Tag Archives: running

Where’s the water from?

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Leaving the water stationI’ve run quite a few races, but never really stopped to think, “Where does the water at the water stations come from?”

After reading this article, Las Vegas marathon runners say they were sickened, from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, I will most likely give it more thought next time.  It doesn’t sound pleasant.  Give the article a read for more of the gory details, there seemed to be lots of issues with bodily fluids after consuming water at the water stations.

I guess I’ve been lucky, I’ve never had any issues with water quality in the races I’ve run.  Still, it begs the question – who supervises the conditions the beverages (water or other) are portioned out?  Is there any kind of sanitation monitor to ensure that hands are washed, containers cleaned, and utensils sanitized?  Do runners need to start bringing their own water to organized races?

7 long days…

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…since my last run. 

Tomorrow I start to rebuild my training base.  I’ve taken the last week off in an effort to get over a cold that turned in to a sinus infection, to which I added pink eye over the weekend.  I’m still seriously congested, but I’m least starting to feel a little better and I’m sleeping fairly well. 

Overall, this past winter and the current spring have been the worst – weather wise – I have seen.  During the winter, if it wasn’t snowing – which it was most of the time – it was cold, cold cold.  Once winter was finally over, we got more snow – heavy, wet, spring snow. Seriously no fun.  Finally, the snow stops and then the rain, wind, tornados, and blustery weather kick in to place.   Today was Memorial Day and it was supposed to be nice – sunny, mid 70′s – NOPE.  It was cloudy, cold, and windy.  I don’t think it got much over 60 degrees.  Very stinky.

I spent most of today in the backyard working on a seriously over engineered set of stairs for my kid’s swing set.  The old ladder was in bad shape and needed to be replaced. Rather than simply building a new ladder, I built a super-duper, heavy-duty, deck quality stairway.  It looks good, and works great.  I also shored up some of the supports on the overall play structure and basically made the thing bomb proof.  I now have the best swing-set stairway in Woodbury.  Of course, Jen say’s it needs a handrail…

Until next time.

Aaron

Small victory…

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Today I managed to get up a little early and go out for a run.  Here are the details from the iPod/Nike+ dohickey:

  • Distance: 3.24 miles
  • Time: 29:37
  • Pace: 9:07 min/mi
  • Calories: 451

I really felt the fact that I haven’t really run in about 2 weeks – it was harder than I anticipated.  In a week or two, I’m sure I’ll be right back in the swing of things and feeling good again.

I also officially started my marathon training plan for the Twin Cities

Marathon.  I’m following a pretty straight forward plan from Hal Higdon,  which I think will work fairly well.  I think if I just get the miles in and stick with the plan, I’ll do well and be able to finish strong.  I actually had to modify the plan just a little because I’m starting training 20 weeks out rather than 18 – so I just added 2 weeks up front. 

So, I’m off to a good start and I plan on keeping it up!

Later…

Aaron

I’m Officially…

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…registered for the 2008 Twin Cities Marathon!

That’s right! I’ve had a good spring, feeling strong, and hopefully will continue to have a good summer of training and I’m looking forward to the fun, challenge, and excitement of the marathon.  I must admit that I am hoping for cooler weather than last year…

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I’ll try to keep you all up to date with my training and here on my blog.  On the right column you can also see a little Nike+ thingy that will also show my mileage from my runs.

WaaHooo!

Aaron

Moving along…

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Quick update today, I feel like I’m finding more consistency in my running lately and I’m building a good base of mileage and training. This week has been good – 3 days of running so far. For right now and the next 4 or 5 weeks, I’m focusing on easy runs – just building a good platform. I’m looking at what runs I want to do in the spring and summer next year and trying to plan my training right now around that. We’ll see how it works out.

We had family pictures taken last night and the boys did a great job. I think we got some really good pictures, I’m excited to see the results.

Hope this finds you all well.

Aaron

Finding my stride…

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The last few weeks have been very busy.  We’ve been to a wedding, drove out to Fort Wayne, IN to visit my brother and his family for Thanksgiving (had a GREAT time), work for both Jen and I has been insane,  and we got our Christmas tree setup.  In addition, I was able to get the garage cleaned out last weekend so I can actually park in it, and I have now shoveled about a ton of snow.  Needless to say, we’ve been busy.

