So, last night I went for a run. I know that is s uprising considering this is a running blog and all, but I felt it was worth mentioning. I was exhausted to the point that I felt it in my arms/legs. In the past I probably would have talked myself out of running (it wouldn’t have been that difficult) but I have decided to “suck it up” and not let those excuses keep from going!
I headed out knowing I needed the run Read more ›
So this has been a wonderful weekend (yes, I know it’s now Tuesday.. I’ve been busy!!!) As I mentioned in my last posting – my brother-in-law was in town up until friday morning. Ignoring their very existence, I started thursday with a 5 mile run outside in the BEAUTIFUL 55 degree weather. (Mile 1: 8:19, Mile 2: 8:24, Mile 3: 8:28, Mile 4: 8:46, Mile 5:7:55.) I made up for my solitary run – by bringing both families up to Tunkhannock Falls in Ithaca, NY. We had a nice picnic lunch, and then headed up the trail to the falls.
As usual, I had someone stop me and ask me about my Vibram FiveFingers – don’t get these if you don’t like talking to random strangers! I shared with her the wonder that is the VFFs, and she told me the “upper rim” trail was fantastic to run -about a 4 mile loop. I thanked her for that information, and it is added on my “to-do” list this
The Family at the lowerfalls - at Tunkhannock Falls
summer for sure! I really want to get into more trail running.
The kids (both theirs and ours) were definitely impressed by the falls – and how could you not be? Even the little ones at the beginning of the trail are gorgeous to watch/listen too.
When my niece/nephew come back in the summer we promised they could play in the water. Read more ›
I’m excited – at the time of writing this, I am ONE view away from having had a total of 10,000 page-views on this blog! Thank you to everyone that has stopped by more than once! (well, those that stopped by once too – but those that come back make me feel a touch more interesting than those that don’t!)
I have found out that being off of work seems to interfere with my blog postings. It seems that since I run at different times, I don’t get my posts scheduled. On a good note, it means the notifications are being mailed out as soon as I write it!
So, yesterday I headed up to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Being a runner – baseball isn’t exactly my “thing,” its not my wife’s “thing” nor my children’s. BUT spending time with family IS our “thing.” Since my brother-in-law’s family does have a “thing” for baseball – this was one of the places they wanted to see – so off we went! Now, even a runnernerd like myself, that is familiar with names like Ryan Hall, Abebe Bikila, Walter George, and Katherine 
Switzer knows SOME baseball names. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson and even Shoeless Joe Jackson (thank you Field of Dreams) are names that mean something to me. The “All-American Pastime” isn’t lost completely on this American. Read more ›
I decided yesterday to spend as much time as I could out in the WONDERFUL 75 degree weather. This of course meant a loooong slow run was in order. Before leaving I thought 7 miles sounded just about perfect. I am aware this is a bit longer than I have been running – so I wanted to make sure I took it slow and easy. In fact, I even stopped and glanced in some shop windows along the way! My splits will let you know exactly which miles I did that on!
Mile 1: 8:09
Mile 2: 9:01
Mile 3: 8:54
Mile 4: 9:06 Read more ›
This weekend was packed. My 4 miler on saturday morning, followed by my son’s Oddessy of the Mind tournament, followed by my “Running Injury Free” Seminar. Then Brother in law #1 came over and hung out until late in the evening.
Sunday – Brother in Law #2 comes into town in the morning, followed by a big brunch to celebrate my Mother in Law’s birthday brunch. Then we headed out to my son’s concert for the Parlor City Boy’s Chorus (video of the PCBC performing with the Binghamton Madrigal Choir below)
After the concert, back to our place for the cousins to play late into the evening, while the 
adults chit-chatted. Monday morning – we helped get the Brother in law’s family up at 5 am so they could head out to philly for the day.
What this all adds up too?
Well, this was my “bullshit” story I kept telling myself. I was simply too frickin tired to find the motivation to go out running. A pity considering the gorgeous weather – but I just didn’t have it. I will make it up today – but yesterday? Just wasn’t there.
