Really? A Runners High?

Just when the nerds on Myth Busters were about to call Alan Webb and Ryan Hall, the New York Times runs an article that talks about how the runners high is not an urban myth.  Apparently some smart researchers in Germany were able to prove the existence of the runners high using PET scans.

Well I am glad science is proving what athletes have known for a long time, typically you feel better after pushing your body for a while.

Speaking of pushing yourself, I popped off a 10k tempo run on the treadmill last night (it was snowing outside).  I hadn't run in a couple of days, so I had some legs under me. 

Running

10k, 6.2 miles, 50:07, 8:04 min/mile pace, varied hills routine on treadmill

The Long Pool

I had a great workout with the Chicago Blue Dolphins masters swim team last night.  They hold practice on Tuesday nights at the "big pool" at UIC.  The University of Illinois at Chicago Natatorium is a 50 meter pool, which is twice as long as any pool I have ever swam in.  It makes for long laps, but I think that is precisely what I need to gain comfort in swimming longer distances.  

I continued in the "transition" group, and while the drills can still be challenging, when they actually have us swim freestyle it is not difficult.   So, even though we had the long pool, I didn't swim the whole distance all that often.  My hope is that they put me in the more challenging group sometime soon.

Swimming

1.5 Hours, Lots of long laps 

What about Cross Training??

Where to start?  Whether it is where to start working out, where to start with strength training, or where to start with cross training,  I typically reply with CrossFit.  CrossFit is a fitness philosophy, regimen, and some have said cult.  It has olympic style lifting, gymnastics, and intense functional training.  It was written about in this articles in the New York Times,  and then again last weekend in this article also in the New York Times.  

The workouts are very hard, but they are quick.  It is typically around 20 minutes, once a day, three days on, one day off.  And if you keep doing it, it works.  You get functionally stronger.  You will see results.  Just know there are easier workouts if you can't do the daily workouts listed on the website (www.crossfit.com).  

If you are going to the gym, and need some guidance, start with CrossFit.  Do it for a while and you will be impressed.  You don't have to be a workout guru to do it, there are scaled back workouts for the rest of us.  Give it a shot.  You will be pleased with the results.  

Now, what do I do with my cross training... well I did the CrossFit workouts over the winter, and they are still what I do for my strength training.  I also I have joined a basketball team through work.  The first game was Monday night, I hadn't played in a while (3 years), so it took a bit to shake off the cobwebs, but by the second half I was feeing better about it.  

We lost (no big shocker there), but we are in a league where we can be competitive, and is a great cross training option for me.

Cross Training:

Basketball, 1 Hour

Happy Easter

Happy Easter blog world. I am back from a very nice weekend in Marion, Iowa.

Saturday, I went for a run. Nothing fancy, just took off, got lost. Kept is slow and easy. Still a little chilly. Really ready for spring to really start.

Tonight I am playing hoops for the work basketball team. It will be a good change of pace. Also hoping to get a swim sometime today (lunch?).

Here is my run for Saturday. No, I did not see any creepy bunnies on my run, just getting better photos for Ryan.

Running
9.25 miles, 1:23, 8:57 minute/mile pace

Happy Easter... Iowa or Bust!

Tons going on in Chicago today. It is Good Friday, thus Easter weekend is upon us. WND Gal and myself are taking off for the weekend to visit her parents in wonderful Marion, Iowa. We are going to try to take off early today to beat the Friday traffic out of Chicago. Not only will we be contending against holiday Friday traffic, but there is some winter weather here today, thus the extra motivation to get out a little early.

With the change in location this weekend, comes a change in workout routine. Luckily, there are places to run in most places, and in most US city's there are YMCA's with pools. Unfotunatly, I will be missing my weekly CARA group run, which I have really come to enjoy. Thus it will be a 9 mile run through the Iowa country side (which I have to admit, I am looking forward to).

Not only will I have some time to get out and see some of the rolling hills of my native land, but I will get a chance to run the rolling hills of my native land. Good prep for Pikes Peak (yes, I realize that is a slightly larger hill, but compared to the flat Chicago...)

Last night, quick 5.9 mile run. Annoying because I thought by going by the clock I would be six miles for sure. I wanted a nice slow paced run because my body was killing me all day from my previous workouts. Apparently I was 1/10 of a mile slower than I had expected. Oh well.

