Tortoise and Hare Sports – Running with Neal

Fallen Officer 5K & Surprise

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 runningwithnealLeave a comment

About a month ago one of the lifters at Kilo Barbell Club asked if anyone wanted to run a 5K with her to benefit the Concerns of Police Survivors, Arizona (C.O.P.S. AZ) Organization. Always being one who is up for a run I quickly accepted this invite and signed up for the Fallen Officer Memorial 5K.

20200301_084821

C.O.P.S. is a national organization dedicated to helping the family and co-workers of fallen officers in Rebuilding shattered lives of survivors and co-workers affected by line of duty deaths. Which to me is a fantastic and very worthy cause.

As soon as I parked and went to the day of packet pickup I knew this race felt a little different. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of uniformed officers I saw. The packet pickup was staffed by police cadets who where extremely polite. There were a couple of the cadets walking around passing out bottles of water BEFORE the race. When we gathered in the start corrals I saw at least three large groups of runners all dressed the same and one in each who was carrying a banner for the officer training school that they were from. There were also several officers in full gear and running shoes.

I’ve never been worried about my safety at any race I’ve ever done. That being said I’ve never felt safer than during this race. I’m fairly certain that at least half the field was in law enforcement and several were in uniform.

It was an interesting out and back course through downtown Phoenix. I always find it fun when I get to run on the roads that I commute on a daily basis. The only criticism I have is that according to my watch the course was a little long. I clocked it at 3.4 instead of 3.1. I’m also not the biggest fan of out and back courses but thats a fairly minor personal preference.

About half way through I fell in with one of the training schools, basic training academy 148. I’ve tried to find information on them but the internet has failed me.

Anyway, they were a great group to run with and were very welcoming. Even encouraging me to stay with them when I started falling back. I very much appreciated them helping to pull me along.

It brought to mind a phrase that was used a lot in a book that I finished listening to recently, Running to the Edge by Matthew Futterman. The book chronicles the coaching career of Bob Larsen and his theories on how to train and run “on the edge”. Its a great read or listen on Audible. The phrase that I keep coming back to in my runs now is; “The group is faster than the individual”. And its surprising to me that I had forgotten this. That is how my cross country team ran in high school. We were a pack. While we did have some outstanding runners come through our strength wasn’t that we always had the top runner in the race but that we had 5 to 7 guys that ran together and would chase people down. So, when they passed someone that guy didn’t drop 1 place but 5 or 6 places. It made us very hard to beat as a team. Along with some specialists for certain occasions we were a force to be reckoned with in our little corner of Indiana. In practices we pushed each other always demanding more from ourselves than even our coach did.

Its also generally what my training has been missing recently. Since moving to Surprise I’ve been doing more and more runs by myself. Granted sometimes its nice to run by myself especially when I have a problem I’m trying to work out or just need to decompress. But its when I’m with a group of like minded runners that I push and get better.

That brings me to the Marshmallow Mile. I know weird segue but stay with me. The Marshmallow mile was sponsored by Tortoise and Hare Sports and is similar to a beer mile. You eat 6 large marshmallows then run a lap around a track and repeat until you’ve run 4 laps.

I discovered a couple of things at this event. Firstly, I’m terrible at eating marshmallows quickly. it would take me twice as long to eat as I did to get around the track. Coach V participated with me and was able to keep up despite my lap times being twice as fast if not more. She would come in after I was half way through my bag of marshmallows and leave enough before me to get about 100 m head start. I’d catch and pass her but couldn’t get enough of a lead that she wouldn’t catch and pass in the “eating area”.

20200224_194748

I also rediscovered why I loved to sprint especially the 400. When I’m running distance I’m aware of everything going on around me. Wind, sounds, smells and sights. Which sometimes is cool if your in a place that is scenic or with friends and talking about things. But I’m also very aware of my breathing and my stride and that pain developing in my side and every other manner of thing that can distract me and scream at me to stop.

They had Olympic medalist Jenny Simpson who, along with helping to hand out marshmallows, did a Q&A session after the event. Which was very fun and informative. One question that stuck out for me was when she was asked if she had a magic wand and could grant everyone on thing in running what would that be. She talked about wishing that everyone could find that euphoric place while running where everything feels good and you feel like you could just go forever. She also talked about it being a prefect state where your aware of everything and have clarity.

For me that moment comes when I’m going fast. When I’m sprinting the world falls away. My mind goes blank and the only thing that exists is the track in front of me. And when I’m really going not even the whole track just my lane. And it feels like it can go on forever and I don’t want to stop. They were playing music loud enough that the whole track could hear and I only noticed when I stopped to eat. For me its a purely zen moment where nothing exists or matters except the track and going fast. Its that on the edge euphoria that Coach Larson is getting his runners to find in the book. And I missed it. I didn’t even realize how much I missed it until that night.

I also bumped into a guy wearing a Surprise Running Club shirt. I introduced myself and asked what is the Surprise Running Club and where do they meet. His response was priceless, “Surprise”. He then told me a little about the group that meeting in a couple different places in Surprise and what the workout are like along with the website that details the locations and types of workouts. The group is lead by coach Keith Rieger who is an accomplished runner who has qualified and ran in the Western States 100 Ultra, numerous Iron-man Triathlons and the Kona 5. He also is a knowledgeable, humble, and great guy. The rest of the SRC mirrors this friendliness and is very welcoming and encouraging. They describe themselves as a support group that is disguised as a running club. I felt completely at home with them from the start.

Between my current goal of a sub 24 minute 5K by the end of April, the reaffirmation that I need a group to push me and my rekindled love of speed I joined them for the circuit workout on Wednesday. It was amazing and completely kicked my butt. they organize into several groups woggers, runners and speedsters. For reasons I don’t fully understand I decided to try and keep up with the speedsters. There are some quick people in this group and I loved the workout of various speed\strength drills. I’m not sure I’ve worked that hard running since high school track.

On Monday they meet for interval runs, Wednesday is the circuit training and Friday is a trail run. I haven’t made a Friday yet since trails aren’t my focus right now but the Monday and Wednesday runs are fantastic, as tough as you make them on yourself and inspiring. Before each workout is the club cheer of “We not me, SRC” which I believe embodies the philosophy of the group is faster\stronger that the individual.

20200301_084834

Not to worry, I’m still running with the Embrace Your Pace group and they will forever be a big part of my running family. Now that soccer is over for the year I’m back at the Thursday Arrowhead loop runs.

Up next is the 1K Kilt Run on Friday and the Kiss me I’m Irish 4K on Saturday.

Until then…C-YA!

Streaking and Inch-stones

February 11, 2020February 11, 2020 runningwithnealLeave a comment

Frozen Feet I’ve decided that this year I’m gone to try streaking. I’ve seen articles about it in magazines and I’ve heard others talking about how they can’t imagine not streaking once they started. What finally convinced me to give it a try is when my therapist, Yvonne, talked about it.
Wait…I’m talking about running or some type of aerobic activity every day. What were you thinking about?
Anyway, I’m talking about going out and doing some type of activity for at least 10 minutes every day. For me sometimes that is running, sometimes it’s walking, and this time of year a lot of the time it’s soccer. The point is that everyday I go out and do something. Now I know that this doesn’t seem like a whole lot since I go on a lot of runs, but I usually don’t do something athletic every day. So far, I’ve had a streak going since 12/31/2019… 28 days. Runner’s World encourages people every summer to streak for a month or two with the hope being that once you set the habit up it will continue past the challenge.
There are sites set up to help encourage run streaking like Run Bet. Similar to diet bet where you put a little money down on losing a certain amount of weight by percentage in a given amount of time. RunBet has you put some money down and you follow a prescribed by the challenge distance for a set amount of time. For instance, I signed up for one that starts mid-February and lasts 4 weeks. During that time, I have 5 runs of a varying distance that I have to do every week. The main caveat is that you can only log one run a day. At the end of the challenge all the money is divided up by the number of people who completed the challenge. Not something that you will make a bunch off of but it’s a fun little way to help motivate yourself to get out consistently. Marshmallow Mile

