Cross training with The Wiggles

Having gone to some friends' house for dinner last night (they're from Mexico and they made the best homemade taquitos, rice and beans), we got home late. That meant, then, that I wouldn't be getting up at the crack o' early to go for the eight mile long run on the schedule for today. Can you believe we got to sleep-in until 10 a.m.?

I laced up and headed out, but turned around after a couple of miles because of burning shins. I ended up walking/running on the treadmill for another two miles until calling it quits. After an awesome six miler on Wednesday morning, my left heel killed me the rest of the day, so I was concerned about that, too. From what I read, I don't think it's PF, but maybe more of a heel spur or something. With 14 days until Hospital Hill Half, I think I'm just going to go easy from now until then.

My wife took the two older boys to see the Narnia movie which left me with the 3 y/o. He went poo on the loo this morning, so we walked to the library and McD's for a celebratory happy meal. Now we're watching The Wiggle's Dance Party. I'm contemplating joining in on the "fun" and calling it cross training. Doesn't get much better than that (actually it could, but sometimes that's just what dads do).

As I looked at the calendar, I realized we have more events coming up than just the Half in two weeks. Mostly family events, so that'll be fun.

May 31: Hershey Games Eli did this one last year and had a blast. Got loads of coupons for free Krispy Kremes. Not my favorite, but can't beat a free donut no matter where they're coming from.

June 7: Hospital Hill Half

June 14: Rock Chalk...RUN! First year for this one. While there'll be a 5k and 10k, we're going so the boys can all do the fun run. It'll coincide with the packet pickup for the Kansas Ironman which'll be the next day. So, if anyone'll be there, let me know. Outofshapeguy? RunningJayhawk? Getupandgorun?

Also on June 14: Take Steps for Crohn's & Colitis. My wife suffers from Colitis, so we're stoked to do this one as a family. It's a walk, but I'll wear my running shoes and maybe take Duncan along, too. To learn more about Take Steps, here's my wife's event page.

Donut Friday...Slacker Edition

You've undoubtedly been on the edge of your seat today awaiting this week's Donut Friday. Remember, I said it would be a regular feature, not a weekly feature.

So bad news first: continuing with the slacker mode in which I have found myself lately, I didn't get around to inviting a guest blogger for today. Try as I might in, I was even unable to convince any of my other inanimate running objects to write fearing they couldn't 1) say anything nice about me (not a prerequisite, but certainly helps) and 2) reach the bar set so high by Duncan's tirade last Friday. I hope to have a living, breathing guest blogger for next Friday.

The good news, however, is that I was able to get a guest chef to share an easy recipe for delicious Scandinavian donuts. Be sure to look below the embeded video for an interesting piece of trivia. Enjoy the long weekend!

This sketch appeared on Episode 114 of The Muppet Show. The guest host of that episode was none other than Sandy Duncan. Get it? Duncan. Dunkin. Donuts.

Dwight Schrute-san

Only two more days until a three-day weekend! To celebrate, here's a video about work that has nothing to do with running. (For whatever reason, the video doesn't seem to be pulling up in Google Reader, so you'll have to go to the blog itself to view).

Some of you know I spent a few years in Japan back in my early 20's, and the rest of you know The Office is one of my favorite shows, so this is the best of two worlds, and the rest of you need to get back to work.

Enjoy!, or tanoshimi!

Slacker Confessional

Call me Slackey McSlacker. I've only run five miles in the past week. Compared to most of America, I could probably win a gold medal for athleticism for that, but in the company of running bloggers, five miles feels like a proverbial scarlet letter. Especially for someone who has a half-marathon in 17 days. Saturday was supposed to have been my last long run, a whole 11 miles. I wish I could say I had good intentions, but I just didn't make it happen. Afterall, there are millions and millions of people who didn't run 11 miles on Saturday, and they're still happy. But again, those millions and millions of people don't have a half-marathon in 17 days. I did, however, get in some cross training like biking to and from work on Friday (15 miles total) and tilling a garden plot on Saturday.

While wallowing in a puddle of self-disappointment resulting from my slackerness and fear of what 13.1 miles will feel like in yes, 17 days, I got an email today from the race director.

