Running Three 65 - I'm running every day for 2011. Every day.

An Incredible Experience

kdw@277west10th.com — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:03:03 +0000

Hello. Thanks for stopping by. On January 1st, 2011 after having running in my life for 20+ years but not consistently in over 3, I decided to try and run at least 3 miles every day for an entire year.

Turned out to be an amazing experience.

When you commit to doing something daily, good, and often totally unexpected, things happen.

This is all about a 365 day journey that latest 404. Some favorite posts worth checking out are:

Great Data
Took me a year, but I realized that streaking isn't new
If you do this, trick is 'run when you can'
Had to run in Crocs one day
Changing how I ran was key
Got a MakeSomething365 Badge!
Mickey almost ended it for me
Where it all began

Since 404 runs, I've been struggling to average a run a week (A WEEK- what a shame) but it's perfect proof that what you write down and committ to doing happens. What you don't -- may not.

I'd encourage you (yes, you, reading this thing) to do something daily for 30, 45,180 even 365 days. You won't regret it.

1/2 Throttle, I can already feel it.

RunningThree65 — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:49:00 +0000

After the release of 404 runs, and the feeling of pending doom of a long slide of inactivity, I've found myself stablized at running every other day.

Not bad, not great either but seems to be the 'right' answer for now.

However, on the run this AM -- I could feel it. The 'run' that was just 'another day' 2 weeks ago, felt a little more physically taxing that usual. It really is amazing how fast we can adjust to being inactive and yet how long it takes to get our body tuned to being 'active.'
Such a bummer!

Check this out!

RunningThree65 — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:54:00 +0000

This is why the Internet is awesome. On this journey, I already had stumbled upon the 1095 Miles Folks who were on the same journey -- running 3 miles a day and raising money for a charity.

Next thing I know, I get a note from a friend saying that she was recently dining with one of her friends and they got to chatting about the friend's desire to draw more (read daily). She mentioned my @RunningThree65 effort and then was nice enough to send a link to her friends site, The Daily Dra (Picture #1 is right over there <----), saying she was a '365 instigator' (woo-hoo!)

She had tried a daily drawing activity before that wasn't successful but what's great about this reboot -- she's following one of Noah's Make Something 365 recommendations about 'broadcasting the effort to your friends' so you are making a public declaration about your intentions.

I must admit, I didn't follow that advice at first with @RunningThree65 for a couple of reasons:

I honestly wasn't sure after 3 years of basically not running if I could phsyically do it.
I wasn't sure if my lifestyle (Dad, working, etc) was even going to have a prayer of supporting it.
Did not want to pull the 'hey, look at me' and then run for only a day or two.

So I really only told one person, who I'd update via cryptic text every couple of days (2 runs, 7 runs, 2 weeks, 30 days, 45 days, etc) and S, who I didn't tell per say but who was smart enough to notice the fact that I was running more in the month of January than I'd run all of 2010.

I must admit, as the days rolled on (45, 60, 90, 120), I had all of the intentions of 'getting the word out' but just couldn't get around to it. My site was not looking right (althought I was capturing the stories in near real time starting around 1/22/11), the charity's site was down, etc.

I also knew that I wouldn't be blogging about it daily, so I wanted there to be a 'body' of work there for folks to read when I made it 'official'

But once I got it rolling -- it was awesome. Good luck Supergirl!

Streak done, Slide coming

RunningThree65 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:11:00 +0000

One of the fears for me with stopping the daily habit and momentum of running is the fear of falling into a huge slide of inactive inertia

It occurred to me today that I didn't run, I was potentially looking at a 5 day period with no running.

For 404 runs in a row to 5 days in a row without a run.

A scary thought :)

I've also have some fear about inactivity with respect to just general wellness. I'm a big fan of the Fitbit and believe in the general guideline of 10,000 steps for being healthy.

Turns out however, if I don't run 3 miles a day and put the kids to bed -- I'm not getting to 10,000 steps -- in fact, not even close.

That's a bit frightening.

The 404

RunningThree65 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:04:00 +0000

404 runs. It just happened to work out. Beautiful day on Sunday, a couple of perfect schedules and the streak lived on.

But on Thursday, I had a bag packed with all my gear, so there was a chance to get out there, but it just didn't happen.

In all honesty, it really was time to take a break so I wasn''t sweating it. But I do have to admit, when the entire house was quiet and everyone was in bed by 11:15 PM, it did cross my mind there was still time to get out there and 'keep the streak alive.'

But I did not. And it felt great.

Who helped get me here?

RunningThree65 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:26:00 +0000

So fortunately, I didn't have to run all 365 runs this past year by myself and I thought it might be a good idea to give a quick shout out to those who joined me along the way:

McG (was there on Day 1, Day 362 & a couple in between)
@RunPacer
@TMAC1660
@Williamedocs
AC/DC
Keevey Smalls
Mono
Ray-Kwan
Cousin Matt
Cousin Pete
Marathon Matt
RFJCPA
Army John
Doug Systems
D & G, together and individually

And not to sound overly sentimental, but the cold hard truth. I could not have done it without the support and understanding of SMK.

400!

RunningThree65 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:20:00 +0000

Like I said earlier in the week, I had set the finish line and decided it was going to be 400.

400 runs in a row. Felt amazing and I still stand by the fact that it has been just as much a mental thing as physical fitness.

In honor of the last 'official' run of the streak, I went out and did the same 8 mile run out and back, the same run I did for 'leap Year protection' on 1/2/12.

It was a beautiful morning and it felt great. An excellent way to end the streak with an explanation point, not just a period.

Couple of obvious overlooked data points

RunningThree65 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:15:00 +0000

Realized that I had left out a couple of obvious data points (munching just really isn't easy enough so you end up overlooking the obvious).

Total Miles Run in 2011: 1,252.52 mi
Total Time Spent Running: 174:29:23 h:m:s (just over a week's worth of continual running or almost 2% of the entire year)

More Data

RunningThree65 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Couple more Data points:

# of Runs in 2011: 385

Several two-a-days (2)
Race Warm Ups and Warm Downs (16)
Small Run with the Boys (their request) (2)

Avg # of Miles/Run (warmup-warmdown filtered out): 3.3 Miles

Longest Run: 6.38 Miles @ North County Trail, w/G in the stroller!

Shortest Time between Runs: 9 Hours, 45 mins

Longest Time between Runs: 39 Hours, 30 mins

# of Races Run: 5

# of Age Group Hardware taken home: 3

Furthest Run from Home: 1,134 miles @ Walt Disney World

Slowest Avg Pace (Warm up/downs excluded): 9:51 for 10k run on Hurley Trail.

Fastest Avg Pace: 6:42 for Rocky's 5k Trail Run.

Ave Pace for the Year (warm up/downs excluded, along with first 90 days since I didn't have a GPS watch): 8:16

# of Blog posts: 160

# of posts started, but not finished: 1

Top Runs according to the Data

RunningThree65 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:37:00 +0000

After the last post, the obvious question is 'OK, smarty pants -- what do you want the data to tell you?'

Well, let's start off simple How about where did I run the most in 2011?

Not surprising -- the top two runs, accounting for nearly 37% of the year were from my house: The Stone Fence and The Kennel. Since I wasn't even sure running daily was going to work within the constraints of my life, no surprise that the 1st three months were almost all from home. (no GPS links for those guys, I know you know me, so I know you don't need to have the web show you were I live).

Putting those aside, and also because they were really the only option before March 30th, and the arrival of the Garmin GPS, let's look at the other Top 5.

1. Croton Landing: 34 Runs. (9.3%)
Great park, part of the NYS park plan to make one trail that connects Battery Park City to North of Peekskill. I love this place.

2. Crotonville OCA: 18 Runs (4.9%)
The Old Croton Acquduct. An amazing place to run and actualy where I took my Garmin on it's first run. This place is awesome.

3. Waveny Park: 13 Runs (3.6%)
There can be good things about picking up an consulting gig 50 mins (90 in traffic) in CT. You get to run where CT holds their state XC meets. I did also have the run that almost crushed the streak by nearly snapping my ankle.

4. Croton Point Park: 12 Runs (3.3%)
An amazing over the top loop with fantastic views of the Hudson (and some hill to it, which not all of the runs have). This is one of the first parks we visited when we moved 'Up North' and I thought this area was very cool. And this weekend -- it's Eagle Fest.

5. The Pump House: 10 Runs (2.7%)
There is no secret about this place, it can be really crowded on a Saturday morning with lots of runners (which can be fun in itself). The best part about running here, besides the killer views of the Croton Reservoir, is the fact that I convinced RFJCPA to come out and join me for a lot of them. I liked this run so much, I picked it for a super run on 'Leap Year Protection' day (1/1/12) as run #366

Garmin is Great at some, not all

RunningThree65 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:30:00 +0000

Garmin is great at some, not all things.

I love my Garmin 405. It's amazing. A 'normal' looking watch that fires up fast, fairly good battery life, tracks all of this great information on my runs, and automatically uploads it to a pretty slick Garmin Dashboard.

I had a 2 other Timex GPS (which I'm sure, other than the size) for a long time and they weren't the same. Too many components, took forever (sometimes > 5 mins to fire up), etc. and getting the data into a usable format on the web was a challenge.

So tracking and storing -- Garmin is amazing, but analyzing, which is why a lot of folks these days like tracking so much information these days, Garmin falls short -- WAY short.

I can do simple searching and one offs, but if I want to dig in -- there are no tools to that online, and one could safely argue, it really shouldn't be there. Garmin isn't Excel, Access or a professional grade statistical software package, nor should it be.

All they should do is allow me to export the data to whatever I want (via a csv or xls file) and be on my way. There is an 'export' button on the reports, but here's the catch and it's a *big* one.

'Export' only exports the data the up to 20 records on the screen that you are looking at. So, if you are like me, and want to extract the entire year of runs, 385 records (some race warm ups, a couple of double downs, etc. is why it's more than 365), you have to click, export, click, export, click, export to page through all of the data, 20 records at a time and then copy and paste them all together into one spreadsheet.

If you were really tech savvy, you could write script to process all of them together, but it most likely wouldn't be worth it for most users.

Very, very, very frustrating. Especially, since in this day and age, where data is almost king over content -- what's the point of collecting if I can't data munch?

400. The story ends here.

RunningThree65 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:50:00 +0000

The last 31 days have taken more will power than the previous 365 before that. Running has taken over in only the true definition of addiction.

"ad·dic·tion [uh-dik-shuhn]
noun - the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. "

In the past month,

'The Injury' reappeared for a day.
I took an awesome tumble onto the frozen ground that ended up leading to an X-Ray.
I tapped my shin on the car door twice when out for a run enough that it hurt running.
Schedules are seeming to be and more complicated.

And yet, the running has continued. So, I figured (and based on a gentle but firm nudge from S (and she's right, like she is so much of the time)) it was time. Time to set a finish line and finish strong.

That finish line is 400 runs in a row. Then a pause, and then probably the quick resuming of running. I like the habit, I need the fitness and overall, I think I'm mentally better because of it.

Streaking has always been a habit

RunningThree65 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:34:00 +0000

Out on a run yesterday, it hit me. I know I had realized that I had set up streaking challenges before like 'swimming in the Lake every day all summer long' (successful)' or 'hitting 365 bars in 365 days' (unsuccessful) but it actually occurred to me, streaking has been much more wide spread in my life than I realized.

A couple of years ago, at the Gel Conference (which is on hiatus, but definitely keep an eye on this one and make plans to attend it sometime), I attended the 'Zentangle' work shop, which is a great way to focus the 'non creative' types (like me) to enjoy the process of creating interesting drawings in a meaningful and purposeful way.

Later that same day, I attended Noah Scalin's 'Skull a Day'
workshop over at Etsy (cool event, cool space)
which challenged you to make 20 'somethings' in 40 minutes. It was a lot harder and way more fun that you could image but it planted the seed so I combined the two and did one Zentangle every day for 30 days.

When I was hitting 30, I realized that I was drinking six (6!) cans of Coke a day. That's a lot for anyone, especially someone who doesn't think he drinks that much soda. But, that's what working a lot in a startup where soda is free (along with lots of other healthier choices) does to you.

So, on my 30th birthday, I decided that I was going cold turkey, 'zero soda' for 30 days. It ended up lasting over 2 years and until just recently, was only soda on 'Pizza' night. This past birthday, nearly a decade later, I've recommitted to 'just Pizza night' again.

Then I had yet another flashback, from post college when a good friend and I are at a party, meeting some other gals who went to U. Va. and they ask 'Did you streak the lawn...?'

Both of us are waiting for the qualifier: 'recently', 'every year', 'every semester', something. But as it turns out, it was just 'ever.'

I must admit, we probably had a bit of a smug and slightly cocky answer but the truth of the matter was, our last year in school, especially that last spring semester and into summer before we all left town, streaking was a possibility and likely activity any night it wasn't raining (often) and we hit the bars (even more often). So much so, I think it was certainly a couple of times a week at the end and one day I think it might have been twice in one evening.

Now, at the time, it was so much easier to do. 15 lbs lighter and able to run a sub 5 minute mile on demand, as long as I had running shoes on and boxer shorts in hand, I thought my chances of successfully streaking was 100% and the chance of actually getting caught if the police did show up was nil. That's slightly unfair, but the reality was there wasn't anyone I was with (KSRMC wasn't hitting the bars like they do now) typically in the streaking crew who was going to be able to outrun me so I thought I could make it out of there , even if things got dicey (which they never did).

Guess that streaking has always appealed to me.

Just realized something

RunningThree65 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:59:00 +0000

Looking at these pictures, I'm realizing something. I fell down running (perhaps the last time that I did) back in High School, while running down an extremely steep hill (we really shoudn't have been running down) and put a nice little gash, requiring stitches, right underneath the currently jacked up elbow.

We had been having a debate in our house if this constituted a 'running injury.' I was on the side of 'no' because this injury didn't prevent me from running, but as it's gotten to look worse, etc, I'm starting to think I might be on the wrong side of this arguement.

Iverson Style

RunningThree65 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:03:00 +0000

After loving my 110% Play Harder Double Blitz Knee sleeves, I was starting to have some aching calves, so I picked up a pair of these calf sleeves so I could ice them -- and they worked amazing.

Even wore them running a bit, sometimes one at a time and @RunPacer and I were thinking that felt a bit like Alan Iverson style.

But 3 days ago, I managed to crack my shin in the same spot on a car door (again, the universe might be trying to tell me something).

So I've been Iverson-ing one shin under my pants while at work. And it's felt great. Just the compression on the shin that's muscle is a little sore made a big difference.

Still Running...

RunningThree65 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:21:00 +0000

The year of the dragon, and I just can't stop. It's been 'just three more miles' to keep the streak going.

I have decided that I'm going to pick an end date and stop for at least one day.

Ouch!

RunningThree65 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:26:00 +0000

I've been reading Stephen King's '11/22/63: A Novel' and a word that he uses all of the time through out the first 500 pages (it's a long book!) is obdurate and it talks about how the past fights change.

