blisters, porta-potties, and heat strokes: And then there's the Other runs....

Bloggers love to write about the good runs.  Those runs where you feel like you're floating, like you're feet don't even touch the ground, the breeze is blowing, and always behind you, cars slow down to look at you because you're going so fast (and you're running in the woods), you channel barefoot Ted somewhere in India and he answers...

and then there's the Other runs.   

Last night I left my truck at work and rode home with my wife (who I had met to watch my 5 year old graduate pre-k) so this morning I ran to work.  

1.  We have a newborn and are getting no sleep and Nothing crushes a run (mentally or physically) like no sleep.  A mile out of the gate and I knew my pace sucked, but what the heck, it's just a fun run to work anyway, right?  (self talk, self talk, self talk)

2.  There's a section of down hill that's literally 1/2 mile all down hill.  Awesome!  I LOVE downhill running more than anything else - That's how you fly!  Unless of course you're running sockless in a new pair of shoes that you've never tried before that happen to be a little long.  Half way down the hill I started to smell something -- "I thought someone was bbqing!.... but oh lord, it's a FIRE!" -- on the front pads of both of my feet.  I'm pretty sure they were melting.  Yay blisters.

3.  I get to the bottom of the hill, turn the corner to the flat for the next couple of miles and they show up.  Runners cramps.  Now, I'm not talking about those adorable little 'stitches' you get in your ribs when you're first learning to run, no no, I'm talking about nether region cramps where all of the sudden it feels like the Tanzanian Devil is declaring war on your colon.  Fabulous.

About a 1/2 mile up the road there's a porta-potty.  Now, I know what you're thinking, "gross!" and "it will never have toilet paper in it", and while you would normally be right, this particular porta-potty was  at a tennis court, and unlike runners, and soccer, baseball, and football players, tennis people have these things called "standards".  Score.  So I make it to the porta-potty and I find it pristine cleaned and freshly stocked, however there's another problem.  As you may know, running cramps of this nature don't give up (pass on) particularly quickly so I was now faced with 2 options:  get off the porta-throne before I really 'want' too and risk another attack in the next 2 miles to work OR pass out from heat stroke because we live in TN and if Satan himself had been sitting in this particular porta-john he would have been screaming to turn the air on.

I crawled out of the big blue incubator and back into the TN sun (which now felt like December after sweating off 10 pounds in last 3 minutes) and resumed my run, which caused me to face number 4:

4.  So now what?  I'm Really in a hurry to get where I'm going (namely an air conditioned facility at work) so I should run there as fast as I can -- BUT (no pun intended), the thought of bouncing and sloshing my volatile guts around by running seems less than ideal so maybe I should walk... which will then take longer... I really should have driven my truck home.

SO, the next time you have a less than ideal run, just remember this epic adventure of blisters, porta-potties, heat strokes, and the other 'runs' (see what I did right thur?)  and feel better about yourself ;)

Spring (form) cleaning

As spring arrives (and leaves, and teases, and retreats...) more and more people are getting running again.  If you are just starting out, learn correct form first, if you are just starting back, take this opportunity of rebooting to check out your stride and evaluate your form, if you're a year-rounder, take a spring cleaning look at yourself and double check for loss of efficiency and/or possible flaws in mechanics that would make you more prone to injury.

Conduct a lengthy mid-flight checkup and see how you're doing.

Stand up, now really Stand up (tall):  pretend there's a string coming out of the top of your head, reach up, grab it and pull up, lifting all of your body Tall and straight.

RELAX: relax everything, loose fingers, hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and neck

Check your leg movements:  March in place - your feet land directly underneath your center of gravity (under your hips), you are Lifting your legs off the ground (with your hamstrings, quads, and butt), Not pushing yourself off the ground (with your calves)

Bend your knees.  Now bend them even more, and a little more, and keep them bent.  Knees should stay bent the entire time, even (especially) when you land.  Your knee should Never lock out - you have God given leaf springs, use them

Land on the ball of your foot and immediately roll flat (think about landing perfectly flat)

Bend slightly from the Ankles (Never bend at the waist)

When you get tired, the first thing most people do is start to lean forward and their shoulders come forward and in, constricting your lungs and further exacerbating your breathing.  Stay tall, head up, shoulders back, chest high



**Remember the principles: straight body posture, everything (toes, knees, hips, chest, shoulders, arms, and head) pointing and moving in the direction you want to be going, loose, loose, loose, lift your foot off the ground using your big muscles (the "Pull" in Pose) instead of springing into your next stride with just the use of your calves, land lightly on the ball of your foot and roll flat, breathe In the mouth and out the mouth, smile ;) 

Tragedy in Boston

The events of Boston shook the nation.  A day marked as "the best day in Boston", Patriots Day, schools were out, the Red Sox were playing, runners from around the world had gathered... it was a big day, a beautiful day, an Americana day.

