Operation Marathon

2012-01-22T22:51:00.001-08:00

thinking about a trip to spain

2011-08-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

this link looks useful: Top 110 places to visit in Spain

Among European nations, Spain is one of the most popular tourist destinations. It is not too expensive, it has many beautiful places you can visit and there are lovely resorts and hotels all around. The country is easily accessible from road, air and by the sea and the food is fabulous and the weather is good almost throughout the year.
1. Cordoba:Many travellers believe that Cordoba is the most beautiful destination in Southern Spain. The city is testimony to the many different cultures which have thrived over here. It has been declared a World Heritage Site to preserve its unique ethnicity and the artistic wealth of its buildings and mosques. Small streets, whitewashed courtyards, beautiful alleys and homes are all part of the basic charm of this city.
2. Madrid:The capital of Spain is dotted with Grand Avenues, enchanting palaces, museums and town squares which are bustling with activity. Plaza Mayor seems to be the place where everyone congregates and where the bars and restaurants never seem to close. There is a laid back feel to this lovely town and everywhere you can sense peace and joy.
3. Barcelona:Barcelona has something for everyone. There are great museums and art galleries. The Gaudi buildings will fascinate and enchant you with their quirkiness and colour. Las Rambles never sleeps – there is always some show or performance happening here. The musical fountain at Placa dÉspanya is one of the best in the world.
4. Valencia:Valencia is renowned for the world’s biggest food fight which takes place here in August, but it is also known for the Fallas festival which is held here in March. This quaint old city’s most popular attraction is The Silk Exchange which houses many impressive Gothic Style buildings which were a part of the commercial centre. The Cathedral is also worth a visit.
5. Seville:Due to it’s splendid architecture and the magnificent cathedral Seville is one of Spain’s grand cities. Christopher Columbus’s tomb and the Giralda Bell tower are also other well known landmarks of this city. Located on the banks of the Guadalquivir River, it was earlier the trading hub during Roman times.
6. Granada:If you can go to only one city in Spain then let it be Granada. The Alhambra in Granada is one of the world’s most visited monuments. It is a tribute to Moorish Architecture and has been preserved well over the centuries. The unique beauty of this place can be summed up in these words: “There is no pain in life so cruel as to be blind in Granada”. There are many other places worth a visit also, such as The Plaza De San Nicolas and the Cathedral Museum.
7. Marbella:If you are looking for beautiful beaches, a great coastline and some of the best hotels and resorts in the world, then your destination is Marbella in Malaga. Sit back and relax, life moves at an easy pace here. Enjoy the fabulous views, great food and wine and olives of every variety. What more do you need for a great vacation?
8. Bilbao:The Bilbao Guggenheim Museum has become the iconic landmark of this city. Built in 1997, the museum is sheathed in titanium. The Basilica De Begona was built in 1519 to celebrate the appearance of The Virgin Mary in Bilbao. There are many other impressive buildings and of course the very popular flea markets are also an attraction.
9. Segovia:Segovia’s well preserved Roman Aqueduct is one of the landmarks of this city. The main attraction however remains the Alcazar, a picture perfect fortress from the 13^th century. The culture and great heritage of this city are evident in the many museums and palaces here.
10. Palma De Mallorca:A city on the island of Mallorca, it is truly Mallorca’s only city. Modern hotel chains thrive side by side with narrow alleys and old world corridors and plazas. The Cathedral in the centre of the town has now been restored to its former glory.

New Year. New Goal.

2011-02-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

Completing the 3-mile a day challenge of 2010 was awesome.

The goal for 2011 is the biggest half marathon in the world this spring and ~~the Marine Corp Marathon~~ in the fall.

Never mind. The damn race is already sold out. The previous record was 62 hours. Today it sold out in 28. Missed it.

Guess I need another marathon. But anyways run a marathon, and run it in under 4 hours (I would squeal if I could break 3:50).

My first marathon I just focused on the long runs. I lived by the moto If you can run 20, you can run 26.

This time I want to use Jeff Gaudette's theory of marathon training:

For success at the marathon distance, you need to training specifically for the physiological demands of the race. In the marathon, this means three things:

Increasing your fitness so that you can decrease your marathon pace and make it more comfortable
Teaching your body how to burn fat as a fuel source as opposed to carbohydrates
Simulating the fatigue you'll experience the last 10k without getting hurt or becoming too tired in training

Turining those goals into a training plan focuses on:

Faster paced tempo runs that are often broken into shorter, but faster intervals [this seems like two short/fast runs during the week 5-6 miles]
To simulate the fatigue at the end of the race, this FitnessClass breaks up the long runs over the weekend into two moderately fast paced runs
Long and slow 22 milers will breakdown the muscles and will completely exhaust you, which will lead to a significant delay in recovery. In addition, running for longer than 3 hours and 30 minutes can significantly increase the chance of injury and doesn't produce significant physiological adaptations...by running on both weekend days, this allows you to carry the fatigue of Saturday's run into Sunday, which will simulate the latter stages of the marathon without having to run 20 miles.

This sounds like it focuses on the wall I ran into around mile 21 in Queens/Harlem. Sounds like what I need to do for success.

Trip to Sanoma

2011-01-26T22:08:00.000-08:00

Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach Bundschu Winery Visits WLTV – Part 1 – Episodes #773

Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach Bundschu Winery Visits WLTV – Part 2 – Episodes #774

Three miles a day for 2010 is done.

2011-01-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

I ran with Nak and the rest of the Run Detroit posse on January 31st to complete The Goal.

Gary and crossed the finish 1 and 2 in 27 minutes and then I circled around to pick up Bo and run another couple of kilometers.

Final numbers:

1097.17 miles
187 runs
5.9 miles per run
15.6 runs per month

I was cruising through the goal until October and November when getting ready for my talk at the ASN Renal Week crushed me.

I had to come back with my fourth 100-mile month ever (Dec '08, Aug '09, Aug '10 and Dec '10) to cross the finish line with 2 miles to spare.

Here is how the year stacked up against the goal:

The nomogram of run distance stacks up like this:

6-8 miles is the sweet spot, just like last year:

So after three years, the running odometer looks like this:

I'm reading Ultramarathon Man

2010-12-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

Dean Karnazes was one of the characters mentioned in Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. McDougal's descprition isn't so kind, as he is used as a foil in opposition to Scott Jurek. I had read one of the other books mentioned in Born to Run, Lance Armstrong's autobiography (written by Sally Jenkins) It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. McDougall describes it as being the story of a warrior poet. It was good and gave me a much better understanding of who Armstrong is and his personal philosophy. Last summer, Michael Schoffman recommended Karnazes' book.

Michael had just months before met Dean. Michael was running his first marathon, the LA Marathon and around the 20th mile he looked over his shoulder and there was Dean Karnazes. Michael had already read his book so he starts talking to the guy and they ran the last 10k together.

Take a look at those Clock Times, they crossed the finish practically arm in arm.

Turns out Dean had previously rode some crazy contraption called the ElliptiGo for 500 miles to the start of the Marathon. Crazy Fuck.

So much cooler than my frenetic sprint around Central Park trying to keep up with Lance.

As I read the book I was enthralled and inspired. The book starts with all the charm of the Rocky Balboa narrative. It is a small underdog learning to escape his upper middle class yuppie existence by stretching free of all rational physical bounds. The whole transformation and training process capped by the epic battle with the Western States 100 stirred my soul.

Unfortunately after that portion (about a third of the book) the story devolves faster than the Rocky series. Each subsequent adventure, the Bad Water 100, running a marathon at the South Pole, running 199 miles straight, becomes equal parts repetitive and preposterous. He tries to engage the reader by explaining how dangerous running at the South Pole is. Yea. No shit its negative 100°. Don't be a dip shit. Its too cold to be outside.

Overall a good read but it's no Born to Run and even falls short of It's Not About the Bike.

This brings back memories of my marathon

2010-11-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

2010 NYC Marathon Time Lapse from wnyc culture on Vimeo.

Here is the Camera she used. Totally cool website.

And here is the story of the runner.

Thanks Lynn

State of the goal: June, July and August

2010-09-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this blog on the quest to run 3 miles a day for a year.

So here is the update.

I failed to hit three miles a day in June (85 miles, with a goal of 90) and July (89.6 miles with a goal of 93). These were the first misses for a month this year. I crushed August (132.3 with a goal of 93) running more miles than I ever ran before.

The long and short of this is I'm still on track for 1095 miles for 2010. August 31st was the 243rd day of the year, so I needed to have run 729 miles. I had run 770.

I have a new goal

2010-09-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin apparently ran a sub 4 hour marathon, (another link) just barely, at 3:59:24.

I gotta beat her. If I do it this year, I'll be the same age as her. Could I do it at Detroit? Probably not.

Hey. I'm in the Detroit Free Press!

2010-07-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Last week Runkeeper retweeted Mark W Smith (@markdubya) of the Free Press who was looking for some RunKeeper users to interview:

I posted this tweet to him and he bit:

He called me later that day and interviewed m for about ten minutes. Later that week he called to set up a photo shoot. On Friday morning Andre Jackson came by and took some pictures of me and my iPhone (and Bo).

Then Today the Free Press dropped me on the front of Page D1

All and all, a fun exchange.

Huntington Woods runners, go west.

2010-06-08T06:03:00.000-07:00

I did a run few days ago and RunKeeper recorded me crossing 696. Twice. The GPS was accurate. Here is the map:

The trick is that when the Feds built 696 they added two elevated parks to compensate Oak Park for land lost to the highway.

My advice to Huntington Woods runners, go west.

Inspired to run by a Runkeeper bug

2010-06-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

One thing I hate about RunKeeper is how at the beginning of the month you get that down arrow that says "Lowest"

I just had one day, of coarse I'm not going to be over my worst month yet. And the more consistant you are the longer it takes to shed that arrow. My worst month is last June, so my lowest is 19 miles. But that it going to scroll off the page next month and then I'll have to clock 44 miles before getting rid of that Albatross.

May, another month in the bag

2010-05-31T19:11:00.001-07:00

April: Another successful month

2010-05-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

The month started off slow as the whole family went to Breckenridge for the first week.

Also this was the first month in 2009 where I started to pour on the miles. For the rest of the year 2009 will be a real benchmark. Not like the straw man it has played so far.

Hey I got an iPad!

2010-04-30T17:25:00.001-07:00

Just playing around. So far pretty fun. Long run tonight. On screen keyboard is better than the pundits say.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

RunKeeper: The first 1,000 miles

2010-04-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

I'm going to go running tonight and I will flip the odometer on RunKeeper, taking me over one thousand miles!

I was among the first users of RunKeeper. I purchased my iPhone 3g in late July 2008. Remember, the first iPhone didn't have GPS or any third party apps, so RunKeeper could not exist until the summer of 2008. I had been using Nike+ for awhile and I liked it but really wanted a way to map my runs. I downloaded the initial, free version, of RunKeeper and was underwhelmed. It killed the battery, and continually quit or failed in the middle of a run. I liked the concept but the bullet-proof reliability of Nike+ won the day. Later, RunKeeper forked their product into a free and paid version. I downloaded both hoping to see better reliability and again was unimpressed. For the remainder of 2008, RunKeeper was only trotted out when I was runing in an exotic location where I wanted to record a map.

Like my run up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum (Eye of the Tiger blasting through my ear buds)

Or on the beach at Grand Traverse Bay

Or the Loop in Chicago

Or Key Biscayne Florida

But as RunKeeper kept coming out with additional versions the product kept getting more reliable and better at managing battery life. By June of 2009, I was using it on every run. By this time, however I was addicted to the social nature of Nike+. I was participating in a bunch of challenges, and really was geting into the Nike+ community.

On September 19, 2009, I was doing my first 20 mile training run. My iPod Nano crapped out and Nike+ failed to track that run. That was the last time I used Nike+ and I have been monogomous RunKeeper user since. I think that since the 20 miler was so important to me, having Nike+ crap out allowed me to quit them cold turkey.

Now I am a committed RunKeeper user. I think its an awesome tool and I have, at various times, used nearly every feature:

Manually entering runs with mapping! (like last night when I jabbered on the phone for the whole 5 miles)
Intervals (I used run-walk to build up my miles during the summer of 2009)
Photos (Michigania, Montreal and Quebec City all offered great photos on the run)
Run editing (the canals of San Antonio confused the hell out of the GPS
Alternative activities (I have tracked bike rides and swims, the latter by manual entry)
Street Teams (I am encouraging my friends to get fit and part of the sell is pushing RunKeeper)

I am excited for iPhone 4.0. I think rapid applicagtion switching will make Runkeeper even better. I also would like to see better support for audio books in the integrated iPod playing system. But overall I feel that the iPhone client is done. In terms of the whole service I feel that the website could learn a lot about community building from Nike+. Where are the challenges? How about allow a second tier of social groupings (tribes? I would love to create, follow or join a barefoot running tribe, or a running doctors tribe) Why can't we use RunKeeper to set up virtual races among or between street teams? How about statistics about StreetTeams. Lots of potential and I am excited to see how this plays out.

Go Run Keeper.

Sorry about the lack of maps in this post. Imbedded maps is not currently working. Known bug. Always a work in progress.

Shoes companies suck

2010-04-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

two articles from PubMed showing no difference in injuries when shoes are sized by the hight of the arch:

Effect on injuries of assigning shoes based on foot shape in air force basic training.

Injury reduction effectiveness of selecting running shoes based on plantar shape.

I added an RSS of shoe associated running injury research to the side bar.

April

2010-04-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

So I had been targeting the Martian Marathon for a half marathon but the day before we came back from Colorado and I was still on Mountain Time when my alarm went off at 6 A.M.

I didn't make it to the race.

I did run 12.5 miles the next day, so I'll call that my half marathon.

Not included is the 2 mile warm-up I did with Bo.

Then on Monday I took off my shoes and ran my first true barefoot miles. I had been stripping off my shoes for the last month to finish the final quarter to half a mile in socks but I had never gone skin to the ground.

Two miles as nature intended.

I did it again on Wednesday. Feet hurt, calves stiff. It's like starting to run all over again. We'll see how this goes.

March went well

2010-04-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

I had a slow start but steadily stayed on it and finished strong to just getting past the pacer on the 31st.

With the year one quarter done I am right on track:

The 2009 miles will begin to pick up in April and will cease to be a straw man comparison.

Another marathoner dies of sudden cardiac death

2010-03-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

This one in Dallas.

Terrible.

But get this idiot blogger questioning the health benefits of exercise:

Did being an athlete prolong his life? Or somehow short-circuit it?
I finished three marathons last millennium and fancied trying another last year until I got busy taking on a new job and dropping a wife.
Stories like this always make me stop and ponder:
A. Do we actually increase our life span by working out and eating healthy and not smoking?
B. Or will fate/destiny/God simply take us when it's time, regardless of our lifestyle?

Denver Post covers barefoot running

2010-03-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Check it out.

Spring

2010-03-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

The weather is warming up and I am resuming my barefoot (well actually, I'm wearing socks, the cement is still pretty cold) running.

It feels good, I had started to feel some inkling of my plantar's sneaking up again and a few quarters of barefeet have banished that.

This week I'm going to FLA so I hope to put some real bare feet miles in.

Feburary

2010-03-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

Feburary went well. I met my goal so I should be happy but March has been beset with illness and the wife going out of town, both of which have put me behind. It will be a stretch to get back on target for March. Interesting, last year March was my worst month also. Trend?

January went well

2010-02-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

I'm only a little bit behind on my pledge to run 3 miles a day. Way ahead of last year. But last year I was starting to get plantar fasciitis.

2009: The year in Running

2010-01-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

Looking at the dots, representing individual runs, it's interesting how the long training runs just pop right out when they rise above the morass of 5-10 mile runs.

Looking at the blue line, it's remarkable how consistant the running is from about April through November.

Here is a nomogram giving a picture of how frequent different distances are:

My average distance was 6.53 miles with a median distance of 6.22 miles.

My favorite days to run are Sunday and Tuesday, with Sunday logging an average of one more mile.

These graphs were generated in Excel from the run data I exported my DabbleDB database.

Its too bad that neither RunKeeper nor Nike+ provides such overview data and neither allow you to export the raw data. I am forced to keep a parallel tracking system like DabbleDB. What a hassle.

2010 New Years Resolution

2010-01-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

I ran 920 miles (2.5 miles a day) in 2009. I want to increase that 25% to 3.0 miles a day or 1095 miles.

This shouldn't be too hard, just 21 miles a week. We'll see. So far I'm already behind, but just 3 miles.

I also want to run every day for a month.

Thank you RunKeeper for 2.0

2009-12-12T21:55:00.000-08:00

What a great update.

The guts of RunKeeper having been getting better and better with each point release during RunKeeper 1.0-1.4 but the user interface has been getting cruftier and crudtier with each added feature. The interface was starting to get in the way of using the new features. 2.0 reworks the interface to make it beautiful, useful and streamlined. I can now take a picture with a couple of taps (one of them being the shutter), I can see my mile splits during a run, the map is way cooler and more responsive, I can more easily set the training work-out and what music I want to listen to. Solid release. This program keeps getting better.

Getting started. Super easy to select music and interval style from the start screen:

The information provided during the run is split intelligently across three intuitive screens: Map, Splits and Pace. Splits were previously available only on the web after the run. You just swipe side-to-side to move from splits to map to current and average pace. Also new is calories burned. Previously this was just available on the web. One of my favorite features is that the camera is available from all three screens.

I used the 2.0 update for the first time on this 10 miler:

I think we're going to Banff

2009-12-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

Sweet trail running here I come!

This will be a great warm-up to the big Aggressive Deer camping trip at King's Canyon.

Link collection:

Rockies.com

The autopsies are final

2009-12-01T14:38:00.001-08:00

The Detroit Marathon fatalities are ruled to be heart disease.

Strange that they didn't report acute MI after the anatomical path was done in the first week.

Engage with grace blog rally

2009-11-25T11:42:00.000-08:00

Last Thanksgiving weekend, many bloggers participated in the first documented “blog rally” to promote Engage With Grace – a movement aimed at having all of us understand and communicate our end-of-life wishes.

It was a great success, with over 100 bloggers in the healthcare space and beyond participating and spreading the word. Plus, it was timed to coincide with a weekend when most of us are with the very people with whom we should be having these tough conversations – our closest friends and family.

The original mission – to get more and more people talking about their end of life wishes – hasn’t changed. But it’s been quite a year – so we thought this holiday, we’d try something different.

A bit of levity.

At the heart of Engage With Grace are five questions designed to get the conversation started. We’ve included them at the end of this post. They’re not easy questions, but they are important.

To help ease us into these tough questions, and in the spirit of the season, we thought we’d start with five parallel questions that ARE pretty easy to answer:

Silly? Maybe. But it underscores how having a template like this – just five questions in plain, simple language – can deflate some of the complexity, formality and even misnomers that have sometimes surrounded the end-of-life discussion.

So with that, we’ve included the five questions from Engage With Grace below. Think about them, document them, share them.

Over the past year there’s been a lot of discussion around end of life. And we’ve been fortunate to hear a lot of the more uplifting stories, as folks have used these five questions to initiate the conversation.

One man shared how surprised he was to learn that his wife’s preferences were not what he expected. Befitting this holiday, The One Slide now stands sentry on their fridge.

Wishing you and yours a holiday that’s fulfilling in all the right ways.

To learn more please go to www.engagewithgrace.org. This post was written by Alexandra Drane and the Engage With Grace team. If you want to reproduce this post on your blog (or anywhere) you can download a ready-made html version here

This is what is supposed to happen if you develop sudden cardiac death during a marathon

2009-11-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

More on the Detroit Marathon deaths.

The most likely natural explanation for the deaths is sudden cardiac death (an heart arrhythmia). This can be reversed by electrical depolarization of the heart, i.e. shocking him. You've seen it on TV a million times:

1...2...3...Clear. Shock!

It is a pretty successful therapy. In fact, in the NY Marathon a guy collapsed at mile 19 and was saved by defibrillation. See here and here. He even has a twitter account. (Immediate follow)

I passed two of the resucitaiton efforts and they had defibrillators at the scene. This was no sudden cardiac death.

Cool street level tour of the NY Marathon Route

2009-11-23T10:40:00.001-08:00

From the New York Times.

Newton Running Shoes

2009-11-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

cool video about their philosophy behind the shoes

Nice article about this at Popular Science

Chris McDougal was on the Daily Show!

2009-11-23T09:44:00.001-08:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Christopher McDougall

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Sergey Brin is wearing VFF KSOs!

2009-11-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

What Would Google Do? Apparently run barefoot style.

The Marathon was hard as hell

2009-11-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

As the weeks go by I have begun to forget how hard the marathon was. I just got my pictures and this is a great reminder of how I felt.

One of the Detroit Marathon deaths ruled: natural causes

2009-11-16T04:36:00.000-08:00

According to the Free Press:

Rick Brown, 65, of Marietta, Ohio, died of natural causes when he collapsed during the half-marathon, an autopsy concluded. Autopsy results still are pending in the deaths of 36-year-old Daniel Langdon of Laingsburg and 26-year-old Jon Fenlon of Waterford.

They article specifically addressed the internet speculation about poison:

Because the three runners collapsed in such a short time this year, the deaths sparked some speculation in Internet postings as to whether the men may have been given tainted water as they ran. Brown's autopsy included toxicology screening, which was negative for alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription medications and poisons.

Two great runs in Canada

2009-11-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

The first one was in Montreal. On the first day cathy and I rented Bixi's and rode from our hotel to Mount Royal

The ride was in heavy traffic and uphill. The whole way was uphill. Including two really steep blocks that were killer.

We ended up both burning out and running out of daylight so we only got to spend only a few miles in Parc Mont-Royal.

