It’s tough being a dad. I never put much thought into it until I had kids. Looking back on it, I don’t think I’ve very good at it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and try to raise them the best I know how (my wife is the pro and keeps this ship from sinking). I’m not the wise elder and consider myself the cool, fun dad – it’s my personality. I’m not a great philosopher (in fact I hated philosphy – Descartes was simply insane) and I’m more of an irrational thinker. I have to work hard at keeping myself out of trouble by not thinking through my answers. Where conventional wisdom has failed me, running education has stepped in to bail me out.

On Sondays, when my son and I share some quality one-on-one time, I’ve tried to weave in some parental advice without lecturing. The easiest way of doing this is applying it to what we’ve doing – exercise. From what I’ve learned through running, I can know apply to my newly found wisdom.

Goals
Every young adult needs to know they can accomplish any goal if they set their mind to it. We live in a pretty hilly area. The downhills were no problem for my son on his bike. It was the uphills I would lose him on. While encouragement could coax him for a period of time, it was applied wisdom that seemed to do the trick. Instead of looking at the goal as this long distance we needed to travel, I broke it up into a bunch of much smaller goals that looked attainable without much effort. This is the same trick I think we all use in our running. Instead of looking at a marathon as the full 26.2 miles – you break it up into miles, 5Ks or halves. This tricks your mind into attaining smaller goals while whittling away the longer goal.

Fortitude
When your younger or under duress, the path of least resistance is a natural instinct. It’s not until you test yourself and battle through adversity until you can see what you’re really able to do. We’re back at the Home Hill and he’s almost to the 2nd to last goal. I try and remind him that if he can just keep pushing through to the next goal that it will get flat (that and the fact that I’m going to keep going). He struggles to the top and with a bead of sweat making it’s way down his cheek, he smiles. “That wasn’t too bad, dad.” “It never is,” I remind him. We all have mental walls we need to break down and until you take out the hammer and give it a couple of whacks, you’ll never know what’s on the other side.

While I may not be a scholarly individual, there still are some life lessons to be taught. It’s just the medium that needed to be tweaked. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge with others. It just might make the difference in somebody’s life.

RMFR

I don’t cross train. I did swim for awhile but it didn’t stick. I don’t really like going to they gym and even if I do go, I find a way to run there anyway…so what’s the use? I’ve used an elliptical machine once and didn’t feel it gave me the workout I was looking for. I’ve got a reason to give it another try now.

After reading Dean Karnazes’ blog about the ElliptiGo outdoor bicycle, to say I’m intrigued is the understatement of the century. It’s like when you were a kid and had to have the latest new toy that was advertised during your favorite afternoon cartoon (yes kids, cartoons used to only be on after school and on Saturdays). In fact, it has that “wow” factor that even has my cyclist boss daydreaming about lunch workouts on this gym machine on wheels.

The first ElliptiGO’s where shipped out in February and the next batch comes out and pre orders are now available for April delivery. While a little spendy ($2,199 with a $750 deposit required when ordered), as a runner looking for a cross training alternative, I’m dying to get my hands on one. I’m also thinking this could be the crossover I’ve been looking for to bridge that gap between cyclists and runners out on the roads. If not, it will just give them something else for their arsenal.

Anybody out there had the chance to try out the ElliptiGO? Would you spend $2,199 for one? If I could, I would!!!

RMFR

Once you’ve been running for awhile, you get it. You know what you need to do to prepare for a race. From past experiences, you know your body and what it can handle. For this reason, I’ve started to make my own training regimens. Depending on what I want to accomplish, these training programs will change.

The one invaluable piece of advice I can give anyone and their training schedule (whether you make your own or not) is to write it down. Print it out. Put in on the refrigerator, mirror, wall or anywhere you will constantly see it. Not only will you be reminded of what you’ve got to do next, it’s a great motivator when everybody else can see it. Did a day go past without you crossing a day off? Did anybody else see it? You’d be amazed at what a little encouragement can do.

RMFR

There are some runs when you just don’t know what to expect. You could run into somebody and share interesting stories, encounter a bizarre event or see something unexpected. It’s something totally different when you get throw a curveball from you kids.

In the middle of an easy 5 miles with my iPod on shuffle, who should come blaring thru my headphones but Alvin and the Chipmunks and their Witch Doctor anthem. After my initial shock, I couldn’t keep from smiling. Obviously, they must have been messing with my iTunes playlists and added this cult classic into my hard rock playlist.

They didn’t know they did it but it definitely added a little something extra into an ordinary run.

