Running the Sahara:

I just watch a very interesting documentary call Running the Sahara in which three men, Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin set up to run across the northern part of the African continent from St. Louis, Senegal to Cairo, Egypt a journey of over 4,300 miles (6,920 kilometers). That is roughly 164 marathons worth of running in 111 days, so just under one and a half marathons a day for 111 days.

I thought this documentary was quite interesting particularly the logistics and external factors that you have to deal with on such an expedition. I know that all three of these guys are veteran ultra runners but to be able to push yourself under these conditions for this length of time I was amazed. The documentary show several scenes were there is a lot of tension between either the runners or the support crew. I think that after about a month of running 40+ miles a day through the desert and living with a bunch of dirty sweaty guys I would go crazy. This is just another example of three people, that weren't necessarily born to run, that achieve what many would consider impossible. I wouldn't say that this is a must buy, but through it in your netflix queue.

The Runners:

Charlie Engle, USA

A 42-year-old American, a television producer, and a top competitor in the ultra marathon community today. Engle has been a runner, climber, and adventure racer for more than 30 years but was one a drug addict at one time and now is addicted to endurance racing. He has participated in a number of ultra marathons and adventure races across the globe.

Ray Zahab, Canada

Ray was another individual who was a pack-a-day smoker who also participated in many other unhealthy choices. One day he decided to turn his back on these things and is not addicted to running. Ray also has a calling in the extreme adventure racing and endurance arena. He has also participated in various races around the world.

Kevin Lin, Taiwan

28 years old from Taipei, Taiwan, Kevin is a well known endurance athlete in Asia, well known endurance athlete has its limitations as to how "well known" one really is. A full-time graduate student, he like the other two is very competitive in all areas of the endurance racing world from marathons to 150 miles plus.

I Am An Ultra Runner:

Funny little video, as a runner and now ultra runner you do seem to answer a lot of the same questions over and over. Though I'm not too sick of it quite yet.

Cold Weather Running:

Living in Minnesota, where it is winter anywhere from 4-7 months out of the year, as a runner you have two choices, either put the miles on the treadmill or brave the cold. I usually do a combination of both, I definitely prefer to run outside but I do not really mind running on the treadmill and it gets cold outside here in MN. I would say that as cold as -20 Fahrenheit is what I could safely run in, however, my ambition generally is limited to about 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus there is all of the fuss of running outdoors in the winter, not only do you have to worry about staying warm but not getting too warm and staying hydrated. Staying hydrated is sometime difficult in the winter due to the cold you don't really feel dehydrated or thirsty. Trust me you are using just as much water as you normally are, just look at your breath as you breath into the cold air, can you see it? Guess what that is the moisture leaving your body, so you do still need to drink plenty of liquids when running in the cold.

This past two Saturdays I have been going on long runs of 32 and 38 miles so there is certainly some planning involved. Here is a check list of things that I needed to make sure were ok to go before heading out.

Check List:

1. Safe route to Run
2. Adequate bathroom stops
3. Adequate water stops
4. Places to stop for fuel or bring enough with me
5. Enough cold weather gear to keep me warm during the run

Gear Check List: Above picture of most of my gear.

1. Base layer spandex shorts, under armor t-shirt
2. 2 pairs of cold weather soxes
3. First layer of tights and second under armor layer long sleeve top
4. Second outer tights and second long sleeve t-shirt
5. two pairs of gloves, hat and neck warmer
6. Outer shell running jacket
   
7. Yak Traks for running on slippery surfaces
8. ipod and headphones (what it's a 6+ hour run)
9. cell phone
10. credit card
11. 1 king size snickers
12. 2 small bags of home made fudge (thanks Dad)
13. 3 gels
14. camelpack or hand water bottle with coconut water in them

You can see it is a lot of planning to go for a run outside in the MN winter, granted my runs are a bit longer so if you only want to go for a nice 3-5 mile jog you can get away with quite a bit less. What I have really learned is that make sure you dress in layer and that you can take off or add them as needed. There was a stretch of the trail that I ran this past Saturday that was not cleared and I had to run in about a 1.3 feet of snow. I started sweating pretty easily and had to unzip my jacket and take off my gloves to avoid sweating too much because I knew that there would be areas were I would get pretty cold and you don't want to be wet and cold.

A good rule of thumb is to dress so that you a slightly cold when you first start out, once you are going your body temp will raise anywhere from 5-10 degrees. It is also very important that the base layer of clothing that is on your skin is a dry-fit material that wicks sweat away from you skin so when you do sweat it will not just freeze on your skin.

Here is a great article form Running Planet on dressing for cold weather running

Dressing For Cold Weather Running - Staying Warm And Dry When Running In Cold Weather

Now you have no excuses, so get out there an run.

How to Talk to Non-Runners:

Funny video!

