About The Home Stretch

Two weeks from today, on April 17th,, I will be racing the Ironman 70.3 New Orleans.  Preparation for this event started in earnest on January 17th.  Two days after finishing my winter project: P90X.

Since that day, I have logged in 1015 combined miles, and according to my coach's plan, tomorrow I start tapering, so taper I will!

Only thing left now is to trust the training.  Trust that I have given everything possible each time out.  That with each lap in the pool, each mile on the bike or on the pavement, I have had a purpose behind it.

About this point in the training process a curious thing begins to happen.  Yeah, I begin to wonder if I've done enough, if I could have done anything different, but I believe that this happens to most everyone out there.  But this is not what I'm talking about.

What I'm referring to is the fact that right about a week ago, I started noticing and feeling aches and pains I hadn't felt before, as I do prior to any other event. Every little thing seems to be magnified a thousand times.

I come home and I take inventory.  Yeah, the knee feels a bit more sore, the ankle aches just a tad more.  My back is tighter than usual. The shoulder is not as mobile as I'd like to be.  I stretch extra, I roll more often, I apply Biofreeze more frequently.  And I go on.

All this however, is in direct preparation to what's ahead, just 146 days from today:  Ironman Louisville.

Source: http://www.triathlonat55.com/2011/04/about-home-stretch.html

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A good 6.25 mile run, with rain at the end

I ran 6.25 miles on the same route that I used on Thursday. In fact, my run followed the same pattern that it did on Thursday: good in the beginning, tired in the middle, and good at the end. The difference in the two runs is that I took fewer rest stops today (only one near the turn-around point) and the change from being tired to having a good run at the end happened sooner than on Thursday.

When I first started the run, the sky was mostly clear with fluffy clouds, and the temperature was in the low 70s (F). However, as my run progressed, the sky darkened, and I could tell it was either raining over the mountains or soon would be raining there. A north wind of about 5-10 mph was blowing, and that was good, because the storm clouds were gathering in the south, and a north wind would help keep the storm from advancing so much. However, after I had gone about half a mile on my return trip, the wind changed from a north wind to a south wind, and that meant the storm would advance at an even faster rate. Sure enough, the storm did just that. It soon started to sprinkle and then it settled into a gentle but steady rain. I hadn't expected the rain, and I had left my rain gear at home. That was OK, because the air temperature was warm, and the rain didn't feel cold. I enjoy running in warm summer rain. This rain wasn't quite a warm rain, but it wasn't a cold rain either.

There was a lot of thunder in the mountains. When I see lightning flashes, I count seconds until I hear the corresponding thunder to get an approximation of the distance to the lightning strikes (I assume 5 seconds per mile).  The lightning strikes were about 1 1/2 miles away, and I wasn't worried about them. However, when I was about two miles from my car, I realized the lightning strikes were only a mile away. This worried me since there aren't a lot of trees near that part of the path, and I was one of the higher objects in the area. I did, though, realize the lightning strikes were in the clouds, and I decided I would be OK. The sky was pretty black, and I could hardly see the mountains due to the storm clouds that covered the mountains, down almost to the valley floor.

My car was parked at the South Jordan East Pavilion, which is at about 108th South. When I reached the new bridge at 114th South, I stopped for a few minutes to tweet about the rain. My telephone is an inexpensive model and doesn't have a full keyboard. Tweeting via texting is thus a slow process. The light on my phone turned off, and I couldn't see the keyboard. In addition, I couldn't read the screen very well due to not having my glasses, and I made a couple of spelling errors. After sending the tweet, I continued my run. As I approached my car, I noticed the rain was stopping, and by the time I arrived home, the rain had stopped. Utah storms don't last very long, in contrast to some of the storms I experienced in Massachusetts (heavy rain that didn't stop for two or three days).

The hardest part of the run was taking off my wet t-shirt due to the cloth sticking to my back. After a couple minutes struggling with the t-shirt, I finally got it off, and I dressed in dry clothes. All in all, it was a great run! I'm still doing 1 minute of running and 1 minute of walking, although I ran the last half mile without stopping so I would get to my car sooner.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OldManRunning/~3/yeycbM1Uh0U/good-625-mile-run-with-rain-at-end.html

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Runners blog contest ? gotta be in it to win it!

