Upper Midwest Trail Runners:

I have recently joined the Upper Midwest Trail Runner Association, which is an association of runners who prefer to run off road. The organization promotes and helps to encourage people to get out there and enter some of the great trail races throughout the Midwest. UMTR offers trail series which is basically a point system that tracks your results through various races. There is one that includes numerous shorter races such as 5ks, 10ks and 25ks and there is an ultra distance version that has 50ks trail races and longer and then there is the Gnarly Bandit Ultra race series.

This series includes the following races which some you have the option of a 100 miles or 100k. Now I did register for this series, but we will see how long I last. The year starts out in with three 100 miles races within the first 3 months and I also am going to try and do two other marathons within that time frame as well. The good news is that the runner with the most points at the end of the series gets $500 from Wilderness Athlete, so that's a bit of motivation. I'm actually more worried about if I can afford to even enter all of these races and pay for hotels and travel. 100 miles race registrations fees are normally $100-$200 and then there is all of the travel costs, so we'll see. This running thing just isn't as cheap as it used to be.

Zumbro 100 Mile Endurance Run	Zumbro Falls, MN	04/08/2011
Kettle Moraine 100 Mile / 100K	Eagle, WI	06/04/2011
Black Hills 100 Mile / 100K	Sturgis, SD	06/25/2011
Superior Sawtooth 100 Mile	Lutsen, MN	09/09/2011
Wild Duluth 100K	Duluth, MN	10/15/2011

New Habits:

How to form a habit? Whether it's dragging yourself out of bed in the morning for those morning runs or updating your blog on a consistent basis. It is tough for start a new habit and even tougher to get rid of bad ones.

I have recently joined the Toast Masters International club, which an organization that provides a learn-by-doing environment for improving your communication and public speaking. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has give presentations, speeches, talks or has a lot of interaction with other people for the jobs or hobbies.

Anyways, in last weeks meeting one of our members gave a speech on forming new habits and the one thing that I really got out of the speech was that it typically takes 21 days to form a new habit. Now this is sort of a generally rule and the ability to form a habit is done by repetition which allows the electrical nerve in your brain to establish a strong path or foundation.

The example that Jim, who gave the speech, provided we flossing. He would always get talked to by his dentist about not flossing, so he decided to floss for 21 days straight. That was 5 years ago and he is still flossing everyday and both he and his dentist appreciates it. So for all of you who are looking to start working out, reading more or need to floss more regularly. 21 days is your goal, if you can make it 21 days you should have a great foundation for you new habit. Thanks Jim great speech and I look forward to more in the future.

Hiking in the Valley of Fire:

I spent a week out in Las Vegas, which was not so good for my training but I did get to hike a few miles in the Valley of Fire. Which is a state park about an hour north of The Strip and it is amazing. Here are some pictures. I'm definitely going to be spending some time out there and getting some real running in.

We Were Born to Run: TED Talk Christopher McDougall

Christopher McDougall has been a bit of a controversial figure in the running community ever since he published his book Born to Run which tells the story about a tribe of people that live deep in the Copper Canyons of Mexico who run amazing distances injury free well into the late years of their lives. He is one of the major proponents of barefoot running and his book has become almost a cult classic. I have read the book a few times and I have to say that it is an excellent book, even if you think that barefoot running is absolutely crazy the story and narrative is fantastic and definitely worth the read, runner or not.

McDougall gave a TED Talk about his views on running and the evolution of humans, it is pretty interesting check it out.

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.

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.

Wake Up!:Part II

I tried all of the solutions that I mentioned in my previous Wake Up! post blow. Here are the results.

Solution 1: Laptop next to bed.

This worked once, out of about 5 tries. A 20% success rate is not good enough for me. If I thought I did not have any major pending emails or issues I would just simple not even turn on my computer.


Solution 2: Timer on coffee pot in room.

Why this will work: I am a coffee lover and there is not many things I enjoy more than a good cup of coffee, so moving the coffee pot into my room and setting the timer to start making coffee at the same time as my alarm this should help get me out of bed right? Picture Folgers commercial.


Solution 3: Drink lots of water the night before.

