Yesterday was the first day of our August pushup challenge. If you forgot about it just start today and move on from there. Don't give up because you missed a day.
I do mine in the morning so I don't have to worry about it anymore. I also posted the schedule on our refrigerator as a reminder.
The Erie Canal, Running Paradise
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Monday, August 1, 2016
Fall Racing Schedule
So many races in our area, so little time. The competition for attracting runners is heating up. This Wednesday (Wednesday of all days!) there are three local races. Saturday, August 13, there are 6 races, one of which is a Rochester Runner of the Year Race (Bergen 5k).
I'm not sure how well all of these races do financially, but if they keep holding them year after year I guess the race organizers must be happy with the final results. I know sometimes scheduling of parks, lodges, schools and wherever else a race is held can be difficult. Some newbie race directors just don't know any better or won't listen to people with experience, even the timing companies. Those are the races that usually die after a year or two.
In September there is a 5k race in my hometown. I considered doing it for about 2 minutes. It's $25 to register and prizes are given in only three age groups, to first place only, with the oldest group 40+. That is crazy. I seldom win an age group award, but it's nice to have a chance. Usually there is a big difference between a 40 year old runner and 55+ runner. I also worry about races that don't tell you who the timing company is. One, you don't know if the results can be trusted, will be available fairly quickly or the course is accurate. Two, the race loses out on a lot of publicity the timing company would provide through their web site. It makes no sense.
My tentative racing schedule is;
August 13: The Bergen 5k (RROY race)
September 5: Maybe? (Summerfest 5k@Mendon Ponds, a Fleet Feet race)
October 15: Finish Strong 15k (RROY race)
October 22: Scare Brain Cancer Away 5k (RROY race)
November 5: East Avenue Grocery Run 5k (RROY race) I skipped this race last year and it cost me a top five finish for the year in RROY.
November 24: Race with Grace 10k (RROY). A tradition in our home. I may also be the youngest runner in a new age group for this race, with a birthday 2 days prior to the race.
Let's hope we all stay healthy and can race well!
I'm not sure how well all of these races do financially, but if they keep holding them year after year I guess the race organizers must be happy with the final results. I know sometimes scheduling of parks, lodges, schools and wherever else a race is held can be difficult. Some newbie race directors just don't know any better or won't listen to people with experience, even the timing companies. Those are the races that usually die after a year or two.
In September there is a 5k race in my hometown. I considered doing it for about 2 minutes. It's $25 to register and prizes are given in only three age groups, to first place only, with the oldest group 40+. That is crazy. I seldom win an age group award, but it's nice to have a chance. Usually there is a big difference between a 40 year old runner and 55+ runner. I also worry about races that don't tell you who the timing company is. One, you don't know if the results can be trusted, will be available fairly quickly or the course is accurate. Two, the race loses out on a lot of publicity the timing company would provide through their web site. It makes no sense.
My tentative racing schedule is;
August 13: The Bergen 5k (RROY race)
September 5: Maybe? (Summerfest 5k@Mendon Ponds, a Fleet Feet race)
October 15: Finish Strong 15k (RROY race)
October 22: Scare Brain Cancer Away 5k (RROY race)
November 5: East Avenue Grocery Run 5k (RROY race) I skipped this race last year and it cost me a top five finish for the year in RROY.
November 24: Race with Grace 10k (RROY). A tradition in our home. I may also be the youngest runner in a new age group for this race, with a birthday 2 days prior to the race.
Let's hope we all stay healthy and can race well!
Friday, July 29, 2016
Push Up Challenge
What if you can't do 15 pushups to start day one? Begin with the number you can do, be it one or two or five, whatever. Try modified pushups with your knees on the ground if you need to. The important thing is to just do it.
If you already can do more than 15 then start with whatever that number is and then add to it each day as above.
Make sure you are using good form, no saggy midsections. Once your form fails stop, there is no sense getting injured or doing them poorly.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Westward Ho!