I'm a big believer that the universe (not quite Oprah scale) gives you signals all of the time and that things happen for a reason. What reason I ended up flat on my back after tripping while running and tumbled onto frozen ground, bruising up my elbow really nice, rubbing a couple of layers of skin off (under 2 layers of clothing mind you) and putting a small tear into my wicked awesome new winter running jacket (D'oh!), I'm not really sure.

But I did pause, as I was looking up at the sky and saying 'Man, that hurt' if perhaps someone was trying to tell me something. That perhaps have 385 consecutive runs, and not having consistenly run in *three* years prior, that perhaps it was time to count my running blessings and push pause on the effort (it's been really hard to stop, it's just such a habit now).

But after I managed to make it to my stretch goal of my birthday so the entire 25+13th year was spent with running in it, it was perhaps time to just take myself out for a day, to lessen the burden of the streak and just put 'enjoyment' back into the reason to run.

I'm torn, but I think it is the right way to go.

Chrysler Building, I did to you

RunningThree65 — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Besides being my favorite building in NYC, I have a confession to make. I 'Chrysler Building' my network a bit in this effort, when I was asking folks to help me reach my fund raising goal of $3,650 dollars.

What? Let me explain.

If you have ever read the book 'Higher,' you'll know what I mean (recommended reading too if you haven't read it). The book is about the battle to be the tallest skyscraper in New York during the Great Depression between the Chrysler Builder, Empire State and 40 Wall St.

Forget that the entire economy was in the tank, the architects and owners of this projects were obessed to be the tallest. So much so, the builders of the Chrysler Building actually built the spire inside the building and then cranked it up out the top, adding all of this additional height.

Forget the actually engineering marvels that had to happen at the time in order to make this happen, but it just showed a complete obession with winning.

In my case, when I was asking folks mid December to help me reach my goal, I actually had it in the bag already, with $1,115 dollars raised off line (inluding a 'Big Dog' donation -- thank you!).

The summary grand totals post is still a WIP, but I'll get to it soon.

3.6.5!

RunningThree65 — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:12:00 +0000

The best laid plans of mice and men. I'd been thinking about what was going to be my 365 run for about a month (when I finally allowed myself to think about the finish line).

I'd come to the conclusion that it was going to be an 8-9 mile Pump House to Dam out and back. A beautiful run that I've just wanted to do for a long time.

And yet the day came, we were still out of town with our new little one and so it was clear it just wasn't going to happen, but what for sure was going to happen -- I was going to get a run in somewhere.

As also expected, I was smiling like a fool to myself for over half of the run -- it felt amazing.

At the end, it became clear to me. Time to throw out some Tebowing. Everyone else is doing it? Why not here @RunningThree65?

#1 - It's here

RunningThree65 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Amazing. What started out as a 'let's run today' after a drought of 3.5 years of running as a habit has become 364 days of running in a row.

That's awesome! I'm so pumped with how this effort felt, turned out. The phyiscal part was great, but the mental discipline was incredible.

I can't believe that tomorrow will be the finish line.

#2 -- Smiling All the Way

RunningThree65 — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:40:00 +0000

AC/DC told me last year, when he was wrapping up his 365 running effort that he was smiling all of the time in December, when he realized he was going to make it.

He was absolutely spot on. The last mile, I was ear to ear with a grin this afternoon.

2 runs to go -- I can't wait!

Stopped to say 'Thank You'

RunningThree65 — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:25:00 +0000

The holidays are tough to get out there and run, with all of the family around and if it doesn't happen first thing, it's inevitable that it's going to be happening close to if not in the dark.

And my latest clothing weapon to battling the darkness is this awesome (pay attention @runpacer) night time running jacket from Adidas.

It's actually so bright that it hurts to look at (IMO) during the day in bright sunlight, but give it the nighttime -- and it's amazing.

So I was out there getting it done, just as the sun was gone and came to an intersection where I was waiting for cars in order to cross.

I'm standing next to a woman driving who had passed me a couple of hundred of yards back and suddenly she's rolling down her windows. I'm at my in-laws (and near a high school) and so I'm thinking if she's asking for directions, she's asking the wrong guy.

But she proceeds to say 'Thank you. Thank you for wearing something so visible so I could really see you. I don't know why/how folks get out there and aren't very visible.'

I responded with 'Of course and how does it happen? I was in high school once and you just don't have a clue.'

With the addition of the latest gear, it's just adding to a pretty fun (and well functioning arsenal of gear).

If you are running at night in the winter -- this is the jacket for you. Full stop.

#3 - Working out every day

RunningThree65 — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:47:00 +0000

I know I set out to do this, but I had the realization that I've worked out at least 25 minutes every single day this year.

That's an awesome feat and it really hit me that it feels great.

I'm really torn on how long to keep this going. Right now, I'm enjoying the spoils of having a bowl of ice cream every night being nearly standard issue and also realizing that the only way I'm hitting '10,000 steps' a day is with at least of 3 miles of running.

It's a little scary to realize that if I'm not running, I'm not getting the recommended movement and I consider myself to be in pretty good shape.

#4 -- High hopes, but it's going to take some more work.

RunningThree65 — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:35:00 +0000

Was thinking it would be great to provide a recap of the runs over the year, longest mileage, closest runs together, etc.

Thought it would be easy breezy using connect.garmin.com but it turns out there 'export' feature somewhat bogusly only exports the records in the screen that you are looking at (20 or so) not the entire record set (in this case 320, remember, I didn't get the Garmin until 3/30/11).

Boo -- going to take a while to get this pulled together.

#5 - Anything a bummer about this effort?

RunningThree65 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:21:00 +0000

Been thinking about if there have been any negatives about this running every day effort. There have been tons of positives, a couple of aches and pains, but overall -- not really.

And then when I was getting ready for getting away for the Christmas Holiday, it hit me. The one thing I really didn't miss when running wasn't in my life -- lugging the running gear with me on vacation, especially in the winter. This is the bag that I packed for this year's Holiday get away -- all full of running gear.

And that's one thing that I really didn't miss. Having to lug all of this extra stuff (shirt, shorts, extra pair of shoes, socks, watch) to get the runs in while away from home.

#6 : Post Santa

RunningThree65 — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:13:00 +0000

The best part about getting out there on Christmas day? All that new running gear that Santa just dropped off -- is immediately out there.

This year - the weather was perfect, a bunch of gear came my way since I was running every single day and it was awesome.

#7 -- Figuring out something new

RunningThree65 — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:08:00 +0000

The holidays are packed so I was out late on Christmas Eve getting one of the last runs of the year in. However, it was awesome and might be something that I do every year, streak or not.

The next neighborhood over from my in-laws house sets out luminaries throughout their 1/2 of their neighborhood and it was amazing. Plus, everyone has their Christmas lights on and 'done right' for the last final push to Santa's arrival.

And it was really really quiet and really really beautiful. I think I might have a Christmas Eve run a yearly occurence. It just was too great.

#8 : Is running a 'cheap' way to stay in shape?

RunningThree65 — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:58:00 +0000

I’ve been asked over the years if running is an inexpensive way to stay in shape. I think the general answer is ‘Yes’ but the @RunningThree65 answer is ‘Maybe,’ so let’s take a peek.

• 3 pairs of NB 1080 (~$110/each) = $330

Garmin 405, on Amazon = $200
Some new running gear (totally not needed if I’d just looked in the attic) = $300
Gym membership (flexibility to run any where/time of day) $60/month = $720
Oakleys (absolutely not needed) = $100

So if you strip away the ‘nice to haves’, I’d say that $330 is a great price to stay in shape for the whole year, and even ‘all in’ – it’s a great price for keep you out there running every day.

#9: Should my kids run?

RunningThree65 — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:39:00 +0000

As I see friends with kids our ages getting really into football and basketball and all of these other high impact sports, I get a little concerned. I love team sports for the mental attitude, committment, phyical presense, etc that they bring to the table.

But I get concerned with sports like Football, where a life time of football isn't possible. To be really good at it, you have to ultimately make some huge sacrificies and in many cases, you are at 'your best' when you are in high school or even middle school. This I think can lead to 'chasing down past dreams' the rest of your life.

I've always said 'You never want to be your best in 8th grade' and primarily it's because that is a time in your life that will never be repeated. I'm much rather be on an upward tragectory that continues to improve, I'm hopeful, nearly to the grave.

Same thing with sports and so while I wouldn't push my kids to get into running, I will encourage them to find sports and activities that can grow with them and provide a life time of positive impact.

Yesterday, we got a reminder about how much of an impact running has made in our lives over 25 years. Without it, I don't meet my wife, we don't get married, we don't have our first kid and yesterday we don't welcome our 3rd kid and first daughter.

10 Days to Go

RunningThree65 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:40:00 +0000

10 Days to go. Thought I’d celebrate the last 10 with a post each day.

Seems to make sense to start, well, at the beginning. I got into running in 1987, which doesn’t seem that long ago to me, but when you think that ‘The Gipper’ was President – it seems a lot longer.

The reality was in 8th grade, I couldn’t make the soccer team and so I looked around for another sport. At the time, the 600 yard part of the Presidential physical fitness test seemed monstrously long distance and I really didn’t like it. I was into sprinting (and pretty good in 4-6 grade, but kids were lengthening out and getting taller, and I was not) but had a very good friend (and future IC4A Indoor 3,000 meter champion at Notre Dame) convince me to give the Cross Country team a try.

I didn’t have to come back early from summer vacation for practice, so as a freshman so it worked with my Mom's summer schedule requirements and I gave running a shot. My first race, I think I threw up twice and ran something like 24:36 for a 5k (whatever the time, I remember getting 'most improved' by running 4 minutes faster later that same season on the same course), and my Mom thought to herself ‘This isn’t the sport for him.’

But I fell in love with the team, the comradery and the individualistic team sport (5 out of 7 guys score in XC and it’s all by place, point per place and you want the lowest team score. Perfect score is 1+2+3+4+5 =15).

Little did I know how much not making the soccer team would be changing my entire life and lead me on this 24+ year life long adventure.

Did not want to run at 6:30 in the AM

RunningThree65 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:21:00 +0000

I woke up this morning, after kind of a restless night and did not want to get up and out there this AM. But with new baby's due date coming up fast, I figured that 'today' could be 'the day' (or any other day between now and 12/28) so I realized I need to adapt a 'If I can get up and get it done' approach.

Well, sure glad I did. Just as I made it to the City -- got the call. S was at the Dr -- baby is traverse and it looks like we're having a baby today!

So glad that I got the run done!

Come on, how good is 'good enough?'

RunningThree65 — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:26:00 +0000

Caught this article in the NYT yesterday with some folks belly aching about the accuracy of their GPS watch.

Complaining about the watch being off from what Google Maps says and in some cases even being off from other GPS watches along the same running route.

Some of the distances were off by quite a bit.

"My route was 15.96 miles, according to Google Maps. My watch said it was 15.54. Jen’s watch, an older model, did much better. Her route was 19.1 miles. Her watch said 19.02

I'm not 100% sure where they were running, but I'm guessing that it's not quite an 'apples to apples' comparison because how Google Maps measures distances wouldn't be exactly the same as how a free form watch might measure it. And Urban canyons are a problem too.

Then they talk about the incorrectness of mapping and that's not quite a fair comparison either. There are lots of places that could cause the error. The watch might be off, the Google map might have that particular Lat/Long in a slightly different location, etc.all making the map look 'wrong.'

And let's keep in mind -- we're talking about the accuracy of a watch that isn't really much bigger than a normal watch -- how good do we want it to be? And how good does it need to be? Is being .42 miles on 15 miles (being off 3%) or .08 on 19 miles (being off .5%) off really that big of a deal? It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn good and really better than any other options out there.

Personally, I've been thrilled with my @Garmin 405 performance. It's pretty darn repeatable. Over the year, I've only had one run that was wildly different than the same route on another day (and I'm blaming right or wrong, the overcast weather -- makes sense IMUSO for a line of sight technology). And even in a group, with 4 or 5 Garmin's out all at th same time, most of them are all spitting out the same results (except for one guy, who seems to start ~.1 off on the first mile only (he hits 1m when we're at 1.06 or so and then stay accurately behind us by .06 the entire rest of the run), but we just blame it on @runpacer selling him a lemon - even though that is in fact totally not true).

Take it or leave it, I'm a fan and think eveyone else should be too if they are looking for adding some good tech and data to their training.

BTW: this link and comparison is interesting to check out.

365 by 365

RunningThree65 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:29:00 +0000

Earlier in the year, over the summer, I remembered that I used to try and go for a swim every single day all summer long.

But another light bulb (a bit slow to fire perhaps) went off earlier this week. Back in 2005(4?), I had another 365 day project. That one was to hit 365 different bars in 365 days. The rules were a little looser, that's for sure. The highlights that I remember were:

To count, a bar had to have not been visited within the calendar year.
An alcoholic drink was not required, but you couldn't just 'pop' into a bar and call it a 'visit.'
Days off were fine and you could go to as many bars in a single day as you wanted (boy, was this a different time in my life).

And I made a pretty good run at it. I think I got to 200 something odd bars, and blogged about it at a blog called 365x365 (it's gonzo).

During the same year, I was training for a marathon, which definitely started cramping the drinking establishment style and friends started getting a little tired of the effort because as the year went on, lots of good 'local' spots weren't as interesting and that got a little fatiguing.

Then, along came a guy out of Queens (or was it Brooklyn), who had recently retired, and decided to visit 1,000 bars in the same year. But for him, he had to have an 'adult beverage' in each place and had a ton of time on his hands.

For some reason, I let that take some of the wind out of my sails. I'm not 100% sure why I finally sputtered out, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

Awesome!

RunningThree65 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:24:59 +0000

Shorts in mid December. That's awesome. With S working from home before maternity time starts on Wednesday, I decided not to run in the dark but commute in and run during lunch on the WSH where I used to run (commute even) a lot.

It was a perfect day. Sunny, just a touch breezy. Was out there in shorts and with a view of the Statue of Liberty.

Can't complain about that with 20 runs to go.

W and O :: Where it all began

RunningThree65 — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:18:00 +0000

Back to where it all began. Got home last night at 3:00 in the AM.

Woke up at 7:10 and just got up to get 3.000001 miles in. No need for extra miles after a bender night like that and with a 4.5 hour drive ahead.

At least I was smart enough to get up early and get it done. Walking in the door, better rested, at 2 in the afternoon after leaving the Boys with a pregnant S for the past 24 hours and saying 'Got to get out for a run' would not have been well received.

DC

RunningThree65 — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 11:14:00 +0000

Get to DC, knee is OK but I've got to get a run in. We're in a 'tougher' part of the city where a guy in the crew is Vice Principal of a charter middle school. (He's actually Principal but we give him a hard time about it).

And it's getting dark.

So I'm out the door, running in a *huge* park in the Hood and I'm happy because I'm able to run.

Turns out, what I can't really do that great is stop and start running. So the 2 hours of floor hockey and basketball were 1/2, maybe even 1/4 throttle for me.

