Stride for Strive 5K Race Report

Monday, May 28, 2012 I ran the Stride for Strive 5K in Cadillac, MI with my 10 year old daughter.  For me it was more about just spending some quality time with her and helping her do her best.

All ready to go.

While we were hanging out waiting for the start I asked her what her goal was.  She told me 35 minutes or less.  I told she could do it, but we were going to have to work hard.

The weather was sunny and warm.  Temps were in the low 70's with a light breeze.  Not too bad.  A little warmer than I like for race day, but manageable.

At 8:30 we lined up and then the pack started to move.  We were off.  Through the first mile my daughter set a comfortable pace.  We had to walk some due to runner traffic.  In the second mile the traffic thinned out a bit and she sped up.  She wanted to hit the water stop at 1.5 miles, so we did.  After some water, she was off again.  In the third mile she looked at the Garmin and said she thought she could maybe make it in 33 minutes.  I just kept telling her she was doing great and to keep going.  Towards the end she was getting tired.  In the last .5 mile or so she took a couple of walk breaks but still finished in 33:56.  Awesome!  She crushed her goal.  That was her 4th 5K and her fastest yet, so a new PB.  Woot!

She's already looking forward to her next 5K.

Summer has Arrived

Summer arrived yesterday.  It pulled up in an old, rusty Plymouth and crashed on my couch.  High's in the 80's all weekend with more to come next week.  Good thing summer's friend humidity hasn't made it back from it's winter home in Pensacola just yet.  That will give me some time to acclimate to one variable at a time.

So, what are some of your heat strategies?  I try to up my electrolytes and make sure I stay well hydrated during the day.  I also start carrying water whenever I'm going to be out more than about an hour.

Getting In Touch With My Inner Caveman

After listening to this podcast:

http://trailrunnernation.com/2012/04/aerobic-vs-anaerobic/

I decided to incorporate more of the paleo aspects into my diet and work on reducing refined sugars and flours.  I want to make myself more efficient as a runner and increasing my aerobic capacity will help do that.  For me it was a bit of a paradigm shift to think about increasing aerobic capacity not just in terms of exercise, but also in terms of diet and stress factors in my life.  Reducing carbs in my diet from refined sugars and flours will help on the diet end of things.  I won't be a pure caveman, but I will be working some of the ideas into my daily life.

Something else I need to do is slow down my long, slow distance run a little.  I've been running them a bit too fast which takes me into an anaerobic state which is exactly where I don't want to be.  I want to become a lean, mean, fat burning machine.

Reducing stressors in my life will be more difficult.  We all have work to get done, kids to take care of, places to go, deadlines to meet, etc.  The best I can do is try to manage it better so things don't stress me out.

So, what does a plate look like for me?  Last night for dinner was stir fried chicken and vegetables.  We went out for Chinese to celebrate Mother's Day.  I avoided the rice, eggroll and crab rangoon.  Lunch today was a cheese omelette and some beef jerky.  Breakfast was my normal steel cut oats with a banana.  Not paleo, but I like my oats.  I just want to get away from a diet dominated by carbs.  I also won't be taking any Gu or Gatorade with me.  Just water.  Dinner tonight will be fish and steamed vegetables.  No rice, pasta or potatoes.

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Checking back after today's 13 miler.  Dinner ended up being tuna + avocado with steamed veggies.  Yum.  Run went OK other than around mile 10 my legs just didn't want to go anymore.  I kept going, slowly, and by mile 12 the feeling passed and I was OK again.  Weird.  I think it's directly related to downing a Gu at mile 6.5.  The Gu spiked my sugar, then the sugar crashed, then normalized.  I'll try the long run next week without the Gu and see what happens.

It's still too early to say if I feel any different with reduced carbs.  In a couple of weeks hopefully I'll have some meaningful observations.  For now all I can say is that everything I want is high in refined sugars.  I'm sure that feeling will pass with time and then ice cream, pizza, etc will truly be the once in awhile treat it's supposed to be.

Spring Trails

OK, now that my brain is recovering from tax season I starting to get back into the swing of things.  The virtual trail tour hasn't hit the road yet, but I have been hitting my "home" trail and taking some pics along the way.

This old tree stump looks like a dragon head.  It's hard to see, but it even has a snaggle tooth.

Heading uphill.  Again.  Hills make us stronger, right?

Can't wait until the leaves come out and this turns into a tunnel.

Almost got passed by this guy.  It was tough, but I managed to hold him off.

Hard to see, but the area just beyond the trees has been logged off :-(

Yeah, I know people can sell their timber if they want to and I'm OK with that.  Logging has been and continues to be a valuable part of the local economy.  It was just such a stark contrast from a week ago to go from forest to clear land.  Once the jack pines take hold in the cleared land it will become good habitat for Kirtland Warblers.  I'm sorry to see the trees go, but I'm also excited to see the forest renew itself.

April Review

April is in the history books and true to my accountant nature I closed the books.  Here it is by the numbers:

Total miles run:  103.4
Average run:  6.5 miles
Longest run:  12.3 miles
Shortest run:  2.5 miles
Warmest run:  72 degrees
Coldest run:  27 degrees

An improvement over March, which is good.  May has started out well with an average run length of 6.4 miles already.

Run safely friends!