It's Been Awhile

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted and as I sit here on my lunch hour I thought I would recount a few things from the past month or so.

First of all I completed the longest run in my life, the KC Trail Nerds Clinton Lake 8.5 Mile Trail Race a few weeks ago in Lawrence, KS. It cannot go without saying that trail running is a completely different animal than road running or jogging. As I believe I mentioned after my first trail experience, I really love trail running! Each step is different and just as soon as you can find a "groove" the trail turns or the surface changes which require you to change as well. This time the trail was wet and muddy in sections and there were also sections with wet limestone which is super slippery. None the less I finished the race in 2 hours and felt great. What I think it did for me more than anything was prove to myself that I can do a longer run. My new goal is to complete the Olathe Half Marathon in Olathe, KS next April.

One of the main things I have been thinking about recently is my addiction to sugar and my overall laziness when it comes to eating well. Anyone would be remiss to try and abstain or force themselves to something extreme but with me I find myself nearly always leaning towards the "easiest" food option. The easiest food option is usually something pre-packaged, out of a box or from a quick serve restaurant...all, for the most part, less than the smartest choice. As of late I have also been reading and listening to folks talk about our addiction to sugar, processed sugar, in all forms - breads, sweets, almost everything packaged has high-fructose corn syrup.

I am not entirely sure what I am going to do about this addiction, but in the coming posts I hope to not only relate my running stories but also my fight to win the war against sugar!

2009 Course of Dreams Cross Country 5K

Writing this entry I again realize that this race was another "first" for me...my first cross country race. I did not run in high school, or ever for that matter, but I did have friends on the cross country team and I never realized that there was no track or other type of distinct course, so it was great to run across some wide open fields at Shawnee Mission Park in Shawnee, KS.

I enjoyed the race immensely and was particularly fond of the weather! Overcast and cool!!

Coming into the finish I was thinking about how, maybe, one of these days I will get to my goal of a sub-30 minute 5K. I am sure that goal does not sound spectacular, but for someone who is just barely off of the couch and never ran after 6th grade PE it is a very aggressive goal. At this point I feel I can get to that goal in the next couple of months, I am working on my training and my nutrition which will hopefully, together, get me to that sub-30 minute goal!

2009 Start 2 Finish 5K

The 2009 Start2Finish 5K was a great event for me as the finish line was at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park, KS and both Big Jay and Baby Jay were in attendance. The name of the race comes from the effort by Johnson County Community College and the University of Kansas to attract students to complete their education at JCCC and then KU. I am sure they are after locals who may have taken time off after high school or maybe had a year or so of college and desires to go back and complete a degree. 2009 was the second year of the event and as you can see from the video there were not that many runners, none the less it was a great group and I ran (yes, pun intended) into a neighbor of mine who I see every now and then running in the neighborhood. Speaking of the neighborhood the race started just a mile from the house and the day was great...overcast, relatively low humidity and a low temperature for this time of year in Kansas.

As I rolled up to the starting line I did have some doubts about my ability to run a good race as I had taken most of the week off to nurse some soreness in my left knee and lower leg. I had been walking several nights and iced the knee and shin area several times to try and help ease the soreness. I am happy to say that the leg felt great and there was really no soreness at all. I did take a walk break at the water stop and at the top of the hill but ran strong across the finish line (or at least what I felt was strong!).

2009 Eudora Horsethief Run 5K

For those of you who don't know Eudora, KS is a pretty small town in the north eastern part of the State and is very near Lawrence, KS which is home to my alma matter, the University of Kansas. Until race day I had not spent much time at all in Eudora although I had been there a couple of times to visit clients a time or two, the only thing I remembered about Eudora was the Chinese-Mexican restaurant on the main street which folks refer to as ChiMex!

The morning of the race I was quite nervous about the race because I hadn't run much the past week to 10 days because of the shin splints I have been experiencing. I managed to get up a few minutes earlier than I probably would have normally, but I wanted to get some good ice-time on my leg before the run began. We arrived to the race with a little extra inspiration: Valeria!!

Today was Valeria's first race with daddy and I had a lot of fun with her, thinking about her waiting for me at the finish line, I am not sure I ran any faster, but it was great to have her there at the race.

The course was a flat and fast (for some) route through the south part of town passing through mostly residential neighborhoods and past the school with a finish on Main Street. I managed to finish in just over 32 minutes according to my Garmin although the race time was 33 and change, I also noticed my Garmin estimated the course to be a little longer than 5K. Weather...well the weather was great and perfect for a morning 5K in the middle of Summer in Kansas. A little humid, not too hot but nice and overcast which for me is a plus because I do most of my running in the early morning without the Sun and I can really feel it when I run in the afternoon or mid morning when the Sun is hanging high in the sky.

As can be seen from the splits the first mile was very good for me, in fact it may be the fastest mile I have ever run! Mile two was great and I did stop after mile two to grab a drink at the water stop. It was funny because I was thinking about water for a while because it was humid and it seemed to make me much thirstier than usual, but to my delight water was just in sight! After the water stop (or walk, I didn't fully stop) I walked for about 2 minutes and tried to finish strong. Coming across the finish line I felt really good and thought a lot about how I can make my next race even better.

Speaking of my next race, as you can see from my listing of races to the right I have a couple on the horizon. The first is a cross county run and the second one is a race from one college to another and starts just a mile away from my house. I am trying to get some cross training in as I am still feeling some shin splints and I want to be ready for my 10K in the fall for the Worldwide Festival of Races. Hey, why don't you join me!!!?? Take a look at the WWFOR website and sign up, I think it is a tremendous concept that can unite folks from all over the world!

Take care, God bless and have a great week of training and racing!!!

2009 Lenexa Freedom Run5K

Last week on the birthday of our Country I had the opportunity to run in the 2009 Lenexa Freedom Run 5K event in Lenexa, KS. The event also has a 10K which would be two loops of the course as it is a nice loop around the Lenexa area starting at Old Town Lenexa passing through an area of commercial buildings and back to Old Town. One of the neat things about the race was that it started about one mile from my house, so it was basically a run around another part of the neighborhood.

The event itself is organized by the City of Lenexa so the checkin was at the Lenexa Community Center and the Mayor himself made some welcoming remarks and started the race. I was surpised to get the race in at all because overnight and earlier in the morning we had thunderstorms in the area, in fact the "skies parted" just about 45 minutes before the race began. As a result of all the moisture it was very humid even though the temperature was relatively low for this time of year.

All in all I enjoyed the race and my finishing time was just over 34 minutes which was about 2 minutes slower than my PR a few races ago. For some reason my lower left leg has been bothering me a little during my runs so I took it pretty easy and did not push it too much at all. I took a couple of short walk breaks at the water stops but finished under full power which always makes me feel good. Even though my "full power" is not nearly fast at all it feels good to run across the finish line, I always try to finish strong! I think one of the neatest thing about running is that you are in absolute control (barring injury or some other unforeseen impediment) of the effort you exert and even when you are moving slow if you are pushing hard and with full effort I think that it is an accomplishment.

Next week I am participating in the Eudora Horsethief Run in Eudora, KS, I know it is a 5K and that's about it! I will post my video and photos if I have them.

Have a great week of running, racing and training!

2009 Summer Intro Trail 5K

Last weekend I ran my first trail anything and had a fantastic time thanks to the Kansas City Trail Nerds. Quite a while back I had seen this race on a running website and put it on the calendar because I have wanted to get out and run on the trails and thought something like this would force me to get out and about. Well...it never happened and I showed up on Saturday morning with no real idea what to expect.

The day was almost perfect, sunny but not too hot and considering how hot it has been and how hot is now, I really don't know how we got such a good day. The course was out at Wyandotte County Lake Park on the Western edge of Wyandotte County, Kansas. Truthfully I was not really sure where to go as I had never been out to that part of the area, after a couple of wrong turns I managed to get to the start area and made my way over to the park shelter to register and pay for the race. I enjoyed the atmosphere as it was very cordial and inviting...and the event was only $8!! So I paid and made my way around the little park area to try and warm up a little, it was my second week of little or no running because of my schedule and some lingering lower leg pain that thankfully did not surface at all during the race.

The Race. Wow. For my first ever adventure out on the trails I had a blast! The first part of the course was not very technical as it was pretty flat and only a few obstacles and mud along the route. After a mile or so we hit the turn around point and there was some water so I took a breather and headed back to the finish. Although the first part of the course was somewhat flat I was not used to the mud and tree limbs (both overhead and below) and the jumping and dodging was a new experience while running. On the way back things got much more interesting as there was a rather long uphill section that really beat me up. I did not actually have to "climb" anything but I did have to go slow and make it up an incline, this section seemed longer than it was and soon I was back on the downhill to flat section and on to the finish.

Finishing the race felt good and I was glad to have finished under full power!

Everyone I met was extremely nice and there was lots of encouragement from the other runners along the way. I hope to make several more events and some training runs in the evening, I did join the group and will be sporting my t-shirt sometime soon. If you are in the KC area I encourage you to get out and make one of the Trail Nerd's events, you won't regret it. There is a 5K this weekend that appears to be out of my league...I may show up and cheer the finishers on, who knows??

My time was just under 37 minutes...a new trail PR for me!!!

2009 Rock Chalk Run 5/10K

This was my first year to run in the annual Rock Chalk Run 5/10K at Clinton Lake in Lawrence, KS. The event was held the day before the Ironman Kansas 70.3, so it was kind of cool to be a small part of what was about to come! The expo was outdoors and there were several vendors which my wife and I enjoyed after the race had ended. Rock Chalk Run is a benefit for Health Care Access in Lawrence which provides much needed medical care to those folks in our community who are not otherwise able to see medical professionals regularly.

The day was quite nice for a race as it was overcast and cool with relatively low humidity for this time of year in Kansas. As it was my first run around Clinton Lake I was a little unsure of how the course was going to be laid out. Turns out it was a route around the campsites and was quite flat and fast (at least for those folks who run fast) I was initially hoping to run to a PR but did come up a little short of that goal. What I did notice on the race was the mile marks were exactly coordinated to my Garmin 405, as a slow, fat runner it really does not make a hill of beans worth of difference what my unnecessary Garmin says...but it does make it a whole lot of fun to hear the laps beep at the second you are hitting the marked miles.

As I mentioned earlier the course was set up to be fast and fun, as a matter of fact I started out a little too fast (for me) and did the first mile in about 9:35. I felt very good this mile and made it well into mile two before I started to slow down. What has been interesting along this (short) running adventure of mine is that my legs and muscles tire before I have to slow down due to cardiovascular fatigue. The rest of the race was a rather slow wog or slog since and coming into the finish I was not distressed but I did feel more winded than I have in training and other races I have run. I do know that I did not get as much training in over the past couple of weeks (just check the LACK of workouts on my Go Wagon) due to travel for work and other commitments. What I am going to have to do is just make a committment to get my but out of bed in the a.m. and make my running a priority again. Now that it is pretty much a sauna here in Kansas the morning runs will be much better than trying to get a run in after work in the heat of the day. Even when you wait until the sun goes down you feel tired from fighting the heat during the day.

All in all I think the folks who put on the RCR 5K did a wonderful job and I will be there next year!