Well, the past 2 weeks have been interesting running wise. The first was only half a week and the second wasn't a full week either. But here is what I did.
Monday, January 7th
No run today. I ended up having to decide between core and running. I chose core. pushups- 25x25x20 situps- 30x30x20 lunges/step-ups- 80 leg lifts- 15.
Tuesday, January 8th
Got 4 miles in on the treadmill in 30 minutes.
Wednesday, January 9th
4.5 miles in 30 minutes on the treadmill.
Thursday, January 10th
Nothing as I decided not to make tomorrow's drive more difficult by tiring myself out.
Friday, January 11th
No run. Got 4 hours of sleep and spent most of the day traveling.
Saturday, January 12th
Ran in Lagoon Valley 4 times around the lake. It is somewhere between 2 and 2.5 miles around the lake so somewhere at least 8 miles probably somewhere around 8.5 miles. Didn't have a watch so at least 60 minutes but probably more like 70 minutes.
Monday, January 14th
Didn't get a run in due to traveling all day.
Tuesday, January 15th
Back on the blasted treadmill. Got in 5 miles in 35 minutes during my lunch period again.
Wednesday, January 16th
Got some nice blisters that are turning into callouses on the treadmill going pretty quick on it(as quick as it will go). Ran the first 15 minutes at 6 min/mile pace. The next 10 minutes at about 7 min/mile. Then the last 12:37 at 6 min/mile pace. Ran exactly 6 miles in exactly 37:37.
Thursday, January 17th
Hopped on the bike to let the blisters heal up a little more. Only was on it for 30 minutes but estimate its equality to about 4 miles.
Friday, January 18th
Back on the treadmill for an easier run of 5 miles in 37:30.
Saturday, January 19th
Yay, a road run! Disappeared into the fading sun for about and hour and 45 minutes totaling about 12 miles.
Put in about 17 miles the first week and 32 the second. My feet running in vibrams are getting back to strength and not having to be as tender about them. I'll probably be able to start upping the miles a bit quicker now. But we'll see.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday, 21 January 2013
Saturday, 5 January 2013
A New Year
Well, when I think back to all my training over the years I realize I've NEVER had a year where I ran every week. Throughout high school I never ran over the summer(something you can get away with then) and spent quite a bit of time injured in my college years(lack of base). So now I'm trying to build a good base this year and not have a single week where I don't run at all if I can avoid it.
Core:
30x20x20 sit-ups / 25x20x20 push-ups / 70 lunges / 70 step-ups / 2:30 static core / Monday and Thursday cutting it down to 2 as the numbers increase.
Monday, December 31:
Went out in the morning for a nice run with a miserable wind. Since I'm building up the mileage this week I had to make it at least 45 minutes. But after running 22.5 minutes straight into a strong wind that was below freezing my hands(despite my gloves) and ears felt ready to fall off. It was a blessing though that the wind was against me on the way out which is the opposite of what usually happens(when its only one direction that is. It often is coming at an angle that I get somewhat of a headwind both out and back) and to my back on the way back in. It was somewhere above 5.5 miles but less than 6.
Tuesday, January 1:
An easy 30 minutes on the treadmill for 3.75 miles. My right arch started to feel a little weird here and there so I worked mostly on maintaining good form. It was likely due to Monday's run where much of the road is at an angle and since I run against traffic so I can see cars coming it is always straining on the same leg, my right leg.
Wednesday, January 2:
Today was an amazing day. I decided not to make it too long of a run because I was pressed for time. Brenda and I had an appointment for a prenatal check-up and had a couple other errands to run as well. But we got to go out to the trail along the river in Great Falls where I haven't had a chance to run yet. We parked her car at the rail cars and drove my car up to the end of the trail on that side of the river which turned out to be almost exactly 2.5 miles(on the road at least). I did a little more weaving so my total run was a little over 5 miles. It was fun to run in my vibrams on the snow for the first and last 1.5 miles or so. The rest was paved so no snow. I ran to her car and back while Brenda got in a nice walk along the trail as well. I ended up getting back in about 39 minutes according to Brenda's phone even though I stopped many times to adjust my injinji socks(for some reason they ride down a lot when I'm outside but not on the treadmill). I also stopped a few minutes to leave a note on my wife's car. So not insanely fast, but faster than I thought I was going because I was enjoying the scenery, especially with so much treadmill running. There was a couple times when I noticed I was above Lactic Threshold only by the fact that I was far too short of breath. So I had to force myself to slow down.
Thursday, January 3:
The same at Tuesday, 30 minutes easy on the treadmill making it 3.75 miles.
Friday, January 4:
Though it was on the treadmill it wasn't too bad because I ran some hills as it alternates the grade through the 45 minutes of running. So a total of 5.25 miles with plenty of climbing during it.
Saturday, January 5:
A nice run on the road with that blasting wind again. At least my jacket worked like a parasail for a little while on the way back. Went for just over 10 miles in 84 minutes.
Total mileage was about 33 miles. Not a big increase in mileage yet. Trying to keep it gradual at this point.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Core:
30x20x20 sit-ups / 25x20x20 push-ups / 70 lunges / 70 step-ups / 2:30 static core / Monday and Thursday cutting it down to 2 as the numbers increase.
Monday, December 31:
Went out in the morning for a nice run with a miserable wind. Since I'm building up the mileage this week I had to make it at least 45 minutes. But after running 22.5 minutes straight into a strong wind that was below freezing my hands(despite my gloves) and ears felt ready to fall off. It was a blessing though that the wind was against me on the way out which is the opposite of what usually happens(when its only one direction that is. It often is coming at an angle that I get somewhat of a headwind both out and back) and to my back on the way back in. It was somewhere above 5.5 miles but less than 6.
Tuesday, January 1:
An easy 30 minutes on the treadmill for 3.75 miles. My right arch started to feel a little weird here and there so I worked mostly on maintaining good form. It was likely due to Monday's run where much of the road is at an angle and since I run against traffic so I can see cars coming it is always straining on the same leg, my right leg.
Wednesday, January 2:
Today was an amazing day. I decided not to make it too long of a run because I was pressed for time. Brenda and I had an appointment for a prenatal check-up and had a couple other errands to run as well. But we got to go out to the trail along the river in Great Falls where I haven't had a chance to run yet. We parked her car at the rail cars and drove my car up to the end of the trail on that side of the river which turned out to be almost exactly 2.5 miles(on the road at least). I did a little more weaving so my total run was a little over 5 miles. It was fun to run in my vibrams on the snow for the first and last 1.5 miles or so. The rest was paved so no snow. I ran to her car and back while Brenda got in a nice walk along the trail as well. I ended up getting back in about 39 minutes according to Brenda's phone even though I stopped many times to adjust my injinji socks(for some reason they ride down a lot when I'm outside but not on the treadmill). I also stopped a few minutes to leave a note on my wife's car. So not insanely fast, but faster than I thought I was going because I was enjoying the scenery, especially with so much treadmill running. There was a couple times when I noticed I was above Lactic Threshold only by the fact that I was far too short of breath. So I had to force myself to slow down.
Thursday, January 3:
The same at Tuesday, 30 minutes easy on the treadmill making it 3.75 miles.
Friday, January 4:
Though it was on the treadmill it wasn't too bad because I ran some hills as it alternates the grade through the 45 minutes of running. So a total of 5.25 miles with plenty of climbing during it.
Saturday, January 5:
A nice run on the road with that blasting wind again. At least my jacket worked like a parasail for a little while on the way back. Went for just over 10 miles in 84 minutes.
Total mileage was about 33 miles. Not a big increase in mileage yet. Trying to keep it gradual at this point.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday, 31 December 2012
Ups and Downs
Well, this past week was a downer, in terms of mileage. There was Christmas, and I've been upping the mileage ever so slightly each week. So its a let it down a little week before really upping the mileage next week.
Monday, December 24th, Christmas Eve
It was a very slow day at work, a total of 4 calls, so my run during lunch was a second highlight after breakfast with my beautiful wife. I got on the treadmill(ick I hate those things, I really do, no stories to tell afterwards and only a silly little clock to watch, good thing I'm a thinker anyhow and ponder existential, ontological, spiritual, linguistic, or whatever else seems to be on my mind) and after a few minutes felt my right arch start to feel a little odd. I shrugged it off, and it wasn't really painful, but it felt like it could cause problems if I overdid it. So I stopped at 20 minutes at which point I decided to make it an easy week(Not that I've really been running hard) for real. Core was 3 full sets of 20 of each pushups and situps, 10 more reps on the lunges/step-ups, static core became full sets rather than just planks for a minute and a half.
Tuesday, December 25th, Christmas
A wonderful time with the wife's family, lunch and a bit of cards. First Christmas away from Vacaville with my own family. Got to say hi to them over the phone. There was no run today.
Wednesday, December 26th
I got on the treadmill again and decided to give it another easy 20 minutes. Also got my core in.
Thursday, December 27th
Easy didn't really cut it today. I got on the treadmill and the legs were too bouncy, needed to settle em down a bit. Threw the treadmill onto hill workout mode, not too difficult, but level 6(there are 20 levels) and clocked it at a shallow 8 mph pace for 35 minutes. Got a tiny bit winded on the highest of the grades, but it still wasn't too bad. At least it tired my legs out a little bit.
Friday, December 28th
Another 20 minutes?! Yep.
Saturday, December 29th
Took out into the snow at the parents' place with my brother in law for an easy easy run. He came with for about 10 minutes on the snow and I took off to explore the neighborhood for 30 minutes more after that. Nothing too rash, but was nice to say hi to all the neighborhood dogs, they sure are friendly ;).
Honestly, I don't really think I even put in 20 full miles this week, super low. Time to ramp it up a bit next week and put some strength into these legs.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday, December 24th, Christmas Eve
It was a very slow day at work, a total of 4 calls, so my run during lunch was a second highlight after breakfast with my beautiful wife. I got on the treadmill(ick I hate those things, I really do, no stories to tell afterwards and only a silly little clock to watch, good thing I'm a thinker anyhow and ponder existential, ontological, spiritual, linguistic, or whatever else seems to be on my mind) and after a few minutes felt my right arch start to feel a little odd. I shrugged it off, and it wasn't really painful, but it felt like it could cause problems if I overdid it. So I stopped at 20 minutes at which point I decided to make it an easy week(Not that I've really been running hard) for real. Core was 3 full sets of 20 of each pushups and situps, 10 more reps on the lunges/step-ups, static core became full sets rather than just planks for a minute and a half.
Tuesday, December 25th, Christmas
A wonderful time with the wife's family, lunch and a bit of cards. First Christmas away from Vacaville with my own family. Got to say hi to them over the phone. There was no run today.
Wednesday, December 26th
I got on the treadmill again and decided to give it another easy 20 minutes. Also got my core in.
Thursday, December 27th
Easy didn't really cut it today. I got on the treadmill and the legs were too bouncy, needed to settle em down a bit. Threw the treadmill onto hill workout mode, not too difficult, but level 6(there are 20 levels) and clocked it at a shallow 8 mph pace for 35 minutes. Got a tiny bit winded on the highest of the grades, but it still wasn't too bad. At least it tired my legs out a little bit.
Friday, December 28th
Another 20 minutes?! Yep.
Saturday, December 29th
Took out into the snow at the parents' place with my brother in law for an easy easy run. He came with for about 10 minutes on the snow and I took off to explore the neighborhood for 30 minutes more after that. Nothing too rash, but was nice to say hi to all the neighborhood dogs, they sure are friendly ;).
Honestly, I don't really think I even put in 20 full miles this week, super low. Time to ramp it up a bit next week and put some strength into these legs.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday, 24 December 2012
Another Week, Another Rep
Well, slow growth is progressing steadily. Its so incredibly hard for me not to amp things up. I finish doing a set of sit-ups or pushups and my body doesn't feel like its falling apart or can't go on and I know I have more that I can give. But thats not the point of this. Anyhow, just a slight increase of things this week.
Monday, December 17:
Got 2 full sets of sit ups and pushups(20 reps per set) and a half set tagged on at the end. 50 lunges and 25 step-up lunges for each leg. I have been adding in a few pull-ups whenever I'm doing core at home and also added in 10 leg lifts. Afterwards I added in some static core as well, starting with an easy minute of planks. The run was a simply 35 minutes easy.
Tuesday, December 18:
25 minutes easy
Wednesday, December 19:
The same core as Monday with 35 minutes easy.
Thursday, December 20:
25 minutes easy
Friday, December 21:
Since the world didn't end I did core and put in an easy 45 minutes which gave me a nice blister on my right foot that is still tender.
Saturday, December 22:
This was an interesting day. I spent most of the day debating with myself whether I'd run or not because I knew there wouldn't be any time to go for a run during daylight hours. My wife and I had plenty of things that needed to get done. I finally overcame my weaknesses and got out onto the road past 9PM and came back with a nice white frosty beard after a 70 minute run. I was plenty warm since I bundled up well, and even got to try out my new Injinji socks designed for vibrams. Its interesting wearing them. I can actually keep my feet warm in some pretty nasty weather in vibrams now.(That is to say under normal circumstances. If it is dry and I'm running they stay warm just fine without em) I'll have to wear them only occasionally with only 2 pairs. I'll destroy em pretty soon I'm sure and they'll get very dirty pretty quick as well. But it'll be fun to see how they affect me and my training and normal everday type of things as well.
So really only about 30 miles this week, trying not to up it too quick. Hope everyone has a blessed and merry Christmas. That is to say, recognize Christ as Lord, God, and King and you will indeed have a merry Christmas.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday, December 17:
Got 2 full sets of sit ups and pushups(20 reps per set) and a half set tagged on at the end. 50 lunges and 25 step-up lunges for each leg. I have been adding in a few pull-ups whenever I'm doing core at home and also added in 10 leg lifts. Afterwards I added in some static core as well, starting with an easy minute of planks. The run was a simply 35 minutes easy.
Tuesday, December 18:
25 minutes easy
Wednesday, December 19:
The same core as Monday with 35 minutes easy.
Thursday, December 20:
25 minutes easy
Friday, December 21:
Since the world didn't end I did core and put in an easy 45 minutes which gave me a nice blister on my right foot that is still tender.
Saturday, December 22:
This was an interesting day. I spent most of the day debating with myself whether I'd run or not because I knew there wouldn't be any time to go for a run during daylight hours. My wife and I had plenty of things that needed to get done. I finally overcame my weaknesses and got out onto the road past 9PM and came back with a nice white frosty beard after a 70 minute run. I was plenty warm since I bundled up well, and even got to try out my new Injinji socks designed for vibrams. Its interesting wearing them. I can actually keep my feet warm in some pretty nasty weather in vibrams now.(That is to say under normal circumstances. If it is dry and I'm running they stay warm just fine without em) I'll have to wear them only occasionally with only 2 pairs. I'll destroy em pretty soon I'm sure and they'll get very dirty pretty quick as well. But it'll be fun to see how they affect me and my training and normal everday type of things as well.
So really only about 30 miles this week, trying not to up it too quick. Hope everyone has a blessed and merry Christmas. That is to say, recognize Christ as Lord, God, and King and you will indeed have a merry Christmas.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday, 17 December 2012
Back at it, nice and slow
Well folks, I'm back at it again. Its been a little while. I stopped giving accounts of my training and competitions this last year at Trinity Western. It was a bit of a rough patch. I was never able to fully get enough base to prevent injury when we stepped up the intensity. I had a few good runs in there in cross country towards the beginning with the first race being a 26:05 5 miler. After that it was downhill and trying to prevent my IT band from exploding. Track was even worse as I spent around 4 days a week trying to cross train instead of run and the other 2 either racing or putting in higher intensity runs that left me limping my way off the track. So 1:56 800 and a 2:34 1k was about all I could pull out. Now that I've had tons of time off, I'm getting back into it with a different attitude. I'm taking things slow and building a lot of base and core, slowly. Did I mention I'm going to make sure I don't take things too fast? I spent the past two weeks just running 3 days a week, M-W-F, with only about 30 minutes each day on a silly treadmill at work(ick). The Friday of the second week I went ahead and put in 45 minutes, but thats all I upped it. Now I've started last week with everday 6 out of 7 days. I still put in only minor mileage and am focusing a little more on my core and especially strengthening my glutes to avoid the IT band issue. Just simply push-ups, my own sort of sit-ups, lunges, and side-step step-ups(adaptation of a lunge) for the gluteus minimus. So far no complaints from the IT band except for a few moments on occasion which simply reminds me to lift with my glutes and it goes away almost instantaneously. Now on to the boring day to day of last week.
Monday:
I put in an easy 30 minutes with 2 sets of 20 push-ups and sit-ups(my version I sit up and turn my body to touch my right elbow to my left knee and vice versa then go down and touch each elbow to the ground making sure I'm turning my body instead of my shoulders and arms). I then did my 40 lunges(20 each leg) and 40 side-step-ups(20 each leg) to round it out. I'll add some static core in here in the next couple weeks I figure.
Tuesday:
Easy 25 minutes
Wednesday:
Easy 35 minutes with core and lunges with 5 pull-ups.
Thursday:
Easy 20 minutes
Friday:
Easy 45 minutes with core/lunges and 5 pull-ups.
Saturday:
Easy 60 minutes on a gravel road in my vibrams helped keep it slow and easy, which is the harder part of these runs right now. Treadmills make it easier since they don't speed up unintentionally.
So there you have it. Do I have any plans for races? Not really. We'll see what happens in the future. I tell you what though I'm really looking forward to some good running in Papua New Guinea!
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday, 2 July 2012
The Relay for Life
Recently I took part in an event that had a profound impact on me. On Friday and Saturday I participated in the Relay for Life. It is an event that my wife has participated in over the past few years and now that we're married I joined in. The Relay for Life is a fundraising, awareness, and memorial for the fight against cancer and research with the American Cancer Society. It was started by a Dr. Gordy Klatt who loved to run and also wanted to raise funds to help his local American Cancer Society office. You can read all about how it got started here. So except for last year when she was up in Canada (meeting me ;), Brenda has participated in this event for years now decorating a tent with cool designs as she is an artist.
The idea of the Relay for Life is to have someone from your team out on the track, in this case an asphalt round loop at the local fairgrounds in Great Falls, MT, all the time. It is a 12 hour vigil as other events and activities go on in the middle of this track as well throughout the night. From 6:30PM to 6:30AM there are always people out on the track. Through the evening and into the night there were many people out on the track and kids running around. Our canopy was a place where kids could come get balloon hats, swords, scabbards, and dogs. The kids loved the swords and scabbards. As it got later into the night the kids went to sleep and a the number of adults even dramatically reduced. There were events like a 4-man relay(4 events like loading up a shirt with water running over and squeezing that water into a bucket), xumba dance exercising, bobbing for donuts, and other things to help keep people awake who were more determined to last the night. But there were a couple of us that had something a bitter harder in mind.
Going into this relay for life I'd heard rumor of a man who was somewhat of a legend at this particular event. Everyone seemed to know him and he was very distinct in that he always ran a good deal of the time at the event with his father's walking stick. I'd heard several people even claim that he ran all night(12 hours straight is a good feat). I wanted to at least meet him and talk with him a little bit, but originally was thinking I'd just run 90 minutes for my run for the day and intersperse the rest of the night with walking and doing other things.
Stepping back a little bit before moving on, we set up our canopy that morning. The fairgrounds were open to teams at 10AM to set up between 10AM and 4:30PM. As Brenda and I are early birds we got there at around 9:45, waited for the sprinklers to turn off and 3 of us(Darlene, a cancer survivor) set up our tent and put together a cardboard construction of Agrabah from the movie Aladdin. The theme for the year was disney movies, so everyone had different decorations and activities related to disney. We finished a little after 11 and decided to go run some errands in town for a while. When we returned at just after 3PM we found Agrabah destroyed. From the damage we figured a sprinkler had turned back on at some point and ripped our decoration apart. We were a bit downtrodden, but we quickly got back to work in reconstructing it. We were able to put back together what was destroyed and still make it look decent enough. We only finished a little before the festivities began.
After opening ceremonies and prayers there was a survivor lap to honor the participants who have struggled with cancer and are still alive today. Then at 6:30 everyone else joined in and there were many people out on the track as I threw on my Vibrams and hoped my IT band wouldn't bother me going so many laps turning in the same direction. It was about a 400 meter track though it was just a road loop and not a track. I gobbled down some Nachos and I ran around dodging people trying to keep on the inside on the grass especially since I'd been on my feet in the vibrams already pretty much all day. I put in somewhere around 11-12 miles in that 90 minutes taking it easy and enjoying myself. Sometime towards the beginning I had the man with the walking stick pointed out to me and I found myself watching for him pretty much the whole 90 minutes hoping he'd start running and I could sidle up to him and strike up a conversation. No such luck in that 90 minutes. It turns out that he tries to run about half of the time and walk half of the time and people just think he's running all of it because they're not paying close attention. But still, 6 hours of running is quite a bit.
I finished running at 8PM and went walking for a little while with Brenda and got to meet this man I'd heard about. He was still just walking around since the beginning and we talked for a minute. He was going to wait until sundown before he started running, he didn't want to run in the heat. His name was Keith and he was a friendly fellow. I walked a bit more and spent time with Brenda. We hung out, played some cards, helped make balloon swords, and just after 10PM I decided to join Keith as he ran. I threw on some old running shoes no longer wanting to wear vibrams and we moseyed along until midnight talking quite a bit. We talked about so many things from the Vibrams I had worn to Theological discussions finding that we were both Christians. At midnight I went and grabbed myself some pizza as I was pretty darn hungry at this point and spent the next few hours with Brenda doing various things, walking, playing cards, 4-man relays, bobbing for donuts, etc.
The 4-man relay was at about 3:10 AM and Keith hopped off the track and came over to participate as well, so after the relay I decided I'd hop back on the track and join him as he ran. He had hopped back on the track at 2AM. As we ran I found out about the walking stick he carried as he walked and ran. It belonged to his father who had died of cancer. Now he brought it with him each year to the relay for life and made sure someone from his team was out on the track with it the whole time(usually him since he only got off the track for short bathroom breaks, water breaks, and to grab a banana). It was a stick that his father hiked with and had marked all the trails and dates it had been used. Now it was a memorial to the man.
