Training update: Since the 8K is on a Wed, it kind of throws off my schedule. I usually do long runs on the weekends, we'll see how this goes. I have my plan laid out, and ran 3.3 Sat, followed by a 7m bike with the crumb machine* in tow Sun. Today off.

Bought new shoes, and heard nary a peep out of my knee Sat or Sun, so that's good.

*Chex mix and bumpy trail don't mix...the trailer now needs a vacuuming...

OK, so Iowa is flat. Yipes. I'll have to see what the hilliest route I can make would be...

Yeah, Iowa's too flat... you should make a trip up to Wisconsin.

So, training for the 8K is fine, did 4.5 miles last week, then 4 miles of (Iowa) hills yesterday, and feel great. Now I'm "tapering" and eating for a good hard run on the 4th. Goal is to finish in under 45 min. Since this is a huge race, we'll see. Probably take me 2-3 min to get to the start line after the gun goes off :)


On another note, I went to the inaugural meeting of the Cedar Rapids Xtreme Triathlon Club on Wed night. I did a sprint Tri in 2000 (The Pigman) and will eventually get back into it once my family life allows for more free time. Training for a tri takes 3X as much time, since there are obviously 3 things to get in shape for.

Anyway, while there, I learned about a new cross country race just starting this year here in Cedar Rapids. The Devils Dash. Please check out the great website.

Anyone interested in participating???? I'll likely just be doing the 5K, run or walk will dependon if I ever get knocked up. I walked a favorite race the year it fell when I was 4 months pregnant.

I'd love to host some Cellarites!!!

I think that logo had a few misprints. Here, I fixed it:

Not bad!!

Jeez, don't let Ducks see that. *wink*

We've been razzing you about Iowa being flat, but I'm sure on foot, especially running for time, some of those rolling hills look like the Rocky mountains. I'd get tired just following in a car.

Finished in 45:35, officially. Technically, was slightly under 45:00. Yeah! Very happy with my time, considering the conditions. Weather was 82 F and very high dewpoint/humidity at the start.

My daughter did her first ever kid's fun run. 200 yards, started and finished in the official race's gates, so that was fun for them. Parents ran with the little ones. She started by holding my hand, and within seconds, took off and left me in her dust. She tore through the crowd like she really wanted to win. I was really proud to watch her, especially since she has really good form :lol:. In fact, at the end she told me to "eat her dust"... I must make a note to work on her sportsmanship.

Unfortunatly, the pics are on my MIL's camera, but as soon as I get them emailed to me, I'll post them.

Perhaps I can go now?

That was sweet. Methinks you might want a helmet though, as those wheelee bars seem a little short if the race has an uphill start. :)

Every time I read this title I think it says "Foot Powder".

update
 

So, I"m signed up for next years' Indy500 minimarathon and i'm starting to do something, anything, for god's sake, just get off my ass and move a little,,,
Sorry, don't know what comes over me.
Yesterday I did 1.5 miles in 12'30" a better rate than i've had in ten years. I am now hopeful that with continued training I might finish next year in less than 2.5 hours. I'll pop back in from time to time to post updates if anyone's interested.

A half is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed doing one a couple falls ago. See post's #26/7. I didn't need to eat during it, like you typically do for a marathon, and the training schedule is a lot more doable if you have any life outside of work.

I scanned and posted the training schedules that I used, I think in the trail running thread. EDIT: it was in the "anyone here run a marathon" thread, which i bumped for your convenience.

I'm here and always ready to yap about running :)

I hate running (sorry) but have been doing 12-15 miles a week on the stairmaster and enjoying the hell out of it (75 steps p/m). I also enjoy that it pissed LJ off that he's moving faster on the eliptical but not covering as much distance... he's sure that its wrong but can't figure out why... :D

you don't enjoy the stair bastard. the lying stairbastard.

I watched the end of that big women's triathalon yesterday. Gave me a woody.

Jinx/LJ: The stairmaster kicks my ass. How long do you use it at a time? I much prefer to use an elliptical machine. If I had a spare 3K and 20sq' I'd own a gym quality one. The cheaper ones just don't cut it. My inlaws have a nicer 'cheap' one that I have used, and really, it's worth saving up and getting the quality one.

