Tuesday 10 Miler

Tuesday did a nice 10 mile run at my General Aerobic pace, which is about 80%-85% of my max heart rate and roughly a 6:45 minute mile pace. The nice part of the new location that I am at is the to the west I can run around the lakes and to the east I have the Mississippi River to run up and down.

10 Miles General Aerobic by jhanlon31 at Garmin Connect - Details

American Heart Association: Heart Walk/Run 2010

The leading cause of deaths in the US is not from crime, natural disaster, accidents or even cancer. Heart disease and stroke are responsible for more deaths that the next 7 combined. Luckily many of these diseases are preventable with regular exercise and good diet and simply a healthy life style. However, there are many heart related illnesses that affect many Americans regardless of their health. This is why I am participating in the American Heart Association Twin Cities Heart walk.

Having several close family members being affected by heart related illnesses I would like to help raise awareness so that others would not have to go through what they did. I am not only helping to raise awareness but also funds for the American Heart Association. Below is a link a donation page that I would encourage you to donate to. There is a minimum amount of $25.00 USD, so if you would like to donate less email me and I can provide you with information on how to submit a different amount.

If you are unable to donate you can still help by simply going out and being more active in your own health, eating right and exercising can greatly reduce the chances of heart related illnesses, so get out there and get active.

Donation Page:

Monday's Workout:8 miles Recovery

Here is Monday's workout. 8 miles recovery with run club.

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for 8 Miles Run Club Recovery

Impossible is Nothing:

Cool video by Adidas of Muhammad Ali running with Haile Gebreselasie, David Beckham, Tracy MacGrady, Zinedine Zidane, Maurice Greene and others...

Enjoy! Video

Signs of Encouragement:

I just did a 10 mile lactate threshold workout, which means I was running at roughly 90%-95% of my max heart rate. This was a bit tough being that on my route there was several stoplights I had to stop for which lowered my average heart rate, but I tried to keep a fast enough pace to be close.

I felt good throughout the run and was not laboring too much, it was difficult to keep an even pace, especially that fast, but it was good confidence boaster to know that I was able to hold nearly a 6min mile pace for 10 miles.

It was also nice to get outside and run, especially when it is warm enough to wear shorts. I added a link to the workout below.

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for Untitled

Back Home: Next up Ron Daws 25K

I am back in Minnesota, it has been 4 weeks of traveling, as you can see, I was in Spain, Portugal, France and Germany and then a week in Las Vegas. I know pretty tough life, well the only thing I have to complain about is that I didn't get in as much running as I would have liked. I did get to see a lot of amazing sites and meet a number of great people.

If you have to do a 20 mile run why not do it through the streets of Paris right? As much fun as it was to travel and see a lot of fascinating things it is good to be back home and not sleeping in a hotel.

It is time to buckle down and really get back into my training. I don't really want to over do it but I feel that I did not improve as much as I wanted to over the 4 weeks I was traveling. The weather is getting nicer and with daylight saving time I have another hour of sun light to run in so no excuses.

Sunday I did 20 miles and yesterday I did 3 miles in the morning, which were probably harder than the 20 on Sunday, but then I felt great after work and did 10 miles at about a 7:30 minute pace. I am not a big fan of running in the morning but it really helped to loosen things up and I felt pretty darn good in the evening.

Next race I signed up for is the Ron Daws 25K on April 3rd in Hopkins, MN. It will be the first race of the year and should be a good judge of where I am at. I am hope to run around a 5:50 mile pace which is just a bit slower than my expected 1/2 marathon pace. I'll post results later.

Running Abroad:Germany

View from the other direction

Sheep...yes sheep

View of Old Town from Bridge

Old Town in Dusseldorf, Germany

Running Abroad: Paris Part II

Stairs to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris (Above)

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Above) Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris

Moulin Rouge

Yesterday I got in another 10 miles, this time it was through the north part of the city and it was good but a lot of stop and go and too many people to really run. I guess I shouldn't have picked a big shopping area to run in but the 10 miles went by fast and got to see some more great sites, though I'll have to admit that all the old buildings and Cathedral are all starting to blend together.

There was one very neat cathedral on top of a big hill that over looked the city which was a great view and though the legs burned a bit while running up the over 200 stairs it was worth the view. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop in at Moulin Rouge.

Here are a few photos from my run. Today I was supposed to do 10 miles of LT (lactate threshold) training but this morning I went to move an end table to plug something in and really tweaked my back. Nothing serious I don't think but made it quite uncomfortable to run and pick up heavy objects. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow and I can get back to it, I don't need any more reasons to not get my runs in while traveling.

Hamburger Tax?

As some of you know that another interest that I have outside of running is Economics, and not your supply and demand curve economics. More the economic approach to looking at and understanding why things happen. Not too many people do this better and with more interesting topic than Freakonomics authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

Below is a link to a very interesting podcast that talks about obesity in America, and what incentives should there be for people to be more healthy. One of the ideas throw out is a tax on unhealthy food, which would help and certainly provide incentive to eat healthier food. However, for many runners like myself one of the big reasons we run is so that we can eat whatever we want. During the peak of my training programs and during ultra-marathon training I will burn 2,000-3000 calories a day just during my workout and potentially another 2000 throughout the normal days activity so for me there is no harm in having a double bacon cheese burger or two for lunch.

None the less I think it is interesting here is the link, they also have two great books out Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics which I highly recommend as well as their blog.

Podcast

Running Abroad: Paris

Though I did not run yesterday, I did get in a nice 20 mile run today. It actually worked out well because I had to run 20 miles but not at a specific pace. Generally on my long runs without a set pace I'll run anywhere from 7:45-6:45 minute miles on average usually there is a bit of up and down, and today there was a lot of up and down.

I set out with my hand water bottle my SPI belt packed with my camera, gels and a granola bar, which I didn't really need. I think it was that apple pastry and double espresso I had before I ran that helped a bit. Side note, I don't know why but whenever I am in Europe I drink espresso like...well I drink normal coffee in the US a lot of it. It's a little cup of ambition for me and I love coffee in America and in Europe.

Anyways, my hotel is about 3/4 of a mile from the river that runs through Paris, so I figured I'd do a big loop down one side an up the other. Got to see some site along the way, I'll upload the actual route as soon as I can get my Garmin to start working the upload feature is not working well.

Some of the sites I ran past were, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and the Louvre, there were others but I don't really know what they were I'll have to look them up.

It was one of the more enjoyable 20 mile runs that I have ran, though being Paris is a major city and I was running around the city center there was a lot of traffic and people which made for a slower than normal running. I think there is a new kind of running out there that I have experienced on this trip and I'm calling it Urban Running. Unlike trail running where you have to deal with rough trails, hills and even rivers. Urban running you have to deal with crazy drivers, cross walks, traffic, car exhaust and even smokers, which I might add I seems like everyone in Paris was smoking while I was out running. It was a battle with smokers, car exhaust and a river that didn't always smell to good. I guess that is the price you pay for getting to see some of the great site in the world on your run.

All in all it was a great run and there is still plenty of Paris to see so I'll have amply opportunities and miles to see them. I friend strongly recommended the City of Versailles, I mapped it out and it is only 10 miles from my hotel and the route looks runnable. The only question is after running 10 miles then site seeing will how to get back, I'm think the train will look a lot better than another 10 miles.

Here are some pictures from my run, I am getting pretty good at taking pictures of myself.