3 days

2 days

I ran my first 5k Sunday morning. It was a bush league race for globe med. I define a bush league race as a sparsely attended, poorly advertised race where I can finish in the top ten. Also, to really make sure it is bush league there needs to be runners on the course who don't know that a race is going on. I showed up on time and ran the race. I kept pace with some nice people and we finished our first mile in like 8 minutes. It was glorious. I wore my vibram 5 finger sandals. They worked great and I had no shin splints. However, the "knuckles" of my feet hurt really bad today. My friend Q told me to ditch the shoes and run bare foot. I am not quite ready for that yet. Anyway, the nice people kept pace with me for the first half of the race and then decided to walk. I kept chugging along. I really wanted to stop and walk but I played mind games with myself so that I could keep going. I focused on my posture and breathing for a while. Later, I focused on only stepping on asphalt (a challenge because the course was covered in gumballs and sticks). Then, I tried to catch up with the guy in front of me. It didn't work out but, it kept me running. I finally finished 9th with a time of 29:50. I am going to declare phase one of the ultra marathon training complete. Now, I want to get my 5k time below 25 minutes. Here are the phases of my plan.

1. get myself to the point where I can run 30 minutes
2. train for a 5k
3. complete a 5k with a decent time
   
4. train for a 10k
5. complete a 10k with a decent time
   
6. train for a half marathon
7. complete a half marathon with a decent time
   
8. train for a marathon
9. complete a marathon with a decent time
   
10. train for an ultra marathon
    
11. complete the ultra marathon!
    

Right now, I am at step 1.5. I finished a 5k but i did not have a good enough time. My goal now is to get myself to the point where I can legitimately run a 5k. For the near future I am going to focus on running it in under 25 minutes. Then depending on how that works out, I might try to get it under 20.

My friend hugh recommended that I now go for mileage. He said that I might try three 5 mile runs a week and then an x miler at the end. He also said not to rest more than two days between runs. I thought the 5k was gnarly, but in the next month I'll add another two miles to my workout. for the past three weeks I have been running almost exactly three miles every run totaling about 9-12 miles a week. Wish me luck!

lost iphone

Some poor bastard lost a prototype iphone in a bar the other night. I would hate to be him. The best possible situation would be that this is a marketing ploy. Otherwise, the guy is dead meat.
Links
http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/20/technology/tech-us-apple-iphone.html?src=busln

back to 30 minutes

Two nights ago i got myself back up to running 30 minutes. I can run 15 minutes now before I really start to feel tired. At 28 minutes I hit the wall but I was able to push through it for two more minutes. Also I picked up some new shoes. I got a pair of Vibram 5 fingers. There has been a lot of hype recently about the benefits of barefoot running So I decided to give it a try. I wasn't quite ready to go all the way and really run barefoot because I run in urban areas and there is a lot of broken glass. So, I tried to find the next best thing. I did my last run in them and it wasn't too bad. The Vibrams work different muscles than my conventional pair of running shoes. I was not sore after the run but two days later I find that my left calf is a little tight. I can fix that a lot more easily than shin splints, so I am happy. Apparently it is all about how your foot strikes the pavement when you run. In my conventional running shoes, my foot strikes on the heel which shocks the hips and knees. Barefoot runners strike the forefoot or midfoot. This shocks the system a little bit less and causes less injury. Check out this site.

back again

I stopped running after spring break because of shin splints. I started up again last night and did ok. I ran 15 minutes and stopped because I just petered out. I am going to go for twenty minutes tonight.

carry on fees!

A disturbing case just caught my attention. Spirit airlines, a budget company, is now charging a fee for carry on bags. The past few years I have trained myself to do nothing but carry on to avoid the fees. Now times might be changing.
http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2010/04/06/spirit-to-charge-fees-for-carry-on-bags/?mod=rss_whats_news_us&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Fxml%2Frss%2F3_7011+%28WSJ.com%3A+What%27s+News+US%29