Time to Slow Down?

Like many runners, or athletes in general, we have the mentality that more is better. I have used this approach to my training this past year when getting ready for the Minneapolis marathon and the Chicago marathon in 2 weeks. I do feel that in order for me to further improve I will need to train harder and add more mileage.

I have learned to try and maintain a balance of rest and training. I have found that my recovery days really need to be just that. There is no advantage of pushing yourself on days that are meant to recover, it is completely counter productive. This is a difficult thing for me because again I like most athletes or competitive people liken ourselves to Sharks. If you not moving your dead.

One of the biggest mistakes that most runners make is going to hard on easy days and not hard enough on the hard days. I am planning on eventually doing another ultra marathon and that will be based a lot on big mileage weeks, but still you need to balance rest and recovery to avoid injury.

Here is a link to an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal about endurance athletes pushing them too hard.

Enjoy!
Wall Street Journal Article:

The Benefits of Ice Baths from Runner's World:

This recent year I have realized the benefits of icing after some of my hard workouts. In general icing helps to reduce the swelling in the your muscles and helps to promote blood flow, both of which will help in recovery by aiding in muscle recovery.

Here is an article from Runner's World that shows some of the benefits of ice baths.


Enjoy!
Benefits of Ice Baths from Runner's World.com

Quote of the Day:

"The gun goes off and everything changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters."
- Patti Sue Plummer

Product Review: Nike Free 3.0v2

I know that I did an product review for these when I first got them, but I figure now that I have put a few miles on them I am in a better position to give them a thorough review. The Nike Free 3.0 v2 are Nike's latest version of minimalist shoes meant to simulate barefoot running, at least as much as a athletic shoe company will allow. The Nike Frees come in several different versions the 3.0's being the most minimal and most closely simulate barefoot running.

This is an extremely light weight shoe and the sole is extremely flexible to again simulate running barefoot. The top is almost completely made of a light mesh that wraps the foot well and seems to keep everything in place, as long as you are not doing too much lateral movement.

When I asked how many miles I can expect out o the shoes I was given the usual response of 200-300 miles for this type of minimal shoes. However, because I got this from the Nike sales rep, I wasn't too certain of how much that information was influenced by the desire to sell me more shoes. Anyways, now that I have put over 500 miles on my Nike Free's I am now starting to feel some of the wear and tear. The Frees really do not have much to them, very little cushioning, support and padding, so my thought was what is there to really wear out, but alas like all shoes they have yield to the miles.

I did notice that they would definitely help promote a more natural stride and discourage me form over striding and landing on my heals. They also simple felt great to run in, very similar to running in racing flats, you just feel light and fast in them. It did take a while to get used to running in them and I would not recommend most runners to use them as your primary trainer. I took me several months of slowly incorporating them into my workouts before I could use them on a regular basis.

All in all a very good shoe which is very functional for my purposes and feels great to run in. I'll definitely be getting another pair soon.




Check out other reviews of the 3.0's

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.

Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows | Video on TED.com

Ok, a somewhat non-running related post here so bare with me. As any distance runner will tell you one of the major obstacles that you need to over come is the mental aspect of running. No matter how fast a person runs when he or she is running numerous miles at a time there is always plenty of time to think. Often we think about the pain we are in, how many miles we have left, or simply try and numb our brains with ipods. One thing that I have found is that you can use this time to slip into almost a meditative state, to a degree, but not when you are doing 400m repeats or hills repeats then you are pretty much focused on the pain. So unless you have a very structured workout you really only have to think about running and after the first few steps most of us get the hang of it.

I often listen to audio books or podcasts while out on my long easier runs and one of my favorite sources to listen to are the Ted Talks. Ted Talks is a conference put on by a nonprofit devoted to ideas worth spreading. I posted an speech from Mike Rowe the host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel and I'm posting another speech from Joshua Klein.

Joshua Klein is a fervent hacker of all things, including wet, pulpy systems like animals and people and the way they behave. Joshua talks about how he has developed a box that actually can train a crow to gather money for you. No the idea isn't to train an army of lose change seeking crows but to look at the "problem" of animals that we consider pests in a whole new light. Ok...yes now we have clearly left the running realm, however, I do believe that if we constantly challenge ourselves mentally and physically it will result in making us better people and better runners.

By constantly challenging yourself physically and mentally you can continue to redefine what is possible for yourself.

Enjoy!
Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows | Video on TED.com

Running Times Podcast: Your Muscles, Long Runs

Here is a good podcast from Running Times that helps to explain what happens to your legs and muscles on a long run. They also go through the benefits of long runs and how to help maximize the benefits of these types of runs.

Enjoy!
http://runningtimes.blip.tv/rss/itunes

Running Abroad: China

Above:China Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai

Above: Me eating a chicken leg. It was like chewing on a piece of picked rubber.

Goose, Chicken leg, some sort of nut, and dried fish. Not exactly the best food for running, but I actually liked most of it.

Pu dong Skyline Shanghai

Another shot of at the World Expo

Here are a few pictures of my trip to China. I was in Shanghai for about 3 weeks for work and it was a great trip, but not so great for my running. Shanghai is 13 hour different than Minnesota so it took about a week to get used to the time change. Shanghai is also a city of about 20 million people and is constantly growing, their main object is economic growth not designing a city that is run friendly. This along with a crazy work schedule really limited my running, when I did get the ambition to run it was generally on the treadmill or out in the 90+ degree weather with 90+% humidity and lot of pollution. I have posted a few links to some of the outdoor runs that I did do, but had to really keep them short due to the heat.

China is a fascinating country and Shanghai is the crown jewel of the country. There is certainly a lot of western influence in the city and the culture, but it is still very different that the US. One particular difference is the communist government who does control a lot of things that we really take for granted and don't notice. For example this blog, I was not able to access it and there are not many blogs in China, legal ones anyways. All of the news is government run and so you guessed it approval ratings for the government just don't exist out in public anyways.

All that being aside it was another great trip to China and I look forward to going back. I will just have to plan to not have to run too much while there.

Quote of the Day:

Life is short... running makes it
seem longer.

By Baron Hansen