We're Going Streaking...

I am a creature of habit.

True of many aspects of my life, but especially true of exercising.

I’m best about working out and training, and most effective, once I get into a groove where it feels wrong not getting something done.  A groove where I no longer try to figure out how I’m going to fit in a workout, but take it as a given that I will workout and I start revising the rest of my day accordingly.  There’s always the risk of taking this to extremes and getting the dreaded overuse injury, but when managed properly this type of routine is where I find myself most centered, both physically and mentally.  It’s even better when I don’t really realize it has happened.

When I went to pull my data off my Garmin after yesterday’s 20-mile run, I took a close look back through my recent training for the first time in several weeks.  In the middle of January the whole family made our pilgrimage to Orlando for some Disney/Universal goodness, complete with lots of calories and little exercise, with the exception of 6,000 laps around the parks and competitive line-standing.  It was a much-needed break from real-life, personally and professionally.  Immediately after returning from that trip I signed up for a 50k in May, and realized that my cross-training based workout routine needed to shift towards the running side of the scale, and I needed to ramp up the mileage if I wasn’t going to be left for dead somewhere on the beaches of North Carolina mid-50k.

It started innocently with a 5-mile run on January 19.  Since that point, including this morning’s trip to the gym, I’ve gone 40 straight days of either running, cycling, swimming, lifting, or the occasional day of doing some combination of these activities.  I don’t have the data to substantiate it, but I’m about 99% certain that’s the longest streak of exercise/training I’ve done in close to 20 years.  The best part about it is I didn’t even realize I had been that consistent until my friend Excel let me know.  Here are the actual stats from the last 40 days:

Running:  21 runs, 169.31 miles

Cycling: 5 rides, 97.92 miles

Swimming: 4 swims, 4750 meters

Lifting:  12 trips to the gym

Mixing in activities other than just running has been the key to this steady progress.  Nothing feels repetitive right now, and (knock on wood until my knuckles bleed) I feel pretty healthy.  I have a half-marathon coming up in 3 weeks, which will be my first official half-marathon ever.  I’m running it with my best friend who paced me through the last 8 miles of the MCM back in November, so we’re just planning to have a good time and I’m not looking to ‘race’ it.  Regardless of what I do, assuming I finish, it will be a PR.  My plan is to do nothing the day before the race, so that will definitely mark the end of this streak, if it doesn’t already end before then.

I’m happy with this consistency, but would like to be getting to the pool more often.  I’m also doing some comparison shopping between trainers for my bike, so I can get some more miles on the bike without being dependent on getting out for a full-blown ride.  However, like all things cycling, this represents a pretty serious dollar investment, so it may have to wait a while.

On top of this, I’m trying to drop about 7 pounds to get down to what I think is my ideal race weight before the 50k in May, but that’s a story for another blog post.  My experience has been that it’s hard to drop weight while in the middle of a training cycle, and this time is proving to be no exception.  We’ll see how it goes.

An Unexpected Blog Reader

When I launch my mindless chatter into blogger-world with a simple click of the ‘publish’ button, I don’t often give much thought to who might stumble upon it.  I assume it will mostly be folks like myself, with a shared interest in running and fitness, and a shared sense of purpose around self-improvement while avoiding injury.  Perhaps someone will find my words amusing …. maybe informative … hopefully not annoying.  I often entertain myself …. perhaps more than I do others …. definitely more than I entertain my wife.  For some odd reason she sticks around, for which I am eternally grateful.

Recently I posted a review of PureFit nutrition bars, where I tried to give a useful assessment of the bars without getting bogged down in the details.  In this review I mentioned my experience eating Balance Bars around the 10-mile mark of my long runs throughout training for my first marathon.  In the review I wrote the following “Worked great for a while, but after enough long runs I got to the point where I couldn’t stand the sight of Balance Bars.”  This was much less a commentary on Balance Bars than a case of too-much-of-a-good-thing, where even something you like can get tired after too much repetition.  Probably more of a Pavlovian response where my brain started equating balance bars with the medieval beating I was putting on my legs.  Regardless, these words were launched into the cyber world and I didn’t give them much more thought.