Next Day

RunningThree65 — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:10:00 +0000

All throughout the chores, bending my knee up and into the car hurt. Pretty bad.

And then going to bed that night, lying on my side hurt a lot, the knee was achy, but i managed to get a good night sleep (after a horrible one the night before with a sick spouse).

But, I was good to go in the AM, ice packs in hand. Not sure what else I can do, but at least I've got a chance to make it to DC and I'm pretty sure I can squeak out 3 miles.

Did that really just happen?

RunningThree65 — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:04:00 +0000

I haven't fallen down the stairs in I'm not sure how long. Let's be generous and say maybe the last time was in college and it was 100% most likely because of too many adult beverages.

The last time I just fell down -- let's say it was 25+ years ago. That is until this afternoon.

Not sure what I was doing, or how I lost my orientation, but I managed to fall off the landing of our hard wood floor stairs and crash down on my hip, knee and face.

I was shocked. It happened so fast, I had no idea what happened. All I knew was it hurt. After that, and I realized I wasn't totally screwed with a broken limb, 2nd thought was (sick, I know) will I be able to run tomorrow (and actually make the trip to DC to catch up with a bunch of old running fools, including @runpacer, @williamedocs and @tmac1660.

Immediately, after bitching up quite a storm and hobbling around the house for 60 seconds, it was to the medicine cabinet for Advil and to the freezer for ice packs.

Then came the conflict. To make the DC trip, I had to bang out a couple of chores. But what I should be doing after cascading onto the floor was be elevating my leg and resting.

I opt-ed to push through.

We'll see what happens.

One Ache that doesn't seem to be going away

RunningThree65 — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:41:00 +0000

I think one of my knees is just a little over the 'daily' exercise of running. It's nothing like 'The Injury' but it just feels a little beat down.

Going up and down stairs can kind of ache. Sitting in the wrong type of chair for a while can ache.

What's funny is that the 'running part' doesn't hurt at all. So perhaps they are totally unrelated.

People you meet

RunningThree65 — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:20:00 +0000

Another thanks goes out to my Mom on this one.

She saw this book, Hamlet's Blackberry, where the title just spoke to her and felt compelled to buy it for me for Christmas last year. As I mentioned before, I read it and became a big fan.

I felt as if the book spoke to me about the challenges of being connected, juggling all of these distractions and missing out on what was actually unfolding in front of me.

I'm sure everyone who reads Bill's book has different take-aways. For me, I see it from the 'Dad' point of view as I watch more and more parents missing out on what's going on in the present, in the '3D' with their children because they are starring at their connected device(s).

What is going out on the Internet that is just that interesting that it's better than hearing your own kid laughing on a swing set? Sharing stuff in real time on Facebook is fun -- especially in this geographically spread out social society we live in. But if you are constantly on Facebook, and interrupting the 'now' -- what will you have to report? 'I'm on Facebook' will be your next status update?

Don't get me wrong -- I clearly like to use the web for lots of stuff (this blog, my Twitter feed -- all perfect examples) but it's got to be a balance. I use my blogs and Facebook to remember and share things that are important. At times, the sharing seems to take over the 'doing' -- and that's a problem. With a run built into the day -- that's a guarentee of getting disconnected at least once a day and it's time I cherish.

The super special part for me about my Mom giving me this book was using the electronic universe to reach out to Bill and make a meaningful connection. Without the Internet -- there wouldn't have been a book and there wouldn't have been a way to connect, a way to meet in person and have his support for my effort.

Amazing.

Look who pushed me over the Finish line.

RunningThree65 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:59:00 +0000

Everyone who contributed to my K&L Legacy fund raising effort helped get me here. But there is always someone, by definition, who's donation actually pushes you over the finish line.

In this case, it was my high school English AP teacher -- John Baynes (over there to the left <--- looking 'very' English Teacher I might add).

Sometime last year, my parents were visting and my Mom brought a news clipping from the local home town paper. It was about him receiving the 'News 8 Golden Apple' teacher award and it reminded me how cool of a teacher he had been for me. Looking back, you really don't know, sitting in your high school chair how 'old' your teachers are (young/old is about as granular as it gets) or what type of 'real life' they have outsite of school They are just teachers. But Mr Baynes had a passion and inspiration to him that was pretty inspring, in particular in a subject that I didn't find super inspiring: English (ed note. I literally took 'English for Engineers' in college -- let's just say we didn't spend lots of times in the 'Classics'). And he was a judge too -- so this guy was unique.

But I remember this guy just seemed to have a vibe to him and was probably younger then than I am now -- which was a lot of responsibility to be leading kids through all this learning.

One of the things he insisted we do is write, and write a lot. I can't remember if it was daily (it felt like it) or weekly (more likely) but he was all about putting you throught the journey of writing.

The topics, the output was almost secondary. Kind of like how Gladwell talks about 10,000 hours in 'Outliers'-- doing it, is how you get good. I'd forgotten all about it for a long time until I started blogging back in 2004 and my Mom mentioned his class to me, and it clicked. After years of blogging, it wasn't as if my writing had become incredible, but it got a lot better. And it's not like my emails had become some sweet prose, but it definitely gotten better and IMO, better than average.

So after seeing him in the paper, I shot him an email. Then he randomly ended up meeting up with my sister on a class trip that my sisters friend was faciliating in Europe and we finally ended up connecting.

I told him that the seed for this 7 year adventure I'd been on blogging was planted in his class and I said 'thank you.'

Well, wouldn't you know it -- I sent him an update on my @RunningThree65 effort and it was his specific donation that put me over the top of my $3,650 fund raising goal.

To which, I say to him and to all of my other supporters -- 'Thank you.'

Boom!

RunningThree65 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:27:00 +0000

That is awesome! Just crossed the threshold of $3,650 dollars raised for my @RunningThree65 effort.

24 runs to go and I'm thrilled with the results all around.

Thanks so much to everyone who has donated.

What a different 7 days makes

RunningThree65 — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:19:00 +0000

What a difference a week can make. After just an excellent run around a reservoir last weekend, where I basically was running nearly as fast for 50% longer as I had in the Turkey Trot the day before, I felt like doubling down and going back there again over this past weekend.

But when I got out there, it was a totally different ball game.

1) The week before I started out just behind someone and figured I'd try and catch up with them. There has been a lot of solo runs and just thought maybe this guy would accept the company.

Turned out, I caught up to him at 2 miles in and he barely said more than 'hello.'

2) I hadn't slept great two nights prior (the big impact from a bad night sleep (if it's a one off) is actually two days away.

3) It was in the AM, not right just before dark.

And it was a world of difference. I ran nearly 90 seconds slower.... PER MILE. Not just for the 4.7 mile route, but for every mile nearly the entire way around.

Last week, 'Around the Reservoir'

This week, 'Around the Reservoir'

That's a big swing. And as I was picking an image for this post, the flick 'Groundhog Day' came to mind because I'd done the same thing two Sundays in a row.

But then it occurred to me that some would think about this entire journey as 'Groundhog Day.'

Get up. Run. Life. Sleep.
Get up. Run. Life. Sleep.

Or something close to that order.

The fact of the matter is that couldn't be further from the truth.

Every day is different than the last and you never know how exciting it's going to be. And even further, it's the day after day after day of the event, that actually makes it even more exciting than just hitting a run every now and then.

Felt it

RunningThree65 — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:18:00 +0000

When I got out there today, I felt it. I could 'see' the finish line and smiled as soon as I start running today.

I can see the end of the road, and unlike the last time, I can really feel it.

And it feels (knock on wood) great to see the end.

Bummer! Then there was one.

RunningThree65 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:54:00 +0000

So I mentioned finding the 1095miles.com crew a couple of weeks back. Well, what started out as 4, has whittled down to 1. One to injury, one to falling off the radar and the latest 'casualty', 60 days in was due to illness (the flu).

Which makes me realize how lucky I've been (knock on wood) this year. Minus one bought with Strep and the wicked ankle twist, I've been lucky enough to avoid any serious illnesses or injury, which in season's past have, especially since we've had little ones have nearly always put me flat on my back.

(Remind me how foolish it was to say anything and I'm clearly not learning -- In fact -- does my throat hurt right now as I type?)

With less than 35 days to go, I'm thinking that I'm going to limp,shuffle or roll through this one.

On the flip side, I realized that one of the alum from 1095miles.com is tracking to hit 12 marathons in 12 months.

Now that's hardcore for sure.

Not my observation, yet so true.

RunningThree65 — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Back in January, part of this challenge was seeing if I even had any hope of trying to get a challenge like this to fit into the schedule. Forget the fact that I hadn't been running regularly in 3+ years, it was that life was a lot more complicated and my time had become far from just 'mine.'

If it worked, and I was successful, I thought the mileage and time would both organically grow over time. However, that's not exactly how it's played out.

At the beginning, it was just taking 3 miles and fitting it into as small a container as possible. Then by the end of March, with the introduction of the Garmin, it was basically the same mindset with the added caveat of taking the watch somewhere cool to map as often as possible.

Months later, what I found interesting that didn't happen was the mileage increasing. Turns out, while 3 miles fits pretty nicely into my schedule, any more really doesn't.

Then I found someone who wanted to meet up regularly on the weekend (which on a journey like this makes a big difference) and get out there. So that required a 15 minute drive to meet him, combined with a desire to make meeting up 'worth it', the mileage edged up to 5 miles on that one day of the week, and the rest of the week remained relatively unchanged.

But the overhead was creeping.

~50 minutes of running, plus 30 minutes of travel time, combined with a 'pick up bagel breakfast' to help sweeten the pot for those left behind at home and it wasn't that efficient, but all of it was fine.

Now, as we're in the home stretch, in the past 3-4 weeks, all of the sudden, I find myself wanting to go to my favorite spots more and more. And I got called on it this weekend, after a race on Saturday and a solo trip to the reservoir on Sunday, when S said -- 'The impact to our lives has been increasing more and more over the past couple of weeks, don't you think?'

To which I replied 'You know you are right, but we're almost there and thank you!' and scooted out the door for an absolutely spectacular run and 1st revisit for this route since July.

#330

RunningThree65 — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:01:00 +0000

Thanksgiving always means way too much food and what seems like a plethora of Turkey Trots -- so I figured why not -- I was going to be running.

Right off the bat, I knew this race was like no other that I'd run this year.

The race starter asked the field of 400 runners if anyone was going to be running faster than 5 minute miles -- excuse me?

I saw a guy wearing an 'enclave' singlet -- seriously?

And the winner when out and won by throwing down 5:36 miles.

I put in a good effort, and thought I might be close to the 'age group medals,' but turned out I was 28th overall and then 8th (!) in my age group. 8th! I was really surprised and the Boys couldn't figure out why I didn't get a medal as usual.

I told them we could work on a project together that afternoon where they could make me medals and my oldest replied 'No, that wouldn't be fair to the other racers.'

Which I found hilarious and somewhat spot on.

Why the Internet is Amazing

RunningThree65 — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:19:00 +0000

The Internet is amazing. Combine it with Twitter, Facebook, foursquare, etc and it's really unreal who you can connect with.

Last week, I discovered the 1095Miles crew. A collection of folks in various stages of a '3 miles a day x 365 days' journey and all while raising money for a charity. Some are done, some are just getting started and some had lost their way.

But today, one of them was feeling a little tapped out in the motivation department and so out goes the Tweet (feels like the modern day Bat signal for mere mortals).

Next thing you know, I'm replying with some support.

My thought was simple, especially for where she is in the journey (just getting 60 days into it).

At that point, the momentum really hasn't taken off and the burden of making mistake and missing a run hasn't set in. IMO, it's all about 'can I get a 3 mile run in today?'

Doing just that, and then that's it -- job done.

Worry about repeating that the next day and that is all. Forget the road ahead.

Don't let the burden of the journey squash your progress of the day.

A First

RunningThree65 — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:33:00 +0000

Had the first thoughts of there actually being a finish line on this effort during a couple of runs this week.

For the longest time, it was just 'let's run today' but I'm finally feeling like I can actually see the end and that's getting pretty exciting.

It's amazing that what started as a day, two days, a week, etc. coming from a guy who hadn't run consistently in over 3+ years has tuned out (knock on wood) so well.

I'm happy with the results and have been loving the impact to my routine.

Saw The Donkey Again

RunningThree65 — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:48:00 +0000

Saw the Donkey out running again this AM. This time, it was just before sunrise and he was really moving -- really moving.

But it was also pretty chilly out and he was wearing *bright orange* arm sleeves, which I thought was kind of strange since it wasn't a race, so why not just wear a long sleeve shirt (maybe he's practicing and keeping in check the motto 'Nothing New on Race Day.'

But since it's so dark, it just looks kind of strange and so while I wave and say 'Hey' again, I stare at him perhaps a bit longer than 'usual' and I get a quick and chipper 'What?!' response.

Who is this guy? I think he wants to be the most unfriendly runner in the world. Not for nothing, we've seen each other at least four times now -- some recognition perhaps?

Had to Issue the Salute

RunningThree65 — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:44:00 +0000

Out early one morning this week and the road was crowded. Since school has gotten back into the swing of things, it's been much, much, much busier out there.

I'm fine with that and more than happy to share the road.

But I actually was going around a slight curve and had the car coming towards me actually turn into the curve to get closer to me, rather than giving me a sliver of space.

Immediately, I had to issue The Salute -- I really had no other choice.

When I first started running on this road, I used to be really agressive with the Salute but cut back. Recently, it's been in higher rotation (and justified IMO) but I have thought about the converastion that would ensure if one of these drivers turned around and came back to give me an earful about giving them the finger.

I suspect it would go something like this:

"Hey!"
"Hey there"
"Why did you just give me the finger -- you A hole"
"I'm surprised you had time to come back to discuss it"
"What?"
"I'm surprised you had time to come back to discuss it with me since clearly you were in such a hurry. That could be the only possible reason as to why you were driving way over the speed limit putting my life in danger while I was just trying to get out here and enjoy a little run"
"Grrrr"
"That it?"

Then I'd expect them to speed off again.

Check it out -- the 1095 Folks

RunningThree65 — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Check it out -- found 1095.com when I was looking around on the web tonight. 4 folks (2 men, 2 women) out there trying to run at least 3 miles every day for an entire year.

Pretty cool!

Good luck folks!

Sad state of affairs

RunningThree65 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:36:00 +0000

Met a bunch of marathon finishers including @williamedocs and @runpacer last night after the ING NYC Marathon.

I love Marathon Sunday in New York - it is one of my favorite weekends but after a few brews and getting home later.

Tonight, my legs are dead. I'm heading to bed early. And no, I didn't even run the marathon.

Legs are sore.

RunningThree65 — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:45:53 +0000

My legs are feeling sore. A little beat up actually. This morning I woke up with them just feeling achy. The little Crocs adventure earlier in the week didn't help -- that's for sure.

Maybe after a nice weekend, things will get back to normal.

Unexpectedly overheard

RunningThree65 — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:29:00 +0000

Lots of chatter at the gym this AM about power outages caused by the major snow storm. One guy was explaining to another guy how he's been living at his office.

