Getting ready for the month of fitness

I have returned from my business trip to Canada where I managed not to gain too much weight, maybe a pound, maybe. I am also happy that I was able to get a few days of exercise in while I was there, which really helped keep me from feeling fat and lazy, even though I was working 14 hour days with Tim.

I have been thinking of how I am going to fit in 2.5 to 3 hour workouts 5 to 6 days per week with everything else that is going on at work and my life. I am going to have to be extremely committed and I will be challenged to meet my goal. I am not intimidated by this, I am actually looking forward to the challenge.

Month of fitness challenge

I was at the gym the other day sitting in the dry sauna and an Ironman Triathlete and I got to talking. He informed me he was in his "month of fitness". Of course I inquired what the hell is a month of fitness? After we talked about this for a bit, I realized this is something I would love to do with my friends and family.

What is a month of fitness you ask?
A month of fitness is something you do only once a year. You set aside one month, where you give up everything you enjoy for your health and your fitness. You give up all of your vices, such as drinking, junk food, soda, smoking or whatever other vice(s) you may have.

Yes, this idea came from an Ironman, so they know how to suffer for long periods. During his month of fitness he runs 65 to 80 miles a week, rides a couple hundred miles a week and swims 4 to 5 days a week. No, I am not asking everyone, or anyone for that matter, to do what this guy is doing. Well... Not exactly.

The point of this challenge is to get your body healthy, possibly even get over some bad habits, increase your fitness and hopefully some of the good habits stick.

Here are some ideas/guidelines. Give up the refined foods. No white flour, if you must have bread, it has to be whole wheat or whole grain. You get bonus points for no bread. Give up soda, diet and regular, fast food, french fries, fried foods, all of it. Maybe you have a pretty healthy diet, but you just have one bad thing, like stopping at McDonald's for breakfast. Cross those bad habits out for a month!

From a fitness perspective, commit to an exercise goal that will challenge you! Maybe that is walking to the end of the block and back three times a day, maybe that is an hour of walking a day or crazy like that Ironman who is running 80 miles a week, then cycling and swimming! It has to be challenging. This could be anything, it could be weights in the gym, swimming, cycling or even just playing ball with your kids.

Part of this challenge means you have to give up more than the foods and do some exercise. This may mean you will have to cancel on some dates you have, maybe not go out with friends that Friday night so you can squeeze in another hour or two of fitness. This is for one month, your family and friends will be understanding and supportive as this is a goal for you and your health.

For those of us who are building up to a big summer with Half-Ironman's, Endurance Duathlon's, Marathon's and other events, this is a great time to build up some good base miles, trim down and possibly integrate new training for a winter month. Also, could you imagine coming in to the spring with such a great fitness level!

Now, I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions. I truly think they are horrible because people often set unrealistic goals, fail and go back to where they were or worse. If you want to do something, pick a date and DO IT!!! However, I think January is the perfect month. It is after the holiday's which everyone gains a few pounds during but it is not during the holidays. Come on, who can do Thanksgiving or Christmas without eating some of your favorite home made foods. I'm not cruel...

The rules are easy. Find a friend or family member who you will be accountable to for the month of January. It is ideal if you find someone who will be doing it with you. This person doesn't even need to be at the same fitness level as you. Here are some ideas.

Set your goal of exercising for X hours a week. Sorry, not goal, this is not a goal, this is a COMMITMENT to you and your family. Your friend may be committed to a different goal, but you both will be held accountable for the commitment. Of course you can do betting as to who will achieve what goals, or personal rewards. You hit your commitment for the entire month, maybe you can buy that new pair of shoes you have been looking at!

Another option, say you are going to run, bike and/or swim X distance each week for the month. Or who runs the most miles, wins a prize bought by the loser.

Ultimately this is for you and you will be the winner. Commit to a goal and accomplish it. Eat right and be super fit for a month. Just one month!

Push yourself and you will be surprised.

If you are in, leave a comment with your commitment. Get a friend to join you and get them to post as well.

My commitment:
I am committing to 15 hours per week of fitness. This is a time based commitment for me as I do not know what is going to happen with the stress fracture in my foot yet. I may end up doing a lot of swimming, cycling and weights, we will see. I am honestly gonna try and stretch out 20 hours if work doesn't get too hectic.

That was my fitness goal.

My food commitment is that I will stop drinking soda for the month. That is a huge one for me. In addition I will stay as far away from refined starches, such as white breads and pasta's. I will not touch fried foods and I will try and increase my protein intake drastically.

Anyone willing to join me? What are you going to commit to?

Yes, it has been too long

I need to start updating the blog more often. A quick run down since my last blog post.

I completed the Eugene Marathon, but I was nowhere near as fast as I had hoped/expected. But, I now have a new respect for the distance, that is for sure. I plan on doing another marathon in 2010, maybe Portland or Seattle. We will see.

I have transitioned fully over to barefoot/minimalist running. I know it seems odd, and maybe I am an odd duck. But I have done quite a bit of reading and research and ultimately what it boils down to is there is not a single piece of legitimate research out there that shows running shoes reduce injuries. To the contrary, there is research suggesting modern shoes cause injuries because our feet lose contact (feeling) with what the ground is doing. In addition, modern running shoes promote heel striking, which causes more impact on all of the joints from your ankles all the way up! As an experiment of one I have found that I do have more issues with my IT bands and knees when I run in shoes.

With that revelation about not using shoes any more, I now have a stress fracture in my second metatarsal. YAY! It was a freak accident, which sucked. I was running on a downhill at night in the rain. And when it is raining at night I have a hard time seeing the contours of the road and some objects. As I was running down this hill I landed on a large rock, maybe an inch in diameter, with a fairly pointed side facing up. This hit right where my second toe meets my foot. This caused some immediate pain that I at first thought had cut my foot and/or broke something. Thankfully I was wearing my Vibram Five Fingers which kept it from cutting me. It was painful to continue running but I kind of shrugged it off and finished my run, which was just over a mile.

I continued running for another week and a half. Every time I ran, my foot would feel better, and if I was off of my foot, it would start hurting as soon as I put any weight on it. After a week and a half of the pain not going away, I decided it was time to go see a podiatrist. The podiatrist informed me that I do have a stress fracture in my second metatarsal. So, I am off of running for 3 to 8 weeks as I am in a walking cast.

Although I am not happy that I am now off of running, just as I was getting to the point where I could do runs at a sub 8:00/mile pace, I am looking at this as an opportunity.