However, last Monday I received an unexpected email from the woman who handles PR for Balance Bar who had read my post.  It was a very nice email expressing her disappointment that I had grown weary of Balance Bars, but pointing to several new product lines and flavors that they had launched that I might find more appealing based on my use of the bars as a mid-run fueling option.  She also offered to send me some samples to try, asking if I had any preferences for lines/flavors, and asked that I provide some feedback.  After Igot over the initial shock that she had found the post and taken the time to write, the whole thing left me with a huge grin on my face.  I’ve gotten on my customer-service soapbox many times on this blog, and I’m someone that values the customer experience extremely highly, so the fact that she was reaching out when I hadn’t ever attempted any contact or provided any direct feedback to Balance Bar was just too cool.  Maybe not my most eloquent way to describe the experience, but for lack of a better word I’m sticking with ‘too cool’.  As an aside, it also made me realize what a massive PR headache the rise of social media must be.  So many venues for sharing unfiltered opinions – fair or not.  Trying to monitor and address all the chatter must be maddening.

I wrote her back letting her know I’d love to give them another try and would happily share my thoughts via the blog.  I gave her a couple flavors that sounded good and looked forward to receiving a few bars in the mail.  Two days later the following showed up at my door:

36 Balance Bars in 18 different flavors/types.  Awesome.

I’ll be giving the full collection a test-drive over the course of the next few months of training.  This past weekend I tried the Balance Bar Bare – Sweet and Salty Peanut Butter bar at mile 20 of a 30 mile bike ride.  It was very, very tasty.  In fact, it was tasty enough that I’d have one of these as a snack pretty much any time – workout or not.  It was, however, pretty tough/crunchy and pretty dry, so I don’t know if I’d recommend it as an eat-as-you-run option in the middle of a long run.  It was great, however, for a short water/snack break in the middle of a long ride.  If this first bar is any indication, I may be rekindling my prior relationship with Balance Bars and training.  Reunited and it feels so good.

I’ll keep sprinkling in reviews as I work through the various flavors in ‘Project Balance Bar’.

Sherry Arnold - Rest In Peace

The details of my workout today are unimportant. The reason for them, and the shared sense of purpose driving them today is what really matters:

I ran today because she no longer can.  After having overcome cancer she deserves the freedom of running far more than I do.

I hope that Sherry has found peace, and I wish peace for all those coping with the injustice of her absence.

PureFit Nutrition Bar Review - Healthapalooza

I am not a health-focused eater.  I am health-conscious, but not health-focused.

Feels good to get that off my chest.  The truth shall set you free.

That’s not to say that I don’t try to stick to healthy options when they’re presented, but if I’m choosing between a bowl of oatmeal and sneaking a bowl of my kids’ sugar cereal in the morning, then the Froot Loops better be nervous.

Also, I’ve never really subscribed to any particular style of diet like vegan, or gluten-free, or vegetarian.  Always like to keep my bacon options open.

I am, however, constantly searching for new or better ways to fuel for training.  Long runs, long rides, etc.  I used to bring along a Balance Bar for any run of at least 14 miles, and would eat the bar around mile 10.  Worked great for a while, but after enough long runs I got to the point where I couldn’t stand the sight of Balance Bars.  They never messed with my stomach, but I just couldn't bear trying to force another one down my throat.  Since then I’ve gone through a variety of options, most recently settling on Marathon bars.

I don’t typically struggle with any stomach issues when training, which is ironic since my stomach can be very touchy any time I’m doing anything but training, but my stomach trainwreck during my last marathon has left me a bit gun-shy when it comes to fueling.  When the good folks at PureFit offered to let me try out their nutrition bars I figured I’d give it a shot.  Perhaps they were the magic fuel for which I had been searching.

They sent along 5 flavors to try, all of which sounded promising:  Chocolate Brownie, Almond Crunch, Berry Almond Crunch, Granola Crunch, and Peanut Butter Crunch.  Whole lotta crunchin’ going on.

When they say all-natural they aren’t kidding.  These things are gluten-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, vegan, and kosher.  Basically all the things that I am not.  I was mildly afraid that my body might freeze-up completely from the shock of so much healthy.  Perhaps these bars could finally erase the recent nutritional armageddon commonly referred to as the Christmas holiday season.

I started with the Peanut Butter Crunch flavor, eating half a bar about 30 minutes before a morning 6-mile run.  Half to say it was actually pretty good – admittedly much better than I expected.  With all the ‘free’ labels it wasn’t exactly packed with flavor, but for someone looking for a seriously healthy fueling option, this is not a bad way to go.  I had no stomach issues on the run, and ate the other half once I finished running before moving back to my regularly scheduled questionable eating habits the rest of the day.  Each bar packs 18g of Protein, so it’s a nice recovery option as well as a fueling option.  Here’s the full nutrition info for the Almond Crunch flavor:

Over the course of the next couple weeks I went through all the bars, highlighted by eating one at the 15-mile mark of a 30-mile bike ride, and eating another at the 10-mile mark of a 14-mile run.  I didn’t find any of them to have a great deal of flavor, but that wasn’t a big consideration for me, as long as they didn’t taste like I was eating my shoe.  If I had to pick a favorite I’d go with Almond Crunch.  My least favorite, in terms of expectations based on the named flavor would be Chocolate Brownie.  It didn’t taste bad, but I’ve known a lot of Chocolate Brownies in my day, and there wasn’t a lot of Chocolate or Brownie going on with that bar.  Admittedly I ate that one at mile 15 of the 30-mile ride, and not even Willy Wonka could have picked out something that would have made me happy at that particular moment.  I’ve got a long way to go before anyone will confuse me with a cyclist.

Bottom line - these seem like a highly healthy and stomach-friendly option for fueling before, during, or after training.  One thing to consider is that they are all pretty dry, so it's a good idea to have some water along to wash them down if you're eating while training.  I find that to be true of most any of the nutrition bars I've tried while running, so that's not unique to PureFit.  Hopefully my body hasn't gotten too used to this healthy-eating.  May need to give it a shock to snap it back to reality.  Is that Taco Bell I smell?

11 Random Things

I’m a little late to the party on this, as I’ve seen a bunch of 11-things posts recently, but Morgan, in the midst of her triumphant comeback from a stress fracture, has tagged me to unleash some randomness, so here goes:

1. I’m not textbook ambidextrous, but I have a strange mix of things I do with each hand.  I write left handed, shoot a basketball right handed, throw a ball (football, baseball etc.) left handed, golf right handed, swing a bat left handed, bowl left handed, etc. etc.
2. Some of the above activities I can do with either hand, like writing, and I often have to pause when doing something after not having done it for a while to figure out what hand I use
3. My favorite color is green, to the point that several years ago I had to make a concerted effort to not buy any more green clothes since that was about 80% of what I owned.  It’s not easy being green.
4. I am a morning person, and love the peace and solitude of the early morning.  Unfortunately, I’m not good about going to bed at a decent hour, so morning training gets painful towards the end of the week.
5. I’m not a big drinker (fortunately got that out of my system in college), but I love a good Stout.  Recently discovered Total Wine and it’s collection of craft beers, and two craft beer stores recently opened near my house.  This has not worked out well for my wallet.
6. I’m deeply envious of those who can create original art.  I have some artistic skill, and can ‘copy’ a picture pretty well, but don’t have the natural ability to create something from nothing.
7. I really like to cook, but only if I’m not pressed for time.  I’m very slow and precise in the kitchen, which is good for a weekend meal, but not for our crazy weekday evenings.  I can grill with the best of them.
8. I enjoy landscaping, but struggle to find the time to do major projects anymore.  Just one more excuse to get outside.
9. After having lived in Minnesota for three winters before moving to North Carolina, I no longer have any use for winter.  Sunny and warm … I like it sunny and warm.
10. I grew up playing soccer up until college, and would have played in college but suffered a bad injury my senior year in high school that was the end of my career, but I don’t enjoy watching soccer, and actually find it pretty boring.  Kinda like golf I guess.  Like to play, bored watching.
11. I’m not a fan of reality TV.  I get embarrassed and uncomfortable for people who are embarrassing themselves, which is about 99% of reality TV.  I can’t even watch the American Idol shows devoted to all the bad auditions – way too negative for me.

Morgan's Questions for the Tagged:

What is the last thing you took a picture of? (I'm keeping this one, could be interesting.) This crazy dragon/knight lego display outside the lego store in Downtown Disney, Orlando.  Just got back from a great trip to FL with the family.

What finally made you decide to write your blog?  I was looking through running blogs after being injured at the end of my first marathon, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, and felt like I should add to the conversation rather than just reading

If you had to listen to one song on repeat for the rest of your life, what would it be?  U2 – Bad, the live version from the ‘Wide Awake in America’ album.  Thousands of miles and hours later I still like listening to this when I run.

What's one item on your 'bucket list'?  I’ve never actually put together a formal bucket list, but completing an Ironman would be the most recent addition.  Not sure when or how, but I can see this in my future.

If you could be on any TV show, which would it be?  Mythbusters – just looks like fun.

If you could start your own race, what distance would it be? 101 miles

What would you name said race? Just Beyond Crazy

If you were forced to eat like something other than how you eat now, which would you choose?(Vegetarian, Vegan, Paleo, Pescetarian, Kosher, Cannibal, etc...)Something involving seafood.  Is there a diet that is all seafood?  I’m not very diet knowledgeable.  If not, then I’d like to subsist solely on chocolate-covered pretzels.

If you could rid the world of one social application, which would it be? I’d be inclined to say Facebook since so many people share things there that they really shouldn't share, but my wife got her job thanks to Facebook, so I have to let it slide

If you could choose just one person to train with for a training cycle who would it be? I guess I’d go with Ryan Hall, since you assume you’d get better by training with one of the best.  For pure entertainment, probably Jay Mohr.  I listen to his podcast on my long runs and have to stop sometimes in fits of laughter.

If you were a guest at our wedding what would you bring as a gift based on what you know about Spike and I? (Ha ha, this could get very interesting...) Since you two are probably the most supportive spectators around, I’d have to set you up with this monster (hard to go wrong with the description includes the phrases "Earthquake Maker", "Deafening", and "Thundering Power":

Most of the folks I would tag to pay this forward have already been tagged, or already posted on this topic, so I’ll just ask that if you haven’t done this and have survived reading through mine, you’ll do a similar post on your site.  Let me know and I’ll update this post with a link to your list.

So Much for No Plans

2012 started with no races on the books other than a half-marathon in DC in March that admittedly is more an excuse to get back to DC for some quality drinking time with one of my best friends.  I’ve been happily bouncing between running, cycling, swimming, and lifting, with no real targets other than maintaining some base fitness and not getting hurt.  Possibly/hopefully even lose a few pounds along the way.  With a few innocent mouse clicks, that all changed quickly.

I’m now part of a 12-man relay team that will be running the Palmetto 200 in April in (hopefully fairly warm) South Carolina.  Signing up for this got me thinking about getting a little more serious with the running part of my fitness routine, since I don’t want to let my team down and be the “slow guy”.  Still, this relay didn’t put me into full training-plan mode.  Then I talked to a running friend at work, and found myself signing up for the OBX 50k on May 5.  First-ever staging of the event.  Only 35 runners.  Suddenly things have gotten much more serious.

This will be my first foray into the great unknown beyond 26.2 miles.  One might think that when making the move out to 30 miles you might want to keep things fairly simple.  Well … I did keep things flat, but the interesting thing about this run is its 1.6 miles on the road, followed by 29.4 miles on the beach.  Subsequent research has indicated that 30 minutes of running on sand feels like about an hour of running on pavement.  Perhaps I should have done some of that research before I signed up.

I’ve now shifted my mentality back to that of a runner, and am working on a training plan focused primarily on running, with cycling, swimming, etc. still included but truly used as cross-training alternatives rather than equal-time pursuits.  Not really sure how to simulate the running on sand part of the training.  Time to find some good trails nearby with loose soil.  I’m envisioning the whole new kind of sore I’ll be facing after finishing this one, and I’m glad I’ve got a jumbo-sized dispenser of Biofreeze already purchased.

Game on.

Money Where My Mouth Is

A lot of money.

A lot more than I planned.

A lot more than I imagined.

As is often the case with me, I know what I’m supposed to do, but don’t always put that knowledge into practice.  When it comes to marathon training, this is especially true for cross-training.  I lift and do core work 2-3 times a week, but that’s a force of habit from before I decided to try running marathons.  I’ve ended up at the orthopedist after each of my three marathons, for three different reasons.  I know I need to be cross-training to work complimentary muscles, create balance, and counter the repetitive-use issues that I get from running, running, running.  My obstacles, or more accurately excuses, have been that I don’t have a pool available to me beyond the summer, I don’t own a decent bike, and I really, really dislike riding the stationary bike.  My wallet and I have addressed these excuses, so now things get interesting.

Swimming – I went straight from the parking lot of my orthopedist to a local Lifetime Fitness with multiple pools and signed a contract.  I don’t love distance swimming, but I’m learning to like it.  So far I get there a couple times a week and usually do something between 1000 and 1500 meters.  I swam swim-team for 10 summers as a kid so I have a decent stroke, but I’m unlearning a lot of my sprint habits and learning a stroke and cadence more conducive to extended sessions in the pool.  I know I’ll never ‘enjoy’ swimming like I do running, but it’s growing on me and it’s a nice way to burn off some steam after the kids are in bed, since the pool is open 24 hours.  The swimming (so far) hasn’t required a big $ investment … cycling, on the other hand….

Cycling – After far too much research, and a bad case of sticker shock, I invested in a Scott CR1 Team road bike 2 weeks ago and am now officially menacing the highways of NC.  I didn’t realize how much bikes can cost, and this has made my investment in running, which before I thought was fairly high, look like a drop in the bucket.  The upside is that having invested the dollars is more than enough impetus to get me to invest the time to get a proper return on the investment.  So far I’ve only done a few long rides, but I really enjoy getting out on the roads and exploring.  Too soon to tell if it’s helping my running, or helping me avoid too much running and thus stay healthy, but it’s a fun alternative.  Buying a new bike in December is probably not the best timing, but the weather has been pretty mild this winter which is nice.  It’s also made it very easy to come up with a wish-list for Santa.  Maybe too easy.

Right now I’m not officially training for anything, just mixing things up and trying to stay healthy.  With my run this morning I passed 1,000 miles for the year, which wasn’t a goal or target of mine, but is a nice little milestone.  Considering I lost all of January, half of February, and all of November to injury I’m glad to have been able to get that many miles completed.  The only race on my calendar right now is a half-marathon in DC on St. Patrick’s Day for which I’m not planning to specifically train.  I’m planning to spend some time over the holiday break figuring out what I want to do in 2012.  I’ve got all the ‘raw materials’ now for a triathlon, but not sure I want to head down that road … yet.  The lure of an Ultramarathon is still very strong, and I think that might be where I end up sometime next year.  For now I’m enjoying not being on a specific plan, but once the new year rolls around I know I’ll be yearning for some structure.

Since my blog posts have been far too sporadic lately, I probably won’t get another post up before Christmas and/or New Years, so Happy (and Healthy) Holidays to everyone.  If you see me on the road on my bike please take pity on me and give me a wide berth.  My technique has a long way to go to catch up to my intentions.