New Years Resolutions: 2011

As I have stated before I'm not much for new years resolutions, mostly because I don't really think you need to wait for the new year to make changes in your life that will improve it. It is important to always trying to make changes for the better. That being said here are some of the things that I want to work on in the new year.

1. Get Less Sleep
Yes, that's right I want to try and sleep less in the new year and in subsequent years. Personally I hate the thought of spending 1/3 of my life lying in a bed unconscious and I have heard of many different people being able to sleep significantly less than the average person and still feel rested and be productive. Some examples are Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Dean Karazes(famous ultrarunner). From what I have been reading about people like these and from some of my own experiences, I believe that I can get as little as 4 hours of sleep a night and still be rested and very much functional, mentally and physically. I have heard of people going off as little as 2 hours but I feel that working my way to 4 hours of sleep is the most practical for me.

The reason why I believe that I need only 4 hours is that I currently get about 6-7 hours on average and feel just fine and again there are examples of people getting only 2 hours. Plus Dean Karnazes only gets 4 hours of sleep a night and he runs far more than I do and has a wife, kids and runs his own business, so if he can get by on 4 than so can I. I will do a separate post on how I plan to do this and why I believe I can still thrive on nearly half the recommended amount of sleep. Stay tuned...


2. Train smarter
Timothy Ferris is the author of the 4-Hour Work Week and 4-Hour Body, both of which I highly recommend, he is a remarkably productive person probably best known as a productivity guru. He basically tries to deconstruct activities or skills such as language learning, swimming, even sleeping, and yes distance running. Though I am not really going to use any of Tim's direct advice for my running, due to the fact that he is more focused on simply finishing endurance events I want to win them, I am more than intrigued at his approach to improving whatever craft or skill he tries to master. So this year its smarter nor harder. I have already been doing a lot of indoor cycling and started to try some yoga classes, so this might be a year of experimenting too.

3. Run 100 Miles
That's it just run 100 miles at one crack.

4. Drink More Red Wine.
I've heard it can make you live longer, and it tastes great.


These all seem pretty doable. The only problem is that #2 will be hard to define but I think that as long as it is a constant focus on quality training is maintained it shouldn't be a problem.

Wake Up!: Part III

I have had some success in my battle against the alarm clock, for about 10 days straight before I went home for Christmas vacation I got up at 6am when my alarm went off even on the weekends. Using Steve Pavlina's strategy of making my reaction to my alarm clock automatic, instead of trying to will myself out of bed. It actually worked quite well, the only problem is that when Christmas rolled around I was less motivated to get up at 6am. Pavlina suggests you stick to the same wake up time for 30 days. Well now that I'm back into the swing of things I am going to try and incorporate it again with a bit of a twist. Link to Steve Pavlina's post

I received the book the 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris author of the 4 Hour Work Week Tim has done a lot in his lifetime and can probably be best described as a Productivity guru, I think that would probably be my dream job. Tim talks about effective ways to gain muscle, lose weight, run faster and further, as well as engineering the perfect night's sleep and more check out the table of contents and sample chapter.

Table of Contents
Sample Chapter (From Tim's Blog)

The two things that immediately interested me was how to get more quality sleep and how to sleep less. I will talk more about this in my following post on my New Year's Resolutions, one being to sleep less. I have already started to experiment with different sleep strategies and the one that I am trying to do now will allow me to get a total of 5.2 hours of sleep a night. The basic strategy is that I get 4.5 hours of core sleep each night and I take 2 20-30 minute naps throughout the day. This forces my body to enter the REM portion of the sleep cycle which is the most beneficial stage of the sleep cycle. The normal sleep cycle last about 90 minutes with REM occurring at the end of the cycle, most people sleeping a normal 8 hours a night will get 2 hours of REM sleep. The REM portion of the sleep cycle is where dreams occur. There is no real strong evidence out that suggests the other portions of the sleep cycle serve much purpose.

There are even people that sleep only 2 hours total a day and claim to feel fully rested, they do this by taking 6 20 minute naps throughout the day. This is a bit extreme for me...at this point anyways. I am going to try and stick to this 5.2 total hours of sleep a night plan and will post regularly on how it is going.

2010 Total Milage:

New annual mileage record. I have been pretty diligent in keeping track of my training and racing miles this year and the grand total for 2010 is...

2065.5 Miles

This is by far the most miles I have run a in a single year. I am not always a supporter of more is better but I do think that some of the added miles during this past year did help me to set a new personal best at the marathon this year. Now in 2011 with a few ultra marathons on the horizon I might be looking at upping that mileage even more.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone, it has been quite a whiles since I have posted anything, so here is a quick post wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. Many of us will have new years resolutions to try and fulfill and unfortunately a lot of them will not come true. However, today I read a great quote for the New Year and for anyone starting on those new years resolutions.

"We cannot be what we want to be by remaining what we are."
-Max DePree