Long Run on Saturday & Race News

So, I went almost two weeks without running due to work taking me out of town. Now, while I probably COULD have run. I didn’t. I was beat when I would get done with work and it was all I could do to make myself go for a half hour walk every other day.

So, when I got back home the first thing I did was fire up my iPod, tune into week six of C25k and run. I ran an hour instead of 36 minutes and wound up running 5 miles. I didn't mean to do that much on my first day out in a long time, and the last mile was at a brisk walk but still, that was pretty decent distance and time for first time out. Next were two days back to back off, and tomorrow is another running day. It's good to be back home and back on a schedule again. I like running and missed it while I was gone.

I used to use gowagon.com for keeping track of my runs online but then they merged with their parent company buckeyesports.com and that site, while functional is pretty ugly. So, I've imported my runs over to my new log at the dailymile.com, you've probably noticed the giant honking widget on the right from dailymile.com. I'll be switching to the smaller widget soon, but I was pretty thrilled by the five mile run so I went with the big one.

I've registered for my first 5k race. It's in Des Moines, IA and is a charity race for the Ronald McDonald House: Run for Ronald 2010. A friend of mine's kid has wound up going to the hospital quite a bit and they have used the Ronald McDonald's House sometimes while they're there. So, if you're interested in making any donations let me know, or just drop it in any McDonald's. The money is for a good cause and they're there for people who need the help.

Hangover 5k

The Hangover 5k is a virtual race set up by Todd over at 5k101. A virtual race doesn't mean you don't really run. You do. The thing is the people you're running with aren't right there next to you. In this case Todd set up the race to start at 11AM Central Time on New Year's Day so a bunch of us, in whatever time zone we were in, laced up our shoes and hopped on the treadmill or went outside and warmed up so that at race time we clicked the GO button on our stop watches and ran 5k. When we were done running 5k we clicked STOP on our stop watches, recorded the time, and sent it to Todd at 5k101 and he reported all our times. We ran together without actually BEING together. It's a cool way to run a race if you don't know anybody locally that runs, and also cool just as a part of the online running community.

I started running Sept 12th, 2009 and my goal was to train through the fall and winter and be ready in spring to run a 5k in under half an hour. That isn't a terribly ambitious time as I later found out, but I knew nothing about running when I started except that I'd never done it before. I'm 41 and my running consisted of things like running a temperature and running for the bathroom after too much to drink. So to run 3.1 miles in half an hour seemed as likely to me as climbing to the moon.

Today, January 1st, 2010, after a pretty lack-luster running week truth be told, I took yesterday off completely to rest up for today, I ran the 5k virtual race in 29:52. Yep. I made my goal 3 months early by 8 seconds. And I could have run faster had I not been on a treadmill. If you look at my pace chart you see the uptick at the end, that's where I sped up so I could get the race done in under half an hour. That chart is from Nike+ and I really like the iPod and shoe thing. The graphs and the community and challenges on that site are great.

For the race I didn't wear the new shoes I got a few days ago. For one thing I need to modify them to accept the Nike shoe-pod since they're New Balance shoes. The thing that you see advertised to tie to the laces and put the pod in has absolutely never worked for me, not even once. I taped the pod to my shoe and THAT worked, but the bought ones don't work. Very annoying. If you're considering buying one do so with the understanding that, in this blogger's opinion, you'd do better with tape, which is almost free compared to what they charge for these non-functioning things.

I used money I got for Christmas to buy two CD's to listen to while running (They exist as CDs and MP3s which is what I really used). They're cadences from the Marines and the Navy Seals. They both have high reviews on amazon.com and today I listened to the one for the Navy Seals. I gotta say, as a former Navy guy they were cool to run to. The pace was right. They were motivational, and they were funny. If you're a hippy-dippy-peacenik you might not want them. They DO mention guns and killing commies. They were great for running. I'm not sure I'd use them for biking, spinning, or any other cardio really but for running, they were perfect.

Great way to start 2010 though with a race where I set a PR (Personal Record) and felt great afterward. I remember in September when I was going to set the goal of just finishing a 5k by running the whole thing without walking and thinking that was ambitious and how far I've come in that amount of time. I look forward to continuing to run. I look forward to being able to run outside again and I look forward, to starting my cross training. That was supposed to have started already but I never did actually DO it. I just talked about it.

Oh, one thing they warn about when running a race is to not change things. I like water when I run. I know I don't NEED water when I run. I don't run that long. But I get thirsty so I drink water. I went to the convenience store and Propel was on sale cheaper than water and I don't drink the water from my house because it's well water and smells like rotten eggs. So, I bought Propel, not because of advertising, but because it was on sale. Ugh. I know why it was on sale now. I'll never buy it again. The kiwi-strawberry one was sickeningly sweet. I drank two swallows and threw it away. I wasn't that thirsty. So, the advice to not change things up when you're racing... good advice. I should have stuck with water.

Website update: You'll see on the right a new widget where I plan on tracking my Personal Records (PRs). I wont' include training times in there, only race times. It's my blog so I'm including Virtual Races. I hope you can sleep nights with that because I can.

Why I run.

I’m going to do my first cross-blog post involving both simplerich.com and my simplerunner blog over on blogspot. I’ve started running recently (First recorded run was on June 20th or so.) so it’s been slightly less than a month that I’ve been running.

I’ve been doing the Couch to 5k training program to ease me into being able to run a 5k race from being a couch rider who didn’t do much more than walk and hike. I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. The thing with running books, running podcasts, and stories about runners, is that they’ve always hit me on an emotional level. This isn’t true of all sports. I read and really liked The Blind Side by Michael Lewis but it didn’t resonate with me on an emotional level. I just really liked it.

Running for me though is something that is singular in the sports world to me… I know it’s not. Golf is all you too. But with Running there’s no technological advantage to be had by the wealthy. I don’t think you can buy your way into being a good runner. I do believe you can build a good football team with money. I also believe you can pour money into cars to have an edge in racing. Running though is a guy and the road and at some point it quits being about muscle and starts being about personal drive and desire.

There’s a point in running when the runner is running not on strength but on will power and those stories are the ones that hit me in the stomach. The story of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope makes me cry every time I hear it. He ran 3339 miles in 143 days and he only had one leg. The other’d been lost to cancer. Phedippidations, a running podcast that I enjoy a great deal and have listened to for hours for the past couple weeks, has a great podcast about Terry Fox.

When I was in college I ran. There was a track between the University of Montevallo where I first went to college and the off campus house I was living in. I would go at night, in secret and run around the track. I never ran very far, and I never ran very long. I remember listening to the soundtrack to Joan Lui while I ran though. Still when I listen to my favorite song from that album I remember those night time runs.

I never told anybody, and didn’t stick with it because I was afraid I wasn’t very good at it. I’d never run track in high school and if you ever look at runners while they’re running… they’re not beautiful creatures. Nor are they graceful or awe-inspiring. They’ve got a sort of zombie-like shuffle that they do, and their faces are either pale or flushed, and always glisten with an unhealthy wetness. I was far too self-conscious then to admit to anybody that I was a runner.

I’m still self-conscious but there’s something about it now that’s different. Something that hit me when I was playing golf with my Dad. There is only one thing I can think of that looks more ridiculous and laughable than a golfer’s posture and swing… and that’s doing it badly and looking like an idiot and still having to chase the ball. It dawned on me that day on the fairway that golfers don’t look stupid to other golfers unless they golf badly.

Running’s the same way. I’ll look tired. I’ll look like I’m shuffling along and look nothing like the tall lithe Kenyans who break land speed records. But I’ll be doing something that I’ve wanted to do for over 20 years but was too embarrassed to do because of what other people would think. What a stupid waste of my time.

So. I run. I love to run. I like finding limits and pushing them. I like that I’m doing something that most people don’t/won’t do. I’m not doing it for my health or to lose weight. I expect it will improve my health and my weight’s not bad enough to really bother me that much. I’m doing it because I like it. I like it outside, and I like how I feel after I’ve run.

I’m going to run a 5k race in the spring. I don’t know where or when yet but I’m going to. I haven’t got a goal time yet either. But I want to run at least one 5k in spring and maybe a 10k in the fall. I doubt I’ll ever be good enough to run a marathon, but by next year I wouldn’t rule out a half-marathon if the running gods smile on me.

If you decide to run, or if you’re a runner, I’d love it if you’d drop me a line, say “Hi” or even point me towards some more good running podcasts or websites I might find helpful. Like I said. I’m a complete newbie to this running thing and while I enjoy it, it doesn’t mean I’m doing it right at all and I can use all the help I can get.

Thank you all for reading this. I know it was longer than my usual blog posts. Take care of yourselves and the ones you love.

Came out to a friend today...

Came out today to a friend. You read it right. Today I told my best friend that I wanted to run a 5k race in spring. It was the first time I'd talked about running out loud to a friend in a serious way. I've been here, but nobody reads this that knows me, or if they do they've made no indication that they know I've been running. It went well. He didn't burst out laughing. When I told him at lunch, that I was running at three today he didn't laugh then either. He and a friend went out to the path to meet me on my run, but I'd left early so we just missed each other. My hope was they were there to be encouraging. My guess is they were there to see if I was gasping for breath or not when I ran. Either way, more people know I'm running now. I don't know if I can say I'm a runner until I run a race. I may still just be a jogger. But today was a put it on the calendar day... came out to friends as a runner. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1102 ft Location: Fort Dodge, IA, Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 10/11/09 Up/Downhill: [+127/-127] Time: 03:18 PM Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0 Weather: Cloudy 37 F temp; 44% humidity 37 F heat index; winds SSE 4 mph Performance Distance: 2.52 miles Time: 0:35:00 Speed: 4.3 mph Pace: 13' 53 /mi Calories: 351 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 12' 57 -0' 56 4.6 +0.3 -36 ft 2 13' 21 -0' 32 4.5 +0.2 +26 ft end 16' 54 +3' 01 3.5 -0.8 +9 ft Versus average of 13' 53 min/mile

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