I was originally thinking of doing an endurance duathlon this summer, but I have decided maybe this is the perfect opportunity to look at doing a triathlon. So, I have switched over to weight training, swimming and cycling. The weight training is a good thing to do during the winter months anyway. But now I am going to integrate swimming, which I had not originally planned to do this winter. This opens up the possibility of doing a triathlon, which I had previously not considered. We will see how my swimming workouts go, but I may sign up for a Triathlon instead. We will see...

Okay, so, there is an update. Hopefully many more to come.

Getting ready for the Eugene Marathon - which is this weekend

Just a quick note.

My hotel for this weekend sent me a confirmation that I have my rooms for two nights.

I also have received an email from the folks at Eugene Marathon with my bid number, which is 149. Wonder how I got such a low number? They say there will be over 6,000 people running the marathon this year, how cool!

According to the race organizer, you will be able to log on to www.eugenemarathon.com and be able to keep track of my progress through the race.

What has been going on with my fitness

A week from tonight I will be in Eugene hoping to get a good nights rest for the Eugene Marathon. I am very nervous about this, but I am also confident that I will finish it.

I am still losing weight steadily, but I am definitely trying to curb any weight loss, or at least keep it to a minimum. But, I am also struggling not to gain weight. See, I am used to eating 2,500 to 4,000 calories a day, depending on my workouts. However, before a marathon you taper your workouts, which is basically under training so your body is well rested for Marathon day. But, this means my calorie requirements are closer to 2,000 to 2,700 calories a day. So, I am having to be careful to watch my calories.

I am down to 221 pounds, but I have been trying not to lose much or any weight lately. I am asking a lot of my body by asking it to do a marathon and I am not wanting to ask it to lose weight aggressively, and run 26.2 miles. It is not a good idea at all.

Overall, I am feeling good, my body is feeling right, my legs are feeling fresh. However, I am already looking past the marathon, and I have a definite plan for this summer. It is too late to do anything big on the bike, like a double century, and I am not sure I want to do Seattle to Portland again anyway. I am going to work on being faster on the bike and on the run. I have a pretty good pace on the bike. Over the long haul I can average pretty good speeds, but I can't sprint on the bike to save my life. I just don't have that "top end". The same goes for my running, but I am a slow runner all the way around.

For the summer, I am planning on running two to three times a week, and riding three or more times per week. I am planning to run a half marathon at least two to three times a month, training runs, not showing up at races. The other days I am going to work on intervals and and overall increase of my pace and running economy. Two of my co-workers, David and Tim, are going to be doing track workouts every Wednesday at Dunniway Track and I am going to join them.

For the bike, I am going to be doing hill repeats and intervals at least one day a week, and the weekends will be doing 50 to 75 mile training rides.

The end goal is I will get faster, but I will also be within reach of doing any standard distance race, bike or run, and be able to perform at a respectable (to me) level.

My goal around these would be to do a half marathon race at 1:50 or less and for a bike race, I would like to actually contend for a top ten finish. I can do bike races and I can do well wen it doesn't matter, but I have no finishing power, and that is what I am truly looking for.

Oh, and on top of that, I want to drop to below 200 pounds by end of the summer. Ultimately, I want to get down to 195 pounds. That will be 100 pounds lost, which I think would be a cool thing to say. Once I get there, I am going to try and love weights, or at least tolerate them. I want to get my upper body built up a bit so I don't have a wire thin upper body and massive legs. I am not looking to get huge, just to have a well rounded body.

Why it is hard to be me - Sort of

Okay, first lets get one thing off the plate. Mom went back in for more cancer checks today and she now has an official-official clean bill of health!

So, I am starting to track my calories to make sure I am not eating too much or too little. Too much and I am going to gain weight, too little and I am not going to lose weight because I will put my body in to starvation mode. Another thing with too little or too much is your body does not perform at it's peak.

I have the weirdest problem, when I am working out, I have a really hard time getting in enough calories because I tend not to get too hungry most days. So, today I ate what felt like a ton! Here is what I ate.

Breakfast: 240 calories

• 2 protein breakfast bars

Mid-Morning snack: 461 calories

• 1 apples worth of dried apples, all natural (thank you Trader Joe's)
• 1/4 cup of high Omega Fat trail mix
• 2 ounces of turkey breast meat
• 9 cherry tomatoes
• 1 banana

Lunch: 432 calories

• 2.5 ounces of turkey breast meat
• 8 cherry tomatos
• 3 pieces of fiber rye wafer (no yeast, very low carb, high fiber)
• 1 bowl of healthy choice clam chowder.
  

Afternoon snack: 402 calories

• 1 ounce of honey spread over 3 pieces of fiber rye wafer
• 1 fuji apple
• 1 banana
• 1 strawberry fruit bar, all natural

Dinner: 965 calories, I was way behind on calories, had to force myself to eat big

• Foot long sub from subway (Turkey and Ham, no condiments)
• 16 ounces of Orange Juice (Usually would not have OJ, normally I would have something else, but I chose this as it was calories and no caffeine)

Okay, I know some of my friends and family would say everything on this list was disgusting! However, that is not the hard part. Not one thing crossed my lips today that did not taste good. Well, actually, the OJ was way too sweet for me.

For me, the hard part, I felt like I was constantly eating all day! It was too much damn food, but I was trying to actually hit my calorie goal.

I ate 2,540 calories, and I was still 225 calories short of my goal, which was 500 calories below my calories burned number. I burned 3,265 calories for the day after you include my daily calorie burn and the amount of calories I burned on my run today.

So, I am just bitching that I feel like I am almost force feeding myself and I have to eat a ton of food every day. Yes, I could easily get these calories in by adding a ton of carbs or fried foods in my diet, but I am not doing that.

So, it really isn't hard to be me, and I am happy I have my health, and I have the ability to be in this situation. However, today was really difficult to eat enough calories, and I am realizing I am drastically undereating again, so I gotta keep up on the calories. The other problem is now that I am tapering, it means I will not be working out nearly as much, so I have to be careful not to get used to consuming 2500 to 2800 calories a day and then drop my mileage, i.e. calorie burn, and end up gaining too much weight.

The call I didn't want to recieve - again

For a little background, I took mom to an oncology appt late last week to see if she had any signs of cancer. a week before this appointment she had a mamogram done so the Oncologist could review that as well.

The appointment went really well, great doctor, etc. The blood work does not show any signs of cancer, which is great. However, for some reason the damn mammogram has not come back and it has been six days. Mom and I thought, well, if they aren't rushing it back to the doctor, it must not be anything urgent. However, before we left the doctors assistant asked us if we had time to wait around for them to actually get the results back. She called over to the mammogram folks to get the tests faxed over ASAP. After we waited for a while, the assistant told us she has called multiple times but still no dice, but she would call Mom's cell as soon as they had the results.