Along with starting a streak the local running store Tortoise and Hare Sports began the annual Frozen Feet challenge in association with Brooks. Which is a challenge to walk or run at least mile every day for 6 weeks. It needs to be a purposeful mile. Meaning that you can’t count just the general walking around that you do during the day, you need to go out with the intentional of completing a mile. Throughout the event they are holding some events such as a marshmallow mile. Think of a beer mile and just substitute the beer for marshmallows.

In line with the re-aligned 2020 goal of a 5K under 18 minutes. I’ve done 2 things. The first being I’ve started working with a nutrition coach. Jet, yes the same one who coaches me lifting, at Kilo Barbell Club is a certified nutrition coach through PN coaching. After talking with me about where I am and the ultimate goal of running significantly faster we decided that the main goal of the nutrition coaching should be to lose weight. The main thought being that I’m carrying too much extra weight that isn’t geared toward helping me run. Admittedly, I have gained a fair amount in the past year. When I started working with her on nutrition I was up to 200 lbs I’m now at 188. I’m not only changing what I eat but how I eat.

Second, I’ve broken the main goal down into sub goals. There is a basic tenant in engineering. If you have a problem that appears to be impossible to solve, break it down into smaller pieces until you have a problem you can solve. Solve that, then go on to the next, and then the next, and so on until the problem that was too big is solved. Another way to put it is the old line of: How do you eat an elephant? Which of course is properly answered as: One bite at a time.

So, I’m going to break the end goal into milestone and inch-stones. We use this system in my day job and I don’t know why it’s just occurring to me that I should apply this principle to my running. For the uninitiated milestones are the major accomplishments or tasks that need to be completed on the way to a goal or as I call it at work a deliverable. Inch-stones are a further breakdown of the milestone into even smaller accomplishments on the way to a milestone. We also use what I call mile markers, these are set point on a calendar used to measure where we are on our way to the milestones and to make any adjusts necessary in the inch-stones.

Ok, sorry, I became an engineer there for a second, hopefully I didn’t lose anyone. The way I see my running goals are as follows. The end goal is to qualify for Boston by 45. So that will be the “deliverable”. I believe that to achieve that goal I have the following milestone that I have to hit. I need a 5K under 18 by the end of 2020, a 10K under 40 by the end of 2021, a Half Marathon under 1:30 by the end of 2022, and then 2 years to increase that to the Full marathon under 3 hours.

So, for now let’s just look at the 5K milestone. My current 5K time is 29:57 set on Jan 11 this year. That will be the start point. My inch-stones then will be, April sub 24 minutes, June sub 22, August sub 20, October sub 19, December sub 18 with Mile Markers in March, July, September, and November. Year of the 5k Jan

Up 6086 tomorrow is the Mesa 10K. I know, I just spent all this time talking about 5Ks and I’m running a 10K. Originally this was going to be the 10K year that is until the injuries and mono. I signed up for this a year ago with a discount code. Here is my plan. I’m going to take the first mile easy. And by easy, I mean nearly walk. Then I’m going to run miles 2, 3, and 4 as if it was a 5k. Then just jog or maybe do intervals for the last couple of miles. (note: this was meant to be posted on Friday. I did well on the 10K but more on that later) Until then…C_YA!

More Injuries and Addiction

June 3, 2019 runningwithnealLeave a comment

I’ve been reading a lot of books on running and the personal stories of various runners. They have been written by various levels of runners, although they are all faster

and perhaps more serious than I am. From the instructional 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald and Endure by Alex Hutchinson to the historic Born to Run and Natural Born Heros by Christopher McDougall to the inspirational North by Scott Jurek, and Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor, and the combination of inspiration and instruction of Run Forever by Amby Burfoot. Then my personal favorite, the humorous and inspirational The Incomplete Book of Running by the host of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Peter Sagal. peter-sagal-the-incomplete-book-of-running

All these books have had some great advice and given me things to think about on my own running journey. While I’ll never be going for an FKT on the Appalachian Trail, or any other trail for that matter, or competing for a chance to podium on an international race. I’m still extremely surprised when I get a podium in local 5ks and that is usually because they are small races. It has made me realize that every runner, regardless of level, has a story. Whether it is a health scare, overcoming addiction, therapy, or any other host of reasons, we all have something that got us started.

But, for all the host of reasons that we get started we all seem to have one thing in common, other than running of course. The year that no matter what we did we were plagued by injury. Sometimes it’s not a whole year, sometimes it’s longer. For some of us it signals an end to running, some come back even stronger. Almost all of us realize what running means to us and reflect on what running has brought us, especially those who have been doing it for a long time. I mean what else do we have to do but think about running while we aren’t able to.

All my life I’ve battled things that, according to most, should have stopped me from running. Inflamed growth plates in my heals, the flattest feet known to man, knee problems, a list of injuries three pages long. I was told during my junior year of high school track by a doctor that I should stop running forever due to a back problem. And last but not least, asthma. And not just the mild variety. As a kid I was as bad as they get. I could only play outside for a couple hours a day at one point because I couldn’t be out in the pollen for longer than that without my lungs seizing up.

I actually think that the asthma and back issues are what have driven me to continue running for as long as I have. And even with all the of injuries, most of which came through my own stupidity and lack of self-preservation, I’ve always recovered and carried on. They have never strung themselves together in any way that would keep me down for more than 3 weeks.

Cadence-PT-and-PERF-BlueLetters1500x500

Unfortunately, I’m not as young and able to heal as I once was. I talked in my last post about having plantar fasciitis for the second time in my right foot. That stopped me from running completely for 3 weeks and then, at the advice of my physical therapist Charlie, a very slow return. I’m very happy to report that my right foot feels amazing. It’s not completely recovered as I still feel a little fatigue toward the end of 3 mile efforts, but it is less each time out. I have been using a walk run method again suggested by Charlie of 2 min on and 2 min off. This has been extremely effective and I’m maintaining an average around 11 minutes per mile. Given that I walk for a good portion of the run is pretty good. It’s also further pointed out that I have no sense of pace. Some of the runs are well under 8 min/mile and some are around 9:30. And it’s not that the first run cycles are really fast and then they slow down. They seem to be random.

donut-1024x1024 About a week ago I went to Tortoise and Hare for the monthly donut run. I was having a really good run. I was even gaining on one of the faster runners when it felt like someone stabbed me in the calf. Luckily, it was at the end of a run cycle, so I stopped and tried to stretch it on the curb, then walk it off. However, at the next run cycle it was back within a few steps. Did I stop and head back? Hell NO! I adjusted my foot strike to land on my heel and that seemed to help. So, I soldiered on, albeit a little slower. It also felt super awkward. I finished my three miles with a noticeable limp. Later that day, I found myself in my in-law’s pool swimming laps with a 4 and 6-year-old taking turns riding on my back. Nothing like swimming with a moving 40 lbs weight on your back.

Over the next couple of days there was a dull nagging pain, so I decided that I should rest it and took 5 days off until the Thursday Arrowhead loop. Which come to think of it is where the plantar started. Hmmm…

arrowhead-2-1024x1024

Anyway, I was glad to be back running and Coach V even came with Molly in a carrier to walk while we all ran. I intended to take the 3-mile cut of the 4-mile loop, but during the first 2 min run something stabbed my calf again, but this time the pain was more intense. I walked the rest of that run cycle and the next trying to stretch as I was walking. I also decided to turn around at the mile mark and head back. A smarter person would have turned around right away, but I’m not too bright when it comes to injuries.

