8-11-13 My poor legs

Today is unusual for me. I am sitting here in bed typing up a post on my iPad instead of my trusty laptop. I am doing that for two reasons. First I am avoiding getting ready for the day, which would mean walking around the house, and more painfully walking down the stairs. My wife is getting things organized for her church calling downstairs and by me being up here it means it's less likely I will be asked to cover for someone who isn't there... but chances are I will cover for someone. The main reason I am typing in bed is because my legs are really bothering me. I even got a massage last night and it still feels like there are hot irons in my calves. I really wish I had some bio-freeze. It just smells like healing.

I will put on this lotion called deep blue that my wife gets and call it good as I get in the shower and make my way down stairs to do the dishes, and make a checklist to make sure everything is packed for heading to St. Louis Monday then to Indianapolis later next week for GenCon (aka Gaming Nerds Paradise).I will type up another post over my 4 hours of flying.

Until Then...

8-10-13 An hour later and I'm still sweating, I think I broke my internal thermostat

Some things you may not know about me that may help you to get to know me more.

1. I go by my middle name, Riley not my first name James
2. I like gadgets
3. I like to create art, stories, games, or even lunch (but I will let someone else make that for me today)
4. My wife and I will have been married 8 years come the end of October
5. I am a full time student (studying Illustrations, it's what I want to do when I grow up in conjuctions with making table top games)
6. I love Indian food
7. My wife and I have no kids at this point in time
8. I like to ride my bike with its monsterous 29" wheels
9. I am new to running
1. I will be completing a marathon December 7th!
2. I will be completing a half marathon October 26th!
3. I will be finishing my second 5k September 2nd!

Today I did my second run outside. The temperature my phone said was 64°f, I swear if started that but reached well above that. Today was a slower paced run than the past two runs, and that's ok because I am understanding how to pace myself a little more. I started to run too hard at one point and started to have a really hard time breathing (this was after the halfway point). I believe it was because I was on the down hill, and started running a a faster pace than I could handle. The course I am running is uphill to about half way, then down hill the rest. Route Mapper for the iPad is an awesome app. I would suggest taking a look at it, it gives me so much information on where I will be running.

I have found having an object to run to is so much nicer than have a digital display marking your distance. In Utah we have out streets mapped out in a grid system, if you grow up with it, it's easy to understand. If you don't grow up with it, it's a little confusing at first. Each bock is roughly 1/8th a mile, so 4 blocks is about a half a mile. So as I was doing my initial warm up walk for a block, I then started to run. I am still not quite adjusted to outside running and it feels like I have taken two steps back in regards to progression when I do it, but I will improve! I decided my runs would be 4 blocks, walk for 2 blocks. I could have done better than that now that I look at the numbers, and review how I was feeling at each interval of a mile. I did exert a lot of energy and understand how temperatures can be a little deceiving when running and why the 50°ish temperature is a great on to run in. I also found I needed to hydrate better before running. It helps with the energy. That sticky pasty mouth sucks!

In case you were wondering I am stil liking this running thing and will just keep getting better at it.

Monday my post may be delayed until being posted until the evening because I am flying out to St. Louis to spend some time with my family there.

Until next time, have a good day!

8-8-13 It was short and sweat... I mean sweet

This morning I had my treadmill test. I thought they would attach a tube to monitor my breathing as well when I got on their Treadmill of DEATH! I didn't even make it 9 minutes, I did almost 8 minutes before I wasn't able to breath. The treadmill was really cool and designed to push the heart of the person walking on it. My blood pressure got to 200/40 right before they stopped it (it returned to normal fairly quickly. From what it sounded like my heart was ok, but I will know more tomorrow. This still doesn't solve why my breathing is so bad, unless he sees something that is causing it in my test results.

So after the Treadmill of Death I wanted to feel better about my abilities when it comes to running. So I went to the gym and got on the nice treadmill of happy no incline land and started with a brisk walk that turne into my Clydesdale trot.

Mile 1: 12.53

Mile 2: 12.39

Mile 3: 14.28 (Half a mile walk half a mile run)

I ran 2 miles non stop again, which helped to redeem my walk on the treadmill of death. I did 8 minute half mile walking and then back to running for 7 minutes (accidentally hitting the stop button with about a minute left before I hit 3 miles). I quickly smashed buttons until I was going again at the same pace I started. I finished with a Of Monsters and Men song playing. Running today was good today, I'm glad I made out. It gives me hope for Saturdays run. Saturday I will control my outdoor pace to be able to run longer and hit the 1.5 mile mark without stopping. Thanks to my mapping software I will be able to know if I did it.