When the first plane hit the first tower on 9/11 the nation gasped at this terrible accident.  Then the second plane hit and the realization sunk in.  Similarly, the first bomb went off and spectators, runners, and news media couldn't believe the tragedy of a man hole cover/gas explosion/accident... and then 20 seconds later that dark realization of the world we live in reared its head once more.


There will always be evil. Evil people, evil deeds, evil consequences. But whenever evil people come out from the shadows, good people, courageous people rise up to meet them. When evil atrocities are committed, amazing acts of kindness and love can immediately be found in the still smoking embers. Before the evil (full of cowardice) can even slink back into the night, love, goodness, courageous are already running to the epicenter to pick up the pieces and prepare for tomorrow.

"The world is full of evil and terrible things, but fear not, I have conquered the world"

Crossfit Shoes

Several people have asked for a list of Crossfit shoes.

Here is just that, a simple list of the shoes I would recommend looking into:

Skora Phase (really ANY Skora shoe would be great)

inov-8 Bare-XF 210

inov-8 Bare-XF 260

Altra The One

New Balance Minimus Zero

New Balance MT00 Minimus

"Hey, what about X, Y, Z shoe!?"

There are a lot of other shoes for Crossfit that Look really good, but they violate my one hard-line rule of Zero drop only.  

Deliver Milk to the Orphans!

Hey guys, several people have asked about the strangely named "delivering milk to the orphans" workout that I've talked about some and that was posted on my list of crossfit style exercises.

It really is a great piece of work - hitting pretty much Full body.

Here's a little 2 1/2 minute video I made for a friend who was wanting to learn it - the first 2 minutes are the verbal explanation/instructions and the exercise demo starts at 2:04

http://youtu.be/XJ7uX2CxU64

WHY do you run? HOW do you train? Are they linked?

As is often said, you only get out of something what you put into it.

Exercise is THE perfect example of this.  You WILL reap what you sow.

So, decide first... What do you want Out of it?

Probably to each individual it seems like an easy answer, because you have thought about what Your motivation is, but understanding that that motivation is different for everyone is an integral part of learning about yourself:
Your source of motivation may change as you progress, and you may find that what you thought your motivation was in the first place was... not.

Here are some examples (good, bad, indifferent):

• To get in shape (about as lame and generic as you can get, but there you have it)
• To lose weight
• To fit into a small pair of jeans
• To look better in your bathing suit for the upcoming summer
• To make your body more healthy (heart rate, blood pressure, etc.)
• To have something to do with a loved one
• To have something to do to go pick up a new 'loved' one
• To blow off steam
• To be able to run faster
• To be able to run farther
• To be stronger
• To get myself ready to compete in x (a new distance: a 5k, 10k, half, full, ultra, etc.)
• To beat my previous time
• To win x race(s)
• To de-stress
• To run...away

Depending on which category(ies) you fall in dictates what you do to train and how.  If you want to run faster, than your training will look different than someone wanting to run ultras, if you're wanting to run ultras your training will look very different than someone wanting to lose weight, etc.

For me, running is not competitive.  Understand that I am a very competitive person, in most all aspects, but running is Not competitive for me, it never has been, and I truly Hope it never will.  For me, running is de-tox.  It's stress relief, it's joy, it's (as I've said many times) meditation in motion.  

So, with knowing that, how I run is very different than how most people do who are training for most of the things in that list.  

Again, what's important is that you recognize WHY you are running, and then plot your input accordingly.

The "55" workout

I'm a big fan of the "55" workout.  In it's traditional form it is usually done as push-ups and air squats.  With that in mind, the idea is this:
you do 1 push up and 10 squats, then 2 push ups and 9 squats, 3 push ups 8 squats, and so on.  You repeat the pattern until your last set is 10 push ups and 1 squat.
At that point you've done 55 reps of each (10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1=55).

It's a neat idea.  What I really like about it though is that you can use that model of Any 2 workouts.

For example, you could do squats and pushups, or pushups and crunches.
You could also do walk 10, 'sprint' 1, walk 9, 'sprint' 2.
You could cross up your running and work out and do run 10, do 1 burpee, run 9, do 2 burpees, etc.

This morning I did dubs and C&J
1 double under, 10 clean and jerks, 2 double unders, 9 clean and jerks.
By the end, it was Brutal.  In trying to do it "for time" and racing through as fast I could, the exhaustion level gets so high you start missing your double unders (catching a foot).  Each double under missed, for whatever reason (especially at that point in the workout), feels like 10 successful ones as effort goes -- And 55 double unders and 55 clean and jerks as fast as you can go...heck of a workout!

Play with it and see what you can come up with.  Using the "55" model and randomly picking Any 2 things will give you quite the workout, with no guides and no real planning!