RMFR

This year I’m trying something new. I’m calling them Speed Hills (for lack of a better name). I’ve never done speed or interval workouts before but thought I’d add them into my running routine. My running schedule had always included some tempo runs where in the middle of a longer run, I would pick up the pace for 3-4 miles. Trying to push myself to get a little faster (I consider myself slow and I am).

With the introduction of combining speed work with hills, I’m hoping to build leg strength and speed at the same time.

There is a 1/3 mile stretch of road near myself that I have dubbed “The Road to Nowhere.” It actually is a paved road that really does lead to nowhere. It’s close to traffic and hasn’t been connected to any other streets until more housing developments are completed. The name also has another meaning. It’s a really steep climb – ascending over 100 ft. – over the stretch of the climb. At the bottom is starts out gradually and evens up into a steady ascent which attacks your legs unmercifully!!!

After a 1 mile warmup running to the street and down to it’s base, I planned on doing 5 intervals for my first time out. I’m going to have to work up to sprinting the entire .3 miles so I’ve decided to start with half that distance (.15 miles). Using lampposts as my guide, I would sprint up at a fast but sustainable pace and then do a recovery jog back down to the start.

To my surprise, I was extremely consistent on my intervals (without timing them) averaging 1:03 per interval (6:45/mi. or 8.9 mph). For me this is extremely fast and going uphill, an awesome workout!!! After finishing, I walked and recovered up the remaining part of the hill and then jogged it back to my house. The entire workout ended up being 3.2 miles total but it wasn’t the total mileage that I was concerned with.

The change in pace and workout type has actually spurred my need for this workout. There’s nothing better than the feeling of near exhaustion and recovering just as quick. I’ll keep you updated on these workouts as I increase repetitions and distance in preparation for the Red Rock 1/2 Marathon where the hills are long and steep.

RMFR

As 2009 comes to a close, I find myself in a unique situation – I’m in a running rut. It’s not a physical rut. I don’t think I’ve ever been running better or been in as good of shape as I am now. This is all mental. I’m just not “that into it” right now. For those of you who visit this site often you can probably tell by the lack of posts recently. I consider myself “Runningcentric”. All I ever do is think, talk and dream about running. Want to go on vacation? OK, let me check the running calendar. Need help with your homework? Let’s go for a run and talk about it. But lately….NOT.

It all started on my week off after the Rock-n-Roll Las Vegas Marathon. I was overflowing with excitement for that race. Training had gone well and it was the inaugural event. Even though I didn’t finish like I had wanted, I wasn’t disappointed and spirits were high. I already had the Walt Disney World Marathon on my schedule to look forward to and the fact that I would be running with my sister (her first marathon) is even better. 10 days of vacation, a cruise, Walt Disney World AND a race thrown in? I should be on cloud nine…but I’m not.

I can’t explain it. I know we all go thru let downs after races but this is the first time I’ve hit a wall in my head. Maybe it’s the Holidays, maybe it’s work or it just may be the culmination of a series of events that are out of my control. The fact of the matter is, when we hit these low points we need to keep on keeping on. Lace up the shoes and get out the door. It wall all come back eventually.

So that’s what I’ve been trying to do this last week before the race. All my training runs have no goals. I’m heading out the door with no anticipation. I don’t know which route I’m taking. Don’t know how far I’m going to go. The only thing I do know for sure is that I’m running for the pure enjoyment of it. Taking in the scenery. Taking in other runners I meet on the way and running for the moment only. It may not happen overnight and it might even take weeks but I know if I bring things into perspective, it will all come back.

Happy New Year and RMFR!!!

First off, this post in no way is meant to be bragging. I know there are plenty of runners that do much more than this and by much more, I mean WAY MORE (i.e. 50 in 50). This actually happened by accident – well O.K. not an accident but more so by circumstance.

A year ago this Christmas, I talked my sister into running her first marathon at the Walt Disney World Marathon in January. I’ve been running now for 4 years but I’d only run one marathon and that was at the end of 2006. Worried that I would fail supporting her thru 26.2 miles, I decided on running the full Rock-n-Roll Las Vegas Marathon (more so for confidence than anything else). After a great year of training and racing, it didn’t even dawn on me that the races were merely 36 days apart.

