Running Report

So, I have not given my daily running report.  Partially because I feel guilty for not having run.  I did not run last Friday or Saturday 1/23 and 1/24 respectively.  I ran three miles on Monday 1/26.




The shoe store has not called me yet to tell me that my specially ordered Asics Gel Nimbus 16 wide running shoes have come in.  Yesterday marks two weeks since I ordered them.  Maybe it is time to do a follow-up call to make sure my name hasn't been lost in the shuffle. 






This Week: 3 miles
This Year: 54.5 miles

Running Report Thursday 1/22/15

Goal: Run three miles untimed.
Workout: I ran three miles semi-untimed.  I had to be back by a certain time so I finished my three mile run at my house in around 28 minutes, give or take a minute.  Upon finishing heart rate was 108. 

Week: 12 miles
Year: 51.5 miles

Running Report Wednesday 1/21/2015

Goal: Run three miles at 7.45 pace.
Workout: Ran three miles.  Here are the half mile splits.  1)3.47  2)3.48  3)3.52  4)3.48  5)3.51  6)3.53.  Total time 23.01.  Average of about 7.40 per mile.  132 heart beats per minute upon completion.  Shin splints didn't hurt as much, so I am hoping that doing toe lifts, heel lifts, stretching over time will pay off.

Week: 9 miles
Year: 48.5

Shin Splints

Shin Splints a.k.a. Medial Tebial Stress Syndrome

 

(image from wikipedia)

 

I had shin splints once in Jr. High.  I experienced them once again in High School, I think junior year.  Now, I have them again.  Which is odd because in the last eight years, I have trained and run in four different marathons, and three half marathons and numerous 5k's.  No problems whatsoever up until now.  On the other hand I think I know the cause.  When I trained for The Phoenix Marathon the last Saturday of February of 2014 I did most of my running in one pair of shoes.  Once in a while I would use a n older different pair and for the Marathon I used a differnt third pair.  Since then I have used exclusively that one pair of shoes.  So the shoes have worn down and without alternating shoes, I now have shin splints.  I will get into the details of which shoes I used in another post specifically about my running shoes.  Needless to say, shin splints have given such pain that I went couch potatoe mode the last two weeks of December.  Then I pulled out what my son calls my shiny shoes.  They are Asics Gel Nimbus 14, just wild neon yellow and orange.  I used those and my shins felt fine the first two weeks of January but now the pain is returning.  Thus my restriction on the length and intensity of workouts.  I have ordered a new pair of shoes that is "EE" or wide (as opposed to EE EE) which is double wide).  Hopefully that new pair of shoes and alternating between those and the shiny shoes will make the pain go away!  Standby for the rest of the story on my shoe post.  Happy pain free running, or at least only dealing with the normal pain associated with running. 

 



Running Report 1/20/2015

Goal: Run three miles.  Before starting I decided on the goal of running at a 8 minute pace
Workout: Here are my half mile split times: 1)3.48  2)4.02  3)4.05  4)3.57  5)3.58  6)3.55  Total time 23.48 average of 7.56 per mile.  Heart rate upon finishing was 128 beats per minute.  Only a slight breeze. 

Week: 6 miles
Year: 45.5 miles

Running Report Saturday 1/17/15 and Monday 1/19/15

Saturday 1/17/15
Goal: Run nine miles at 7.30 pace
Workout: I ran three miles untimed
This Week: 12.5 miles
This Year: 39.5 miles




Monday 1/19/15
Goal: Run three miles somewhere between 7.45 to 8.30 pace
Workout: Ran three miles untimed pushing my son in a jogger. 
This Week: 3 miles
This Year: 42.5 miles

Running Report 1/15/15, 1/6/15

Yesterday, 1/15/15 I did not run.

1/16/15
Goal: Run 3 miles at 7.30 pace.
Workout: At the last minute, I gave into the pleadings of my son, and I took my boys on a run with me.  So I ran 2.5 miles, untimed and slow. 

This Week: 9.5 miles
This Year: 36.5 miles

Workout 1/14/15

Goal: Run three miles in 24 minutes, or in other words at 8 minute pace
Workout: Here are the half mile splits.  1)3.51  2)3.58  3)4.00  4)4.00  5)3.55 6)4.08.  Total time 23.54 average 7.58 per mile.  Upon finishing my heart rate was 112 beats per minute.  During the run and after I had significant pain from what I believe is shin splints.  I will have to do an entire post on this shin splint deal.  Not good.