"Look back over your training log and see how far you have come in your training. If you have followed the schedule, you are ready. Resist the urge to run extra miles over these last few weeks. If you have missed some of the training, especially the long runs, it is too late to safely increase mileage this late into the training. It is safer on the body to rest up for race day by following the remainder of the schedule as prepared. Enjoy the day."

Enjoy the day? Is that a well-wish, or is that her laughing in the face of my slackerness of the past week, like "Ha ha, sucker, yeah, you're going to 'enjoy' race day like you'd enjoy having to watch back-to-back episodes of Oprah while plucking the hair off your legs one hair at a time"? Either way, I'll still get my swag simply for showing up at packet pick-up, and my finisher bling when I cross the finish line. The only saving grace at this point is that she says it's safer on the body to rest. I'm planning on taking that out of context and missing more early morning runs over the next 17 days, because she said that's what I should do (again, only when taking it out of context).

Want to help me feel more like a winner? Click here and take action. I need it.

Donut Friday featuring...Duncan

My name is Duncan. I didn't choose that name. I was adopted. Recently. And I'm not happy. The guy they sent me to is a doofus, and he made me write this. I'm sure he thought I'd have all kinds of nice things to say about him, but I don't. I've only been here a week, and already he has me going on runs and helping his snot-nosed kids find little canisters other people wrap in camoflage tape and hide in all kinds of gosh-forsaken places, geocaching or something like that. Here's my story.

There I was, minding my own business when the warehouse guy told me I'd been chosen to go to a good family in the midwest. Great, that's everyone's dream, to live in Kansas. The new guy takes me on runs almost every day so I get plenty of fresh air. That's about the only good part. He makes me feel really uncomfortable, too, the way he looks at me like every 1/100th of a mile all "ooh, you're so awesome, Duncan. How far have we gone now?" They really should screen these people before just taking their money and sending us their way. Topher asked me to write about how I help him be a better runner. The idiot doesn't know the half of what I can do; let's just say he has a graduate degree in "big learning curves." So here goes.

Did you know that I can do the following?
- Show pace/heart rate/fastest-slowest pace by any lap distance? Topher thought I'd just automatically know that he wanted me to beep every mile. No, you have to tell me at what interval you want me to record your information.
- I can work on the treadmill, but you have to buy a foot pod.
- If you're running in a new place and you want to be able to find your way back to where you started, I can record your starting position and then via my Navigation feature guide you back. That or you could drop donut crumbs as you run like he does.

- I work for biking, too, but you should set me to "Bike" mode. He rode his bike to work today, seven miles, and I think he's going to be surprised when he downloads my data and it shows he "ran" something like 4:45 minute miles. It's because he just turned me on but had me set to "Run." So if he blogs later and says he just set a PR in the mile, you'll know what's up.
- I'm just going to tell you straight-up how it is. I can't say encouraging things to you on your run. I can only beep and then show you some data. If you want "inspiration", you'll have to record those on an MP3 player and then play that back to yourself.

Finally, he also wanted me to give a review of my favorite donut or donut shop. Is he crazy? I don't eat donuts! I'm a Garmin Forerunner 305, for heaven's sake. The guy's nuts, I tell ya. Regardless, he did name me after his favorite donut place, Dunkin Donuts. At least he changed the spelling to Duncan. I hate it when people change around the spelling of a name to be cute or whatever, and then the kid has to spend his entire life telling people how to spell it. He says Dunkin' Donuts is the best donut place ever. If their donuts are as good as the commercial I loaded below, I'm sure he's right (don't tell him I said that). Some guy in New Jersey even promised to send him a dozen Dunkin' Donuts via overnight shipping if Topher finishes his upcoming half marathon in under two hours. Geez, thanks, Ted! Guess who's going to have to bear the burden on THAT one. You guessed it, me, his "precious." I'm not the one with legs. I'm just the brains. Anyway, thanks for reading, I guess.