Well, that ended up being this morning, 10 days later! At 8:30 this morning, they finally called mom with the results. It turns out there were some abnormalities in her breasts and they need to do further tests. DAMNIT!!!

They are getting her in tomorrow to have more tests done, but only a doctor can give her the official results and the technicians can not. We are not sure when she will get official word yet.

Getting this call again, sucked. However, can you imagine what Mom is going through?

Weighing in - end of week 2

Okay, so today is a little past two weeks, I guess it would be two weeks and two days? So, the results are interesting now, and I am not sure how to put this down to paper. You can read the wanderings of a rambling mind I suppose.

Two weeks in, no story of holy cow I lost twenty pounds! Of course, I would have ate 5,000 calories a day to make sure that didn't happen. I am trying to run a marathon and that fast of weight loss would scare the crap out of me. Also, I think that kind of weight loss is seen by very obese people who have a lot of water weight, etc. So, with that said, how am I doing?

Well, I am feeling great! So, we will start with that. My body really seems to be changing shape and I wish I would have taped myself because I think there is a visible change.

So, I started at 230, right? Monday of this week I was at 223.2, but it was the day after my 19 mile run, so you kinda expect to drop some weight after a long run like that, and I think I was mildly dehydrated after Sundays run, and under-fueled. I tried to rehydrate myself Sunday night and all day Monday, I drank a lot of water! After actually get hydrated again, I was at 224.8 pounds, which was also the two week anniversary. That is 5.2 pounds in two weeks, and I changed nothing in my diet, and I didn't even train as much as I wanted to, and I am out of that damn rut of 230! Also, I am at my lowest adult weight ever, even after both Seattle to Portlands.

One big thing I learned, it really does help you burn the calories when you work out! Sunday I didn't start my run until 1 PM, so I had breakfast and a very light early lunch with the supplement for both. On the run, I nailed my fueling plan pretty well, but I found myself bonking at 16 miles. After doing some analysis of my HR and everything, the only logical, yet unscientific, thing I could conclude was maybe the supplements are actually causing me to burn more calories? Enough so to effect my fueling plan. What this means is I will not be taking it on the day of my long runs any more, at least not before my runs. Although, on the bike I would do it and drive myself in to the ground, but that is for the summer. :)

The interesting thing though, my pace for the run was very good for me, especially considering I had a 13.8 mph head or side wind for the first 14 miles before it was finally at my back. My HR was nice and steady, and low, my pace was kicking ass. I was running sub 10's with a head wind that was so heavy I had a hawk flapping his wings damn hard to go barely faster than I across the road from me. That was with a good low HR. So, I also think it has helped me aerobically, possibly, but there are many other factors there too. But, it's claims are weight loss, not supercharging your body. Although they do use all natural ingredients which are wholesome and are good for your body, so anything is possible.

On to weight loss. Like I said if this supplement could get me off this plateau I am having, and I change nothing, I would consider it successful. So, I am down 5 pounds in two weeks and below that 227.2 that I couldn't break for ages. I am very happy with that, and I really do feel we may be on to something good, maybe even something great!!! I sure hope so!

Holy cow it has been busy

Okay, I am now realizing just how over worked I have been, and I am sure the rest of my team as well.
I have been catching up on bills, and other mail, from the last time I have had time to go through it all. First, an explanation, all of my bills are on autopay, I just check my mail to make sure nothing is getting out of control. So, it is not a critical thing...
I was looking at mail from November of 08! Ouch! I was finally getting to see friends holiday cards, and pictures of some damn cute kids. So, yeah, it has been too damn long since I have had time to catch up on maintenance items. Thankfully the last week and a half has been "normal".
I am very glad I committed to a marathon this year, it forced me to break from work to keep my fitness up. Although I didn't get all of my runs in, I did get most of them. Besides that, I have not done much else over the past 5 months.
I have had dinner with friends twice. Once with Tony and Joanne, and once with David and Stefanie, excluding family holiday dinners. Oh, wait, one other time at Shawn and Tonya's with the family, which was great.
I have canceled appointments (dinner/drinks) with friends, the wife and the family. I have canceled a week with one of my best friends (I have 3 I call best friends) that I have not seen for over a year. I have not returned some phone calls, and a general sign of me not having ANY TIME, as I love spending time with my friends and family.
So, I feel like I am a bad friend and I am hoping over the next few weeks to catch up with some friends and enjoy life for a bit. Again, let me restate, I feel bad because work and working out have taken all of my attention, oh and some bowling I guess, and my friends and family have suffered to some degree. Not that I am not going to work, but I am hoping work won't take all of my free time.
So, if it has been too long since we have gone out for drinks/dinner/ride/run let me know via email or comments below and we will catch up.

Maybe it is all placebo

Okay, I am open to the placebo affect theory. However, I am going to share some other interesting things I have noticed.

I am falling to sleep much easier, and requiring less sleep. No more reading for an hour or two every night just to wind down. Key thing here, I am also requiring about 45 minutes less sleep per night. Okay, placebo is possible, although nobody told me this should happen, just something I noticed.

My heart rate when working out is staying lower, giving me faster average pace on my runs. There are several factors that this could be attributed to, but something I have noticed over the past week. Oh, and my long run, until I had muscle issues, was going well, definitely fastest sustained pace I have ran yet on a long run.

My mental clarity has no doubt improved. This could also be greatly impacted by the fact that I have a huge project which is now completed. My stress levels have gone down, and I have even found time to relax.

So, as you can see, their is placebo and outside factors which could all have similar affects on my performance, both mentally and physically. However, I honestly think this is too big of a change within one week. It is not like my job just became easy, I have plenty of problems on my plate, and plenty of stress, but I am noticing I am reacting to it much better. Who knows, just sharing.

Fell off the wagon a bit.

So, I stopped posting daily weight updates. Thought about it, sounded about as exciting as watching turtles race. But a quick update.

It has been a week of repairs around here.
My brakes were pulsating in my Infiniti. The car needs new pads and rotors all the way around. Awesome!!! Infiniti dealership was almost $3,000 to do it. Brake Team, $565 with better pads, and comparable rotors. I don't like paying $565, but I like it much better than $3,000. That was Monday.

