It... is... alive!!!

Hello to all of you out there in internet land. As you may recall from my last blog entry, things hadn't been going exceptionally well: I had (okay, chose/decided) to take two consecutive days off because I was feeling tired and run down. I also had a few other things to complain about (mostly because I just wanted to complain). Although things aren't completely back to awesome, things are looking up. First off, after a near scare, my phone is once again alive and operational. Thanks to all of you who suggested the rice method for drying the phone. Since I didn't have any rice immediately available, I used wheat flour instead. It was a tad messier than the rice would have been, but it apparently worked. I was a little worried because a giant water droplet was visible under the main screen. The screens on the phone are still slightly marred, but the phone has been operational for a day, so I'm optimistic for the future.

Secondly, I did a workout yesterday with Playmakers Racing team. It was 4 x 1600 meters with an 800 meter jog in between. The workout wasn't a great success in the sense that I did not kill it (my splits were 4:46, 4:52, 4:51 and 4:45). It was a success in the sense that I actually finished a workout for the first time in two weeks.

My legs are not feeling great going into this weekend (my calves are really sore), where I will be racing the Martian Meteor 10k. I'm not sure what to expect coming into this race. It will be the first time that I will be racing a 10k (or anything serious over an 8k for that matter). I can see myself running anything from 31 minutes flat to 33 minutes. I'm hoping to hold five minute mile pace, so wish me luck.

One last thing: those of you who have seen me the past month may have noticed a growth under my chin (and if you looked really closely, something under my nose... that's a joke. I can't grow a mustache... it's funnier because I had to explain it. :)  ). Well, the growth is no longer there. In relation to this, I would like to take a moment to scold those of you who let this go on for over a month! After seeing a picture of myself with the goatee, it was clear that what was a bad decision only became a worse decision when I decided to give myself a haircut, resulting in a look that was clearly not right for me. So to this end: Shame! Shame on you, for letting me mar my awesomeness with a look that was clearly the antithesis of awesome! Shame!

Blaze on, friends!

A Series of Unawesome Events

Running and life both have their ups and downs. After what was a pretty good weekend (with a PR in the 5k and my solid long run), I've had a series (i.e. the rest of the week) of runs, where, not only did the run feel bad, but it was a challenge to get out the door. For me, this is a fairly rare occurrence. Monday was okay, Tuesday I didn't finish the workout, Wednesday I nearly turned around after 3 miles at ~7 min mile pace (I started feeling okay after that), Thursday I was so exhausted that I took it off, and Friday I made it half a mile before I just felt like I couldn't go anymore (I was supposed to do a workout). I am feeling quite a bit better today, and am debating whether I should try and do the workout planned for yesterday, or if it would just be an accomplishment to go for a run (which I could do with people, which may help).

I am definitely experiencing one of the lows of running. I'm not 100% sure why I'm feeling this way (it's probably the weeks of high intensity/high mileage compounded with the not sleeping well). Though I feel like crap now, I really think with the rest I have gotten, and by focusing on getting more sleep this next week, I'll be fine for the Martian Meteor 10k, although its hard not to have your confidence shaken after I've had a week like I've had.

Other (unawesome) things: I believe that its time to get a new phone. It was a little dirty, so I decided to put it through the wash (since sarcasm is sometimes hard to read: this was not intentional). I've wanted to get a new phone for quite a while (ever since I was at Alltel, got a new phone, had that phone not work for me while Alltel was switching to Verizon, and then have the Verizon people contradict what Alltel was telling me and not fixing the problem. So I was stuck with either having the sucky, not working Alltel phone, buying out the contract, or purchasing a used phone and going from there. I decided to go with the used phone option, ended up with a Razr (which is what I had before all of this started in the first place), which pretty much sucked (the battery was aweful if you actually used the phone, texting was a pain, my old ring tones didn't work), but at least it worked. Anyway, phone-->wash-->currently not working...
I'm absolutely sick of it being cold.

Tried to get a Western blot to work for a poster. It finally did (after trying several things), but the positive control didn't show up... and the results weren't what we were hoping for or had seen in the past... so that was unawesome...