I have been able to get in some good runs in the last few weeks too, which is exciting.  However, I have still been struggling with consistency and commitment.  I haven’t yet figured out a true ‘program’, I’ve just been running as far I can in the time I have available. Lately it’s been mainly between  3 to 5 miles.  Not bad.  Actually, I’ve been feeling really great when I run – no aches, no pain.  I think if I put together a structured plan I’ll stick to it even better – I need to put something together.  I’ve been reading this book:

 Daniels’ Running Formula
by Jack Daniels

Read more about this title…

 

There seem to be some good plans and simple logic in the concepts presented.  I just need to sit down and write it out and find a good goal race.  Anyhow, I’ll keep you posted.

Random Picture of the Day

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Summer vacation 2007 – Denver.

Later!

Aaron

Another good day…

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So, today was a good day.  I didn’t have a lot of time, and I could have easily written off my workout and ‘not had time’ to get it in.  But instead, I went and did what I could.  I ran for 25 minutes and almost 3 miles.  This is the kind of workout I need to have with more consistency – something is better than nothing.

Picture of the Day

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This is Alex at his Bobcat ceremony for Cub Scouts last week.  My whole den attained their Bobcat, so it was big celebration for everyone!

Thanks!

Aaron

Training Started…

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…today!

What a great way to start the weekend.  Today I actually made it to the gym, although not in the morning, I had to wait until this afternoon.  But, my morning was still productive – I was able to rake the leaves in the yard, I still have the front yard to do tomorrow, but at least I got the back yard done.  At any rate, I ran 5 miles in a little over 45 minutes – about 900 calories down the drain…

Also, on a more philosophical note, I think today I finally realized the impact that fitness and running has on my life.  For the last two or three weeks I have felt overwhelmed with work, fire department, family commitments, and school.  Nothing has really seemed to be easy, everything has been complicated, I’ve been frustrated, easily angered, and probably difficult to be around.  Additionally, because I’ve felt so busy at work and in life, my workouts have been the first thing to go.  Lately, I seem to always find some reason NOT to workout, rather than finding some way TO workout.  That needs to change because today, while I was running, I realized that my workouts are the one thing that really help me keep my focus and drive.  Without them, it seems everything else kind of falls apart – or at least becomes more difficult.

So, with that, I’m going to bring consistency back to my running.  I’m going to find time and make it a priority.  I think I’ll find out that lots of other stuff in my life falls in place a little easier too…

Finally, you may have noticed that my blog has changed a little bit.  The old format looked really nice in FireFox, but really cruddy in Internet Explorer and I didn’t really have time to fix it, so I retreated to this very simple template for now.  I’d like to put my own template together, I think it would be a fun project.  Maybe someday, but for now you’re stuck with this…

Later…

Aaron

The last four weeks…

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Its been quite a while since I’ve posted here and for that I’m sorry.  I know my Dad checks in regularly and is always interested in what is going on – so, HI DAD! 

With that, here is a brief update…

On October 7th I attempted to run the Twin Cities Marathon – I made it through mile 12 and  then dropped out.  As most of you know, the weather that day was miserable, 75 degrees at the start with high humidity to boot.  I started with the 3:50 pace group and ran the first mile well (in about 8:20 or so) and I was feeling pretty good.  It all went downhill from there.  I fell off that pace pretty quickly(even though just three weeks earlier I had run a 20 mile run at about that pace with limited issues) and just started feeling really fatigued and tired.  Too tired and too fatigued, too early in a 26.2 mile run. Around mile 7 or 8 I started cramping up – both stomach and legs – and I was having difficulty keeping fluids down. By mile 12 I was pretty sick, defeated, and dehydrated, so I made the tough call to drop out.

Not fun.  In the end I think I made the right decision.  I may have been able to finish, but at what cost?  There’s always next year… I guess I’ll start training NOW!

A little over a week ago (October 28th) I ran a 5K in Lake Elmo.  It was so much fun! The course was entirely on grass and dirt trails, so I guess this qualifies as my first “Cross Country” event.  It was very challenging, but also very enjoyable.  I didn’t PR, but with the up and down nature of the course, I wasn’t really planning on it. 

Here are my results from the run:

Finish Time: 25:17
Pace: 8:08
Overall finish: 28 (out of 196)
Age Group finish (M30): 3 (out of 23)

Overall, I think it was a good run and I did my best.  It felt good to get back on out there after the disappointing results of the Twin Cities Marathon.

Now, I need to get back in the gym, on the road, or out the door again.  It’s been a few weeks since I’ve really worked out and while I’ve spent some time in the pool, I’ve put on a few pounds.  I miss the feeling of a hard workout and the accomplishment of a good run.  It has felt good to have a little time off, but I’m ready to get back to it.

Until later…

Aaron

Three hundred and some odd days until the Twin Cities Marathon… :)