32 posts tagged “why run”
What can I say... It's been eons since I last posted here and this will only be a "here's what I've been doing" update, but I figured it's better than remaining off the radar.
I'm still setting up my "new" blog. With Amanda and I moving our old Why Dogs? blog to 2 Feet 4 Paws, I was left with just Why Run? and Vox. One problem with Vox is that it's more of a "social" service than a "publishing" one, and Facebook works better as the former. Vox is still cool as a personal blog for stuff like I'm doing right here, so I'm going to re-start my original havybeaks blog on Blogger as a platform for my "articles" on various topics like running, flying, etc. Problem is, I'm having trouble finding time to write good articles...
Last week I went on a business trip to Cincinnati on short notice and I still don't have a company laptop yet so during my three days in Cincy I had no email access. Ten years ago that would be no big deal but next time I'm sent somewhere, I better be connected with more than a pad of paper! Not only did it limit my contributions during the meetings, it also prevented me from keeping pace with my outside-of-work life...
Mach League, the fantasy baseball league that I run, is way behind schedule. Three weeks ago was our monthly stat update that happens every four weeks, so I'm close to getting lapped by my own procrastination. Unfortunately, my title of "League President" is by definition a *fantasy* job, which means that my real jobs of "engineer" and "pet store owner" take precedence...
2 Feet 4 Paws is still chugging along thanks to Amanda and we're *still* trying to re-arrange the store layout to fit more products. Finding a means to display items that a) is attractive, b) is cheap, and c) can use the odd-shaped and small space that we have has been a challenge. I think we know what to do now, though...
However, I don't know what to do about running, specifically my long-time goal of running the 100K in early August. Believe it or not my right hamstring is STILL not 100% and I'm having doubts that a) I can put in enough training to do more than hike 100K, or b) my hamstring can last for 100K. It's not that I can't run on it, in fact I can maintain a 9:00 pace without problems, but going under 8:00 per mile is too fast for the hammy. Running on back-to-back days is not feasible yet so my training consists of a weekend long run plus one mid-week short run; that's it. Plus, the long runs tend to wear out the hamstring so I've replaced a couple long runs with long bike rides...
Cycling is a lot more fun with a bike computer - simply having a way to track distance and time is such a luxury! It's better than using mapmyrun every time, especially when my two long rides were 37 and 40 miles each. Ever since middle school I've wanted a pair of inline skates and I may have convinced Amanda to finally let me buy some. Now I'm going to hear more of her begging for a new digital SLR but I've still got that kayak up my sleeve that I've been pining for so I can match her beg-for-beg. :) Right now I'm leaning towards the K2 Moto 90...
My hope is that they'll be an effective cross-training tool. Cycling is great but it's hard to get my HR above 150 without burning out the quads in short order. One odd thing about the hamstring is that heavy impact makes it sore, e.g. stomping on a shovel to dig dirt. Running downhill also stresses the hammy, perhaps due to impact, perhaps due to higher turnover? I don't get it, but hopefully skating falls aerobically between cycling and running...
Viruses can affect aerobic performance; after my bad case of the flu in February I somehow caught a fever in April - rarely have I ever been sick twice a year. Both times my resting HR went up to around 64 from it's usual 54; in fact it had only gone back to 58 by the time I got sick a second time. Right now I'm at 59...
Viruses also afflict computers and I spent countless hours the past two nights fixing Amanda's computer. Some kind of spyware got on board and fooled SBC/Yahoo/AT&T/insert-dot-com-merger-name-here (they provide our DSL service which includes anti-spy and anti-virus). The anti-spy found most of the evil files but not all (yes, the definitions were up to date) and one would remain hidden and re-install the malware just minutes after deleting it. I finally killed it by downloading Microsoft's "malicious software tool" which found just one file, but it was that pesky installer that the others couldn't nab. So far so good...
I didn't want to end on a sickly note so I saved the best for last. While in Cincinnati I got to visit our friends Kim and Tony who live just minutes from the hotel where I stayed. They treated me to a home-grilled dinner and even some fancy ice cream (it's a famous Cincinnati brand but I forgot the name). I got to meet their new daughter Kate for the first time, who only likes wearing winter boots inside the house during summer. :) After Kate went to bed we shared some great conversation about baseball, airplanes, and of course dogs...
