Posts Tagged ‘Daily Mile’

Christmas seemed to come and go so fast last month and I completely forgot to post about some great running gifts I received.

It all started with the Daily Mile Secret Santa when I received a very cool and reversible New Balance skull cap.

It turns out that Daily Mile co-founder Kelly Korevec drew my name. I put my new cap to use the very next day and have already worn it several times.

On Christmas morning I posted a fuzzy photo to Twitter with a pile of my running-related gifts.

Pictured below are Swiftwick arm sleeves, Brooks shorts, Brooks Nightlift Arm/Leg Bands and Brooks gloves from my mom; and a Brooks Nightlife Infiniti jacket from my mother-in-law:

In addition to some great family time and my son being disappointed that Santa was not sitting in the living room that morning, Christmas was topped off with a nice, quiet 4-mile run. I believe that Christmas Day is the perfect day to run — it’s a great gift to give myself a simple run with no pressure on time, distance or pace.

Only 356 days until the next Christmas!

I’ve said a few times how I’m taking a different approach to training for the Baltimore Marathon, but until today that didn’t mean much. With additional cross training in the past six months, that’s one aspect of being different, but shouldn’t I have been doing that all along?

At work, a group of four of us are committing to doing core work Tuesdays and Thursdays. Just this week we had a session with a personal trainer to teach us a few moves. Those two days are a big commitment to make compared to what I’ve done in any other training session. If we can stick together and be consistent with this, the benefits to my running are things that I can’t wait to see.

My philosophy behind the “non-plan plan” will continue, as I already wrote about, but I’m putting more work into it this year. I’ve stared blankly a lot at a spreadsheet I’ve made to get me through the next four months, but I’m excited about plugging numbers into it.

Very soon the next 4 weeks will be plotted out with my long run and a small range of miles I want to hit those weeks. Toward the end of that 4-week cycle, I’ll map out the next 4 weeks. It’s also worth noting that I’m counting race week as Week 0 – to me race week is not training week. It’s performance week. There’s nothing left to train for that week.

Last year I credited using Daily Mile with helping me keep track of things. While I’ll continue to log my miles there, this spreadsheet will help me in seeing what is really happening week to week and, I think, give me a better sense of what I need to do long-range rather than just focus on the week at hand. (If you’re interested in this spreadsheet, send me a message via my Contact page. The formatting is already in place.)

I’ve also made a change to my Garmin by activating the auto-lap function. To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of the auto lap – I think I denounced it on Twitter as micromanaging runs just a few weeks ago – but as I’ve done a few progressive runs lately, I want to test it for a few weeks to analyze my runs more. Last year I got very content with running just to run at one pace and didn’t analyze things too much.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I want to post more maps of my runs with the elevation profiles and I think using the auto lap function will help when I need to look at a run that went well or bad.

In simpler terms, I want training for the Baltimore Marathon to be more visual. When things are going well, I want to know why, just as much as I want to know why things are going bad. I think making these changes will only enhance the next several months and beyond no matter what happens.

This week I finally got an email about my Baltimore Marathon registration. While I knew my money had been processed, my paper copy for my spur-of-the-moment registration in April was sitting on a shelf somewhere.

Now that I’m officially official, I have 129 days to go before marathon No. 3. Really? That’s it? Where is the time going this year? Every time I think my injury issues were just a few weeks ago, I look at my Daily Mile training profile and see this:

These past 15 weeks have been so consistent and mostly pain free, so it’s time I get serious about Baltimore. My official stance on flipping the mental switch to training is to start on my birthday in a couple of weeks, which will mark 16 weeks and 1 day to go.

Any time someone asks me what “plan” I’m following, I realize that I haven’t seriously looked at marathon training plans since last summer. I executed a non-plan plan so well, up until the end, that I’m going to do it again. I’m going to look at as many training plans as possible, map out my long runs on what I think works for me, give myself a range of mileage at every 4-week interval based on the various plans and what’s working for me at the time, and then hope for the best.

