Cross training with Curb-Found Treasure!

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Robinson — Leave a comment

So yesterday was my rest day. Unfortunately I am finding that I really don’t like having days of no exercise. Maybe it’s because I am staring at calories on my phone whenever I eat, or maybe it is simply knowing I’m not doing anything – but either way I have become one of those people who is driven batty by doing no exercising. I also feel bleh if I do NOTHING.

My Daughter Demonstrating our Elliptical

Last night I ended up staying late due to its being a board meeting night, and was headed out not to long after – due to it being cub-scout night. I decided to tackle the elliptical for a simple 20 minute window. Now there is a short background story on this elliptical. I have a tendency to notice when my neighbors put big things out on garbage day, and also to consider whether or not it should have a place in my house. (My wife insists these things must take place after dark however..) Well, we lost some fantastic neighbors about a month ago and in the process of their moving out some things appeared at the curb. A never-before-used elliptical was too good to pass up. This treasure still had the plastic covering over the display! Now it isn’t a high-end elliptical, but I thought it would be a fantastic tool to see if a good one was something my wife and I should pick up. This one has multiple reviews on walmart.com, that mostly point out it has a short stride length. As my wife is only 5′ tall, this isn’t a bad thing! Read more ›

Tagged with: elliptical, Healthy Eating, Weslo G3.8
Posted in cardiotrainer, Cross Training, Healthy Food, Hill Running

Running the Hills with Dr. Denton

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Robinson — Leave a comment

Running in the rain, and dragging a friend out for a run (though not in that order)

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Robinson — Leave a comment

So, a couple of days to recap today!

Friday, I took a co-worker Derek out for a run. He had never gone further than 4.1, and didn’t think he could do 5 miles or longer. I figured that such self-doubts could never lead to anything good, and decided to do a good deed. Yes sir! That’s correct! On friday, Derek and I went for a run leaving from work – and headed over into Otsiningo Park. He now knows that he can do 7 miles! I will say he didn’t have quite the bounce in his step at the end compared to the bounce in the beginning! Seriously though, Derek did a fantastic job. He thinks of himself as a basketball/softball player and coach, but I see that “runner” in side begging to come out!

Saturday no running occurred. But many, many Girl Scout cookies were sold at my daughter’s troop’s Cookie Sale. We were right outside of Pet Depot – so my son and I (we were moral support) kept going in and playing with the puppies. They had the CUTEST black lab puppy!

Sunday was gong to be my “long” run – but I didn’t head out until 7ish. I had originally planned on doing 10 miles, but by 8 o’clock it was quite dark and I figured my wife was starting to worry. I called it at 8 miles. It was raining and around 40 degrees, which helped me learn a valuable lesson. 40 is much colder when you are wet. I will remember this and dress appropriately in the future!

As you may have seen in the comments of my post on “Soreness” – Maureen was kind enough to point out the value of a cool-down and stretching. I was unable to use my Stick as I had lent it to Derek (I thought it was the least I could do after torturing him), but I did cool down and stretch out. I can report no soreness this morning! Thank you Maureen!

Tagged with: Otsiningo Park, Road running, running, Running in the Rain
Posted in running

March in Review!

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Robinson — Leave a comment

So, I haven’t often done the “Month in Review” – but I think this seems a good time to start! Especially since, looking back at this month – I am pretty excited about what I have accomplished!

So, lets see my monthly mileage —- According to DailyMile I did 82 Miles in March – The most mileage I have ever done in a month! In comparison, the most I have run in a month up until now was 67 miles in July of 2011. I seem to be headed for a much better base on my training for the marathon this year! If I keep this up, the 26.2 will be NO problem!

As far as races are concerned – I had a personal best in the 15k (1:16:51) on 25 March, and a personal best in a 4 mile race on the 16th of March (29:15).

I also lost 6 pounds in the month of March!

Overall I think this was a GREAT month!

Total Numbers:
Miles: 81.6 (per Cardiotrainer)
Total Calories (includes strength training) burned: 12,053
Total time spent running: 718 minutes, or 11 hours 48 minutes.
Longest Run: 9:3 miles

Year to date:
Miles: 186 (Daily Mile)

Posted in running

How Sore is Normal? — Random Ponderings and Questions

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Robinson — 5 Comments

So, last night I skipped working out, and instead went out to Moe’s Southwestern Grill – for a dinner that was as many calories as I had planned on eating all day. Double Whammy with that one. But we are going to brush that under the rug and move on to some random pondering that have been going through my head.

My legs are usually sore. I don’t mean knee pain, although that still exists it is much less than it used to be as I have changed my running style. I mean that most mornings when I wake up, my legs are sore from running. Is this normal for a 36-year-old man attempting to increase mileage/speed? or am I over-doing it? It hasn’t been a crippling/hard to walk pain, just a soreness. In fact, after really heavy runs – I’m surprised I don’t hurt MORE the next day. As an example, I really expected to have issues walking on monday, after the Forks XV. Yet I felt good enough (still felt some soreness of course) to do 5 miles that evening.

And that’s another part of it. Usually a few hours into the day, my legs aren’t sore anymore. The kinks have been worked out so-to-speak. Now, running I can often feel that underlying soreness, and it (of course) doesn’t exist in morning or during the run if the previous day was a rest day.

I have pulled my calf a few times, strained other muscles – and it is certainly not that sort of pain.

So is this normal in a person attempting to get back into running in their late 30s? Could changes to my diet (trying to eat less crap and healthier foods) be contributing? Or is it simply that I have gone up to an 80 mile/month running habit where previously I was doing 40-50?

That is the one bummer as being an adult runner vs highschool. There is no person to go ask these questions of..