We ran around the track until 4 AM when he originally thought he'd walk for an hour then run from 5-6AM. But I told him if he decided to run the rest of the time I'd tough it out with him and run the rest of the time as well, so we continued on through the 4 'o clock hour. He also didn't know that the relay went until 6:30 AM not 6, so that threw him for a little bit of a loop later, but we still ran most of the time. Towards the end he was really starting to run out of fuel and about half an hour before it ended we took to spurts of a couple minutes of walking then starting running again. My biggest issues were abrasions. There were some in some unmentionable spots and my nipples have some nice scabs on them now. For a while I was running with duct tape over my nipples, but I gave up on that and eventually my nipples simply stopped complaining. I'd found to my surprise that my IT band never bothered me even though I ran 6 hours and it wasn't until the very end that a muscle at the bottom of my shin began to cramp up. So at the relay for life I found myself running 4 times as long as I originally intended, but it was a wonderful experience and has left me with some things to ponder.
Before this event the furthest I'd ever run was a 24 mile torch run a few years ago. But now I guess I've put in at least over 40 miles and closer to double that distance. I didn't count my laps because that would have been ludicrous. I talked with a woman for a few moments while walking with Brenda who had actually been counting my laps for a while during my first 90 minutes of running but said she stopped counting at 30 laps. So ultimately I don't know how far I ran, but it was at least 40 miles, probably closer to 45 miles, and a maximum of about 48 miles. It was a fun first ultra(though I had plenty of breaks in there). The Lord spoke to me in many ways through the day and night and I'm still recovering from it all both physically, mentally, and emotionally, but it was something I would gladly participate in again. If I'm still around here next year this time and not already going to the mission field, maybe I'll try to run the whole thing.
Running Toward God,
Jason
The idea of the Relay for Life is to have someone from your team out on the track, in this case an asphalt round loop at the local fairgrounds in Great Falls, MT, all the time. It is a 12 hour vigil as other events and activities go on in the middle of this track as well throughout the night. From 6:30PM to 6:30AM there are always people out on the track. Through the evening and into the night there were many people out on the track and kids running around. Our canopy was a place where kids could come get balloon hats, swords, scabbards, and dogs. The kids loved the swords and scabbards. As it got later into the night the kids went to sleep and a the number of adults even dramatically reduced. There were events like a 4-man relay(4 events like loading up a shirt with water running over and squeezing that water into a bucket), xumba dance exercising, bobbing for donuts, and other things to help keep people awake who were more determined to last the night. But there were a couple of us that had something a bitter harder in mind.
Going into this relay for life I'd heard rumor of a man who was somewhat of a legend at this particular event. Everyone seemed to know him and he was very distinct in that he always ran a good deal of the time at the event with his father's walking stick. I'd heard several people even claim that he ran all night(12 hours straight is a good feat). I wanted to at least meet him and talk with him a little bit, but originally was thinking I'd just run 90 minutes for my run for the day and intersperse the rest of the night with walking and doing other things.
Stepping back a little bit before moving on, we set up our canopy that morning. The fairgrounds were open to teams at 10AM to set up between 10AM and 4:30PM. As Brenda and I are early birds we got there at around 9:45, waited for the sprinklers to turn off and 3 of us(Darlene, a cancer survivor) set up our tent and put together a cardboard construction of Agrabah from the movie Aladdin. The theme for the year was disney movies, so everyone had different decorations and activities related to disney. We finished a little after 11 and decided to go run some errands in town for a while. When we returned at just after 3PM we found Agrabah destroyed. From the damage we figured a sprinkler had turned back on at some point and ripped our decoration apart. We were a bit downtrodden, but we quickly got back to work in reconstructing it. We were able to put back together what was destroyed and still make it look decent enough. We only finished a little before the festivities began.
After opening ceremonies and prayers there was a survivor lap to honor the participants who have struggled with cancer and are still alive today. Then at 6:30 everyone else joined in and there were many people out on the track as I threw on my Vibrams and hoped my IT band wouldn't bother me going so many laps turning in the same direction. It was about a 400 meter track though it was just a road loop and not a track. I gobbled down some Nachos and I ran around dodging people trying to keep on the inside on the grass especially since I'd been on my feet in the vibrams already pretty much all day. I put in somewhere around 11-12 miles in that 90 minutes taking it easy and enjoying myself. Sometime towards the beginning I had the man with the walking stick pointed out to me and I found myself watching for him pretty much the whole 90 minutes hoping he'd start running and I could sidle up to him and strike up a conversation. No such luck in that 90 minutes. It turns out that he tries to run about half of the time and walk half of the time and people just think he's running all of it because they're not paying close attention. But still, 6 hours of running is quite a bit.
