First Race for the Boys

This has been a long time coming.  But work has forced me to do some grading on the weekend and not write about the ongoing craziness that is my life the last five months.

On the Saturday before Halloween my son and I participated in our first race together.  I ran he slept as most of the strollers runs go.  As you can see from the picture he was football and I was the football player.  

Yes, I did run the full race with the pads and helmet on. At the race I found that warming up for the race with my son is different than if I was by myself.  At the start which again was a different experience for me.  Normally I like to place myself in a place close to the front.  However I was not able to take this normal spot because I had the stroller.  This time it was fine since it was a large race (1400+) and I was not putting any time goal on myself that would make this race more serious than it needed to be.  It was my first race with my son and I just wanted to enjoy it. As the race started out I had to play the game of making my way through all the walkers and other strollers that were not going as fast as I wanted to go (it was a race and when the gun went off the trigger in my brain just said to go fast).  It took a good mile or more to make my way through the crowds.  After I was able to make my way through the crowds I was able to really get going.  From then on it was smooth going.  I was able to actually get below a seven minute mile.  My final time was 21:43 pretty happy how things went for my first stroller race.  I did learn though in smaller races this summer that I will not be taking a back seat to the faster races.  I plan on starting near the front because well I still want to compete; it is a race you know.  

Changes in time and Season

So not blogging for almost two months means one of two things; 1, I have nothing to saw (not likely) or 2, I have been busy and not sure what to writ so I don’t.  The second is the most likely reason because I have been able to keep up on my Twitter but writing anything of substance. 

Prefontaine was quoted as saying that “a man can fail many times but is not a failure until he starts blaming someone else.”  Well I have been reminded of that quote a few times these past few months.  I don’t want to blame the fact that my races have not gone well because of my son but I have not been able to sleep.  We all know that having the proper amount of sleep is very important.  Because he has not been sleeping all that well 4-6 hours this makes for early mornings and long days.  So I am I a failure for blaming him for my slow times?

Not exactly I have just found the reason why my times are suffering.  If I look at the last two races I think this is evident.  The half marathon did not go very well and neither did my marathon.  I have the training to some degree maybe not to the same degree that I did last year but it all comes down to the rest and the ability to recover.  My training times have been okay but I have also not been able to get some of those very important at pace training runs in that are the backbone of my training.  So as I go forward I think that I need to come to terms of the new norm at least until he starts sleeping more at night then who knows what could happen, things could go back to how they were or not.  Either way this is the new norm for now.

Coaching Others and Self

This is my third year as an official assistant coach to the cross country team and forth with the team as a whole. This year is different than others in the past as the biggest school that beat the conference easily year in and year out left the conference.  This gives the other teams in the conference a real chance to do something as a team that has not been done in a very long time.  For us the first week of practice of cross country was a success, the athletes worked hard and some even came into the season in pretty good shape.  My role as assistant is the motivator kind of the cheerleader of the team if you will.  Every year I try and get more athletes to run during the summer this started last summer when I began the 300mile N.U.T.S club. We had two athletes make the club and they saw some the benefits of running these miles.  This year we expanded the clubs to include runners of all ages, 150, 200 and 300 miles.  As the athletes get older the club in which they are asked to reach increases.  The idea is that as the athletes run year to year they become used to the idea that running in the summer offseason is something of the norm.  This should make them better and more prepared for the season as they get older.  This was very evident that those that did run this past summer the shape were the times in the two mile that we ran on the second day of practice. 

I have been a fan of the pace calculator on mcmillanrunning.com and have used these time to help me pace out my own training.  This past January I was put on to vdot training at a conference.  I am sure that mcmillanrunning.com uses a similar calculator to achieve the time that it does.  This vdot training (Jack Daniels) is all based on finding where an athlete is at and have them run different types of training runs based on the paces from their timed two mile.  As the athlete gets in better shape the paces increase making the athlete work harder and therefore get faster.  It is this training that I have been trying to get the team to buy into.  This is difficult for a high school runner to do, many of these runners like to run but do not want to leave the comfort level and this training has you pushing your edge constantly.  I became very frustrated at one point this week when the senior boys were complaining that the pace was to fast but based on their scores it was just right.  I have been very fortunate that the head coach lets me vent to him during these times and prevents me from upsetting the team with my competitive nature.  To me it does not make sense as to why a person would not want to make themselves better and not settle. 

This is why I run and train as I do I want to get better every year.  This does not mean that I expect PR’s every time out but it does mean that I am going to try to run my best that I have each and every time and if I feel the performance is substandard that means that I need to make changes to my training so that I do not become complacent.  That is way I really like the vdot (Jack Daniels) and McMillan method of training I never seem to plateau for very long. This is why I created the mile clubs and why I try and motivate the runners to make themselves better.

