Re: Road to Nowhere

Mark B Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:35 pm

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:I'm disappointed that you weren't running barefoot through that mud - nothing feels better than squishy mud in your toes - even to someone like me who doesn't run barefoot much.

Two words: Horse manure. Suspect

I am not that die hard, yet.

Michele "1L" Keane Tue Apr 24, 2012 2:55 pm

Mark B wrote:
Michele "1L" Keane wrote:I'm disappointed that you weren't running barefoot through that mud - nothing feels better than squishy mud in your toes - even to someone like me who doesn't run barefoot much.

Two words: Horse manure.

I am not that die hard, yet.

Mark B Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:26 pm

Now, on the somewhat less wild side...

Walk: 2 miles

Weather: Overcast, mild, breezy.

Active recovery was the theme of the day today, with a two-mile stroll down to and along the Columbia River. Vancouver has thoughtfully built a trail that runs along the waterfront, with nice views of the river, the Interstate 5 Bridge and Portland's Hayden Island on the Oregon side.

I tried to keep it relaxed and easy. It was a nice day for a walk, and I beat the rain, which was even better.

Joel H Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:42 pm

I love the fact that you wrote "yet" after die hard...it leaves room for what we all know is coming, barefoot running through horse manure...I can't wait to read that post! Wink

Mark B Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:15 am

Joel H wrote:I love the fact that you wrote "yet" after die hard...it leaves room for what we all know is coming, barefoot running through horse manure...I can't wait to read that post!

I wouldn't hold my breath, Joel.

Of course, in mud like that, holding your breath might be necessary. Failing that, bring a snorkel. Wink

Mark B Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:52 am

Barefoot Run: 1 mile on dry asphalt

Weather: Overcast, muggy. 56 degrees, 92% humidity. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, long-sleeved T. Fuel: Post breakfast.

A short barefoot run through the neighborhood this morning. I didn't have time to do more than a mile, but I think that's enough to keep stimulating the system and building on past gains. I didn't wear my HR monitor, but I tried to keep it light and easy. It got easier when a neighbor started chatting with me about her husband and how he's been thinking about barefoot running, and how he was inspired by another neighbor who is out running in some minimalist footwear. She seemed pretty jazzed about the idea.

It's a revolution! Well, that or a highly contagious mid-life crisis. geek

Tom H Wed Apr 25, 2012 12:34 pm

Mark B wrote:Barefoot Run: 1 mile on dry asphalt
It's a revolution! Well, that or a highly contagious mid-life crisis.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, you are just a trend-setter. Try dying your hair blue and see how many follow. Heck, put a Nike symbol in it and who knows, you may end up in an ad. I can see the headline, "Diehard or Die Trying" with a picture of you running through that mud with the black swoosh conspicuously present in your flourescent blue head of hair.

Joel H Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:43 pm

Tom H wrote:
Mark B wrote:Barefoot Run: 1 mile on dry asphalt
It's a revolution! Well, that or a highly contagious mid-life crisis.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, you are just a trend-setter. Try dying your hair blue and see how many follow. Heck, put a Nike symbol in it and who knows, you may end up in an ad. I can see the headline, "Diehard or Die Trying" with a picture of you running through that mud with the black swoosh conspicuously present in your flourescent blue head of hair.

Mark B Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:00 pm

Joel H wrote:
Tom H wrote:
Mark B wrote:Barefoot Run: 1 mile on dry asphalt
It's a revolution! Well, that or a highly contagious mid-life crisis.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, you are just a trend-setter. Try dying your hair blue and see how many follow. Heck, put a Nike symbol in it and who knows, you may end up in an ad. I can see the headline, "Diehard or Die Trying" with a picture of you running through that mud with the black swoosh conspicuously present in your flourescent blue head of hair.

Hm...

Well, for what it's worth, the reporter who sits next to me a work started quizzing me about running yesterday and has now decided to start training for her first half marathon late this summer or early this fall. (Shod, of course.)

Yup. Definitely a bad influence. Very Happy

Mark B Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:39 pm

Mark B wrote:
Joel H wrote:
Tom H wrote:
Mark B wrote:Barefoot Run: 1 mile on dry asphalt
It's a revolution! Well, that or a highly contagious mid-life crisis.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, you are just a trend-setter. Try dying your hair blue and see how many follow. Heck, put a Nike symbol in it and who knows, you may end up in an ad. I can see the headline, "Diehard or Die Trying" with a picture of you running through that mud with the black swoosh conspicuously present in your flourescent blue head of hair.