This week: 7 miles
This year: 34 miles

Workout on 1/12/15 and 1/13/15

Workout for the day on 1/12/15
Goal:  My original goal was to run three miles at 7.45 to 8.00 pace.  But then I decided to do an interval workout and then I got talking with my wife and so I modified it even more and decided to run down my driveway and then jog back, untimed.  Our driveway is about 75 yards long or so.  This was due to time constraints.
Workout:  I ended up doing ten repeats of the above mentioned workouts.  On number 8 I did a 100%, on the toes, all out sprint the last quarter of the way.  On number 9 I increased to a little under half and then number ten I increased it to a little under three quarters.  When I wasn't sprinting all out it was about as fast as I could go without getting up on the old toes.  At the end my heart rate was 152, which for me is way, way high.  It only gets that way unless......you guessed it, I sprint all out for any meaningful distance.  I would estimate that I ran hard for no more than half a mile and then a very slow jog for another half a mile. 

This week: 1 mile
This year: 28 miles

Workout for the day 1/13/15
Goal: Recovery three mile jog between 9.00 and 9.30 pace
Workout: Jogged three miles at an average of 9.31 per mile.  Here are the half mile splits except for the last one is one mile.  1)4.49  2)4.32  3)4.38  4)4.46  5)9.47.  I decided to go extra slow because yesterday was pretty strenous on the legs and all.  In my opinion the recovery jogs are not about time or distance or anything other than getting the heart rate up a little bit, flexing the muscles to flush out any lactic acid and to build muscle memory for the muscles and to keep the brain disciplined about running every day, except Sunday of course.  In fact sometimes when I miss a recovery jog I feel cheated because that may give me two hard days in a row (with of course a day off in between).  The hard days are mentally challenging so the easy days are enjoyably non-challenging. 

This week: 4 miles
This year: 31 miles

Response to comments

1 - Unless otherwise specified all the routes that I run are flat as a pancake.  I do have hills about two and a half miles away on one of the roads I run on and so once in a while on a long run I will go that way for a little hill work.  I should go that way at least once a month in order to get uphill and downhill work. 
2 - I am like Mr. Incredible at the beginning of the movie "The Incredibles", when he says to Buddy a.k.a. "incrediboy".  "Go home Buddy, I work alone," but in this case, I run alone.  It is much easier to go on a run on my own time and at my own pace and in my own location.  Once in a while I wouldn't mind running with someone.  It is very difficult to find someone to run with that is at your same fitness level and mileage etc. 
3 - Funny you should ask about shoes.  Standby for about two or three weeks when I will do my post about shoes.  I am in the process of getting a new pair and I will detail the whole thing then.  This has been a real headache and it will only be over when I finally have the pair of shoes I want.

Workout January 10, 2014

Goal: Run seven miles between 8.30 to 9.00 minute pace
Workout: Ran seven miles.  Here are the half mile splits and one, one mile split: 1)4.29  2)4.22  3)4.21  4)4.25  5)4.20  6)8.47  7)4.21  8)4.25  9)4.24  10)4.22  11)4.23  12)4.28  13)4.40  Total time 61.52  Average pace per mile about 8.50.  Mission accomplished.  It was not physically difficult, it just required patience.  I seemed to lock in the pace and it was automatic after that.  My plan is to give myself sufficient months and months of training consistently that I hope to gradually increase my pace and not have to kill myself.  So that running a seven minute pace for twenty miles a year from now feels similar to running a nine minute mile for seven miles today. 

Workout January 9, 2015

Goal: run three miles at 7.30 pace.
Ran three miles.  Here are the half mile splits 1)3.41  2)3.37  3)3.46  4)3.38 5)3.47  6)3.40  Total time 22 minutes and 12 seconds for an average of 7.24 minutes per mile.  Goal exceeded.  There was a stiff wind for one mile, so that took extra work.  Heart rate upon finishing was 128 beats per minute.  Afterward I did 16 pushups and 16 squats with body weight only. 
Goal for tomorrow: Long run.  7 miles between 8.30 to 9.00 minute pace.

This Week: 12 miles
This Year: 20 miles

Happy exercising!

Workout for January 7th, 2015

Yesterday's workout goal was to run three miles at 8.15 pace.  My half mile splits were: 1)4.16  2)3.54  3)4.07  4)4.10  5)4.04  6)3.59.  Total time 24.32 average pace 8.11 minutes per mile.

Workout For January 8th, 2015

Goal:  RunToday I ran three miles untimed.  I did not even take a watch.  Today was strictly a recovery jog.  Relax, go by feel not time and enjoy not having to push the pace.  That will come tomorrow. 

Investigating Ultra Marathons

Recently I have been reading and watching a few videos about the Western States 100 Endurance Run  Just like to Boston Marathon, you have to qualify to get in.  Here is an awesome video that I enjoyed on the history of the race.  How it all began.

Unfortunately, the race starts at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning.  So unless I run at an elite level, I won't ever be doing that one since I would be finishing on Sunday, assuming I would ever be able to even qualify for it.  Maybe one day they will realize that they would get a larger pool of applicants/participants and it would be a better quality race if it were Friday and Saturday like some of the 100 mile runs in Utah do. 