Yesterday’s Excuse? Too tired. I think I am going to have to quit using that one – as it’s certainly not going to be an acceptable one at mile 22.
I find it difficult to believe that there are many runners out there that wouldn’t like to run “injury free.”. I especially think that any runner who pulled their calf muscle five times last year AND got shin splints that hurt enough that even the doctor thought it was a stress fracture REALLY needed to attend a seminar called “Injury Free Running,” by Mathew Nark of Plaza Fitness in Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany NY. The evening of the St. Patrick’s 4 mile run I had the opportunity to go to just such a seminar that the Triple Cities Runner’s Club sponsored. I was bound and determined to walk out of there with at least three big things I could change, and I was not disappointed.
Probably the most fascinating piece of information I got out of it was the idea of muscle activation. Mathew stated something along the lines of (I don’t have an photographic memory) “About half of the people I see come in for injuries – aren’t injured. They have muscles that simply aren’t firing properly. Think of an army with 100,000 people. If only 20,000 are working – then it isn’t going to be doing its job well. This is also true with Muscles – if only 20,000 of 100,000 muscle fibers are working – the muscle isn’t going to work as well.” Muscle activation is the idea of increasing the number of “working” or activated muscles fibers. Even if you only get it up to 60,000/100,000 fibers – you are going to be able to do MUCH more than if you were at 20,000/100,000. He then demonstrated with someone who had a recurring IT Band problem (and stressed that this is not guaranteed to be someone’s issue just because they have IT Band pain, but that it WAS worth looking into if you did) come up as a “volunteer.” With this person, he Read more ›
Yesterday, I did my first “St. Pat’s 4 miler!” This a staple for runners in this area – with it being the 11th running of the race. Let me start by saying that it was COLD. We were 
running in 60 degree temperatures last week, and yesterday it was 24 degrees. Despite (or maybe because of?) the odd distance, it gets a great showing, with 697 runners showing up this year. I find this REALLY impressive, as it was pre-registrations ONLY.
For those that know the Binghamton Area, I have included a map of the course above.
There were a variety of outfits from the mundane, to green-haired kilt wearing runners. The gymnasium was PACKED! (probably because people were avoiding the cold.) I wasn’t terribly impressed with the packet pickup. First you stood in line and got your number (mine was 660.) You were supposed to remember the number while you stood in a really
Your standard cotton race shirt. Luckily, I like the standard cotton race shirt. Especially long-sleeve ones!
long line, for packet pickup. Then toward the end of the line – you went to one of three – that was based on your number.. (Only one of which was actually long – but it was the reason the number pickup was long.) Then, just in case you hadn’t Read more ›
How fast could you run if THIS was chasing you?
So, with last night being thursday – My wife and child headed off to Girl Scouts. (I hope you realize I mean my girl-child, not my boy-child). This meant it was going to be a workout in my own personal gym (the playroom.) So, A nice and easy 1 mile warm up followed by a WONDERFUL Chest and Tri workout. I needed to do a longer run after my work out – but Read more ›
"Going home time!"
So, I had great plans last night. I was going to leave work at my usual time (4:00), head home – do a quick mile outside, followed by a nice strength work out. THEN the glory of glories – I was going to go run 4 or 5 miles out in the gorgeous SUMMER weather!!
But, then reality stepped in. I was setting up the network in a new house that we have at work – and lets face it, getting that network up was more important than my planned workout. So, two trips to Time-Warner, and I had a working cable modem and had the network up. (3 hours of my day waisted because someone else had been too lazy to test the connection while the tech was there…) As I returned to MY house, we had a gorgeous sunset going on (no.. Not the one in the picture, incase the presence of the Ocean didn’t give it away. I got that off the interwebs, but it is pretty!) but the temperature had already dropped from 65 to 60.
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While working is of course important, I wasn’t going to let it ruin all of my plans! Read more ›
I got registered in the TWO HOURS AND THIRTY EIGHT MINUTES that it was open!
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