Monday night, the dishwasher would not drain. I could not figure out the problem, so I had to call a appliance repair shop to fix my dishwasher. Although Kristin wanted to just replace the damn thing. There was an obstruction in a very bizarre place as it turns out. The guy fixed that and made some small tweeks, and our dishwasher is washing better than it has in a while. Way cool. The repair was $72, which wasn't too bad considering it included his drive time. The repair was done by Appliance Guys, which I found from Angies List. These guys were excellent from first call to completion. Clean, effeciant and they even took care of other small things to make our appliances better.

Tomorrow is all about repairing me. I am getting a hour long massage tomorrow to hopefully loosen up some of my muscles and tendons in my legs and back. Cristie Cooke is my massuse and she does a great deep tissue massage that always leaves my muscles feeling much better when I leave.

As far as weight goes, I kinda fell behind on weighing myself today. Monday I was down to 226.2 pounds, which is almost 4 pounds in one week, which is pretty amazing. However, Monday night with a pile of dishes we couldn't do, and having the kitchen torn up trying to fix the dishwasher, we ordered pizza for dinner. I forgot to weigh myself this morning, but I am sure I gained some weight. In six good days, I lost almost 4 pounds. What if science really has found an all natural solution to weight loss? Time will only tell, but my hopes are up.

Made it out today

I made it out today, hoping to get a good long run in. The route I was going to run, I have ridden over a hundred times on my bike. Some sections always have a little wind, but if it is windy day, this route is always nasty. Not until I got out there did the wind really start to pick up. It was such a stiff wind, it was slowing me down by two minutes per mile for a few miles. Then, it rained. Then, it hailed! Then it got sunny and I sweated my ass off, then rain and wind. It was interesting weather.

I was feeling extremely well at 10 miles. My body was loose, my legs were still full of energy and my stride was great. I stopped to fill up my water bottles, dry off my my hat and hair to stop the sweat running in to my eyes. Then I sat and cussed at the hail. After getting my butt going again, my legs were no longer fresh, my hamstrings tight and my stride was off. I made it a mile or so, then my back had a spasm that caused me to stop running. I walked for a few minutes and started running again to start warming back up. My back was tight, stopping my arm swing and it seemed to mess with my stride. Shortly after running again I was starting to get hit with a very heavy right to left wind, which forced me to lean to the right and at times blew me left quite a bit.

At thirteen miles, where my hamstring and glute locked up and started shooting pain. I walked, stretched and walked some more. Nothing would stop the pain while I ran. It was sharp pain, but nothing crazy. However, I was not going to be dumb and push through it. I ended up walking for another 2.5 miles. Or, should I say I did some mixture of walk and hobble, while cussing under my breath and leaning in to the wind.

I learned one key thing today, do not diddly dally while refilling water bottles and get tight. I tighten up much quicker running than I did on the bike, and I have to be aware of this.

This week I am making an appointment with Christi, my masseuse, to get a massage. She is great at giving a deep massage to work out my muscles. In addition, I am going to my Osteopathic Physician to get any spine/hip issues worked out that I may have.

I am not that disappointed about today actually. I still got a good run in, I learned something, I learned more about my fueling plan and I think I made one error which caused me the problem which I am hoping to avoid next time.

It's the wrong day

I woke up this morning with my muscles and tendons feeling extremely tight. In addition, the blister problem on my foot is JUST NOT GOING AWAY!!!! This kinda irritates me, I have been spending 30 minutes a night stretching and using the foam roller, but my hips are still tight, and my run on Thursday was cut to three miles because of my hip. I have a lot of stuff going on this weekend, so, after making my decision not to run today, I called around to clear up most of my Sunday.

So, I am going to see how I am feeling tomorrow, either I am going to run my 18, or I am going to cut it short at a half-marathon distance. I am going to try and get a run in, but I have decided it is better to play it safe than to take the risk of hurting myself. I am also feeling like I am over trained and I am finally coming around. It definitely was not that I have been running too much, it is the combination of everything in my life. Work has been crazy and stressful, which is calming down a bit, which adds to all of the stresses on my body. It is time for a little R&R to make sure I take care of my body, and spirit. I am hoping tomorrow brings a looser body and brighter mind.

Weighing in - Day 3

So, I somehow gained yesterday. Back to 227.2. Damnit Jim! I am not too worried. I am fully expecting fluctuations from day to day. I did have to cut my run short yesterday (3.5 miles). I had my hip pain come back a bit yesterday. Not much, but I didn't want to push it and have bad pain like I did this last weekend. I spent 30 minutes stretching and using the foam roller to loosen up my right leg. I am hoping to be able to complete all 18 miles tomorrow, running.

Weighing in - Day 2

Let me start by saying, yesterday was an odd one. I was very thirsty yesterday and I drank six liters of water. Usually this would mean I would either stay at my weight or gain upwards of a pound. For reference, I usually drink 3 to 5 liters, and each liter is two pounds. So, you expect it, but I don't worry about gaining weight from water, that is good weight in my opinion.

I stepped on the scale this morning expecting either no weight loss, or maybe up a bit. But, noooo, I am down again this morning. 226.2, or 3.8 pounds in two days.

Also, figure I should maybe post about what exercise I am doing, or when I am not exercising. Day 1, I did a 4 mile run, yesterday I did 8 miles. Today, I am hoping to get 4 or 5 miles.

Weighing in - Day 1

This morning, to my suprise, I weighed in at 227.2 lbs. That is 2.8 pounds lost in one day! I am not holding my breath just yet. I can swing a pound or two pretty easily, although I would not have expected to lose almost three pounds in one day, especially while rehydrating yesterday. That is really abnormal for me, usually it is 1 to 1.5 pounds max either way per day.

As a side not, I did not feel anything different yesterday. For example, some people who I know who have tried things like Hydroxy Cut notice they are jittery or they feel extremely warm. Hydroxy Cut is a thermogenic, which means it increases your internal body temperature. The research I did in to this product does not suggest it is a thermogenic. Had it been, I wouldn't be taking it while training for a marathon. The last thing I need is to be running hotter, sweating more and having a hard time keeping myself hydrated. No thank you!

So, was day 1 a success, a fluke or placebo effect? Only time will tell.

My running dilema

I am hoping someone can help me answer this question I have.

I am really bummed that I missed out on the Shamrock run, plus a little more distance. I was really looking to the shamrock run to help me figure out a baseline for a hard effort, along with figuring out some fueling strategies. Now, I have no full race experience yet this year.

The good news, this is the first long run I have missed out of my marathon training plan. This coming weekend is supposed to be 12 miles as my long run. Since I missed this last weekend, I figured I would do the 18 mile run I was supposed to do last weekend, this coming weekend, and count last weekend as my short weekend. Easy enough.

So, here are some options I have thought of.

