Keith’s Amusing Musings

I started running with Nike+ on December 15, 2007, exactly a year ago tomorrow. Today, after a 12-mile run, I passed the 500th mile mark. In my quest to keep fit I fully expected to stick with running for at least a year; however, I certainly didn’t expect to be running as far or as often as I am today, a year later. My previous Nike+ certificate came at 100 miles. I received the “big dog” certificate to the right after uploading my run from today. (The date is off…probably a time zone issue.)

It seems like just yesterday when I set a goal to run 9 miles/week for 3 months. I’m now averaging about 25 miles/week whether running in the hot sand of Cabo or along the icy sidewalks of Seattle—it snowed last night and the roads were a mess today.

There was one casualty of all the long-distance, outdoor running: My refurbished iPod nano 2G. Apparently, iPods don’t like liquid and you may have heard it rains quite a bit here in Seattle. Further, those fancy, expensive Nike+ armbands are merely water-resistant, not waterproof. So, after running 11 miles in a downpour, my nano bit the dust. Not only did I lose the results of that run—which would have catapulted me to the 500-mile mark sooner—I lost my $99 running partner. It was a sad day.

TB, noticing the extent of my devastation, green-lighted an emergency trip to the Apple Store for a replacement…upgrade! I love my wife.

I am now running with a blue 8GB iPod nano 4G. Apple offered a $15 credit for the broken unit but I’m still not happy about paying $135 (before tax). I figure it’s still a pretty cheap running partner/trainer. The new 4th-generation nanos are much nicer than the two-year-old, 2nd-generation unit I ran with previously. The 4G has a bigger screen, twice the storage, better sound and snazzier navigation & graphics.

Also, if you buy (or already own) a nano 4G and are thinking of getting started with the Nike+ running program, I recommend the Apple Nike+ Sport Armband (TU017ZM/A). It is available through Amazon for about $30. The strap is much simpler to adjust and the full-body, protective film makes viewing and controlling the nano easier than the official 2G armbands. Lastly, it fits the 4G nano like a glove so the player won’t slide or slip during a run.

Where do the new iPod and I go from here? Well, four people have logged 10,000 miles with Nike+ leaving many milestones to reach.

I realized I had not blogged the latest milestone in my unofficial “# Miles and Running” series (reference the “100” and “200” posts). Since reaching the 200 mile mark in early July, I reached the 450 mile mark this past Saturday translating to 250 miles in 5 months. Not bad considering it took 7 1/2 months for the first 200 miles.

In January, TB and I are heading to Phoenix for the annual P. F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona race. It will be my second half-marathon and a race that seems popular with our family: TB ran the full marathon in 2006 and returned with her mom and sister in 2007 for the half. The course map below.

I’m looking forward to experiencing the adrenaline of race day again. This time there will be a lot more runners on a much warmer and flatter course. This being only my second race, I am not quite ready to set a time goal although I am still ecstatic about finishing my first half in 1:56:56.

The short spurts of daylight are at the top of the list for worst parts about training this time of year. The cold and rain are manageable but running long distances in the dark is generally bad news, particularly when sharing the road with Seattle drivers. Endurance isn’t as much a problem as when I began training for the Bellingham Bay half so now I’m working on getting stronger and running more efficiently.

Off to the races…

OK, not really FIRST first.

On August 31, before heading to Belgium, I completed The Human Race 10K. For this global 10K running event my time was 57’14” (or about 9:32 per mile) which means I finished first…in the second group of 13,900 runners. Ha! The top finisher overall finished in 27’38”. You know nothing crushes a guy’s ego like the reality that someone not only runs faster but over twice as fast. I have to take solace knowing I can probably bench more than mjjensen80. If that fails, I will destroy him in a game of Pétanque.

Seattle wasn’t cool enough to make the list as one of 25 official host cities so I registered and ran as a “public runner.” For public runners to get credit for running, we had to run on August 31 and upload our results by September 2.

When I registered for the race over a month ago, I had my mind set on finishing in 54 minutes flat but two things conspired against me. First, my recent hamstring injury forced me to focus less on speed and more on endurance. Second, we decided to go to Belgium and our flight was at 7:15 AM the day of the race. I had to wake at 3 AM to have enough time to run, shower, eat and make it to the airport for an international flight. We wouldn’t arrive in Belgium until September 1 so it was either do the run before our trip or not at all. Let me tell you, running a 10K solo at 3 in the morning on 4 hours of sleep was brutal.

I was not used to running in the dark and I carried a flashlight so I could see more than three feet in front of me. It was difficult to relax since I worried I would encounter a pack of rabid coyotes and have to unleash a devastating fists of fury combo. Afterwards, TB told me coyotes don’t attack people. I was like, “Yeah, right!” and quickly reminded her of bouts like Buck vs. Christopher Reeve, Montecore vs. Roy Horn and Stingray vs. Steve Irwin. Sometimes, like humans, animals forget what they are and are not supposed to do. I want to get on Wikipedia eventually but not like that.

Three weeks from tomorrow is the big event: My first half marathon. Considering I have yet to run more than 10 miles, I feel caught between wanting to give my leg proper time to heal and wanting to tack on the miles to build endurance at the longer distances. I’m not running for time but I am running to finish.

With today’s 4-miler, I broke the 200 mile mark since I began my Nike+ experiment in December. Reaching the 100 mile mark took four months so I ran the second 100 miles in about half the time, 72 days. Sweet! I received the following achievement when I accessed the Nike+ site after our run. Nike says I’m a champ. That’s funny. I think their system does an excellent job motivating new runners.

I also set a new personal best in the mile today: 9’05”. The voice of Lance Armstrong greeted me at the end of the run to notify me of the accomplishment. I hadn’t heard from him or Paula in a while so that was a pleasant surprise.

TB is a great running partner. She knows all the routes based on the distance I want to run and she’s a great motivator while, at the same time, she keeps me from overdoing it. She also has all the cool long-distance running gear which I’ve started stealing borrowing indefinitely. I’ve been her biggest fan—cheering from the sidelines—for all the races she’s trained for and completed over the years. I must admit I enjoy running with her even more.

Based on my current training program, I should hit the 300 mile mark in about 40 days. Off we go.