Quick Stats for 2009

I didn't total as many miles as I did in 2008, but I didn't run an ultra-marathon either. I still feel good about what I did. in terms of running, I managed to get almost 640 miles. Most of which was from the first part of the year when I was training for the Yakima River Valley Marathon. I still ran throughout the year though because I just enjoy it. But it is easier to rack up more miles if I am training for something specific. That is why I am thinking of training for the Wasatch 100. I still don't know if I will. It would take a lot of time away from the family to train for something that big. Maybe I'll just pick a couple of marathons to train for and see how fast I can run 26.2 miles. I was thinking today while I was running that it would be nice to brake three hours. I don't think it would be too hard if I signed up for two or three marathons for the year.

Anyway, I also managed to walk/hike 250 miles. I think most of that is from the first half of the year when I was walked to and from school. It was only a mile from my house, but two miles every day really adds up over five months. also, I got some snowshoes for the last week of the year and managed to add a couple dozen extra miles to that.

On my bicycle I totaled 700 miles. I was training for a triathlon, which accounted for some of those miles, but I rode my bike almost every day to work and back, that was 10 miles a day for 8 0r 10 weeks. plus a few times, I rode the long way home which was about 20 miles.

And, for good measure, I swam five times to total 2.4 miles. Again, it was part of the triathlon training. I like swimming, but it is just so hard to go to a pool (I'd have to pay to use) or to a lake just to swim. I'd rather just put shoes on or hop on my bike and go.

Well, I hope to do more in 2010. I'm not too concerned with more swimming, biking or walking/hiking. But I would definitely like to run more miles this year. I think I could pretty easily run over 1000 miles. If I train for and do the Wasatch 100 then it wouldn't be too hard to get close to or even pass 2000 miles.

Here are a couple of charts. The first one is weekly totals for the last 52 weeks. The second one is monthly totals for the last 12 months. You can definitely see my running favored the first half of the year. There were even a few weeks that I didn't get any miles in.

Snowshoeing and a 100 Mile Race

I hadn't been doing much of anything. But then I got an early Christmas present of a pair of snowshoes. In the week and a half since I've had them, I have gone up in the mountains four times. And I'm going again tomorrow. I love my snowshoes. Here are a few photos of my snowshoeing expeditions.

David and Camille on David's birthday.

I love my snowshoes!

so, now that I've been more active, I have more motivation. I started looking at the Wasatch 100 mile endurance run. I've been thinking of applying. It is in September and I would need to register by next week. I would have enough time to work up to 100 miles. Anyway, should I sign up for a 100 mile race? or is that too crazy. It would take a lot of work, but I think it would be worth it.

Move and a Mexican Cruise

So, I had a temporary job for the summer and the day after it came to an end Amanda and I were talking and trying to figure out how things were going to work. I could get a job, even if it was just a minimum wage job, and we could stay put for four or five months before my job starts, or we could move almost a thousand miles away and live rent-free in my in-law's basement. We decided on the latter. I still haven't decided if I want to find a job or not. I don't really need one, it would just give me something to do. I think I will be content, getting Ella ready and off to school. I'll also take care of Alex and do laundry and other stuff to give Amanda more time to work.

Ella was in Kindergarten for two weeks before we pulled her out of school to move. Now she has been three days here. She loves going to school. She has so much fun and gets so excited about it. She especially loves riding the bus. This week when she was at school, I took Alex to story time at the library. i think that will become a regular thing. He just sat there when everyone else was singing and dancing, but I think he'll warm up to it.

On another note, now that we are moved and settled in here, Amanda and I get to go on our cruise. We leave in two days. The only thing that is concerning me is Tropical Storm Olaf that is looming off the Mexican coast where we will be. It will weaken, so it shouldn't be too bad, but it will still be raining, more than likely. I hope the seas won't be too rough. I'll have to let you all know how it is next week after we come back. Maybe I'll even have some pictures to put up.

Hey, I just decided to put some photos on here. These ones are from back in March. Enjoy.



I didn't realize how blurry these photos were. The kids were really running fast. The only good photo is the one Amanda took. This was at a waterfall. The overlook hung out off the cliff just a little bit. It was pretty cool.

Collective Soul

Wow, a second post on the same day.

I normally only write about running, but hey it is my blog and I can write whatever the heck I want. If you have never heard or heard of Collective Soul then you are really missing out. Just a couple weeks ago they came out with a new album. I believe it is their tenth or eleventh album. I can honestly say that I really enjoy every one of their songs. I just bought this latest self titled album. I thought was a little wierd, this is their second self titled album. There are a couple of really good songs on it.

I went to a Collective Soul concert once and really enjoyed it. I almost went to one of their concerts about a year and a half ago in Alabama. If I had more money then I would go to their Seattle show that is in about two weeks. I think it would be a really good show. I guess I'll just have to wait until the next time they tour the country.

Well you should go to their site and check out their music.

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.