Chewable Tablets???

A pretty uneventful couple of days of running. Yesterday was an easy 5.25, and today was a 20 minute race pace. Here is the breakdown of today's run:
10 minute warm-up - 8 min pace
10 minutes at 7:08 pace
5 minutes at 6:58 pace
5 minutes at 6:53 pace
15 minutes cool down - about 8 minute pace
-about 5.95 miles total.

Running at race pace helps me to go faster. Recovery and nutrition are key to help keep this speed.

After the run, for my recovery snack (needs to be consumed within 30 minutes of an intense workout), I had one of my favorites - Cliff Bar - Oatmeal raisin walnut

Also, I have a nutritionist who recommends that I take fish oil in addition to a multi-vitamin. I have some issues swallowing large pills, so I take children's chewable multi-vitamin aka the Target brand that look a lot like Flintstones vitamins. I have been looking for some good fish oil tablets as well. My nutrition suggested these for me:

I had to order these online - but will let you know how these taste when I get them. They are strawberry flavored. Hopefully, they won't taste like strawberry fish.

1/25 - 5.25 miles

1/26 - 5.95 miles

YTD - 131.85 miles

Yummy - more pancakes!!

Saturday morning was a scheduled long run - well, long when you are coming back from an injury - 13 miles.

The 13 outside was actually nice. I managed to do about 8 miles on my own before joining a few people for 5 miles. I was able to run a sub 8 min pace on the first 8, then eased up to 8 and half min pace with the group.

3 weeks to Psycho. I signed up for 20 miles. With the event so close, I thought it was time to hit some trails.

John and I decided Saturday to hit the trails on Sunday to help prepare. Well, the first mile was hard. The trail was rough, mostly snow with ice on the top. Just enough that you could run on top of the snow, but about every three steps, your foot sinks about 8 inches into the snow. It was great high knee running. Since the first mile took 13 minutes, we decided to hit the roads after 20 minutes.

Yikes - hopefully Psycho won't be this bad. John and I had a discussion about which is worse to run in - Mud or Snow? Neither is good.

After the trail run on Sunday, I came home to find this:

Yummy!! Dutch Baby Pancakes with Blueberry Compote - This is from the cookbook:

About 310 calories, 11 g of protein, 53 g of carbs, 3 g of Fiber.

In the book, it calls for peach compote. I'm really happy Melissa made it with the blueberries. Just what I wanted after the cold snow packed trail run. Thanks Melissa!

Sat - 13 miles

Sun - 6 miles

YTD - 120.65

Easy run with Matt and Carla

Easy 6.2 miles today with a couple of running buddies - cousin Matt and Carla. We circled around the capital and then headed up and down the east side of the river today.

They crack me up. We talked about a wide range of topics - it ranged from nutrition (or lack there of), to a church retreat, to Carla's new running pants. Of course, to get into specific details of certain topics would break the running code.

The running code is similar to the Las Vegas theme - what is talked about on the road, stays on the road. The only exception to the code is if there is a subsequent run where a previously absent runner needs to be caught up on a topic. If you want to hear all the juicy topics, just run with Matt and Carla.

I forgot my camera, otherwise I would have taken a picture of me laughing at the duo. I'm trying to take the camera with me on a few more runs to get some pics up.

Instead of pic of them, here are my new shoes:

Recently I bought these - if nothing else, at least they look fast. Having a new pair of kicks makes me happy as well. These are the Asics GT-2150. A physical therapist let me know these shoes have the Duomax middle section of the shoe, which may help dampen the impact of foot on the road, which can help reduce the chances of a re-occurring stress fracture.

Let's review the fun run items that I have learned over the past few runs -

1. Make each run fun - somehow

2. Do something on a run that will make you smile (like window knocking)

3. Run with people that crack you up
4. New shoes

Today's run was 6.2 miles

YTD: 101.65

1/21 -

It has been a fun week of running since I last posted!!