1. Just stick to the plan, and use my long runs to tune in my Perpetuem and Endurolytes fueling.
2. Get a race in still. Do Race for the Roses Half Marathon which happens to be on a 12 mile step back week. But, it would mean I would do this on the weekends (19 miles, half marathon at race pace, 20 miles) with no real break weekends. After the 20 mile run, I start tapering for my marathon!
3. Maybe do the half marathon, but do it at a non-race pace, maybe at my goal marathon pace of 10 min/mile
4. Quit worrying, having a race in is not that necessary. Note to advice offerers, I have only done one half marathon race, and one 15k race, so I am not exactly experienced.

On the run again

I went for a 4 mile run today and no hip issues!

It was really obvious that I did not get my long run this weekend. I was thinking I was running really easy, but my speed was really high for my recovery pace, as was my HR. I had no intention of going hard, but my body just wanted to RUN! I would try and slow down, then a couple minutes go by and I would look down and I was going too fast/hard again.

So, I am happy to be on the run again.

Let's start this thing!

So, yesterday I received the package of liquid dietary supplements, so today I started the "weight loss protocol".

So, let's start off with some baselines here. I have a very accurate scale which they say is accurate to +/- 0.2 lbs. In addition it gives me all kinds of other data. Some of the other key points worth tracking is body fat and hydration. Now the body fat and hydration are directly correlated on this weight scale. So, if I drink a ton of water, my water % (% of weight which is water) goes up, and my body fat goes down. If I don't drink much water, my water % goes down, and my body fat goes up. So, the Shamrock run had me in a bit of a I don't give a damn attitude, so I didn't drink much water the last couple days, which will throw off my starting water and hydration percent.

This morning, I weighed myself at 230.0 lbs. I was at 23.5% body fat and 51% water weight.

I would normally expect my weight to go up a bit tomorrow, .5 to 1.0 lbs because I drank a lot of water today to hydrate myself again. Although, this is not a hard and fast rule, but it is normal for me to gain a little weight if I slack off drinking, then hydrate again. Then, usually, I will lose the weight within a couple days.

So, some interesting things to note and general ramblings.

The protocol for an athlete is to take one ounce of the supplement with the first four meals of the day (four ounces/day). Their is not much in their protocol for endurance athletes, but on the same token, we are all kinda strange in what we will/won't eat and how much.

Their protocol for a sedentary adult is a no-carb diet. Do not think Atkins, there is no unlimited bacon here for you. Also, the quantities probably add up to about 1,000 calories a day. Then, drink 8 to 10 glasses of water each day. Drink one glass of water before each meal. Let me start this by saying, if I could get every obese sedentary person to follow this protocol, they will all lose weight fairly quickly. However, I am assuming this product accelerates weight loss. Again, their is government accepted studies which validate their hypothesis. So, trying to be unbiased, and calling that for what it is.

Now, for me, I do subscribe that a no carb diet would be the best thing, although I have my vice and that is carbs. I do limit my carbs quite a bit from where I was, but I have a tortilla shell for lunch instead of bread or the occasional breadstick at Olive Garden. I drink a minimum of 2 liters of water every day and upwards to 5 liters per day. So I do get more than enough water. Also, because I am very active, I will not be eating 1,000 calories a day. I will continue eating as I normally do, about 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day.

I will keep up on posting my weight, etc. to keep everyone up to date.

Shamrock run race report

Kristin and I woke up early this morning, both of us a little groggy. After getting all of our gear together, and listening to the wind howling outside, we set off in the rain to get drenched.

We arrived to the race around 8 (the race started at 8:40), and wondered around a bit and found Tim and David at the Fit Right NW tent hanging out. We talked to them really quick and headed off to the bag check to drop off some of our heavier rain gear and use the restroom. After using the restroom I was planning on running for a mile as a warm up to the race. I was planning on running along the path in Tom McCall Waterfront Park. As it would turn out, the 5k fitness walk was using that path, and all roads around were being used for races, etc. So, I decided to just do a nice warm up at the start of the race and I would have to run a little longer post race to get some mileage in.

I started the race at about the right place in the pack as I only had to run around a few people, and only a few people had to get past me. The gradual uphill started after about a half mile, and nothing was special there. The main good thing is people spread out better when the road goes up. After 2.5 miles, the first steep climb starts and the large hill, a road named Terwilliger. I was feeling good all the way up the main hill. I am not saying I was fast, just feeling good! On the first downhill, I started to get in a nice stride going at about a 7:30/mile pace. I then climbed up another short hill and then back down to start the last elevation game of the race. At the bottom of the downhill there is a gradual left turn to go up the hill.

When I was going around this corner I suddenly felt this large shooting pain in my right hip and when I put my foot down the pain was sharp again and my leg would not hold any of the weight and I almost fell over. I then stopped to walk for a few feet and see if I couldn't "walk it out". I decided to take in some water and Perpetuam and walk up the last 1oo yard uphill. Towards the top, I tried running again and I had severe sharp shooting pain again. This was the end of the race as I was not going to risk Eugene Marathon and try and push through sharp shooting pain. I was pretty upset though that my race had ended 5.5 miles in.

I started walking again and got to the next aid station at which point I hoped there would be a shuttle back as I was not running again. I made it to the aid station to find out there is no shuttle to take me back to the finish. Yuck! I had to walk the rest of the way in in the cold, wind and rain. To add insult to injury, I had dressed to run, which means lots of heat generated by my body, not a walk so I was damn cold at the end of the 9.3 miles.

Along the way Kristin caught up to me and she saw me walking on the side of the road. She walked with me for a few seconds while I told her why I was walking. She offered to walk the rest of the way in with me, but this was her race too! I told her to catch all the people who passed us while we were talking so she could finish her race at her best. It was really nice to see Kristin though, and I would have enjoyed her walking with me, but I was good doing the walk alone, with my own thoughts.

So, I thought I was going to beat my time from last year, I think I even used the word crush. Instead, I got crushed today. However, when my hip gave out, I was at the highest elevation point, with all downhill the rest of the way and my pace was faster than what I finished the race in last year. So, I definitely was going to beat my time, but not 100% of my body agreed with my desires.

The dillema's

I may be making a mistake, or I may be saving myself, I am not sure which yet.

Tomorrow is the Shamrock Run and I am doing the 15k (9.3 mile) race. By the way, I plan on crushing my time last year, or at least I hope. Anyway, I am supposed to run 18 miles tomorrow for my long run for the week. However, this is on my top races for the year, and definitely my favorite spring race, so I am doing this race. I am going to warm up for a mile or so before the start of the race. I am then going to run the 9.3 mile race. After the race I plan on running another 5 or so miles, at a much easier pace.

Here is where my dilemma comes in. My old trusty pair of New Balance 1062's are worn out and after 7 miles, they start hurting my left knee. Enough so, that I think 15+ miles would cause me a serious injury to my knee, taking me out for a while. This is not an acceptable option.

Option 2, use my New Balance 1062's which are broken in, however, at 4 miles they start giving me blisters, and after 17 miles, especially with it wet out. I will have one nasty blister!

Option 3, use the new New Balance 1063 Wides, which should not give me blisters. However, who wants to go for a 15+ mile run on a brand new pair of shoes?

Option 1 is out! Option 2 is not making me happy, and Option 3 just sounds dumb! So, I am doing a hybrid of dumb. I am going to wear my brand new New Balance 1063 shoes. I am going to bring two more shoes with me. I will have my trail running shoes and my new 1062's in the car, which will be close to the start/finish of the race. If the NB 1063's cause me issues, I will have my trail shoes. If those cause me issues, I will deal with the blisters, but I am going to do my damnedest to get at least 15 miles in.

Ultimately, I am hoping my New Balance 1063 Wides are the ticket and I will have no blisters, or knee issues.

Wish me luck!

Trying something different

Since November 11th 2008, my weight has fluctuated from 237 to 228 lbs. The holidays have something to do with the highs. Then, I have been traveling for work quite a bit, which also does me NO favors. However, for two months, I have not been able to get away from 230 pounds plus or minus two pounds. This is frustrating because I have been running about 30 miles a week (when work allows) and I am eating fairly well when I am not traveling.

A couple of things have also hindered my weight loss goals. In the last 8 weeks I have traveled quite a bit, and it is hard to eat healthy when you are on the road. Especially when you are with co-workers so you go and eat out every meal. So, just as I have gotten down to 228 pounds, I end up traveling and gaining a couple pounds.

So, where is this leading you ask? Well, my uncle Gordy has started being a distributor for an all natural liquid supplement that is supposed to increase your bodies ability to burn fat. I am optimistically skeptical about this, but more optimistic than skeptical. I believe some people use these things and credit everything to the "super pill", but in reality, they started drinking more water, ate better and started to exercise. That alone will help any obese person lose weight!

What I like about the product, and its claims:
It is all natural products
It helps to prevent carbohydrate absorption, which in turn reduces insulin, which then reduces fat storage. This promotes your body to use its own fat.

For me, I have pretty detailed logs of my weight, and I eat very consistently the same things every day and my food at home is consistent. So, I have decided I will give this product a shot and see what it can really do.

Ultimately, I am hoping it gets me off of this plateau I have been on. Dreaming that it shoves me off the plateau and down the weight loss cliff and I shed the pounds. So, this will be an experiment of one, lets see what happens. Oh, I almost forgot! I will not be changing my eating or fluid consumption, and I won't doing much different for my work outs.

I don't think I will receive the product for a week or so. Once I receive it, I will start giving regular updates as to its efficacy. Honestly, I am hoping this works really well.

As a side note, my uncle lost 14 pounds in the first two weeks and he says he didn't change anything in his life, not even the alcohol.

The ugliest blister I have ever had

I did my 17 mile run yesterday in a new pair of shoes, which I thought I had properly broke in. I think I was pretty damn wrong!

About 7 miles in to the run I noticed I was starting to get a blister on the ball of my left foot (big spot behind your big toe). I thought, well, today is my long run, no need to let a blister stop me, I will deal with it when I am done. Around mile 13 I was really starting to notice the pain from it, and I was noticing that now the blister was moving around to the inside of my foot, up around the area on the side of my foot. This is not the area you step on, this is on the soft skin on the side of your foot. I still had 4 miles to go, and every step, I could feel the pain.

The problem with this is your body naturally wants to compensate and not step on the ball of your foot. When you allow your body to compensate you tend to injure other parts of your body. This can be the small bones on the outside of your foot because you are landing and possibly pushing off of your pinky toe area instead of your big toe area. The other common injury would be to rotate your foot to block stepping on the sore spot and hurting your ankle, knee or hip. I had to focus on keeping my foot landing right, and just dealing with the pain.

I made it to 17.3 miles, but I was definitely hurting at the end.

When I got home and took off my shoes I immediately looked at my left foot to see what the damage was. It was not pretty. I had a blister on the ball of my foot that is about an inch long, and a half inch wide. Then, on the side of my foot I have another blister which is slightly larger than a quarter.

The interesting thing about this blister is it is red, not quite like a blood blister, but not a skin color either. The other interesting thing about this blister, was when I pressed on the blister on the bottom of my foot, the blister on the side of my foot will fill up with fluid. When I pushed on the side one, the blister on the bottom of my foot would fill up with fluid. When I walk, I can feel the fluid moving from under my foot to the on each step, and it hurts!

I decided that I needed to pop it before it popped itself. The reason for this is if it happened to pop while I was running, or even at the office, I would have no control over how much of the blister was open, or even if I would catch it right away. This would have led to a possible infection, which is the last thing I need.

Tonight I popped the blister, and Kristin really wanted to see the color of the puss, so I did it in the bath tub so we could see. It was pretty disgusting. If you can imagine the color of the blood at the bottom of a package of hamburger meat, that is the color of the puss. Or, puss and blood mixed together.

After thoroughly draining the blister(s) I used super glue to seal the opening back up. I then covered it with bag balm and a large bandage. I will be taking it off every night to let it air out, and dressing it back every morning. Letting it air out at night, and then keeping it protected from infection during the day will help it heal as fast as possible. Not to mention, popping it allows me to run on it now. :)

I thought about taking pictures, but it was too disgusting to post, so I decided if I had no pictures, I wouldn't be tempted to post it for you to see.

Another amazing run

I went for a 7 mile run today with Tim and we did some exploring and ended up on this trail next to Lake Okanagan today. We were squeezing this in at the end of the day, but I am so happy we did.

We ran along a steep bank and cliffs that were 70 to 100 feet or more above the lake shore. We would look down and the lake was so clear you could see all of the rocks and some outcroppings underneath the water. We reached one bend which had a wooden bench on it and from this bench you could look to your right and see at least 20 miles down the lake, and then to the left another 10 miles down the other way. Both of these before the lake turns, the lake is huge at 135 km long and 4 to 5 km wider. We made it to the end of the trail and stopped and looked around a bit and saw some amazing houses, one looked large enough to be a hotel, but it was just a house off in the distance!