The new part is that I noticed some bruising around where the pain was. Since no good can come of that I called Charlie and will get it looked at tonight. I fear that he is going to tell me to lay off running for a few weeks again.

The issue is that it’s going to start getting difficult to be built back up for the Swiss Days race and the speed I would like to do that in if I can’t get back to training soon. In the meantime, I now have a carrier for my bike, so I can join the group for rides to try to keep\rebuild my fitness.

Coach V and I have been talking about addiction recently. This have been mostly due to helping a friend who realized that she had a problem and has decided to get some help. Meaning she must move across country. So, we helped her sort through, pack and load her stuff into a U-Haul for the move. We have also talked about the number of endurance runners who have had similar type problems in their lives and how running, in some cases extremely long distances, have helped them manage the addiction and overcome it. There was an interview once where Robert Downy Jr. claimed that he simply replaced one addiction, namely drugs, with another, going to the gym. He apparently will go workout 2 to 3 times a day, sometimes more. Maybe that’s what those runners are doing. Maybe that is kind of what I’m doing. I’ve had a couple of issues in the past. Poker being one of them. I nearly failed out of Purdue because I was playing so much. I never viewed it as an addiction because I was able to decide to quit playing one day. After a letter from Purdue stating that if I didn’t get my grades up they would kick me out and meeting a girl that told me she wouldn’t be interested in someone who failed out of school, I just stopped and didn’t play again for 3 years. And I’ve never played with the frequency or stakes that I used to.

A couple of other things developed after poker that I’m not quite ready to go into on a forum that is as public as this, but there were things that replaced poker. I never thought of them as an addiction, but they could be. I never got involved with any kind of drugs. Not for lack of opportunity, just never interested me. Coach V has suggested that perhaps running is an addiction I have. According to her I get irritable, moody, and jittery if I haven’t run in a few days. I don’t think that I’ve taken it to an unhealthy level, but it does explain some things.

3774_1540223434005

It might be somewhat telling that I’m not scheduled in a road race until the end of July and its driving me a little nuts. I’m scheduled to do a Spartan Stadium Sprint at the Arizona Cardinals Stadium in a couple of weeks with my Chiropractor,

so maybe that will take the edge off a little.

Until then…C-YA!

Injuries and Cautiousness

May 13, 2019May 13, 2019 runningwithnealLeave a comment

Being injured sucks.

Now, I’m sure that seems like an obvious statement but there it is. I’ve been down for almost 3 weeks now with plantar fascitis.

It happened on an unscheduled Monday morning run around the Arrowhead Loop with Jon and Courtney. Sunday Courtney posted on the FB group that they were in town and asked if anyone wanted to join them for a run Monday at 5:30 am. I jumped at the chance to run with them because I hadn’t seen them in awhile.

I was the only person, other than Jon and Courtney, to show up. We started out fairly slow about a 10:30 pace the second mile sped up a little to around a 10 minute pace. At that point Courtney told Jon and I to take off and not worry about staying with her. So, Jon and I took off and went down to a 9:20 pace.

It was in this third mile and chatting with Jon that this run had a shot at negative splits. I’ve never done negative splits on any run of any distance. I was pretty excited by the prospect. So, as we crossed the 3 mile point Jon kicked it up a notch and I went with him.

Jon does a fantastic job of pushing without getting annoying about it. We were cruising along just a little under 9 minute mile pace and I started feeling a twinge in my foot just in front of the heel. Normally I would have stopped and walked a little to feel out what was going on but the prospect of being so close to negative splits for a 4 mile run I pushed on. With about a quarter mile left it was starting to hurt and I changed my gait a little to try to relieve the pain without slowing down. By the time I finished I could barely walk. BUT we got the negative splits finishing the last mile in 9 minutes!