I am really starting to get back into running and I can tell - I have a really good attitude which I'm sure makes my wife and boys happy (not having a grumpy dad!).

Look at the smile on my face in the picture below!



This is just one of a series of pictures. I was sending my wife a picture about every 5 minutes showing her that I was on my way to knock on her window. It had been a few months since I had the privilege to do this due to my time off from the stress fracture.

My wife works at Drake which is only about 2 miles from my work. For the easy 30-40 minute runs, I'll head to Drake, knock on her window, waive, and head back making a big loop. It makes me smile, and makes her smile as well. Sometimes, she'll have a student meeting with her, and they'll ask who/what was that. She simply replies - just my crazy runner husband. One time, she had another co-worker in there, and I knocked, waived, and ran off. After about 5 minutes, her co-worker asked - "Is your husband waiting for me to leave before he comes in?" My wife's simple reply was - "Um no, he just knocks on my window and keeps running....he's kind of strange."

Anyway - have fun with your running!

Here was my week of fun since the last posting:
1/15 - 4.5 miles - easy run - window knocking

1/16 - 7.25 miles - easy group run with major hills

1/17 - Off - Jillian Michael's 30 day shred video

1/18 - 5 miles - easy - treadmill hills

1/19 - Speed work - 6 X 3 min on, 3 min off @ 6:40 pace - 7 miles

1/20 - 6.5 miles easy

1/21 - Progression - 45 min - 15 min each of Easy (8:00), Race (7:13), Threshold (6:40) with 5 min warm-up and 10 minute cool down. - 7.75 miles

YTD miles - 95.45

Running for Fun?

Have you ever had one of those moments where you believe there is a higher power trying give you a hint, or two, maybe three?

For some cosmic reason, the most mundane day all of sudden because a day that you can't forget? A day that you capture a feeling of awe, wonder, and happiness? It is the type of feeling that you want bottle up, and be able to use it for a long time.

I think I had one of those days yesterday in my life.

Basically, I'm being told to have fun and pursue happiness.

Here is how the "everyday" day started. I got up early. Ate a good breakfast. Arrived at work at 6:15 am. I sent some emails, had a couple of meetings, and did some work. Around 11 am, I set out on a 7 mile run with John. The run itself was a planned tough hill run through the bowels of Des Moines -not just hills, but monster hills on route affectionately known as "Pain". This is pretty much a normal day for me.

However - I received my first hint from John. Our run was dominated by our usual discussion of, well, running. But for one moment today we strayed a bit. John talked of someone he knows who, until a couple weeks ago, was a regular guy middle aged man. But then a blood vessel burst in his head. He is now in a coma and his family and friends do not know what type of quality of life he'll have. I hope and pray for him and his family that all turns out well. It did make me remember as many others have often said - you never really know what is going to happen from one day to the next. Enjoy the day you have.

The rest of the run was not mundane. I let myself enjoy the monster hills. I enjoyed being outside, feeling the warm air as it melted away the snow. I enjoyed the company of a wise soul on the run. I smiled and I was happy.

I wanted to continue this feeling through the rest of day. I came back to work - Emails, phone calls, meetings - falling back into the routine - I was thinking - I must try and hold on to that happiness feeling!! Okay, forge ahead.

I headed out from work to pick up the boys. Shoot - forgot to tell my boss to have fun on her vacation. Called her from the car and said - "Have fun!" Okay - before today, I wouldn't have called back into the office, but today was different and I wanted to keep that feeling. I'm sure my boss thinks I was out of mind for calling her and telling her to have a nice time on her vacation.

I picked up the boys from school. My youngest, a small 4 year old, was bundled up in twice his weight with snow pants, overstuffed coat, hat pulled down so he could only see out of one eye, and soaking wet mittens. Just the way you want to pick up a kid in a nice clean car. He was also wearing a great smile on his face. Mundane day - treasure the young smiles. (hint #2)

I pulled up to the driveway and boys wanted to play outside immediately. I also had a couple of loose end emails to finish up on the BlackBerry. I let them out of the car and texted my responses. I looked in my rear view mirror - an unexpected visit from my nephews and two of wife's sisters!

