My Active Adventures

I am a runner.  I love to be active in general, but nothing gives me the instant thrill I get from a run.  Yeah, I'm a runner.  But does that necessarily mean I have to only be a runner?  I don't think so.  I think I can expand and continue to grow; further, I think that growth will only benefit my running ability.  As many of you know, I've been fighting a bit of a calf issue.  Sometimes over the last couple months I've been getting a very tight knot in the lower part of my left calf muscles.  A.R.T. has helped, but then I go for another long or fast run and it tightens right back up.  Why?  I can't be 100% sure, but my personal opinion is that it is a lack of balance.  My focus and activities have been solely based on running.  Working your muscles in only one way gets things out of balance and causes problems, like tight calf muscles. Last summer I started getting into cycling a little bit.  Not much, but some.  ...

I've found an interesting trend in my running.  I don't know if it's true for all runners, but it has definitely been true for me; this race was a shinning example.  A good run (especially in a race) reminds me of why I love running while a bad run (especially in a race) reminds me of why I love being a runner.  Sounds like the same thing?  It isn't.  I'll explain what I mean as this report goes on.  As most of you know, I've had Ultras on my brain the last couple months.  That's my focus; working my way toward that 50 miler in September.  Ron told me about a little trail marathon up in Lincoln and I decided it would be nice to go up there and run as a training run. It's a race called the Wilderness Park Run For The Bridges Marathon.  Wilderness Park is a beautiful park on the southwest corner of Lincoln and it has some very nice running/hiking/biking trails.  They are non-technical, mostly single track dirt trails with very few hi...

It wasn't really a special week in any way.  Just another week of training.  Or was it?  I had the same plan as always, but not the same plan.  I needed to put myself in position to hit a major milestone.  This was to be my first 50 mile training week ever.  Many of friends might see this as a small amount compared to their training miles, but when you've never done it before it is a big deal.  Considering what I did last fall, I should have hit this mileage a long time ago, but I wasn't training like I should have last year.  This year's different; I'm running with my friends and I'm trying to train properly.  That includes building up my miles. It started simple enough; just like all weeks with the way I've laid out my training.  I've been pretty well wearing myself out with two long runs each weekend, so come Monday I don't even want to run.  Nope, you'll have little luck trying to drag me out for a run on a Monday right now....

This was the first time I'd ever run two events in the same weekend, so I went to bed Saturday night glad that I'd gone to see Jared Wisner ( Wisner Chiropractic ) on Friday.  I'd run Mrs. Robinson's Romp much harder than expected so I was just hoping I wouldn't be too sore when I woke up Sunday morning for the race.  I'll admit, I was a little nervous for this one.  First, as I said, this was my first time running two races in one weekend; secondly the completion of this race would make this my highest mileage week I've ever run; third I had only taken two days off this week.  I have been doing two long runs each weekend so I knew my mileage would be down with a 10k Sat and half marathon Sun so I ran 10 miles on Monday which I normally use as a rest day.  Was my body going to hold up through all these factors for a good run?  Well, it probably would since I knew the faster I got done the faster I'd get pie!! Same as Saturday, it was a 9:00 AM start, bu...

Day 1 of my double race weekend went pretty great, I must say!  I was pretty excited about this one because it was taking place on a trail I run regularly and I would have MANY friends there.  I started this one off pretty early by trying to keep the running gods happy.  The race started at 9:00 AM, but I showed up at 7:00 to volunteer for a while before the start.  When I arrived at the race start (Shelter 14 at Wyandotte County Lake Park) I was the only one there other than Bad Ben (race director & lead Trail Nerd) and the timing company.  I help Ben unload water and get things set up, then helped with runner check-in (there was only race day packet pick-up) along with some other friends including Jennifer, Emily, Darin & the Jedi Master Sherrie.  We really had fun and so many people helping also gave us the freedom to talk to friends as they arrived as well. I then spend some time talking to my many Trail Nerd and Olathe Running Club frien...