I finished running at 8PM and went walking for a little while with Brenda and got to meet this man I'd heard about. He was still just walking around since the beginning and we talked for a minute. He was going to wait until sundown before he started running, he didn't want to run in the heat. His name was Keith and he was a friendly fellow. I walked a bit more and spent time with Brenda. We hung out, played some cards, helped make balloon swords, and just after 10PM I decided to join Keith as he ran. I threw on some old running shoes no longer wanting to wear vibrams and we moseyed along until midnight talking quite a bit. We talked about so many things from the Vibrams I had worn to Theological discussions finding that we were both Christians. At midnight I went and grabbed myself some pizza as I was pretty darn hungry at this point and spent the next few hours with Brenda doing various things, walking, playing cards, 4-man relays, bobbing for donuts, etc.
The 4-man relay was at about 3:10 AM and Keith hopped off the track and came over to participate as well, so after the relay I decided I'd hop back on the track and join him as he ran. He had hopped back on the track at 2AM. As we ran I found out about the walking stick he carried as he walked and ran. It belonged to his father who had died of cancer. Now he brought it with him each year to the relay for life and made sure someone from his team was out on the track with it the whole time(usually him since he only got off the track for short bathroom breaks, water breaks, and to grab a banana). It was a stick that his father hiked with and had marked all the trails and dates it had been used. Now it was a memorial to the man.
We ran around the track until 4 AM when he originally thought he'd walk for an hour then run from 5-6AM. But I told him if he decided to run the rest of the time I'd tough it out with him and run the rest of the time as well, so we continued on through the 4 'o clock hour. He also didn't know that the relay went until 6:30 AM not 6, so that threw him for a little bit of a loop later, but we still ran most of the time. Towards the end he was really starting to run out of fuel and about half an hour before it ended we took to spurts of a couple minutes of walking then starting running again. My biggest issues were abrasions. There were some in some unmentionable spots and my nipples have some nice scabs on them now. For a while I was running with duct tape over my nipples, but I gave up on that and eventually my nipples simply stopped complaining. I'd found to my surprise that my IT band never bothered me even though I ran 6 hours and it wasn't until the very end that a muscle at the bottom of my shin began to cramp up. So at the relay for life I found myself running 4 times as long as I originally intended, but it was a wonderful experience and has left me with some things to ponder.
Before this event the furthest I'd ever run was a 24 mile torch run a few years ago. But now I guess I've put in at least over 40 miles and closer to double that distance. I didn't count my laps because that would have been ludicrous. I talked with a woman for a few moments while walking with Brenda who had actually been counting my laps for a while during my first 90 minutes of running but said she stopped counting at 30 laps. So ultimately I don't know how far I ran, but it was at least 40 miles, probably closer to 45 miles, and a maximum of about 48 miles. It was a fun first ultra(though I had plenty of breaks in there). The Lord spoke to me in many ways through the day and night and I'm still recovering from it all both physically, mentally, and emotionally, but it was something I would gladly participate in again. If I'm still around here next year this time and not already going to the mission field, maybe I'll try to run the whole thing.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Week 23: Sep 27-Oct 1
This week was a little more intense than previous weeks. It had its ups and downs. The training is going well, but towards the end of the week some issues started popping up. Hopefully I can deal with them quickly and appropriately, but I'll get to that.
Monday
AM - 35 minutes easy barefoot on the track ~4.5 miles
PM - 60 minutes easy on the Fort-to-Fort Trail ~8 miles
Tuesday
PM - We had a good workout on the wet grass at McLeod Park. We had our usual 20 minute warmup and dynamic stretching and started our usual counter-clockwise loop around the soccer and softball fields. We went for 4x6min with the first two more at temp and the last two more at 10k pace. The rest was 2 mins between each. At the end we tacked on 2x3min of about 8k pace (maybe a tad faster). Towards the end my left hip-flexor was getting really tired from running counter-clockwise the whole time. We got in an easy 15 min cooldown to round it out. It was probably around 10-11 miles.
Wednesday
PM - semi-long run. I went out for 90 minutes at a casual pace. Ended up running with Mark a little along the way out and with Mihai for about 20 mins on the way back in. It turned out to be about 84 minutes to be more precise with about 11.5 miles logged.
Thursday
AM - easy 35 minutes barefoot on the track, ~4 miles
PM - easy 60 minutes Fort-to-Fort trail, ~8 miles
Friday
PM - We did some tempo work. My legs going in were fairly heavy. I had woken up this morning with a tendon on the bottom of my left foot inflamed. It loosened up shortly after getting up, but I could still feel it a little throughout the day, not really even a minor nuisance. But to play it safe I decided not to run in my Vibrams today and threw on an old pair of trainers. We went out to a loop that is about a mile long (1680 meters or so) and put in two sets of 20 minutes at marathon pace the first 10 and tempo pace the second 10. My legs were very heavy, but all in all I felt pretty good. Note, we ran this counter-clockwise, which we seem to do with everything. This particular trail has some fairly quick left turns in certain spots (especially when you're trying to ran at a decently fast pace), which may help explain the issues with my left leg. The rest in between the two was 5 minutes at a little slower than marathon pace (heart rate around 150-155). The total mileage today was probably upwards of 12 miles.
Saturday
I woke up with my foot hurting just a little more than Friday, but again it loosened up pretty quick. I was feeling it while running a little more though (yesterday I didn't feel it at all while running). Add to that my left glute was tight (I tried leg swings as well as lunges to loosen up and activate it) and that together with my foot problem my left IT band started bothering me about 30 minutes into the run. We turned around at about 37 minutes and I started going back. It was slowly, ever so slowly, getting tighter and more bothersome to the point I started slowing down and letting the guys go ahead. At about 60 minutes I decided it would be wise to walk the rest of the way back and not risk injury over an extra 20 minutes on a run. Today I'm feeling like that was a good choice as my IT band isn't an issue. My foot is still feeling inflamed and I'm going in to see the therapist tomorrow morning. I may need to take a few days and cross-train. We'll see. I probably put in about 8 miles of running before I started walking (and about 1.5 miles of walking!).
Total mileage: ~66 miles
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday
AM - 35 minutes easy barefoot on the track ~4.5 miles
PM - 60 minutes easy on the Fort-to-Fort Trail ~8 miles
Tuesday
PM - We had a good workout on the wet grass at McLeod Park. We had our usual 20 minute warmup and dynamic stretching and started our usual counter-clockwise loop around the soccer and softball fields. We went for 4x6min with the first two more at temp and the last two more at 10k pace. The rest was 2 mins between each. At the end we tacked on 2x3min of about 8k pace (maybe a tad faster). Towards the end my left hip-flexor was getting really tired from running counter-clockwise the whole time. We got in an easy 15 min cooldown to round it out. It was probably around 10-11 miles.
Wednesday
PM - semi-long run. I went out for 90 minutes at a casual pace. Ended up running with Mark a little along the way out and with Mihai for about 20 mins on the way back in. It turned out to be about 84 minutes to be more precise with about 11.5 miles logged.
Thursday
AM - easy 35 minutes barefoot on the track, ~4 miles
PM - easy 60 minutes Fort-to-Fort trail, ~8 miles
Friday
PM - We did some tempo work. My legs going in were fairly heavy. I had woken up this morning with a tendon on the bottom of my left foot inflamed. It loosened up shortly after getting up, but I could still feel it a little throughout the day, not really even a minor nuisance. But to play it safe I decided not to run in my Vibrams today and threw on an old pair of trainers. We went out to a loop that is about a mile long (1680 meters or so) and put in two sets of 20 minutes at marathon pace the first 10 and tempo pace the second 10. My legs were very heavy, but all in all I felt pretty good. Note, we ran this counter-clockwise, which we seem to do with everything. This particular trail has some fairly quick left turns in certain spots (especially when you're trying to ran at a decently fast pace), which may help explain the issues with my left leg. The rest in between the two was 5 minutes at a little slower than marathon pace (heart rate around 150-155). The total mileage today was probably upwards of 12 miles.
Saturday
I woke up with my foot hurting just a little more than Friday, but again it loosened up pretty quick. I was feeling it while running a little more though (yesterday I didn't feel it at all while running). Add to that my left glute was tight (I tried leg swings as well as lunges to loosen up and activate it) and that together with my foot problem my left IT band started bothering me about 30 minutes into the run. We turned around at about 37 minutes and I started going back. It was slowly, ever so slowly, getting tighter and more bothersome to the point I started slowing down and letting the guys go ahead. At about 60 minutes I decided it would be wise to walk the rest of the way back and not risk injury over an extra 20 minutes on a run. Today I'm feeling like that was a good choice as my IT band isn't an issue. My foot is still feeling inflamed and I'm going in to see the therapist tomorrow morning. I may need to take a few days and cross-train. We'll see. I probably put in about 8 miles of running before I started walking (and about 1.5 miles of walking!).
Total mileage: ~66 miles
Running Toward God,
Jason
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