Also last night was nice as my sister and her boyfriend came over to my place to watch the Irish clobber poor little George Mason. No, I don't feel sorry for George Mason. They got to go to the final four two years ago. They just got lucky they didn't have to play ND that year.

Next game for the Irish, tomorrow at 5:40. I assume that it is an Easter tradition at the WND Gal's parent's house to watch basketball. If not, I will have to strategically place my run and have it go for about 2 hours longer than expected.

Probably won't post till at least Sunday. Dispite running for president, Al Gore must have never made it to Marion, or at least his wonderful invention the internet never did!

Running:
5.9 Miles, 53:35, 9:04 minute/mile pace (REAL slow)

First Day of Spring? Six Inches of Snow? I call BS!

Runners World.com has a contest for Spring Haiku’s. Here is mine (with 6 inches of snow on the way):

Welcome to the spring
How I have longed for your sun
Why must snow persist?

The Remedial Group

I have never been very good at spelling. This was a major issue as a child, as school classes were divided up into groups based on their spelling ability. There was the high level spelling group (the one this guy owned, I am sure), the mid level group, and the dumbass kids. I was in the group of dumbass kids.

To stroke my ego I always told myself that there was no correlation between spelling ability and intelligence. Mind you I kept telling myself that when we were spelling words with no more than 4 letters (and often spelling them wrong). In the end I think I have been vindicated. There were three of us in the dumbass group: Mark O, Kristin R, and myself (not putting full names to protect the innocent). While I have no idea what happened to old Mark O, (Google on revealed he attended his 10 year reunion at North High in Des Moines), last I heard from Kristin R is she is messing with the genetic code of corn for a large company near Des Moines. Thus, at LEAST 2/3 of the bad spelling group has managed to go on to hold jobs at a relatively higher level than our spelling ability would suggest.

Sorry, I digress.

The point is I have never much cared for being in the remedial group. Like most runners/triathletes I own a bit of a competitive streak. Not that I want to win every event, I am not that good at this sport of multisport yet, but I’ll be damned if I am the worse.

So after my smashing success in my Freestlye 1 class, I assumed I would be able to jump right into masters practices with the Chicago Blue Dolphins and be the hero. When I arrived last night, first thing I noticed is Coach Fitz from my swimming class wasn’t there. Not a big deal, I knew he only runs about half of the practices. This particular practice was run by two of his junior coaches (one who had subbed in for one of my classes, the other one was a Domer). I explained that I had just finished the Freestyle 1 class and I should be assigned to their expert group. Jess (the Domer) put me in the “Transition” group. I am not exactly sure what that means, but I can only assume it’s “man who sinks” transitioning to “man who may or may not sink.”

How did the practice go? Not really that bad. Most of it was stroke work and drills, but we didn’t swim for anything longer than 25 yards at a time.

I don’t want to belittle how much my swimming has improved since last year this time; in fact I feel very comfortable swimming freestyle. But I leave a little to be desired when it comes to the drills, and to be honest, while improved, I am still need to work on get the muscle memory to work for swimming. For example, we did 12 25’s at the end of practice, and I only used 17 strokes for the first 3, but then I couldn’t hold that level of efficiency for the rest. [To put this into perspective, I think my friend Charlie said he is down to 11 strokes. Of course he is going to swim the English Channel this summer.]

The coaches were very helpful, but I kind of hope I can sneak into the level one group next time. We will see.

Swimming
Chicago Blue Dolphins practice, around 1.5 hours

Note: GO IRISH!! Beat Patriots! (George Mason, 1st Round NCAA, 9 PM CST, CBS)

Great Speedwork Article from Slowtwitch.com

I found a great article about how to run faster on the tri site, Slowtwitch.com. It is from 2004 and written by Dan Empfield. Empfield is an editor and writer for Slowtwich.com, but he is better known as an innovator in the trialthlon world, designing the first "speed wetsuit" in 1987 and the first triathlon bike in 1989, both for the company he founded, Quintana Roo. While the article is VERY intense, Empfield makes some good take home points for all of us. Take a look for yourself.

Basically it says if you want to be a much faster runner, you need to run, a lot. Seems like common sense right? Although be warned, the levels at which Empfield is talking about would certainly risk injury for most of us weekend warriors. Despite that, there are good lessons to be learned from this piece.

