Another Long Run

Today I completed my 16 mile long run. This is the longest distance that I have run so far. I thought it went very well. I ran a 7+ mile loop twice so that I could swing back by the house and pick up another water. I finished up the last 1.2 mile in front of the house.

This course worked out really well. I was able to complete the run without walking. I was surprised at this as I had to walk a little on my 14 mile long run.

When I got to the end my hips and knees were a little bit sore. The soreness seemed to let up a little while I did my two mile cool down walk.

The 16 miles took me 2 hours and 55 minutes to complete which works out to be about a 10:57 min/mile pace. I went back and compared this to my pace when I did the 14 mile long run and found that I decreased my min/mile by 40 seconds. I was SHOCKED!!!! I certainly did not expect that kind of improvement in two weeks.

I have noticed that I am able to maintain a 10 min/mile pace on my shorter week day runs without much trouble. I looked back at my pace from July and saw that I was running almost 12 min/mile!!!

I hope that I can continue to improve over the next several weeks. I have two more long runs (18 mile and 20 miles)scheduled before the marathon. I hope to continue to see some more improvement.

May the Force be with you!!!

Chad

Country Roads 10K Race

At the last minute I decided to run the Country Roads 10k Race. I had come across the race a few weeks ago and saw that they were giving participants a long sleeve technical shirt. I figure that I will need a long sleeve one before the winter hits so I figured that I might as well do the race. I thought is was a pretty good deal because these shirts can run more than $20 and the race fee was $25.

The race was put on in San Marcos by the San Marcos runners club. The race was about a hour from home. I got there and and got registered. The shirts were red and they also gave you a Fruit Smootie Power Bar.

For the race I was wearing my new Star Wars Jersey, which by the way is awesome!!! Did I mention a HUGE shout out to Primal Wear!!!!! They are awesome!!!

The last race that I did was in August and was on a very hilly course. I had a time of 9:39 min/mile. I was hoping that I go do a little better on this run than on the last one, since it should not be as hilly.

I finished the race in 54:34!!!! This is a pace of about 8:48 min/mile!!! YES!!!

I could not believe that I got under an 9 min mile. I was shocked. I would not call this an easy course by any means. The last two miles were going UP a long shallow graded hill. I just never ended. UGH!!!

Since the last race I had done I have been doing the waterrunning about once per week and I sincerely believe that a large part of the improvement was a result of it.

For me I had a really good time, but I was 13/16 in my age group and 66/136 overall.

This was a really good race to run. In addition to long sleeve technical shirt they had awesome cookies, plenty of fruit and a lot of power bars for after the race. They also had a lot of door prizes. I think that I will do this race again next year!!!

May the Force be with you!!!

Chad

Below are the pictures that were taken at the race. I think they were trying to take pictures at the most embarrasing moments. They have definitely succeeded with these!!!!

Improvement!!!!

Tonights training run called for a one hour run at of moderate pace. So I strapped on the HR monitor and hit the usual route in front of my house. I figured that I would just do six miles and that should be just a little over an hour. I strapped on the Brooks Trance 7's, which have been great shoes but just a little small for the longer runs, and hit the road.

The run went pretty well and I was able to pick up the pace for the last 1 1/2 to 2 miles. When I finished I was surprised to see that my pace was 9:37!!! The hilly race that I did in August I did at a 9:39 pace.

I have been logging my avg heart rate for each of my runs and I compared tonights AHR with similar runs and my HR was actually a little bit lower.

I am glad I found that my HR monitor records the avg HR for each of my runs as I find it really useful to compare to similar runs to determine if my fitness level has improved or maybe I was just working harder than the other runs.

I am really glad to be able to see these improvements. It sure has been encouraging.

May the Force be with you!!!

Chad

Post Long Run Training

My knees have been pretty sore/stiff since the long run on Saturday. I changed my schedule around a little because of this. Sundays are rest days, but I was supposed to run on Monday and then cross train on Tuesday. Instead I did my cross training on Monday, which consisted of an abdominal workout and pushups.

On Tuesday I still had some stiffness in my legs so I thought it would be a good opportunity to do the water running again. I have been wanting to do this once a week instead of one of the runs so this was a good opportunity to start.

I took Rachael down to the pool and let her swim and play while I did my version of water running. I did it for 45 minutes and I must admit that the time seems to drag on. I will have to come up with a way to pass the time better. If only I could use the iPod while I was doing this it would make the time go by faster (I think)!!!

I just had an idea. I think I will try and clip the iPod to my headband. I will just have to remember to not go under the water with it on. Worst case I guess would be that I have to shell out $50 for a new one.

If anyone out there has any other ideas let me know.

May the Force be with you!!!

Chad

New Long Run Record - 14 Miles

Today was my long run. I ran 14 miles for the first time. It was tough and I did end up having to walk a little. Especially up the huge hill at the end. Ugh!!!

I added a new route to the run because I didn't really want to be that far from home on the second loop in case something went wrong or I needed water etc. The added route ended up being pretty tough. There were a couple of big hills on the way back and I was out of energy to make it up the hill running so ended up walking a little up the hills at the end.

What was amazing to me was that I continued to improve my pace. When I ran 12.5 miles I was able to keep a pace of 11.58. My pace for today's run was 11:40 min/mile. I figured that my pace would go down as I increased my mileage so I was very surprised. Since I had to do some walking I figured it would have been a bit lower than the other long runs.

Anyway the run went pretty good overall. I used the Margarita shot blocks for this run These were okay, but I didn't think they were that great. I will probably not use them if there is a better choice. I think I need to eat more energy bars or shot blocks on the longer runs, because I felt like I hit the wall on those hills.

I can cross this one of the list. I do 16 miles in two weeks. Can't wait!!!Not.

May the Force be with you!!

Chad

SA RNR Marathon Jersey

My friend Sandy from work gave me the Jersey that I order for the Rock and Roll Marathon. It is definitely the perfect Jersey for me. As you will soon see. I am planning in rolling out a poll to get your opinions in the near future.

I have to give a HUGE shout out to PRIMAL WEAR. They donated my jersey and the Jersey's for Sandy's MS 150 bike race team. They are awesome!!! If you need a jersey definitely check out their website and order from them. I am sure that I will order another one at some point in the future.

Without further ado I will unveil the jersey that I will be wearing for the SARNR Marathon. I sure you will agree that it suits me!!!

Make sure you vote in the poll on the right!
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Sidelined....

Sorry that I have not done many posts lately, but we have been sidelined by Heros. We have finished season 1 and have three shows left on season 2. We want to get these completed before the new season starts.

Chad

The Truth Comes Out

Okay, Okay, Okay....

We didn't really win the trophy that we had our pictures taken with. This fun run is really cool in that they use recycled trophies to give to anyone that completes three races. You get to pick from what is there. So we could have picked this trophy, but thought it was too big and gaudy.

This was a lot better than having to shell out the $20 that I paid for a trophy from my first 10k.

Yes that's right I bought my trophy that didn't get given away to the race winners. I know pathetic, but I wanted something to symbolize my accomplishment of completing the 10k.

May the force be with you!!!

Chad

SARR Fun Run

Arin wanted to try the Fun Run that is put on the first Saturday of the month by the San Antonio Road Runnners. This event consist of the following runs: an 80M kids fun run, 1/2 mile run, 1 mile run, and 3 mile run.

I was not sure what to expect from this event since it was not like a regular race. We didn't get to the Fun Run until late, because we went to the wrong pavilion at the park. Arin was not able to do the 80m run, but we were able to make the rest of the races.

We lined up for the 1/2 mile race and when they blew the whistle Arin took off like a bat out of Haiti. We had not talked about this before had, but I assumed she would want to go at a nice easy pace. WRONG!!! She did pretty well. I was able to catch up and get a picture of her crossing the finish line. She did the 1/2 mile in 4 min and 18 sec.



The 1 mile race she started off slower and she was getting tiered during this one. She was able to complete this race in 12 minutes (WOW). Both of these races she finished with very quick times. I had to hustle to keep up with her.






GREAT JOB ARIN!!!!










This is Arin running the 1 mile race - Go Girl Go !!!!










This is me finishing the 3 mile race. I made it under 9min/mile.










This is the Trophy that Arin won for doing the Fun Runs.




















This is the Trophy that I won for running in the Fun Run!!!

Running with ......

No it's not scissors!!! One of the positive aspects of running that I did not anticipate was that Arin would want to do some running with me. I don't recall exactly how it started, but usually once or twice a week we will go out for a quick run. We will usually run for 1 to miles and alternate between running and walking. Sometimes we will go for a bike ride around the neighborhood after the run.

We have only been running a handful of times, but I already can notice a difference in how far she can run without walking.

I am glad that she is enjoying this and hopefully this will help her to include regular exercise into her life.

There is a Kids Fun run that the local running group is putting on this weekend that Arin and I are thinking of going to. I will have more on the fun run in the next post.

May the force be with you!!!

Chad

Water Running - September 1st

I was listening to the Running Ramblings podcasts. Martin(the podcaster) introduced me to water running. Water running is (as you would expect) when you run while in the water. There are a couple of ways that you can do this. One way is that you can actually run through the water across the pool. You can also run in place. Typically when you would run in place you would also use a flotation belt. With the belt on you would go to the deep end of the pool and move your legs in the motion that you would while running.

This may sound interesting to some but just plain weird to others. Some of you are probably asking why would anyone want to do this? One of the problem that runners have (from what I read) is that impact from running makes them very injury prone. Most injuries are healed by reducing or discontinuing running. The problem is that when you stop running you rapidly lose your fitness level. I have read that some athletes have turned to water running to continue their training while injured. One story I read told how this one lady went on to set a personal record after she trained with water running.