The biggest hurdle in this whole thing has been the training. The shortest training program I’d done preceding a race was 12 weeks. After a week off following the Las Vegas Marathon, that left me with only 4 weeks of training. With over 750+ miles and 3 races under my belt this year, I know I have the strength for a 4 week schedule but it still doesn’t seem like enough. Using the trusted Runner’s World SmartCoach, it whipped out this maintenance schedule:

Week     Mon.     Tues.     Wed.     Thur.     Fri.     Sat.     Sun.
1             6 mi.                   5 mi.                            10 mi.
2             6 mi.                   5 mi.                            12 mi.
3             5 mi.                   5 mi.                            14 mi.
4                          3 mi.                    5 mi.     3 mi.              RACE

The absence of a 20-miler kind of freaks me out but the last thing I want to do is be overly fatigued or worse yet get an injury before my sister’s race. This is definitely one race I wouldn’t miss for the world!!!

Have you done a short training session for a race? If so please share what you did.

RMFR

Well race week is here and the only the final runs of my training schedule remain. I have a distinct advantage of working near Miles 16-22 of the Rock-n-Roll Las Vegas Marathon course. So with that in mind, I’ve planned my 3 runs this week to run sections of the marathon course. By the way, can you believe it’s December already?

Tuesday, Dec. 1 – 3.5 mi.
For this run I plan to run miles 16, 17 and 22. Running up Hacienda, I’ll turn and run Rainbow down to Tropicana and head back the same way I came. This way I get to reacquaint myself with the mild hill on Rainbow that crosses over the wash. Hacienda is by far my favorite city street to run in Las Vegas. On Sunday, you’ll find out why.

Thursday, Dec. 3 – 5 mi.
Again, I’ll head up Hacienda and run past Rainbow. This covers parts of miles 16 and 18-22 of the marathon course. Going west on Hacienda is uphill but it’s gentle which I’m hoping will look just as gentle on Sunday late in the race. You’ll also see Spring Valley Hospital on this route – my 5 star spectator spot.

Friday, Dec. 4 – 3.5 mi.
I’ll repeat my Tuesday run again today. As familiar as I am with this area, I think these “refresher” runs will help give me confidence late in the race to help bring me in for a PR in my second full marathon.

RMFR

Like most runners, when things go wrong, we try to figure things out ourselves. With all the running we do, we begin to learn things about our bodies and how things work. Granted, there’s no replacement for a physician’s diagnosis – but most of the time, we can come up with our own.

I took 5 days off recently for a ache/pain/tightness I was feeling in my right ankle. Personally, this injury was something new that I’ve never experienced before. To put it in general terms, it’s an ache I’m feeling on the top of my ankle as it connects toward my shin. It isn’t a sharp pain but sometimes feels like a weakness in the ankle. It doesn’t necessarily affect my running but it’s a discomfort that is unsettling at times.

After some time off, I then went out and put my ankle to the test with an easy 5-mile run. After an easy first mile and no sign of the pain, I mixed up my paces to test it under different circumstance. I didn’t feel anything during my run but it has showed up again a day later. This got me wondering and I did a little internet exploring.

My unprofessional diagnosis is a Superior Extensor Retinaculum Injury. Defined by Podiatry Today, “it’s a overuse injury in athletes where chronic tendinitis can occur above the superior extensor retinaculum in the musculotendinous junction. This condition is closely related to abnormal biomechanics and excessive pronation.” I am an overpronater so this fits right in with the diagnosis. They suggest using the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) treatment for this injury – which pretty much covers 90% of running injuries that I’ve encountered.

As with all injuries, if this worsens, I will seek medical help. Until then I’ll resume my taper and hope that with a little TLC that it will work itself out. After 700+ miles and no previous injuries this year, I guess I can expect an overuse injury. It also has told me that after the Walt Disney World Marathon that it’s time for a little rest before I crank it up again next year.

RMFR

Less than two weeks until the Rock-n-Roll Las Vegas Marathon and I have a concern. After going the entire year injury free I have a pain. It’s not a sharp pain but there’s something up with my right ankle/shin. It occurred after my Friday tempo run and is still bothersome two days later. It’s not the same ankle I rolled last year – 3 weeks before I ran the Las Vegas Half Marathon.

I have run more this year but I’ve spent extra time making sure that I’m taking care of myself to account for the extra mileage. My worst fear would be the beginnings of a stress fracture. With Las Vegas coming up and the Walt Disney World Marathon a month after – I’m treading lightly on this one.

Taking the advice that I usually give, I’m going to take some days off and see how it goes. I’ll throw in a 7-8 mile run in a couple of days and make up my mind where to go from there. Physically I’m ready. I’ve done the work and can probably afford to taper a little early and still be OK.

I can positively tell you with 100% certainty that I WILL BE running both races. At this point and time it’s just a matter of how much pain I will be running them with.

RMFR