One awesome thing: I got to have lunch with a Nobel laureate (2008 in Medicine, Harold zur Hausen)! He was a pretty awesome guy. It was kind of fun; at the lunch with the other graduate students, there were several that were at a loss of words upon meeting him. And he also was interesting to listen too (although his voice could be described as sleep inducing; I know, this sounds paradoxical).

Unawesome thing: While it was really cool to meet the Nobel laureate, and he was a great guy, the lunch was quite disappointing. I was excited to hear we were getting catered lunch from Dusty's (a restaurant in the E.L. area) which I was expecting to be really good. It was not. The bread was stale, the meat was dry, the side was sparse and mostly made up of noodles. Dessert was probably good, but I didn't eat mine...

Well, I'm done complaining, and do feel a little better. Thanks for listening to my rant. I don't think at this point its appropriate to say "Blaze on," so much as "lets get a spark going so we can get the fire going again," so that's what I'm going to leave you with.

Also, I'm still awesome. :)

Sunday Long Run

Sometimes you just have one of those runs where everything goes right...
So, in the brief window of time yesterday, when it wasn't absolutely freezing, and the wind wasn't blowing to all hell, I decided to go for my run. The first mile felt pretty smooth, and I sailed through in 6:32. Now this pace isn't exceptionally fast for me, but anytime I run under 7 for the first mile and it feels smooth, I know its going to be a good run. The next mile was 6:05, and with the exception of one other mile in 6:02, the remainder of the run was going to be logged at 6 min./mile pace or faster. I got to mile nine, and thought that I was really going to be moving the rest of my run. At mile ten, I remembered that just because you feel good at the half-way point, that a lot can go wrong on a long run, and curbed my enthusiasm (this was not because I was feeling bad). At mile 13.1, I was glad that I had curbed my enthusiasm, as things were not feeling awesome at this point (though they were not feeling bad, either). I pushed through mile 15, planning on taking mile 16 easy. And I did, but still somehow managed sub-6 for that last mile. I then jogged the last 0.12 miles in... (Full run details on my strands account).
So this was definitely a good long run for me. There are a few things that made it even more special:
1) I had planned on taking the run easy. And the effort going in was easy. Everything just went really smoothly.
2) I mentioned mile 13.1 earlier for a reason. This is the half-marathon distance (an event that I have not run often). Regardless, I came through in 1:17:42, a new half-marathon PR! This broke my old PR by a solid 3 seconds. Even more impressive when you figured that I ran a 6:32 to start with. If you take that mile out and add in mile 13.1 to 14.1, which was a sub-5:50, then I literally shattered my old PR.
3) After the run, I, not surprisingly, felt completely spent. However, I did not cramp up at all while stretching, a problem I have been having for a while. And...
4) I was rewarded once again after the run with a rare sighting: a 159.6 on the scale! It's been years since I've seen this number. I will give you that this was a post-workout weight, but it was still exciting to finally see a sub 160.

It's great to have stuff finally start to come together, and I just wanted to share this with whoever may be interested. So thanks for reading, and "Blaze on!"

Doin' an Irish Jig

Spring is here (almost)! We are less than 12 hours away from the vernal equinox, and I couldn’t be happier to see the snow melt, the temperatures rise, and a green landscape emerge from the grays of Michigan winter (although, like Scott, I would be happy if the red wing blackbirds would not migrate back north this year). I am also looking forward to racing more in the coming months.
Speaking of racing, today I competed in the Spectrum Health Irish Jig. It felt really good to get out there and race today. The race didn’t really go as well as I had hoped, as I ran a 15:35 (was hoping to break 15 minutes, or at least average under 5 min/mile) and placed 12th. But it was a PR for me, so I can’t be too disappointed. I felt a tad bit flat during the race, but this was not a surprise considering 1) the training cycle that I just did and 2) not having raced since January. The race will hopefully serve as a good “rust buster,” and be a springboard for the rest of my races this spring. Another benefit from this race: I may have finally figured out how to control my stomach during longer races. I’ve always had gastric issues in races over the mile, often feeling bloated while running, and later in the race my stomach would become upset and I would develop heartburn issues. Today, I experimented with not taking food the morning of, instead just drinking some Gu Electrolyte Brew 3 hours before the start of the race. Overall, this was a great success, but I will have to repeat this several times before I believe that this is the answer to my gastric issues. I also worry that in longer races this amount of fuel will not be enough to sustain my prolonged efforts.
In other news, I’m feeling quite a bit better after backing off the mileage and intensity this last week. This next week will see a return to my mileage before I back off again for the Martian Meteor 10k. After that, it will be mostly maintenance until I get ready to peak at the end of May and early June.
This week did see the return of the ECBoE, and my will-power has felt his pull. M&Ms and chocolate covered almonds have never been so enticing. I’ve had to move past the table at the end of the hall very quickly several times to resist them. But my sugar fast still stands! Today was almost harder, as they had free cake after the race, along with a bag full of sugary junk food (which Scott and Jerome accepted quite happily).
Sruthán ar!

Lucky

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! While I may not have Irish blood in me (not enough to call myself Irish, anyway), I do hail from O’Neill, Nebraska (the Irish Capital of Nebraska), and home to the world’s largest shamrock! As such, this holiday will always hold a special place in my heart (maybe not quite as special as Independence Day is to Tim Thurber, see picture below, but still special, none-the-less).

I consider myself a very lucky person (it’s just that not all of my luck is good luck ☺). Seriously though, I’m getting paid to further my education, almost 3 years after graduating from undergrad, I’m still running at a high level and enjoying it, I have great friends and training partners, and a family that cares about me. Also, as I was writing this, I found a quarter. ☺ So I am indeed a very lucky person.
Running update: For the most part, things are going well, although I did drop out of the workout on Tuesday early (after 2 repeat miles instead of doing 5). Going into it, my left ankle had been feeling a bit off on the last two runs. I’m probably just being overly paranoid, but after the near stress fracture in the fall, I would rather be safe than sorry. I wouldn’t really describe what I am feeling as pain, more of a “hollowness” in my ankle joint. What scares me is that is how the stress reaction first felt like (before it became outright pain, anyway). This is in the opposite ankle, so it is less likely to be a repeat injury.
Finally, since it’s St. Patrick’s day, and because MSU plays in the first round tonight: Go Green!

The Turtles and the Hair

In a fit of spontaneity this last week, I ended up succumbing to two impulsive urges. Don’t worry; my Lenten sugar fast still remains untarnished. I did, however, make an impulse buy, and now have the first three volumes of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series on DVD. After watching the first volume (which consists of 5 episodes), I have decided that this was, in fact, a good decision! I was actually expecting to be disappointed, figuring that the series would not live up to the expectations of my childhood memories. This was not the case. I was surprised that the storylines were, for the most part, actually pretty good. I will admit that the Turtles let out some one liners that you can’t help but roll your eyes at, but I think that this was a part of the charm of the TNMTs of the 80s and 90s. My one complaint about the series: the turtle’s voices have a habit of interchanging from one character to the other. This was something I was expecting, as I recall that my 5-year-old-self noticed this. Also, whip cream pizzas? Cowabunga!
My other bout of impulsiveness? Well, I purchased an electric hair trimmer and gave myself a haircut. Good decision or bad? Well, you may notice that I will be wearing a hat more often for the next couple of weeks. While a large percentage of it doesn’t look that bad (I think), my lack of a second mirror to monitor the cutting in the back has resulted in a less than desirable look for me. So, yeah… bad decision! Definitely missing my older sister right now (she cuts hair for a living, for those of you who don’t know). I will probably try again in the future, if for no other reason than to off set the cost of the clippers.
Other things: Running has been going pretty well, although I’m starting to feel the past 5 weeks of 69+ miles/week. I did have a decent long run this week (a 17 miler with Jake, where we cut down the last 7 miles or so to the point that the last five miles were completed in 28:40ish, faster than my 8k PR for my freshman year of college!), but I’m planning on backing off a little the rest of this week for the Irish Jig (I’m excited to race, as I’ve only done two races in the past 5+ weeks: the mile and the 4x4 at the Concordia Alumni Classic). I’m actually amazed how well my running has been going considering how tired I’ve been feeling (and changing to DST this last weekend hasn’t helped much). Shoot, I may even take a day off this week.
As I mentioned, my Lenton sugar fast is still going strong, although, in all honesty, I haven’t had any real challenges as of late. The ECBoE has been fortuitously absent from the lab, and the Pharm and Tox seminar was on Tuesday last week, before the fast started. I did have to resist taking a cookie at the BMB seminar, but that wasn’t a huge loss (the cookies are OK, but don’t taste like baked crack- i.e. highly addictive- like the Pharm and Tox ones do), and I was offered a Boston cream pie sample while grocery shopping this weekend. One of the expected outcomes of this sugar fast is that my taste buds will get “reset,” i.e. eating excessive amounts of sugar dulls your taste buds to the flavor, and by removing sugar for a period of time, your sense of sweet becomes more sensitive. I’m eager to see if this is the case, although I’m thinking that I may have to cut fruit out of my diet for a week, and thereby avoiding all things sweet, to see if this is the case…
Well, I think that about does it for this edition. Blaze on, friends!

