One Day, Two Runs: The Experiment

My running friend Isaac (who needs to start his own blog, hint, hint) was telling me that he's been doing 2-a-days, two runs in one day.  He runs in the morning and then runs the same distance in the evening and tries to beat his time from earlier in the day.

So, today I decided to experiment and give it a try.  My schedule and the weather actually worked to allow me to get two runs in.  Here's how it went:

      Before work:  3 miles in 27:15

      After work: exact same 3 miles in 26:29

So I beat my morning time by exactly 46 seconds.  (Maybe I should start running in the evenings.)

6 miles total, and although my legs felt slightly heavier in the evening run, my body was much looser and I felt faster.   For the morning run it took my the entire first mile to wake up and feel loose.    I don't know what time of day is the best to run or train, and frankly I don't think it makes a great deal of difference (although I do think there is some wisdom in doing your training runs around the same time that your actual race will occur, usually mornings).   I don't plan to regularly do 2-a-days (mostly because of scheduling), but I kind of liked having a time to try to beat from earlier in the day, and I would like to do this type of running at least once a month.  

It's great now that the weather is getting warmer, I'm seeing a lot more people outside now, even other runners sometimes.  Where were they all winter??

Biggest Loser and other Reality Show Finales

(spoiler alert---if you haven't seen some of these finales yet, you might want to skip)

Okay, so my wife and I watch reality shows.  We DVR them and watch them after the kids are in bed.  It's kind of our time to unwind and laugh at some of the crazy stuff that people do on these shows.   So here's my take on some of the finales:

The Biggest Loser

When Mike came out at the beginning of the show, I thought for sure he would win.  He looked amazing.   I still can't believe that he didn't win!   What an amazing transformation.  Some of the other contestants still looked pretty big, especially David, who lost the least amount of weight (10%).  I knew that Joelle and Aubrey would be towards the bottom as well, they struggled losing weight even while on campus.  Everyone else lost at least 30% of their body weight, which is awesome, and the top three all lost more than 50%!  Can you imagine losing half your weight?They all looked fabulous.  But I have to say that next to Mike, I thought Jerry really looked the most transformed.  He looked incredible, and he was fun to watch because he was so excited and had lots of energy.  He deserved to win the 100K prize.  As for the top prize, I really thought that either Mike or Tara would win, but Helen proved me wrong and really did great losing all that weight.  What an inspiring show.  (yeah I had to put my bowl of ice cream down while watching due to all the guilt)

The Amazing Race

Of the three remaining teams, I was rooting for Tammy and Victor, so I was glad they won.  They raced hard and played well.  Still, I felt bad for Margie and Luke when Luke couldn't get the final piece of the puzzle in the last challenge.   They were way ahead and would have certainly won.  (where did they get all those surfboards anyway, wow)  Tammy and Victor did probably have an unfair advantage during the China leg since they spoke Chinese, but that leg was so far into the race, there was no certainty that they'd even last that long.  They almost got the boot in the 3rd leg.    Props to them for winning the $1 million prize.

The Celebrity Apprentice

In my opinion, from what was presented on TV (which I know isn't always accurate thanks to editors), Joan Rivers did not deserve to win.   Joan displayed herself in a very negative light, very bitter and angry, spewing venom at her opponent.  Annie Duke remained calm and in control.   I've lost all respect for Joan.  Annie Duke raised more money, won more challenges, and really displayed herself as the stronger leader throughout the competition.   If Donald was really hiring one of the two of them, there is no way he would hire Joan over Annie.   The fact that Annie raised 3 times as much money as Joan in the final challenge ($450K to $150K, something like that) should have been factored in.    Annie got robbed, but I'm sure Donald picked Joan for ratings and/or his own ego.   Annie was the real winner, in my opinion.

American Idol

Okay, so the finale isn't until next week, but here are my thoughts anyway.      First off, what does everyone see in Adam Lambert?  I mean, he'd be great doing music theater, but all that screaming is really getting on my nerves.  And he needs to keep his tongue in his mouth, seriously.   And the judges go on and one about how great he is?  Are they even hearing the same thing I'm hearing?   I would love to see either Danny or Kris become the winner, I like them both.   Kris will get the girl-teenie-bopper vote, so he would probably win if it came down to it, but I've really like Danny all season, he has been consistently solid.  He is a safe choice for America I think.   But, we'll see who gets into the finals tonight......more to come....

Other finales I'm looking forward to watching over the next week or two:  American Idol, 24, The Office, and Chuck (yes it's DVR'd)

Running Update

Just so you don't think all I've been doing is watching TV lately, here's a running update---ran 4 miles yesterday at a nice easy pace....was planning to do 4 more today, but only got in 2 because mother nature called and I had to turn around to go to the bathroom....also, I tried an experiment, wearing two watches during a run--my normal everyday watch and then my Garmin watch further up the arm---let me just say that it failed, felt too clunky and the Garmin kept pushing my other watch into my wrist bone....the thought was to save time and keep from having to take my everyday watch on and off all the time, but looks like I'm a one watch kind of guy....

River Run Race Report-my first 10K

One of the great things about being a fairly new runner is that I get to set a lot of PR's since I haven't run races of a lot of distances before.  So 3 weeks ago I got to set a PR for the half marathon (albeit a slow one) and today I got to set a PR for my first 10K.   

My main goal for the day was to beat my 10K split time from my half, which was 1:00:14.   Basically I just wanted to break an hour, and I figured that was doable.

Sorry, but I didn't get any race pictures because the camera I grabbed on the way out the door had dead batteries.  The race I was running is probably our biggest local race, called the River Run.  It is part of our annual River Festival here,  which is a weeklong festival with tons of fun stuff, music (the band Kansas played last night, and Loverboy plays tonight--woo hoo for you 80's fans), and food....the festival mostly takes place downtown, around our river, the Arkansas River, which by the way if you are from Kansas it is pronounced the Ar-KANSAS River, not the ArkanSAW River.....that's how we roll around here.....

I saw Becca, the Fair Weathered Runner before the race, and ran into Kristen the Running Lawyer's mom, although I never did see her...I also saw a buddy of mine from high school who is a running stud...he took 15th overall (out of over 2000 runners) with a 36:49 time....I talked to him a little bit before the race, he almost always places in his age group in our local races....

Anyway, I felt very well rested, very well hydrated (I've been drinking Nuun water all week) and mentally very prepared for the race.....it was a fairly cool morning, so I threw on a K-State long sleeve techno shirt at the last minute.....

The race was very crowded for about the first mile, then it thinned out.....I ran a very consistent race pace-wise, felt good, took no drink/walk/potty breaks, didn't listen to my ipod like I usually do, and ended up with  a 54:46 (that's my Garmin time....gun time was 55:19, they weren't using chips)  I felt very good about the time, considering it was my first 10K, and that my main goal was to break an hour.....now I have a time to beat for my next one....

TGIF Foto Friday--Mr Goalie!

Here is my contribution to this week's Foto Friday. This is my 6 year old son (almost 7), who absolutely loves soccer....he is in his 3rd year of playing already. He is super fast too. He won the Speedy Feet award at his end of year team party, and he was fastest in his class at his field day at school yesterday. I wish his speed would rub off on me. Anyway, tomorrow he has his end of the year tournament, and will be playing 3 games in one day, and is very excited. He wanted to play soccer this summer but we couldn't find any leagues/teams to join, so we'll take the summer off.

I had a root canal yesterday (uck), and am planning on running our local 10K tomorrow, before enjoying a day of watching/coaching my son in soccer....

Electrolytes--it's what's for dinner!

So apparently electrolytes are important to being an effective and efficient runner.  So is sodium, and potassium. Oh, and water.  All these things supposedly help you from bonking/cramping/fainting/getting sick/dying, etc.   I learned this after my half marathon last weekend.  

Thank you, by the way, to all the great advice/suggestions/tips on how to fuel pre-race and how to stay fueled and get electrolytes into your system.  I am still confused as to what combination of drinks/gus/tablets/foods works the best (apparently some counteract each other?), so I decided that I would just have to experiment.  With our hot summers just around the corner, I wanted to make sure I was prepared.

So I went to our local running specialty store, First Gear, and asked if they had S-tabs or E-caps or electrolyte stuff or whatever it's called.  The guy behind the counter looked confused, but just then another guy came out from the back and said, "oh yeah, you can get that at Bicycle Exchange" (the local bike specialty store).   It was only a couple miles away, but as I walked to my car I was confused as to why the running store would not carry these items.

I went to the bike store and picked up some Nuun (not even sure how that's pronounced) and some Salt Sticks.  They didn't have Succeed Caps, and the Salt Sticks looked pretty much like the same thing.  

I am going to start this week putting the Nuun tablets in my water, and will use the Salt Sticks for right before long runs or running on very hot days.  Hopefully they don't make me sick or anything.   For the Nuun, I got Lemon-Lime and Orange.   Not sure what flavor is the best.  Anyway, that's the update, we'll see how it goes.  Oh, I did run 4 miles this morning and I have a toothache.

Best Three Minutes of Your Day....

Watch the whole thing, trust me...




Running Update
Not much to update here...I ran twice since last week's half marathon, mostly just to shake the cobwebs out, but have taken several days off so that I can let a blister on my foot heal properly. I am most likely doing our local 10K this coming weekend, the River Run, so I will try to run at least a couple times this week to see how the foot feels. Congrats to everyone who ran races over the weekend!

TGIF Foto Friday

Here is my contribution to Nikemom's Foto Friday. My son Bryden likes to make faces for the camera. I thought I'd share some of them with you all. He is very photogenic, just like his mother. The camera loves him, and obviously he loves the camera too....

Edited to add Smoothie King Giveaway--check it here...