Here is the end of our bike ride:

The next day Cathy stayed at the hotel to study for the LSATs and I went for a run. I ran right back to the park. For the first 3 miles I climbded 600 feet to the top of Mont-Royal.

On the way to the park I passed this delightful Nissan Figaro.

I then started running through the woods on these great trails. Unfortunately, I ran out of light. The total run was a wonderful 8 mile run.

The next day we rented a car and drove to Quebec City. Super cool European Gem. Its a walled city, right out of the Middle Ages. Our second day in Quebec it started misting late in the day and I found a couple of hours before dinner to get out for a 4 miler. It was great. Again I was running in the dark and it was a little wet but running around cobble stones, cliffs and old walls was awesome.

This was another run on hills I never see around here. I did a 200 foot climb and then a 400 foot descent and concluded with a 200 foot climb.

Industry on the St Laurence River

Dr. Spitz agrees with me: Poison

2009-11-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

This just in from WXYZ an update on the Detroit Free Press Marathon deaths. Dr. Spitz, of President Kennedy autopsy fame, weighs in on the potential causes of deaths. The money quotation:

Dr. Werner Spitz: “It raises big questions about something that may connect the three cases that needs to be ruled out as soon as possible for fear that there may be other people who may suffer from same thing.”

What Dr. Spitz does not believe is that the runners contracted an illness from one another.

Dr. Spitz: “Highly, highly unlikely. You need time for that to develop. You need time for the disease to take hold of the certain areas of the body, especially the heart muscle.”

He is not officially involved in the case. But based on what has been reported so far, he speculates that their deaths could be the result of poisoning—accidental or intentional.

Spitz: “Maybe they all ate the same cookie that had something in it, or who knows. That is why it is so important to hurry up and do it.”

Like I said, "Someone poisoned the water hole!"

My feet are better

2009-11-10T05:32:00.000-08:00

Last night I ran a half mile in my socks and this morning my feet don't hurt. Literally, after 330 consecutive days of aching feet in the morning I wake up and they feel normal.

Barefeet FTW.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Listening to Born to Run

2009-11-08T20:07:00.000-08:00

I ran a 5 miler tonight and for the first time took off my shoes and ran part of it in socks. I'm going to give it a try.

Lots of Barefoot Running resources out there:

Newton makes a shoe designed to push you out of heel striking and using the forefoot/mimdfoot strike. They have a blog.

Google group with special guest Barefoot Ted.

A site about the Vibram Five Fingers.

Should be an interesting trip. Start slow.

I did it.

2009-11-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

On November 1, from 10 AM to 2:09 PM I ran the New York Marathon.

Here's my story.

We flew to NY on Friday after work. I met Cathy and the kids at the airport.

We arrived at Lagurdia and went to Lynn and Harald's. We arrived around 9 and fed the kids and crashed.

That night I read on the Twitter that @lanceamrstrong was running the next morning...

So, against all advice I had ever heard, I decided to run the morning before the storm. Super cool of Harald to join up with me.

The next morning we rolled out of bed, strapped on the sneaks and headed to NikeTown. We saw Paula Radcliffe speak but we arrived late and I didn't really hear much of what she had to say. I only knew her as one of the voices on Nike+. Paula, Lance and Tiger, Pretty rich company.

We went outside and then Lance's bus arrived. He came out and started running. No speech, no gather round announcement. He just pulled up 10 or 15 minutes after 9 and then let's go.

We all started on this nice and easy run but pretty quickly it deteriorated into a sprint to get up to the front to talk or see Lance. I fell for it. I wish I knew how fast the party was but RunKeeper was not cooperating.

This is the approximate route. I remember seeing both the 24 and 25 mile banners. I also got to gaze upon the Apple Cube. Note Route 25 in the bottom right, that is the Queensborough Bridge, the site of much excitement the next day.

I flashed up to the front and grabbed a couple of pics. I Gasped out a greeting to Lance who regarded me and asked, "Are you going to run with that backpack?" I smiled and said, "yes." He kind of rolled his eyes without being obvious. The only other thing I remember him saying was calling out the runner's aphorism that "...when you reach the 20 mile mark the race is only half over." [For an explanation of why I planned to run with a backpack see this post]

A sentiment I had yet to experience.

Then I got dropped. I couldn't keep up with this crowd. By the end of the 4 mile route I couldn't see even one other person that started with Lance (except for Harald).

After the run I deleted RunKeeper from the iPhone and reloaded it. That solved my issue and after that RunKeeper would load right up with no hesitation or crashing. Then it was off to the Expo at Javitz. It was pretty cool. The line was epic. I had never in my life seen so many runners. This same jaw-dropping experience occured over and over again every time I interacted with the race. This thing is huge. I couldn't get over that there were this many people that were able to run this thing.

I got my number

I got my t-shirt

I met Anthony Edwards

I bought PowerBar Gel

and I kept thinking about what Lance had
said about the backpack...

The Expo was cool but it was time to get back to Brooklyn Halloween. And what a Halloween it was. Witches, cats, Storm Troopers, I mean Clone Troopers, and a Candy Corn Fairies (The first of two types of Ferry's/Fairies).

Trick-or-treating in Brooklyn is a new experience. Fun. Unique.

Colonel Sanders and his
chicken family

Post-It note

Sean of the Dead

All while we are Trick-or-Treating I am regretting my run. I am tired and a little run down. My confidence is knocked down. My feet hurt. And I can't stop thinking about what Lance thought about the back-pack. I'm convinced he is telling me, "...don't be a fool. Don't carry that weight if you don't have to..." At the same time, I am thinking about how chafed my neck is from the 4 mile jaunt this morning.

We get home and get take out (its New York after all) pasta and Pizza dinner.

About half-way through dinner I begin to freak-out about the marathon. I decide I can't wear the backpack. This means I have to carry my iPhone plus extended battery in my pocket. Not ideal. I set aside my clothes and supplies. I finalize my play list. Lynn gets me a car service. I set my alarm after setting the clock back for day-light savings.

I have no trouble going to sleep.

The next morning its off to the Staten Island Ferry by car service. (The first of many forms of transportation.) Then on to the Ferry.

Then we board a bus for the starting park.

I have never seen more Port-a-Johns in one place.

Everyone seems to love the bananas

I get off the bus and I have to pee.
I walk to the center of the camp and I have to pee.
I drop off my bag at the UPS truck and I have to pee.
My ADH is completely suppressed.

Caffeine, nerves or just a little too much water loading? Who knows?

No marathon induced hyponatremia for me.

I drop off my stuff at the UPS truck and go to my start position. The whole time I'm walking in the shadow of the Verizano bridge. It's huge.

My final twitter before the race. Strip off my sweater and sweatpants.

America the Beautiful.

The gun fires... and we are off.

The bridge is crowded. People are bumping you; it's hard to find a hole to run in. I am on the lower deck so there isn't much of a view, but the roof is really high, so no clausterphobia.

It feels like an easy pace. It's really exciting. The TV news helocopter flies close to the bridge to get some cool shots. Everyone cheers.

The bridge is long and we finally emerge at the two mile mark.
Into Brooklyn. People stop for a pee break.

I loved the run in Brooklyn. I was moving pretty quick. Gaining confidence. I kept a close eye on the 4 hour Pacers. I admit to myself for the first time that getting under four hours would be cool and plan on sticking with this pacer crew.