We were both sitting there stunned and I realized that the sun was behind the mountains, and we still had to get out of the trails and get back to our car. I said to Tim we better take off, and it was a good thing because we did get back in the dark, but got out of the technical stuff in plenty of time.

On the run back as we were running down the trail, the lake was calm and the sun was setting behind the white mountain range across the lake. Today's sunset was a deep red color that lit up the clouds, and what made it even better is that the lake was calm. This created a reflection of the sunset off of the lake, with the white mountains in between the red sky and the red lake. This is somewhere I plan on taking Kristin when we are both in Kelowna. In my opinion, this is about as close to God as you can get.

Good day

Got all of the systems racked, nothing wired yet, but the heavy lifting is done!

Went for a six mile run with Tim this morning before we picked up Sherry at noon. Sherry almost didn't make it through customs! I gotta write a whole big post about customs!

This town is nothing but beautiful scenery everywhere you look. It really reminds me of Montana except more modern and with a ton of trails! The people here are extremely nice.

The hotel we are at has an outdoor water slide, pool and hot tub. Tim, Sherry and I all went to the hot tub. Oh, it is 20 degrees out! Tim and I decided to go down the water slide, which is 4 stories tall, fast and windy! It actually has you dizzy and disoriented by the time you get to the bottom! Yeah, I never thought I would go down a water slide when it was 2o degrees out! How cool, and it wasn't that bad.

Met some locals in the hot tub who were pretty cool and we got to talking about the differences between Canada and US. I never realized that Canada is not as open to free speech and free minds as the US is.

Anyway, off to bed after a shower here in a minute. Tomorrow we are cabling up all of our systems, making them look PRETTY (yes, I am serious, no sloppy wires) and then Tim and I will go for another 6 miles tomorrow.

Today was my first run in almost a week due to work being so crazy and my left knee was not happy with me, so I gotta spend some time stretching tonight because I think it is an IT band that is too tight.

Tony, you gotta come up here in the summer. Maybe we should go and take the wives? I think they have some tri's and du's up here as an excuse to come.

In Kelowna, and not sick

Just a quick note, it has been a long day.
Drove to Kelowna, BC today and the last time I was here I was only here for 1 day and I was extremely sick so I didn't see much of Kelowna.
Got in tonight around 7 and was able to look at Kelowna a bit. What a great town! This town makes me think of Kalispell, but with a bigger economy. I am excited to spend a few days here and see what this town really is like.

Rented a Cadillac Escalade for the trip (we drove a ton of equipment, needed a big SUV). This is my favorite rental I have ever had. An SUV that drives nice, is comfortable as can be, corners well (for an SUV) and is overall pleasant to drive.

Taking yesterday off, hitting it hard today

So, taking off yesterday was probably a good thing. I decided I would try again today.

The morning was raining and windy, and nothing I want to run 14 miles in. Luckily, at noon the skies opened up to blue sky and no more wind! Perfect day for a run!

I started out my run at a good pace, and my heart rate was staying low, and I was feeling good. At mile 6 I decided to up the tempo a bit for a 4 mile stretch of road. Usually this is an okay thing, but I was feeling my oats WAY too much. Around mile 10 my legs started to feel the push and they finally lost their snap, which is not good when you still have 4 miles to go.

I suffered the last four miles because of my "running immaturity". Suffering over the last four miles was good for me mentally, learning what mentally it takes to suffer through is a good thing, right? My new chi running form, along with my new orthotics really put me in a different foot strike and stride, and it caused my hamstrings to fire a little differently. The great thing though, I no longer can feel my ankle roll inside during my foot strike.

At the end of my run, my hamstrings were fried. I made the 14 miles, but I definitely stopped at 14 on the dot. I still had a mile to the house, and I walked on in, enjoyed the weather and the day, while I hobbled my way in.

When I got home, I laid on the floor with my legs up against a wall for a few minutes to let the lactic acid drain out. Then, against my desires, I hopped in the tub and turned on the cold water, only cold water. Kristin set the timer for 5 minutes, but she didn't hear the timer go off. So, I froze my ass off for somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. Then I stretched out a bit. I definitely have stiff hamstrings, but I have no pain anywhere else, which is great.

Next long run, no feeling my oats!

Well, that was a bummer

I started my run this morning to get a few miles in before meeting up with Mike. I got a few minutes in to my run and my Plantar Fascia started hurting me again, sending sharp shooting pains.

Most days, I probably would just walk this off, but I knew what this was. I had not stretched out like I should have and my hips were tight and my form was ugly, so I knew nothing was firing right this morning. Oh, and I got about 3.5 to 4 hours of sleep (call from work at 4:40 AM). I just felt that it was not a wise choice to continue, and I know that sharp shooting pain is your bodies way of saying "You are hurting me". My goal is to do a marathon, not go out and hit every run perfectly. So, I walked out of Forest Park.

I called up Mike and let him know that I wasn't going to do the run today. Which was a real bummer as I haven't seen him in quite some time. However, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

I went home, and Kristin was still asleep, so I crawled back in bed and slept in with her, which was great. We haven't slept in together for probably a couple months, so we were both happy to actually have a fully relaxing day.

14 mile trail run tomorrow

Tomorrow I am doing a 14 mile trail run and I am honestly a little anxious. This will be a long run for me and then to add the elevation gain/loss of Wildwood trail makes it a hard run.

The one saving grace for me, IMHO, is that I have picked up the book Chi Running, and my form is getting in line, and the effort I feel while running is much easier, at least on the muscles and joints, my aerobic still has to work. So, I don't feel nervous about my legs making it, I will WALK IT if I have to. What I am nervous about is that after 5 or 6 miles, I am meeting a friend, who usually makes me work hard when we both start fresh, so now I will have an hour in my legs, and I will bury myself in the pain cave to keep up if I have to, most days. My goal will be to not let him set the pace, and if he pulls away, just let him.
The only other area that I am nervous with is hurting myself on the trail. Most common injury would be rolling an ankle. My problem is I can't resist the trails, so I will be going regardless.

Foxworthy's comments on Montana

I received this in email today, and I associated with most of them. So, for my non-Montana friends, I have highlighted the one's I have experienced personally.

If "vacation" to you means going shopping for the weekend in Great Falls, Billings or Bozeman (while the kids swim at the Comfort Inn), You might live in Montana

If parking your car for the night involves an extension cord, You might live in Montana

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling Through 8 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping That the food will swim by, You might live in Montana

If you're proud that your state makes the national news Primarily because it houses the coldest spot in the nation, You might live in Montana

If you have ever refused to buy something because it's "too Spendy", You might live in Montana

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, You might live in Montana

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't Work there, You might live in Montana

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the Middle of his forehead, You might live in Montana

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, You Might live in Montana

If your town has an equal number of bars & churches, You Might live in Montana

If you know how to correctly pronounce Butte , You might live In Montana

If you measure distance in hours, You might live in Montana .

