Flexibility

No, not the fun kind of flexibility that lets you lick your back like a cow (literally). Luckyyyyyy.***

I'm talking about flexibility in a plan. As you remember, my plan for Rock and Roll New Orleans was as follows: During the "on" weeks, it has me running Tempo Tues, Long Weds, and Speed Thurs. It is my attempt at a less is more plan. (Unlike my beer plan which is best defined as more is more.) It has me running less overall miles (45ish at the peak) but making sure every run has a specific "purpose". Tempo runs for lactate threshold, long mid week runs for endurance, and speed for fast twitch muscles and Vo2 max. Throw in some biking to practice my spandex/looking cool wearing a helmet and a long run for good measure.

But, alas the best laid out plans are meant to be completely screwed up. This morning, some wiener early morning individual decided that it would be a good idea to go for a nice walk on the only treadmill in the hotel. A nice WALK! Something that he could have done in the hallway. Since I am a firm believer of first come first served, all I could do is slap my head and go do some sit ups. Granted, I could have gone outside, but I really wanted to test my fitness at a specific speed.

So, I'll do my tempo tonight, my long run tomorrow morning, and then will be back on track. Flexibility.

I've received a lot of questions about how I am able to hold any consistency around my runs while on the road. Here are my tips to maintaining some level of a plan:

• Do some research. I honestly didn't do a good job of this with my current hotel. The work-out room only has one treadmill and there are no good trails/sidewalks in the area.
• Have a backup plan. What will you do if it is raining hard? What about if the treadmills are full? What if some jerk JUST scheduled a 8:30pm meeting during when you were supposed to do a make-up tempo run..... (Damn it - I can't make this shit up)
• Be realistic. All night kegger "business trip" on Bourbon street? (Who Dat?) Know that you are probably not going to get all of your runs in - and that is OK. Shuffle your schedule to make the Hurricane/bead infused party a recovery week and hit it hard the next week.
• BE FLEXIBLE. At the end of the day, shortening a run by a mile due to time, running at night vs in the morning, or even running when you get back home if you get completely thrown off are all great ways to get in most of the miles.

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**Don't even get me started on those rumors of removing your bottom ribs for better 'flexibility'

What a week of runs...

...but not in a good way.

You may have been wondering why I haven't been posting specifically about my runs this week. Rest assured I have been running. But, I think that "running" in this instance is a pretty loose term. I've more been cursing while moving my legs very quickly.

I honestly held off on reporting on my runs because I didn't want to feel like I was crying like someone kicked my puppy complaining. It seems like sleeping on it makes me right as rain. Here is how my "recovery week" played out.

Tempo Tuesday:

Like I said before, my tempo run was a struggle from the start. I stayed on pace of 7:08 for 4 miles, but I was hurting - both literally and figuratively. My legs felt heavy and my shins were a little splint-y. Little did I know that this was going to foreshadow my week ahead.

Wednesday Easy Run:

5 miles @ 8:27 pace. This run was a bitch. No nice way to put it. My shins were screaming like a cheap death metal concert. No longer were they a little splint-y, I had full on shin splints.

I decided to run Wednesday afternoon which probably wasn't a good idea. I was staying in a new hotel last week which was surrounded by seemingly MILLIONS of stoplights. I could never get a good flow. I would run for 5 minutes and stop for 30 seconds at a busy intersection. Run for 5 more minutes, stop. Over and over again throughout the entire run. Ice, Topricin Gel, and self massage were to follow.

Thursday Intervals (Yasso 800s):

I went back and forth on doing these or just cranking out a few more junk miles. Ultimately, I decided to do them if it didn't hurt TOO bad and just jog it out if I was feeling more shin pain. I ended up with 3 out of 4 at a little bit "slower" pace of 6:37. (Normal pace of 6:20) Not a super good run, but not horrible like Wednesday.

What is a dashing, whitty, boring guy to do to try to fix an entire week of bad runs? Crack open my new shoes!

For my long run this week, I opened a shiny new Brooks box and laced up a new pair of kicks. HOORAY! That seemed to fix my shin issues - and possibly my mental issues as well. (No word on my itching when I pee issues.)