Here are some good take homes from the story:

• "Get into a daily running habit." Good for lots of reasons.


• "Run more than once a day." This can add to you mileage while providing some rest. You can't have two hard workouts in one day, but you can do this.


• "Run with others." Yeah, as I can attest from last weekend's CARA run, that works well. Most of us runners/triathletes tend to want to stay up with the runner next to you.


• "Lose weight." The truth is, if you lose 5 pounds, your minutes per mile will drop. This is what causes a lot of eat disorders in college cross country, but with those of us with pounds to lose it is probably an ok reminder.


• "Learn to exert." Here is where Empfield reminds us the body gets used to challenging situations if you keep putting yourself through difficult workouts. It's the whole, "it isn't as bad as it used to be" way of thinking.


• "Run fast." He talks a lot about different types of speed work routines, primarily either doing interval days, or tacking it on at the end of a workout, but the point is that you need to practice fast to perform fast.
  

Here is one plan Empfield designed to be incorporated into your running over two to two and a half weeks (designed for 10k training, for a 37 min 10k goal, yeah I know that is fast, you will have to just do the math):

• 6 mile run, the middle three miles tempo, at 6:00-6:15 pace [At or just slower than your race pace for a 37 minute 10k -- thus substitute your goal 10k pace here.]
• 4X800m in 2:45, with a slow, 5-minute 800m jog in between. This is 5:30 pace, and should be a bit uncomfortable to run. You’ll find it difficult to hold form. Your legs will be a bit sore the next day. [For the human runners here, run yours at least a minute faster than your 10k pace. You can do this on the treadmill, but the track is better]
• 8X400m in 80sec, with a 400m jog in 2:30 in between. This is 5:20 pace, and will be a painful workout. It’ll be hard to hold form. [Again, change the math so the pace is a little faster than the 800 pace above.]
• 4X800m in 2:40, with a slow, 5-minute 800m jog in between. This is again 5:20 pace, but you’ll find it easier to hold form this time around, as these quicker-paced runs yield surprisingly fast results, at least in the area of motor learning. [Same as 400 pace above]
• 6 mile run, the middle three miles tempo, at 5:50-6:00 pace. This will be a faster run, with better form, and more even splits, than your first effort at this. [Again just change to your goal 10k pace.]

Overall, it is a great article. There are many more like it at http://www.slowtwitch.com/. Check it out.

Lastly, for those of you who have the fear of falling off the treadmill, here is a few good spills brought to my attention by Daily Triathlon. Watch ridiculous people falling off treadmills.

Here was my quick Tuesday night workout:

Running
On the treadmill, 3.5 miles, 28:06

What is the 3rd Oldest US Marathon?

Fun Fact:  Started in 1956, as a challenge between smokers and non smokers, the Pikes Peak Marathon is the 3rd oldest ongoing US marathon behind Boston and Yonkers.  That is Pikes Peak above.  I took that photo a few weeks ago from my Aunt and Uncle's neighborhood.  I am going to stay with them when I go out for the race.

Last night, I went for dip.  It is getting easier, but I am still not good.  I did the same workout as March 10.  With the exception of warm-ups,  it was all 25's and 50's, which isn't awesome.  I did do a few flip turns, so there is progress. 

I am going to email Fitz today and start hitting the Chicago Blue Dolphin practices.  While I am a few months and a lot of swimming skills ahead of last year, I have a ways to go to hit my goals in Des Moines and to swim with Chuck later this summer.

Swimming: 

1300 m, around 1 hour

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Ah yes, the most wonderful time of the year...

It was a very exciting weekend. Ran my furthest on Saturday, at a pretty good pace, mixed in a solid run today, and had a couple of St. Paddy's day celebrations mixed in as well.

Chicago really goes all out for March 17. Above find the river being dyed green, which happens shortly before the downtown parade starts. After my Saturday CARA Training Group, I showered, hopped in a cab, and I made it just in time to see the river turn green. They actually use orange dye to do it. Then we celebrated the old fashion way, by drinking Guinness.

Sunday we decided to have a carbo loading dinner, corned beef and cabbage. The whole thing looked so nice, I decided to let you take a look. While they never eat it in Ireland, Whatsnext Gal really likes it, so why mess with it? It was all quite nice.

