Tuesday, April 9, 2013

OY VEY! What Has Become Of Me? People Of This Running Planet...Take Me To Your "Leader Board".

My big excuse(s) this past month for not blogging on a regular basis:

1. My bedroom computer hard drive died! I have so much crap- photos, music and important documents that I didn't back up. Now I have to pay to have it all extracted to an external hard disk. BTW, my external hard disk that I was backing up to, I lost the power cord on our last move and never was able to replace it. Being so smart as I am, I removed the casing and adapters and decided to just pop it in my computer as a secondary hard drive.
NOPE!
Technology has moved along since last did this stupid human trick.
Screwed again! "Man follows hard drive off cliff"!

2. Too many damn dogs on me. I can't move lately. It's very distracting with the wife in one ear and a whole yapping kennel in the other.

3. All this running! OY VEY! Hanson Brothers Marathon training is kicking my ass but, It's what I need for sure.

4. "Work"...

One thing I do like about this Marathon training is I feel like I'm doing it right this time. It's hard but, I actually feel like I'm doing less damage. 
When I started training last year I was just running too many long runs and just breaking myself down. The key is lot's of easy low aerobic runs that build up mitochondria to assist in the burning fat & glycogen together.

"I did not know that"!

At about mile 20 when your body tells your brain
"Fuck You! I'm out of Glycogen", the body starts burning fat and protein to get you through that last 6 miles.
So it comes down to really training for that 6 long, horrible, fire and brimstone, vomiting, seizure inducing miles to the finish.

In the mean time I'm training for the up coming "Bay to Breakers 12K in May. I'm looking to knock 5 minutes off of last years time. If I could do a sub 50 minute! That would be truly amazing.

I'm meeting some amazing people/athletes these last few months. Like I've mentioned it on past blogs. This running passion is so fresh and new, I had no idea of how huge the running community really is. I've been on "planet bike" for so long I guess I never saw it coming. Although I do miss "planet Bike", I still ride, just not as much. Everyone needs to switch up sometimes. I do really miss a lot of my bike friends. I'll get back there though. Just need a little vacation on the "running planet".

This picture captures the spirit of the running planet with one of it's leaders "Scott Jurek". I love this shot...

I love Strava. I wish everyone were required to start a membership before buying a pair of running shoes or a bike. Leader board challenges are so fun! Mini races on every street, trail, hill and valley. Just perfect for a competitive junky like me.
I realize how old I really am when I see the very few old farts up in the leader boards. I have a lot of solo spots. I need some competition so I'm starting to go for the Master ranks to see what I can do.
Check this out. If you scroll down to the 55-64 leader board you can see I'm the only one who's done this at my age?


So second week into my training and I'm a little bit tired but, that's to be expected on this training method.
My favorite part of the schedule is my Sunday long runs. Run easy in the fat burning zone and just enjoy the scenery.
This was from Sunday. Baker Beach in San Francisco.
I found two older Australian tourists willing to shoot a FaceBook wall portrait for me. After getting them up to speed with the technology of my Android phone meets Instagram. A few outtakes and we finally got it!

Running trails in San Francisco just keeps getting better and better. What a joy to live here. Aside from the other crap you have to deal with day to day, like the drug addicts, trash, high rent and so on...Still glad I moved here when I did.

Just a view of some of the trails in SF
Link