Luvin the Spikes

Went for a four mile run this weekend that was great.  It brought back the days where I thought I could run forever.  It was outside, in the snow, on the Fort Richardson 4.2 mile track.  I even sprinted the last tenth of a mile.  They plow the trail and there was about 1/8" snow and the spikes on my shoes worked excellent.  It was like running on normal ground and going up and down the hills seemed like more traction than running on dry ground.  It was warm enough that I could not see my breath but cool enough that the snow was dry - go figure.  Still not sure if I am ready for the 10.5 miler on Saturday.  I did thirteen miles on a treadmill two years ago and it took me a few month to recover psychologically.  BTW - at the end of the nine miler last week Mazzy Star's song Into Dust came on my I Pod - - - I knew I was a dead man.

I made a new video getting ready for winter running - check it out...

Running 9 miles yesterday was hard! It was 14 degrees yesterday and had just snowed so I thought it might be easier if I wasn't cold, but it was so hot that I don't know which is worse. I was also worried that it might be harder on back in the cold. I also made the mistake of doing the elliptical machine on Friday, and my legs were a little sore from that. I was running really slow, but I was SO tired by the end. I actually took more walk breaks than I usually do. I was surprised it was that hard because its definitely getting easier on my 30 minute runs. Last week I improved my mile time from 10:13 to 9:39 which I was happy about.

Crap! I forgot to sacrafice the chicken!!!

Had a crappy nine mile run today.  Not sure what went wrong - I did all my pre-long run rituals including preloading with water, having electrolytes available, body glide (TMI), tunes, etc. and it was miserable.  The only pre-run thing I did not do was sacrifice a chicken.  I did do the nine miles and ran to the end in just over two hours.  I noticed at mile four that there were going to be hard times ahead.  We did it indoors on a treadmill and it was hot and no fans - I think that was a big part of the problem.  They had the four mile loop at Ft. Rich plowed and I put sheet metal screws in my shoes and Michelle's.  However, we ended up indoors.  I guess the only highlights is that I finished - and the treadmill had a TV with closed captioning.  I was watching some news programs and it was hilarious some of the words the closed captioning machine came up with (not the most accurate).  I was laughing through the pain...
  -BJH

Very nice three miler in Cliveia

Light rain just finished with temps in the low 50's.  First time running in this area and tried to find the running trails by myself.  Well, I found them after a lot of backtracking and exploring.  I will upload the map later with the "gods eye" view of the track (which should look like a furball). I found the river and ran on the accompanying trail which reminded me of the river trail in Eugene, OR.  The 3 miles seemed fast and easy if I had more time I would have run further.
Here is the map of the run plotted by my Garmin 405.  It was more spiderwebish than it looks - at least it felt that way when I was running it.

Sorry!

I haven't posted in a while either. I updated our "family" blog over the weekend and have gotten re-inspired about blogging, so sorry I slacked off for a while. Running has been good, since the 2 week day runs are only 1/2 hour we run them on the indoor track on campus. Thats nice because you can wear shorts even if you want and still be warm. We haven't had to do a long run in really cold weather yet...so we will have to see! We are definitely running those outside. I am disappointed because I am going to Denver for a wedding this weekend and have no idea when, or even where, I can squeeze in a 10.5 mile run there! So I will need to make it up sometime without interrupting the rest of my routine...and Chelsea will have to run it by herself :(

I like my new shoes. I am not going to lie...now that I have been running in them I don't really notice a difference between them and my no name brand $20 Ross shoes...but, maybe further down the line I WOULD have felt how bad those ones were. But I do like these!

5:58

mile time trial this morning. w00t!!

all the latest

Well, I haven't posted in a while and I have a lot to say! Last Saturday (the 7th) I went on a 12.5 miler--safe to say, it's the longest run I've ever attempted in my life (pretty much every long run from here on out will be exactly that...). So I ALMOST did a half-marathon. And man. It was HARD. All my long runs up to this point haven't been too bad--they've been tiring, sure, but not too difficult. This run was TOUGH. At about mile 8 or 9 I realized I still had 4 miles to go or so, and it was a depressing thought. I was seriously considering taking a shorter way home and making it an 11 mile run or so, but finally decided to push through to the end. I'm really glad I did, even though it was hard--knowing that I had run my total planned distance felt good, and even thought I was exhausted there was no lasting damage that I could see at the end of the run :-). I did the whole run in just under two hours (about 112 minutes). I'm sticking with the run 9 minutes walk 1 for my longer runs, and I think that in conjunction with my new shoes seemed to do wonders for my knees--hardly any knee pain at all. Knee soreness (there wasn't a part of my body that WASN'T sore afterwards...), yes, but no knee pain. I'll take that as a good sign.

