Decadent Indulgence

(or, How to Kill Yourself in 1 Quart)

Weighty Matters is a good, general health blog written by a Canadian physician, Yoni Freedhoff, who wants to ferret out the truth about weight and health. He's a good blogger -- entertaining and unafraid to speak his mind about health.

In today's blog, he spotlights Baskin-Robbins' (large -- 32 oz) Heath® Shake. Check out that monster! A single serving (32 fl. oz.) contains 2310 calories, 2.5g trans fat, 1560mg sodium, and 266g sugar (Freedhoff says that's 66.5 teaspoons or 1.5 cups of sugar). Check the ingredients' list -- sugar, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are featured multiple times.

When I read that to my wife, her comment was, "That much sugar in a milk shake would kill you!" Yeah, eventually that much sugar could well do it.

Run (and eat) well (and smart), y'all,
Bob

Update: Move a Million Miles

Reid, blogging at Life Strides, is trying to collect a group of blogging runners who would report their miles as a group in support of Ryan Hall (no money involved). If interested, click on over to his blog, Life Strides, and leave a comment.

We also need a lot more runners to sign up for the campaign. The current stats are below but expecting to get 5 miles per day (35 miles per week) from each runner is unrealistic since the current average miles per day per participant is less than 1. Consider clicking on the banner above and joining this effort.

CURRENT MOVE A MILLION MILES STATISTICS:

Total Miles Moved: 201,096
Total Current Participants: 1628
Average Miles per Day per Current Participant: 0.85
Top Group: BBHS Track Team, 8,828 mi.
Total Miles Remaining: 798,904
Number of Days Remaining: 90
Average Miles Remaining per Day: 8,877
Necessary Miles per Day per Current Participant: 5

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Tempo Runs and Speedwork

Ben, running blogger at The Audacity of Marathoning, asked about how I do tempo runs. I'm not an expert runner by any stretch of the imagination but perhaps what I've learned will be helpful for someone else. I've used Runner's World Smart Coach to train for my last 3 races (half-marathon and 2 10K's) and that plan had me do the following for a "tempo run" -- my goal pace for the 10K was 7:25 mpm:

1 mile warm-up -- I ran at an easy run pace, about 90 seconds per mile slower than my goal 10K pace or about 8:55 mpm.

3-5 miles tempo -- about 10 seconds per mile slower than my goal 10K pace or about 7:35 mpm.

1 mile cool-down -- again, I aimed to run about 8:55 mpm but it was usually closer to 8:15 mpm.

Tempo Run distances for an 11 week 10K training program:

Weeks 1 and 3 were 3 miles @ 7:36
Weeks 4 and 7 were 4 miles @ 7:40 & 7:35
Weeks 8 and 10 were 5 miles @ 7:40 & 7:35

Weeks 2, 5 and 9 were speedwork -- 800 meter repeats on a local high school track at about 45 seconds per mile faster than my goal 10K pace, about 1 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down, and 400 meter easy jogs between repeats:

Week 2 (3x800 meters @ 3:24 min)
Week 5 (4x800 meters @ 3:22 min)
Week 9 (5x800 meters @ 3:20 min)

Weeks 6 and 11 were easy weeks so no tempo runs or speedwork runs.

I normally end up running the tempo runs a bit faster than the suggested goal. They are hard but satisfying. The speedwork repeats were usually right on target. The repeats are real killers and I hate doing them, but they do seem to help.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Hard Tempo Run

Tempo run this morning. I started out and thought, There is no way but let's just see.

TEMPO SPLITS
1.00 x 8:45.09
1.00 x 7:27.93
1.00 x 6:58.83
1.00 x 6:45.44
1.26 x 10:02.14 (7:57.89 mpm pace)

The weird thing is that each of the fast miles felt slower than the previous one. I wonder why that is.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Tag -- I'm It

My virtual friend, Paul Merrill, has tagged me asking what impossible dream I have. I have spent long, tortuous hours given it some thought off and on. Like Paul, I have lofty desires -- ending poverty would be great; seeing Christ reign in every heart; simple decency in politics, on TV/radio, between neighbors. But, like Paul, I'll be a bit more mundane. I'd like to run a half marathon with Ryan Hall, with his fluidity, and at his speed (less than an hour).

Now to pass on the favor: I'm tagging Non-Runner Nancy and my college friend, David H -- tell us your impossible dream.

BTW -- a nice run this morning. It started gently raining about halfway through a 5.9 miler and with the temperature at about 55°, it felt good. I did the run in 46:34.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Running With a Veteran

On YouTube, this video is called Running With President Bush but the story is not Bush's running but this vet's running. Bush makes one of his normal gaffes (though I'm not sure how any President remembers where they met so many people) but the story's good (even if you don't care for Bush):



When you next run, remember those who won't run again and run a mile for them.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Move a Million Miles

I am impressed with Ryan Hall both as a runner and as a person. When I came across the Move a Million Miles project, I knew I had to publicize it here.

Support Ryan Hall’s quest for Olympic Marathon Gold. Join me in supporting Big Bear Lake running hero Ryan Hall's quest for 2008 Olympic Marathon gold. The Lighthouse Project challenges you to help Move a Million Miles before Ryan’s Olympic Marathon this summer in Beijing, China. Through shared pride and support for Ryan, this spirit initiative encourages an engaged and active lifestyle, as well as demonstrates the benefits of integrity, commitment and involvement to our youth.

It's simple to participate. Go to the site, click the "Report Your Miles" tab, and enter your information. Use the same identifying information each week so that your miles accumulate.

I had the best long run in over a month. I ran 11.5 today in 1:34.06.8 (8:08 mpm). Then, we spent the rest of the day at Colonial Williamsburg. Good day.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Obama Hurdles

In this short video by RunnerSpace’s Ross Krempley, you can see Obama take a stab at the hurdles:



He was smart enough to do it this way!

Run well and smart, y'all,
Bob

10K on the 10th

Nancy, writer of the blog Notes of a Non-Runner, has become a virtual race director extraordinaire. She organized another virtual race today, 10K on the 10th, and this has been the best ever. The entry fee was cut in half, prize money doubled, there were double the number of spectators lining the course, race timing was trust-based and self-reported, and there were toasted bagels with lowfat cream cheese and fruit for refueling.

The weather for the race was pretty good, at least in the Richmond, VA leg of the race -- 55° and 98% humidity, overcast but not raining, and a very light, cooling breeze. One of the nice things about a virtual race is that even if you're late for the start, all of the assigned race crew are still in place, the spectators stick around, and the refueling food never runs out -- and you can still run. Good thing, too, because I was late! My heat was schedule to start at 6:30 but I didn't make it to the starting line until 7:30. No problem except that I had to run by myself. Traffic control was good as drivers obeyed the virtual police and either moved to the left side of their lane or completely over to the left-hand lane.

I ran well, though not a PR. My time was 47:27 -- here are my splits:

1.0 x 8:15
1.0 x 7:33
1.0 x 7:18
1.0 x 7:12
1.0 x 7:47
1.0 x 7:44
0.2 x 1:38

Another perk of this race? It's not to late to sign up and run. Do 6.2 miles and post your time and blog link on Nancy's blog (when she starts putting the race reports up) -- you might also want to join Runner's Lounge and the 10K on the 10th group and post your results there.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

I Didn't Know That

The longest place-name still in use is:

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga-
horonukupokaiwenuakitanatahu

It's a New Zealand hill. Apparently it means, Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as landeater, played his flute to his loved one Your pace is too slow if you can spell, say or even think that place name while running! :-D

Thanks to mitchjoy61's blog, Runnin' Down A Dream, for the head's up and to domino nz for the picture and translation.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

6's and 7's

Miles, that is. Today, I passed 600 miles run YTD (603.2) and 700 miles on my shoes (702.2). In one of his posts, David H mentioned that he notices interesting number patterns -- All In a Row. I do, too, and hitting those two numbers on the same day was mildly entertaining.

Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty impressed that a pair of running shoes would actually last me 700 miles. That's the most I've gotten out of a pair in 5 years of running and keeping records. My last 3 pairs of shoes have been Etonic Jepara SC's and I'm sold. And, yes, of course Etonic has said they're discontinuing the Jepara SC and replacing it with an improved model. That probably means one that will cost more and won't last as long.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Soreness (T.I.A.R.T.)

The Runners' Lounge sponsors a Take It and Run Thursday each week. Today's topic is not really a topic. Runners are submitting questions for the community to answer. Great idea and probably a thread that could keep us going for a long time. So, let me toss out mine -- similar to Tom's, maybe.

Why, after almost 5 solid years of running, do my legs still get so sore when I run 8 or more miles? Specifically, I think it's my hip adductors that get so sore. I've worked up to a run of 10-14 miles and have just hit that in the last 6-8 months. I don't run that long every week but only 2 out of 3 weeks or so. But those muscles still get really sore. Do I need to do some specific hip adductor strengthening exercises? Or, is it just normal to be sore after that many miles?

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Running Hard Feels Good

There's something about Wednesdays. It's so hard for me to get out and run on that day. True to form, yesterday, I slept a little later and didn't do my tempo run. This morning, I headed out and decided to pick up the pace. Since I'm not following a particular training plan at the moment, I didn't really have a goal in mind. Most of my runs in the last 3 weeks have seemed very difficult so I didn't really think I would be at peak performance and just planned to run hard and see what happened.

After a nice, easy warm-up mile, the first tempo mile surprised me and I was sure I couldn't keep that pace up. Sure enough, I felt like I slowed a bit and was even more surprised when I was a fraction of a second faster. Mile three of the tempo part was definitely slower, especially since that mile has some hills and actually ends on an uphill. I about fell over when I hit the lap button on my watch and was 20 seconds+ faster than on either of the previous 2 miles. Ending with a couple of slower miles (I was TIRED), it was quite a satisfying run -- nice to have a really good one for a change.

TEMPO LAP TIMES:
1 x 9:07.34
1 x 7:10.85
1 x 7:10.60
1 x 6:50.02
1 x 8:15.23
1.103 x 8:42.22 (7:53.46 mpm pace)

I hope your run today is as satisfying.

Run well, y'all,
Bob