It’s all about making a plan that works for me with flexibility built in. I’ve done this for most of my half marathons and it has always worked well. It has to work this time for the marathon.

This year I fully intend to approach things differently – I need to incorporate a speed workout in the middle of the week; I need to do longer runs a bit faster and more goal-oriented; and I will continue to cross train with core work and push-ups – I may even break out my bike or do other things at my gym at work once a week.

I am pretty excited about this. The spontaneous signing up in April certainly helped. When I did Richmond last year, I signed up so far in advance that I had a year to think about it. By signing up when I wasn’t confident that I could do it has kept me focused in the past couple of months. Now it’s time for that focus to continue.

In the mid-1990s when I ran some track in high school and then from 2004 to mid-2006, I didn’t worry about what shoes I wore. I would try on a few pairs and buy what was the most comfortable and economical. Then I joined a training group in the summer of 2006 and got what I thought was an education on shoes.

Don’t get me wrong — I learned a lot about shoes and myself that summer, but it’s also easy to trace my steps back to that moment and see a pattern. My first injury happened at the end of a training cycle that summer. Could it have been my increased mileage over time? Maybe, but in hindsight I know that the mileage buildup wasn’t drastic. Could it have been the change in shoes? Possibly, but it wasn’t like the injury happened right away in those shoes.

This is one of my Brooks Adrenaline from a couple of years ago.

Fast forward a few years after battling plantar faciitis, going through different shoes — mainly the Asics 2100 series line and Brooks Adrenaline, both stability shoes — and I got a different answer at a race expo at the end of summer 2009 (I first wrote about these shoes here).

Simply put, the shoes I had been wearing may have been too much for my feet. The Brooks Ravenna was still a stability shoe, but just barely. I then strung together my longest injury-free streak since I first got fitted for shoes.

The story of my most recent injury isn’t one I need to rehash, but as I slowly build a base and prepare for marathon training again, I’m analyzing everything. I attribute most of my recent trouble to sloppy running — poor form, not doing enough cross training, etc. Perhaps those are things I’ve always done that led to previous problems. But as I string together a solid couple of months or so, I can’t help but still wonder — do I need to do something about my shoes?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but haven’t been able to find the right words until this week. I’ve been rotating two pairs of shoes of the same model for a year and a half — it definitely helps increase my mileage, I think. I recently started to wonder if I should rotate two models of shoes though. I see so many of my Daily Mile friends doing it, but no one really explained why.

Then, this week, I read this post from Fitz over on Strength Running who discusses this very topic. In a response to my comment, Fitz credits Pete at Runblogger for discussing this subject as well. (Both blogs are great, by the way, so add them to your blogroll/reader. You’ll learn a lot from them.) In reading Fitz’s post I realized what my “problem” may be — I’ve learned this certain way to think about shoes and gotten in my head what I “need.” Yes, I do need good shoes, but do I need just one model?

Despite working on my form, always running on hills by default and mixing up the types of runs I do, the fact remains that running is a repetitive motion. Eventually my body is going to get used to all that and, very likely, have some sort of injury. That’s not negative thinking — it’s the truth.

But looking at my friends on Daily Mile who rotate different types of shoes, there’s a pattern — they remain free of major injuries.

All this brings me to present day and what I did yesterday — for the first time in 5 years, I tried on a shoe that didn’t have “stability” labeled in front of it. I was in a chain store, so I didn’t feel guilty about just trying on a pair, and didn’t have a salesman try to talk to me about why or why not I “needed” a certain shoe.

I tried on a pair of Brooks Ghost 3, a “neutral” shoe. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this shoe and my trying-on test didn’t disappoint. They were very comfortable. I also tried on one shoe while wearing a retired running shoe to see if I could feel the difference. There wasn’t much.

As with any shoe, though, the true test doesn’t come until there are several runs in them, which is unfortunately impossible with any shoe.

Last night I posted on Twitter and Daily Mile a question about making the switch from stability to neutral and I got no reasons not to do it. In fact, several people have made the switch with no issues.

So why am I writing all this? I’ve already answered that — I’ve learned a certain thing about shoes that I can’t get out of my head. For a while with my Ravennas I’ve had the “if it ain’t broke” mentality, but an injury proves that something — perhaps several things — is broke. I’ve worked on everything else without even thinking about my shoes, which is a mistake. I’m not going to get rid of my Ravennas, but perhaps it is time to mix it up.

If you’ve ever switched types of shoes, or have any advice on this subject, I’d love to hear it.

• It was the first run of at least 7 miles, minus the Richmond Marathon, since I did 7.9 miles Oct. 23. Going more than a half year between 7-mile runs seems bizarre. It’s going to feel even better hitting double digits in late June/early July.
• This run was the second straight week, and three out of four weeks, getting to 20 miles for the week.
• The biggest surprise came when I looked my Daily Mile profile and saw that I had logged more than 300 miles for the year. While I had logged a few walking miles, I didn’t think I was at 300 running miles just yet. No way. But to my surprise I am — 301.3 miles. As much as I like to take photos on long runs or Tweet on a run, I didn’t do that today. To have started the year off at such low mileage and to gradually build my base up, I couldn’t be happier to be at 300 miles at this point in the year.

Brandon on a vacation in mid-2009.

Having gone through a weight-loss journey, I love finding runners who have also lost weight. Sometime in the past year I came across Brandon’s blog, A Healthy Dad. I also follow him on Twitter and stay up to date with his workouts on Daily Mile.

In December 2009, Brandon was only 10 pounds away from 300 pounds; on Jan. 1, 2010, he started his blog detailing his journey.

All he’s done since then is lose about 90 pounds and became a marathoner in December. You read that right — in less than a year from when he first started running, he ran a marathon. Similar to what I went through, though, he has dealt with an ITB injury. Instead of giving up, he’s coming back smarter and stronger.

But enough about what I think. Meet the 29-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska. (Also, be sure to check out the Q&A he did with me today on his site.)

You haven’t been running long, but if you knew then (when you started) what you know now, would you change anything?
I don’t know that I’d change anything, per se, but I would remind myself to enjoy myself, and to maybe slow things down a bit. I’m still relatively young, and have plenty of good running years left in me.

I ran my first marathon after only 8 months of running, and while I don’t regret that decision, I’m sure it played a significant role in my injury.

What’s your favorite running memory?
I’m going to have to go with finishing my first half marathon in August 2010. This was my first “major” race, and my whole family was there to cheer me on at the end. Overall it was just a really great race. It’s run on some very scenic paths through Anchorage, and finishes right in the middle of downtown.

At that point I hadn’t really learned much about fueling during a run, and I remember feeling pretty drained for the last mile or two. I learned a lot about running – and myself – that day. And I was pretty pleased with my 2:05 finish too!

What are you currently training for and what goals do you have for that?
Right now I’m training for the Mayor’s Marathon here in Anchorage on June 18. I originally signed up for this race back in December, before I got injured, and my goal then was to go sub-4 (I had just finished my first marathon in early December in 4:25). Coming off this injury, I’ve been reluctant to add much speedwork back into my runs. Maybe it’s just me being scared or paranoid, but one thing I learned from this injury is that I really don’t want to get injured like that again. I’ve been getting my miles in, steadily increasing my mileage each week (respecting that 10 percent rule!), but I really haven’t been pushing my pace too much.

I also know there’s a lot more hills in this race than there were in my first marathon in Las Vegas, which was pretty much as flat of a course as you can get. Of course I’d like to do well this time around and beat my previous time, but I’ve got another marathon in the fall that I think I’ll wait to set my sights on for that sub-4.

Brandon after his first half marathon in August 2010.

What’s one piece of advice you like to give?
If you’re interested in running, or just starting out, start slow. I think so many people get discouraged with running because in their heads, they want to just head out the door and run 5 miles on day one. If you’ve never run before, mostly likely you won’t be able to do that (without hurting yourself, anyways). I’d recommend using a program like Couch to 5k to help you get started, which is exactly what I did. It starts you out very slowly, with lots of walking breaks at first, and gradually builds you up to more and more running.

How has your healthier lifestyle impacted your family?
I like to think that it’s had a very large impact on my family. Whereas before, an evening after work commonly would have been spent in front of the TV, these days we’ll often go for a walk or a run together, usually with me pushing the jogging stroller with the kids. After seeing my success with it, my wife went through the Couch to 5k program too. She’s told me numerous times she has no interest in doing any sort of long distance running, but she gets out there for 30-40 minutes three times a week, which I think is great.

The biggest impact that I hope my healthier lifestyle has is on my two kids. They’re only 3 and 1 right now, but I hope that as they grow up in a house where eating healthy and being active is normal, that those things will rub off on them. My son already talks about wanting to run with me, and when we go out for walks as a family, the two of us always “race” home the last 100 feet or so. So I think it’s already starting to work.

What’s one non-running thing that people may be surprised to know about you?
I own two classic trucks. The first is a 1951 Ford that I restored with my dad. The story of why I chose “this” truck specifically to restore is kind of funny. If you remember the part in the movie “Forrest Gump,” when he’s being chased down an old country road by a truck full of teenagers, that’s this truck. While most people were watching and enjoying the movie, I was thinking “that’s a really cool looking truck, I want to own one of those some day.”

The second truck is a 1926 Model T that my grandfather restored. My grandfather has a bit of a retirement hobby of restoring classic cars, and has done five or six of them at this point. A few years ago, he was actually running out of room to store them, so he offered this one to me, which was the first that he had ever restored. It maxes out at around 25-30 mph, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun to drive, and you get a lot of friendly smiles and waves.

Keep up with Brandon on his blog, A Healthy Dad, as well as Twitter and Daily Mile. And don’t forget to check out his post today for a Q&A with me!

Recent Q&As and guest posts
* A Q&A with Dr. Wimmer, April 2011
* From baller to marathoner, January 2011
* A Q&A with Steena, October 2010
* A Q&A with Steve Spiers, June 2010

I’ve stayed quiet about this, but I should be running a half marathon this weekend. Last year’s “Instant Classic” of the Blue Ridge Half Marathon is taking place this weekend in Roanoke. The marathon portion of the race promises to be even tougher than last year and, quite honestly, I was hoping to run the full marathon.

Well, the history has been written and I’m not running either race this weekend. I hate it. I really do. But instead of sitting a pool of disappointment, I have to look at how far I’ve come. Being obsessed with numbers, my weekly mileage on Daily Mile really popped out to me this week.

In the several weeks following the Richmond Marathon, here’s how my mileage looked:

After getting things going again in January and slowly building my mileage, and then having a brief illness in February, the last several weeks have been pretty awesome with getting consistent again.

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to get closer to 20 miles, hit 20 miles, get a little over 20 miles and then just keep going during training for the Baltimore Marathon. That marathon, by the way, is six months from tomorrow. Then six months after that … well … I sure hope it’s not another blog post like this.

Here’s a little known fact about me — I very rarely plan my routes. I usually just have a general mileage range in mind and then run wherever I feel like it. I do have certain routes that I know the exact mileage of and have actually been sticking to them lately in my recovery process, but today was different — it was time to run with absolutely no plans beyond getting to at least 6 miles.

So instead of starting from home, I drove to the local middle school to start my route. Then the goals starting coming to mind — hit some long hills, both uphill and downhill. Considering three months ago I was told to avoid hills as much as possible, I wanted to go out of my way if I had to in order to run hills.

Another goal was to not worry about my time at all. When I looked at my watch I made a promise to myself to just look at the distance and avoid looking at the current pace or time elapsed.

I also wanted to make sure I enjoyed this run — for the first time in a while I stopped and took several pictures, including this pony behind the Elks National Home in Bedford:

Things were going great and a few miles into it I decided I needed to do something to help my mind — run the hill where the pain started in October. So I ventured to that part of town and stopped and took this picture of it:

I posted it to Twitter with this simple message: “The hill where my knee pain started 5 months ago. Time to make it mine.”

I made it mine. And I made this entire 6.2-mile run mine. I ran it like I wanted today. I had fun. I didn’t think about my knee. I hit so many little goals along the way that I almost let my emotions get to me. It was like the finishing line of a big race.

Today I crossed a hurdle — I’m not injured anymore; I’m not in recovery either; and while I am training for a 10k in a couple of weeks, I am officially ready for the rest of the year with all these lessons learned in my brain ready to be utilized. I am, as many people on Daily Mile keep telling me, back.

If I could get those few days back when I was sick and add an extra two days to make this a normal-length month, this would have been the best month in a long time. But I can’t get that time back, so I’m left with what I still think is a pretty good February.

Here’s a look:

The pescetarian lifestyle
Getting rid of meat and still eating fish was easy. I’m not sure if I want to continue this lifestyle or not – a good burger or steak every once in a while or some Chick-fil-A every couple of months sounds delicious right now – but I still say this commitment to four weeks of eating differently has changed me.

My eyes are open to eating things like black bean “burgers,” eggplant parmesan and breakfasts without bacon or sausage. While I continued to eat fish, having a tuna sub for lunch filled with spinach and jalapeños felt much more satisfying than, say, a cold cut sub.

While I got filled up during my meals, I haven’t had many bloated feelings (except for when my wife and I pigged out for her birthday). A lot of meat-based meals leave me feeling like that and I don’t miss that feeling.

Weight loss
Thanks in part to eating differently, I’m ending the month at 187 pounds, down from 1.8 at the end of January. I just feel better overall and a little bit of weight loss certainly gives me a boost of confidence. I continue to want to focus on how I feel rather than a particular number, but weekly weigh-ins will continue.

5 miles
The other day I hit my long run goal for the month – 5 miles. And it was a good 5 miles. My overall mileage took a hit with my illness, but I still logged 44 miles, which included a sub-9-minute mile paced run tonight — the first non-race run of that pace since the end of September. Had I not gotten sick, I would have been close to 60 miles. I can’t complain about that.

What’s ahead
As the calendar changes, I have some things in mind. The “#dailymission” on Daily Mile the other day of doing a max plank test was a huge wake-up call to my weak core. I did 1:13.

I could blame being sick sucking the life out of me or that I did it without warming up or I did it without shoes, but I know I can do better than that. No excuses anymore — I have to work to increase that. While I’ve done a lot more core work and cross training in the past couple of months than I probably did all of last year, I’ve got a long way to go.

By the end of March, I want to hit 2 minutes. Plain and simple goal.

When it comes to running, my dancing around on what’s next is over. I signed up tonight for the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k presented by Martin’s in Richmond on April 2. (This will be the one and only time I mention the name in full.) For those not familiar with this race, the Monument Avenue 10k has expanded registration to 40,000 people this year, making it one of the largest 10ks in the country and putting it in the top 25 races in the country as far as size. It’s also been one of the top “10 greatest places for runners to hit the road.”

I ran this race in 2008 and 2009, both times as a fundraiser. This time I’m just looking at this as a “comeback” race. I’m not looking for a PR – I want something that’s affordable, something to give me confidence and, most of all, something that’s a lot of fun. This race will do all of those things.

On that note, I officially deferred my Shamrock Half Marathon entry to next year. It hurts to miss my most favorite event ever, but it’s also motivating. How so? I know that to avoid a repeat of this I need to get stronger, run smarter, get refocused and so much more. Missing this race will make me a better runner. It just has to.

As for anything else this year, I’m not making any commitments right now. I want to get through March with continued progress and then kick-start April with the 10k.