The other guy responds and says yes, he had been too. He's got kind of a loft space that is part office/part hang out since his Wife, Kids are always coming by.

A couple of minutes later when asked if he sometimes lives there, he said sort of -- you know because 'my kids, my wife, my girlfriend' -- they are always coming in and out.

Come again?

Bound to Happen

RunningThree65 — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:24:00 +0000

Once a week, I've got to drive to an office (normally, it's a train to the office). Without traffic it should take 45 minutes. With traffic it can take 60 minutes and the worst performance to date has been 90 minutes.

Running every day is all about finding the time to make it happen. And if I can get to the office in the no traffic time frame, that's 45 minutes back in my life that is a lot of the time that's required to get the run in. So, I try and leave very early, get near the office, get my run in there, hit the gym and then be on my way.

It takes a lot of planning and coordination to get the bags ready, the clothes in the car, etc and get out the door early. So it was bound to happen. Today, when I got to the park to get my run in -- I can't find my running shoes in the car.

I had a pair of dress shoes and the Crocs that I was wearing. Thinking about it, figured that I could muscle through 3 miles in the Crocs, especially in the more minimalist foot strike that I've adopted this year.

So out I went. I stayed on the roads rather than hitting the wet, muddy trails. Made me think about the description of the old tire based shoes that were discussed in the book 'Born to Run.' I'm pretty sure those shoes would actually be better than the Crocs, but it felt like the same idea.

Also brought back another high school flash back to another AHartsig story, where one day he ended up just doing his entire 10 mile long run in Tevas. At the time, when running shoes were totally bigger, better, more cushy -- it was a crazy concept.

Now with all of the minimalist running going on these days, it seems much more 'the norm.'

How was it? Actually not that bad -- and I'm pleased that the run in done for today. We'll see how my legs feel tomorrow after this little Croc adventure.

Another Winner!

RunningThree65 — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 11:37:00 +0000

R an an incredible trail run, 'Rocky's 5k'this weekend put on by Friends of Rockefeller State Preserve Park before Snowcalsp 2011 showed up and it was awesome. Fantastic course, trail the whole way. A small number (hundreds of participants) and really just a great event.

While I didn't have as strong or clear of a race game plan as I did for the Croton 10k, I figured I'd just get out there and get settled for the 1st mile and then see what I could do for the remaining 2.1 miles.

That translated into 6:30 miles (not bad for little speed work) and turns out -- be a medium size fish in a small enough pond and you get a chance to be an 'Age Group Winner' -- AGAIN! That makes it 3 for 4 in terms of being on top of the podium in my age group and just off the podium in the 4th race.

The Boys are thrilled with the performances to date -- and I am too.

3 Hunge

RunningThree65 — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:15:00 +0000

Man. 300 runs on the books for myself and @RunPacer . That's pretty awesome.

Injury Recap

RunningThree65 — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:12:00 +0000

Seems like now is as good a time as any.

1) 'The Injury' -- all but gone.
2) Pulled Muscle in Calf -- all good.
3) Left Knee -- hurts, especially at times going down stairs, but is absolutely pain free while running.
4) Legs -- can feel absolutely dead in the morning, like I've been running all night long.

Overall, I'd say pretty good.

Getting Very Close

RunningThree65 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:03:00 +0000

With less than 100 runs to go, I'm within 10% of the fund raising goal.

I cannot say 'Thank you' enough.

Another Race under my Belt

RunningThree65 — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:04:00 +0000

Hit a 3rd race and it was awesome. One, because it was a 10k, which is always a little more challenging. Two, because it went somewhere. The course started in town, went out to one of the iconic areas (the damn) and then back.

It didn't shy away from being a hard and hilly course.

And that's what I loved about it. When you were done, you could really say 'I went somewhere,' not just I ran around until a 10k was over.

I was also really pleased with my racing strategy. I knew the course was hilly so I wanted to sit back for 3 miles and then press for 3 miles. I had a great time actually slowing down constantly for the second mile and then perhaps one of the best downhill sections of racing in my life. By the time I was at the bottom of the hill, my legs felt great, my heartrate was way down and I was on to the final 2+ miles back up into town.

It was awesome.

I have not been that mad in a long time

RunningThree65 — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:33:00 +0000

Had one of those days. One of those days that just made me so mad, I could hardly contain myself.

So much so, that I actually doubled down on a run. Ran in the AM, got my daily in but then by 3:00 in the afternoon, my focus was so shot because I was so frustrated, I felt like I had nothing else to do but go for another run.

You know, it worked.

Got a Cankle

RunningThree65 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:31:00 +0000

The ankle has been getting a nice regimine of ice and Advil and it's been feeling great! However, I took the Boys biking today and glanced down and looked like my ankle had been nearly lost in my calf.

Very strange.

In particular because my ankle hasn't hurt at all.

Not sure what to make of this.

Brand New Day

RunningThree65 — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:38:00 +0000

Wow. What a difference a day of Advil and Ice makes! I was shocked (pleasantly so) to find that my ankle, that I thought was almost a goner right after I cranked it over yesterday in the AM was feeling almost perfect this morning when I got out there for my daily 3.

That's very good news.

Thanks my Man.

RunningThree65 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:01:00 +0000

When I'm running a race or out away from the house, I'm trying to wear my @CustomInk @RunningThree65 tech t-shirt to drum up some business about my effort.

I've often wondered if the text on the back was too small.

Today, after I was walking into the gym, post run, the trainer right inside the door said '3 Miles a day -- that's hardcore. That's HARD CORE!'

Thanks my man -- I appreciate it.

Houston. Another problem.

RunningThree65 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:37:00 +0000

Ouch. This morning, out early for a run in Waveny Park and was going through my day, goals, etc. I was looking down, but apparently wasn't paying attention, because all of the sudden, I cranked my ankle over so hard and far -- like I haven't done in a super long time.

I heard something pop or what have you and for a split second, I thought the Streak was dunzo and I was going to be walking back to the car.

Couple of hobbles and everything seemed OK. I put in the rest of a 3 mile run and everything seemed OK still. Went straight to the Gym and then to CVS, dropping $50 on ice packs, Advil etc.

Now it's just an 'Ice, Advil and Wait' game.

So far, so good, but I'm scared what tomorrow morning might bring.

Moment of Clarity

RunningThree65 — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 13:49:00 +0000

I was fortunate to run on a Division I Cross Country and Track team @ Virginia. We were a good, not great, team in the ACC and we certainly had some great runners on the team.

I really was not one of them.

I managed to run just well enough to make the team and just well enough to earn two Varsity Letters, which are two of my more personally satisfying achievements in my college career. I also managed to make a bunch of lifelong friends (and even through them, my wife) which would have made running even dead last on the team worth it.

At the time, we had an assistant coach who had run at Virginia, a good old proper Southern gentleman. Spoke so slowly for the folks from the North, but meant well, loved Virginia and loved the team. He also wasn’t that fast, but that didn’t keep him from showing up day in and day out, putting in the effort to support us, even when at times, we didn’t get it.

We were fast college kids who thought we were great and who was this guy? ‘What was the team like back then if this guy was on it’ was I’m sure a thought that crossed everyone’s mind, because I know it crossed mind.

Flash forward 15 years and while I’m out on a run, one that is starting slowly, and it hits me like a bolt of lightning.

Since we were all in college together, the Virginia XC team has gone bananas. Two coaches later, the most recent being actually a friend of a guy on the team back then, is absolutely amazing and national contenders on many levels.

Check out this video of Robby Andrews -- Virginia’s amazing 800m runner winning the 2011 800m race outdoors.

As I was thinking about the fact that even ‘old me’ would have lapped me in a one mile run a couple of weeks ago, I had to think what Robby Andrews and the crew would say if I showed up at practice and tried to go out even for an easy training run with them.

It is so clear to me that I’d be ‘that guy,' who now I understand much better.

Chase. An Awesome XC Game

RunningThree65 — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:33:00 +0000

Been finding myself in CT more and more for work, so I stopped off at the Babcock Preserve to get a run in one day on my way home. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment. The trails were great for hiking but way to rutty for running, not that well marked and just not worth it when combined with all of the mud created by the weather that we’ve been having.

I found a trail map right inside the park and thought I’d found a good looking loop to try, the slightly longer than I wanted to run, in a nice loop, but it just didn’t work out. I got lost, it was getting dark and I was getting ticked.

Even with my GPS gadgetry, all I knew was if my battery didn’t die I’d be able to look on a map after the fact how lost I was, but right now, in the moment, it wasn’t helping me out at all.

But I did have an amazing flash back.

Back in high school (Once a Raider, Always a Raider), we used to run nearly 20 miles over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday each week. Tuesday was race day and that was always the same. 3.1 mile run the course warm up, 3.1 mile race, 3.1 run the course warm down (which I don’t think was standard issue for most high schoolers). Then on Wednesdays for recovery, we took a bus to Mendon Ponds Park and ran 10 miles on some awesome trails. On the luckiest of those Wednesdays, we would play a game named ‘Chase.’

The team would split into two groups, with a lead group of about 10 guys and Coach going out first with a 5 minute lead. The objective was simple. The ‘rest of us’ had to get out there and hunt them down. The lead group had to stay in a pack and I’m fairly certain that the tailing group could split up, or perhaps better stated, they didn’t have to stay together.

On this particular October day, probably about twenty years ago, Crowell, AHartsig and myself somehow got separated from the trailing group. And then got ourselves turned around. Mendon Ponds Park is immense and as you are running all over the trails back and forth, it’s not impossible to get turned around. Considering we were there weekly, it didn’t happen that often, but tonight it did big time.

I can still remember the folk in the trail that we came to and where all three of us agreed to go the ‘wrong way’, taking us 180 degrees from the direction of the bus. Finally, we broke off the trail and on to the road, we knew we’d made a big mistake. At least we now knew where we were – far away from the bus – but it was dark and we were tired. Never the less, off we continued.
I think we probably got back to the bus within 5 minutes of pure panic on Coach’s part, but I’d never been so tired and happy to be on that bus home.

My only regret, that we didn’t have a GPS mapping of the run so we could see where we made our most critical mistake.

Pick a Small Pond

RunningThree65 — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:30:00 +0000

The Boys were curious that if after their swim lessons there would be another race for me to run (just happened to be one their 1st week of swimming the week before). Turned out there was another small 5k nearby and I decided to check it out.

The Buchanan 5k – which amazingly has been going on for 4 years now and has almost no Internet presence at all. I actually had to drive back to where I saw a banner for the race in town in order to find out when and where it was.

It was small, no championship and slightly shorter than the advertised ‘5k’ but it was still fun.

After the little tweak I felt in my knee on Wednesday, I had decided that if I were to run a race again this weekend, there was going to be no dropping the hammer. I’d give it one speed and let that see where it took me. Turned out 6:35’s put me in the front of the race, comfortably trailing the leader who was doing all of the hard work (and a guy I figured out before the race was going to be one of the guys in the front).

The race set up was awesome. Two small tables, small group of runners, no champion chip, etc (which I love, but you realize takes away a little bit from the ‘joy of racing, just line up and go.’ ) We all walked to the starting line together, we all collected at the end and all said and done it was probably a 2.5 hour effort on the day of race – really perfect and you forget how cool small experiences like that are.

The course did a loop in one direction, passed the starting line going the opposite direction and then a loop out and back. As I headed back to the starting line, I was right behind the guy in the lead and wanted to stay there, but somehow I just couldn’t keep it there and ended up creeping up side by side with the guy, where we remained for about a mile (long time in a 5k).

On the way out for the loop, it was a gentle uphill to the turn, and I figured that would be great to use on the way back so at the turn cone, I put a little move on and came away with a couple of stride lead.

I also knew that I had committed to not dropping the hammer at all and if I really wanted to win this race outright, I would have to put a lot more space between me and this guy *before* the turn. But not really being in any type of race shape, I was just wanting to maintain a good pace and not completely fall apart.

With about 1/2 mile to go, this guy made a move to what he thought was the finish (and turned out not to be )and when he said that, I thought he might be done. Meanwhile ,I was just sticking with my game plan, in the 6:25 mile gear and seeing what happens.

Turns out, with ¼ mile to go, the guy made another move and probably ended up winning by 10 seconds. I was fine with that, and just felt good to be out there and not having the knee bothering me.

I asked him if he was going to run anymore and he said ‘no,’ so maybe he left it all out there on the course.

That effort was good enough for a 2nd weekend in the row of being the ‘Age Group Winner’ so I’ll take it. This time, the race shirt was pretty cool, with the quotation ‘Make Your Mark With Every Step’ and I won a $20 gift card to Coles Market.

Not bad for getting in my 3 miles for the day and a $15 entry fee.

Also told the organizer of the race, you’ve got to get on the web, even if it’s a very simple URL like ‘www.buchanan5k.com’ just to get yourself searchable – in that alone, I think you’d get more people to show up and help your cause.

That was a strange ping

RunningThree65 — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 07:31:00 +0000

Got back from an early run this AM and was walking up the stairs to say hello to the Boys. Half way up the stairs, I felt a little strange ping in my right knee.

Not sure if it will amount to anything or a real injury, but it wasn't something I liked feeling.

Whatever Donkey

RunningThree65 — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:21:00 +0000

Couple of weeks ago (maybe 6), I was up and out there for my earliest run of the year -- probably around 6:15 in the AM. While it wasn't dark still since it was the middle of summer -- it was tough being out there that early.

Surprisingly that day, I probably saw more runners on my local route from my house than I have seen all year on this particular route. Including one guy who was motoring pretty quick. I saw him coming the other direction, said a quiet 'hey' and waved to him.

Meanwhile, he belted out a 'hello' and didn't hear me so I was quickly greeted with a follow up 'Whatever, Dude.'

Thought to myself -- is this guy serious? It's O Dark early and this guy is getting on my case about not saying hello loud enough? That's crazy.

So today, I saw him coming again, and I got ready. I got ready to give him a good hearty 'HELLO.'

Which I did.

And you know what he did? Nothing. Absolutely zippo. Just trucked on past me. 100% chance he heard me and yet I got nothing.

Are you serious? After giving me a hard time for not saying 'hi' loud enough, this guy blows me off.

Ridiculous.

Ready for the return of EDT

RunningThree65 — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:15:00 +0000

The last couple of runs have been early and have been dark. Surprisingly dark. I don't think in my entire life I've ever been 'ready' to 'fall back' away from Daylight Savings Time, but this year -- I can't wait.

Since my evening runs are exclusively done in the dark, having it get dark eariler isn't an issue. But the morning time -- getting out there so early this AM with a headlamp was a bit ridiculous and so I can't wait to 'fall back.'

Any doubt removed

RunningThree65 — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 07:26:00 +0000

I have put a lot of faith into my success running past 'The Injury' in a change in running style. After years of being a much more heel striker (shoes in the picture), I believed that I've transitioned to be much more of a forefoot striker (barefoot in this picture) but it's always hard to tell because to be quite honest, this picture is wildly exaggerated in both directions so I think it's hard to tell and some times I'm just not sure.

I know my shoes definitely showed different wear and tear, but I still was almost doubtful.