The first water break is around 3 miles. At four miles I hear the first person give me a personal cheer, "Looking good, Joel first time!" It feels great.

This way to Central Park!

I see Cathy and Lynn at 7 miles and never see them again.

We turn off 4th avenue.

Then in to the Black Neighborhoods, the Hipsters ghetto and then to the Jewish Black Hatters neighborhood.

And then across Pulaski Bridge and the thirteen-point-one half-way point. Into Queens, borough number 3 of 5!

We go through Queens and on to Queens Blvd and all I could think about was Entourage.

We leave Queens by crossing the Queensborough bridge. It's a long climb. Way longer than any parking garage I have climbed around here.

We arrive on the Island with 16 miles in the bag and a wall of sound from everyone cheering you into Manhattan. Number 4 of 5.

Ten miles to go. At this point I'm slowing down but still on pace for a 4 hour marathon. After meeting Cathy and Lynn in Brooklyn I haven't seen the pace team at all. I can see pretty far ahead of me and no balloons so I figure they must be behind me.
We turn on to 1st Avenue and essentially we just need to run up to the end of Manhattan, cross into the Bronx, curve into Harlem and race for the finish in Central park. Up. Over. And back.

First avenue is lined with people, 5 deep. There is a PowerBar Gel station and a wet sponge station. I eat my third of four Gels at mile 18. Four miles up First avenue and into the Bronx. Passed a fire at an apartment building. They actually drove a firetruck on to the course.

It's a quick trip through the Bronx with the highlight being a Chinese drum line banging on some huge drums. Very cool.

Cross the Madison Avenue bridge and we are in Harlem, bback in Manhattan. We have been to all the boroughs.

I am really starting to sag as we pass 22 miles. I tried to eat my last Gel and nearly vomit. I spit it out and hope I don't hit the wall.

Just before 23 miles we start running along side Central Park. Yea.

Then we enter the Park and I am really lagging. I have 2.2 miles to go and I don't think I can make it.

I see signs that say:

Pain is temporary. Dignity is forever.

It keeps me going. I start bargaining with myself. The logic goes:

If I walk now I will feel like I need to run another one so I finish. So the only way to avoid this pain in the future is to keep going.

I pass the 25 mile mark and still don't think I can make it.

A sign tells me half a mile to go. Sounds impossible.

400 meters. I can do it.
300 meters. I think I can.
200 meters, I can see the end.
The finish line. Did it.
Done. Done. Done.

Faster than Oprah (4:22:00), Faster than the average finishing time in the U.S. (4:16:00), just a minute behind Anthony Edwards.

Detroit Half Marathon Deaths

2009-10-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

The more I think about the deaths in the Detroit Half Marathon, the more freaked I get.

The facts:

three men died
all within 16 minutes
all within a mile and a half
age varied from 26 to 65

The reasoned conjecture:

It sounds like, from this article, that the initial anatomic pathology report was negative. If that is the case we can rule-out the following causes of death:

Acute myocardial infarction (leading candidate for the 65 year old)
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (a common explanation for when apparently healthy athletes keels over dead during athletics)
Electrolyte abnormalities. Chemistries should have been available within minutes and if there was massive rhabdomyolysis with hyperkalemia and hypocalcemia or acute hyponatremia with cerebral edema I would expect that would have been announced.

What's left:

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) in a anatomically normal heart. Deadly heart arrhythmia.

That's all I can come up with. The problem with sudden cardiac death is it doesn't explain the geographic and temporal clustering. SCD is essentially random. The patients would increase the risk by racing up their heart rate and going into a bit of oxygen debt. Additionally I ran past two of the three resuscitation efforts. They had defibrillators on site and immediate CPR. My gut says that with the great first response they should have been able to get at least one save if it was SCD. The victims were in good shape without long lists of co-morbidities. The one factor that blocks success of out-of-hospital resuscitation is time to first response and by all accounts that was not an issue here.

The paranoid conjecture

The Detroit running community has been whispering whether the water or Gator-ade at the Mile 12 hydration station could have been poisoned. That would explain the temporal/spatial clustering and the negative anatomic autopsy.

I hope some new data emerges in the next few days to reassure me, but right now I'm planning on running with my CamelBack and drinking my own water in New York.

Good link on cause of cardiac deaths in runners

The Sudden Cardiac Death Association (sponsored by MedTronic presumably) weighs in.

The home stretch.

2009-10-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

I did 8.4 tonite and I am ready. I was breezing through mile 8 as my heart rate was loping along at 80.

I can see the goal clearly now.

The milestone approaches.

Eighteen months.

3 half marathons

5 days at Glacier

All that's left is

Run 5 and a parking garage on Tuesday

Run it again on Thursday

Fly out on Friday.

Pick up my bib on Saturday at the Javitz

Halloween it up all Saturday

Set the clocks back an hour before bed

Wake up at 5 am? 4 am? to go to Staten Island.

at 9:40, 10:00 or 10:20: Run boy run

4 hours later: its all over.

Detroit half marathon is in the bag

2009-10-19T12:28:00.001-07:00

I ran without music as kind of trial run for New York. Mostly it was good but there

were some lonely miles around mile 9-12 that could have used some additional entertainment.

I think my plan will be to carry a Nano with some music loaded on it. Or even a shuffle.

Here is me after the race calling Cathy.

Last year's Free Press Marathon

2009-10-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

7:19 AM Fanfare for the Common Man
3:28 Eugene Ormandy Copland: Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid & Others
This was the start music it was perfect for the slow start. I remember the count down: 5...4...3...2….1….Siren. Then you just stood there. And 40 seconds would pass and would you take a step or two. Then you’d stand and eventually take another step. Finally, after minutes of waiting, up ahead you could see the furthest people’s heads begin to bounce. Then the bounce would slowly progress through the crowds towards you and then envelop you and my head began to bounce.

Too bad the song was too short. I was loving it.

7:25 AM Lose Yourself
5:32 Eminem 8 Mile Soundtrack
Great follow-up song. Get pumped for your one shot, your one opportunity. dont let this moment pass you give it your all. I have been thinking that Obama must feel this way before each debate. It reminds me of a t-shirt I saw today:

“it's not what lies ahead or what lies behind.  The only thing important is what lies within us.”

7:32 AM Blue Sky
5:11 The Allman Brothers Band Eat a Peach

Interesting pick. It worked out okay. I was listening to this when I passed Tiger Stadium

7:38 AM Cellophane
3:37 Amanda Ghost Ghost Stories

7:42 AM My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
3:48 Neil Young Young, Neil (Rust Never Sleeps)
Running through southwest detroit on the way to the bridge. Its  still dark out.

7:46 AM We Are
4:02 Vertical Horizon Everything you Want

7:49 AM Shake That Sh** (Radio Edit)
3:44 Shawnna & Ludacris Shake That Sh**
This came on as I was running toward the bridge. It was the greatest visual. I could see a continuous mass of bodies running up the road and wrapping onto the bridge and could see thousands of runners bouncing along on the bridge.

7:53 AM Lift Me Up
3:21 Moby Hotel
This came on as I climbed up onto the bridge. My funny joke as we passed the duty free shop, “Hey guys I’m just gonna run inside and pick up a pack of smokes, anybody need anything?” Of coarse since everybody was listening to iPods no one heard me. I accidentally forwarded this song when it was two-thirds done. I was trying to check my pace. Too bad.