Sunday Long Run

12 miles, 8:06 pace. Back to normal. The new shoes seemed to do the trick. I had very VERY minimal discomfort during the first part of the run but other than that, everything was clicking.

During this shit-week of runs, I learned a number of things:

• Listen to your body and always be on the lookout for small pains with old shoes
• Sometimes the bad runs remind us of how awesome the good runs can be
• Honestly, while some people may disagree, grunting out crappy runs prepares you mentally for the last 10% of a long race
• Jay walking through red lights is not only a fun way to get in fartleks, it is a great way to keep the flow of a short run alive

I have a feeling that the bad days are behind me, but this was certainly a week to forget!

Updated Interweb Address and FFF

This post could have also been titled:
What happens when Adam gets bored while running for 2.5 hrs with no headphones
What happens when Adam is bored in a hotel 4 days a week
Nerd Alert!

As you all know (since you are reading this) web site address was "AdamRISU": My first name (Adam) my last initial (R) and my alma matter (Iowa State Univ). Confusing.

"Adamrisu" was my old personal email address from college and it sort of stuck. So, since I’ve received all sorts of questions to explain it (no, it does not mean "Adam Are Is You"), I decided to change my web address to be:

http://www.TheBoringRunner.com/

Pretty sweet right? I figured the bigger the text the better.

You can update your bookmarks if you want, but according to blogger/google, one should point to the other in harmonious fashion. Hooray technology. Although, the last time I checked it WASN'T forwarding. Interweb fail. Until it does, my follower deal on the right doesn't seem to be working on the old website.

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Anyway, back to the funny photo or, I guess in this case, video. Quite possibly the BEST contest I've ever seen!!!! No sound needed (for those of you at work).

The Bucket List

Like I said yesterday in my completely random bullet post, I was tagged by Ulyana to list off three things that I want to do before I kick the bucket. I did this on 12/1/08 (eek – going on 2.5 years of blogging) here, but it is probably time to reevaluate my answers and see if I have shifted my life in any significant way.

Here is what I was thinking deep in the heart of a Kansas winter:

• Pass on my last name. That is, have a son
• Get a stamp, ANY stamp, on my passport
• Run a marathon in all 50 states – thereby visiting all 50 states
• Anonymously help someone who is truly in need

First off I can scratch the passport thing. I am in a different place in my life right now and am not too worried about making sure I get out of the country. Besides, if I ever leave the country it is going to be through a tunnel drug-mule style.

Having a son. This one is important to me, but not as important as having children period. So, that one needs to stay if not slightly modified.

As long as I have legs under me, I will become a 50 stater and I will not do a Massachusetts marathon until I qualify for Boston or am on the 50th state.

Anonymously helping someone who is truly in need would be awesome. ‘nuff said.

Well shit, I just realized that I have my three then? Kids, 50 states, and helping someone in need. Uylana was very explicit on the fact that it should only be three. But, if I were to somehow find a loophole, I’d add the following:

• Blow out 90 candles on my birthday cake followed by telling a crude joke that only a 90 year old could get away with
• Complete an IronMan, even though I have never swam for distance in my life
• When completed, get some sort of 50 stater marathon tattoo on my ass (I have no desire to get ANY other tattoo)
• Have a glass of First Growth Bordeaux wine, aged 20 years (only 5 more years for the ’96!)
• …and for the sappy ones in the crowdWatch the sunset in a hot air balloon, drinking a great wine, laughing at my wife huddled in the corner of the basket because she is terrified of heights

As with all Internet Memes, I have to tag some people. Try to whittle your list down to 3, it is HARD. Admittedly, this felt a little like a popularity contest. (Stupid high school clicks) IT IS NOT. I basically went down my list of unread blogs and pulled out a few names. I’m sure I left people off, etc. If I did and you are feeling left out, feel free to just do it anyway and call me out as a putz. I tag:
Jeff
RunningLaur
The Sean
GeorgiaSnail

Jill
Rio
Mel
Julie

Christy

The milkman, the paperboy, evening TV

Just like a 5 year old on espresso, my head is all over the place today: Running, work, Lady Gaga’s hair, blogging, LOST, etc. You know what that means! Break out the vicodine! Adam’s favorite: Bullets.

• On paper, I had a great tempo run on Tuesday. 5 miles, 4 at tempo of 7:08 pace. The reality is that the run was a struggle from the start. So bad that I did the math-nerd mind game of calculating the fractions of time that I had left. “Nice, I’m twenty third fiftyiths done (23/50)” But, I got it done. Anyone else do that?

• Like I’ve said before, I’m in the San Fran area (San Jose). On the news the other day, they said that one of the “Full House” painted ladies houses is for sale! If you have an extra $4M laying around, it could be yours! Make sure you lock your back door – Kimmy Gibbler I am SURE is still lurking around - Probably looking for meth.
• I still don’t have a working iPod…or headphones (that aren’t those GOD DAMN iPod white ones that pop out of my ears like a potato out of a spud gun). The hotel gym that I work out in has TVs on all of the treadmills. Nothing makes me more depressed than watching the History channel and not hearing or knowing if the Super Volcano in Yellowstone is going to blow up next week or in 2012. By the looks of it, it is certainly going to be one or the other. A trip to Wal-Mart/Target this weekend is a must.

• I'm hungry. No, like HUNGRY hungry. I ate a huge breakfast 2 hours ago and I could totally eat again. I seem to get this way whenever I run more than 40 miles per week. It is probably a combo of eating nothing but 14 GUs all day long not enough snacking during the day and my low body fat. I bought a bunch of cliff bars at Target last night, hopefully that will help a little. If not, bring on the feed bag! Oats are FULL of carbs, but I guess the green poop I could do without. Give and take I suppose.
• I still don’t have a signed contract for my current job. Basically that means that I am not “officially” supposed to be in California, I can’t “officially” join conference calls, or “officially” meet any of the people that I am going to be working with. I think that should “officially” mean that I should be at home in my underwear watching the Price is Right.
• Finally, I was tagged by Ulyana to put together my bucket list. Since I am very thoughtful for these things I didn’t want to crank one out all willy-nilly for today. Look for that tomorrow. I promise there won’t be ONE entry about shot-gunning a beer at a hotel room party (already done!).

Try it Tuesday: Nike Running Gloves

A few weeks back, my life was in turmoil. I was very concerned that the world would implode in 2012, that Lady Gaga’s hair would poke someone’s eye out, and that I would end up in cold Chicago for the next 10 months. So, I immediately went out and bought a few winter running items. One of which were a pair of Nike lightweight Men’s Running Gloves. I picked them up at a sporting goods store (Dicks Sporting Goods maybe?) for the sale price of $15.





I decided to include a picture since I know that people envision me rolling around in my car wearing David Hasslehoff style ‘driving’ gloves with the holes in the knuckles. Chest hair not included

I have HORRIBLE circulation. In fact, maybe that is why my max HR is around 215-220 – because it takes that many beats to get the go-juice through my small veins. Anyway, as a result I have a number of other heavy gloves that I wear while running in the cold – but none of them specifically for running. Normally I just throw on whatever fleece gloves / mittens that are lying around and hop out the door.

When I put them on, I could immediately tell that the Nike gloves were meant for running. They have fleece on the back side of your hand and mesh on the palm. Perfect for staying cool and blocking wind at the same time. Additionally, they have a little key slot to store your key. Although, I had a hard time getting my hotel key in there. Fail.



Here is the summary:
Pro:
Keep my girly hands warm
Key holder for holding…. Keys?
Mesh on the palm makes for easy cooling (Just put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don’t care)

Con:
Sizes seem to run a bit small, even for my wee little hands, which makes me look a bit like aquaman with webbed hands
Are VERY hard to take off mid run and nearly impossible to get back on once they are sweaty
Not made for the hotel runner. No hotel key holder.

Overall, I really like these. While I really wish that I would have bought the next size up, honestly then I would probably be complaining about how they were too big and floppy. Overall, these get the Adam “Seal of Approval”

I’m 2 for 2 on the reviews! I need to buy more crappy gear I guess.