That is until my first step at 6 AM on Sunday when I was shuffling out to the Pump House to get a good 6 mile run in, a day after the race that I ran in some racers I found in the attic the day before (with maybe a marathon on them if that).

The forefoot of my feet were so sore. Sore enough, after a couple of steps I was questioning if I was even going to be able to get out there and go for 3 miles, much less 6.

While the pain was temporary, I was thrilled to have a real physical cue that something has changed. For the better and hopefully permanently.

Hardware is all that matters to the Boys

RunningThree65 — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:22:00 +0000

I love this local race. It's fun, it's close, supports a great local school cause and it's easy to sign up, even on race day and just do it. They made some modifications to the start of the course, making it even better and I love a good local event.

And a 5k fits very nicely into 3 miles a day. That, along with the some swimming lessons for the boys at nearly the same place at the same time -- it was perfect.

It's a course that takes you over some stairs (not ideal) but then slowly down hill for about 1.5 miles, loop around and come back up. My first year -- I was tapped out by the time I made the turn to come back up, so this year I had a sit and wait approach.

Turned out to work great! Put in a OK time and actually took 1st place in my age group. Now, I think they actually award places to the first Ossining resident, after filtering out the 1st place, 2nd place, etc finisher so I think technically I was 2nd in my age group, but the hardware says '1st.' (Had to dig into the archives, but turns out, this isn't the first I've placed first -- last time, by the miracle of him being gracious and stepping aside, I beat Khalid Khannouchi.)

To the boys, it could say 'DEAD LAST' and they couldn't care less. What they really wanted to know about it was if they could hang it in their room.

I said 'You bet!'

A new stress on the scene

RunningThree65 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:45:00 +0000

A recentl development has started affecting me. Outside of the 'collective toll' that I think it starting to affect my left knee (not 'The Injury' knee), I'm starting to find it more and more stressful if I don't get up and get my run in.

I was never much of a morning runner, and 'first step' runs remain actually painfully stiff for the first 1/2 mile, but I've definitely gotten used to getting out there early.

So these days, as the streak is getting up there, if I don't have it done first thing, or at least a plan exactly when it will happen -- I'm starting to get more and more stressed. Concerned that my life, which isn't super simple, but with lots of dependencies will go in the blender on schedule and even in the dark, I won't be out there and done before 11:59 PM, or even worse -- that I would just plain forget.

It seems so unlikely, but I guess more and more, I'm just not taking any chances.

Cummulatively, I think it's adding up

RunningThree65 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:14:00 +0000

'The Injury', knock on wood, seems to be totally contained and really not an issue.

Which simply put is awesome.

I have bee noticing however over the past 2-3 weeks that going up stairs in my left knee however has been hurting a little bit. Just kind of painful. Not quite like anything else that I've felt with respect to knee pain ever, but certainly not nice.

Feels like the grind of daily might be catching up with me just a little bit.

The 1st Mile

RunningThree65 — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Been talking to McG a bit about how slow the 'first mile' can be some days. For guys who used to 'set it and forget it' at 7 min miles, even though by the end of a 10 mile run, our pace was very often way faster than that.

But the only reason you really knew it was because your watch (this this one -- the Timex Ironman -- one I had and personal favorite growing up) read less thatn 70 minutes and you just hammered out a run that you knew was 10 miles long.

With all of the new gadgets and GPS gear that everyone wears these days, now we know a lot more. So it occurred to us, maybe it wasn't just age working against us, making that first mile really slow on the start.

Maybe, just maybe, it's always been this way, we just didn't know it.

Now, there is no way they were 10 min miles like some of the numbers I've put up for the 'first mile' this year, but maybe they were a heck of a lot slower than we ever dreamed of.

Inspiration in our own backyard

RunningThree65 — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:27:00 +0000

Took the Boys out this morning to watch the Toughman Triathlon. A 1/2 Iron Man. It's in an amazing setting but unfortunately, IMO, hard for spectators to get in and really enjoy it.

So what better way to get the boys there but then to overload our double stroller and run them there. It was awesome. Not only did the Boys love running together with me, they really liked the race.

I mean really liked it. They wanted to watch swimmers coming out of the water for almost an hour.

When watching the swim, I noticed a bunch of guys on paddle boards. I've got to do two things are going this morning.

1) Figure out how to get out there paddle boarding myself.
2) Determine when I'm going to run the Toughman myself.

Getting closer

RunningThree65 — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:47:00 +0000

With some off line donation promises, I'm 90% to goal and I can't thank everyone who has donated already enough.

With a little bit of luck, the charity goal for this entire effort will be reached in time for the 10 anniversay of Laura passing away.

Been running for a while

RunningThree65 — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:24:00 +0000

I like to look at the birthday wall at day care. They list all of the kids birthdays and when you are talking about 2-3 year old kids, a year is a significant percentage of their lives.

But I also get a kick out of the fact that they put the teacher's birthdays up there. So you'll see 2007, 2008, 2008, 2009, 2008, 1983, etc.

Today I realized that our head teacher, who we have now had for both of our kids and really really love.

She was born in 1988. She was born after I'd already been running for a year. Basically running has been in my life as long as she's been alive.

Awesome!

RunningThree65 — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:06:00 +0000

Thought I could use a new 'technical shirt' for running a couple of races that I'm planning on throwing into the mix in so I made this shirt using an awesome service called 'CustomInk.'

Figured that I might as well get the word out with some folks who might be interested in what I'm up to.

What's your Sign?

RunningThree65 — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:42:00 +0000

I live on a rural road, not in a development that has a 30 mile per hour speed limit on it. Ask any of my local friends and they will tell you -- around town, I'm always putzing around while driving. I'm never in a hurry and rarely driving over the speed limit.

Run enough on 30 mph roads and you learn quickly how to pick out those who are sharing the roads and those who are just total space cadets in their own world.

So I've got 3 potential gestures I give to folks who drive by when I'm out there getting my miles in.
1) The friendly Hi -- used when someone gives you a little extra space or clearly slows down, appreciately that they are just lazily driving by on a rural road and you are out there getting it done.

2) The Wave: -- A little way to tell the folks blowing by you -- hey, you are going a little faster than I know you want to or realize and are putting my life on the line. Slow down a bit, will you?

3) The Bird -- almost self explanitory, but when you are buzzing me and way over 30 mph -- you are only getting one thing from me .

For a while when I was out there in 20 degree weather, getting it done, I had a really itchy trigger finger with The Bird, But then I decided that it wasn't helping so I started using the 'The Wave' a lot more and I hope I'm getting better results.

32 vs 24. Big Difference

RunningThree65 — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:38:00 +0000

My high school coach was really big, when not doing two a days, to try and get your run in at the same time, allowing your body the maximize time to recover day in and day out.

At the time, young and fresh, I have to say I thought he was a little crazy. In college, every once in a while I'd be pissed that I ran hard late at night and then would be up early to pound some more out, but not really.

Now a days, I'm really feeling the difference. I actually had a pretty quick run yesterday during lunch and then went for a run this evening 32 hours (rather than the typically ~24 hours) later.

The difference in the feeling in my legs was huge. Which will make the morning run that I'm planning on doing with G and his stroller tomorrow perhaps even heavier.

How fitting

RunningThree65 — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:28:00 +0000

Heading out on run #244 today and that's 66% of the way through the year.

Amazingly, that's exactly where my fund raising effort is too!

Thanks to everyone who has contributed and made this happen!

Weekend Warrior

RunningThree65 — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:04:00 +0000

Cleaning up from Irene last weekend, I was out in my Randall's Island 5K t-shirt circa 2005. (If I'm not mistaken, MWells and I ran into Deena Kastor warming up for her race when we were running after our race, which was cool).

But I had the iPod on, rocking out to unapologetically to Hootie & The Blowfish and was sweating a lot cleaning up the yard.

So I decided to just head out for a run totally weekend warrior style. Cotton t-shirt, iPod on and see what it was like, if really these technical shirts are worth all of their hassle.

Truth be told, this very tight fitting cotton shirt actually did way better than I thought it would, but at the same time, I'm not giving up my technical t-shirts that's for sure.

Irene Schmirene

RunningThree65 — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:35:00 +0000

After spending a couple of hours removing a huge limb that was blocking our driveway in relatively calm wind, I was able to get out for a run, post Irene. Howveer, the wind was gusting, all of the trees swaying more than you'd like to see and there was a 'huge tree' and powerlines through the middle of one of my 'go to' runs from home.

Not perfect, but on the books!

This could get tricky

RunningThree65 — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:03:00 +0000

Hurricane Irene is really trying to screw this up tomorrow and jack up the schedule.

I will not let this happen.

Got a badge!

RunningThree65 — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Noah doesn't mess around! Got my badge today and 100% it's going on the back of a pair of my running shorts.

Run #237

RunningThree65 — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 08:10:00 +0000

Emailed AC/DC who planted the seed on this whole thing today to tell him I was still in it and loving it after run #237. His response was awesome.

"Dude, that is great!!! I can't wait to call you in December. Every run is so fun then cause you know you got it made, you will seriously be running with a huge grin on your face everyday in Dec. I probably looked a little weird. Anyway, Congrats! I would say keep it going but that goes without saying and I'm a million percent sure you'll make it. Nice job!!! I'm definitely jealous. I think I might do it again next year cause I'm jealous of the way you are feeling these days! Talk to you later or see you soon! Congrats again."

I think that just sums up perfectly how great this can feel.

Houston -- do we have a problem?

RunningThree65 — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:08:00 +0000

Hmmm. So just listened to Mayor Bloomberg's press conference. New York City definitely seems to be getting ready for a waloop from Hurricane Irene.

Seems a lot more than the usual posturing and a *lot* of stuff is getting shut down, etc.

Why would I not be surprised to find myself running in the backyard on Sunday or the school next door to get in my 3 miles.

I'm getting a 365 Badge

RunningThree65 — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Cool! Made a video and submitted to Noah over at Make Something 365.He's running a contest for folks to make a short video about their 365 project. I thought it would make sense to make the video (below) while actually out on run #230.

100% chance this badge is going on a pair of running shorts.

What's happening here?

RunningThree65 — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:33:00 +0000

You can take the Boys out of College...

RunningThree65 — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:45:00 +0000

But it's hard to take college out of the Boys occasionally.

I'm a *huge* fan of the book 'Hamlet's BlackBerry' by William Powers. I'd highly recommend this book to everyone. My 10 second summary.

1) All of these screens we are staring at are ruining our lives.
2) Don't blame the BlackBerry (or any other smart phone). This problem has been around a long time.
3) Discussing how Plato, Benjamin Franklin, Shakespeare faced the same challenge and how they used the technology to their advantage. (Did you know Ben Franklin was quite a player?)

Anyways, I sent him a note telling him that one of the things I was doing with my extra time I've created for myself by having my 3rd annual status free summer (no Facebook Status updates, no Tweeting, no foursquare check ins) was getting the word out about this charity effort that I've under taken with @RunningThree65 for The Karen & Laura Legacy Fund.

He shared the link below of a guy who was on the local news for completing his 10,000 run of at least 2 miles in a row.

So I sent this out to @RunPacer and a couple of other guys from the XC team. As the email thread continues, of course we start giving this guy little credit because this guy was only doing '2 miles' -- it's not 3.

What kind of jokers -- 10,000 uninterrupted daily runs -- it's amazing.

I quickly mentioned, after doing some clowning of course, that back in the day, it is wasn't 6 miles we didn't think it was even worth lacing the shoes up. Rather have a day off.

Under that mindset, RunningThree65 for 3 miles a day would nearly be the equivalent of running zero for 365.

Then I asked @RunPacer what he was doing on May 20th, 2038.

Really Feeling It.

RunningThree65 — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:47:00 +0000

I've been doing this for a while, and when folks asked if I'm 'feeling healthier' or have 'lost weight' at the beginning of the year, the answer was actually (and sadly) 'no.'

I wasn't feeling particularly healthier and actually hadn't lost any weight, only staying flat or maybe even increasing one or two pounds, which I attributed to the fact that this rather short daily ritual of exercise (< ~30 mins) was replacing two or three 45 minute sessions on the mind numbingly boring elliptical machine at the gym.

But, recently, over the past couple of weeks, I've been feeling really healthy and in great shape. A couple of pounds lighter but in general, very fit. I'm thinking that it is somehting akin to 'big thoughts' where you have to put some serious and consistent effort into something before you start to reap the rewards.

Past couple of weeks -- It's been tip top and I'm loving the feeling.

60%!

RunningThree65 — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 11:51:00 +0000

Nice! Just hit the 60% mark of my fund raising goal.

Thank you! Thank you!

I'm 'Famous!'

RunningThree65 — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:58:00 +0000

Nice! I'm featured today on Noah Scalin's 'Make Something 365'
blog today. How cool!

I actually met Noah at the GEL Conference one and 1/2 years ago when he was leading a work shop hosted at the Etsy offices about creating things based on his 'Skull a Day' project. (feels and looks like I'm link dropping a bit here (sort of like name dropping but online I guess)). And he led us through a process of 'creating 20 of something' in 40 minutes. I chose to make 20 balls out of any material I could find and while it was a microcosm of what it would take to make something creative every day, you got the feeling about how just the daily committment would make a difference, the pressure you can feel and how it influences and pushing your creativity.

When the friend who planted this whole 'Run 3 miles every day' idea in my head unsuccessfully in Dec 2009 but had almost finished his Run every day in 2010, I mentioned to him Noah's project, his Skull a Day, etc. This guy isn't 'Mr New Media' by any stretch of the imagination but he connected with Noah, bought all his books and just loved the whole deal of 365. (And turns out, they knew some of the same folks down in Richmond, VA).

Anyways, today I'm on the Make Something 365 blog and I'm thrilled! Thanks Noah!

(Funny, that I didn't know I was going to be on the blog today, but at the same time I was out recording a video today to see if I can get me one of those super cool 365 merit badges.)

$1,947

RunningThree65 — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:09:00 +0000

Heck yeah! Just hit 50% of my fund raising goal. Thank you so much for the support!

Athletic Activities + Athletic Activities don't always play nice.

RunningThree65 — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 08:41:00 +0000

It's that time of year again. Time for the annual (and probably last) Bike Trip. If you don't know it, it's a 100 mile ride, over 2 days from West Islip to Montauk that's broken up by stopping at our favorite watering holes and eating establishments along the way.

It always is the same weekend and that always lend itself to being in a very busy part of the summer both work and personally. Every day leading up to the trip is stressful and you are never sure if you are going to be able to make it, should even go, etc.

But when I do, I'm always thrilled I did. Always.

And this year had a bit of a different wrinkle that Shannon asked me immediately when we were discussing logistics -- 'When are you going to get your run in?' (shows she's really on board with the challenge -- woo-hoo!)

Great question! Day 1 was easy, before the ride even got started. But Day 2, after a day of 50 miles in the saddle, a fair number of beers, big dinner and a night out -- getting up earlier than the usual 8:30 go-time wasn't seeming like such a swell idea, but my hands were tied.

It's so obvious from the route that I'm just biding my time, waiting for 1.5 miles to tick off the watch and so I can turn around and go home.

I did discover two rather nice, small houses next to each other on the route. One had a Lamborghini in the drive way, the other a Ferrari. Not bad day cars if you can swing them.

This is why you need a daily plan.

RunningThree65 — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:20:00 +0000

It's 5:20. I'm heading out of town in a couple of hours. Got to pick the kids up soon and I'm basically running out the door to jam in a run.

This is why you need a daily plan in place the day before.

ART is Awesome

RunningThree65 — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:59:00 +0000

As soon as I was done with my Active Release Therapy session -- I could feel the difference, noticing that my leg might have been bothering me even more than I realized.

Off to some ART

RunningThree65 — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:38:00 +0000

This kind of deep muscle pain that I get periodically in my right leg seems to be creeping back. I had it the first time and the worst right before my 1st marathon and just pushed through. Did a couple of 'regular' massages and it was OK.

After the fact, when I could barely walk, I went to check out Dr. Bochner and got some Active Release Therapy (same stuff that James Harrison believes in but Men's Journal describes as too archane --snoozing!) and it was amazing.

This just started creeping a bit so I'm going to go see the Dr. and get it under control.

Changing the Goal

RunningThree65 — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:29:00 +0000

I'm not a fan of changing your goal, once you've started on the journey. Set it, be done and focus on hitting it, not second guessing the goal.

But with this challenge, I think I made a mistake. I'd been focused on so many other aspects of the challenge (what to do, why to do it, when to do it, if to do it, getting the social media stuff fired up (@RunningThree65, on FB, etc) I think I overlooked a detail.

The fund raising goal was something I just copied from the last time I did something for the K&L Legacy Fund where I had no idea how successful I could be (turned out to be 6x more successful than I thought) and for some reason just thought 'copy this again.'

Yet, goals are supposed to make you strive for something and having a stretch goal is always good because if you can't think it, you can't do it.

So, perhaps foolishly, but after an amazing initial response from some supporters, I'm adjusting my fund raising goal to be in line with 365 -- and making it a goal of $3,650 for the year. We'll see if I'm successful, but I think we can make it happen.

Where you been all my life?

RunningThree65 — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:04:00 +0000

A lot of you know that I met my wife through a friend and former teammate of mine in college. We both ran Cross Country and Track together and so no shocker, when we get together for family events (yes, double bonus for me -- most in-law family events have a great friend from college built it) -- we almost always get out there for a run. (In fact, before getting engaged, I remember just trying to get this guy out on a run (neither of us were running that much at the time and he just kept blowing me off so we could discuss it)). But I digress.

Needless to say, we've run together a lot and we've run together a lot at their family Summer cabin (where again, in another small twist of fate, my wife and I actually met for the first time).

And yet today, (and actually for the whole week for him), we ran in an absolutely fabulous place that has been under our nose for the past 12 years and never knew it.

What we thought it was was what's in the thumbnail above. A paved rails to trails that is borded by a 55 mph highway with a gravel parking lot at the end of it. Nice, but certainly not worthy of a 10 minute drive to get to.

Turns out, if you actually run through the parking lot (or start there in the first place), you get to this:

Not only is it a perfect dirt trail 4+ feet wide. It appears to go on forever (or at least 8+ miles in one direction) and amazingly feels like it's slightly down hill in *both* directions. He discovered this huge missing link in awesome places to run this week while on vacation so this AM, we were up early to check it out and it was amazing.

Woo-hoo!

RunningThree65 — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Wow! Got a 'Big Dog' donation today that blew me right past my fundraising goal today. Thank you so much!

Yuck

RunningThree65 — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:53:00 +0000

Finally getting the word out even more

RunningThree65 — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:49:00 +0000

Finally -- started getting the emails out to folks asking for their support. Thanks so much if you have taken the time to donate!

Why, why, why?

RunningThree65 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:56:00 +0000

Why would I say such foolish things.

Within 24 hours of thinking about not being sick all year, guess what? I’m sick and feeling lousy.

Not only am I feeling as tons of congestion is just hanging off my tonsils, my throat hurts and my chest is tight.

Grrrr.
And it’s hot out and I’m still getting out there for my 3 miles to keep the streak alive. Grrr.

7 Months

RunningThree65 — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 11:54:00 +0000

Amazing. 7 months have passed since I started running and I haven’t missed a day. It occurred to me that outside a couple of logistical issues and Mickey’ s vacation, it’s been pretty smooth sailing.

I also realized that I haven’t been sick one day this year (which is a lot better than I’ve done the past couple of years). Ever since we’ve had kids, I’ve gotten walloped by a couple of good, flat on your back colds, even strep throat several times which I *never* had a s a kid.

Maybe this is the key to something good?

Muscles aren't recovering

RunningThree65 — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Another vacation on tap, and another point in the year where I'm as close as I get to throwing in the towel. While 'The Injury' seems to be at bay enough, my leg muscles just don't seem to be recovering and I'm not sure why.

I did give the Five Fingers some more walking time (and loved them as usual). I didn’t eat as well as I suppose I should have.

But I just don’t know exactly what’s up about vacation and running on a streak. I found myself jamming the run in, right before dinner, trying to avoid cocktails and just in general, not getting the usual lift that I enjoy from it.

It wasn’t nearly as bad at the Disney experience, but it still was not as great as you’d like it to be.

Running and ending up swimming in a Lake should always be a good thing.

Up and Down

RunningThree65 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Went out today and thought I'd run part of a route that I used to do all of the time. For the average weekend warrior, it's pretty obvious from the elevation screenshot why it's not something I recently have went out of my way to do (since the other alternative is running along the lake on a nice country lane). This run is 1.5 miles along a hot, flat high way. Then a mile climb. Back in the day, the climb, right after the little double dip, was followed up by a couple of miles of rolling hills and then home for what was at the time a 'short' run of slightly over 6 miles.

And back in the day, I was typically running this around 2 PM because I'd blown off my training run all morning (most likely because I was water skiing) and had to get the run in before reporting to work at 4.

I'd often run past a couple of the waitresses on the way to work slightly earlier shifts than me and apparently my face was always saying 'why am I doing this' because that's always what they said to me when I got to work.

This time however, at the top of this hill, I cut down and took the escape route home. While the pace was far from record setting, it was great to get out there and do it.

Had a realization while on vacation

RunningThree65 — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:56:00 +0000

Had a funny realization while on vacation and 'suffering' through 100 degree days on the Lake (there could be much worse problems that is for sure). I remembered that growing up, I used to spend the entire summer at the Lake and I used to set a goal of swimiming every day.

No matter how cold it was, or what the weather was like, I was going to go swimming (which qualifies as getting your hair fully wet) every day I was there.

I certainly can remember it being 10 o'clock at night, wind whipping and heading out to the end of the dock to jump off and check off another day of swimming.

Guess this streak thing isn't that new for me.

James Harrison is one scary dude.

RunningThree65 — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:21:00 +0000

Was reading an article in Men's Journal about James Harrison (seen here from the article with two of his own guns). Turns out, he's as intimidating as you might expect one of the toughest NFL players around to be.

At one point in the article, there is a long focus on all of the therapy that he uses to keep in tip top shape (including flying this acupuncturist all over the country – she is apparently in high demand in the NFL, but nothing like what Harrison expects from her).

She ‘affectionately (maybe)’ refers to him as a ‘therapy whore’ but when reading one of the things he is into was ‘Active Release Therapy’ – I was like alright! ART is absolutely money and folks who haven’t tried it are snoozing big time.

Men’s Journal actually blew it off a bit calling it 'don’t ask — too arcane)' Big mistake – this stuff in the right situation is absolutely money. Fixed my leg that I could barely walk on after my first marathon in one 45 minute session. Went back several more times and had just spectacular results in not only treating existing injuries but preventing new ones.

Rookie Mistake

RunningThree65 — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 11:17:00 +0000

The injury tragetory has been on the right line. Everything has been getting better but then yesterday I went and screwed it up.

Met a friend and did 60% more mileage than the avg daily (not huge numbers when you only have to do 3 miles a day, but still not a good idea).
Went for a 1 mile walk with the Boys in my Five Fingers (which I'd taken a 4 week sabatical from).

And today, the legs and knees are feeling lousy but since I over did it in two areas -- which is the culprit.

Grrr. What a rookie manuever.

Woo-Hoo!

RunningThree65 — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:33:00 +0000

Wow! 8 days in to the really public fund raising effort, and I'm 1/3 of the way there to my fund raising goal.

Thanks for all of the support!

8:30 PM, the only thought is 'Why didn't I do this already?'

RunningThree65 — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:56:00 +0000

When it's getting late in the day, especially on a lazy Sunday like yesterday, there is only one thought that goes throuhg your head as you are lacing them up to head out the door at 8:30 at night.

Why didn't I do this earlier in the day? that or Was sleeping in this AM really that worth it?

On the flip side of things, I got to see a lot of fireflies last night. Hundreds of them, all along the road doing their lighting up thing. And if you'd asked me growing up, I would have said that seeing a firefly light up was a rarity. But last night, it was bountiful.

Not sure if the firefly has made a big comeback. If where I live (5 hours from where I grew up) is that radically different for fireflies or what.

Regardless, it was cool.

10% -- Thank you

RunningThree65 — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:20:00 +0000

Sweetness. 24 hours into putting this charity challenge out on the social media and in 24 hours, I've already blasted past 10% of my $1,000 raise goal.

That's awesome! And what's funny -- the last time that raised money, while I did it on the web, social media like Facebook and Twitter weren't even around.

I haven't even really dug in deep to my contact list (identifying folks who I don't follow or aren't friends with) to send them an email asking for their support.

And considering the fact that I consider both of those services a rather 'as I get to it' type of service (very sticky mind you), that's an amazing response. I kind of wish that my 3rd annual status free summer didn't coincide with getting the word out on this effort.

The more things change

RunningThree65 — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:13:00 +0000

Amazing. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last time I raised money for the K&L Legacy Fund I spent a couple of months pulling together a blog while I was training for my first marathon. I sent out a big update (this is pre FB and Twitter) email to everyone announcing the fact that I was doing this, etc.

The very next day I had one of the most painful and injured feeling runs of the whole experience.

So yesterday, I was finally getting around to blasting this effort out to all of the social media and sure enough, today's run hurt with in my thigh like I haven't felt in a long time.

I guess it's the 'Hey, Look at me' injury.

6 Months!

RunningThree65 — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Wow! It's been six months of this daily habit. After 4.5 years of inconsistent and painful running after anything longer than 16 minutes.

What started as a 7 day test, a 2 week test, a 30 stress test, a 45 day thought -- etc, really is rolling.

Celebrated the day by running 5 miles in one of my favorite spots, and also finally got the fund raising effort on line. Should start getting the word out on it soon.

Houston, We've got a problem

RunningThree65 — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:39:00 +0000

Some how, some way -- I managed to get seperated from my Garmin charger. While I love the watch, a big, proprietary charger isn't something I'm a fan of.

2 days back from my trip and I can't find it in any of my stuff. So now, with less than 2 runs of charge left, I'm getting desperate.

Amazon has a replacement for $15 but just for kicks, I call the Atlantis to see if they found it in our room.

Sure enough -- they had. I could send it snail mail (expected wait time 21 days) or if I had a FedEx account number they could send it out next day.

Before making a decision, I decided to look up how much that would cost -- turns out between $75 - $100.

That just isn't good economics so I pull the trigger on the Amazon purchase and reach out to the crew to see if anyone else left something more important behind. Sure enough, one dude left his keys down there to all his stores (not good and worth the economics) so he just called back and had them FedEx the keys and my charger to him.

Strange I told him, that he could just get that thrown in there with his keys, that I had already called and identified as mine. I asked him if he asked them to throw in the couple $100 bills we lost at the Blackjack tables the night before as well.

T-Storms + Running = Not a fan.

RunningThree65 — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 20:37:00 +0000

Rainy weather - not a big deal. In fact, after the 'Certain Death March' the day before, a little rain would go a long way -- however, thunderstorms aren't my style.

But, when you've got a crew willing to run with you (and you are used to running every day by yourself), it's hard to say no.

So out we go, and the rain felt great. What I never got used to was the snapping and cracking of the thunder (and now the jokes that I'll have to hear the rest of the year about running every single day this year, except in 'inclement weather.'

And of course the question by @runpacer "How many people do you know who have been struck by lightening?"

To which I replied, 'None, because most of my friends know better.'

After 4 miles, I stopped (even though I was feeling great) but the storm just seemed too close. Turned out unfortunately, it never got any stronger.

Missed opportunity.

Certain Death March

RunningThree65 — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Popped down to that Atlantis to check out @TMAC1660's
wedding with a couple of other running fellahs (@williamedocs, @runpacer) and didn't really have a solid plan on where to meet up with them. (truth be told, I didn't even know what hotel we were staying in. All I knew was the hotel where I canceled my room after this became a stag event) but as luck would have it, the taxi is pulling into the Coral Towers and 3 of these guys are walking the other direction to go grab lunch.

I just dropped my bags with what I thought was the bell hop and scooted out to chase them down (after being here a couple of hours, it became clear to me how lucky I was just to stumble upon them). This combined with a 4 in the AM departure from my house to make this international flight on the same day as the wedding led to only one thing.

A Certain Death march run at 2:30 in the afternoon in the Summer in the Bahamas.

What I didn't realize on my way out was that the island breezes, which appeared to be swirling were really just blowing into my face and so the return was ridiculous.

Headed home for Father's Day

RunningThree65 — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:20:00 +0000

Headed home with the Boys for Father's Day this year and it's been a great trip. One of the best parts of it has been the daily run on the Erie Canal since my parents moved within walking distance of the towpath. (But it was easily within striking distance of the house I grew up in too given how much further I was running).

Well, it's amazing. Water on one side, beautiful scenery and in many places, it's gravel -- not pavement! What could be finer.

As I was out there running, it occurred to me how just having this 'around' was totally wasted on me. I had no idea how great it was.

And at the same time, I was curious why I never ran along this to get to high school. It would have been great and if I was working at the high school right now and living near by, I would be 100% doing that.

2 weeks, not much fun.

RunningThree65 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:38:00 +0000

The last two weeks of running really haven't been that much fun. The knee has been kind of hurting, aches and pains in general seem to be mounting and I'm not liking it much unfortunately.

Looking back at the past month, the one thing that seems to have been introduced, after nearly 145 successful runs was my Vibram FiveFingers. Now, I'm not looking to blame them, because I love them for walking (even though the run was luke warm) but I am going to take them out of the rotation completely for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference.

Like Sarah Silverman said on Conan -- Hot as ballz out there today.

RunningThree65 — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:07:00 +0000

Back on Track?

RunningThree65 — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Back on track might be a bit strong, but at least it's not worse that last week. The knee is feeling OK -- that's about all you can say. My psyche on the other hand has taken a beating, which I hope will come to an end soon.

Dreams have been about my knee hurting, which I think actually causes my legs to be tight while sleeping and then that's not helping, etc.