In the May 2005 issue of Runner?s World, John Bingham, a.k.a. ?The Penguin,? reflects on the nature of the friendships of runners. Bingham quotes the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who said that ?Exhaustion is the shortest way to equality and fraternity.? Expanding on this idea, Bingham observes that the types of friendships you develop with [...]

Source: http://blog.timesunion.com/running/runners-blog-contest-gotta-be-in-it-to-win-it/5826/

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Moji Running Gear GiveAway

Moji will give away two Moji One products, their newest product that reflects yet another innovative Moji product. Moji One provides icing, heating and compression for over a dozen different body parts. An ideal product for active runners! About Moji …

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/runaddicts/~3/QUZU5zfQE-E/moji-running-gear-giveaway

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How To Run An Ultra - Bryon Powell Tells All In His New Book, Relentless Forward Progress

Today was my birthday, and one of the greatest gifts of the day was finally having the time to read Relentless Forward Progress, the new book by ultrarunner extraordinaire and iRunFar.com guru, Bryon Powell. What a fantastic primer! Bryon has absolutely nailed this one.


It's no surprise that his writing is both entertaining and approachable, making it feel like he's hanging out with you at a coffee shop to eagerly give you the low-down on his greatest passion. But he also has help from his superstar friends who chime in with their stories and advice, such as Dave Mackey's tips on running downhills, Geoff Roes and Ian Torrence debating the need for speed work (Roes says skip it, Ian says bring it), Michael Wardian on "how to race a road ultra", Krissy Moehl getting to the essence of "why?", or Eric Grossman's tales of getting back to good when things go awry. It's a treasure trove of ultra All Star goodness.

There are dozens of pages of practical advice, including starter training plans for various levels of runners, all with a nod to the culture of spirit of ultrarunning. I think it's the perfect thing to give an aspiring ultrarunner, a friend who is curious about what you do, or anybody new to crewing. I'm going to keep a few copies handy for sure.

It went on sale today, and you can buy it here.

Great job, Bryon!!!

SD

Source: http://runtrails.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-run-ultra-bryon-powell-tells-all.html

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Ran my weekly rest run but only did 3.6 miles

I ran my weekly rest run, using the north-bound path, going from the trailhead at 100th South to 9400 South. I started my run late in the afternoon, and because of an evening appointment, I only had time for 3.6 miles. I was glad, though, that I didn't do the full 5 miles, because I was getting tired. It was a nice day for running, though.

At around the 0.5 mile marker, there are some dead limbs in the river, and I'm using one of the limbs as my marker to guage the water-level of the river. During the winter, when the river is at its lowest point, the stick projected about 18 inches out of the water. This spring, when the river was much higher, the stick projected about 4 inches. When I did my run this afternoon, the stick projected about an inch. The river is quite wide at that point, and several inches of height means there is a lot more water in the river than there was during the winter.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OldManRunning/~3/DyajfeHcwqc/ran-my-weekly-rest-run-but-only-did-36.html

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What Really Causes The Runner's High? (NY Times)

This weekend, this blog had an abnormal spike in traffic for a 7-year-old post called "Understanding the Runner's High", something I had written when reading about early research that linked the runner's high to the endocannabinoid system (rather than the oft-quoted source of endorphins). It turns out that the New York Times ran an article this weekend with some updated findings.


 The article is an interesting read. I found the following quote particularly fascinating:
"But perhaps the most telling experiment was published last year by researchers in France who had bred mice with no functioning endocannabinoid receptors. Mice usually love to run, but the genetically modified animals, given free access to running wheels, ran about half as much as usual. Although the full intricacies of the endocannabinoid system?s role in motivating and rewarding exercise is not yet understood, it seems obvious, the researchers say, that the cannabinoid-deprived mice were not getting some necessary internal message. Typically, the endocannabinoid system ?is well known to impact onto central reward networks,? the authors write. Without it, exercise seemed to provide less buzz, and the animals didn?t indulge as much."
Man, it sucks to be that mouse! But it's intriguing that a fundamental love of running could be genetically built into all of us. I've been feeling rather mouse-like on my treadmill lately and smiling the whole time. ;-)

Source: http://runtrails.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-really-causes-runners-high-ny.html

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