Here's the map of the 12.5 miler:

On Monday (9th) I did another mile time trial and got 6:04--I'm slowly creeping up on my goal of a sub six-minute mile, which I don't even think I was running in high school (I was more of a sprinter in high school and I think my fastest mile was slightly over 6 minutes, 6:10 or something). So it feels good to be making progress there as well. The first few weeks I was doing mile time trials I was shaving my time down by a few seconds each week, but lately it is getting harder and harder to slice those seconds off, my times don't go down quite so steadily anymore, I'll get 6:08 one week and then 6:10 the next and then 6:04 the next week...but I think, overall, they are still going down. I'd like to get a sub six minute mile by the end of the year...! We'll see.

I'm doing other things to increase my speed as well, including running sets of 1-mile intervals every other weekend or so (alternating weeks with my long runs). I'd also like to add a hill/stair workout sometime during the week as well, depending on how my body is feeling.

Other than that my basic weekday workout is a little over 7 miles, I'm running it at about 54 minutes these days. I'd like to shave that down to 52 minutes before I increase my weekday workouts to 8 miles.

Yesterday (Saturday the 14th) I did another interval workout, which went great...except for the weather. I was planning on a colder run (mid-to-high-thirties), which I've run in recently so I wasn't to worried about it. But before I had even finished my warm-up mile, barely 6 minutes into my run, it starts SNOWING like the dickens! I wasn't that cold so I decided to press on and ran my first interval mile. Sometime during that first mile the snow started coming down with a vengeance, cutting into my eyeballs and plastering to my beard scruff. Unfortunately it was just warm enough for the snow to melt right into my clothes (and I didn't wear anything waterproof, only two long-sleeve wicking shirts, running gloves, a hat, and shorts)--so that combined with the wind made for a pretty chilled first mile. Luckily I do my intervals on a 1-mile stretch of the Provo River trail, and the trail goes under a bridge at both ends of the mile so I was able to find some shelter while I recovered from each mile interval. I did 3 full-out miles, all between 6:30 to 6:55 minutes, and a warm-up mile and a cool-down mile (it's about 0.9 miles from my house to the trail). But it was FREEZING. I was so mad at myself the whole time for not thinking about whether it would snow or not, but I didn't want to cut my run short so I pushed on (although I WAS planning on doing 4 mile-intervals...). It was funny, I was actually the coldest while I was running because of the precipitation and wind, and when I stopped running (esp. in my "shelters) I got warmed back up pretty quickly from body heat and just getting out of the elements. I'm used to dealing with the opposite--being warmest while I'm running, and being cooler when I take a break or finish the run. Anyway, I have to say it was probably the most uncomfortable run I've ever done. But I did it, and I learned my lesson (I think).

So, there's all my updates. I'm planning on another mile time trial tomorrow, and another long run this Saturday! 14-15 miles...mizica.

New York, London, Paris, Rome, Eagle River!

It was pretty cold today - single digits in the AM, warmed up to the mid-teens by noon.  So, Michelle and Jason dragged me to the Alaska Club in Eagle River for today's run.

When we were walking from the front door to the parking lot Michelle mentioned that she forgot her ID card with the bar code to get onto the gym.  I was curious as to what kind of ninja skills she was going to use to get in.  I was giving all my attention to her stealthy moves and she slid right in past the guards.  A few seconds later, as we entered the bowels of the gym, we saw some friends there and they asked us if we were here for the movie.  I was clueless.  Then I looked around and there were lights, cameras, cables, about 20 film crew in black clothes - there was a lot going on.  I cant believe by paying attention to Michelle and her ninja skills made me miss all that.  There were about 20 actors ("talent") there.  It was easy to tell the actors because they were the ones that spent most of their time sitting around on the couches in their designer gym clothes.  It was also easy because Eagle River is a small town and everyone who was not film crew or an actor in the gym I knew anyway...  Now I know where Deja gets her ninja skills from.

Michelle and I found the whole "scene" rather disrupting to our running plans.  We had to jump over paraphernalia everywhere, dodge people on the track setting things up, and get blinded by the bright light (actually, if we saw a moose or bear it would be a normal Alaska run).

The good news is my mile pace speed up to a nice 10:06 min/mile!  I can probably thank showing off and Olivia Wilde for that.  As a beginner to the "club scene" I have a lot to learn.  I lost track of the time as I was showing off - I was running the wrong way around the track (Saturdays is a clockwise day which I realized by glimpsing the sign on lap 4).  Michelle started running in the correct direction - we ended up giving each other High Fives as we passed each other.  I did not want to stop and change direction because I was in the middle of my speed timing distance.  Before I knew it I had run a mile.  I am pretty happy with my time - a good improvement over my last timed run - even though I had to dodge multiple film crew members and various pieces of production equipment throughout the run.  The track got pretty chaotic as time went on and after the first mile we went to finish the run on the treadmills.  No chasing rabbits into holes or worms on giant leaf smoking a bong on this run.