Thanks for reading.

8-7-13 Outdoor Running...

So today was my first outside run. I didn't like it too much, but I will be doing more so I had better start liking it and quick. It's about 5 hours after my run and I am still feeling it. My legs are a little wobbly and I'm a bit jittery, which I think is due to a new supplement I tried (that had a lot of caffeine apparently).

Here's why I didn't like the run outside, I can go faster on a treadmill. That's the whole reason, it's kinda lame. When I went out to run it was mid 70's, cloud cover and windy. So the conditions were nice. The first mile and a half was all into the wind. The last part every time the wind picked up the little voice inside my head kept saying, "The wind is here to help you, start running again." I gave into the little runner in my head a couple of times between my little rewards of walking after I accomplished a distance goal running. I also started using a little mantra, "Come on Slim Jim, you can do this!" My first name is James I go by my middle name, and someone I really look up to started calling me Slim Jim when I was in my early 20's and lost a lot of weight. So the mantra is nostalgic for me, and brought a smile to my face as I ran.

Today I got my birthday present from my wife, it's a New Balance GPS marathon trainer watch (GPS watch with heart rate monitor). So I was able to gauge my distance better than my iPad app. After the run it told me my average split time (14:17), average heart rate (I didn't have the heart rate monitor on correctly), and average speed (4.2 mph). As I get used to running outside more I believe it will become easier for me to tell how I am doing without the watch telling me.

Looking at that picture I realize how bad my fuel into my body today was for my run. I really wish I would have had some more fruit and veggies. I am ashamed to admit I had 4 hot dogs for lunch... yeah that was a really bad idea and I regretted it as soon as I started running. An to the left you see my route that I ran today and that I will run again on Saturday and Monday.

No onto some more serious information. Tomorrow morning I have a stress test to make sure my heart is healthy, and hopefully dtermine why I am struggling breathing. Today I really struggled breathing, and if I can get that issue resolved I believe I can go longer with less of an issue. So after I do my stress test at 8:00 am tomorrow (going to sleep in 10 minutes), shower, and go to my last day of class I an on hitting the gym for an indoor run and then getting another post up with the results of the test as well as any wisdom gained on this journey through running.

I will post again in at least 12 hours. Until then.

8-5-13 2 Days Later, and a lot of Thinking (and a lot of grapes)

 Mastering the selfie (picture of me while hoding my camera in front of me) is something I am learning to do as I this blog. Today was a day that will go down in history of my selfies, I caught myself unaware. Just look at the expression on that face, it looks like I am going to chase away a member of the Paparazzi.

Onto better things. I finished my run about an hour ago, it was a hard run, but I feel better because of it. I did 15 minutes of non stop running took an eight minute fast walking break (Run was at an average of 4.7ish mph, walk was at 3.7) then picked up and rand again for just over five minutes, walked another five then ran the remainder. It wsn't my best running day, but that's ok. I will be trying a couple of new things this week. The first is running outside for 3 miles. I have an awesome app on my iPad that lets me make running routs along trails and roads. So I have planned out a 3 mile loop that is quiet in the morning. I will need to run in the morning because the heat of the days here in Utah can get higher than someone should run in in the afternoon (unless you like running in the heat). The other thing I am going to try on Thursday is doing a miracle mile (check out http://www.jeffgalloway.com/ if you don't know who he is. If I do one of these for my short run every other week I can get an idea of what my pace will be, and if I will be able to finish in the 6 hours that we're given to run the race. If I keep monitoring my running with the miracle mile and start integrating his techniques, I think I will be able to prepare myself better for my Marathon.

After I posted about my 5k, I read the comment left and decided to run more races before the big on. So here are the two additional races I will be doing in September and October. I wanted to do one in November as well but couldn't find one that worked with my schedule, but I'll keep looking.
Riley's 2013 Races
Funky 5k
Provo Halloween Half Marathon

I found a half marathon (Thankful 13) on November 22, and I think that would be doable with my big race 2 weeks later. I have until October at the latest to decide. It could be fun to run on Thanksgiving day then have some good food and a good nap. I would have to swap a 16 mile day with an 18 mile day, or just run from my inlays to the race, and from the race to my in-laws, that would finish off my miles for that day. If we go to St. Louis to see my family it will be a different story and a nice long run at sea level.

I think I have rambled on long enough. Until Wednesday, just imagine seeing that finish line and the joy that's there as you sprint to it, and all your aches and pains go away.

8-3-13 My First Ever Race and the Lessons Learned

My First 5k

Me pre-race (the sun glasses block the anxiety)

Packet  Contents (Minus the window
scraper I left in my car)

So I showed up this morning at 7:30 to get ready for the race. The anxiety of all the people started to hit me first as I thought to myself, what the hell am I doing here I'm not a runner... So I freaked out as I did less than sufficient stretching and looked around. The only people I recognized were the employees from the running store I go to. So skip forward 20 minutes and here I am getting pictures taken by my wife and making my way to the starting line after 10k runners start. There are around 150ish people (maybe less), a surprising amount of pregnant women pushing strollers, and kids running with mom or dad. The gun fires and we all take off (me at methodical trot, or at least I think I was going at the right pace, I had no clue. So I continued that way for around 3/4 a mile, and started wheezing, which leads me to my first lesson learned on my first race since... elementary I think. I was a thrower in high school so all the running I did was a quarter mile warm up.

5k Lesson 1:
     Running outside is different than a treadmill!
Running outside was a lot harder than in the gym. Here's my support for this statement, I am able to run 2 miles (as of my last post) in the temperature controlled environment and on a flat surface. The road is sloped, so all the mid foot striking, even gate went to crap as I ran on the road for the first time. My right foot landed on the lateral arch then the rest of my foot hit the ground. So extra impact at an angle I didn't expect. After a mile my ankle didn't want to like me any more. I bet if I would have stretched more it would have helped.

5k Lesson 2:
     Walking is ok and Running works too
When I slowed down, I saw a lot of other people start slowing down as well. Some looked like this wasn't the first 5k they had ever done, and other like they just wanted to walk. I walked alone for more than half the race, usually on the sidewalk that was level. But when I ran it helped to have little goals along the way, like I just need to make it to that knocked over cone, or where the type of cone changes. When I go to my second to last corner I wanted to run the rest of the way, it didn't happen. I was running with too small of strides and it was bothering my ankle.

5k Lesson 3:
     What Matters Most is Finishing
When I turned the last corner and started the last quarter mile the feeling I had was amazing. I want that feeling more. Nothing else mattered to me but making it to the inflatable blue finish line. I was almost in tears as I crossed it because it was such an accomplishment. At that moment I crossed the finish line, the only thing that mattered was that I finished.

I want to run another 5k or 10k before I really get into my long runs. It was a good experience. I need to stretch more before hand and practice running outside more. I think I will change that this coming week with my runs, and start working outside more. I realize having a watch with GPS is a great tool in regards to keeping the pace you are comfortable with. I believe I started too fast, and that took some of the wind out of my sails. Running to the finish line was amazing, you forget everything that's wrong at that point in time and pray your MP3 player will have the right tempo of music playing.

I have been thinking about my posts and want to make them a little more positive for myself. I think that will assist with getting rid of the stinkin thinkin that I start doing periodically. I'm a lot happier since I have started running and want to keep that feeling going for as long as I can.

Goals for next week
• Run outside for 2 of my runs (Wednesday and Saturday)
• Stretch longer before the run
• Get a massage

8-1-13 Now I'm Ready for a Nap

So what do I say today... Ok here goes.

 My run today I did two miles in 25 min 40 sec. So my First mile was 0:12:55, my second was 0:12:45, my third was 0:14:15. I was stoke, I finished my first two miles with a couple of 30 sec. pauses because my lungs were fighting me. When I got to around 20 minutes and stepped off to catch my breath, it was so hard to start running again, but I got back and kept going. I feel like I am ready enough for running in a 5k Saturday.

Here's a funny story that concluded all of 5 seconds ago. Earlier this week I decided I needed to find my Polar heart rate monitor. So I tore apart our second bedroom (which has all of my art supplies). The rom was taken apart. I searched through any drawer it might be in, any bookshelf, and nook, andy cranny, and everywhere else. Then today as I am sitting in my comfy chair I stretched to reach for my glasses which should have been behind me. I thought I would find what I was looking for (I wasn't looking and didn't think anything of it). I felt a rubberry bracelet and pulled it up, and behold my polar watch!

Talking about watches, I have been looking at a lot of watches. I have decided if I am still running after my marathon (which I hope to be), I will invest in a GPS watch. Does anyone out there in internet land have any suggestions.

Until next time (after my 5k Saturday).