Am I just crazy or does this make sense?

Running on vacation can normally be hit and miss when you can run.  If you have family that understands what it means to you to get out and run.  For me my family understands that I want to get out and run.  The problem is that my family is going through some changes if you have been reading, my running is becoming very sporadic but yet I am able to put in some consistent weekly miles.

On my vacation I went home (North Dakota) for three weeks.  During my vacation I was able to average about 30 miles a week and even able to run a race.  The race was very small (30people) and the first time for the town.  The race itself was not a bad route one big loop on the outskirts of town.  I was the only serious runner at the race even though I know of local runners that could run faster that can they did not show up.  Their absence is my gain meaning I was able to pull off a win.  The time was not good 20:32; the second place time was about 2minutes after so it was not even close. 

My training runs varied in length and scenery.  At the farm the scenery looked very much like this.  

When I was in Minot, ND the scenery was very different.  Minot had just started the recovery of the flood that devastated the city.  It was very difficult to comprehend the devastation even seeing the aftermath.  My family was not affected by the flood.  But there is still so much that needs to be done, the Red Cross is one of the best places to donate.  There is an alternative that is different, I Helped Rebuild Minot, here you can purchase a shirt that goes toward the purchase of sheetrock for those that have difficulty purchasing it.   

At the end of the vacation my wife and I were able to have our son baptized in the country church that my wife grew-up going to.  It was a beautiful day and was shared by family at the farm.  We ended up staying an extra day to recover from the very busy three weeks. 

Now we are back home things are getting back to normal, whatever that is. 

10k

The height of the pyramid is determined by the width of the base.  This is not a race report about a resent 10k that I ran; it is a report that I have reached a milestone in my running.  I have reached 10,000miles (7-23-2011).  These of course are just my documented miles.  The majority of the miles that I have run have come in the last four years (over eight thousand).  There was defiantly some years of really good mileage, over 2000miles, but as of recently I have been able to put in some miles that I am okay with and continue my base training before the coaching duties take over and my running becomes more focused to what the athletes need.  I was very happy to make this mileage point.  I think that now that I have this many miles under my belt that I should really be looking at pushing myself to new heights.  This is evident through the last few years; I have seen my easy runs ran at paces that I was running hard at five years ago.  This change is welcome and worth the time and hard work.  As my life is going through changes, again I look forward to see how the next 10,000 miles shapes me as a runner. 

Diapers the Beginning

In the past five weeks I have been able to experience the joys of changing diapers.  I know that there are still more to come.  In this very short experience I have learned that not all diapers are created equal.  My wife and I were given a good deal of diapers for baby shower gifts.  We received two types Pampers and Huggies.  In the hospital we were given Pampers to use.  When we came home we started using the Huggies and very quickly learned that not all diapers are created equal.  I understand that a great deal of time goes into the research into creating these products.  I found that there are a few reasons why I prefer Pampers to Huggies.

Both of the diapers have the wonderful indicator strip.  As a new parent and not sure when the child is wet and the child not being able to tell you this strip is wonderful.  The major difference and decisive factor is the tape, but running a close second was the elastic waistband.   I think that these two parts go hand in hand.  The Huggies seemed not to have the ability to hold the diaper around the hips of my son and therefore the we would have many leaks of urine at night and during the day.  The tape that holds the diaper on or closed works only for that time the diaper is on.  When the diaper is taken off and rolled closed for disposal the tape does not keep the diaper closed.  Pampers on the other hand does not have this problem and allowed me to tape and re-tape the diaper as I was learning how to change a diaper.  With Pampers, the urine leaks were nonexistent. The tape the holds diaper closed kept the diaper closed even after the diaper was taken off and then discarded. 

I have not been able to test any other diapers yet and would like to know if the generic brands hold up the same standard, the name brands do.  My son is now going into the next phase of diapers (number 1’s).  Making assumptions about how this next phase of diapers for these products is impossible but if you have any insight, please let me know.  

Fathers Day 2011

Happy father’s day to all dads out there.  This year is my first for all first time dads the first is very special. Though my son is still young, I have certain amount of pride on this father’s day.

I have tried to make father’s day a weekend event. On Saturday, I was able run my first race being a dad.  It went okay for being sleep deprived.  I was able to maintain a reasonable pace and did not have any aspirations of winning or even running a great time.  I had a reasonable goal of under 26min and was able accomplish this goal by running 25:50.  The rest of the day, however I just felt out it, my attention span just was not there.  I thought that taking a nap would have been a good idea but even that did not happen.  It was again filled with changing diapers and feeding. If you think that all diapers are the same your mistaken, I have a clear favorite, more on that at a later time.

