Arizona Wildlife Week

I've had an awesome week! First of all, I've had the week off for spring break, and was able to put in some more runs and miles than usual. Secondly, those runs were fantastic!

This week has taken on a wildlife theme. It all started with my long run last Saturday when I saw a little bunny run across the dirt road I was on.

Monday, I took my youngest daughter out in the stroller for an unscheduled easy run. We saw a tiny hummingbird floating up and down over a puddle in the grass. We watched for a while, but couldn't tell what it was doing. We tried telling it to come over to our house and try out our new bird feeder that I got for Christmas. I don't think it listened, though.

Tuesday, I had planned to do some Yasso 800s on the trails through the neighborhood. I was aiming for 3:00 each, but felt good going faster than that. I did five with an average time of 2:48. Before my last 800, I found a turtle sitting on the sidewalk. I don't know if it was a wild turtle or somebody's lost pet. Thought about taking it home as a pet, but decided against it. Instead, I just put it by a puddle of water. We also went hiking this day and saw huge swarm of bees buzz by about 20 feet overhead, and on the hike, we saw a cute little chipmunk hiding out in the rocks.

Wednesday, I took my youngest out for another unscheduled run. Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals other than the usual dogs barking at us through fences. My daughter ended up falling asleep, though, and had a much needed nap.

Thursday, I had an excellent 5 mile tempo run. It was so good I wrote a post about it. Again, I didn't see any animals, but later on throughout the day, we were able to see some hummingbirds drop by the bird feeder for a snack. That was fun.

Friday, I took the day off. We were planning on taking the kids to the zoo (plenty of wildlife there) after we took my brother out to lunch for his birthday, but it ended up getting too late, so we decided to just come back home.

Saturday, I headed over to South Mountain for 17 miles. This was a really great run. I ran 7 miles up to the top and then back down to where I started, and added another 3 three miles. I felt really strong the entire way. It was another big confidence booster for me. All three of my scheduled runs this week were all awesome, which is kind of weird considering I put in so many more miles than usual. I'm usually a pretty firm believer in the "less is more" idea, quality over quantity, but this week is making me question that a little. I may just have to throw in an extra run next week if I can.

Oh, by the way, I saw a bunch of bunnies on the mountain (must be Easter or something), a squashed centipede on the road (that thing was probably about 6 inches long), and a snake sitting on the side of the road.

It's been an excellent week. I love spring break!

Monkey see, monkey do

Doug did it about a month ago (2 sub-6 minute miles during a run). Nic attempted it a couple days later (managed a 6:12 as part of an 8 mile run). Both of theses are awesome achievements! As I often look up to these guys for inspiration an motivation, I've had those times on my mind on many a run since then. I hadn't attempted it though due to pesky injuries... That is until today. I set out for a 5 mile tempo run. Here are the numbers:

Mile 1 - 6:35
Mile 2 - 6:39
Mile 3 - 6:33
Mile 4 - 6:38
Mile 5 - 6:02

Oh so close! I was definitely feeling it at the start of the last mile, but towards the end I was able to find some reserves and ended up surprising myself. This was definitely one of those "confidence building exercises" Doug was talking about. I've had a couple of those this week. It sure feels great to be moving again! And feeling good doing it!

The Beautiful Desert

Thanks to Amy for inspiring me to get out and enjoy the beauty that surrounds me everyday. After seeing her slideshow of her trip to AZ, I decided I wanted to take my family hiking on South Mountain, one of the many mountain parks in the Phoenix area. We headed up a pretty easy trail, perfect for the kids. We had a great time, and we really enjoyed the beauty of what we saw. The vibrant wildflowers, the variety of cacti, the pristine blue skies, and the little chipmunk looking for food in the rocks. We went about 2/3 mile up the mountain before we turned around a came back down. I am so proud of my little 4-year-old! She walked all the way up and back down without even complaining.

The desert is definitely different from other places I've lived, but offers a beauty all it's own. Here are some pics from our hiking adventure.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well, we missed the St. Patty's Day race this weekend that we had thought about doing. Oh well. We still wanted to celebrate somehow, so after my 4-year-old (dressed in green from head to toe) went off to preschool, I (in my green technical tee) took my 2-year-old (she doesn't have a green shirt, so she wore a white shirt with green and purple flowers) in the jogging stroller for a run on the paved trails through our neighborhood. This nice run was followed by a lunch of green "Tubbiecustard" (yogurt with food coloring--unfortunately, my girls love the Tellitubbies).

I hope you're wearing your green today! Nobody's gonna be pinching us!

Weekly Update

Well, I'm a couple days late on this post, but since I only ran once last week, there isn't much to report. It turns out that I did something to my foot trying to dig my garden (as mentioned in my last report). It felt a little funny most of the week, but it didn't bother me on my 15 miler on Saturday. That 15 miler was pretty good. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I was able to keep a much more even pace than I've been able to my last few runs. I started running out of juice towards the end and had to force myself to keep going.

I was talking to my wife later on about how much harder running has gotten for me. I was feeling pretty sore this weekend. I remember training for my last marathon and not feeling so sore after 15 miles. Maybe it's the injuries I've had over the last several months. Maybe I'm getting old. My wife just laughed at that, but I did just celebrate my 29th B-Day last week... I don't really feel like I'm old or anything, my point is just that running seems harder than it used to be. That's all.

Weekly Update

Monday I discovered a new way to do my speedwork. I was waiting for my wife to come pick me up after track practice (I've been coaching at the middle school), and she got stuck in traffic, so I had a half hour to kill. Rather that sit there and do nothing, I started running around the parking lot. I did three sets of four laps around the parking lot ranging from 51 to 61 seconds per lap. I measured the distance when I got home. Each lap is about 260 meters. It was a pretty good workout. I plan to do that again soon.

Tuesday, we had our first track meet of the season. Like the cross-country team earlier in the year, we have a very small team, most of them 6th graders. The kids did a good job at the meet. The kids were able to learn a lot from the experience, and make some plans for improving their times. On a personal note, I had a little pre-meet highlight. I went over my first hurdle since high school. It was pretty sweet! And based on the kids reaction, I must still have pretty good form.

Thursday, I got up early for a tempo run. It was a tough run and a good workout. I also learned that I really need to work on my pace. I started out way too fast. I still had pretty good splits, but wasn't able to keep up that pace. After work, we made some progress in our garden. Which is no small feat in the rock hard soil we have here in Arizona. So, now we have some cucumbers and zucchini planted. We're still planning on getting some more yummy veggies planted before too long.

Saturday, I headed out with my wife and the girls. The plan was to do three miles with them and then go for seven more on my own, hopefully repeating the run I had a few weeks ago. That didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but it was still a good run. Again, I realized I need to work on pacing. That will definitely be a focus in the next couple weeks.

Boston is about six weeks out, and I still have a lot of work to do. I plan on getting to the track for some speedwork and pacing, get in some longer tempo runs, and get my long run up around 20 miles. Should be fun!

Toenails Poll

Since the time I started training for my first marathon about 4 years ago, I have heard many accounts of the prevalence of blackened toenails and/or toenails falling off as a result of running. It kinda grossed me out at first, but I accepted that it will probably eventually happen to me. Maybe I've been blessed with perfect-for-my-feet running shoes, but over the course of the last 4 years, I have never had a single problem with any of my toenails. And to be honest, it wasn't until last week that I heard a first-hand account of it actually happening. I began to wonder, "How frequently does this happen? Does it really happen as often as they say? Am I an anomaly?" In an effort to uncover the truth, I am creating a poll: Have you personally ever had a toenail turn black and/or fall off as a result of running? To respond, see the poll in my sidebar (just below my Boston Marathon countdown). Thanks for your help!

UPDATE: See my recent post with survey results and a few suggestions.