I also met for the first time their two golden retrievers, Zeke and Nellie, who are apparently cut from the same nutty cloth as Haven and Beacon. Nellie is the boss and likes to play-fight with Zeke by literally sitting on his head! I brought a couple toys for them from our store and Nellie promptly stole Zeke's toy but once he got it back he didn't set it down again, not for one second! By the time I left a few hours later he was falling asleep with the plush salamander still safely in his mouth.
A quick update of what I've been up to, set to a "wishful" theme...
1) The simulation baseball league that I run had its annual draft last Friday evening via telecon. Each of the eight members lives in a different state/province (except for two of us in Michigan) - MI, OH, IN, MA, NC, AZ, and ONT. How did we all meet? Well, not all of us have met, except by phone and email! I wish that someday we could all get together in person for the draft like we did in 1993.
2) The next morning I ran my first running event of the year, the Irish Jig 5K. While I wish my hamstring were healed enough that I could've actually raced instead of doing a "training run", I still had a lot of fun by carrying a camera and taking photos during the race.
3) I wish my hamstring would heal more quickly. Nevertheless, it's getting better; in fact it was feeling surprisingly good after the Irish Jig. I ran 5.6 miles Tuesday and 3.2 yesterday and so far, so good.
4) During PT for my hamstring while the trainer was away waiting for the heat pack to warm up my leg, I would alleviate my boredom by grabbing his copy of Netter's Orthopaedic Atlas and flipping through the pages. I was hooked! I'd make great use of a book like that to help understand anatomy, or better yet, I wish I had the newer Thieme Atlas.
5) As long as I'm window shopping, I wish my feet could have a pair of Simple Shoes.
For a while now I've been trying to figure out the best long-term plan for my blogging, especially with regards to incorporating a blog as part of 2 Feet 4 Paws. Can any of you offer me some advice? Currently I write the following blogs:
Why Run - all about running
Why Dogs - all about dogs
Running with Dogs - my blog here on Vox mostly about dogs and running, but any topic is fair game
Now that we have 2 Feet 4 Paws, Amanda and I would like a blog associated with that website. Right now I have a link there to Why Dogs for the sake of doing something. Ideally we'd like any blog associated with 2 Feet 4 Paws to be more than what Why Dogs is now; we'd like to discuss events such as food drives, do some product reviews, as well as write articles such as already appear on Why Dogs.
How should we do that?
- Leave things as is and start adding content specific to 2 Feet 4 Paws on the Why Dogs blog.
- Create a new blog called "2 Feet 4 Paws" on a blog service like Blogger or Wordpress and shut down Why Dogs.
- Use option #1 or #2 above but associate the blog with the 2feet-4paws.com domain.
- Use Joomla (the content mgmt system for the 2 Feet 4 Paws website) to generate a blog-type page within the 2feet-4paws.com domain.
For its part Joomla does include a means to post news/blog entries, but it doesn't offer widgets or ease of use with multimedia. Along those lines, how does Blogger compare to Wordpress or TypePad, etc?
Second to all of that, where does my own blogging fit in? I've thought about expanding Why Run to include any topics I want to write about. What I've found due to my recent injury is that when I'm not running much, it's difficult to motivate to write about running. I have a couple half-written articles for Why Run that I can't seem to finish; however, I'd love to write about aviation, baseball, politics, history, etc, much like I've done here on Vox.
The problem with Why Run is that if I can't write often enough about running, the blog doesn't stay "fresh" due to the lack of frequency and that's not fair to readers of the blog. However, would a topic-generic blog be worth reading compared to a topic-specific one?
I've toyed with the idea of creating (or converting Why Run into) a generic blog where I write "articles" (or maybe "essays" is a better term?) that are well researched and longer as opposed to a "here's what I did this week" type of thing. That way I should, in theory, be able to write *something* at least once a week even if I'm not running much. In that case I would use Vox as a means to keep friends and family posted on life's happenings as well as the fun stuff such as QOTDs, memes, quiz results, etc.