Bear Lake
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Wasatch 100

I get frustrated when there are cool events that I would like to do but they are on Sunday.  Oh well, it is a sacrifice that I am willing to make and is more than worth it to rest on Sunday.

Cuba revisited

After reading an opinion article in the Deseret News by Robert Bennett I have thought more about Cuba.  Here is the link and the article:


http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865618584/Finally-good-possibilities-with-Cuba.html




President Obama’s decision to renew diplomatic relations with Cuba has stirred a great deal of commentary, with some saying, “We should have done this long ago,” and others insisting, “No, it’s a sellout to tyrants.” I disagree with both statements. To get a better understanding of the situation, let’s look at America’s relationship with Cuba from a historical perspective, starting with the first American president likely to have been concerned about it: Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson’s most significant presidential act was the Louisiana Purchase. It gave us a huge amount of land west of the Mississippi River and made New Orleans one of America’s most important ports. It was an enormous boon to our economy when grain raised in the Mississippi basin moved down the river and through New Orleans on its way to Great Britain, where farmers were leaving the land and moving to cities at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Ships sailing from New Orleans to Europe had to pass Cuba on their way. A foreign nation holding Cuba — Spain, at the time — could use it as a military base to disrupt this traffic and close off access to world trade for the entire Mississippi basin. American officials from Jefferson on were very uncomfortable with the idea of such a strategically placed foreign outpost in the Caribbean. When the Spanish-American War created an opportunity to make Cuba an independent nation and change the equation, we did so. A suitably grateful Cuba became a reliable American ally.
In the 1950s, an ineffective and corrupt Cuban government was overthrown by Fidel Castro. It was hoped that he would also be friendly to America, but he had other plans. A communist, he allied himself with the Soviet Union, which subsidized Cuba’s economy while Castro established a brutal dictatorship at home and built up a wide network of subversive cells throughout South America. What we had feared might be a potential forward base for Spain in the Western Hemisphere became a real one for the Soviet Union.
Sen. John Kennedy criticized the Eisenhower administration for being too timid on the subject of Cuba. As president, he tried to invade it, but he failed. The next year, contemptuous of Kennedy’s capability, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev tried to put a missile base in Cuba, one from which he could strike any city in America. He also failed, stopped by a U.S. naval blockade at perhaps the tensest moment of the Cold War. After that, a quiet agreement: The Soviet Union would continue to support Castro but would not put missiles in Cuba; America would not invade it.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Castro desperately needed a new patron. He found one in Hugo Chavez, the dictatorial president of Venezuela. Chavez had plenty of oil money and a desire to bring other South American countries into his orbit. He agreed to prop up the disastrous Cuban economy while Castro continued to spread anti-Americanism throughout Latin America.
But now Chavez is dead, world oil prices are dropping and Venezuela is nearly broke. The Castro brothers, with no place to turn, need us more than we need them. President Obama has far more leverage in determining what the new relationship with Cuba will be than he would have had he acted earlier. Normalizing diplomatic relations also takes away the Castros’ most powerful rhetorical tool — the claim that everything wrong in Cuba is America’s fault.
The devil is always in the details, but if we act wisely, it is possible that America can use this moment to make good things happen in our relationship with Cuba.

New Years Resolutions a.k.a. GOALS

Day one is almost over.  Did you go to the gym?  My brother and I always laugh because January first is always the most crowded day of the year at the gym, right?  Then it tapers off for a couple of weeks and by February first it is back to all the regulars and there are plenty of machines available.  What is it about the change in calendar year that makes us want to set a whole bunch of new goals to achieve?  Is it the facility of measureability of time?  Why not start in June and end in June, or any other month for that matter, or go from birthday to birthday.  Wouldn't that be a better time period to measure?  I suppose the calendar year has something to do with it.  When was the last time that you, or anyone else looked back at the end of the year and analyzed how you did on your goals for the year?  Seriously, think about it.  The mantra is always to set new goals the last week of December for the following year.  However who sits down the last week of December and holds themselves accountable for their goals from the current calendar year that they set the December before?  Not me, or anyone that I know because ususally those goals are long gone by the way side circa February or March.  I was reminded by a good talk in Church last Sunday about the importance of setting small goals to help accomplish the big goal.  So, I would break my goals down to monthly, weekly and then even daily goals.  Each laying the foundation for the next, each a stepping stone. 
Small goals don't have the power to inspire, but huge goals without small goals have no basis in reality.  Both serve their purpose on cannot happen without the other.  I have so many more thoughts on goal setting.  Really can't we start calling it goal accomplishtment or something, or self improvement?  Anyone can set goals, in fact everyone does, in their own way.  Not everone achieves their goals.  Self improvement seems to stop for many after school ends.  What do you think?