Any how I thought that is may be a good idea if I try to replace one of my runs with water running, which would reduce some of the impact and hopefully reduce the chance or severity of any injuries. Any additional fitness gains would be a bonus.

Today was my first attempt at water running. I started out by running across the pool. Although this worked okay it was kind of a pain. Since I didn't have flotation device I tried a couple of different attempts of running in place and actually found that if I lean back a little into the water and put my legs out in front a little bit, I can kind of simulate the running movement in my legs.

I did this for about 45 minutes and overall I thought this was pretty good workout. Even though this is a pretty boring exercise I think I will try to replace one of my runs each week with water running.

May the Force be with you!!!

Chad

August 30th, 2008 - 12 miles - DONE

Well I have completed my longest run today. I did 12.5 miles on Aug 30th and I was able to get under the 12 min/mile pace. For the most part the run felt pretty good. My hips were a little bit sore after the run, but I think they felt better than when I did the 10 mile run.

This was the first run that I did with the new shoes. Overall, I think they worked pretty well. My only concern is that they feel a little too small in the area around the toes. I had some minor pain in my right big toe, but I am hoping that they will feel better as they get broken in.

I did not get any blister on my toes this run (I had been getting blisters on my long runs). I had stopped at Run Gear Run store earlier this week and they had recommended this body glide that you put on areas that you get blisters or chafing and it is supposed to help. So I applied the body glide to the toe that I had been getting the blisters and there were no issues. I also used it on my chest and did not have any problems with chafing or bleeding from the sensitive areas that are prone to such problems.

While I was at the running store I picked up a couple of packages of Cliff Shot Blocks. These are gel blocks that you eat while your running so that you replenish your carbohydrates while you run. These are similar to the gels that I sampled at the last race. I tried the Black Cherry flavored Shot Blocks on this run and I thought they were very good. I have Margarita flavored shot blocks to try on the next long run!!!

New Shoes!!!

Since I started running in June I have been using a couple of pairs of Reebok athletic shoes that I got from Sam's Club. I started running in the one pair that I had been walking in and my left heel started to hurt a little. I switched to the newer pair of shoes that I kept at work for walking. I had been running in those for several weeks and had not had any real issues with this pair (my heal still hurt a little, but it got a little better when I changed shoes).

I knew that I needed to get a pair of true "running" shoes especially as I start to run longer distances. I started looking around at the different running shoes and trying them on, but nothing really "fit like a glove". I even went to a local running store that had a Mizuno truck there doing some advanced analysis that would tell me the type of shoe that I needed. Their shoes were okay, but I was not sure about the Mizuno brand. The analysis was helpful and I got to try on some more shoes both Mizuno and some other brands that the running store sells. I also got a free technical shirt and the store was doing a free BBQ. They were even serving free beer!!! I tried on the Brooks Trance 8 shoe and that felt about the best of the ones that I had tried so far.

I had a gift card for Footlocker that I had redeemed from the points that we had accumulated with the gas card so I looked on their website. I found that they had the Brooks Trance 7 (last year’s model) on sale. After much contemplation I decided to try them. I received the shoes about a week later and found that they had shipped me the 12D (medium width) instead of the regular 12. I went ahead and tried them on and they fit great!!! I was very pleased and eager to try them out. Lucky for me I had my weekly long run (this week is 12 miles) scheduled for the next morning!!!!

Music or Podcast Sugestions

If any one out there has any good suggestions for good running music that I can listen to while running or podcasts, then let me know. I am probably set for a while but I am always looking for something new!!!

iPod Awakening

As some of you know I have never really been all that fond of music and listening to music. It is not that I don’t like music. It is more that I think of it as a background to everything else. I have never really been into listening to cd’s or mp3 players, but would listen to music while in the car. Well now that I have a lot of solitude on my hands as I run for 45 minutes to an hour 3 days a week and a couple of hours on Saturday I have started to listen to music and podcasts frequently.

Back in June Josh had bought me an iPod shuffle for my birthday. I must say that this was a most excellent gift as I am now using it almost everyday of the week. Getting this iPod of course required me to download iTunes and start loading my music and cd’s into the computer so that I can load up the iPod with songs and podcasts to listen too.

I started listening to the Ipod while running and had put on some really sweet tunes like Queen’s “We Will Rock You”, Dierks Bentley “What was I Thinkin’”, Van Halen, and Damn Yankees to name a few.

As I started reading more about running and visiting website I found out about running podcasts. I have found several podcasts that are about running that are interesting to listen to while running. As some of these podcasts have been going on for some time I have been listening to the past episodes. There are a lot of other interesting podcasts out there on a variety of topics and best of all the majority of them are free, which fits my budget!!!