We recently completed our cross-country adventure, traveling from upstate New York to Beaverton, Oregon. Not exactly a journey like the pioneers of the 1800's traveling the Oregon Trail, though Jan insisted everyday on wearing dresses like the woman below. They got a bit cumbersome on our hikes and runs, but otherwise seemed to work well. At least Jan didn't have to worry about ticks or snake bites, they wouldn't get through the dress material. My beard didn't get that long, though there were many days shaving seemed to be an unnecessary evil.
Amazingly I have a top ten list of what I liked best about the trip from east to west across the states!
1. Camping just outside of the main entrance to Devil's Tower National Monument, hiking around the base of the Tower and the next day running on a couple of the trails. Our KOA Kamping Kabin had a direct view of the Tower.
2. Having the speed limit be 80 mph in many of the states. The first 80 mph sign we saw was in Minnesota as we headed toward South Dakota. It makes one wonder why NY can't be at least 70 mph from the border near Erie, Pa to south of Buffalo.
3. Driving highway 59 and 387 through extremely rural Wyoming. Make sure the gas tank is full before leaving Gillette, it's pretty much the last chance for 200 miles. The road was extremely lightly traveled and more interesting, in a desolate kind of way, than the interstate. We probably didn't see 40 vehicles on these roads.
4. Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. A tiny town in the south part of the state. We stayed at a small local motel called the Alpaca Inn. Very peaceful. We swam laps in their local community pool, went to the springs twice, hiked and relaxed.
5. Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho. You have to want to go there to get there. It's not on the way to anything. It's worth the side trip if you like weird things Mother Nature has to offer. Remnants of volcanic activity that you can drive and hike around in a few hours. From there we drove to;
6. Hailey, Idaho. A neat small town heading toward Sun Valley, Idaho. We basically picked staying there for a night by chance. I got to run on a trail while Jan biked alongside. The motel was great, they even had a pancake machine for breakfast! Yes, I'm a rube. We had the motel pool and hot tub to ourselves. The town is nestled in a valley with gorgeous mountains all around. It's a place you could spend a week visiting.
7. Traveling for 9 days with Jan. She was the navigator I was the driver. There were only a few meltdowns by me when traffic was an issue or we were "lost".
8. Running Pre's Trail in Eugene, Oregon. It was hot, we got lost thanks to my poor sense of direction, probably the only people to get lost on a mostly circular trail, but I'm still glad we did it.
9. Hiking up the Centennial Trail in Lava Hot Springs. I can say we liked it even though the 45-50 minutes "easy" walk/run turned into 2 1/2 hours of mostly being lost because we made it back down the mountain and have a story to tell. It was also nice recovering with a gallon of water each, then having dinner and plenty of wine before heading to the hot springs and soaking while looking up at the stupid mountain again and saying, "hey, we made it all the way up there!"
10. Being away from work, disconnected for long periods from the noise of the world. We had free satellite radio and hardly used that, the local stations, cd's or anything else considering all the time we spent on the road. That was nice.
1. Camping just outside of the main entrance to Devil's Tower National Monument, hiking around the base of the Tower and the next day running on a couple of the trails. Our KOA Kamping Kabin had a direct view of the Tower.
2. Having the speed limit be 80 mph in many of the states. The first 80 mph sign we saw was in Minnesota as we headed toward South Dakota. It makes one wonder why NY can't be at least 70 mph from the border near Erie, Pa to south of Buffalo.
3. Driving highway 59 and 387 through extremely rural Wyoming. Make sure the gas tank is full before leaving Gillette, it's pretty much the last chance for 200 miles. The road was extremely lightly traveled and more interesting, in a desolate kind of way, than the interstate. We probably didn't see 40 vehicles on these roads.
4. Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. A tiny town in the south part of the state. We stayed at a small local motel called the Alpaca Inn. Very peaceful. We swam laps in their local community pool, went to the springs twice, hiked and relaxed.
5. Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho. You have to want to go there to get there. It's not on the way to anything. It's worth the side trip if you like weird things Mother Nature has to offer. Remnants of volcanic activity that you can drive and hike around in a few hours. From there we drove to;
6. Hailey, Idaho. A neat small town heading toward Sun Valley, Idaho. We basically picked staying there for a night by chance. I got to run on a trail while Jan biked alongside. The motel was great, they even had a pancake machine for breakfast! Yes, I'm a rube. We had the motel pool and hot tub to ourselves. The town is nestled in a valley with gorgeous mountains all around. It's a place you could spend a week visiting.
7. Traveling for 9 days with Jan. She was the navigator I was the driver. There were only a few meltdowns by me when traffic was an issue or we were "lost".
8. Running Pre's Trail in Eugene, Oregon. It was hot, we got lost thanks to my poor sense of direction, probably the only people to get lost on a mostly circular trail, but I'm still glad we did it.
9. Hiking up the Centennial Trail in Lava Hot Springs. I can say we liked it even though the 45-50 minutes "easy" walk/run turned into 2 1/2 hours of mostly being lost because we made it back down the mountain and have a story to tell. It was also nice recovering with a gallon of water each, then having dinner and plenty of wine before heading to the hot springs and soaking while looking up at the stupid mountain again and saying, "hey, we made it all the way up there!"
10. Being away from work, disconnected for long periods from the noise of the world. We had free satellite radio and hardly used that, the local stations, cd's or anything else considering all the time we spent on the road. That was nice.
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Runs Like a Welshman?
For our July 4th race Jan and I did a 5k uberthons.comUberthon event in Beaverton, Oregon. We got lucky with the weather as it was only 60 degrees at the 8:30am start time. It was a fairly small race with 363 participants. After traveling 3,200 miles in 10 days with a mix of running, weights, 2 swim workouts, lots of walking and a couple of hikes in the hills we didn't have huge expectations for finishing times.
Ten things about this race;
1. Nice flat out and back course making getting lost even hard for me.
2. Start and finish at same place, nice for spectators.
3. Electronic timing at start/finish.
4. Didn't wear Garmin, figured mile markers would be enough for a short race. There were no mile markers.
5. 20 port-a-johns! For just 300+ people! Many NY races don't have that many for 1,000 runners.
6. Not knowing the city well I picked a cross street that during my warmup run took about three minutes to get to from the finish line. I knew coming back in the race I would be pretty tired at this point, but having a landmark to know the slowest it would take me to finish would be helpful.
7. A weird start. The announcer let about 70 people go first then made the rest of us wait 8 seconds before going. It didn't matter with the chip timing but if you were actually racing a person or for an age group award it did make a difference.
8. I sprinted in the last 250 yards trying to beat a guy who appeared to be in my AG. Turned out he was one group older, but my kick still worked.
9. Most results were up in a few minutes, Jan's took awhile. We walked away with 2 third place awards though! Two hours later I checked the complete results and discovered I was 4th, not 3rd, by three seconds. There was no one within 3 seconds of me at the finish. I think this may have had something to do with weird start and I just never saw the guy? Oh well, still had a good race, running almost the same time I did in my 5k in Rochester in late June. Jan also ran well 8:57 pace.
10. Our 3 year granddaughter ran her first race 1/4 mile, which was cool. She also got to hear the bear (me breathing during my sprint).
The "running like a Welshman" part? That's what my son-in-law said my running style looked like, which I am taking as a compliment! http://youtu.be/8kG9j5Io6yw
Ten things about this race;
1. Nice flat out and back course making getting lost even hard for me.
2. Start and finish at same place, nice for spectators.
3. Electronic timing at start/finish.
4. Didn't wear Garmin, figured mile markers would be enough for a short race. There were no mile markers.
5. 20 port-a-johns! For just 300+ people! Many NY races don't have that many for 1,000 runners.