This also worked once out of about 5 tries. I will say that this actually got me to get up 3-4 times but just not out of bed. I would happily wake up to the sounds of fresh brewed Dunkin Donuts coffee brewing but I would simply just turn over and drift back to sleep or snuggle under that covers with the aroma of coffee in the air.


Solution 4: Set alarm clock across the room.

This did not really work at all, yes I would have to get out of bed but I would just hit my alarm as fast as I could then jump back into bed.


All in all none of my proposed solutions worked, but that has not deterred. I figured that if I can avoid hitting the snooze that average of 3 times a day, which equals roughly 30 minutes a day, time 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year would be 10,920 minutes a year or 182 hours 7.5 days or just over a week per year. In short its worth another try, especially since I have been know to hit the snooze for over an hour at times.

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.
- Aristotle

Here is my next plan of attack:
It is a whole new approach it is based off of a blog post that I recently read about the very problem of waking up right away after your alarm goes off. The author states that most people have great intentions to get up at the alarm when they go to bed, however, you often have quite the different idea when that alarm goes off at 5:30am. He is suggesting that you 11pm brain is not always on the same page as your 5:30am brain, which is definitely true for me.

He suggests taking the thinking portion out of the equation. Don't mess around with some of the less than effective strategies that I just used, rather make getting up automatic. How does one do this? Well he suggests practice. Yes just like practicing the guitar or free throws practice makes perfect and then the action becomes automatic. Here's the catch don't practice at 5:30am practice in the daytime when your 5:30am brain is not so persuasive.

The author suggests recreated the your sleeping conditions, as best as possible, and then simple setting your alarm clock for a few minutes ahead and then when it goes off simple, take a big deep breath and stretch your limbs and get up and do what you would normally do in the morning. He suggest 1-2 set of 5-10 reps per day for a few days until it become automatic, he also suggests that for the first 30 days you sick to the same wake up time weekdays and weekends until you get into a rhythm, then even if you have interuptions or want to sleep in you will have a good base, think of it as muscle memory.

Here is his full blog post that I would highly recommend you read if this is a problem for you. I just did my first set of 10 reps this evening and I will report back on how things are going and if this actually works.

Enjoy: Steven Pavlina: How to getup right away when your alarm goes off

Wake Up!!!!:

Getting out of bed in the morning is something that gives me trouble. Once I'm out of bed I can go all day but it's just that first step of actually getting out of bed. Normally it is not even that I'm overly tired, it's just the fact that I just don't want to get out of my warm comfortable bed. Unlike many runners I do not run in the morning, it is simply just not for me, my Dad has got up at 5:30 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as long as I can remember to run, and I give him a lot of credit for it, and even joined him for a few times when I was in high school but I soon realized the morning workouts were just not for me.

Morning workouts aside, I am just focusing on getting out of bed. I have noticed over the past year or two that I am sleeping a bit better than I ever have, it seems like I sleep a bit heavier than I used to. I think that this has to do with all of the workouts and physical activity in general. I have heard of other runner or endurance athletes having the similar experiences. Your deep sleep cycles, specifically your REM sleep cycles is where you get the most rest and recovery, it would only make sense that increase physical activity would cause someone to enter and remain in this sleep cycle longer. Not to get into that topic too much I'm ultimately trying to get myself out of bed in the morning.

Here are some of the solutions that I am going to try to help get me out of bed in the morning.

Solution 1: Laptop next to bed.

Why this could work: For my job I communicate with a lot of companies around the world and in many different time zones. Therefore, I get emails throughout the night and I am generally very quick to try and read and respond. The thought is to have my laptop next to my bed so that when I wake up I can see all of the emails that I have to respond to and this would motive me to get out of bed.


Solution 2: Timer on coffee pot in room.

Why this will work: I am a coffee lover and there is not many things I enjoy more than a good cup of coffee, so moving the coffee pot into my room and setting the timer to start making coffee at the same time as my alarm this should help get me out of bed right? Picture Folgers commercial.


Solution 3: Drink lots of water the night before.

