New Years Blog

My year in running was eventful for 2011, I hope that 2012 will be as eventful (if not more). Some highlights include:

• PR in 5k (Monster Dash)
• PR in 10k (first ever-- Drumstick Dash)
• Completed and improved Half Marathon (First was Minneapolis Marathon-Half, improvement of 30 mins to a 1:57 at the Rails to Trails HM)
• Ran over 750 miles (officially 750 miles more than 2010)

For 2012 my goals include:

• Volunteer in a Race
• Sub 24 minute 5k
• Sub 49:00 10k
• Sub 1:30 10 mile
• Sub 1:50 half marathon
• Complete a marathon (without soiling myself)
• Run more than 750 miles in a year
• Run more than 150 miles in a month
• Better my time in the Get Lucky 7k
• Encourage more of my friends to be runners

Muscular fatigue is in your head

I recently read a series of articles that discuss the relationship between fatigue and neuronal action in the brain.  In this episode, I present a quick synopsis of these articles for your listening pleasure.

Photos from the Drumstick Dash and Around Rochester

I just plugged my phone into my computer (as a distraction from grading) and have decided to put up photos fromt the Drumstick Dash and from my recent experiences with crazy amounts of Canadian Geese around Silver Lake.

The geese on Silver Lake

Geese in the field across the street from the lake...

Dead Squirrel that I kept passing on my sprints around Goose Egg Park.

Morning of the Drumstick Dash... Gorgeous.

I thought this was oddly fitting before the Drumstick Dash.  In retrospect, I can't tell if its a guy or gal... oh well.  Still kinda cool looking.

Silver Lake itself stays largely ice free in parts due to a hydro-electric/coal power plant that is attached to the Silver Lake Dam (hence the reason for the "lake") because of this, a large number of Canadian Geese have turned it into a permanent home.  The major drawback of this is the immense amount of goose poo on the trails (VERY SLIPPERY) and the loud honking that accompanies them.

The photos of the Dash (the last two) were of the sunrise over Lake Harriet that morning... beautiful.

Perception and Rails to Trails Half Pics

Another episode is posted.  In this one, I chat about perception and how its all literally in your mind. A little on color vision, taste, touch/pain and lousy french canadian accents.

Additionally, I finally put my phone pics onto my computer:

The start of the race was clogged

The entrance to the tunnel

Return trip was much less crowded

Farmland in western Wisconsin

The cows that provided the pungent dairy-air

Rails to Trails Race Report

Another podcast episode is up.

In summary, it was windy and smelled like cows for much of the race. The race was uphill until the tunnel, steeply downhill (3.5% grade?) through the wet and dark tunnel (I used my iPhone as a light for the descent) to the flats and the turn around (no longer smelling like cows). Then the return. I was encouraged by the people running around me to keep at the same pace leading me to finish strongly with a new PR of 1:57:14!

For those who are counting, thats a whopping 17 minutes faster than my previous 13 miler (in October) and a full 31 minutes faster than my last (first) Half (in June)!

Photos will be up as soon as I attach my phone to the computer.

Podcast updates, Training updates and Race Report.

So that I keep something semi-recent on here:

I've put up another two podcasts; one last week on Respiration and what I understand to be a discussion of VO2 Max and one (last night) talking about my Halloween race and a few other bits of thought regarding running as a whole.

As another bit of an update, I broke the century mark for the month of October! To be honest, I barely made it (100.5 miles) but I was sill happy with my result overall especially since I bested my previous result by a total of 94 miles in the month of May. I'm guessing that October will probably be my most extensive workload until January or so...

Otherwise, my 5k results: clock time of 24:43; watch time of 24:14. I was hoping for a 25:00 time or so, so in general I'm happy with it.

So looking at the goals I've set for myself on the side; I've checked one off my list!!!

Cardiovascular System and Running

I put a new podcast up (linked above) that I recorded yesterday but haven't been able to put on the server until now.  The application I normally use is not working with my newly updated system (OSX Lion). So I did it by hand and am now passively looking at a different podcast manager. Until I get it figured out, I'll have to do it by hand and wait for iTunes to ping the server.