For reference, Why Run was inspired by both the runner-centric Scott Dunlap's blog and the baseball-specific Aaron Gleeman's blog, while Phillip Greenspun's blog got me thinking about the flexibility of a more generic scope.
One important point is that I don't want to add another blog to the mix - it's very difficult to generate fresh content for three blogs (not to mention writing articles for Itchmo) and simply adding a 2 Feet 4 Paws blog would be too much. That's why it's tempting to keep the number at three:
1) a blog for 2 Feet 4 Paws with content about store events, products, and general dog and cat info
2) a blog for my interests open to anything, but mostly about running, aviation and baseball
3) a blog about me and my life just for fun and updates
Is that a good idea? Basically the first two would attempt to be "professional" writing while the third is very informal.
The important thing to me is that for whatever reason, I've been wanting to do blog-type writing since before "blog" was a word. Back in college (late 1990's) on my university homepage I wrote regularly about my fantasy baseball league, back in the days where I composed directly into HTML using Notepad. When Blogger came out I thought about a product review blog since I love being analytical and explanatory, but I was too busy finding a real job and falling in love (with Amanda, not with the job!) to take it further. Suffice it to say I enjoy research and writing in a public forum so maybe I should've been a reporter, but for now blogging will have to do. :)
Thanks in advance for any feedback, great or small!
Amazingly it was in the mid 40's yesterday - it felt like spring! Don't worry, it won't go to my head - we're supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight.
I took advantage of the spring-like air and brought the dogs along on a mini hiking excursion at our usual spot by the river. There was still plenty of snow on the ground but it was wet and slick; there was also thick ice on the shore extending a bit into the water. Early on Haven and Beacon learned that the edge of the ice might break under their weight, but they didn't seem to mind getting their paws dipped in the icy water.
To my surprise, they didn't even mind swimming! Beacon got so impatient for me to throw something for him to fetch (I wasn't planning to take them swimming) that he did his best to convey his desires by jumping right into the freezing river! He stood there and waited, and when I wasn't able to find a stick fast enough he swam over to an approaching ice floe and bit off a big chunk of ice to bring back to me as his prize. When Haven saw what he had she jumped in to "help" him carry the ice chunk.
If they were going to swim, I decided to hike up and over the big hill, on the backside of which is a nice access point to the river with some shallow areas. Near the top of the hill I heard a loud trill and looked up to see a bald eagle launch from a tree and glide down out of view along the river! Often times when spotting a bald eagle it's hard to be sure - at a distance the long wingspan could be an osprey or even a rough-legged hawk. But this time there was no doubt - it was so close to me that not only were the tell-tale white head and tail evident, but I could see the yellow beak and feet and even distinguish the outlines of feathers!
For some reason it reminded me of the lines from Solsbury Hill: "Climbing up on Solsbury Hill... an eagle flew out of the night... he was something to observe... came in close I heard a voice..." Well, everything but the name of the hill, it was daytime, and I didn't hear any voices. :)
Today I went running for the first time in almost two weeks thanks to my bout with the flu. It was just 2.5 miles on the treadmill but it felt good to run again. Clearly the sickness took a toll - not only was my resting HR unusually high at 63 today, but my HR during the run was 10-20 bpm above normal for the slow 9:30-10:00 pace.
When I finished physical therapy over a week ago, my trainer and I concluded that the hamstring was about 90% healed. Good news indeed, but in the days since it seems like things have regressed slightly, say 85%. That's not much, but any negative trend is cause for concern.
Then it hit me - I've been doing my running on trails in deep snow. Hilly, off-road terrain is difficult enough without slogging through a foot of snow in chilly weather, and it may have been too much stress for my hamstring given its condition.
Yeah, I know... DUH. I should've known better but live and learn.
Today I hit the treadmill indoors where the the air is warm and the surface is flat and unobstructed. What a difference! The first mile was conservative at a 10:00 pace, then I upped it to 9:45 for mile 2, then 9:30 for mile 3. No problems! I decided to cautiously test my hamstring and began ramping up the speed in small increments during mile 4, promising myself I would go back down if I felt ANY hint of tightness.
By the time I hit 4 miles I was running an 8:00 pace and the hamstring felt great! Staying conservative I made that my limit and held the 8:00 for half a mile before running the last 0.5 at a 10:00 pace, resulting in 5.0 miles in 47:24. Very encouraging!