Hm...

Well, for what it's worth, the reporter who sits next to me a work started quizzing me about running yesterday and has now decided to start training for her first half marathon late this summer or early this fall. (Shod, of course.)

Yup. Definitely a bad influence.

Annnd.... she just tweeted that she's now signed up for her first half marathon in August. Woot! cheers

Joel H Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:45 pm

Awesome, I love when new people get into running.

So when will see pictures of you with the blue hair and a black swoosh shaved into it while running through the mud? Wink

KathyK Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:46 pm

Well done...brining more folks over to the wild side (distance running, I mean)

Mark B Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:54 pm

Joel H wrote:Awesome, I love when new people into running.

So when will see pictures of you with the blue hair and a black swoosh shaved into it while running through the mud?

As much as I like "Diehard or Die Trying," Joel, you may turn blue if you're holding your breath waiting to see me in blue hair, swoosh or no swoosh. I prefer a more subversive approach.

KathyK wrote:Well done...bringing more folks over to the wild side (distance running, I mean)

Thanks, Kathy! She's quite excited, which is fun to see.

Joel H Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:56 pm

Whew...I can stop holding my breathe then....and go back to sleep Sleep

Mark B Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:13 pm

Joel H wrote:Whew...I can stop holding my breathe then....and go back to sleep

Can't help but note that the emoticon you selected had turned blue. Wink

Joel H Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:16 pm

Mark B wrote:
Joel H wrote:Whew...I can stop holding my breathe then....and go back to sleep

Can't help but note that the emoticon you selected had turned blue.

I knew you would catch that....thus the reason I chose it! cheers

Mark B Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:07 am

So I told this new half-marathoner-in-training about my training blog, so she asked to look at it for inspiration.

Until she looked at it.

"Um. Where's the actual blog?" she asked.

Hm. Good point. This isn't your standard Blog. It's more of an interactive training log. Which is how I like it. Blogging seems a lot like writing essays, and that sounds like altogether too much work. Short and snarky is more my style.

Mark B Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:51 pm

No running today - it was time for a true (complete) rest day. It also happened to coincide with the annual Take Your Child to Work Day, which meant I spent the morning hanging out with Alec at home before coming in so he could spent part of my evening shift with me at work.

Road to Nowhere - Page 16 Alecki10

I think he had a good time. It probably helped that our publisher's assistant had a welcome packet waiting for him on my desk, complete with a company logo water bottle - filled with candy. What a Face

John Kilpatrick Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:14 pm

Cool picture - you guys are a good looking pair for sure! It is always fun to take the kid to work when you can pull it off. Sounds like you had a good day off (well, other than the working part)

Tom H Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:31 pm

Mark B wrote:

I think he had a good time. It probably helped that our publisher's assistant had a welcome packet waiting for him on my desk, complete with a company logo water bottle - filled with candy.

He sure is a good lookin' kid - good thing he takes after his mother Laughing

. And if they are handing out free water bottles stuffed with candy, next time I'm up that way . . .

Mark B Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:49 pm

John Kilpatrick wrote:Cool picture - you guys are a good looking pair for sure! It is always fun to take the kid to work when you can pull it off. Sounds like you had a good day off (well, other than the working part)

It was a good day! Alec even helped shape the face of our front page. He suggested an AP story that won out in a vote over a story suggested by one of our other editors. Attaboy. Smile

Tom H wrote:
Mark B wrote:

I think he had a good time. It probably helped that our publisher's assistant had a welcome packet waiting for him on my desk, complete with a company logo water bottle - filled with candy.

He sure is a good lookin' kid - good thing he takes after his mother . And if they are handing out free water bottles stuffed with candy, next time I'm up that way . . .

*Rimshot!*

Thanks for stopping by, Tom...

Mark B Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:50 pm

Low HR Run: 60 minutes (4.9 miles)

Weather: Showery, breezy. 50 degrees. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, long-sleeved T. Fuel: Carried water in handheld.

It was dry all morning - until the moment I walked out the door for a run. Raindrops. Sigh. I thought about heading back inside to grab a hat and jacket, but it seemed like it was only going to rain a little before the cloud blew past. Ha. I had showers and sun breaks - sometimes both at the same time - the whole run.

I didn't quite end up looking like a drowned rat, but I was more moist than usual after this run. It was, however, a nice ramble out into the country. I was focusing on form, continuing my effort to keep my foot strike light while keeping my heart rate in the proper zone. Not always the easiest thing to do. I also threw in a variable - carrying some water in a handheld, which takes slightly more effort than a water belt.

I'm trying to not obsess over speeds, but I will say that it was about the same as a week ago, though incrementally faster in the later miles. Which is about what you'd expect.

Average HR for entire run: 133

Mark B Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:04 pm

Low HR Run: About 2 hours (9.25 miles)

Weather: Overcast, mild. 51-54. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, T. Fuel: Oatmeal and coffee before, carried water in handheld.

This was supposed to be a fairly straightforward out-and-back route on the Salmon Creek Greenway Trail… which got more complicated when we discovered that the trail and the creek had become one and the same. The Columbia River is running high this weekend, which means water backs up into the small tributaries, like Salmon Creek, which puts its wonderful stream side bike path under water.

Road to Nowhere - Page 16 04291210

My buddy and I skirted one area of high water, then waded through another before cresting a little hill and finding water over the trail as far as the eye could see. Now, running in water isn't a bad thing… if you 1) can see the other side, 2) don't have one side of the flooded trail including a 2- to 3-foot drop off into a swamp and 3) the water isn't so murky you don't know what sort of material might be under there. So, we turned around, me laughing at my buddy yelping and cursing as he tried to run barefoot (he didn't want to get his shoes wet). I even slipped my shoes off in solidarity (after wading through the water… I *want* to get these shoes beat up) so I could keep razzing him. :-)

Road to Nowhere - Page 16 04291211

After that, we headed up on my Llama Ridge route (no llamas today, only alpacas), and then back. We went nice and slow, walking every once in a while,and I tried to keep my HR in the proper zone, though I didn't do as well as usual. Several miles had an average HR of 140, with one mile at 141. Though there were some miles with an average HR of 122, so I guess it balances out a little.

The run felt pretty good. I can tell my body is still adapting to the new stride and shoes, but there were times when I could feel the beginning of energy return from my legs, which is a cool sensation. Not unlike the water, actually. Wink

Average HR for the entire run: 132

Mark B Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:21 pm

Barefoot Run: 3.5 miles (asphalt)

Weather: Mostly cloudy, breezy, cool and muggy, a little rain. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T, windbreaker.

I debated making this a rest day this morning, after yesterday's 9+ miler, but I got a little bored and decided to do a few barefoot laps around the block and see how it felt.

It felt, as usual, a little difficult in the first mile, but it got easier after that. Part of my challenge was figuring out how to avoid a pain spot on my left foot - and I think I may have solved it by remember that barefoot running by definition cannot be a straight-ahead, mechanical process. No trail or track in the world is perfectly straight and flat, so neither should be a runner's gait. I started finding paths to follow on the asphalt that would slightly vary my path. That seemed to help.

It was a little blustery, and it spit rain a few times, but not horribly so. I got a little attention from a preschooler "He's running and he doesn't have any shoes on!" which was pretty funny. But his mom quickly came back with "It's fun to run without shoes! And it makes your legs strong." Smart mom.

I got up to there three mile point and decided to add a little more, but I could feel my form starting to fatigue and decided that 3.5 miles was enough for today.

Looking at my splits, I'm rather pleased with how consistent they were. 11:07, 10:48, 11:08. The last half mile was at about an 11:05 pace. All at about my low HR target. Smile

No warm up or cool down, and limited stretching, too.

ounce Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:25 pm

Mark B wrote:Barefoot Run: 3.5 miles (asphalt)

Weather: Mostly cloudy, breezy, cool and muggy, a little rain.

It was a little blustery

Looking at my splits, I'm rather pleased with how consistent they were. 11:07, 10:48, 11:08. The last half mile was at about an 11:05 pace. All at about my low HR target.

You just wait until it really heats up, bucko. Wink

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