If your family vehicle is a crew cab pickup, You might live In Montana

If you know several people who have hit deer more than once, You might live in Montana

If you often switch from "heat" to "A/C"in the same day & back again, You might live in Montana

If you can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a Raging blizzard, without flinching, You might live in Montana

If you see people wearing hunting clothes at social events, You might live in Montana

If you've installed security lights on your house and garage And leave both unlocked, You might live in Montana

If the largest traffic jam in your town centers around a High school basketball game, You might live in Montana .

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend or wife Knows how to use them, You might live in Montana

If there are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at Wal-Mart at any given time, You might live in Montana

If there aren't more people at work on Christmas Eve Day than On Opening Deer Rifle Season, You might live in Montana

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you might live in Montana

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, You might live in Montana

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still Winter and road construction, You might live in Montana .

If you can identify a southern or eastern accent, You might live in Montana

If you consider Red Lodge exotic, You might live in Montana . Actually, it wasn’t even Red Lodge, it was Spokane!!!

If your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer Next to your cottonwood, You might live in Montana

If the sunbelt to you means Miles City , You might live in Montana .

If a brat is something you eat, You might live in Montana .

If finding your misplaced car keys involves looking in the ignition, You might live in Montana

If you find 0 degrees a little chilly, You might live inMontana.

Losing parts of my body

One of the things that happens to many runners is getting black toenails, and no, I am not talking about using the fingernail polish either. A black toenail, for runners at least, is usually caused by trail running and accidentally kicking a rock or tree root, or something similar to that. The second way, is you end up getting a pair of shoes that are slightly too small and when running down a steep downhill section, you repeatedly slam your toes in to the front of the toe box on your shoes. The latter, is usually reserved for the idiots and stubborn who don't walk down the hills on that first run.

I can't say I have a glorious tail to tell about some great trail run... Yep, I didn't walk down that really steep hill in those new pair of shoes and I was having problems with my feet hitting the front of my toe box.

A couple days later, I noticed that part of my toe nail was turning black. No big deal, I didn't slam it that hard and it didn't really hurt, kinda felt like a bruise.

Fast forward a couple months

Last night at 5 in the morning one of my legs had an itch on my left leg, and when I went to scratch it with my right foot, I felt something weird. I was thinking, wow, that feels really weird, it feels like I have a toenail flopping around. At the same time, Kristin woke up to go to the bathroom, so I had to turn on the light and look and see what was going on, which proved my suspicions were right.

My toe nail was just hanging on by one small strand of skin. I was able to gently pull on it and the toe nail came completely off. Evidently that toenail had been dead for quite a while because there was a new toenail underneath it. It was already grown about half way up my toe! I was happy to see a new toe nail growing in though.

Last run of the year

I made it out of work on time to go for a trail run with two of my co-workers. Our trail run was to start at the far west end of Forest Park at the trail head for Wildwood Trail. We were planning on running 10 miles which was the exact same as Team Red Lizard was doing for Purge and Spurge that morning. We couldn't make it for the morning section, so we decided to do it in the afternoon, and hopefully finish before dark (4:30). This course is a point to point run, so we parked my Jeep at the finish and took Tim's SUV to the start. I am glad I decided to take the Jeep, their was still plenty of snow and mud up there.

We headed out on the trail at 2:15, which was 15 minutes later than we had hoped, but not too bad. After a couple hundred yards of running, we knew that we were in a little deeper than we thought. The trail was very muddy from the recent rain, and plenty of downed trees and limbs from the wind. This slowed our progress a bit, and then when we were in sections that didn't get much sun, there was still plenty of snow on the ground. I had to walk some of these because other runners and hikers pack it down, but it becomes full of holes, or ruts, or whatever you call them. Enough so, it was enough to worry about rolling your ankle, so I just walked on these sections.

Tim and David, the two guys I was running with are much better runners than I, but they waited up for me, and if one of them was on the side of the trail, tying shoes, answering nature calls, whatever, I would leap ahead, and shortly they would catch up. This worked well, you had some time to be out alone, but always knowing someone wasn't far and someone to talk to when you wanted.

We ended up a half mile from my Jeep after only seven miles of running. We really wanted to do 10 miles, and we happened to see someone on the access road that went to my Jeep. We talked to this guy for a bit, and he informed us of this trail that was about 1/2 to 1 mile down wildwood that went up to fire lane 7, which would loop us back to our Jeep, and it would put us close to 10 miles.

Tim took off like a bat outta hell, David was trying to keep up with/catch Tim and I was trying to keep David in sight. We got about a mile and half further down the trail, maybe a bit further, and we decided this guy didn't know what he was talking about. By this time the trail was starting to get dark, and in the shades of the trees, even darker. Thankfully we had brought our head lamps just in case. Although, we never did use them, our eyes adjusted well, and there was still some light sneaking in. Oh, and we were all out of water by this point, we were at ten miles, so we had planned about right, but we went a little longer than expected. I will put more water in my camelback next time, than what I need.

We turned around and head back to the access road that Wildwood crossed earlier. About 3/4 of a mile from the end, all of us "hit the wall" and we were suffering bad. I screwed up and didn't eat enough calories, as did all of us, so we were out of energy and now we were running very slow. On our way back, we found the trail the guy was talking about, it was about 1/2 mile from where we talked to the guy, so it turns out he does know what he's talking about. David and I blamed this mistake on Tim. Since Tim took off like a shot, he was our leader and he was supposed to be looking for this trail, and we were just chasing him. He should have stopped at this trail! Truth was, we were chasing, but also the mud and snow made it rather technical so it was hard to take your eyes off of the immediate trail in front of you.

After noticing the trail, we decided to keep going the way we knew would get us back to the Jeep, rather than taking a chance with the late night. Once we were on the access road, it was straight up the mountain, so we all walked, and groaned our way up the hill to the Jeep. It was pitch black as we showed up to the Jeep, and it had just started to rain, so we weren't soaked.

Our ten mile trail run ended up being 12 miles with 4,310 feet of elevation gain. So, we got a good workout for our end of year run!

Oh, and one of my Christmas presents was a lightweight digital camera so I can take pictures while trail running (some amazing views on some of my runs!). Here are the pictures from the run.