We’re Going Streaking!

You remember that stupid post a couple of weeks ago where I said something about running every day for the month of June? Of course you do, because you all enjoy holding me to my stupid ideas. Well, I’ve decided that I’m doing it. I need a change of pace from the FIRST plan that has worked so well for me (until recently) and what could be more different than switching from only running 3 days a week to running every day of every week. (If this doesn’t work I’m going to try not running at all.) Starting on Monday I’m going streaking, streaking through June and you’re all invited to join me, after all, misery loves company.

I’ll be using the same rules that the US Running Streak Association uses per the recommendation of Ace, whose blog you should NOT check out because it will reveal that he has run every day for over 500 days now and that will totally dwarf your opinion of my pathetic attempt at 30 days. Basically the rules state that you have to run one continuous mile every calendar day under your own power. Treadmill miles are acceptable but undesirable.

So that’s it. I’m doing it. No excuses, no breaks, no exceptions*. I’m going to run every day period. In fact that will be the name of the challenge, Run Every Day Period or RED Period for short... uhhh... no... wait... that doesn’t sound like an every-day-of-the-month thing. (Please don’t ever let that be an every-day-of-the-month-thing!) Since I’ll be running for thirty straight days, we could call it the Straight Thirty Days Test or the STD Tes... huh, maybe not. How about Streakfest? Or 30 days of Suck? Or Streakapalooza ‘09? Or Vanilla Is A Guy Running Around? Or Injury Watch ’09? Or not-as-big-a-deal-as-I’m-making-it-attention-grabbing-stunt? Your votes and suggestions in the comments.

*Exceptions:
Runner (me) will not be required to run a mile in calendar days when he gets less than 4 hours of sleep during the previous night or when the average number of sleep hours for the past 3 days is less than 6 hours of sleep per night (but not to exceed 10 hours) after adjusting the data to remove the outlying high and low numbers. Additionally, the runner will not be required to run a mile when the number of hours worked in a day exceeds the number of hours slept during the previous night or when the runner simply does not feel like running. Finally, any miles run in excess of the minimum 1 mile/day may be carried over and applied to the following days. OK FINE. I’m just joking about the exceptions, there are no exceptions.

I’m going to call out Turi and Audrey here because they mentioned that they might do it too and this will help pressure them into it.

Have a good weekend and be sure to come back Monday for Candis’ race report which is sure to include plenty of gloating.

I’m Quiiting Running

It’s time for me to quit running. It’s not that I don’t still love to run because I do, it’s just that I’ve taken up a new pastime that is occupying all my spare time. I am no longer able to make the time to squeeze in any of my training runs and to be honest I don’t miss them at all. Don’t worry, my new hobby is a totally healthy way to replace intervals and long runs, it’s a little something called the Wii:

My brother-in-law gave us a Wii this past weekend. My boys have so much fun playing his Wii that he thought they’d like to have their own. It was a nice idea, but he clearly didn’t realize that they would be unable to wrestle the controls away from their father. After nearly 5 years of parenthood I’m finally starting to reap some benefits from it; the boys have cool toys that I can play with.

So I am sorry to tell you all that I no longer have time to run, what with all the Wii-ing I’ll be doing. I almost missed my long run entirely this past weekend and only managed to squeeze it in on Sunday night when my wife forced me to take a Wii break. But I don’t imagine that I’ll have too many more forced Wii breaks because my wiife is starting to come over to the dark side now too.

Before you know it the dishes will be piled up in the sink, I’ll be a no-show at work and we’ll be ebaying the kids toys to pay for new Wii games and cheap healthcare. We’re fixing to go down hard in our new addiction and Wii don’t even care. Perhaps I’ll take up smoking too while I’m at it, I hear that smoking helps you lose weight.

I’d love to tell you more but it’s my turn at Wii bowling so I gotta’ run, but not in the physical activity sense of the word, more in the screen-gazing, comatose, where-did-the-day-go, forgot-we-had-kids-to-feed sense of the word.

I’ve got a fever and the only prescription for it is more Wii.

Setting a Goal

The ticker at the bottom of the site indicates that there’s less than 17 days until the Bolder Boulder 10K so the purpose of this entry is to do 3 things:
1. Set a goal for myself
(b) Make it public so as to hold myself accountable (yes, this counts as making it public)
3. Impress my boss who is always encouraging me to set goals.

The question is should I set an attainable goal so that I feel like I've accomplished something? Or should I set the impossible, impractical, upper-management-thinks-we-should-do-this goal that will push me harder but make it look like I’ve failed at the end. To resolve this inner dilemma, this inner struggle between lazy and motivated, I’m going to set a stretch goal to push myself and an easy goal so I can feel good about myself. Running is all about feeling good.

My time in 2006 was 58:53, almost 8 minutes faster than in 2005, so if I could cut another 8 minutes off my time this year that would put me at 50 minutes. This translates to 8 minute miles and according to the McMillan Running Calculator my workouts are not fast enough to believe that I could accomplish this. I actually think I heard it laughing at me when I input the data, so that will be the high end goal or perhaps it’s more accurate to call it an aspiration.

On the attainable side my aspiration is that I’ll be able to run sub 9 minute miles or under 56 minutes. Plugging this into the McMillan calculator gives me results that are more inline with my current workouts. There you have it, that’s my goal aspiration, or is it more exact to call it a tentative anticipation? Bingo! I tentatively anticipate that I will run the Bolder Boulder somewhere between 50:00 and 56:00. Strong words I know, but if you want to succeed in this life you have to be a go-getter, a goal-setter, at least that’s what my boss is always telling me.

Treadmills are for Hamsters

It’s snowing here in Denver today, and that really sucks because it means that I’m going to have to go down to the depths of my unfinished basement and run on the treadmill. If it was just cold outside I’d simply put on my hey-that-guy-looks-like-he’s-about-to-break-into-my-house hoodie and ski-mask and run outside, shrinkage be damned. Alas, I cannot risk slipping on the ice and snow and getting injured.

Fortunately I only have 4 miles scheduled for today, because if it was anything longer I might die of boredom. I meet a lot of runners who love to run on the treadmill, but I don’t know how you do it. I stare at the dull concrete wall, running towards it at a lightning fast pace (it’s my blog - I decide what constitutes a lightning fast pace) not going anywhere, not feeling the breeze in my hair, not smelling the freshly cut grass and the BBQs, not waving at fellow runners on the trail, not enjoying the views and I wonder to myself “how do hamster’s do it?” … I mean, how do hamsters run in a wheel, not literally how do they DO IT… well sometimes I wonder that too, because I’m just THAT bored.

You’re probably thinking, “Hey, it didn’t start snowing until this afternoon, why didn’t he just get up early and run before work?” Yeah, right. That just smacks of dedication and motivation, and if I possessed those two qualities I wouldn’t be posting to my blog in the middle of the work day now would I?

Anyway, thanks for listening to me rant and reading to the end. Your reward? Enjoy this little video that sums up my views on treadmills.