Which tri was that Bruce? I don't really follow the professional runners/triathletes to know the 'who's who' of the sports, but it's fun to watch them. The coverage of the ironman races are neat, becasue they not only cover the elite athletes, but tell the stories of the 'regular' people too. Those are the ones that are really inspiring.

30 mins/almost 3 miles. It kicks Jims ass too.... hurts his feelings.
I hate the elipticals. The stride is too short and it makes me feel off balance, but the seem to be very popular with everyone else.

That's my training pace, 10 min/mile, running. When you did the elliptical, did you hold on to the handlebars (if they moved back and forth)? I can't do that, it feels really unnatural. I stand upright, and basically run on it. It took awhile to get used to it, the stance was a little wide for me and I also felt a little off balance. Once I got the hand of it though, I preferred running on it than the little teeny track that the college health center had to offer. What I liked best was the ability to go backwards every so often. I do that on the trail sometimes (walk backwards during my cooldown) because it's supposed to be good for you, but I get a lot of weird looks, heh.

I love the stairmaster!!! I love that burning arse feeling.

I'm doing boot camp again and loving it.

Although 1km of lunges is really taking its toll on my butt and my thighs scream every time I breathe today.

Ive only tried the ones that don't have moving arms but I know what you mean... we have a cheapo glider with moving arms that I couldnt stand.... smacked myself in the face with them a couple of times...

Finally got the pics fron the out-laws:

The pup running her race. (She is the redhead whose face is obscured by an elbow.) The second one is the two of us, with her finisher's ribbon. She asked if she could do the next one all by herself. *gleaming with pride*

She is too cute.

My son, 4 yrs old, loves to hop on the elliptical and work it for about 10 or 15 minutes at a time. He has some very muscular legs!

I have to agree that a cheap-o elliptical will burn you out. I found a great, gym quality machine for $1500 from Smooth Fitness. It is pretty big, but it is really nice. It only took me a few times to get used to the motion. I like the handlebars. Sometimes I will let my arms do most of the work for a few minutes to work the upper part of my body.

Smooth Fitness totally failed to hire me 4 months ago. Their loss!

Next race: Freeze Fest Feb 24th. If the weather continues it's pattern, this year it will definately live up to it's name. I've been running on the 'mill, but need to get out once or twice on the road. The last two times I planned to, the windchills were below zero. :eek: I'm crazy, but not stupid.

I joined the local Master's swimming group last night. If the next month or so of swimming goes well, I plan on trying to do the Pigman Sprint Tri in June. I did this one in 2000 and had a blast. Wonder if I'll be faster than my 24 year old self?

Get to work.

Triathlon.
The threesome that's PC to brag about.

I did one in 2000, The Pigman Sprint. I have the bug to do it again. Last summer I heard about a Tri club forming in the area. I became a charter member. This past Saturday morning the club hosted a breakfast with a couple of the world's best triathletes, who also happen to be native Iowa. Tony and Tim DeBoom. They were in town being inducted into their high school's hall of fame. It was awesome to get to hear them talk, and I learned quite a bit. The local news station was there, and did a small bit on the "Brother's DeBoom". Tim's wife Nicole also spoke. She is an Ironman triathlete as well, and I had a chance to speak with her after their presentations. I loved her! All three of them are very down to earth, and not at all what I expected. I managed to screw up enough courage to shake Tony and Tim's hands. I wish I would have had my camera. A pic with those 3 would have been an sweet addition to my gym. I thought about bringing my Pigman number to have them sign, but didn't. Now I am kicking myself.

Indy500 festival mini-marathon
 

Hey Labrat,
It's time again for the Mini, I signed up again. Did the first of the official "training runs", a 5k last saturday, took me 29:50, which aint great but is good enough for me right now. I'll keep you all posted, you do the same with your tri's.

edit: I haven't run at all since last year's race, I've been doing other types of training, it seems to have kept my stamina in good enough shape so far.

When is your race, hid?

Finished 6/7 in my age group in 29m19s Sat. I was a bit dissappointed with my time, but reminded myself that it was the first time I had run outside since last fall. I could tell Sunday because my legs were a bit sore, and they usually are not. Also, swimming has wiped me out, so the last couple weeks I had only run 2X a week instead of 3-4...

Just printed off the entry form for my tri. Eek! All of a sudden I'm all nervous! June 1st seems far away right now, especially with all the freaking ice all over the sidewalks, but it's only 3 months.

The 2008 OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon
 

The 2008 Mini-Marathon is scheduled for Saturday, May 3, 2008

HOLY CRAP!! 35,000 runners??? The largest race I've run had about 7,000, and I thought that was nuts. Running on the track would be sooooo cool though...

indy mini
 

Labrat,
running on the track is cool, but it was about that time I started faggin' out. Last year's race was ... draining let's say. I think this year will be easier.
Re: population. I found my way to the middle of the pack, and had a view forward and backward, it looked like a river of bodies, like salmon fighting upstream.

training run- 10k
 

My 10k results here:
http://minimarathon.onlineraceresult...52&type=result
Now my left foot hurts enough that I don't want to walk. It feels like I've got one small muscle in the sole of my foot unhappy about what I'm asking it to do. It's cussing at me.

Cool that they have training runs to help keep you on track! (ha ha) I mailed in my entry form and check this weekend for the tri. Eek!

If you can, get to a podiatrist to check out your foot. Free advice might also be found at your local running store... maybe just time for new shoes? If you are running every day, I've read that it's a good idea to have 2 pairs of shoes, and alternate them to allow the cushioning to fully recover between runs. I pretty much only run every other day, so I've never needed to do this. If possible, biking is a good alternate activity that keeps your legs going and gets your heart pumping while leaving the stress off your foot. As long as you don't lose your cardiovascular fitness, your legs will catch up before you know it when your foot is healed. Good luck and keep me posted!

Plantar fasciitis update
 

Labrat, et al, I beleive the reason my foot got angry at me is because I did no other running in the year before the 5k and 10k I ran. The other training I've been doing has given me decent cardio-respiratory and muscular fitness so that after the runs I had no soreness but for the irritated planter fascia of my left foot. I believe that had I included running in my training regimen my foot would have been adapted to the stress of the runs and I would not have this problem.
Which by the way is slowly abating. I have run just a few steps today and had no exacerbation of my discomfort. I'll start training now, just some baby step runs, to see if I can make it to the mini.
I am also on night shift now and that's fukkin' my schedule all up.

Update hideouse??

My tri is in less than 4 weeks. I am feeling very nervous right now. Losing a week to vacation kind of threw me for a bigger loop than I thought it would. Guess I'm not the spring chicken I once was. I missed last night's monthly club meeting where we were going to go over T1/T2 (transitions) and practice them, which would have been really nice to do. My daughter had soccer practice and she needs that more than I need mine :D.

I'm just signed up to do a 10km charity race in London on July 6. I think it's for MS Walk. It'll be my first race of any kind.

Time to get training!

update
 

:sniff:
No running for me still. I missed my Mini. That's shitty, I've loved distance running all my life even if I'm not good at it.
On the other hand I went to Las Vegas, took my son too, we went to a kettlebell lifting competition where I placed second in my weight and category division. Yay me! We stayed for the subsequent two day coaching class and learned a lot that would have been useful the day of the competition.
If I let my foot heal and start training again I might be able to run next year's mini, but I don't know for sure.

Awesome PW!! Good luck!

Hideouse, that totally sux. Awesome on the second place finish though, feels great doesn't it!! Once I look up what the heck kettlebell lifting is, I bet I'll be even more impressed ;)

American kettlebell club
 

blog here:
http://americankettlebellclub.com/blog/
second picture from top, that's me second from left between V. Federenko and I. Denisov, both masters and high level competitors. All the way on the right is M. Farrel, first american to attain Master of Sport numbers under the AKC.
Some vids here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldKettlebellClub

I love this sport, it makes a real difference in my daily health.

Holy Crap. Yes, I am impressed. Just in case you need it, Red swears by Hemrelief ;)


Did my Marion Arts festival run this weekend. Was my 24th event. OMG, it was a perfect day. Sunny, 50's and light breeze. Although the farthest I have run in my tri training is 2 miles, and this was 3.1, I still had a very good finish time. In fact, not a whole lot slower than years past when all I was training for was this particular run!

'08 27:30
'06 27:01
'05 27:00
'04 28:44
'03 36:59 --walk/ran pushing my new 6mo old daughter in her stoller :)

So, I have been waiting. And waiting. Aaannnnd waaaaayyyyyyting for the professional photogropher's pics of the Pigman. Somehow they have mangaged to totally screw it up so that your name isn't your pics, and seem to be in no freaking hurry to get it figured out despite multiple calls, emails, etc from a whole lot of us. So, here are the few pics Red was able to get of me. Hopefully there will be some of me on the bike, and maybe a more flattering one of me running if Jolesh Photography ever gets their shit straight. :mad:

I finished almost 10 minutes faster than I did when I was 24. Heh. Who says I have to age gracefully?

Results:

32 F
.5K swim time= 9:49 (OMG, I was sooo happy with this as it was almost 4 minutes off my previous time. That's huge. I felt GREAT coming out of the water. All that time at Master's swimming practice and using the wetsuit totally paid off!)
T1= 3:58 (very bad, but my number came off when I was pulling down my wetsuit, and then I managed to run past my bike. Durrr. )
15 mile bike time= 55:32 ave speed =16.8 (could definately improve here, with more time in the saddle)
T2 =1:28 (much better, but still wayyyy to slow)
5K run time= 28:14 9:06/m pace (was happy with this, since I pushed myself a bit on the bike)

Overall Finish time= 1h:38m

13th of 31 in 30-34y age group
(My age group's winner finished in 1:18, overall female winner finished in 1:10)

The Rat Clan before:

Coming out of the water. . .

Wow...that's stamina, and very impressive. wtg, labrat!

I'm pooped, just reading that. :blush:

No bike pics unfortunately (the kid was getting really bored and acting up), but Red did get an unflattering one of me running . . . The fact that I am smiling at this point tells you I am insane. I think this stuff is fun!

Unflattering? You look maaaavelous. :thumb:

The bike pad in my tri shorts is giving me an artifical camel toe in the sunlight :blush:

Artificial? :(

Yay Labrat!
Please do show the professional pics when done.

Of course I think you're mad. But I madly admire it too.

Well done Chica!

C'mon, everybodies doing it. . . .
 

Killing time this fine friday afternoon, and found some fun running stats from running usa. The following is total number of finishers for varying distance races.

2007 Totals % of Total '06-'07 Change
5 km 3,423,000 38.6% 5%
10 km 1,130,000 12.7% 3%
8 km/5mi 670,000 7.5% 4%
Half-Mar 650,000 7.3% 10%
1 mile 515,000 5.8% 4%
Marathon 412,000 4.6% 0%
10 mile 345,000 3.9% 5%
4 mile 230,000 2.6% 3%
15 km 230,000 2.6% 5%
20/25/30 km 135,000 1.5% 4%
12 km 103,000 1.2% -2%
Others 1,032,000 11.6% 0%
Total 8,875,000 4%

2006 Totals /% of Tot Fin/ 2005-2006 % Change

5 km 3,260,000 38.2% 5%
10 km 1,098,000 12.9% 5%
8 km/5mi 647,000 7.6% 8%
Half-Mar 590,000 6.9% 10%
1 mile 494,000 5.8% 8%
Marathon 410,000 4.8% 4%
10 mile 330,000 3.9% 2%
4 mile 224,000 2.6% 3%
15 km 220,000 2.6% 2%
20/25/30 km 130,000 1.5% 7%
12 km 105,000 1.2% -2%
Others 1,027,000 12.0% 1%
8,535,000 100.0% 5%

Source: Running USA RRIC

.

See!! You are never too old to start!!

What is it with me? I read these things and start to get fired up and think "YEAH, I can do that!" but I never do. I was in track in HS, in fact our 2-mile relay team (still called that back then, hadn't fully gone to metric yet) held the school record for almost 20 years and I've always loved the feeling...so why do I only think about it now?

One of these days your inspiration will get through to me, Labrat, and I will be able to post progress.

In the meantime, I am a lazy dumbass. :lol:

:)

Just finished registering for LHF. No turning back now, entry fee non-refundable :D.

Cool. What are the details again?

Shawnee, start with just walking. Everyday get in a little walk. If running was in your past, pretty soon your body will want to ramp it up.

Link to official race page here. Thread about it here.

Does my ratsense detect a hint of interest? please oh please

Because this is the 30th year, they are giving out finishers medals. . . I bet they are gonna be really really cooooooooool too!

::trying to appeal to your ego::