I haven’t been able to run for about a month. I could barely walk the first week and decided that I should get some help with this. Not so much to get through the acute phase but to figure out why it’s happening and prevent the next time.

Cadence-PT-and-PERF-BlueLetters1500x500 So, I decided to set an appointment with Charlie Boeyink at Cadence Physical Therapy. Charlie is a runner and often comes on runs with the EYPAZ group and Tortoise and Hare Running store. I decided that this would be a good idea since he is a runner, so he has a better understanding of the stresses of running and the mechanics involved. Not to mention the mentality of an endurance runner. Namely that we are nuts and go insane when we can’t run.

Charlie has a little different approach to PT than a lot of the other physical therapists that I’ve been to. He doesn’t like the model of seeing the therapist for just a couple of minutes and then getting handed off to a technician who, for the most part, watches you do exercises that you do at home. He is very hands on and looks at more than just the injury to what may have contributed to the injury happening in the first place.

He has also introduced me to a new technique. It involves dry needling and, just to up the game a little, he hooked a TENS unit to two of the needles and started running electricity through it. Dry needling is odd enough on its own and I’ve had that done before, but adding electricity to it is, um….interesting. And I liked it! I liked it a lot actually.

It also seems to have gotten good results. After 3 weeks, I’ve been able to get back to running. Albeit I’m taking it slow and easing back into it, but last Thursday I ran about 2 miles. At Charlie’s advice I ran 2 minutes then walked a minute with very minimal pain. Actually I wouldn’t call it pain as much as mild discomfort, closer to fatigue than pain.

Saturday morning I ran in the Tortoise and Hare Sports 4 mile Ice Cream Run. For this run I did a 2 minute on and 2 minute recovery cycle. This worked very well. Although my pacing on the run portions is all over the place. the first two cycles were 7:52 and 7:47 respectively. Then a couple of 8:30ish, a 8:09, a 9:45 and the last one was 6:04. I have got to find some consistency. Of course this is a similar problem to what I’ve always had. I have no concept of pacing. That is something to work on as I re-train from this injury.

fb_img_1557617252359

The next real race that I’m signed up for is the Swiss Days race at the end of July back in Indiana. I’m hoping that I can be recovered from this injury and able to average 7 minute miles for that race. It would be a return to my high school times in a race that I ran several times when I was in high school. I also will be running with my cousins, as it’s our annual Steiner Gathering.

Berne-Swiss-Days This means that my extremely fast cousin Brad will be there. He mentioned recently coming out of retirement from competitive racing to do one more 5K at speed. He is a sub 18 running and may be even faster than that. My goal is going to be to hang on to him for as long as I can and see if he can pull me into a sub 20.

Currently, I don’t know when my next run is going to be. I’m under orders to report back how the 4 mile run went and wait for instructions. In the mean time I’m going to install a hitch on my car and try to find a used bike carrier.

fb_img_1557617270454

Until next time…C-YA!

Virtual races and Spartans

July 11, 2018July 11, 2018 runningwithneal1 Comment

Wow, so its been a little busy here. Lots to recap so I’ll just get to it.

I have now done 2 virtual runs in the AZ Sunrise series. The first one I did during the 4 mile Arrowhead Loop Run on Thursday morning. It was a pretty good run. finished in 27:22 which is a 8:47 pace. It really helps to have people that you run with on a regular basis to help pace. I pushed pretty hard to stay with the lead group for as long as I could.

A couple weeks later we took a short trip to Seattle. So, with I was up in the cooler weather I did another 5K for the July 7th AZ Sunrise run since I was going to be running a Spartan that day.

36634353_10110320752486218_6331601072200613888_n

Running in Seattle was great. Thanks to Coach V’s years up there she knew some good places to run. She took me to a trail That was a out and back run with only 1 turn that I had to pay attention for. I’m calling it a trail because it was heavy wooded with REALLY tall trees but it was paved so no risk of tripping on roots and rocks. Even though I did it in the afternoon it was beautiful weather for running. Sunny, warm but not what a guy from Arizona or Indiana would call hot. I pushed really hard on this one and was rewarded with a 25:46 finish. Average pace was 8:17 and the first mile was 7:14. I haven’t had a mile split that fast since high school. I looked up where that would have put me if I had ran that in the actual race. I would have been 4th in my age group. I’m pretty excited by that and am very curious to see what will happened in a week and a half at the next one.

On to the Spartan. I ran a Spartan Super back in February. A super is around 8 miles with around 25 obstacles\challenges. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of it. While on the road and trails I’m pretty competitive and have very specific goals that I’m pushing myself to meet I view these kind of runs as just screwing around. I’m just out there to have some fun. The Tough Mudders have more that feel to me. While I do take it seriously, I’m not worried about finishing times and have the most fun when I’m helping others on the course.

Spartan is a little different. Almost everyone I talked with there was taking it very seriously. I was criticized for drinking coffee before the race because “the caffeine will make you muscles need more oxygen while your running”. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that. I’ll need to look into sometime. But, frankly who cares. I know a lot of runners that have a serious coffee problem.

Des Linden in an interview I think with Runner’s World talks about getting a bag of coffee beans to take home from everywhere she goes on vacations. And she won the Boston Marathons during the worst weather conditions in recent memory. She, along with her Husband and another couple run a coffee company, Linden & True Coffee. (https://www.coffeebylt.com/)

Ok, I’ve gone on rants about coffee before so I’ll stop now.

I need a refill anyway.

Anywho…..

This was a Spartan Stadium Sprint which means that it was basically a 5K with 23 obstacles. I had a blast! one 2 obstacles that gave me issues. I can’t climb a rope. I used to be able to but I’ve forgotten how to do it somewhere along the way. and the “multi-rig” which is just swinging from rings suspended by straps. The only issue I had is that the rings where so close to the ground that I could reach them while standing on the ground. So, every time that I swung between rings my feet dragged across the floor.

It took me 1:13:45 to complete. I could have gone a lot faster but since we where winding around the University of Phoenix Stadium I couldn’t tell how far it was between each obstacle or how much more I had left in the run. So, I keep to a moderate jog to conserve my strength. Next time I’ll push harder.

36854064_10110331343441858_3465116486983483392_n

And riding that kind of euphoric, that was pretty easy, feeling I signed up for a Spartan Beast in October. That will give me an extra “Trifecta” medal.

Yes, I know, I have a running for the bling problem.

Tomorrow I will run my 4th Arrowhead Loop in 4 weeks. which means that I get a doughnut keychain. I’m really excited about this.

This weekend should be interesting. I’m on a triathlon team as the swimmer. I haven’t swam seriously since I was in high school and would swim practices with the girls swim team. And I’ve never swam like this in open water. Or worn a wetsuit.

I had a chance at the beginning of the week to go on an open water swim but I got the time wrong. I was told they where meeting at 4:30. I assumed PM, they meant AM. Opps! I’m hoping tomorrow night to go get some laps in at a nearby pool just to see if I remember how to swim.

I haven’t been very good at all with training runs. As I mentioned I’ve been going to the Thursday morning Arrowhead Loop Runs. I also did a workout with Coach V’s trainer in Seattle, Chris Reilly. Great workout but it kicked my butt.

I think that after the fairly intense training that I did for the half I needed the break. Marathon training starts on July 23 and I’ve got a pretty aggressive schedule set up for that.

And now to finish watching England and Croatia! Until next time C-YA!

Camping and Triathlons

June 20, 2018 runningwithnealLeave a comment

fb_img_1528397255735

Time has a tendency to get away from us when we don’t pay attention. Its been a very busy couple of weeks and I have not been the best at sticking to my training plan.

Basically, I haven’t gotten to the plan I wrote about last time at all. But I still managed some runs.

I’ve got in 6 runs over the past two weeks including the second in the AZ Sunrise Series. Several hikes and a short trail run.

We all (Coach V, James, Amelia and I) did a short run for national running day. and then shared some Italian Ice afterward. It was a fun little run sponsored by Tortoise and Hare. They had 2 options, a one mile and a three mile out and back. Since we had the kids with us we just did the 1 mile. It was interesting seeing the different techniques the kids came up with for tackling the distance. James runs intervals. He would go about as fast as he could for a short distance then walk for a little bit. Then repeat the process again. In contrast, Amelia ran slower but didn’t stop, save for a couple of little breaks for water. Amelia also started the quiet determined chant of “we can do it” with about a quarter mile left. They ended up finishing together and neither have had any coaching which made it interesting to watch.

fb_img_1528397237096

The second AZ Sunrise Series race was at the Scottsdale Sports Complex. I was actually a little disappointed with my performance. It was a little slower than the race 2 weeks before by about a minute. 29:30 for the 5K. The main issue that I had was when I stopped at the first water station I choked on the water. Which flared up my asthma and my lungs never did recover. I was also not in the greatest place in my head for racing. Nothing bad just a lot going on and my head was in other places. We were getting ready for a camping trip the coming Monday and my daughter was in town so I was thinking about other things.

I also have been drinking a pre-workout drink, C-4, before the races and I think I’m going to stop doing that. Since I don’t train with it I’m not sure its a great idea. Mostly, I was drinking it because of the caffeine content and easier to drink quickly before the race instead of coffee.

Also, its getting hotter here and I think that its time to switch my race shirt to the sleeveless or tank top.

During the camping trip I went on several hikes with the whole crew. Including a 2.5 mile hike. That I went on a one mile trail run in the middle of. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of distance, BUT, coach V and I had two 3 year-olds and a 5 year-old with us. That’s a pretty good distance for those little legs. But they were troopers and did it. Unfortunately, it was discovered that a camera was left on the trail when we took a small break. So, I ran back about .3 miles to get it and then turned around and ran to catch up. Overall it took me 14:28 to run a mile over some incredibly rough terrain.

Overall very good trip. I wish I could have gotten in a couple of early morning runs but that my fault for not getting up.

For Father’s Day my daughter got me some cool clip on reflector lights for when I run in the dark, some Gatorade chews (daddy candy), and a book on using my stick roller and trigger point ball. She also got me some gear to help when I use my smoker. I used the clips like night and they are very cool.

20180619_215438

And Coach V came with me! I always enjoy when she comes with. It was a slow run but we mostly were analyzing form and establishing a baseline for where she is running.

Tonight we are going to a Good Form running clinic at Tortoise and Hare. I’ll be really interested in what they have to save both for myself and Coach V.

We discussed a very rough training plan to get her going with running again. She is mostly a biker. And as she puts it “Really Hates Running”.

The main reason for her needing to get up to speed as it where is that we are both doing a sprint triathlon in August. It also means that I need to start biking more. Which means I need a better bike. I may have a lead on one I can borrow for a little bit before I buy one.

We are also two-thirds of a relay team for a tri in July. Coach V will be handling the biking duties and I’m going to take on the swimming. I really need to get in a pool and see if I still remember how to swim. I was a really strong swimmer back in high school and I know most of the mechanics of good swim form from my time as the manager of the girls swim team in high school. I’m not overly worried about it but a little practice would be a good thing.

This weekend is the third in the AZ Sunrise series and, unfortunately, I won’t be able to be there. So, I’m taking their virtual option. I plan on doing that tomorrow morning during the Thursday morning Arrowhead Loop Group run. Still trying to decide if I’m going to run in the kilt for that or not.

Hopefully after this weekend my life calms down a little and I can get back to a more normal running schedule. I’ve been lacking motivation a little recently and hope that its just because its been so busy.

Until next time…C-YA!