I will be migrating from blogger to my new website

I've decided to move away from blogger and build my own website with my own domain.  It's live now at www.rundiggerrun.com and I believe it'll be a much better experience for my visitors and for me.  I'll try to notify people who follow this blog and leave this post at the top.  I'm not sure if I will pull all the posts from blogger into my new site, but may get it accomplished over time.

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. 

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!

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!

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. 

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.

Read this great piece and see the breathtaking photos here.