Sweet Home Kentucky

I made it back to Kentucky in one piece.

Nothing too eventful about the trip, except a gas station that was out of gas. I went to fill up and the gas literally dripped into my tank. After five minutes I had one dollar worth of gas! I noticed lines were actually forming at all the pumps, so I'm assuming that was the case at all the pumps.

Since I was traveling all day, no running or biking happened at all. The plan is to do an ab workout tonight before I hit the sheets, so then I can at least count today worth something!

Tomorrow, though, I'm planning to get out and run 5 miles; the laziness has to come to an end! Also, I'm going to go drop a bunch of money at the bike shop. I'm giving into the suggestion every serious cyclist gives me, and I'm going to get clipless pedals. Supposedly they make pretty much anybody 10% faster just by using them, since you're also pulling up instead of just pushing down.

The only problem is that its really going to increase the chance of me falling on my face. And not only that, when I do fall on my face, I'm going to be going 10% faster when I do it! Don't worry, I'll be sure to post pictures when the inevitable fall eventually happens. Ultimately, though, if I want to be serious about biking I need to get clipless pedals. And in my opinion at least, its better to start developing the technique and muscles for it sooner than later.

In unrelated news, my appetite is still in overdrive from my 2-a-day workouts earlier this week, and I just consumed an entire pizza.

Okay, so I lied a little, I left the burnt crust!

Nic - The prospect of a pacer is making me lean more towards Racine already, even if its not a guarantee!

Nancy - You know, I almost forgot about the bug that was going around my house. I bet you're right, the old immune system was using all my energy to keep it at bay! So far, no symptoms at all other than being tired and I'm away from all the sickies now!

Unscheduled Rest Day

This morning I woke up at 9am with every intent of getting some errands taking care of, running, and heading back to Kentucky. Well, I was pooped. Again.

I got up for a little bit, packed for 30 minutes or so, then went back to bed until 11:30. I'm calling this over training from my really sharp increase in working on this past week or so, and decided just to take today completely off. I still got my errands and packing done, but working out definitely didn't happen at all.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to Kentucky, no matter what. I gotta get back there so I can get my stuff in order before this next semester starts.

I've been looking at my tentative race schedule for 2008, too. I want to do a few half marathons, few sprint triathlons, one marathon, and a half ironman if things all go my way. As always, some spontaneous 5k's will probably appear as long as I stay injury free. Here's the races I'm considering.

02/09/08 - 9 on the 9th - Theres no way I can pass this one up!

04/06/08 - Spirit of St. Louis Half Marathon - Some friends are wanting to run this one, so I'm thinking about heading there to see old friends and tear up the pavement.

04/19/08 - River to River Relay - This was the most fun race I did last year, so I gotta do it again. 8 runners, 80 miles, going mostly non-stop from sunrise to sunset. Its a great way to meet great runners.

05/04/08 - Flying Pig Half Marathon - Everybody is telling me great things about this half marathon. Also, they have a "Pump N' Run" event that looks fun; check it out!

07/20/08 - Spirit of Racine Half Ironman - If I do a half IM, I want it to be late in the summer so I have time to train, but I don't want it to interfere with school. I also want time to do specific training for Chicago. This race just meets those requirements and is fairly close to where I live.

08/10/08 - Greater Cleveland Half Ironman - Same as above, mostly mentioning them due to their logistics.

10/12/08 - Chicago Marathon - I have a bone to pick with this race. I got jipped time-wise last year, and I'm going back to show what I'm made of. Who's with me?!


I'm sure some other races will come up, and some of these will fade away, but I gotta start somewhere and have something to work towards!

Who's ready for a great '08?

The Ups and Downs of 1400 Miles

To drive from Tampa, FL to Boston, MA its 1354 miles, according to Google. However, I have run further than that this year! Right now my yearly mileage is at 1,401 miles, and what a trip it has been. Here are some of the ups and downs:

January: I had just gotten my Nike+ kit and was loving it. I started meeting tons of great people. I was enjoying running a ton with my new found gadget and loved the community of all the encouraging runners! This was the start of my mileage build up. Life was good. I built from 30 to 35 mile per week this month.

February: Who else here was in the mid west this winter? In February was when the ice storm hit that closed the University of Illinois for the first time in 30+ years. There was a tree outside my dorm which normally had branches about 8-10 feet above the side walk. They were touching the side walk because of being weighed down with so much ice. The wind chill was -10 to -20 for a week or two straight. Whatever is a runner to do?

This runner runs. I layered up. I got thick gloves, wore several pairs of socks, and lathered up my face with Vaseline to break the wind on my only exposed skin. The day of the aforementioned snow storm, I ran. I had 10 miles planned, but I only made it 5. I finished up at the indoor track. This is part of what makes me "relentless," I guess. But to me there is something about taking on a storm that shut down the midwest. I remember another run from this brutally cold February where I ran 12 miles in the -20 wind chill. I devised a strategy where I would run into the wind for so long, then run with the wind to warm back up.

During February I built from 35 to 40 miles per week.

March: The mileage build up continues. March was great for running. I got sick at the end, but took a few days off and recovered. I had a lot of big stuff with school this month, including presenting my research to several department chairs, the dean of my department, and the president of the university. Big month! I built from 40 to 46 miles per week this month.

April: I had a craaazy fun relay race this month. 8 runners, 80 miles in a the hilliest part of Illinois! Met some great people who I'm still in touch with. I was wrapping things up and getting ready to graduate college. I built up from 46 to 50 miles per week this month.

May: Graduation, wooo hooooo! Right after graduation I went out for a 15 mile run. After that I celebrated in the only way college students know how! When I got back to my friends place after running, a few (unsober) people there were like "Dude! You're the running guy! I see you EVERYWHERE!"

Later this month, things started to fall apart a little bit. My right knee started feeling funky, and I had a sore spot in one of my Achilles, which felt like my shoe was rubbing strangely. These stuck around for a little bit, but cross training solved the knee problem, and some pads to protect my Achilles solved that problem. I also got my fancy Garmin in May (graduation money rocks)!

June & July: These months went pretty well. I had a problem in my right ankle which forced me to take a week off. It was an over training injury after a weekend walking around Chicago and running 16 miles. I also biked 15 miles to a 5k, then got 2nd place. That day was awesome!

August: Great month for running, except at the end. I moved to Kentucky and met TONS of runners down here! I twisted my ankle at the end of the month, but it healed up real quick. Hey, I'll take it!

September: Here we are! This was a good month, until last weekend. I had my best week of training ever. I was feeling invincible! I made too many mistakes in one week and my body said "settle down!" That week I made the following mistakes: ran on an off day because I felt like it, ran too fast on a rest day, then ran a hard track workout Thursday and a 24 mile run Sunday. All in all, it was too much for my body to handle. Any one of the factors probably wouldn't have pushed me over the edge, but together it resulted in me getting hip checked into the side line.

Now, here am with ice on my hip. Drugged up on Aleve. Am I discouraged? Not at all. Look at this crazy ride I've been on! My hip will heal and I'll be back on the road again. Right now its feeling about as good as it did Saturday morning before my run, so by the time I'm actually running again this weekend, it should be good as new!

If you actually read this whole thing, thanks for reading!

Happy running,

-Doug

New Home, New Runs, New People

Ah, the joys of moving to a new state. Two weeks ago I moved to Kentucky for graduate school at University of Kentucky, and everything associated with it has been going great; especially the running!

The amount of group runs down here is simply amazing, and with just a few switches they all fit my schedule. So far I've done group runs on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. I'm planning to start doing long runs with a group on Saturdays, and just heard about a run on Wednesday morning. If nothing else, all these are definitely turning me into a morning person; most of them finish as the sun comes up!

It isn't only the amount of the group runs, but the quantity of the runners too. Even at 5:30am there will be 15-20 runners out and ready to roll. Some fast, some slow, but all of them are friendly.

It has been great getting out on new routes lately too. Most of the places I ran in Peoria the average person would consider suicide attempts, but I made due with what I had. There aren't as many monster hills here as in Peoria, but all the terrain is rolling, its very rarely flat. Also, nearly every road has either a sidewalk, a large shoulder, or both. All in all running has been much more pleasant here, the only downside has been this nasty heat wave; but the morning runs are mostly alleviating that.

Injury wise, training has been going great. My right ankle was giving me some nagging problems a few weeks ago but has been fine recently. If my long run this Saturday goes well, I'm 95% sure I'll be in the clear for Chicago since this is the first of my 20 milers.

52 days until Chicago!

Happy running,


-Doug