Lenten Sugar Abstinence

Happy Ash Wednesday! …Wait, I’m not sure that one works… Anyway, lets get this one rolling!

Lets begin with yesterday's workout, 8 x (400 meter uphill, rest for ~700 m downhill, 150 m stride, and 350 m jog back to start). The distances are approximate; uphill was actually 0.27 mi and overall one repeat added up to a little over a mile. For me, I started at a decent pace and got progressively faster as the workout progressed, something to be proud of in and of itself. But the real reason I am proud of this workout was because when the going got tough, I was among the tough that got going. After each repeat, my stomach began to churn more and more, until, on the last set, I had heartburn so bad that I wanted to vomit and was just miserable. But, despite this, I pushed through and turned in a good workout! Yeah me! :)

Getting heartburn while I run has unfortunately been a recurring theme for me. This has been a regular occurrence since at least sometime in high school. And at this point in my career, it has become pretty clear what triggers it for me: processed, and especially sugary, foods. Alas, to this point, I must admit that the Evil Chocolate Bowl of Evil, with his army of devious Hershey® Special Dark Chocolate Miniature minions, seductively cocoa-covered armada of almonds, and special strike force of assorted M&M® colors and flavors, have been successful in breaking through my defenses and assaulting by inner well-being. Today, it was not actually the ECBE that beat me, as his Special Dark minions only were able to land three successful blows, but rather, it was the equally evil offensive assault team of Cookies, Brownies and Muffins, from the nation of Free Seminar Food, that eluded my best defenses…

Well, today is my day to make a stand. Fat Tuesday 2011 will go down in history as the last day of sugar's dominance over me. As we march forward, I declare that the ECBE, and all of his sugary counterparts, will no longer hold siege over the nation of Awesomeness (i.e. me). Here and now, from the ashes of my most recent defeat, I will rise up again like the Phoenix of legend, and stand strong in the face of temptation and cravings. And henceforth, today shall forever be known as Ash Wednesday!

…I really hope that God doesn’t strike me down for that last bit. In all seriousness, I am giving up sugar for Lent. Why? Well, as I mentioned above, I really believe that it is behind my acid reflux problems, and, besides being uncomfortable, I don’t want to get esophageal cancer in the future. Also, it isn’t good for you, its addictive, and it isn’t conducive to my athletic goals. Why now? Because I always say I’ll start tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes. Because I can use Lent as an excuse for not eating sugar for the next 46 days (the 40 days of Lent does not include Sundays, for those of you who don't know). Because I’m SICK OF GETTING HEARTBURN!

I should specify that this 46 day sugar abstinence will have a couple exceptions: 1) Fruit is allowed. It does not give me problems, and is part of what I believe is a healthy diet. 2) I’m allowed to drink GU Electrolyte Brew as an athletic supplement. This is to assist me with my training, and, in all reality, GU Brew has significantly fewer simple sugars than other sports drinks and definitely tastes less sweet. It is my hope that after these 46 days that sugar will be allowed back into my life, but where it belongs: not as a forbidden fruit, with uncontrollable urges consume, but as an occasional indulgence to be enjoyed, without guilt or remorse.