On the official father’s day, I was able to start it early 5am, with a feeding and diaper change.  Normally I am able to get a small nap in after he is feed and diapered.  I have found this helps with my run during the day.  Well this nap did not happen apparently my son felt it necessary to make sure that I am up and “hanging out” with him trying to get him to calm down and take that all important nap. Needless to say I did not run today, I seem to be more okay with not running this Sunday than last.  I was able to get 40+ miles in this week, which is a high for the last 6 weeks.  I have found that running 8-10 miles daily will become normal.  To me this is okay it is something that I wanted to this summer but was thinking that I might be running a longer midweek run.  For now I am happy with the way things are going both personally and in my running.  

Flexibility

This morning at 1am and then again at 3am we were greeted with my son enhancing his lung capacity.  By about 4:30 in the morning it was my turn to try and calm him down.  I was able to but not till about 5am.  Then it was only for about an hour then it was time to have him eat again.  So my long run that I had planned for today did not happen.  About a year ago this would have bothered me.  I was however able to get a couple of runs in but it does not match the benefits of the long run.

I have begun to learn that my training will come second to my son for this summer.  For me this is a difficult thing to overcome.  For many years I was training to be competitive as a runner and have brought my times down to were I really feel happy about my training.  Last year at this time, I was coming off a small injury that really affected my effectiveness as a runner.  I was planning on this summer to be the full of very focused training. That has obviously taken a detour, I am looking forward to being a Dad but I am not ready to become less competitive. 

I article in RunnersWorld six months to a year ago dealt with moms that are runners and how to deal with the changes to the availability of not really training runs but running in general.  This is fine, but I want to know what to do when the Dad wants to run. 

I keep being told that this time will pass and he will be sleeping more “normally” in a few weeks to months. I not sure if I can handle that, I know that I need to be flexible in my training.  Maybe this father thing and flexibility with my training will be good for me.  Maybe this will make me a better runner in the end but for now it is a challenge for me mentally to deal with.  

A gift on National Running Day. (run not included)

Birth is a life changing event. Most of us are fortunate never to remember the actual process that it took, but our Mothers will remind us if it was bad for them. My mother never said that it was that much of a traumatic experience. My son however will most likely be reminded about how things went by my wife. It was very exciting but also very difficult on my wife. I even had to change the first diapers and do the first feedings because my wife was really put through the ringer. She is walking around as if she had some total body marathon all form a bed. Yikes, I thought training for a marathon and then running it was tuff, what she did was just amazing.

My son was born on National Running Day at 1:49AM, so I was unable to get a run in yesterday. Very little sleep and having to be a dad changed priorities for me. I was all talk about how I would be fine leaving to go back to school and go for runs even while in the hospital. Like I said that was all talk and that I will most likely get my first run in on the weekend but the earliest Friday. After that, I have no idea how to plan or make plans for times like these.

I am looking forward to try to be a good role model for my son. I hope that he ends up being a runner and is better than I was or will ever be. For now, I think that I am going to take all this in, and worry about running later.

runpd

No Longer Dreaming of a White Anything

Over the past weeks, I have been able to get some sort of consistency with my mileage and slowly increasing it to the 50 miles per week I like to have. One of the problems that I am having as I increase my mileage is that my times (avg. pace) are at paces that I would normally be upset with but with all the snow we have got this year it is very difficult to find a path that does not have ice or packed snow on it. I normally do not have many issues with this but this record amount of snow really does change how a person runs. On one of my first attempts at a longer run (12+) my hips hurt that evening and even into the next day from all the side to side leg action to keep my self upright. The city finally cleared the snow on the “walking, bike” path and I was able to get a good healthy stride length and did not have to worry about footing.


Then the cold temperature set in. I have become accustomed to the couple of times a winter were for a stretch of days the temperature is borderline safe to go out and run. Even on those days, I go out and run because every runner needs to get what I call his or her idiot badge. Your idiot badge is received any time after your run you make the statement “I should have not done that.” The idiot badge can be received in all kinds of weather.

In the midst of all the cold and snow, I signed up to run the second Mankato Marathon, held on October 22, 2011. I have had the count down for that race going for some time. The registration has been open since January first, and again the field size is limited but is more than the previous year (I think). Some might not agree with limiting the field size on a smaller marathon but to me it makes sense. Last years inaugural race was great the crowds are what one would expect for the size of the town. However, the service received from the volunteers and staff was great they were defiantly not overwhelmed and that will keep people coming back to run this race.

So training starts now. Got to go and get yet another idiot badge.