6. Not knowing the city well I picked a cross street that during my warmup run took about three minutes to get to from the finish line. I knew coming back in the race I would be pretty tired at this point, but having a landmark to know the slowest it would take me to finish would be helpful.
7. A weird start. The announcer let about 70 people go first then made the rest of us wait 8 seconds before going. It didn't matter with the chip timing but if you were actually racing a person or for an age group award it did make a difference.
8. I sprinted in the last 250 yards trying to beat a guy who appeared to be in my AG. Turned out he was one group older, but my kick still worked.
9. Most results were up in a few minutes, Jan's took awhile. We walked away with 2 third place awards though! Two hours later I checked the complete results and discovered I was 4th, not 3rd, by three seconds. There was no one within 3 seconds of me at the finish. I think this may have had something to do with weird start and I just never saw the guy? Oh well, still had a good race, running almost the same time I did in my 5k in Rochester in late June. Jan also ran well 8:57 pace.
10. Our 3 year granddaughter ran her first race 1/4 mile, which was cool. She also got to hear the bear (me breathing during my sprint).
The "running like a Welshman" part? That's what my son-in-law said my running style looked like, which I am taking as a compliment! http://youtu.be/8kG9j5Io6yw
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Running the Pre Trail
Jan and I drove to Eugene, Oregon today to run the Steve Prefontaine trail. We had hoped to stay in Eugene but the motel prices were double or triple normal due to the Olympic Trials. One day ticket prices were $90-180 per person, if you could even find an unobstructed view of the track.
The path seemed easy enough looking at the map. Alas, it wasn't to be. The promised quarter mile marks were non-existent. The color-coded green, red and yellow markers were not to be found. So we took off with much hope for an easy 4 mile run with no water.
Thirty minutes later we had to backtrack after realizing we had no idea where we were. We ended up with a very solid 4 miles on a nice smooth wood chip path, but not without some anguish on an uncomfortable hot day. Still, one more running goal off our bucket list.
The path seemed easy enough looking at the map. Alas, it wasn't to be. The promised quarter mile marks were non-existent. The color-coded green, red and yellow markers were not to be found. So we took off with much hope for an easy 4 mile run with no water.
Thirty minutes later we had to backtrack after realizing we had no idea where we were. We ended up with a very solid 4 miles on a nice smooth wood chip path, but not without some anguish on an uncomfortable hot day. Still, one more running goal off our bucket list.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Prairie Dog Running
We made it to Devil's Tower National Monument Sunday, the first major stop of our cross country trip. No photograph can do the Tower justice. We rented a KOA Kamping Kabin for two nights. The porch has a direct view of the Tower. We are 200 yards from the park road entrance. A perfect location.
Our first day we drove into the park and up a thousand feet. We were able to take a 1.3 mile hike around the base of the Tower. Rock climbers were scaling the sheer cliffs. It was really geologically fascinating.
Today we got out and attempted to run the trails up to the Tower base. We ran .6 miles through a prairie dog village located in the park. They were "barking" at us and scurrying into their holes, often just a foot or two from the path. Then we got onto the main trail to go up, and up and up. The path was single track. We were worried about ticks, but mainly the signs warning about rattlers.
After a half mile when the path narrowed and the grass was higher our bravery disappeared, proving once again I am not a real trail guy. We ended up with a nice 4 mile run though, so that was good.
Our first day we drove into the park and up a thousand feet. We were able to take a 1.3 mile hike around the base of the Tower. Rock climbers were scaling the sheer cliffs. It was really geologically fascinating.
Today we got out and attempted to run the trails up to the Tower base. We ran .6 miles through a prairie dog village located in the park. They were "barking" at us and scurrying into their holes, often just a foot or two from the path. Then we got onto the main trail to go up, and up and up. The path was single track. We were worried about ticks, but mainly the signs warning about rattlers.
After a half mile when the path narrowed and the grass was higher our bravery disappeared, proving once again I am not a real trail guy. We ended up with a nice 4 mile run though, so that was good.
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