7:57 AM King Without a Crown
4:49 Matisyahu Live At Stubb's

On the bridge. The construction narrowed our running lane to a single lane. It got so slow that we sometimes had to walk. While this was happening an 18 wheeler was going our direction in one of the two lanes reserved for traffic. Nothing like the smell of diesel in the morning. This is a great song, totally pumped me up.

8:02 AM A Horse With No Name
4:08 America History -America's Greatest Hits
The view from the bridge was great with the sun rising over Windsor. The sun rise was red and yellow and orange. I also had a perfect view of Belle Isle.

8:04 AM The Geeks Get the Girls
2:50 American Hi-Fi The Geeks Get the Girls
Love this song. Listened to this as we ran off the bridge into Canada. They had an announcer at the bridge who was telling everyone that since the exchange rate was so good in Canada we would run 50% faster, and not to worry about getting injured because Canada has universal health care.

8:09 AM Track 19 Movie
4:25

8:13 AM Close My Eyes
4:25 Matisyahu Live At Stubb's
Running toward the water in Windsor

8:20 AM Prime Audio Soup
6:17 Meat Beat Manifesto The Matrix
All along the water. Beautiful apartments with vacancies.

8:29 AM Call To Arms
5:05 Angels and Airwaves I-Empire
This song didn’t work for me and I skipped it forward. Strange as I listen to it now and seems perfect. When the song first started I thought it would be the Such Great Heights by the Postal Service.

8:33 AM Peter Gunn Theme
3:49 Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers
Everyone loves the Blues Brothers. I was listening to this as we turned off the water to run for the tunnel entrance.

8:35 AM Macworld 2002 Sound
1:54 Maxen Macworld SF 2002 Soundtrack
A little Steve Jobs is always a great lift. This is the first Macworld Keynote after the introduction of the iPod. Before it was on windows, before the iTunes Music Store, before the Mini, shuffle or any other iPod variant. I love this line “iMac, iBook, iPod, get it?”

8:37 AM Spirits In The Material World
2:59 Police, The Every Breath You Take
This came on just I was descending into the tunnel. The etherial sound perfectly matched the mood of the tunnel. The tunnel, by the way totally cool. A little warm, loud and a little smelly, but not claustrophobic. The ceiling is really high. It is a touch narrow and people compacted up a little.

8:42 AM Hymm
3:18 Moby Everything is Wrong

8:45 AM Tubular Bells
3:00 Book of Love Lullaby
Listened to this as I came out of the tunnel. It was so cool. The temperature drops about 15 degrees and it is so bright. Then after you get out of the maze and onto Jefferson the road is lined with hundreds of people. This was definitely the most densely populated cheering sight that I saw. I was great.

8:50 AM Dakota
5:00 Stereophonics Dakota - Single
Running by Cobo, back down to the river.

8:54 AM In A Big Country
4:45 Big Country The Crossing
Running by River Front Apartments. This is where I crossed the 10 mile mark, as far as I had ever run! The rest of the trip was on guts.

8:57 AM I Want Candy
2:45 Bow Wow Wow The Best of Bow Wow Wow
Running north away from the river. This song didn’t do it for me so much.

9:01 AM Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
3:25 Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers
Cruising through Cork Town. What a pleasant little neighborhood. Lots of interesting houses and restaurants. Didn’t go by Nancy Whiskey. Nice view of Motor City Casino.

9:04 AM West End Girls
3:59 Petshop Boys Discography

9:12 AM Clubbed To Death
7:26 Rob D The Matrix Soundtrack
I remember thinking when this song came on that it would take me almost to the end. I love long songs. Cruised most of mile listening to this and it left me about to go back into Downtown for the home stretch.

9:14 AM Song 2
2:01 Blur Blur
Passing the 12 mile mark I remember smiling thinking that “I’m going to do it!”

9:17 AM Details of the War
3:30 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The coarse splits and the half marathoners go left and the marathoners cruise right. I wished all the Marathoners good luck as I turned toward the end.

It's Been Awhile
4:26 Staind Break the Cycle Rock
This comes on as I was sprinting the final 512 feet down Woodward screamin “Let’s close this f*cker out.”

Detroit marathon

2009-10-05T05:51:00.000-07:00

Though I am on my taper I have signed up for the Detroit Marathon half and the relay. I am going to lead off the SCSP relay team and then continue to cruise in for the half marathon. We had our team meeting today and Joe really wants us to break four hours. I'm looking at the math and I don't think we can do it. We'll see.

The half marathon:

My leg of the relay:

2009 Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon Relay Leg #1- Final 13Sep09
Find more Runs in Detroit, Michigan

The second twenty is in the bag!

2009-10-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

I did my second twenty and it went better (and faster) than the first. I shaved off twenty minutes from my first twenty. I also drove to Rochester to run on the Paint Creek Trail a rails to trails project that runs 8.9 miles. I did a couple of miles in downtown Rochester and then on to the trail.

When I started running there were all these police officers. When I got on the trail I learned why. the Brooksie half marathon was running the same trail from on mile 6. I was about an hour ahead of the race and never saw any of the racers but it was a fun coincidence. It was made even better finding out that one of my friends, Ruth, actually ran the Half.

Going to get new shoes

2009-10-03T07:56:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is the last long run before the taper. Hope the new shoes help with some of niggling injuries.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Cold weather run

2009-10-01T05:56:00.001-07:00

Last night it was probably 50 degrees. What pleasent running weather. I had forgotten how nice it was to run in the cold.

-- Posted from my iPhone

9.4 miles

2009-09-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Felt good. Good run to close out September. I did two big runs in September. One went good one went bad. This week-end I will do my penultimate run. The last 20.

I don't have better run data because I couldn't find the Nano, so no Nike+ and I listened to the Tigers win the 3rd game of the critical 4 game stand against the Twins. hen I talked to Joel while running. Couldn't have been fast but I got in 2 parking decks.

I did my Twenty!

2009-09-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

September 19, 2009: I turned 40 and I ran my 20.

Top four moments from the run:

#1: Meeting Cathy and the Kids

I find Simon, Laura, Maddie and Cathy all with pom-poms cheering me on. It was great.

#2: Running up Cranbrook Hill

Cranbrook Road, just before it runs into Woodward, has the steepest hill I know of. (Though the parking structures at Beaumount are pretty bad.) Here is the profile of that hill as seen by RunKeeper Pro:
Mike Sklar and I used to ride a twenty mile circuit and the half way point was that hill and it always took my breath away. Jeff Stefeil used to tell me about climbing Cranbrook Hill on his long training runs. Everybody has been telling me that I need to be ready for the hills of the New York Marathon. So I knew I had to climb that hill. On the profile it looks straight up. The significantly higher hill just after Cranbrook Hill is the long climb up from the lake to the corner by the Art Institute and Lone Pine.

#3: The most Tweetable moment.

At mile 8 Nike+ crashed for the second time in the 3 years I have been using it. The first time was before I started to run. This one occured 8 miles into the longest run of my life. I had been listening to some tunes and decided to switch to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When I went to turn off the music down went the Nike+ App. I couldn't revive the Nano. Luckily RunKeeper never missed a beat and captured the whole run.

Here's the tweet:

#4 and Cathy's top moment: Running with the family

I start my runs with an almost two mile loop around the southwest corner of the Woods. Cathy, Simon and Bo all sent me off in grand style by joining me for this warm-up loop. As we came around the loop and approached home, Simon said, "I'm glad we are close to home because I'm getting tired." I had almost 3 and a half more hours of running at that point.

One last pic...

from where my legs were dying. 20 miles is really hard and yesterday I couldn't have run 20.5 miles. Can't believe I will have another hour on November 1. Ughhh.

The post script

The punch line is that my wife had planned a surprise party for me. She took me to LaserQuest and I walked in to see Lyle, Steve Williams, Dave and Jill Hart, Susan and Trey, Amy (Matt had to deal with the babysitter), Jeff and Rachel. What a blast. I was destroyed tired but the entertainment was so high charged it was awesome. Great fortieth.

Thanks Cathy.

Tomorrow I'm going 20

2009-09-18T05:55:00.001-07:00

I turn 40 tomorrow and it's Rosh Hashanah. Tomorrow is a watershed run. I have been running scared since the failed 18 miler two weeks ago.

I'm going to crush it.

-- Posted from my iPhone

September 4: The worst run

2009-09-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

It was Labor Day Week-end and I knew I needed to get a long run in sometime in the three days. But I got change to get out early on a Friday and thought, "lets get that run in."

It was supposed to be 18 miles but I was feeling that Angry Whopper Ihad for lunch from the first mile to the 17th. And that was all I could do. I did complete a couple of errands. I went by Hanson's to buy some Goo. Then I went to the Apple store to pick up Snow Leopard and a Mophie Juice Pack Air. That would turn out to be a good thing.

On the return limb I just started dying. At mile 17 my iPhone lost it's charge and shut down. I could manage about another two blocks before I completely lost my charge...

I had to borrow a phone to call cathy to come get me.

With my new Mophie Juice Pack Air this will never happen again. Yeah.

Over 110 miles in August

2009-09-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

Most miles ever. I had to squeeze in the final 9 miles in the last two hours of the month but I got it done.

Hill training with parking garages

2009-08-27T11:29:00.001-07:00

Met a guy named David at an Aish event. He turned me on to running up the ramps of parking garages to simulate hill work. Genius. Tried it on a 7.8 mile run on Tuesday.

The white square inthe middle of the picture is the garage I used. Obviously RunKeeper had some trouble tracking me up the structure. It felt good. I am going to keep on doing these climbs. Likely one to three per run.

Running good for the knees

2009-08-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe but this is great news.

I did 30 miles at Camp Michigania

2009-08-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

I went to Camp Michigania and got 4 runs in and went 30 miles including a 16 miler for my longest run eva.

It was rather hilly, by far the hilliest run I have ever done. Cool.

From the run:

This is close to the western edge of Walloon Lake. This was at the end of the second blind dead end I ran down.

I had planned on running all the way to Lake Michigan but private property rights got in the way. I had to climb this 20 foot hill behind an industrial warehouse to get this view of the lake.

Home sweet home.

My other runs were rather pedestrian: 4 miles, 5 miles and a second 5 miler. My feet are killing me right now. Hope they get better.

9.4 Mile run home from Erhard

2009-08-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

I needed to get my windshield and bumper fixed. I drove to Erhart, dropped the keys in the night owl repository, strapped on my shoes and started running home. Actuallly I first had to pack up all the essentials I had accidently left in the car: two kids tennis rackets, a portable phone, wallet, spare keys, sun glasses, watch all were stuffed into every nook and cranny of the camelback.

Again I had technical problems. The iPod stopped playing properly in the background. It started pausing and skipping around the book. The story started reading more Vonegut and less Mitchner. I ran the final 7 miles or so without music.

Left foot was killing me for the last mile and a half.

Started People of the Book

2009-08-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

So far its pretty good. Definitely slower than Camouflage. Ran an easy six miles. Wil run another 5-6 tomorrow and hopefully an 8-10 on Saturday. Then next week-end I want to do a 15-16 miler at Michigania

Another 14 miler

2009-08-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

Fell off my schedule last week as I had a chapter due. Turned out okay. I also went with Simon to the Monster Truck show in Toledo the last week-end in July and went camping (and stupidly forgot my kicks) the first week-end in August.

Got home from camping and set up the tents, unpacked the truck and set off on a long one.

First I ran to Somerset via Beaumont. Long stretch on Coolidge, essentially took coolidge from 12 mile to 16 mile. Went in to the Apple store and bought the new microphone headphones. Sweet. Then to Starbucks for a smoothie and a bottle of water. Used the water to refill my CamelBack. I am all out of Goo hence the smoothie.

I ultimately outlasted the batteries in both my iPhone (shut down after 13 miles) and my Nano (shut down after 9.73 miles).

I liked the preview of the Haldeman story the Hemmingway Fraude. Finished Camouflage.

The rest week.

2009-07-19T18:06:00.001-07:00

After my longest run I ran Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

I did two short (5 and 4 miles on Sunday and Thursday) and two long (Tuesday and Saturday). Here are the profiles for the long runs:

I am really beginning to pour on the miles. I have run over 26.2 miles a week for the last two weeks and for three of the last 6 weeks. I now feel that a ten mile run is routine. Next week-end will be tough but I want to do another long run next Sunday. Another 13-14 mile run. I expect it to be a little easier. I really feel like I'm on my way!

This shows just my long runs (over 8 miles) since May.

long run: 14.2 miles

2009-07-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

I ran a 14er yesterday. That is the longest run I ever did. This longest run triggered a recording of Lance Armstrong on my Nike+ system congratulating me. Very topical since I am watching the Tour De France on Vs.

This was the first time I went over 10 miles with out the hulabaloo of a race. It went fine. I was worried that with out the adrenalin of a race I would be bored. The run was great though the last two miles were a bear. I was really strong through ten though so my concearns of last week are partly relieved I feel that ten miles if not quite routine is pretty close to routine. Making progress. I'll go for another 13-14er in two weeks.

RunKeeper did a nice job until near the end. Note the straight line to the finish which is a couple of miles to the west of my home.

I finished Freakonomics on the run. The last chapter on baby names was the worst chapter I have listened to in any of my books on tape. For the record, the best chapter I have listened to was the chapter on Jewish lawyers in Outliers.

6.4 miles

2009-07-07T19:57:00.001-07:00

9 mile run

2009-07-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

RunKeeper dropped about a mile as I somehow forgot to resume after receiving a phone call. This is the primary advantage of the Nike+ system. It's so simple it's fool proof.

New version of RunKeeper Pro

2009-07-04T09:27:00.001-07:00

RunKeeper Pro is the paid version of RunKeeper. I downloaded RunKeeper as soon as it went from a paid to a free application. I had been a long time user of Nike+ but really wanted something a little more in depth and was frustrated by having my running data held hostage behind a wall of corporate Flash. Unfortunately, I didn't find the original RunKeeper very reliable. I remember it recording one run that "started" 14 miles from where I actually began my run. It quickly became one of the unused icons in the backwaters of my iPhone.

With my recent adoption of Run-Walk I needed new functionality from the iPhone. Nike+ does not offer interval prompts. I have been using IntervalTimer and it works great. They recently went to 2.0 and the program is much better looking for the change (update: IntervalTimer 2.0 crashed when I tried to use it last night, not sure if I just need to restart my iPhone or if there is a larger program with the 2.0 implementation).

The most recent version of RunKeeper Pro (i.e. the $9.99 version) has an interval/training feature and its really great. When you launch the application you see a new icon called training. That opens up to a panel of different training protocols:Tapping on a workout selects it. You can edit the existing protocols or create your own:
Intervals can be defined by distance or time and you can set up your protocol to repeat or just end after running through itonce. You have three different choices regarding intensity:
While you run, a pleasant female voice prompts you to go from interval to interval. She tells you the duration of the upcoming interval and the intensity. She also comes on at intervals to tell you how far you've gone, how long, and at what pace.

It all worked great. Additionally RunKeeper seems more accurate and has a feature that allows you to map your workout while you run. This has come in handy as my runs get longer and I find myself in more unfamiliar neighborhoods. The primary problem left is in Apple's court to fix. RunKeeper needs to run in the background so I can fiddle with my iPod and answer the phone without forcing the program to pause data collection. Some uses of background processes is not corrected by the recently introduced Push notification system.

July 3rd run.

2009-07-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

8.26 mile run.

That ten miler was hard

2009-07-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have done 4 long runs since the half marathon and I did a ten miler before the half. So 6 long runs in the last 5 weeks or so. How long before doing ten miles begins to feel like a 10k? I was really burnt at the end of the 10.

It's looking like training for a marathon is going to be hard.

10 miler

2009-06-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Bought and began listening to Freakonomics

Finished Blink

2009-06-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Good book. That was the last audio book of a bundle I had bought last summer. Now I need to go shopping again.

Thinking about:

Freakonomics
Black Swan
What would google do
maybe a medical history book

I forgot to post my Tuesday night run, Mom's birthday.

Saturday 10 miler

2009-06-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

The run felt bad the whole 2 hours. I woke up with painin my left foot and it just never let up during the run. I had planned on going another 2 miles but bailed and had Cathy pick me up. The only good part of the run was I saw a cople of garage sales and when Cathy picked me up we got a couple of chairs for $30 and a present for my dad for Father's Day.

I used IntervalTimer until I got past Beaumount and then I rapidly got lost in the subdivision so I switched to RunKeeper to use the live map. Neat program but boy is it hard on the Battery.

Marathon training schedule

2009-06-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

New Wired has a cool article on Nike+iPod

2009-06-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'll link to it when it goes online.

I loved that they grabbed a quote from Cabel Sasser

IntervalTimer: problem solved.

2009-06-18T05:15:00.001-07:00

problem with interval timer probably had more to do with the accident of leaving the phone on silent rather than the 3.0 upgrade. Embarrassed.

Medium mid-week run

2009-06-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to train with four runs a week. Two of the runs (monday/tuesday and thursday/friday) will be short runs from 5 to 6 miles. Then I'll do a medium run of 7-10 miles mid-week and the long run on the week-end. So the rhythm will be:

short-->rest-->medium-->rest-->short-->rest-->long

Some weeks I will not get one of those rest days.

Tonight, IntervalTimer failed. I think it was because I updated the phone to 3.0. I pulled out RunKeeper Pro as a back-up. It worked really well. They have a voice which announces the elapsed time every five minutes. On every five-minute chime I would start walking and use the Nano to time one minute. Then I would run until the next 5 minute interval. So run four minutes and walk one. Not as easy as IntervalTimer but it worked pretty well. Hopefully I will get IntervalTimer to start working again.

Here is the RunKeeper record:

Blink is getting better. Tonight I heard about:

Kenna and bought the album on iTunes when I got home
Milenium Challenge 2002 principly the 2.0 version where the ships were refloated
Pepsi Challenge and New Coke
Amadou Diallo

Slow, short, and late run

2009-06-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Listened to more of Blink. Its getting better.

Really felt great the day after my 9 miler

2009-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

I could really get used to this run-walk thing. Two other variables that may have helped with the painless recovery, I ran with my CamelBak so I was able to drink water and I Gu-ed up at 45 minutes.

dabbling with dabble

2009-06-14T20:13:00.001-07:00

DabbleDB

Late night dash

2009-06-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Brutal call at St John Macomb, all day.
Come home play with the kids.
Skip dinner, wolf down some chips and bean salsa (late lunch).

Then run 9 miles.

Where people bail on the New York Marathon

2009-06-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

From this article:

First the Marathon Lottery, Then the Pressure to Finish:

Mary Wittenberg, the New York City Marathon race director, said she would not mind seeing more runners drop out.

“We probably have more people who hang in there and shouldn’t,” she said. Her worry is that runners go too far and ignore physical warning signs, pushing themselves to the point of injury or worse.

Recreational runners may push too hard to finish because of “external pressures,” according to Dr. Jeffrey L. Brown, a Harvard Medical School psychologist who evaluates participants in the Boston Marathon and other races. Such pressures include dedicating a race to a loved one, raising money for charity or battling a disease.

Well blog on Marathon coaches

2009-06-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

Well: Meet the Coaches

Interactive training schedule

I like the Galloway strategy but its not enough running for me. Really 3 days a week is not going to be enough for me to be happy and mentally happy.

Still looking for a schedule.

Plan on running a 10 miler this week-end. B'Ham and back?

iPhone technical problems solved

2009-06-12T05:34:00.000-07:00

Still not sure if it was a headphone or connection problem because I changed headphones but the iPhone worked perfectly. I listened to Verlander finish his complete game and then plowed through another chapter of Blink. The iPhone app IntervalTimer worked perfectly and the run went pretty well.

Second training run with Run-Walk

2009-06-12T05:31:00.001-07:00

The run was plagued by a dysfunctional iPod. I'm not sure if it was bad headphones or a bad connection but the audio book kept pausing and skipping all around. This also applied to the IntervalTrainer program which was totally flakey.

I started the run listening to Rodney walk three straight batters and then having Lyons walk in a batter and give up a two run double. Cabrera picked those fools up in the 10th and Lyons closed out the win in the bottom of the tenth with 2 Ks and a ground put. Started listening to Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

After my 10k run walk

2009-06-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

I feel surprisingly good today. Maybe there's something to this run-walk.

Did my first run-walk training run last night

2009-06-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

I ran 10k through the woods and Royal Oak sans dog.

To get the intervals right I bought a program called IntervalTimer on the iPhone ($0.99). It worked great. I did 4 minutes running and 1 minute walks.

Overall I did not like the run-walk method. The continuous interval signals made me kept me thinking about the run, interrupted other thoughts and kept me more conscious about my fatigue. I started running for the next break rather than just losing myself in the run.

I'm skeptical. we'll see.

The blog piece that got me in to running

2009-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Cabel

Run Walk links

2009-06-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Jeff Galloway's training schedule for Run-Walk

New York Times piece on Run Walk

I ran a half marathon last Sunday and felt pretty bad

2009-06-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

I scorched the course, I ran 1:51:53. My previous half I ran at 2:00:25.

Dexter - Ann Arbor - Half Marathon Course
Find more Runs in Dexter, Michigan

During the run became ravenously hungry. It was such a weird feeling I am sure I was getting close to the end of the glycogen and bouncing up against hypoglycemia. I forgot to bring any goo to the run so I won't do that again.

For two days afterwards I had really tight calves.

The whole experience really intimidated me about the marathon and I even started to talk to my wife and about not running the big M.

We'll see.

I got accepted to the NYC marathon!

2009-06-05T11:05:00.001-07:00

I turn 40 on September 19th and I'm going to run my first (and only) marathon November 1.