Runing the tangents

I have had a lot of people ask me what "run the tangents" means.  It is not some crazy way of running...  There was a discussion about it on The Dead Runners Society about 15 years ago - I have run that way ever since.  I remember watching the marathon at the LA Olympics in 1984 and there was a line painted on the road that was painted to show where the distance was measured from (tangent through he curves) - any deviation from the line and you were running longer than the marathon distance.  From my understanding they measure the race distance by measuring the tangent on the road - it is not an obey the traffic lines or track lanes thing.  I just goggled it to see if it would turn it up anywhere and found a good explanation - Click here.  It is easy for us to do on trails or roads with little or no traffic.  I do it all the time in races.

I have put in a lot of miles (a "relative" term) this week that has included some speed work.  We will see how the MM goes this weekend.  - Brad

7.5 milers, Tanks, and APCs

Did not really get any snow, at all.  Just a little dusting last night which is all the snow we have had all season.  I was thinking we would be running in snow but it did not happen.  We did the 4 mile loop and back at Ft. Richardson to get up to our 7.5 miles.  Saw tanks, APCs, and military aircraft landing strip.  Hardly any traffic, just a couple fire trucks and about three cars.  Temps were just above 32 df.  Just as I suspected - about mile 5 legs started to feel a little heavy.

I noticed that I run the tangents and Michelle, from her track days, stays in her lane.

I must be in OK shape - 7.5 miles and no signs of a "drive by shooting."

• Distance: 7.51
• Time: 1:50:31.05
• Ave Pace: 14:42 min/mile
• Ave Speed: 4.1 mph
• Max speed: 5.5 mph
• Calories: 1134
• Ave HR: 137 bpm
• Max HR: 152 bpm
• Favorite Color: Blue
  

7.5 miler on tap...

Running has been going pretty good lately.  It seems like when I finish a run and jump on a bike for some light pedaling it smooths out any knee pain I might have so I have been doing that a bit lately.  I will have to admit, and this might sound a little strange, I am really looking forward to the 7.5 mile run this weekend (at least I think we run a 7.5 mile run - is that right???).  I really want to do another long run.  Now --- about mile five on Saturday I will not be thinking that, but for now I am really looking forward to it.  It has finally got cold here in Alaska and we have had some temps below freezing.  The forecast looks like snow the rest of this week including Saturday with temps in the mid 30's.  I hope the snow is not too deep and we might have to find an old pair of running shoes and put sheet metal screws in the bottom of the shoes.

new kicks etc.

Rachel and I went to Wasatch Running yesterday and both bought new pairs of shoes--for both of us it had been a long time coming. I've had my running shoes for over 3 years now, and even though they were great shoes (Mizuno Waverunners) they had seen a lot of miles and a lot of years. Rachel's were even worse--she just had a pair of no-name brands from Payless or something that she had owned for who knows how long. So we both got new pairs--I got a pair of Saucony Hurricanes and Raych got a pair of Asics. I think both pairs of shoes will work really well for us (apparently we both require "support" shoes or something). I tried on the updated versions of my old Waverunners, which felt really good, but the Hurricanes actually felt even better, just a little bit more cushioning than the Mizuno's and a little bit more stable than some Asics I tried on, and I thought it would be good to try a different brand to see how they feel. It was pretty expensive, but we think it will definitely be worth it (thanks, dividend).

I test-runned my new shoes this morning on a 5-mile run, and they felt great. I could definitely feel some (positive) differences from my old ones.

With the GRE and Halloween and everything I have to admit I missed a few runs (including my 12-miler) last week, but I'm getting back into the swing of it this week.

Also, daylight savings does wonders for morning runs.

Update from Karla

I've been busy and haven't been reading the updates for over a week. I quickly scanned the posts and it sounds like everyone is being very diligent and consistent with their workouts. I've had some set backs... my usual knee and hip pain was getting worse despite my constant stretching, icing and even doing the walk/run workouts. I've been to several doctors and finally feel like maybe I'll get some help. It is confirmed that I have IT band syndrome after xrays and an MRI. It appears to be due to a limb length discrepancy. At this point I'm hopeful that it is a functional limb length issue and not a "true" length discrepancy. I'm working with an orthopedic doctor and a chiropractor that both specialize in running injuries. I'm giving my body some time to heal so I haven't run in almost two weeks. I'm lifting weights and doing lots of other cardio workouts (bike, elliptical and even deep water running) so I'm hopeful I won't be starting from the beginning when I start to run again. I see the chiropractor again on Wednesday so hopefully I'll get the okay to start slowly running again. My former "acute" IT band was well on it's way to becoming a chronic problem so I urge everyone to pay attention to frequent sore areas and get the necessary help to treat the problem. My experience is that it pays to go to someone in the medical field that is either into running and/or experienced with running injuries because they seem to be more helpful in offering solutions and doing the necessary follow up when the problem doesn't go away. Thanks for all the updates, it does help to hear how everyone is doing which is motivational to me.