Scenic Sedona

A video from my favorite running grounds, and the place I will be buried someday.






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Now playing on iTunes: Miles Davis - 'Round Midnight
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another update...

I haven’t been updating much here which is a surprise since I have not been training as I should be. Over the last two weeks my motivation has gone to zero which really sucks. I keep telling myself “I’ll get to it tomorrow” and that I can eat whatever today because tomorrow I will eat very clean and healthy. Problem is, it rarely happens. I will go out and have a great run or eat well (for me) and then follow it up with nothing.
I guess that this has been going on for longer than I realize as I look at some of my older posts. I know this will all come to fester when I cross the finish line of the marathon and think to myself, “man, if you would have trained just a little better you could have finished much faster”.
I think part of it is due to my slower times on the long runs have psychologically damaged me as I am not able to finish the runs without doing some walking (I finished the last 2 marathons with no walk breaks and ran negative splits). Also bothering me is a pain in my lower leg that is exactly where all of the issues I have had in the past started. Shin splint type pain, followed by a tight hamstring. I have been stretching and going to my core/stretch classes, but need to step it up a bit or I will be sidelined for a few months again.

Enough of the whining… I ordered a pair of Saucony ProGrid Paramount and received them on Wednesday. I have not been out to run in them yet but will run in them Sunday or Monday. I won’t wear them tomorrow as it is always a bad idea to break in new shoes on a long run. I really didn’t want to drop $165 on these shoes, so when I found a pair in my size on eBay for $79 I could not resist. The same seller has the Asics Kinsei , the $180 shoes, for the same price. But I have really liked the feel of the Grid Sinister better than the Kayano 13’s. Hopefully they will live up to the hype (doubtful).

Good news is that I didn’t need to go out in the Black Friday madness, except my daily Starbucks run.

I am looking at doing the Sedona half marathon in February, and will be up there this weekend to see the Christmas lights at Los Abrigados . Hopefully I will be renewed by some below zero running in the red rocks.

Anyway, that is it for today. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and I will blog at you soon!


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Now playing on iTunes: Tool - Viginti Tres
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I am a slacker.

I am a slacker, not Geb pictured above...

I have not seen very much about this in any mainstream media, so in case you were not aware the world record for the marathon was again broken by Haile Gebrselassie at the Berlin Marathon. Geb smashed his old marathon world record by 27 seconds as he took advantage of excellent conditions on a flat course to finish in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 59 seconds. Despite an ailing calf he shattered the mark he set in Berlin last year and became the first man to win this race three times.
In the women's race, Irina Mikitenko of Germany won in 2:19:19. She improved her personal best by more than four minutes to record the seventh fastest time for a woman.

So if you can travel and want to hit a flat fast marathon, then Berlin it is!

As for me, my training for the past week has been marginal at best. I did very well up to Wednesday when I had a good 5 miler in the semi-dark morning (gotta keep alert for the coyotes and javalenias now that the sun is coming up later) and I made the core work class at 10 AM all before heading down to the first day of a three day conference put on by the Annie E. Casey foundation at the Phoenix Hyatt. Then the wheels fell off. Thursday I was worried about being late so I did not run in the morning, was late getting home (it took 1 hour 15 minutes to get home from there!) and was tired from a day of conferencing and driving. It would have been a great end to the day by going for a run but decided to stay inside and would instead run in the morning even though Friday was a scheduled rest day. The Hanson’s program is so different from a traditional American marathon plan. I think I like the Hanson’s program better, but since this is the plan my physical therapist is doing, I will stick with it as best I can. I need to really wrap my head around training and stop with the "I just want to finish with no back pain", and focus on getting some quality runs in.

What do you think happened Friday morning? The alarm did not get me up and I overslept, creating a mad dash to get dressed and out the door so I would not be late to the conference. Again getting home tired and crabby I did not want to run, I can do my long run tomorrow and be alright. So, Saturday I woke up and my wife was already out running. When she got back we only had an hour before my son’s soccer game. After that we had promised to take the kids to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua, then we had dinner scheduled at my mothers house. So, I will run on Sunday.
Sunday came and left with no sign of a run out of me but I did get a lot of cleaning and yard work done. And the Broncos won again!

Run today? Well when the smoke detector decides to alert you that it’s batteries are going dead by producing a 150 decibel chirp every 45 seconds you know that it is 2:45 in the morning. After getting the new battery placed in the detector, I was not able to fall back to sleep until about 430…the time I get up to run. So when the kids woke us up it was time to get ready to run out the door to work. Now I could lie and say that I will run tonight, but with Lyndsey working late on Mondays that is not a possibility. I didn’t think that I would miss the treadmill so much, but it was so very handy. I really need to save up for a new one. Maybe if I am lucky I will be able to cut out early and go home for a run, pick up my daughter, then drive back into town to get my son (late edit-it didn't happen). It will be a lot of miles on the gas friendly Suburban, but it is the only way I will get a run in today. I really need to get my head into my runs. With Sedona coming up in two weeks I would love to hit a few 10-13 milers up there. When I am doing well with my running I feel like I can run all day up there. With a good two weeks running I should be fine by the time I hit the red rocks.

Until next time!





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Now playing on iTunes: MercyMe - It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
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Catching up...

I have a lot of catching up to do. For starters the Runfar AZ program will be on hiatus for a bit as I need to get myself back up and running before taking on any other projects. My health and well being takes precedence! So...I will be posting on here about me and my training instead of posting about the group.
I will be training with the group my physical therapy office is putting on. I haven't trained with a group for three years, but I think that it would be good for me as I am basically starting from square one as my fitness is nothing right now. I can run with the pain in my back, but my lungs and legs start dying. I know that once I am able o get the miles back up it will start coming back so hopefully I can put forth a good effort at the PF Chang's.

I recently took a trip to Flagstaff and got in some good running around Buffalo Park. I was wondering if any elite runners would be there even though the Olympics took many from the area. I did see several very fast females running the loop at the park as well as legendary coach Dr. Jack Daniels as he worked with a group of kids. Most of the kids were Navajo, but it was a diverse group. Here are some pictures I snapped.

Nice Nike Free's!






I recently came across some cool videos of Ryan Hall as he was preparing for the Olympic trials and the Olympics. Here is my favorite one. He runs so smoothly, uphill, downhill, in a strong headwind. And he appears to be a nice down to earth dude.





So my current goals are to continue with the stretches and exercises my physical therapist gave me, change my diet and stick to it (I ordered the Chris Carmichael nutrition book), and get back to doing what I need to do. Run often and slow.

Until next time...





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