Best of all, no stiffness or soreness at all in the three hours since the run. Given these results, I might have to resign myself to doing lots of 'mill work until the weather warms up. The extended forecast shows no temperatures over 30 degrees for the next week and a half, so I might be waiting a while. If that means my hamstring will be 100% by springtime, then it's worth it.
The other encouraging news is that my HR was 140-150 at the 9:30-10:00 paces, and stayed at 160 for most of the faster paces until the half mile at 8:00, when I topped out at 170. That's pretty much where I was before the injury, so aerobically I haven't lost much fitness at all. My resting HR earlier today was 56, down from the 60 it reached during the nadir of my non-running but not quite the 54 that was normal before the injury.
Boy did it feel awesome to move my legs at a 8:00 pace! I can't wait to run a 6:00 pace again, even if it's only for a minute.
Our political system is a good one, but one of the major drawbacks is that it encourages voters to vote against a candidate as much as they do for someone. Keeping that in mind, some thoughts on the elections...
A) I don't know anyone who hates Barack Obama, but I know many people who really hate Hillary Clinton. I'm not sure why. Most of those folks are conservatives but a few of them are liberal.
B) John Edwards never had a chance at the party nomination; the last thing anyone wants is another John Kerry, i.e. someone who could lose an election against one of the most disliked incumbents ever.
C) Mike Huckabee has a slim shot at the party nod, but wouldn't stand a chance facing off against any Democratic candidate. Right now the nation doesn't want (and couldn't afford) the polarizing effect of another President who blurs the line between church and state.
D) Mitt Romney probably wouldn't win, either. Conservatives aren't evil, but they overplayed their hand during the first six years of Bush Jr. and alienated a lot of moderates. Romney is trying to win the nomination by portraying himself as a poster boy conservative and that would haunt him when facing any Democrat.
E) John McCain is the Republican's best bet. After eight years of extremism moderates should have strong appeal. Party-mates are trying to brand him as a non-Republican, which would really help him in the Presidential race should he win the nomination.
F) Based on (A) and (E), I don't think Clinton could defeat McCain. Both are career politicians so neither can play the "experience" card. Conservatives will vote Republican and liberals will vote Democrat, but the moderates would avoid Clinton in favor of the "non-Republican conservative" McCain.
G) Can Obama defeat McCain? Unlike all of my above over-confident generalizations, I don't have any feeling as to how an Obama-McCain contest would play out. Obama brings a fresh perspective and hence a genuine air of optimism for change, but is that enough against an experienced moderate?
While all of the candidates are vying for some electoral traction without alienating any voters, runners might better appreciate "getting screwed" in a pair of winter shoes. :)
I got out for a great run tonight despite the 12 degree temperature. I ran 5.6 miles on the trails in just over an hour, my first hour+ run since early October 2007! My hamstring is fine right now so it must be close to fully healed. My lungs better stop slacking off or else the legs will be ahead of them again soon!
I had the trails to myself; perhaps the cold weather kept others at home? Three layers of clothing kept me warm while the trees helped block the wind. On the trails my footprints weren't lonely - there were some tracks to pique my interest such as dogs, deer, and then... a coyote! I never got to see it, though - that would've been cool!
I didn't have to wait long to resume running! On January 2nd the PT cleared me to resume running, although he stressed taking it easy. I had hoped to run that day but he worked my leg over so much during training - squats, lunges onto an unstable pad, curls, and lots of stretching - that I was too sore to risk running on the 2nd.
So I ran on the 3rd! It was cold and icy so I wore my screw shoes and departed from the Critter Cottage for a slow, 2.8 mile run. The shoes worked great... my legs, not so much. Happily my hamstring felt fine, but the rest of my body wasn't used to running after a month+ layoff. I've only gained five pounds but I felt heavy. Still, it also felt natural and it seemed like I could've run more than twice that distance if I wanted to push things.
After a few days off to ensure a good recovery for my legs, I ran again on the 7th. I woke up to see the thermometer reading 55 degrees and it was still dark out! I went for a leisurely 2-miler in the misting rain and so far, so good for the hamstring.
Not wanting to miss the warm weather I went for another run the next day. The forecast called for falling temps throughout the night so I laced it up after dark that evening just before the cold weather moved in. It was 55 degrees again, and I figured my leg would prefer warm temps and besides, I'd given it 36 hours of rest.
Haven begged hard enough that I took her with me. We got all decked out in our night lights and set out to conquer the neighborhood. We returned triumphantly after 3 miles of running, having enjoyed the steady rain and peaceful darkness. I did panic a little bit when my hamstring felt tight at 2.5 miles but it relaxed again within a couple minutes and it hasn't shown signs of problems. However to be cautious I haven't run since then, and I'll be going to PT today for a check up.
Hopefully sometime this weekend I can add to my 2008 mileage. Speaking of which, if you're looking for a running log spreadsheet to track your miles this year, look no further.
I can hardly believe that I didn't run at all in December - the first time I've missed an entire month since I started running January 1st, 2004. It's frustrating but hopefully this layoff will fix my hamstring and prevent a recurrence. If you find long lists of statistics to be boring, you can read my brief 2007 running summary. While these stats are posted on Why Run? I've also included them here - the breakdown of my running for 2007, by the numbers:
1018.5 total miles
207 runs
156 hours
4.92 miles average per run
13 races
7 5K road
2 5M trail
1 5K trail with Haven
1 4M road with Haven and Beacon
1 10K road
1 26.2M trail marathon
788.9 miles on the roads
229.6 miles on the trails
193.2 pounds average weight
56 bpm typical resting heart rate
181.7 miles running with Haven
85.3 miles running with Beacon
53.0 of the above miles running with Haven and Beacon together
4.3 miles running with foster dogs
218.4 miles running with dogs
51 runs with Haven
24 runs with Beacon
14 of the above runs were with Haven and Beacon together
2 runs with foster dogs, Raven and Reese
63 total runs with at least one dog
30% of all runs were with a dog
Congratulations if you've scrolled down this far and actually enjoyed reading the stats. The dogs will appreciate your effort since I'm now going to share their own personal numbers, which also include hikes and other walks that I didn't include in my running tally. Note that "swimming" means time spent playing fetch in water or accompanying Amanda and I while we waded in the river.
Haven
327.7 miles total
107.7 miles on leash
220.0 miles off leash
92 outings
65 hours total
9.9 hours swimming
Beacon
226.2 miles total
65.6 miles on leash
160.7 miles off leash
74 outings
52 hours total
15.8 hours swimming
Foster Dogs
7 of our 17 foster dogs went running - Amber, Raven, Honey, Reese, Betty, Annie, Teddy
51.3 miles total
18.8 miles on leash
32.5 miles off leash
16 outings
14 hours total
no significant swimming
If you're wondering why Haven racked up 100 more miles than Beacon, there are two main reasons:
1) Beacon likes running, Haven LOVES running. However, Beacon makes up for it with almost 6 more hours of swimming because while Haven likes fetch, Beacon LOVES fetch.
2) Beacon's pads become sore rather easily and there are several occasions where Haven is taken for a run in place of Beacon because his paws are still recovering. We think the cause is a combination of Beacon's naturally thin pads and his somewhat stiff-legged gait; in comparison Haven is a very smooth and easy runner.
Yes, I love running with dogs!
My leg is getting better - I went to physical therapy yesterday and let me just say that if you've never had a trainer massage your hamstring by using their elbow with his full weight behind it, then you've never had a deep tissue massage. Amazingly I was still able to walk after the session!
A week ago I wrote on Vox about how children thinking of charities is my favorite part of the holidays. A recent event where a boy lost his life trying to save his dog inspired me to pen an article on Itchmo about how much kids can love their pets. I'm sure many of you can relate or even have similar stories - hopefully you will share them. Several Itchmo readers have already contributed some great comments. (While you're there you may want to see what else I've written at Itchmo this year.)
To avoid ending on a such a pensive note, I'll mention my favorite fictional boy-and-his-dog: Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Sometime in the next few days Amanda and I will watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and one of funniest scenes in the movie is the Peanuts Dance. I'll even turn on some tunes to help you get into the mood:
Amanda says that I dance like the boy in the orange shirt...
