Minimalist Running

So, the other day I was reading through some blogs that I follow and I read about some minimalist running. there are some people out there that don't believe in shoes, or they do but only to protect your feet from getting cut up on the rocks and stuff on trails. Specifically I was reading about a shoe that I think I want to get. It is called the Vibram Fivefinger. It is basically a protective rubber on the bottom of your foot.

Anyway, I was motivated to try a little minimalist running myself. I went out on Friday afternoon for a short three mile jog with no shoes on. Now, this probably would have been a very enjoyable experience had I driven to a park and ran the three miles in the grass. I didn't to that however. There is a course that I run a lot. about 90% of my running lately has been on this same route. I didn't realized though how much I didn't really know the course. with bare feet I reallized that well over half is paved, and of that pavement about half is pretty rough while the other half is pretty smooth. the part that I ran on the trail was not as nice as I had expected either. There were a lot more rocks than I ever rememberd there being. Don't get me wrong, this was not a bad experience. My feet were not bleeding (although there was one spot where I had to dodge some glass). I am glad I tried it, but I think next time I will run in a grass field and build up to true minimalist running. There is this one guy I read about who runs on average of five or six miles daily with no shoes on. That is on top of his 20-60 miles a day with shoes.

We'll just have to wait to see if there are any prolonged negative effects of this barefoot run. I feel fine though and it has been three days. Fun Fun.

Not much motivation to write

I'm going on vacation!! yeah,

I did the Whidbey Island Triathlon a few weeks ago. It was lots of fun. check out Amanda's blog to read about it and see photos, or go to my facebook page.

As of today I have ridden my bicycle over 500 miles this year. If I keep this up, I could easily top out over 1000 by the end of the year. Who knows maybe I'll do a ride some time in the near future.

Speed Record

I have been riding my bicycle to work every day and today I took a new route home. It was about twenty miles and it was mostly a very nice ride. I found an awesome hill that went down to the river. I love trying to see how fast I can get going. I started pedalling hard and looked at my speedometer. I pedaled hard until it got to 45, then because it was such a big, steep hill, I kept accelerating even after I stopped pedalling. I watched the speedometer, 47, 48, 49, 49.2, 49.9, then finally 50.0. By that time I felt like I was going a little too fast for comfort. As I slowed up coming to the bottom of the hill I realized that if for some reason I were to crash, I could get hurt really badly. The rush was totally exhilarating. Next time I'll try for 51 or 52, maybe.

So Far This Year

So, I really like keeping track of how for I run, bike and walk or whatever else I do. I've been walking to school every day, and at the beginning of the year, I started logging those walks which is about two miles each day. I probably to a bit more than that, but I log usually only two miles per day. So far this year I have walked 208 miles. And that is just what I have logged.

I have also started to ride my bike recently. I really enjoy riding the trails around here. I rode about only about five miles or so today, but it was really fun and I can't wait to get out there and do it again. So far this year I have ridden my bike ten times to total 140 miles.

My running has been pretty sporadic as of late. I went for a week without running, then I did a 17 mile run, and then since my knee was hurting after that I have only ran once or twice a week since then. And those have been short, very easy runs of only about three miles. My running has totaled 382 miles so far this year. More than a quarter of the total was done in February and another quarter was done in March in preparation for the Marathon I did on April 4th.

Anyway, I think this numbers are cool. maybe by the end of the year I can cycle 1000 miles and run 1500 miles and walk/hike 500 miles. Probably not though, because now that school is getting out I will probably not be walking two miles every day. I might increase my running and biking though, so those numbers are somewhat realistic.

I need to go to bed now, My mind is just rushing, so I probably won't sleep, but it is past midnight, so I'll go now. More later.

More biking

Since my knee has been bothering me, I've decided to start riding my bike a bit more. I've been riding several times. Today, I decided to go for a 40 mile ride. There is a nice paved trail near here called the interurban trail. It is pretty nice because there is no traffic. It took me just less than three hours, averaging 15 mph. I'm pretty tired now, I think I'll go wash up.

Call me crazy

yesterday when I got home from school, I decided to go for a run. It had been over a week since I had run at all, and a month or more since I had done anything this long. I ended up running 17 miles. It felt great except for the last two or three miles when my right knee started to hurt a little bit. It still hurts today. I hope I didn't really hurt it. I'll probably be able to still run on it, I'll just need to take it easy.

Ella's Ballet

Here is a little video that I put together of Ella's ballet a few weeks ago. She was so cute. The video is about 13 minutes long. It is really low quality, so I hope you will be able to see it alright.

Morning Bike Ride

Yesterday morning I decided to go for a bike ride before school. It was pretty darn cold. I think the temperature was 39 degrees. I looked up a wind chill chart and 35 degrees and 30 mph winds (my max speed was 39mph) the wind chill is 22. At 40 degrees and 30 mph the wind chill is 28. Anyway, I guess my point is that it was cold. Especially since I was only wearing fingerless gloves. I should have worn sunglasses too, because my eyes were watering most of the ride. It was a 12 mile ride. The first two miles were down hill, that is why I got so cold so fast. Also, the last two miles were up hill, so I slowed way down and worked harder. I was warmed up a bit by the time I got home. Well, I took some photos, so here they are.





All but this last one were taken while I was riding. I didn't want to stop because I didn't have much time and I wanted to ride as far as I could.

This ride and a ride on Tuesday were the first time I had ridden my bike since almost a year ago. It feels good. I've been thinking about doing a longer, organized bike ride. The Tour de Whidbey is a ride that my dad had done a few times. There are a variety of distances including a 100 mile version. I think it would be fun to do that. I've also been thinking about doing a triathlon. I've wanted to do one for some time, and I might actually be able to do one this summer. I really just need to find one and do it. The one I am looking at swims in a warm lake, so I wouldn't need a wet suit. anyway, that is just me rambling on again.

Running Log Graphs

I use runnersworld.com to log all of my running. Since I started keeping track of my running on their website back in October 2007, I have totaled 1957 miles in 290 hours. I have also logged 259 miles in 20 hours of biking. Just this year I started keeping track of some of the walking I've been doing. Mostly this consists of walking to and from school every day, 143 miles in 39 hours.

One of the things I like about the runnersworld running log is that I can graph my mileage and a number of other things. This first one is my weekly totals from the past 52 weeks. I've ranged from zero all the way up to 50 miles in one week.

This next one is my monthly totals since I started keeping this log. It ranges from about 10 miles up to just over 200 miles per month. I seem to do well when I log about 100 miles per month. Maybe I should make that my goal. If I can run 100 miles per month then I could run 1200 miles in a year.

Anyway, I just thought my loyal readers were getting frustrated with the lack of blogging on this blog, so I decided to blog.

The Mail

It is not very often that I get something in the mail that is not a bill. So, I was a bit surprised to see an envelope for me. I opened it and found this.


In case you can't read it, it says "Yakima River Canyon Marathon fourth place 2009." That's right, I got fourth place in my age group out of 12. I also got 70th overall out of 441 finishers. that puts me in the top 16%. I didn't realize I did that well. I thought I was more like 150th place or something. anyway, hurray for 4th place. You can see all of the results if you care here.