Quote of the Day:

Quite possibly one of the greatest quotes of all time. It describes the mentality I have towards racing and running.

"I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me."

-Dwight Schrute

Injury Update:

[Picture Above is similar to what both my hamstrings looked like]

Just a quick update on the condition of my legs. Everything else feels pretty good on my body and has pretty much fully recover with the exception of my lower hamstrings. As I briefly mentioned in my 50 miler post I had some pain in my hamstring during and after the race. They were actually black and blue afterward, it looked like someone had hit me in the back of the knees with a baseball bat.

Not to worry I think that I simply managed to pull my hamstrings, yesterday I was forced to do some light upperbody and core strength training and today I swam for a bout 45 mins, bike for 30 minute and even ran for 10 minutes, but decided that I would not push the running being that I managed to nearly fall 3 times "running" at 4.5 mph. I am hoping that next week I can get out and do some actual running. I would like to get in 2 weeks of tempo and speed work to tune up before the Twin Cities marathon. We'll see though I'm feeling better by the day but still not to the point were I am able to really get out and run.

Race Results:

One nice thing about running a lot of races is that when you google yourself there is a lot more interesting things that pop up.

Race Results:

All I Really Want is my Darn Finishers T-Shirt!

I have noticed a growing trend in the racing world that I am sort of not liking. Like 99% of runners I do not run for prizes or money. Don't get me wrong I would, but I'm simply not good enough at this point to earn a living runner or prizes.

The one thing I do like is getting that finishers T shirt, because it says I made it I put in the work and finished this race and I can wear it around and people know that I put in the time and effort to run and finish the race. Now I know that we live in a society that emphasizes equality and giving everyone a fair chance and I am not against that by any means, but the past few races that I have enter I have received a participants shirt at the registration and no finisher's shirt at the end.

Now I know really just whining at this point but if you didn't put in the time or weren't willing to gut it out you shouldn't get a shirt. Just as much as kids need to be praised for trying us adults need to not be coddled if we were not able to complete a task.

More Pictures from the Superior Trail Race:

Ben and Me after the race, feeling pretty good about the finish.
I'm trying to hide the pain.

Some of the country side we got to run through.

Superior 50 Mile Trail Race 2009: Results

I can officially check running 50 miles straight off my bucket list. Before I get into the race, I strongly encourage anyone to visit the North Shore in MN. It is some of the most beautiful country side I've ever seen, and I got to see 50 miles of it in one day.

The Superior Trail 50 Mile race was great, it was definitely a tough course, I had to walk quite a bit of it even when I was not tired. The trail was extremely technical(meaning lots of roots, rocks and other things to trip on) so even on some of the flat portions, which were few an far between you couldn't really get going. But like I said it was gorgeous views the entire time and I ran with a friend for about 40 of the 50 miles. We actually took a wrong turn, which was my fault and ended up adding about 2 more miles, but no big deal.

Now I know most of you won't believe me but the race actually flew by. The main reason I say that is because you literally have to watch everywhere you step. So you really can only concentrate on the next step and each aid station was about 5-8 miles apart so that helps to break of the race.

The only thing that I didn't like or don't like is that the race did take a toll on my body. After the race my friend point out that the back of my knees were black and blue. I do remember them starting to hurt around mile 16 but I never really fell or strained them. Another thing is that I feel like a 90 year old man with a bad back. It was quite painful getting up Sunday morning and today as well. I don't think I'll be able to do much running this week, which is sort of difficult for me because I'm used to recovering very quickly.

All in all it was a great race and I'll definitely do another one maybe even another one this year.

Results:

Place-10th

Time-11 hours 34 minutes

Pictures:

Race Results

Superior 50 Mile Trail Race

One week until the big 50 mile race. I am really looking forward to it, though I have been having some foot pain and have been forced to cut down a lot. I have bike several times and ran for 1 mile, this past week. My foot feels pretty good now but I haven't ran on it for about a week, so I'll have to get out this last week and test it out and make sure I'm good to go. I don't really have much concern as far as conditioning goes, I am supposed to be tapering quite a bit these last two weeks anyways. Hopefully I can get a good run in tomorrow and I'm pain free and good to go for the race.

I will really consider myself a Ultra marathoner once I've ran a 50 mile race.

Opportunity Cost of Running

When I read this article The Opportunity Cost of Running I thought it was pretty interesting, especially because another one of my interest is economics. Not so much the supply and demand curves econ. but rather the science and numbers behind why thing act and react the way they do.

This article touches a little on the opportunity cost of running. So I figured I'd do a rough estimate on some of the financial aspect of what my opportunity cost of running is.

Estimated cost for 2009:

Race fees-11 races(avg race fee $75) $825

Shoes- about 6 pairs a year at $95 each $575

Equipment-bottles, lights, gear, ect... $250

Consumables-gels, powerbars, gatorade, coconut water, race day food ect... $400

Travel accomidations for races- $1500-$2000 including one destination race (Boston this year)

Clothing- $500

Now the interesting part the opportunity for me to be doing other things than running. i.e. I have a part time job that pays me about $15 hour (before taxes). So if we figure that I allocate that rate to the amount of time I spent running it should provide me with an estimate of the amount of money I could be earning. This is somewhat flawed because I would not be able to spend the exact amount of time running at my part time job, nor would I, but it is hard to quantify time relaxing, reading a book or taking classes.

On average I spend four 2 hours a day during the weekdays running and generally two 4 hour days on the weekend, on average. So that is

16 hours a week running X $15/hr = ($240/week) X 45weeks(b/c I don't train that much year round) = $10,800.00 before taxes.

GRAND TOTAL: $15,350.00 (and that doesn't include blogging time)

So, all in all running, at least to the degree that I do it, is not cheap. However, the main reason running is so expensive for me is that I not only love to run but love to race, and as the article suggests the opportunity cost of giving up something you love is incalculable, so keep running recession of no recession.

Some other great econ related books that I recommend:

Freakonomics by Stephen Dunbar and Steven D. Levitt

Super Crunchers By Ian Ayers

More Sex is Safer Sex by Steven E. Landsburg (Trust me its Econ related)

Blink, Outliers, The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell (All 3 are great)

The Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Talent is Over Rated By Geoff Colvin

Video Product Review: Fuel Belt Hand

This is my first attempt at a video post. I am just using my computer camera and am not taking much time to do a lot of takes, so there will be errors. Just a reminder that I am only giving my opinion as to what my experiences have been. I would strongly recommend that you go out and try thing on your own. Enjoy and let me know if you like the video post or not.

Fuel Belt Sahara 22oz. Palm Holder:

Late Night Marathon

This is pretty cool you can see the workout that I just did. One nice function is the "Play" feature that lets you replay the workout with heart rate, pace and elevation as you replay the workout.

I had to try out my new headlamp, worked great.

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for
Late Night Marathon