Call me Nathan P. Crazy

I did it. I am signed up for the Salt Lake City Marathon on April 17. My training starts today with a 3 mile run which I'm not too worried about but tomorrow will be the true test. I'm going to be running 8 miles tomorrow. Each Saturday will be progressively longer. A week from tomorrow I have 10 miles scheduled. My goal is to finish the marathon. To finish a marathon in 4 hours, one must run an average of 6.55 miles per hour. It's exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.

Am I a "runner"? I never had the chance growing up somewhere without a cross country running team or track team. I did do cross country skiing my senior year and I did a fair job considering the minimal experience I had. I was always a slow swimmer but I blame the size of my feet (size 9).

I've taken the challenge and I'm all in. Salt Lake marathon, here I come!

2010: A new year, a new goal

This year is looking really exciting.

• April 17 : Salt Lake City Marathon
• June 14-18 : Camping near Santa Barbara, CA
• July 15-17 : Pioneer Trek near Elberta, UT
• August 7 : Crazy Bob's Bairgutsman in Fruit Heights, UT
• August 12-14 : Wilson bros hike to Wilson Peak, UT

I've been training by doing a level 10 incline on the treadmill for 40 minutes a few times a week during my lunch hour. Luke and I scoped out Bair Canyon the other day to get an idea of what the Bairgutsman will be like. With the snow, the trail is still pretty narrow. I imagine in the summer, it's even more narrow.

UPDATE (1/21/10) I just signed up for the Salt Lake marathon. My training schedule has been seriously modified.

Status: Injured List

I gave my pathetic legs some time off and then I took them out for a short run. I think it was only a mile and a half. The pain came back with a vengeance. I talked with my yoga teacher about the location of the pain and did some research online. It turns out that the problem is inflamation of the Illotibial Band where it connects to my knee. It needs to heal. So that's what I'm doing.

I've learned some stretches that target this area so I do those from time to time. I've increased my yoga frequency so that I'm going almost every work day. Hopefully it will recover and I can ease back into it. The Salt Lake City and Ogden marathons coming up are definitely not a possibility. So sad. :(

Stylin'

I'm blaming my leg pains on my New Balance shoes that I've had for 5? years. Last night I bought some new running shoes from the Running Company. They're Nike Pegasus 25s. Unfortunately as I went running this morning, I still had the pain. Hmm...When I first went to the Running Company, I had my running style analyzed. They said that I have a bit overpronation on my right foot and that my left foot is neutral. So I bought a neutral shoe with hopefully enough cushioning. I'm still not sure where this is leading. I remember watching soccer games in France where someone would get injured. The injured player would be laying on their back wincing in pain clenching their leg. Someone would come out from the sideline with some spray, spray their leg, and suddenly, all was good! I need some of that spray for my legs.

Status: Recovering

I finally got to go outside again since the weather had been a bit nicer. I ran north on the Jordan Parkway until it turned into dirt. The round trip was 4.6 miles and I finished in 55 minutes. I stopped several times to stretch my calves in the hopes that the pain near my knee would be reduced. The pain is right below the bump where my fibula attaches to my knee. It may be some sort of shin splint type injury, a sore muscle there, or a stress fracture. Since it's on both sides, I'm hoping it's not a stress fracture. Hopefully it's just a sore muscle. It seems to be the muscle that holds up my foot when I'm swinging it forward. I'd really like to have my running style analyzed to identify if I am a pronator or not. I figure if I'm going to run for miles, I need to get shoes that fit my style and will keep me from getting injured.

Haven't quit yet

I thought I'd better write something to calm the masses that visit this blog. I had a scare Sunday when I got serious lower back pain. It was exactly what happens before I get a cold. It was also accompanied by some mild congestion and coughing. I thought I'd take it easy a few days while I loaded up on vitamin C and zinc. Also, I've been logging my activity minutes at work for our Live Healthy America project which is like a simple blog. Our team name is "Ctrl Alt Elite". I thought that was geeky enough. So I haven't done any running since Friday I think...

Well today it was time to get back to it. Due to the recent cold weather, I drove to work and ran on the treadmill. I've found that no one else is interested in the 5:30 am time slot in the workout room at my office. As it got closer to 6:30, one guy did show up. I'm really hoping it warms back up a bit because I now have a holster and belt clip for my GPS. I've had this funny feeling that all the movement in my pocket may have been altering the actual distances and speeds measured. Especially since it showed 30 mph as my max speed. I'd have had to jump off a cliff to get going that fast! I'm hoping with it clipped on my waist, it might be more accurate.

There was an article in the Salt Lake papers about finishing up the Jordan Parkway at 3 sections near me. Hopefully that goes through. Especially the section that would go from North Temple to 200 south. It is quite a distance to make up for this missing section. The northern parts missing aren't so bad because at least there is a trail even if it is just dirt.

My right to run

My work gave me time off today to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day or maybe it's called Civil Rights day. This was the perfect way to start my 3rd week of training. I had planned to do basic core training the first two weeks and I didn't really have a plan for what would follow. I had seen a map showing how the Jordan Parkway connected to the Legacy Parkway and I was curious to test it out. So I set a goal to reach the Legacy Parkway trailhead.

I usually start my run near 5 am but with it being the holiday, I didn't start until around 6:40 am. My radio was fully charged and I was ready for whatever it took. It turns out that the Jordan Parkway is paved until the end of the Rose Park Golf Course. After that, it was intermittent frozen snow, frozen mud, frozen grass, and gravel. The trail is nice until about 4 miles in when it runs right next to Redwood Road. It was at this point where I could see the traffic light at the intersection of Redwood and I-215 that I began to think I had gone far enough and long enough. I had to remind myself that it was a holiday and I had all day to get there.

After much running and a lot walking I made it to the Legacy Parkway trailhead. It's almost 5 miles from my house and it took me 50 minutes to get there. On my way back I passed another runner. This was the first person I've passed while running these past weeks. You'd think with Salt Lake City recently being voted as the most healthy city in the nation you'd see more people. Or maybe no one is as crazy as me to be running at 5 am in January.

Thanks to my not so handy GPS unit, my total run distance ended up at 9.5 miles and 1 hour and 50 minutes. That calculates to over 11 minutes per mile. That's something I hope to bring down as my training goes on. My GPS unit also said my max speed was 30 mph so I think it may be swinging around in my pocket a bit much. A belt with a holster might be nice. Really I'd like to get a Garmin forerunner 305 which I'd wear like a watch. It measures heart rate too which is something I haven't kept real good track of.

I'm curious to see if I get sore today after such a long run. I guess you could call it a 15K run. I took an Aleve in hopes that I can still get some things done today like put up my peg board in the garage. I'm also working on organizing the Priesthood Preview this coming Sunday.