But at least it's getting better (marginally) rather than getting worse (or even much worse).

Yoga took it to me today

RunningThree65 — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:09:00 +0000

Not sure what it was about getting back to the 'regular' class, but today my leg muscles felt like they were going to be stretched to oblivion.

Felt good after I was done, but man -- hardest class to date.

Disappointing Week

RunningThree65 — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:57:00 +0000

This wasn't the week that I had expected. Rolling past 150 runs, getting S on board with the fund raising efforts, I thought this week was going to be all about getting the word out.

Instead, it became a stressful week long dance around the knee injury. Absolutley nothing like it has been in the past while on the run, but an ache that hasn't been present and even more than the physical and slight pain, it's more the mental messing of the whole injury.

I've been thinking about it more and that's made me super sensitive. I've been thinking about it more while on the run and I think that's changed my gait a little bit. So how did things for for 148 days without a hitch and then suddenly (although not completely) come off the rails?

Couple of possible culprets:

Vibram FiveFingers -- maybe running in them not such a good idea.
Not consistent on the Glucosamine.
Not using the 110% Play Harder stuff as much as I did.
Riding the train more often (getting a little despirate but I do sit typically with my knees in a particular way that might not be the best).
Sat on the couch and worked 1/2 a day with my leg tucked under me (hadn't done that in a while).

I'm not sure -- don't really care -- as long as it goes away.

Yoga

RunningThree65 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:59:00 +0000

Tried a different teacher since my 'usual' class was cancelled because of the Mem Day Holiday. Part of me just wanted to try something new to see what another teacher might be like.

While we did a lot of new moves that were interesting, I found the class and the teacher a little disorganized. She was constantly asking if we should do 'this yoga move' or 'that yoga move' and since I don't know the names of any of them, it's all Greek to me.

And to be honest, that's not what I want -- I want someone to push us through the paces, not 'Choose your own adventure' the entire 90 minutes.

What I did like was the pace and repetition of some of the moves. It was much faster and felt more physical that my previous experiences, but at the same time, still a pretty good stetch.

I think I'll stick with my 'regular' class.

Hello Old Enemy

RunningThree65 — Sun, 29 May 2011 20:24:00 +0000

I had wanted to get out there with a friend and potentially get a much longer run that usual out there this AM, but something just made me pause yesterday about scheduling it. I just wasn't feeling right.

Turns out today, 149 runs into this thing, the knee injury that kept me sidelined for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and was very hard to treat was lurking around this morning. Not in any capacity 'full on', but certainly I was aware of it, ran slower than usual (much! and not pumped to feel it for sure).

I'd had an awkward day of sitting at work the other day and that made me consider the fact that perhaps this whole thing was self inflicted by the way I'd been sitting in the office (which totally sucks to consider losing out on being able to run consistenly for 4 years of running because of that but maybe).

And now I'm not sure. With the 150 run about to be upon us, and I'm getting ready to unlease the charity portion of this whole thing -- I'm torn on how it's all going to play out.

Didn't Love It

RunningThree65 — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:18:00 +0000

I have been loving my Vibram FiveFingers to wear around walking, out hiking along the river, etc. It's almost become an obession, where I'm looking to maximize and justify wearing them all of the time.

They are a little peculiar looking and perhaps the only shoes uglier than Birkenstocks and Crocs (Both of which I own and love), but I thought today it was time to finally give them a go during a trail run (looking for a softer surface). So, after my 3 miles, I came back to my car and changed into my Vibrams to go for another mile.

Have to say -- didn't love it. While it was fine, the forefront of my foot felt a little pounded and I stepped on one rock that was some what painful so I have to say, after one run -- not sold but will keep trying.

At the same time, this was run #146 for the year and as I said to The Face of Pacers -- 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' might be the best way to play it here.

Yoga is doing it for me.

RunningThree65 — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:26:00 +0000

It's been several weeks now and while it's really difficult to jam a 90 minute Yoga session into my week, I'm actually loving the results.

First off, it's *way* harder than I expected. And the more you fccus on it, the harder it really is.

But what I am loving about it, is that after a couple of weeks, and even sometimes within a particular session, you can feel your body getting better, which quite simply is awesome.

Why 3?

RunningThree65 — Sat, 21 May 2011 20:48:00 +0000

One of the first friends I told about this whole endevour asked me 'Why 3 Miles, any significance?' and I didn't have a really good answer. It seemed like a reasonable distance, it was more than just one mile a day and it was what a friend had done in 2010.

As I've been hunting around the web and Twitter, you find a really passionate running community that was a lot harder to find the last time I was blogging specifically about running when I was raising money for the Karen & Laura Legacy Fund back in while training for my first marathon (NYC 2004).

I can across Matt Florence, tweeting and blogging about 'Race For Others', which attracted my eye given my history. But this post about a '3.1 sticker' that was a comment by Chris Barber
being run the wrong way by these stickers as not a large enough goal to broadcast and set for yourself.

I don't think 3.1 has the same swagger or pride that comes with the 70.3 of a Tri, the 26.2 of a marathon or the 13.1 of a half. But if it's a goal and you are out there doing it, who am I to argue.

And it seems a lot more passionate and meaningful than the 'OBX' stickers that I feel kind of kicked off the whole Euro sticker craze in the first place.

And then it hit me. I should have been doing 3.1 miles a day and could have tagged the whole effort '5k a day.' Too late, I'm already into it.

One of my all time favorite outings

RunningThree65 — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:45:00 +0000

D was sick again with his usual coughing stuff (thought the sick season was over) and so I convinced him to let me put him in a stroller and have him go out for a run with me. We haven't done this together in a long time, at least since he could talk, maybe at least 3 years (?).

With a little prodding and a small little bribe (one episode of 'Special Agent Oso' when we get back and a 'Little People race car from Target), I convinced him to go to the North County Trail with me.

At the last second, I threw the iTouch into the stroller as well and the 42 lb D, the 21 lb stroller and myself heading out.

It was completely awesome and one of the best runs I've had in a long time. It just felt so good to be out there and D really seemed to enjoy himself. And I only had to tell him one little fib.

He was insistent that we only go '1 mile' and I knew in his mind that was just arbitrary, he had no ability to determine how long 1 mile was and I knew I wanted to get at least 3 miles in so I just adjusted how long it took us to run '1/2 mile' before turning around (read 1.5 miles).

It was slower than slow, but so much fun.

I couldn't keep thanking him enough for making my day.

Going Five Fingers

RunningThree65 — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:27:00 +0000

I've been thinking about Vibram Five Fingers a lot since reading Chi Running and Born To Run and thinking about adjusting my running stride to get over this nagging injury that has kept me sidelined until this year from basically Sept 2007 until Jan 2011. (a long time!).

You can't read those books and think about changing your stride without considering the Five Fingers and I finally got an opporunity, via my favorite local outdoor/lifestyle store (Acadia On Main) to pick up a pair. I'd tried a pair on about 4 weeks ago and they just felt so strange, I had think about it. When I got 20% off and mulled it over for a month, I decided that yesterday was the day to pull the trigger.

After walking around the house in them for a couple of hours, I can't imagine running on pavement like they show a woman on the front of their home page, but who knows maybe I'll get there.

I think they are a training supliment, not the end all be all. As the Face of Pacers warned -- no more than 5-10 minutes on the first run, seriously. Which leads to an interesting dilema.

I'm barely able to find the 25 minutes a day to get in 3 miles, how am I going to shoehorn another 15 minutes (10 minutes of running, 5 mins of transition into my schedule).

Post-Run -- The Shower didn't take

RunningThree65 — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:58:00 +0000

Was it a Seinfeld episode where George complains about the shower not taking? I've had a couple of times when in a hurry after a run that I blaze through the shower so fast that by the time I'm done getting dressed, I'm sweating through my clothes (ugh). And today, in a hurry, was the perfect type of day to have that happen. Hooter, er I mean hotter (Get the Christmas Vacation reference) than it had been by 10 degrees or so I even knew that slow in the shower was the only way to go.

Yet, I start getting dressed, 5 minutes before I'm supposed to be somewhere else) and I'm drenched. Underwear, undershirt -- almost soaked and so it's a redo -- back to the showers. As cool as I can take it and then back to the drawing board. But now, I realize that my under duds are wet --- so it's commando and shirt free as I zip out the door.

Immediately, I know it's be mistake. The 2nd shower still wasn't enough and I'm sweating already, having to walk (traffic was ridiculous) 15 blocks to my meeting.

It was a hot mess and by the time I got there, needless to say, I was inappropriately sweaty. Fortunately, I was meeting a friend who we might be doing some business together, but I didn't ruin my reputation completely by dripping in sweat and.or being 20 minutes late.

To Go or Not to Go?

RunningThree65 — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:47:00 +0000

Had a last minute cancellation in a meeting this AM, so I was pumped I'd brought my running gear with me. I google mapped the closest gym and heading in for a quick change. I got all ready to go, only to discover that I'd some how misplaced my running socks.

So now what? I didn't have enough time to walk and buy a pair so the options were:

1) Run sockless -- get the run in and potentially pay for it several days with a blister
2) Run in my dress socks -- get the run in and then walk around the city in dress shoes w/out socks.
3) Skip the run and do it at the originally scheduled time at the end of the day (in the dark)

What to do? By this point, I was amped to get out there, so #3 didn't really even occur to me until after I was already gone and I felt like #1 seemed like the best way to play it.

Maybe vs *definitely* get a blister and hope for the best.

Great Day

RunningThree65 — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:02:00 +0000

Out of town for a Bachelor Party and out for an early morning run. Walked into the hotel room and AC(365) asked me if I was running a lot. Got to tell him (the inspiration for all of this nonsense in the first place and a 2010 Running every day guy himself) that I was just getting back from run 135 and he was pumped.

"In a row?"

Finally getting the word out slowly to the crew (for some reason it's been fun keeping it on the DL) and he was pumped.

A story I'm leaving out

RunningThree65 — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Looking back on my posts, I realized that I was leaving out a big one. The whole reason (at least I'm a 110% convinced, play on words intended) that I was able to get started on this whole adventure, my 110% Play Harder Blitz Knee compression and ice sleeve.

Just a flash back, since September 2007 -- when I really 'gave up' for a while on running because I just kept having the same knee pain again and again and decided while out in SF, that it was time to stop trying and being frustrated by running for a while (turned out to be a long while, after 2 different PTs, accupuncture, etc).

So I was asking 'The Face of Pacers', from the always great Pacers Running Stores, what I might be to do in order to keep my knee cooler when running, because I'd become convinced that it was something about 'heating up' during a run that was causing the injury to come up at about 16 minutes of running (or even 100 minutes of walking) very consistently.

He gave me a pair of Blitz Sleeves to try out at a New Year's Day party and so no time like the present, I gave them a shot that afternoon. And again the next day, and the next and the next.. . you get the picture. I'd wear them running and then immediately ice with them.

If you need to ice any injury -- you need to get these things, they make it so easy.

A couple of weeks into it -- and seriously (and amazingly) no problems.

After my 4th week, got another little calf issue (a new problem) and so I went back to the well and ordered the Double Lifes. Again fabulous. Like @runpacer says -- there is a little bit of you that feels like Alan Iverson when you are wearing them and to him-- that's bonus.

What's feeling a little funky..

RunningThree65 — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:32:00 +0000

Keep running and you are bound to run into a few aches and pains, and not necessarily in a bad way. And yet, considering that I hadn't run pain free in basically 3+ years, I thought it was worth mentioning what's been happening this year so far.

First off -- the main knee pain has been totally non-existent (knock on wood).

I've had:
* An extremely tight right calf -- that I managed around with The Stick. And while the extreme tightness is gone -- strangely, my calf can be really sore to the touch at times.
* Knees -- both knee caps can be a bit tender walking down stairs, almost as if they get rusty if they aren't being used. Nothing like any of the knee pain that I've had in the past and totally managable..
* Body can get really tight -- some days just ridiculously so.

And why? What's the change?

* 110% Play Harder Compression sleeves (both the 'Double Life' and Blitz Knee Sleeve') -- these things are money. Wearing them during and after with ice has been huge.
* Glucosamine -- Hadn't been 'on this stuff' in a while but thought it couldn't hurt
* Yoga -- 90 mins, once a week. Past couple of weeks, I'm feeling like the effects of Yoga slowly wear off until the 8th day and my body is just asking for it.
* I'm not riding the train that often and I'm wondering if just sitting with my knees against the front of the seat in front of me was just enough.

I have really no idea what the real driving factor is but I'm not into thinking about it too much because it's working.

Something awesome about this visual

RunningThree65 — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:46:00 +0000

A run on every single day (1st full month with my Garmin 405)

Happy Mother's Day

RunningThree65 — Sun, 08 May 2011 23:46:00 +0000

Happy Mother's Day! Turns out that this was almost a streak breaker like Disney. But after everyone was taken care of, I slipped out for a fanstastic after dark run.

Discovered something new today

RunningThree65 — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:44:00 +0000

As I had mentioned previously, local politics have really been weighing me down recently. A sizable number of people wanted to vote down the school budget with absolutely no understanding of what they are voting for or the implications -- they just want to vote 'No.' I certainly am not a locked in 'Yes' person for sure, but I do expect people to cast their ballot in an intelligent way and in a way that lines up with their beliefs, which in this case, they do not seem to be doing so.

But the whole thing has cast a very negative taste in my mouth -- who wants to be in a constant battle over education (a key driving for students, real estate values, etc) but perhaps the silliest thing has been pushing me over the edge to thinking this place might not be for me.

It was the fact that the local high school doesn't even have a real track, but rather some 'all weather' roundish path of 3-4 lans that is sandwiched into the space available.

Now back in high school for me, our track wasn't fabulous (old cinder style) but it was a 400 ~~meter~~ yard track and you got the 'feel' of a track being on it. In the back of my mind, as my oldest is about to start in the public school system, I have certainly been wondering 'how can they go to a district that doesn't have a track?'

However -- out on the run today -- I managed to stumble upon an incredibly $$$ 6 lane, all weather track that's hiding over at the middle school! Sweetness.

So if all of this small town politics can sort themselves out, maybe we are OK here.

Why Twitter?

RunningThree65 — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:43:00 +0000

People ask me all of the time why join Twitter (which I use a lot for work in a variety of capacities) but one of my main reasons is interesting access and interactions with people you normally wouldn't have.

Case and point. The 13th follower of me @RunningThree65 on Twitter was Meb Keflezighi. That's right, the NCAA champion and 2009 NYC Marathon winner @RunMeb. This guy is a seriously hard hitting, very talented American runner. Where else are you going to have that random type of connect and interaction and access with someone at that level?

And my Twitter account just got started for this effort recently.

If you aren't on Twitter -- sign up and see what all of the fuss is about. And while you are at it -- be sure to follow me too.

Welcome + 1/3 of the way there.

RunningThree65 — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:59:00 +0000

First time here? Welcome.

Thought it might be, after passing 1/3 of the way through 2011 (really is that all?),time to open this up to some more folks and start getting the word out a bit more.

