to the end to use the name at all.

Now that you have wasted 3 minutes reading this mindless post, what are some of your screen names and how did you pick them? Inquiring minds want to know!

UPDATE: Here is my Avatar for a few of the discussion boards I frequent - thought you might enjoy... or at least my wife thought you might enjoy.

How do you Teach Chess?

Recently my 9-year-old son wanted to join the chess club at school. This is popular enough that the school limits it to 3rd through 5th graders and has a drawing from interested students to determine who actually gets to participate in the club that meets after school each Monday. As luck would have it, my son got in. This constitutes a larger problem. How do I best teach him how to play?

I’m not talking about the basics. I long ago taught him the basics such as how the board is set up, how each piece moves, the objective of the game, board etiquette, etc. But that is as far as anyone ever taught me… And really that is as much as I have taught him. In the past I would play him, toy with him for a while, string him along, and then of course crush him because I will NEVER voluntarily loose at chess! But now, he will be playing other people and I want him to at least be competitive if not realize my dream for him to be the next Bobby Fisher (without the hold the world in contempt and celebrate 9/11 wackiness of the original). As the youngest of 8 siblings I loved to play against them, even when they would fool’s checkmate me in 4 moves (Oliver, over, and over, and over…). It took me probably close to a year to learn how to recognize that and another one to learn how to take action to prevent it. It is one thing to loose repeatedly to family, I don’t want my son to loose at school and loose interest.

I didn’t want to start too complicated, somehow I don’t think training him in the Spasky Defense is the right approach… yet. So, I boiled down the game to what I thought were three key concepts and rules for success. I will walk you through each one. Tell me if I hit the right ones. By "right" I mean most fundamental and likely to lead to success both immediately and down the road. Tell me if you have other ideas or suggestions. These are not in any particular order other than my son now refers to these collectively as CTP: Center of the Board, Trade-up, and Protection.

Center of the Board – There is an area of 16 squares 4x4 in the middle of the board that is fundamental to the strategic positioning of the game. The more of this area that you control the better off you are. It will be easier to generate angles, extend your defense, solidly probe on offence and give you the breathing room to move your back line around. This is accomplished by pushing middle pawns out aggressively, bringing the knights out early, and can then be supported by bringing the bishops out to generate more angles.

Trade-up – This is nothing more than assigning value to the pieces and following the general rule of sacrificing a piece if it means you can capture one of greater value. My value scale goes pawn-knight-bishop-rook-queen-king. I know people switch the bishop and knight. I have no problem with that, it really goes to your tendencies and ability to use each effectively. Teaching my son that trading a rook for a pawn is not a good idea has proven to be harder than you would think…

Protection – This is probably the most basic element of the game but probably the most widely overlooked aspect of beginners. I think instinct works on the base level of "am I going to get killed by moving here" but beyond that, the concept of protection must be learned. By protection I mean who is guarding who? Who is and isn’t guarded? Who is this piece guarding that may or may not be guarded if I move? How many pieces are guarding a particular square? As you advance it becomes "where is the opponent lacking protection?" and "how can I get around or breakdown their protection."

There are other concepts such as forking, opening moves, trading once you have a lead, end-game, avoiding or playing for stalemate, trading-down or trading-even for position, etc., that are all important to improving your game, but I thought these three laid the best foundation. What do you think?

As for initial results, he had his first club meeting and played three games. He won 2 out of the 3. I’ll take that, …for now. Of course it probably has more to do with his analytical abilities than my coaching, but don’t tell him that!