Posted in running

Sir Mix-a-lot

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Robinson — Leave a comment

No, this is not a post about “Baby Got Back.” Last night was a mixture of things for my work out. I didn’t know WHAT I wanted to do – so I did a bit of several things!

I started off on the treadmill as the kids and I were home before my wife arrived. A nice warm up was my initial thought as I stepped toward it.. Then “SPEED WORK!” occurred to me. Well, I compromised by doing my first mile at 8 mph (7:30 mile), and the second mile at 7 mph (8:34 mile.)

I then jumped back into the strength training (second time this week!) with a chest and triceps workout for 20 minutes.

After finishing that – I knew how beautiful it was out side – so I headed out for a couple of miles. My son asked if he could come do one with me, so I let him know that I would do my last mile with him!
Mile 1: 8:28
Mile 2: 8:33

My son left the neighbor’s trampoline and joined me for one final mile: Read more ›

Tagged with: Baby Got Back, Healthy Steps for Kids 5K, running, Sir Mix A Lot
Posted in running

Mid Week Catch-up!

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Robinson — 2 Comments

So yesterday was crazy, and I didn’t pre-write my blog (I often write them the night before to auto-post on the correct day,) so there was no update yesterday! To the three or four of you reading, I apologize for that – I can only imagine the immense levels of disappointment you must have gone through as you patiently waited! Never Fear – here is your weekly catch up! As a bonus, I’ll even include some weekend information!

So, lets start off with Friday!!! I didn’t run. (ok, that day didn’t take long) Just kidding! I have found a nice 5 mile loop in Binghamton that I find I prefer much more than an “out and back.” I did the whole loop in 43:37, with the splits looking quite good:

LITTLE JAMES!!!!!!!!!

Mile 1: 10:00
Mile 2: 8:29
Mile 3: 8:02
Mile 4: 8:33
Mile 5: 8:17

Now looking at the splits, you might wonder what happened at mile 1. The answer is simple – LITTLE JAMES!!! He is a family friend that my children nick-named “Little James.” We knew far to many James’ at the time – and this separated him from the others. It seems that James has started running, and has already reached the Read more ›

Tagged with: Bryce, ifitness belt, LITTLE JAMES, Maple, Maple Syrup, maplefest, Marathon Maplefest
Posted in running

Race Report – Chenango Forks XV 2012

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Robinson — 1 Comment

Chris (runner) and Rebecca (photographer) before the race

Last year, I had planned on doing the Forks 15k, but it was during one of my many pulled muscle incidents… (Oh, and I wasn’t anywhere near capable of running 15k at the time – but I’m not going to mention that part.. Totally going to blame the pulled muscle and pretend I could have done it otherwise.) The big difference between this year and last year – is I have been very careful to NOT pull a muscle. (I also feel its worth mentioning that I have been training this year as well…) Now I hadn’t done 9 miles this year, but I had done a couple of 7 and 8 mile runs, so I knew I had this.

For Reference, the only other 15k I have done is the Utica Boilermaker last year in 1:30:20.

Yesterday was looking to be a bit chilly – 40’s to low 50s, beautiful running weather! I headed up to Chenango Forks Highschool to register and was faced with my first quandary of the day.

See the orange? No thank you.

Do I need to start with the “early” starters – that get to go 15 minutes early? I know I am not the speediest runner – but how slow am I? Well, after seeing the Orange things the early starters had to wear, I decided not too, as orange clashes with my complexion.

All joking aside – I figured I was probably going to be ok with not doing the early start. There were around 225 people at the starting line when they yelled “Go” (followed by the beeping of countless GPS watches/phones starting.) Read more ›

Tagged with: 15 k road race, Chenango Forks XV, Utica Boilermaker, Vibram Five Fingers
Posted in Race Report, running, vibram five fingers

Don’t let me get me, I’m my own worst enemy.

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Robinson — Leave a comment

It’s amazing how dead on P!nk was with that line. How many quotes have you seen that echo that? “Whether you say you can or you can’t, you’re right!” or what ever inspirational quote Runner’s World posts today on Facebook.

Doctor, doctor won’t you please prescribe somethin’ A day in the life of someone else?

Maybe this is one of the reasons I like running. It’s a chance to “Be someone else” than I have been all day. Instead of the stress of work and deadlines, or working on merit badges, or getting the kids to where they need to be – I get a break from that. I’m not “Dad.” I’m not an “IT Director.” I’m a runner. And all that matters for the moment is the run.

It’s bad when you annoy yourself so irritating
Some days we don’t run.. even though we know we should.
Heck, last night I didn’t run – even though I knew I shouldn’t! It was driving me batty to not be out there in the warm weather. But with how tired my limbs have been this week – a break was needed.

Bet ya never thought of this P!nk song as an analogy to a runner..

Looking forward to running this weekend though!

Tagged with: Facebook, Merit Badges, p!nk
Posted in recovery

Holy Sore Muscles Batman! or Wholly Sore Muscles Bruce!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Robinson — 2 Comments

Still the best Batman

Man am I sore today.. Legs.. Chest… Arms.. Wow… Let me explain.

So last night was a pretty good work out. I started off with a one mile run on my dear friend the treadmill. I did it at my new standard of 7 mph (8:34 minute mile) and rounded up to 10 minutes. I decided half way through to start lifting my knees up as high as I could.

After my 10 minute warm up I finally returned to my strength training. For some reason, I always start off with chest/triceps when I return to strength training – and last night was no different. It was a fantastic 30 minute session, I was whooped afterwards! Read more ›

Tagged with: batman, Marathon Training, sore muscles, Strength training
Posted in Cross Training, Marine Corps Marathon, running

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: