Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A great weekend and new beginnings




My wife and I enjoyed a fantastic weekend on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Friday night we drove south after work and stayed in New Bern, NC, a wonderful town full of boats, maritime history, friendly people, and an historic downtown which includes Tryon Castle, former residence of the British governor.  We spent Saturday morning taking all this in an then drove to Cedar Island where we caught the 2 hr ferry ride to Ocracoke, drove North up the island, then hopped the short 30 minute ferry to Hatteras where we stayed in a wonderful inn called the "Inn on Pamlico Sound" which was fantastic.  On Sunday we drove home with scores of wonderful good memories and experiences of our trip.

Soon I will migrate this blog and my podcast to my own website which will be www.rundiggerrun.com.  I'm excited to be able to have a more flexible approach to this blog and I've grown dissatisfied with Bloggers' somewhat clunky interface. 

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Run Digger Run Episode 5


Is up!

In this episode, I give a training update, talk about the "lost memorial" in DC, and share a bit about the hardware and software I use to record and archive my running activities.

Feel free to contact me with any feedback at runpodcast@gmail.com or leave a comment on itunes.  Thanks for downloading and listening!

Also thanks to Krister for the great email, make sure you listen to his podcast!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

weekend plans

Tomorrow I'll get my 10 miler in during the afternoon and intend to follow a nice route across the Memorial Bridge, then East along the mall and then back West down around the Kennedy Center, thru Georgetown and then back across the Potomac on the Key Bridge.  I'll take some pics along the way on put them up on twitter. Then its off to the Outer Banks for a weekend jaunt we've been looking forward to for a long time.  On the drive down, since I've recorded almost everything I need for RDR episode 5, I'll work at editing with an eye toward getting it uploaded and on to Itunes  when we get back Sunday night.  We're really looking forward to the trip!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A new week

Yesterday I had the day off.  I went to visit a friends boat that is having some propellor/hull interaction issues so it gave me an ideal opportunity to do a little survey and analysis.  It's a great school related project for me that I'm having fun with.  It was also a complete rest day which felt pretty good.

Today I ran what I suppose you could call a tempo run as I did 4 miles at a "comfortably hard" pace that ended being 9 min per mile.  That's pretty speedy for me.

Tomorrow I will run again on the mall and pick a landmark to talk about in RDR episode 5. 

Sunday, February 15, 2009

weekly long run complete

I had a great long run today of 10 miles.  It feels good to break into double digits on one run, and that puts me over 23 miles for the week.  All is on track for the half marathon next month, and I can't help but think about the marathon coming in October.  Granted it's a long ways away but it'll be my first and I am really excited to keep the base miles up and be ready to bump up the miles into the summer.  

So far my flat as a board feet are doing fine.  The Superfeet blue insole and New Balance 1224 shoe is a winning combo for me.  And, if we get in a flood, I can use the size 14 freakishly humongous shoes as a raft for my wife and I. 

Gut Check

My friend Sean in CO posted a great summary of his recent climbing experience.  He does a great job of describing the dynamics involved of doing something that has perilous ramifications.  Perilous but not reckless. Free climbing an exposed area with his buddy Chad, Sean describes the thought process the team goes through. What may look in the pictures to be a carefree lark at high altitudes is in fact a calculated, disciplined, and courageous process most definitely not for the faint of heart.  In a situation where a lack of mental discipline and mis-step may mean a fatal fall, it is a testament to how a person can challenge himself and still end the day safely. Notice they didn't summit that day but instead had to turn back, and that is part of the discipline.  The clear headed thinking required to not allow the adrenalin and "summit fever" to take over is part of the art of self preservation and is well described in this piece.  

He also refers to the art of body temperature regulation which is a piece of advice from which all cold weather runners may surely benefit.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

RDR episode 4 is up

I had fun with this episode.  In it I talk about my training, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, do some general philosophizing, and respond to some emails.

links:


thanks to those who left comments and emails about the podcast:

Jeff from Lithia, FL
Mark from Kent, UK
"The Jackal"
Stuart from SoCal at quadrathon

thanks for listening!

Friday, February 13, 2009

The week in review

If I said "this week was busy" I would be right.  Work was jumping with all kinds of ankle biting taskers and some crisis reaction here and there.  I was able to run three days during the week.  I'll do a short run tomorrow morning and my long run on Sunday of ten miles and that will put me on pace with where I should be for week 7 of the training plan.

I recorded a segment for RDR episode 4 earlier in the week but part of it was so bad with slap slap slap noise coming from some poorly placed bit of recording kit that I had to erase it rather than subject anyone who wants to listen to my podcast to that infernal repetitive racket.  So, I will record some more tomorrow and then get it processed and uploaded on Sunday.

There are so many new podcasts coming out and I feel bad because between doing my own and listening to the regular "cant miss" ones I am not getting to listen to all of them.  Part of the problem is I don't have a very long commute so on my way to and from work I only have about 20 minutes.  I know, that is a great problem to have, and I don't take for granted how wonderful it is to not have a life force sucking, horrifyingly long commute.  However, it doesn't leave me a bunch of time to listen to podcasts.  When I am at home I like to spend quality time with my wife.  I can't listen to podcasts at work, or anything else for that matter, because I am usually on the phone or talking with someone who has entered the puka or I'm headed to or from some meeting.  I do listen to podcasts some on my runs, but usually only on my long run.  On shorter runs I am typically recording for my own little podcast. 

I am also "behind" on catching up on all the blogs I would like to read.  Even with the use of an RSS reader that handily captures everything I want to read about in one handy page, there are more updates than I can keep up with.

Ahh, the information age.  It's a double edged sword.  Whatever you want is at your fingertips, but it can easily become too much.

I'm glad the weekend is here!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Another taste of Spring

Today I had a nice run across the Potomac and it almost felt like Spring.  It was in the high 40's F maybe 50 F and the sun was out.  If it wasn't for the strong SE wind it would have seemed a great deal warmer.  I decided that for the next podcast episode I would talk about some local landmarks as well as the usual training update and general philosophizing.  Being able to run around the monuments of DC is quite a privilege and it might be interesting for me to pick a few of them, research a bit of their history and interesting trivia, and then talk about it in future podcasts.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

RunDiggerRun episode 3

RDR episode 3 has been uploaded and should be available in ITunes shortly.  In this episode, I talk about my training, adjustments to my recording rig, do some general philosophizing about fueling, and share my recent experience with Apple products.

stuff I talk about: 

“mobile me”: http://www.apple.com/mobileme/ 

Nigels’ podcast: http://runningfromthereaper.blogspot.com/

please feel free to contact me with any feedback at runpodcast@gmail.com, or you can catch me on twitter as “rundigger”, or thru my blog at rundiggerrun.blogspot.com

thanks for listening!

Saturday long run

I ran 9 miles yesterday for my weekly long run.  That's the farthest I have run in some time; I think it was probably last year at this time that I went that far in preparation for last years Shamrock half marathon.  I didn't have any arch pain and that was a great relief.  It's been a bit of a "niggling" issue for me of late but I believe the active stretching and strengthening exercises i am doing are helping.  
The weather yesterday was perfect for a run.  It was in the high 50's F, sunny, with a bit of breeze. I ran in shorts and a tank top and was perfectly comfortable.  I supplemented with some gel and electrolyte in capsule form which I find very convenient.  I used a fuel belt with one 8 oz bottle with a mixture of 4 oz gel and 4 oz water.  There is a water fountain about three miles into the run which is very convenient so when I run that route I don't have to carry much water. That's one of the things I really enjoy about the Mt Vernon Trail.  I do find that, in agreement with most of the fueling literature I have come across, that any run I do that lasts longer than one hour is helped significantly by moderate use of supplemental fuel and electrolyte.  I use and am a big fan of Hammer products which can be found here.  
I ran a very steady 11:00 pace for much of the run and is spite of some large heart rate spikes at the beginning of the run it steadied out to average about 144 bpm. I felt a surge of inspiration at the 8.25 mile mark and ended up cruising the last 3/4 mile at a sub 8 minute mile pace and it felt really good.  I actually felt so good I was grinning ear to ear and felt pure joy as I came to a walk at the end of the run.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

from "Spring" back to Winter

From 60 deg F on Sunday to 37 deg F today with snow flying, the past few days have been a real roller coaster.  I thoroughly enjoyed running in shorts the other day, but today it was back to full length tights, compression base layer top, and technical shell.  And hat.  So much for the Spring teaser we had.
I did some recording for RDR episode 3 on Sundays run and through the initial editing I've done I'm pleased with the audio quality.  I think it has improved over earlier episodes due to a few adjustments I've made.  I will probably get episode 3 out this weekend since I have recorded more than enough blather for one episode.
My training is going well and I'm pleased to report that after another 20+ mile week I have no arch issues.  I believe the stretch regimen and foot strengthening exercises I'm doing have plenty to do with that.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

What a great day. 54 deg!

RunDiggerRun episode 2

Episode 2 is up.  In this episode I talk about my training, running tights, and the motivation to run.  I also ramble aimlessly quite a bit but usually get back to my point.  I still think I need to adjust my recording rig somehow to try to reduce the footstrike sound which seems too much in the forefront.

The winner of episode 1's movie quote of the week contest was Sean from Colorado.  This weeks movie quote might be a bit more obscure but I bet we'll have a winner soon.

Several people took the time to either write me a note or plug me on their podcast or "twitter" me, which I really appreciate:


thank you all very much for the encouraging words!