Race to Recovery

Well, no 5k PR yesterday at the Race to Recovery. I finished in 20:28. I think it was just too hot; although, I’m not confident cooler temps would be enough to get me under 20 minutes. Perhaps it was the 25 miles last Saturday. Maybe I’ll try again in the fall. I need to get a few more weeks worth of 400m intervals in to prepare for it.

Next Sunday is the La Luz Trail Run. I really don't know what to expect, but I'm hoping to finish in under 2 hours.

New Plans Etc...

Yesterday morning I ran almost 25 miles and knocked out 140 pushups during the run. That will probably be my last long run until the Germantown 50k on August 23rd. Next weekend I'm running Bret Neylon's Race to Recovery 5k in Brownsburg. Then the following weekend it's off to New Mexico for the La Luz Trail Run.

This week I bought plane tickets, reserved the hotel room, and signed up for the California International Marathon in Sacramento. I'm really excited about it. Of course there is a huge down side to it. The race is on Sunday December 7th which means I won't be able to run Tecumseh this year.

This is Dino our 1 year old Chocolate Lab. Dino just passed his therapy dog certification test. My wife wants to take Dino to work with her. She is a clinical nurse specialist and substance abuse counselor.

Anger Management

Yesterday evening it was too hot to do intervals at the track so I decided to run intervals on the treadmill at the gym. I planned to do 10 three minute intervals with three minute recovery. It wasn’t very cool in the gym either and by the fifth interval I took my shirt off and decided to quit after 6 intervals. Apparently, it’s against to rules to take your shirt off because 30 seconds into the sixth interval a staff member came over and asked me to put my shirt back on. Since I was running at 9 mph I asked if I could wait until I finished this interval. He asked how long that would be. I said two and a half minutes. He said ok. Then with 20 seconds left some other staff dope came over and said I had to put my shirt on now! Man did he piss me off. I’m sure there was steam coming out my ears at that point. Well, no sense in letting all that adrenaline go to waste so I ran four more intervals thus completing the original plan to do 10. Amazing what a little adrenaline will do for you. I didn’t really cool down until long after I left the gym. I really wanted to ask the guy if I had to wear a shirt in the pool too.

Here's a picture of my wife and me at Avon Rib fest. Good food, good friends, good music. My wife's co-worker was the headliner. The first band that played was pretty good too. I think they were called Knee Deep in the Weeds or something like that. They played Just a Gigalo just like Louis Prima. Good stuff.

No New PR, But a First

After I ran a mile warm up in a downpour complete with thunder and lightning the race director cancelled the Unite 2 Fight 5k so no new PR. My wife and I drove home, had a cup of coffee and then went to a yoga class. There's another 5k in a couple weeks, Race to Recovery. Should be a nice flat course, maybe I'll try there.

On Sunday evening I went to my favorite local park to try out my new trail shoes. The humidity was way down and it wasn’t too hot so I ran almost 17 miles. The Vasque Velocity shoes performed well. Compared to my Montrail Continental Divides the Vasque shoes almost feel like I’m running barefoot. I usually run at this park first thing in the morning. You don’t see many people who aren’t also running. It’s a different place in the afternoon, lots of day hikers and picnickers. Well, I encountered a first there this afternoon. Not far off the trail I noticed a young couple leaning up against a tree. I can’t say for sure what they were doing, but the girls shorts were down around here knees.

Time Keeps on Slippin’

Where does the time go? I can’t believe it’s been a month already since my last post. I didn’t run 360 at Muscatatuck July 5^th. I had to go to a picnic with my wife instead. Probably just as well I didn’t because I barely finished the 15 mile run that morning anyway. Although on that 15 miler and the 20 miler the weekend before I finally worked some pushups into the run, something I’ve been thinking about doing for awhile now. On the 20 miler I did 140 pushups and on the 15 I did 100 pushups. The pushups kick the workout up a notch, as Emeril would say, bam!

I bought a pair of Vasque Velocity trail shoes from sierratradingpost.com. I haven’t taken them for a test run yet, but they feel very good on my feet. If you haven't purchased anything from Sierra Trading Post you need to check them out. I’ve been buying all sorts of stuff from them for 6 or 7 years or more and I’ve never been disappointed and on several occasions their service has exceeded my expectations.

This Saturday I’m running a 5k in downtown Indy. It’s a little shorter than I normally run, but my wife is running so I’m doing it to support her. It should be a very flat and fast course so I’m hoping to finish under 20 minutes and break a 16 year old PR.