Why this will work: Not only will this help keep me hydrated but hopefully I'll have to go to the bathroom in the morning and thus getting me out of bed.


Solution 4: Set alarm clock across the room.

Why this will work: Often the toughest part is just that first step out of bed, this will force me to get out of bed to shut off my alarm.


We'll see how these work, I will report back with results and if there are other ways that will help me get out of bed in the morning.

Off Season:

Now that the 2010 racing season is officially done, I debated about running the Mankato Marathon or the Surf the Murph races but they filled up already, I can relax and take it easy. The only problem is that like every off season period it seems like I am now extremely motivated to build upon my last race.

I have been taking it easy and have only ran a few times since the Chicago marathon, but I have already started my off season strength training and I am looking into some yoga classes and cycle classes to help improve upon some of my weaknesses.

Here are my initial off season goals however, they often change as I figure out what races I want to do the following year.

1. Strength Training-I need to work on some muscular imbalances that I have as well as improve my overall strength. I feel that if you have a good strength base it can greatly help you to be able to handle all of the training miles as well as help to reduce injuries. One thing that you do have to be careful with in my case is not to add too much muscular bulk. Not that I generally do but adding an extra 3-5 pounds of muscle is not the goal, making them stronger is.

2. Maintain a good level of cardio, so that I am not completely starting from zero once I jump into another training program.

3. Increase my flexibility. I do not feel that it is a vital component to running especially distance running but i personally feel better and I think that it helps reduce injuries and minor aches.

4. Relax. Even I get sick of running and training, so definitely taking some time to simply not feel guilty about not running.

Now What's On Your iPod:

I think Apple is still working on a this version of the iPod. Here is what is currently on my ipod right now. There are a few more songs on my play list but these are the ones that I listen to mostly while running. Along with the

1. Empire State of Mind-Jay-Z
2. Billionaire-Travie McCoy
3. Crazy Train- Ozzy
4. Walk This Way-Aerosmith
5. I'm Not Afraid-Eminem
6. 4 Minutes-Madonna & JT
7. Run This Town Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West
8. How Far We've Come-Matchbox 20
9. Last Resort-Papa Roach
10. Numb Encore-Jay-Z, Linkin Park & Paul McCartney
11. Save Tonight-Eagle Eye Cherry
12. Closing Time-Semisonic
13. Lose Yourself-Eminem
14. The Rockafeller Shank-Fatboy Slim
15. Young Jay-Z
16. Reason to Believe-Dashboard Confessional
    

Audio Book: What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

Endurance Planet Podcasts
Ted Talk Podcasts
Running Times Podcast

Running Habits:

Just like any activity that a person spends a lot of time and effort on you form certain habits or pet peeves. Though I am not a superstitious person, I like to think that all of my thoughts are grounded in logic, I do have certain habits that I do follow during my runs. Here are some of the habits or pet peeves that I have when I run.

1. I avoid stepping on manhole covers. I don't know why, but I feel that just one time one of them will be lose and I step on it and break my legs. No matter what training or during a race I avoid manholes or drainage cutters at all costs.

2. I do not believe that running on the grass or dirt next to a tar or pavement path will save my knees. I do believe that if the dirt or grass is rough there is a higher likely hood that you will slip and twist your ankle.

3. I always carry things in my left hand, water bottles, gels, shirt or food. Unless my left hand if full anything that I carry goes in my left hand and rarely will I switch hands. This has always been the case since running down the track in high school with a baton, it just feels more comfortable.

Post a comment of any running habits that you have.

Running Up North:

A few things that I have learned while running up in Northern Minnesota this week is that it is a lot better than trying to run on the streets of Shanghai with 20 million other people, cars, scooters, and bikes. Also that there are still drawbacks to getting away from everything, such as horse flies.

However, there is a slight silver lining to this in that I have found out that horse flies without any wind can fly almost exactly at a 7 minute mile pace. This is only really good when you workout calls for a tempo run faster than a 7 min pace, but good to know none the less.

A Case for Bare Foot Running

Here is an interesting video that examines a side by side video of a runner with shoes and without.  I guess take it for all its worth, it is youtube but it is interesting none the less.  

Video: