Flying Monkeys go national!

Well gang it was an amazing weekend!! First trying to stay cool in 100+ temps in NorCal!!! One of the best ways I have found is to get some altitude and some water.. Mix it with a little mud and you have the Mudskipper adventure relay!! Kosmo and I headed up to Magalia this last Saturday with our trusty "Mojo Monkey" photographer, Kosmos's very nice mountain bike and my new FitCity singlet. I have been following Pamela LeBlanc on Twitter and her blog for the Austin Texas fitness oriented crowd. Pamela "tweets" some excellent articles on the fitness scene in general and on goings on in Austin. I was able to cajole a "FitCity" singlet from Ms LeBlanc and promised to wear it so we could do a Where's Waldo-ish "Where in California is the FitCity singlet?" Look for future posts and check out Pam's blog and tweets.. great stuff.

Kosmo and I.. humbly.. KICKED BUTT up in Magalia.. sorry.. can't be too humble cause we took second place in the long course group!! Kosmo was on fire on the bike and was tearing up the bike course. All total we each had to do a mix of 13 miles of trail running and mountain biking. Twenty-six miles in 1:30:28 (yes of course we were running/riding at the same time).. but we gave those young 2o year olds who took first place a run for their money and we heard that they were asking "where are those old guys"..throughout the race. Not bad for a could of ahem.. 40 something guys. Trailhead Adventures puts on a really great event to benefit California Vocations so in addition to a great time they raised some money for a good cause. Keep an eye on their website for upcoming events. These folks are all heart and there was a BBQ afterwards too.. :-)

The Fleet Feet summer 10K program continues and HUGE props to those runners who are braving the current heat wave to get their training on.

My training for C.I.M continues and is going well.
Stay tuned next week for a reviw of the new Omega juicer and some great recipes.
Follow on Twitter : a13pt1runner
Tight Laces and Happy Running
Ed

Summer Sizzler and onward

Well it seems I have rested enough.. time to set some new goals and get back in the swing of things. During Reno Tahoe Odyssey I met some fantastic new friends and one of them, Brian Hamilton graciously built me a fantastic training plan for the California International Marathon. This week also started the Fleet Feet Chico Summer 10k training group so I will be chronicling the progress toward the goal for that program's goal, The Summer Sizzler 10k here in Chico as well as progress into the fall half marathon season as all of that goes into my build up for C.I.M.

Todays run was a "easy" 6 miles with the last mile at 10K pace. Weather was perfect and logged negative splits 8:46/8:36/8:09/8:03/7:58 and 7:04 for that last mile. That puts the total for the week at 24.5 miles and keeps things right on track. Switching my long runs to Sundays or Fridays for a few weeks and tomorrow will be a 10miler with some of the group.

I have recently been trying out the Cwx compression shorts for Fleet Feet and I have to say I love these things. VERY comfortable to wear and really support your upper leg muscles. I still swear by my "Skins" for recovery but check out the Cwx shorts. Their website advertises 26& less energy expenditure than regular tights and 36% less than regular shorts. I don't know if I can calibrate them that closely but they do feel like I have more energy during the run.

Next weekend is the Western States 100 miler and since that is still quite a ways off for me... yours truly will be competing in the "Mudskipper" bike/run obstical race here locally. Sure there will be some hiliarous pics from the finish line mud pit up on my Facebook page!

Keep Running! Enjoy your summer and stay tuned and hydrated!

A Journey of 26.2 miles

I wanted to let some time pass after the race to reflect on the experience in Paris and, so I can comment on the other marathons my friends have done this spring.

They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step.. Arguably the, the journey of running a marathon means about 42,000 steps just the day of the race. And, if one factors in (at least my own) training miles its something in the neighborhood of 694,400 steps to get to race day. A daunting amount of preparation for some three odd hours of running.
But, if you have run any distance event one knows that it is not just the training nor the amount of time on your feet.. for me.. it was at mile 23 when my brain told me that this was complete madness and it was everything I could do to focus on keeping my feet moving and moving fast enough to hit my goal.

I did it, I broke the 4 hour mark while dealing with water bottles and their caps, wet pavement, cobblestone (don't get me started) and dare I mention them.. orange and banana peels! And it was while I was grumbling to myself at about mile 19 when the crowd was thick and I was absolutely prevented from running any faster that I came across a runner who had a profound effect on me.
I don't know his name, or even where he was from; but there he was, blind, navigating the same streets, the same hazards, surely the same mental and physical fatigue. He had the aide of a guide runner, joined by a small tether. That was the image that got me past my "wall" a few miles later when my brain urged me to stop, and the image that prompted me to reach out to organizations like the USABA and CDifferent when I got back home. What had he had to overcome to get to that point? How many "steps" to prepare?

It was that entire experience that made me even more excited to cheer on each of my friends as they each ran, and turned in incredible times in Boston and Eugene and Oklahoma City over the last few weeks. Everyone overcoming their own challenges, accomplishing goals; running to beat cancer, in memory or in honor of others, or to raise money for causes they believe in.
"
There is a passage in John L. Parker's sequel to Once a Runner, "Again To Carthadge" where the main character, Quentin Cassidy tries to explain why he runs. Cassidy explains that when he runs he is always moving up, improving.... silly me, I thought he meant getting faster.

436 Miles, 8 Days

WOW! I am just 8 days out from the Paris Marathon! Had a nice little jaunt round Upper Park with Tina and "Cindy" this morning and that brings my total mileage preparing for Paris to 436 miles since the first week of December. We leave next Wednesday so I can have a few days to get over jet-lag and do some sightseeing before the races. Saturday is the UNESCO 5K or "Course de l'Unesco" and then the marathon on Sunday the 5th.
The pre-race expo looks to be fantastic and I am sure some of my tourist dollars are going to go to some memorabilia. I can't believe the race is upon me; seems like I have been training since forever for it. I feel great and ready. I had a terrific run at the Shamrock-N and set a new PR of 1:44:57. If I am able to hold that kind of pace for Paris then I should be able to hit my goal of breaking 4 hours. If anyone is actually awake here in the U.S. you can check out MySports.com and plug in my bib number (32292) and see me run past the cameras they have set up along the course. Don't worry.. you can go in later and look. The race starts at quarter to 1 in the morning west coast time so most everyone I know will be snoozing during the race!
My next post will likely be after the race so look for some pics here and on Facebook. Thanks for all the support over the last few months! Bon Voyage!

Log Your Run

Hey Monkeys,
Got turned on to this great site "Log Your Run." You can find routes others have submitted, track your own runs including which shoes you wore, the weather, all kinds of cool stuff.
Check it out! Great way to keep track of your routes, mileage on your shoes etc.
You can find the Google Map of wherever your ran, or want to run and plot out the route to see how far the mileage is. I think it will be great to use to plan out H3 runs!

44 Days, 311.5 miles

Wow.. its been a hectic few weeks. Through the layoff and job searching I have still managed to keep pounding away at the miles and I am still hopeful Paris is going to happen. I havent had much chance to keep the blog going but hoping I can really chronical these last few weeks.
I finally got tired of rebuilding iTunes, and my Garmin logs and all my personal docs and took advantage of Circuit City going out of business to get a great deal on a new Lenovo laptop. I am huge fan of ThinkPads but I digress.
Today I got all the logs for my Garmin rebuild and totalled everything up. I am sitting 44 days out from Paris and have a total of 311.5 miles logged to date in this training program. I have an 18 miler slated for tomorrow so now we are getting to some SERIOUS long runs. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

I did a 16 last weekend with SZ and TTD in a howling, driving rain storm that had all three of us questioning our own sanity. We decided when it was done that from this point on that run would simply be know as "That Time." As in, remember "that time" that it took three days for my shoes to dry out.. or "that time" drowned rats looked better than we did.. you get the picture.

Contrast that with a run while I was down in Walnut Creek. Running along the Contra Costa Canal Trail to the Ignacio Canal Trail and ended up with a steep climb on to the mountain at sunrise. It was clear, and brisk and much as I love Bidwell Park in Chico, the run that morning in Walnut Creek was really special.

All in all things are going well. The heels are a little sore and I have to keep on the stretching to ward off that PF thats nagging at my left foot again. :-( Going to try some Arnica Gel that I hear is great for the stiffness and aches we runners seem to get.
But, the mileage is up to about 35-40 miles a week and I am doing pretty well at holding a pace that should help me meet my target time. No injuries, staying clear of all the creepy crud all my fellow runners in Chico seem to be coming down with. I swear, its those "kettle bells" they are all going on and on about. Everyone I know doing them is getting sick.. maybe its the kooties being transfered off them!
Onward! Tight Laces and Flat Trails

Skins

Ok.. I had to put a plug in for "Skins" compression apparel. I got a pair of the half tights before CIM and have been using them for post long run recovery. My friend, coach, mentor Alan R swears by them and I am a new convert! I cant say enough about the benefits of wearing these after a long run. Now Alan says he wears his (the long ones) for 24 hours after a long run.. I just cant go that far.. BUT.. I have found they help the recovery incredibly. I did 21 miles during the CIM Relay, wore the half tights the rest of the day and Monday I felt like I hadnt run at all! Amazing stuff. To paraphrase my good friend Ferris Bueller "I highly reccomend picking one up if you have the means" :-)

http://www.skins.net/us/en/default.aspx