The house was a mess, I had a list of items I wanted to get done. My kids are laughing and the only thing you can think about is cleaning off the driveway??? Those can wait - enjoy the moment I reminded myself.

The UPS driver pulled up and delivered THE book. Okay, not the bible, but subtle hint #3 that really may not be that subtle. I knew my wife ordered a couple of items from Amazon.com, but I didn't expect them to come yesterday. I opened them up. There sitting in front of me was the book - "The Happiness Project". I picked it up and browsed through it. I read a little bit of the story and realized this was me. The author mentions "The days are long, the years are short" Her epiphany was on a bus ride. Mine was on a run - a run that I have been on a hundred times.

As I read the book - I'll try to see what I can do as a trail runner to make running and life for me fun. If it is okay with you, I'll report back. Consider this the first day of an experiment for me.

1/12 - 5.25 miles with 10 minutes at Race pace (6:55).
1/13 - 7 miles - hills - and a fabulous run
YTD - 63.95 miles

1/11 - Day off (of Running)

Rest days are important to build into a schedule. I know this because, well, I've heard it like a million times. As John would say, if you would get faster by just running, you would actually speed up during a run. It is the rest and recovery which allows those running muscles to get stronger.

So - today, a day off.

In my training schedules, every 3 or 4 weeks is a "light" week to help rest/recover from training. I haven't been all that consistent lately, but this week is a scheduled light week. One short tempo run, a few days at 40 min or less, and a 60 min weekend run. Prior to the stress fracture, I would have done a bit more during the week this week; however, I now know my body needs this time to recover, so it will remain a light week.

I haven't been writing much lately since most of the time has been on the treadmill. Nothing special, just running along. This past week was a great week of running for me - the first solid week in a long time. Here is what I did since 1/6.

1/7 - 4 miles
1/8 - 6 miles
1/9 - 5 miles
1/10 - 11 miles

51.7 miles - YTD

1/6 - Not so easy 8

For the non long distance folks, 8 miles of running seems like a long ways. For some of us who run long, or "ultra" long - 8 miles is suppose to be an easy day - a solid hour run. When comparing this to say a 6 hour training run day, an hour sounds short.

Any way, I once again stayed inside, used the "variable" setting on the treadmill to get in some hills, never below an incline of 1.5 to mimic wind resistance outside. I ran at a solid 7:41 pace and did 8 miles in about 62:30.

About six months ago, I would feel refreshed and energized after a nice easy run such as that. Ugh.... not so much today.

8 miles kicked my butt. However, getting a midweek 8 mile run under my belt felt good and is quite a confidence builder. Now, if I could just take a nap.....

YTD - 25.7 miles

Happy New Year! 1/5 workout

On the treadmill due to the cold weather. I think the high today is like 8 degrees. I think instead of keeping track of temps, the weather people should put together an alternative gauge for runners. For example, it would be nice to know how long before a finger will have frostbite if wearing running mittens. Or, if wanting to go an easy run, how many pairs of socks you need for 5 miles.

Anyway, I needed to stay inside because of my very first speed work of the year!!

My workout today was 10 minute warm-up, 6 X 2 minute fartleks at a 6:40 pace with 3 minute recovery, then a 10 min active cool down and then a 5 minute slow cool down/walk.

I missed a couple of days, but I'll do my best to keep track of mileage this year. So far....

1/2 - 5.5 miles
1/3 - 5 miles
1/4 - 60 min of elliptical (cross train + GS/Core)
1/5 - 7.2 miles with speed work

Total running miles - 17.7 miles YTD

With the new year, I have also started to pencil out some longer runs. I'm going to try and do some shorter trail runs this year as well. As for the "big" races - here is what I have
Feb 13 - PsychoWyco Run Toto Run - 20 mile warm-up race
May 8 - Ice Age
July 3 - Afton Trail Run
Second of the year TBD....