So then this happened...

New Shoes and A New Resolve!!

I got this new pair of running shoes to combat a few issues I've been having recently. Mostly, running in worn out running shoes. You see, I ran a half marathon a few weeks ago. I finished, which was my ULTIMATE goal, but I could have done it with a lot less pain if I'd done a few things differently. So, New Year's is a few weeks away at this point, but let's come up with 3 Resolutions for 2014, because it's never too early to start.

#1: I could have trained a bit better Smarter. 

Let's face it, we could all train better. I did the majority of my training during the heat of the summer, which isn't the worst part of it. Millions of runners run during the heat of the summer. Of course, millions of runners live where it's never not hot so I guess there's that. Anyway, I never seemed to get out of bed early enough to get running BEFORE it got too hot; there are a lot of reasons for this, but it boils down to not making the effort to train right. The consequence of this means I ended up doing my training runs at lunchtime or so. I ran at the hottest time of the day on the hottest day of the year this year. Not the smartest move. Making a small amount of more effort could have saved me from running in the most taxing time of the day meaning better hydration, better muscle performance, better recovery, and about a hundred billion other things.

#2: I could Have Run in "Newer" Shoes and Paid Attention to my Body.

Let's face it: I'm not a light guy. I run with some poor form and though I know I should have a good mid-sole foot strike, I end up with a lazy heavy heeled plant. Not the best on my knees. Or ankles. Or hips. Really just not efficient and will ultimately lead to new knees and hips in my 60s or something I'm sure. Anyway, based on my inefficient running pattern I need to, or should, replace my shoes around mile 300 or so. I ran my half in a pair of shoes that had ~350 miles on them. They were pretty worn out and they had been causing me some issues already, but I ran in them anyway. So this was my downward spiral: worn out shoes on tired legs -> Still not fully recovered from training the week before in the heat -> A little dehydrated, a little underfed before the race -> my tired right knee aches and hurts, so  I compensate by using my weaker left leg to take some of the pain away -> my left leg cramps from over use as a lead leg and dehydration -> my right leg cramps after that because now I'm coming back to it -> I fall -> eventually I hobble across the finish line, cramp legs and limp and all. 

I get a new pair of shoes, go for one training run in them and it was like the clouds parted on a rainy day and sunshine came through and smacked me in the face. My ankles felt great. My knee soreness, while not gone, was definitely diminished and the whole rehab run went so well. No pain, no cramps, nothing. Lesson learned: use newer shoes for races. Got it.

Check.

#3: I could have Eaten Better.

Okay, so basically this is everyone outside of Olympic athletes. More fruits and vegetables, less saturated fats and bbq and all those calorie dense delicious concoctions the food scientists from Geneal Mills and InBev and McDonald's and basically every food conglomerate or processor that puts food in a box or at a restaurant. It's all so tasty  I know. I'm with you. Okay, maybe not all of it, but there are plenty in there to keep me happy. You too, I bet. I don't NEED all of that, though. I love bananas. I love spinach. Shrimp, chicken, fish, beef, pork, most animal meats, really, are all delicious to me. I don't NEED to eat a whole cow even if I CAN eat a whole cow. This is one of those things that being an adult is trying to teach me: moderation. *A* burger is fine as long as there's plenty of salad and fruit to go with it the rest of the day. *SOME* pork chops are great as long as there aren't 4 pounds of sugary baked apples on top of them. At that point am I eating pork chops with baked apples or am I eating baked apples with a pork chop? Better diet. That's gonna be key in 2014. 

So my list is short but pretty concise:

1. Train Smarter
2. Pay Attention to My Equipment
3. Eat a Better Diet

What about you, Dear Runner? Do you have a list of lessons learned from this season? Things that are always on your list? What do YOU need to work on to get better, faster, stronger? Let me know in the comments below and let's work on them together.

BANANA!!

I love the banana. I eat them before I run. I eat them after I run. I eat them while I run. Before I go to bed. When I want a quick snack. When my daughters don't finish theirs. 

For breakfast. 

For lunch. 

For fun.

This is one I had this morning:

A couple of quick hit facts for you:

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	371 kJ (89 kcal)
Carbohydrates	22.84 g
- Sugars	12.23 g
- Dietary fiber	2.6 g
Fat	0.33 g
Protein	1.09 g
Thiamine (vit. B1)	0.031 mg (3%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2)	0.073 mg (6%)
Niacin (vit. B3)	0.665 mg (4%)
Pantothenic acid (B5)	0.334 mg (7%)
Vitamin B6	0.4 mg (31%)
Folate (vit. B9)	20 μg (5%)
Choline	9.8 mg (2%)
Vitamin C	8.7 mg (10%)
Iron	0.26 mg (2%)
Magnesium	27 mg (8%)
Manganese	0.27 mg (13%)
Phosphorus	22 mg (3%)
Potassium	358 mg (8%)
Sodium	1 mg (0%)
Zinc	0.15 mg (2%)
Fluoride	2.2 µg

   

You can read more about the Banana on Wikipedia and get all sorts of banana nutritional facts from the USDA.

What about you, Dear Runner? Do you have any foods you eat more than the rest or at special times? Let me know what you think in the comments and I'll see if I haven't had a culinary journey down that road as well.

REVIEW: RunKeeper

www.runkeeper.com

I started running back in, well....okay. I started running back when we all started running: when we were kids. I grew up and found other interests and sports like soccer, football, shot put, and of course, the opposite sex despite my 4 years in an all male, catholic high school. Anyway, in the most recent of times I rediscovered running back in 2005 (Holy crap! really? Wow. It totally doesn't seem that long ago). Anyway, after all the beer and jelly donuts, I was..."too heavy".

"BECAUSE YOU ARE A DISGUSTING FAT BODY, PRIVATE PYLE!!"

Anyway, I had packed on the pounds through years of not playing football, not running track, not throwing shot, not lifting weights, not playing soccer, yet continuing to eat and drink like I still did all of those things. So, anyway, I figured it was time to get rid of a few extra pounds and try to right this ship. My wife and I didn't have a lot of money at the time. We had let the gym memberships go to conserve so I had to look for a cheaper alternative. And by "Cheap," I meant "Free."

Turns out that there are miles and miles and miles and miles of Earth out there that you can just run loose in. So I did. I had a job where I was on the road travelling for work all the time so I ran in parks and hotel workout room treadmills and city sidewalks and airport runways. Basically, Jenny, anywhere I could run, I ran. ...well, it was running to ME.

Turns out, just getting up and being active really does help you to lose weight. My pounds started to drop and I went from almost 300 down to a paltry 225, almost 70 pounds of pure fat I ran off in a few years. Then I sort of got complacent and let work get in the way. I changed jobs, had a kid, had another kid, and kept eating and drinking as before until I stepped on the scale one day in 2010. Much to my chagrin I was back to almost 260. No wonder my pants were tight and clothes didn't really fit me anymore.

So, back on the horse. But smarter this time. I started slow and began to eat right. Not a paleo or some fad diet, but really right. 2/3 veggies, no dairy, and then protein and some grains. Drank water and coffee (occasionally beer and wine and whiskey), gave up the sweet tea that I loved so much. Desserts were apples and bananas and not covered in chocolate or in ice cream. I downloaded an app for my iPhone called "Zombies, Run!" and started to use that for my runs.

So then, before I knew it, I was running almost everyday, this Zombie app was tracking my progress and entertaining me, but it really didn't deliver any stats for me at the time. And the story updates were starting to get slow. Before I knew it, again, I had out ran the story and was kind of bored with the whole zombie thing anyway. It was good for what it was and maybe I'll pick up season 2 and see where that goes, but for now, I had needs to quantify how far, how much, how fast, where, when and a bunch of other information. Looking in the Zombies app and searching the internets I found out about RunKeeper.

Turns out my Zombies app synced with RunKeeper if I had an account. Plus, RunKeeper would breakdown all of my runs into stats, show me a track overlaid on a Google map at the end of my run, and a TON of other stuff as well to satisfy my geeky nature to show me all of the stats of all of my runs.

I have been using RunKeeper since March of 2012, shortly after I found them, and it has been one of my favorite apps of all time. It has been on every smartphone I have owned since 2012 and even made the conversion from iOS to Android with me. I got a Pebble smartwatch off of Kickstarter JUST for the fact that it was going to eventually work with RunKeeper. I could not be more pleased with RunKeeper for my level of ability. On my pebble I have the ability to view all of the pertinent stats regarding my current run. I wish the Pebble would let me start or pause a run using the buttons, but I'm not sure if this is technically possible for them. Or even if anyone out there has even asked for this.

Speaking of options for RunKeeper, a slick app is the Shoe Tracker. Developed by Queso Fitness, the shoe tracker allows a user to have a stable of shoes and then assign them to RunKeeper activities allowing you to know how far you have run in a particular pair. If you enter the price paid for the shoes, it will even tell you how much they cost you per mile to run in.

I remember back in 2007, I ran the Crazy Legs 8K in Madison, WI. I took an hour (literally finished at 1:00:01.07) to run it and my training consisted of runs like "Well, I guess I'll just run from the apartment to over there by that point in the shore line of the lake." Afterwards only to find out that I had run slightly better than a mile. But no more!

These days I strap my phone to my armband, plug in the headphones, and I am off. RunKeeper tells me how far I have gone in what length of time (I have mine set to tell me distance and pace after every 5 minutes). RunKeeper tells me if I'm faster or slower than my target pace (for a rehab run, I'll try for 12 minutes / mile, but without RK, I'd be running them at 8 because Pace is THE HARDEST thing for me to keep when I run).

One particular feature I like, given my GIS and Mapping background, from the website, viewed on a laptop or desktop machine, I can download the track from my runs and open them in Google Earth or export it as a GPX and send it to my GPS device. The only item I wish they would let me do is to grab more than just one run at a time. I am sure, given time, the development team behind RunKeeper will get this done (Please?).

                                                                                 

RunKeeper has a TON more features that I haven't even scratched the surface on, but these are the big hitters for me. If you are in the market for a good running app to track and analyze your calories burned or distance traveled, RunKeeper is for you. It is available for both iOS and Android in the appropriate stores.

                          

Once you are all signed up with RunKeeper, or the next time you visit your account, look me up. Username: TheEpeter.

What about you, Dear Runner? Do you have a favorite App you like to use when you run? Do you have questions about an app or would you like your app reviewed? Let me know what you think in the comments below and I will do my best to let you know what I think. 

Winter's Coming

Okay, so it's not really about the wildly fun to watch HBO series Game of Thrones, but it is true.

Summer is officially over given that the equinox was a few days ago on September 22nd and fall is here. YIPPEE!! This is definitely one of my favorite times of year to run. The cooler, but not cold, weather coupled with some sun shine means I can run during my lunch hour again and not have to worry about early morning runs. My neighborhood is filled with teenage AND elderly drivers, not to mention that the main drag through the subdivision is a great short-cut to avoid about 6 lights in trade-off for 3 Stop signs.

I think I speak another language since I see "Stop" and come to a halt in my vehicle whereas others seem to see those octagonal red signs and just roll through. No matter how many kids are standing at the curb waiting to cross safely.

Anyway, So now I don't need the reflector vest, or at least, I don't wear it. Its the middle of the day and I'm pretty well visible when I get out on the mean streets of "Several Conifers" subdivision. So: Excitement for the lunchtime runs. HUZZAH!!

In addition to all of this, I'm picking this blog up again (LOOK! 3 postings in a row! Amazing!)

I know.I know. I've said it before, but here we go. 2013 is almost over (4th quarter, Baby!), my kids are growing up, I'm running more, and life is just getting in there and doing things. But whatevs. It's gonna happen. It IS happening. So changes are in the pipe for you, Dear Reader. You will notice that a few things have been made better. The layout, the writing (questionably), MORE CONTENT!, and a mobile version (shh, its a secret, but seriously, go check us out on your phone).

So get ready.

Get Pumped!

Because "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu 

The Oatmeal Runs

Seriously. He does.

And then makes this post about The Blerch and e'rrbody goes CRAZY.

Buyin' Blerch shirts. Blerch hats. Blerch bitches. Blerch turds.

I'm with him, though. I'm hip. I'm with it.

I run for the Blerch, too.

Only my Blerch is bad poetry.

Like this:

"There is no cold.

There is no rain.

There are no legs.

There is no pain.

There is only you you.

Running.

Breathing."

Sucks, yo, but I still get my miles in.

Shitty rhymes all the way.

Can't empty my head. 

Its 2013.

Oh. my. god.

And I still suck at updates.

and posting.

And Whatever.

I still have this thing? I can't believe it.

I feel like I ought to use it more.

...or kill it.

Like a zombie.

But I can't because its like an old friend.

Maybe I will have more things to talk about later.

For now, though, just...this.