This has been my little pet project for 2011. To run 3 miles. Every single day for all of 2011.

To be honest, after not really running due to an injury that caused some pretty bad knee pain about 16 minutes in (~2 miles), I wasn't sure running 3 miles every day (about 24 minutes of running) was going to be possible. And I didn't want to be that guy saying 'Hey, look at me' only to say the next day on 1/2/11, 'don't bother.'

On a very nice 1/1/11, down in DC with a long time friend and runner, I started running and thought I'd do a 15 day 'stress test' to see how it went. Turned out, it went fine and I just kept going. After 31 days, I thought I might want to write some stuff down about this, get sponsored (didn't happen) and maybe raise some money for a cause (still a work in progress).

Over the next two months, the runs kept happening and I've been actually playing catch up on the posts (which is never as good as in real time because I know posts are content + context + timing and without the timing the posts are not as good.)

But so it is. I'm pretty much caught up now. Give it a read and come back often. The stories are bound to be better because they'll be fresh and I won't be suffering from any blogastipation (the concept of posts that get backed up in your mind before being written).

You can also listen in on Twitter @RunningThree65.

Enjoy!

'Geek Vests' have come a long way...

RunningThree65 — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:19:00 +0000

'Geek Vests', as I used to call them have come a long way. Back in the high school and when home from college days, my Mom was always gently demanding that I wear a reflective orange vest when running at night.

If it wasn't pitch black out, or even if there was just a 'sliver' of sunlight out there, I would foolishly head out the door with little or no reflective gear on thinking that 'cars would see me' and that 'I'd be OK.' That was just one part silliness due to the lack of nighttime driving experience I'd had to date and three parts stupidity because cars cannot see you. Even more than that -- I used to carry nothing to help me see where I was going.

So yesterday, as I headed out the door at 9 PM (after blowing off my run all day to do a bunch of other wonderful things on a absolutely fabulous day), I chuckled to myself at how much 'gear' I had on and how far the equipment had come.

Not only did I have reflective material built into my shoes and the long sleeve shirt I was wearing, I had a Petzl headlamp to see where I was going and let car's see me along with a RoadID 'SuperNova' on my back, visible up to one mile for folks coming up behind me that was attached to my modern 'geek vest' from vest from Nike (so much better than the traditional 'geek vest').

5 things -- all about safety. And I'm not taking a 'I used to walk both ways uphill to school' approach here -- but my kids will wear this stuff because it's the only way to go.

But I think I'll position it similar to how I think the ski industry should position skiing with a helmet. Forget the safety play. Skiing with a helmet and googles that fit flush together is the warmest, most comfortable way to hit the slopes. The safety is a by product.

Same thing here - wear the head lamp so you can see where you are going (the shoes and shirt come for 'free') and if you really want to be safe -- the SuperNova helps out too.

Scared the tar out of me

RunningThree65 — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:34:00 +0000

Came back from a late Sunday night run that I didn't really want to make and as I closed the garage door, a huge racoon jumped out of the garbage can, down to the garage floor and slipped out as the door was closing.

Absolutely scared the tar out of me.

120 in the bag

RunningThree65 — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 14:43:00 +0000

120 runs. In the bag.

Nice!

Again, the unexpected

RunningThree65 — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:14:00 +0000

I attended the Gel Conference today and you would think that with the little more flexible schedule getting the run in would be no problem. But in fact, my legs are killing me.

Within 2 hours of my feet hitting the floor, I had

Gotten in my 3 miles
Showered and gotten dressed
Driven to the train station
Taken the 45 minute train into the City

While it wasn't as bad as the day before, where in showering to quickly in an attempt to make an earlier train, the shower was Seinfeld style and didn't stick -- sending me back into the shower, wasting more time and dirtying a brand new shirt and undershirt, the legs just weren't ready to sit in those seats for 45 minutes.

Ouch.

But on the great side of things, I got to connect with Noah Scalin again, who I met last year at Gel when taking his session out at Etsy. (You had to make 20 things (anything, I chose the object of a ball) in 40 minutes) and tell him that yet another wacky runner was trying to run 3 miles every day.

He thought it was fabulous.

Very Tempted...

RunningThree65 — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:06:00 +0000

Ever since stuggling with injury and reading 'Born to Run', I've been thinking about a pair of Vibram 5 Fingers.

Stopped by Acadia on Main (great local outdoor everything shop) and tried a pair on. They were a little strange feeling but at the same time I loved them.

I've been pumping a bit too much money into my running these days so I held back from pulling the trigger on them, even though D thought I should.
I know I'll be back and get them eventually.

Politics are frustrating

RunningThree65 — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:34:00 +0000

Was at a local meeting to discuss the pending school budget vote coming up in our local community and was replaying some of the interaction while out for a run this morning.

Some of the stances being taken in the community are so short sighted and not even meeting the objectives that they are trying to -- it's incredibly frustrating.

My pace today ended up being nearly 1 min/mile faster I got so fired up thinking about it.

Also came up with some great slogans for posters -- which made the run that much more worth it.

1st Spring time run!

RunningThree65 — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:11:00 +0000

Finally! Spring is really here and I got out for a great lunch time run. The weather was perfect. It just smelled like spring and it was fantastic.

After 115 runs, this was a great one!

A familiar feeling

RunningThree65 — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:35:00 +0000

A familiar feeling in my thigh popped up a couple of days ago. It's the same kind of deep muscle pain that I felt back in the marathon training days.

Was able to really effectively manage it using 'Active Release Therapy' so might have to look up Dr. Bochner and see if I can get into see him again.

Strange Foot Pain

RunningThree65 — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Ouch. The bottom of my foot is hurting a bit and that's unexepcted. It's kind of strange because I've been slowly telling more and more people about this effort and the same thing happened to me back in 2004.

The day after I announced to my friends and family that I was training for the NYC marathon to raise money for the K&L Legacy Fund, my leg started hurting unbelievably bad. I felt terrible because it happened on the day I had basically gave a shout out to my entire network saying look at me and it felt at the time that might be it for the effort.

The Mouse almost does me in

RunningThree65 — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:37:00 +0000

People associate vacation with more time to do what you want, and for my that typically means running.

But with the family trip (1st one) to Disney world -- the whole train almost stopped there.

First off, the days of walking around were punishing on the legs. Some days, we walked over 7m, while pushing a stroller etc. (which is way more than I typically am walking these days).

Second -- by the time we got the boys down to bed, it was late so to head down to the 24 hour gym and get on the treadmill, when all I really wanted to grab was a beer and some time out on the balcony of our hotel room -- brutal.

One night, I actually didn't get running until 11:15 pm, so by 11:45, I just wrapping up and seriously asking myself if I should just stay awake for 15 more minutes and then run another 3 miles to just be done with it.

I decided against it.

Nice 90

RunningThree65 — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:42:00 +0000

Finally, a set of time (3 months) that adds up to a nice number.

31 + 28 +31 = 90.

From here on out, the number of runs won't take as many strides to calculate :)

First Run

RunningThree65 — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:52:00 +0000

Woo-hoo! My Garmin showed up in the afternoon. Charged it up for a couple of hours and then pulled an EQ (early quit) to get out and hit a trail.

Was feeling the pressure to go somewhere 'coo'l for it's inaugural run.

You be the judge.

All Systems go

RunningThree65 — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:50:00 +0000

The Garmin 405 dropped below $200 on Amazon. Pulled the trigger. Should be here by Monday.

Convinced that this effort is real and a GPS is fun

RunningThree65 — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:46:00 +0000

After doing this for a while, I thought it would be OK to spend a little money. I've had my eye on a Garmin 405 for quite a while and in fact it was in my Amazon Shopping cart for a long time, but never felt justified pulling the trigger.

However, every one seems to be recommending it and it seems to be *way* better than the 2004 Timex BodyLink that I had (and loved at the time by the way).

But the price has creeped up back over $200 and I just can't stomach the price after seeing it below $200.

I can wait.

45d.. something is happening here

RunningThree65 — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:32:00 +0000

45 days in. And still at it. I'd say that the stress test is a success and there is a good chance that I can get this off the ground.

Sweet.

Treadmills do make a differnece

RunningThree65 — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:56:00 +0000

I'm getting a little bored with the cold weather, slushy roads and the treadmill to supliment. While the gym got some new treadmills that seem about 40% quieter and much, much smoother -- I still can't stand them and really can't wait for the nice weather.

Clarifying a previous effort

RunningThree65 — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:20:00 +0000

Been thinking more about Skull A Day and running every single day for a year and a couple of questions I thought needed clarifying from the whole reason this whole thing is evening happening.

1) Did you ever run so late in the day that you got your three miles in, it passed Midnight and then you ran 3 more miles, getting basically two runs in one?
[365x2010] I never did that but technically it would count. But you might feel bad about it like you cheated.

2) Did you ever have to borrow/buy any shorts/shoes/shirts in order to make it out running one day?
[365x2010] of course. I was at the hospital with the baby and someone had to bring over running stuff so I could get my runs done. Also, I tried to keep things in my car. As I drove around during the day I would often stop and go for a run if I saw a park or trail or whatever

3) Did you ever run in something other than running shoes in order to keep the streak alive but avoid #2 above?
[365x2010ac] nope, I always ran in running shoes but I thought about the situation many times. It would definitely count no matter what shoe you ran in.

4) What's the closest to Midnight you ever came to finishing a run?
[365x2010] Several times on a Friday I needed some beers so I went to happy hour and 2 beers turned to 5 to 8... And then I left the bar, got home at like 11:00 and ran my run then. So the latest I finished was probably 11:30 or so.

Great milestone

RunningThree65 — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:46:00 +0000

Wow. 31 days of running in a row. This is easily more running that I've done in all of 2009 + 2010 combined and it feels great.

I'm remaining optomistic that this might actually be a possibility.

One thing -- need the family on board -- otherwise this won't be possible.

Man, this hurts

RunningThree65 — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:36:00 +0000

Damn. I hit a run back in CT that was a lot hillier and a lot faster than I'd been running (just to be clear, these 3 miles a day are not that fast (or better put, aren't as fast as they used to be).

And my calf is tight. I mean it is TIGHT. And the first mile of each run these days feels like someone is taking a baseball bat right to the back center of the leg. It hurts, but under the umbrella of 'Everyday', there is no rest for the weary (although most certainly if I had ever pulled my calf this tight in the past, I would be taking the day off).
So I dusted off an old friend called 'The Stick.' Don't let the website from 1998 fool you -- this thing is a wonder machine. It is designed to be rolled over your muscles and unless you have a problem, you are going to think to yourself 'Why am I wasting my time?'

But, when you've got an issue going on -- it's amazing.

I actually had never had any tightness like this before and so rolling The Stick over it for 15 to 20 minutes hurt like hell. But, wow -- did it make a difference.

Who's Nutty Idea was this anyways?

RunningThree65 — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 20:26:00 +0000

One of the guys from the college XC running crew challenged us to last year to run @ least 3 miles a day every day for the entire 2010.

Now keep in mind, this crew of guys has been heavily focused on just about anything other than running of recent, so almost everyone except for the guy who owns a running store thought he was crazy.

At the time, what I didn't know until this year was the back story on why this guy was so fired up about this. This guy is in sales and so he's constantly making rounds to business offices.

On one call he runs into a gal I think he knew from college and she says 'Hey, you look great!'.

He says thanks and then she says 'Yeah, you've really filled in quite nicely.'

Well.... That was it. Like a little teenage girl, he loses it. "I'm a fat load" is what he was thinking. (I think he was 197 lbs -- keep in mind he is I think 6'3"). Dieting,working out and hence the challenge.

So when all of us blow it off, two guys don't and a couple of hilarious/unbelievable stories come out.

These two dudes live in the same apt complex a floor above each other. When the guy realizes the other hadn't run -- Text goes out at 12:01 -- you run yet? To which he hears a groan and starts laughing.

This guy got married this year and went on a delayed honeymoon far away. When they land it's 10:45 (East Coast Time I believe) and so as soon as they get to this pretty sweet hotel, instead of a glass of wine or checking out the hotel, he laces them up and out the door for 3 miles. Check.

He and his wife also became parents for the first time near the end of the year. And you guessed it, you can see where this is going. his wife's water broke right in the AM around 7 so tells her to get cleaned up, get her bag and coat on and he'll be back in 30 minutes (that's right to get the run in).

His reasoning, which is some what spot on, is that that late into the year was he will probably have another kid but he will never run 365 days in a row again.

Amazing.

Now this is the same guy who used to say that during the season, if you gave a day off every week, at the end of the year, your competition was 52 days better than you but he never came close to running every day and actually was in relative 'normal" rather than 'runner' shape when he started this thing.

Broken down with a 1st

RunningThree65 — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:42:00 +0000

In 20 plus years of running, I've never run outside with a walkman/iPod/etc. To me, that's not what running is about and to be honest, it can be a little dangerous.

(A friend in high school stepped out in front of a truck while running with his Sony Sportsman (remember those big yellow things. He managed to do some significant damage to the truck and not too much to himself, but it just seemed like another reason why it was a bad idea).

However, the monotony of running the same route in the freezing cold was eating at me a bit and so I gave it a try, using the 3rd gen iPod that my buddy had given me for some tech support work that I've done pro bon for him.

It's so light, the earphones don't cut out all of the sound and for a couple of runs, it was interesting and new. It wasn't taking too many listens of 'Who Knows' by the Zac Brown Band to get through 3 miles.

14 Days.. Strange

RunningThree65 — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:23:00 +0000

14 days in. I'm shocked. With a regular treatment of using the ice compression sleaves and things are feeling great. I am not really 100% sure why, but I'm liking what I see.

Day 2 -- perhaps the toughest

RunningThree65 — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 15:40:00 +0000

Got a great run in DC yesterday. Warmer weather. With a good friend.

But now, 6+ hours drive yesterday. A *lot* colder out and by myself.

That's not necessarily as much fund.

Post Run

RunningThree65 — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 11:56:00 +0000

Wasn't sure if I wanted to run in them the first day, so I saved them for post run. Both knees were feeling a little bit of the 'bind' and so it was ice packs out of the freezer, knee sleeves, packs in and actually into the car for the ride back to DC.

Right off the bat, I was amazed at how easy it was to ice something using these things. Really easy and effective. And underneath my street clothes.

IMO, all good things.

Day 1

RunningThree65 — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 10:44:00 +0000

Jan 1st. A buddy of mine just ran every single day in 2010. That's amazing. I haven't run more than probably 60 miles in the past 3 years combined and it's been a missing part of my life. I love what running does for me both mentally and physically.

I solve business problems in minutes rather than hours while out on the run. It feels good and in general I want it part of the daily routine.

After a bunch of treatments that haven't lead to success, another buddy of mine from Pacers suggested that I give these compression sleeves from 110% Play Harder a try.

So before getting on the road back to DC, and along with a good friend, I head out for my first run in a while and on the first day of the year.

I'm thinking about it as a kind of 14 day stress test to see if this is even phyically a posibility before making any broad proclaimations that this is on, etc.