Running Progress - week 4

Four weeks to gone and four weeks to go before my race.  It's been two fairly ugly weeks for my training.  My cousin came out from NC to visit.  Other friends were in town.  We ate a lot, drank even more and to make up for it, exercised less.  My weight hasn't dropped an ounce. 

I've now kicked back into gear.   Yesterday I ran 12 miles and walked another three at the end. I am not going fast, but I am managing to keep my speed consistent as I ramp up the distance.  The runs are getting long enough now that they are a big time commitment and really knock you out a bit for the rest of the day.

Hoping to have a good, productive training week. On Saturday I am running a 5k race sponsored by Friends of Animals Utah.  I'll just call that a speed work day.

Park City Food and Wine Classic

Last night we joined some friends for the first night of this year's Park City Food and Wine Classic. It was held at the St. Regis hotel. They did a nice job of moving everything inside. It never did storm but it was certainly threatening.  They have some great outdoor patios, so it was a bit of a disappointment.

The event is a fundraiser for the People's Health Clinic. It is an excellent organization in town that provides low- or no-cost health services for people who can't afford it.

Thank goodness the event only ran from 6:00 until 8:30. It was a giant open bar, sponsored by numerous vineyards, breweries and distilleries. There was some food, and it was good, but there was a lot more alcohol than food, which is never a great plan.

Our group included Greg, Loris, me, Bill, Miriam and Julie.  

We got to taste a lot of good wines, but I didn't come home with any "gotta run out and buy them".  Just as well.  I'm not supposed to be drinking much alcohol while I am getting ready for my running event.

The Carolina Way

For those who haven't been watching, the University of NC at Chapel Hill's football team is in deep trouble.  They appear to have cheated on tests and papers and taken gifts and money from pro agents.  The NCAA is hunting them down and punishments should be announced in October.  This would normally just be sad, but it has become quite entertaining.

• Carolina always talks about "The Carolina Way". They have claimed how they cherish honor and integrity and it somehow makes them better.
• The chancellor and coach have consistently denied any real problems.  They keep telling everyone "it will all be ok soon".
• At every chance to come out with the truth, UNC fights it. There was a court order to release certain information and UNC appealed it, then appealed it again.  The info revealed that a handful of the involved football players had hundreds of parking tickets in a few years.  The tutor that was involved in the academic cheating had paid for some of the tickets.  Some of the cars appear to be from a car dealer who is now in jail.  One car had three different plates in one day. 

I'm an NC State fan, so I practice and teach the ABC's:  Anybody But Carolina.  This is almost too much to ask for.

So now that UNC appears to have abandoned any form of integrity in dealing with all these football issues, someone decided to just go ahead auction The Carolina Way off on eBay.  Might as well.  They aren't using it any more.  The product category is "Reputation".

Right now it is up to $3.25.

Fourth of July weekend

The 4th of July weekend is always a favorite here in Park City.  Friends come to town.  Music and parties are everywhere.  The small town parade is always entertaining.  The fireworks.  You just can't get away from all the fun.

To start the weekend off, my cousin Sara came to visit from Raleigh, NC.  She's been here twice before, once in the summer and one during the Sundance Film Festival in winter.  My dad has one brother, Sam, who has two daughters, Sara being the older of the two. Here's Sara with Julie at the parade.

Now, even though I have cameras everywhere and there were events going almost non-stop, I seem to have only captured the parade.  We kept having dinners out on our deck, enjoying the glorious company.   I ran a 5k on the morning of the 4th and finished side-by-side with Jim Covaleski, who has dropped 30 pounds this year and is running like a fiend!  We went to a big party at the Benson's.  All this and not a shot, but as always, I at least drag a little camera to the parade.

I met Rob Schumacher at 5:30 in the morning to come put our chairs along the parade route and claim our space.  We  leave the cars and walk home. This is serious commitment.  Our group, roughly from left to right includes: Greg, Miriam, Sara, Julie, Jim, Kathy, Bill, Loris, Lisa, Theresa, Rob, Ron and Carol.  Scattered in are a few friends who wandered by.



Every parade, whether big city or small town has to have marching bands.  We only had one this year, but they were quite good.

Let's start into the best stuff.  This guy had an electrically propelled three-wheeler.  It flexed quite a bit, which allowed it to turn on a dime.  Everyone instantly wanted one.  If they were selling them there, they would have cleaned up.

This was definitely the best float.  It was sponsored by Canyons Resort and starred a number of very experienced ski jumpers.

It turns out the float was basically a trampoline on wheels.  These guys were going along the parade route doing all sorts of flips and twists.

Both on skis and snowboards.  I never heard if they won first prize, but if they didn't it was clearly fixed.  This was new and awesome!

Then there were some things that weren't so good.  First, we have Miss Summit County and her escorts.  This is from the county that was "least obese" in the entire U.S..  Look closely and you can figure out what's wrong.

These girls represented some form of dance or aerobics group.  Whatever it was, I don't ever want to participate.

And the mega-loser for the parade.  Deer Valley is a multi-multi-million dollar resort.  They have been voted the number 1 ski resort in the US the last three years.  And this is their float?  What a piece of crap!  This was clearly $15 and four man hours.  If this is all you are going to do, stay home and don't embarrass yourself.  This is just so unlike DV.

So let's end on a happier parade note.  Here is my always lovely neighbor and best friend Hannah.  She was dressed as a princess and was part of the Baby Nee Nee float.

I was actually all ready to take some wonderful fireworks pictures.  I had the camera, remote trigger, tripod and such all ready to go.  Then it rained.  Instead of watching from the top of the water tower, we caught the last third of the fireworks show and even that was from inside the car.  Maybe next year.

Sara is back in Raleigh and Julie and I are having a very peaceful night, highlighted by the lack of gluttony and alcohol.  Whew!

Daddy shoe, momma shoe and baby shoe

Lots has been written lately about how as runners, we have become too dependent on big thick, cushy heals on our shoes.  Our adapted stride causes the heal to strike first, which while cushy, still sends quite a jar up into your leg.

Humans didn't evolve to run like this.  How can you tell?  Just take off your shoes and run barefoot in the grass. You don't slam down with a heal strike.  You land much more gently on the middle or front of your foot.

This growing awareness, combined with all the foot, leg and knee issues runners have, has kicked off a wave of different flatter, softer and less supportive shoes.  I have been slowly moving in this direction, unsure of where along the line the changes make sense and where they become silly fad.

First, my older running shoes, a pair of Saucony ProGrid Omni 8's.  Fairly heavy.  Lots of support.  A huge thick heal.  I like them I knew their design would encourage me to pound away and I already have enough knee problems for several people.

A month or two ago I bought a new pair of shoes, INOV8 Road-X 255's. These shoes are more like racing flats. They're thinner, lighter, with less structural support and a much lower heal. I have been using these for all my running lately.

At first I was worried that these would pound my feet until I learned to run softer. Eventually I realized that I already ran fairly softly. The easiest way to tell is to run up behind someone. If they can hear your thud-thud-thud over their iPod while you are still 50 feet away, you need to change your stride. I frequently run up behind people and scare them (not intentionally) because they don't hear me until I am coming around them. I have been able to do my 10 mile run without any more issues than I would normally have (from lack of conditioning). No sore feet and the knees are hanging in there.

And finally we get to today's acquisition. These ugly little things are what happens when you buy a Vibram Five Fingers Bikila at a huge discount because the color is a crime against humanity. I'll mud and grass them up quickly though.  Yes, they actually have toes in the shoe, so you look a wee bit like a chimp with neon feet.

These shoes are supposed to be like running barefooted but you have something to protect you from rocks, glass, and such. Some people actually run marathons on pavement in these things, but I only plan to use them for my speed work days. I always run on nice, well-kept Park City soccer fields for this. My experiment is to see if these things deliver on their promise of improving your stride and the muscles in your calves and feet so that I have fewer knee problems.

There are lots of warnings about people trying to run too far, too fast in these shoes without adjusting.  People complain about everything from very sore, tired calves to broken bones in their feet.  I plan to be careful and avoid any such issues.

If you would like to learn more about why this idea seems to be catching on, try here.  It is a Harvard web site and covers it from a perspective not motivated by selling you shoes.  For an easier read, try this piece from Runner's World.

More as I find out what works and what doesn't.

Pawsatch Snow Dogs

I was out at the Friends of Animals Rescue Ranch this morning. While I was there I saw the Pawsatch Snow Dogs (a play on the Wasatch mountains). They have kids camps throughout the summer. The kids learn to ride the sleds, care for the dogs, and train them.

One started howling about something and lots of others joined in. This excited the dogs in the ranch, who mostly just started barking.



I like their attitude. If we aren't going to pull, I'm taking a nap!



As fluffy as they are, they seemed to be doing quite well in the sunshine. I was surprised they didn't seem hotter than they were, but there's always a stiff breeze at the ranch.

Running progress - week 2

I'm getting there. During the past week I lost another pound and cranked my longest run up to 10.5 miles, with an extra 1.5 miles of walking at the end. I'll just keep trying to add for a few more weeks. Five and a half weeks until the race.

Getting ready to go for my long runs is quite the effort. I realized that it was somewhere between an assault on Everest and a woman packing for a spa weekend with friends. I'll leave it to you to figure out which has more things to bring. I decided it actually needed to go on the blog.

First the things that are required before walking out the door.



We have:

• Sunscreen for the face and back of the neck. The sun here is 50% stronger here than at sea level and two hours in it would be a lot.
• Runner Glide for the inner thighs to keep from chafing. I would think that my skinny little thighs wouldn't have this problem, but I guess there is a lot of friction when you rub your thighs together 10,000 times on a long run.
• Car keys for traveling. Why drive when you can run out the front door? Right now my knees are a definite weak spot. The doctor said something about "yadda yadda stop running forever yadda yadda". I didn't catch all the details. So, I can either run fast, or long, or hills, but right now, no combinations. Everywhere around us is hugely hilly, so I drive about 3-4 miles to find some flatter turf.

On to the actual running garb.

• A 24 ounce water bottle that has a strap to grab your hand. It makes it less work to carry it all that way.
  
• Two 10 ounce water bottles that go on the little hip belt. I don't have places to refill, so I should probably be carrying the other 2 10 ouncers that go on the belt.
• The belt, for water and all my other crap.
• Clif Shot Bloks for energy. These serve the same purpose as power gels, but they are much more pleasant, like square gummy bears. I don't start hitting these until my runs get around 8-10 miles.
• A wrist strap from RoadID. It has my name, address, phone, emergency contact, blood type, and NKA (no known allergies). If you run, hike, bike or whatever, you should wear something like this in case of an accident. They are inexpensive and last forever. http://www.roadid.com
  
• A very light, airy hat for sun protection.
• A wash cloth. I sweat like a pig when I run and I like to try and keep some of it out of my eyes.
• An iPhone to provide music and call for help when I run too far from home. Haven't had to do that in a few years, but it did happen running to Wake Forest one day. Thanks Julie!
• Headphones with good ear grabbers so they don't get flushed out in a sweat torrent.
• A ForeRunner GPS watch. Sometimes I use the iPhone for tracking my progress, but the watch is more accurate and easier to check as I run.
• A heart rate monitoring chest strap that talks to the watch. I almost never use this, but I was getting it out for something else and decided to strap it on. The results were different than I expected, but that is for a future blog post as I learn more.

You would think that is enough, but I also have two supplies for the post-run.

• I simply can't stay hydrated with what I can carry, so I get back to the truck and down 32 ounces of water.
• Then the ice pack goes on the knees. Sucks to get old.
  

I see some of the other runners go by with just an iPod Nano and some headphones. I'm just hoping they are doing a 3-4 mile run and nothing more.

Maybe I should just get one of those kid strollers, load it with all my supplies and push it along. That might not work for the Jupiter Peak run though.

American Cars

It's always interesting to see Cars.com's annual evaluation of the most American cars. They make this judgement based on where all the parts come from and where everything is assembled. Odd to see Toyota and Honda with cars at the top of the list.

Click for the list and details.

Just wandering around the local towns

Jasper and I went on a little photography adventure yesterday. We started with a trip up to Guardsman's Pass, up near the top of Deer Valley. There's still a fair amount of snow up there and Jasper was so happy to be in it again. To make it better, there were little pot guts (ground squirrels) running around for him to chase. It doesn't get much better than that.



The mix of the trees finally getting some foliage, blue skies, white snow, and granite were beautiful.



We ran across some leftovers from the winter. There are a number of cabins in the area that once the snow falls, are only accessible by snowmobile. You pack in all your supplies. I have to guess this snowmobile died on a trip and was left for summer recovery.



The area around the Montage hotel was clearing pretty quickly. We watched for a few minutes and never saw a human. I have to guess that you won't have any problems getting a vacant room.

This week they discovered a collapsed mining tunnel up on one of the ski runs. It's a good thing this normally happens in the summer instead of during ski season. They haven't figured out how deep it is or how to fill it. Welcome to a small town with 750 miles of tunnels. They have blocked the mine entrance off with fencing, but it may be worth a hike up for a peek and a photo.



As we head down to much lower elevations, we started seeing a lot of spring flowers.



These flags were lined up in preparation for the Oakley Rodeo, held over the July 4th weekend.



The snow melting from the mountains is causing quite a bit of flooding, but at least it isn't as bad as it would have been if spring had been warmer. All the low lying fields look like they should be growing rice.

Look closely. One of the horses is a bison.



The Weber River is normally more like a creek. Not now. You can see that there is only about 18" of space under the bridge, and that's a busy highway.



In places were you could normally splash around in the shallows, there were large rapids. On the left you can see a guy working on the sand bags. Utah now has hundreds of thousands of sand bags. Some are working well and others have been overrun.



There are lots of houses with water in them. You can see someone's trampoline in this picture. Their yard has become part of the river.



It's tough to see the water's flow, but it is actually flowing out from under the front door. That's never a good sign.



The only good news for those being flooded is that it looks like we may have maxed out the levels. The warm weather should cook off the bulk of the snow over the next week and then everything should dropping back to its normal summer drought.

With the cool, wet spring, everything here is much greener than normal. Grass and trees are growing more than usual. By now we are normally experiencing summer in a high altitude desert and we almost never see rain. The funny (in a sad way) thing to hear the TV news talking about the big floods and at the same time, "boy is all this growth going to be a big fire hazard when it dries out."

Savor the Summit 2011

It is becoming an annual habit. They close down all of Main Street and restaurants line the street with tables, top to bottom. There were 30 restaurants participating and I would guess about 1500 diners.



We had perfect sunny weather with temps in the 70s. Our group ate with 350 Main, one of our favorite spots to dine.



It really is a wonderful event. 1500 people eating outdoors together. Live music. All in the middle of what is normally a busy street.