Blaze on friends!

Cross-Training

So as I indicated in my last blog, I wanted to touch a little on the idea of cross-training. Why do I want to do this? Well, first off, I believe that cross-training has been a huge part of my success in the past, most notably when I've been dealing with and coming off from injury. If it wasn't for the all the biking that I did in the summer of 2006, I would not have been able to come back and have a successful cross-country season that fall, as I was unable to run due to an athletic hernia. More recently, I was side-lined with a near stress fracture in my cuneiform bone in my foot (the picture is not my MRI, but an MRI of a stress fracture in the same bone of someone else's foot). If it was not for cross-training (both pool running and road cycling), I would not have been able to come back nearly as strong as I am now (I believe that I am in the best shape of my life). In addition to my recovery, the benefits of cross-training through an injury are well exemplified in my roommate Scott's recent comeback, where he appears to be nearly as strong (or maybe even stronger) after a 3 month lay-off, mostly thanks to swimming and aqua jogging, with a little stationary biking thrown in for good measure.

 

 However, what I am currently wondering about is using cross-training as supplemental training while you are not injured. I am currently biking once or twice a week, and am weighing the costs and benefits of continuing this practice. I believe that my cycling is beneficial because:

1) Kick starts my metabolism in the morning

2) Helps to burn off a few extra calories so that I can reach my goal racing weight

3) Warms up my muscles in the morning, so that I can properly stretch them out

4) Strengthens muscles that are neglected by running, creating muscle balance and preventing injury

5) Wakes me up in the morning

However, these benefits must be weighed by the costs:

1) I'm more tired for my daily runs (I don't think this has actually affected them much, but I do believe that fatigued muscles are more prone to injury)

2) The extra time it takes to cross-training takes away from sleep or other daily activities (e.g. core work or self massage)

3) The lack of specificity results in me possibly building muscle mass for muscles that aren't used during running.

For me, I think that the benefits are definitely outweighing the costs right now. But the jury is still out; it may be that as I amp up my training, the costs will start to have a greater impact and I will cut this supplementary training out of my overall plan. I am curious to other peoples' opinions, so if you would like, feel free to comment (even if it anonymously). :)

Until next time, blaze on!

Graveyard Speed-Play

As the year progresses to March, we are seeing more and more of Spring winning a battle against Winter for climatic dominance. Yesterday was such a day, and the Playmakers Racing squad took advantage of it with a solid fartlek in Mount Hope Cementary. While some runners are coming back from injury and time off after a marathon/indoor racing season, a few of us who are just really beginning to gear up for racing really got after it. One such notable performance yesterday was that of my roommate Scott (who may be the only one reading this blog :) ) who, despite only starting to run about 6 weeks ago after a 3 month layoff due to a sacral stress fracture, busted out a solid performance that was even faster than when he did the same workout last year. Donnie Richmond, Jake Flynn, and Nick Katsafares are some of the others that were up there with Scott. Great work guys! I'm also going to take a minute to pat myself on my back, as Scott pointed out to me this morning that I ran the workout in about the same time that he did the previous year, when he was well ahead of anyone else that did the workout. So great job self! Keep at it. :)
As the racing season is starting to near, my racing schedule is becoming more definitive. Right now, I am planning on doing a rust-busting race in Port Huron with Scott and Jerome the weekend before Irish Jig, which will be my next race. After that, the Martian 10k at the beginning of April will probably be my last road race before heading to the track, with EMU twilight and Hillsdale Gina Relays on the Schedule. After that, I'll probably run either at Concordia or the University of Michigan, before returning to the roads at the Bancorp mile. My next race will be a mile put on by Playmakers during the Junior High Honor Roll Meet. I hope to find an 800 m to race shortly after that. My Spring season will likely conclude in Indianapolis, where I will be running in either the AMC race series or USA 8k champs, depending on how my season is looking at that point.
With a racing schedule more or less put into place, its time to start getting after it. I have some pretty high goals for this season, and its time to get after it. Lets get ready to blaze!

...I'm such a dork.  :)

Next up: Cross-training