But now it is back to the work week.

Here is my Sunday run:

Running:

4 Miles, 34:53, 8:43 Mile Pace

100 Days Till Hy-Vee Triathlon

Well I noticed this week that it is only 100 days until the Hy-Vee Triathlon June 22 in Des Moines, Iowa. What does that mean? A couple of things:

That I will be a little better prepared this year, and I am looking forward to giving it another shot. If you might remember, sometime in April of last year I decided to buy a bike and "learn how to swim" and enter in their inaugural event. In it I spent 53 minutes in the water (just an olympic distance, 1500 meter swim), which also included a few misdirections. After I finished the swim I was happy to just finish the event (which I did in 3:20:56, not particularly impressive).

This year I am already swimming, the running is again going well (as I am training for a half in April), and I am planning on biking the second the weather gets just a little warmer. Plus, with one under my belt, I have a lot better understanding on how this whole thing works.
Secondly, they ran a very good event in Des Moines last year. They through a ton of dough a the pros, picked a very good route for the age groupers, a very fun one for the pros. And it worked out pretty good for the triathlon as well as they are hosting the last of the olympic trials for the US Triathlon team for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Pretty cool stuff for Des Moines (my hometown).

Thus our nations finest triathletes also only have about 100 days to see if they can fulfill their olympic dreams. Also pretty cool.

As we are talking tri, I would also like to recommend a new tri website: Daily Triathlon. They have a couple of cool videos on it. One is of an open water swim race in Australia, the other is highlighting a Kenyan running program. Enjoy!

Speaking of Daily Triathlon and Des Moines, here is a little video of a Laura Bennett interview, who won in Des Moines last year.

As for today, my CARA group had a good 8 mile run. Weather was a warm feeling 35 degrees, the wind wasn't quite was bad as last year. I actually forgot my hat and gloves and it turned out ok.

Running:
8 miles, 1:06:05, 8:12 pace


I hope you enjoy the St Paddy's day theme. Today we are off to see the Chicago river get greener, and then we are planning some celebrations.

Some Peoples' Idea of a Dumb Idea

Dave, "So I registered for the Pikes Peak Ascent Half-Marathon today."
Co-worker, "You know you can drive up that right."
Dave, "That would be a lot easier wouldn't it."
Co-worker, "Yep."

I am excited and maybe a little scared... not that a mountain really cares. I did in fact register for the Pikes Peak Ascent yesterday. According to their website, Ascent Wave 2's (the slower wave, I didn't qualify for the fast wave) 865 spots filled in 1 hour 7 minutes. They still need to confirm my qualifications (that I did a half marathon in under 2:30), but once that is complete I willl be all set to knock off a couple of things off the list. Pikes Peak Ascent as an event is on the list, as is climbing a 14,000 ft mountain. If I don't get up a 14,000 foot peak before August 16, I will just have to kill two items off the list with one "run." Pikes Peak's summit is at the elevation of 14,115'.

I will post more info on this as my training continues, but the more I read about it, the more I get a little "concerned" with what I am getting into.

From their website:

The Pikes Peak Ascent® will redefine what you call running. Sure, they start out like a lot of races on Any Street, USA. But your first left turn will have you turning in the direction of up! During the next 10 miles, as you gain almost 6,000 vertical feet, your legs, lungs, heart and mind will be worn to a ragged nothingness. But it won’t be until your last three miles, with still over 2,000' of vertical to go, that you will realize where the it got its moniker—America’s Ultimate Challenge.

There’s a reason trees don’t bother growing above 12,000' on Pikes Peak. They can’t! Makes one wonder if trees are smarter than runners. Above treeline most runners take 30 minutes or more, some much more, just to cover a mile. What little air remains can’t satisfy the endless stream of zombies hoping only to survive their next step—a death march right out of a scene from Dawn of the Dead. Adding insult to injury, it might start to snow!

Great.

Well I have decided I need to keep challanging myself, this should be a good start.

I got the night off of working out. Joined my good friend Meghan Robb for dinner. Meghan is getting back into triathlons after a few years off. A natural swimmer, she is considering ESCAPE FROM THE ROCK Triathlon this summer. Could be a really cool event!