Stretching is for sissies

Stretching is for sissies, or at least that's what I tell myself when I head out the door at a full-on sprint because I jumped out of bed feeling like Ryan Hall at 5:45 a.m. Then slowly, around mile 0.67, it starts in my shins, then my calves, then spreads like glaze on a Krispy Kreme throughout the rest of my frame. Why, oh why, don't I like to stretch?

Today's Take It and Run Thursday topic at the Runners' Lounge is: "It was so obvious," lessons about running that are right in front of our noses—the ones so obvious we need to be hit over the head with a club. The only problem for me is that it's not "was" so obvious, but "is" so obvious when it comes to my own running.

I do it all the time. I just bound out the door with nary a thought given to the importance of stretching. I know, I know. You don't need to comment and say "oh, Topher, you really should stretch" because my eyes will only read your words as "blah, blahhpity, blahhpity, blah blah blah, donuts, blah, blah." I then end up stopping every half mile or so to stretch out the muscles that start screaming at me for being such a lame excuse for a runner and one who doesn't deserve to have leg muscles to begin with. I tell myself how bad it is not to stretch pre/post run and vow to stretch from now on. Then "from now on" comes around the next morning and I learn the same painful lesson all over again.

Am I the only one who does this? Come on, you can tell me. It'll be our little secret (until other people read about it in the comments section).

If you are like me, here are a few links that I HAVE paid attention to and have learned some "it's so obvious" lessons about stretching. Putting them into practice has been optional for me, but I will try to be better. I know in the long run (+6)* it's what I need to do.
- Runners' Lounge advice on stretching
- Runner's World videos (stretching videos are found under the Training tab)

* an adaptation from Nitmos'** point system for big words, I'm going to start awarding myself points for wicked awesome puns used in my posts. Get it, "long run"?
** Nitmos just posted possibly one of the funniest posts I've read in a long, long time regarding race day spectatorship. Read it here.

I'm a registered marathoner

I did it. I registered for the KC Marathon. By registering before tomorrow's early bird deadline, I saved a whopping $10. Wow, think of all I could do with $10! That's like one stick of Bodyglide and half a pack of peanut M&M's. It seems so far away, but when I looked at training plans yesterday, I pretty much have to start training the week after my upcoming half-mary.

My reason for wanting to do it is basically to say I've run a marathon. I like the half marathon, and suspect that'll be "my race". Part of me just doesn't feel like I'll be a true runner until I can say I've run the marathon, and the other part of me says that's hogwash, and yet another part of me really wants a bowl of cookies and cream ice cream right now. While deliberating tonight, my wife said "In three years when you've blown out your knees and gained 30 pounds, will you wish you would have done it?" Guess she's got a point (but blown knees and 30 pounds aren't in the plan).

In other news, did you know that Vanilla was nominated for Best Daddy Blog of the Year? Be sure to vote for him: Daddy's Little Tax Credits. While there, I hear there's a poll for Best Sport Blog (some people have asked for a daily reminder to vote for me). Rest assured, the shamless promotion is coming to an end. If you haven't already voted, you're probably not going to. If you have, it was either for good reason or someone told you I'd take you along to Disneyland if I win the grand prize. Ha ha, joke's on both of us because something tells me there is no Disneyland prize package.

A favor, and payoff!

Admiring fans everywhere: thanks for the overwhelming support you've shown by voting for my blog in the Best Sports Blog category. Unfortunately, it appears they've changed it up, and now have a point-click-vote system and I don't know if your previous votes are counted. I just voted (can you guess who for?) and after you click "illrunfordunuts" and "vote", it shows the results (I'm currently at 67% of the votes - yeah, baby!). Then it says "be sure and come back and vote every day" or something like that. SO, do you mind voting again (and again and again)? Here's the new link: vote here.

In order to show my appreciation not only for your votes, but your support and loyalty, I'm pleased to announce a feature that I hope to start this Friday. Without further ado, here it is....

You read that right. I'm happy to announce that starting (hopefully) this Friday, there'll be a new regular (notice I didn't commit to weekly) feature here at I'll Run for Donuts: Donut Friday. My office used to have a donut club. We don't anymore. The promise of donuts on Fridays and a long run on Saturdays would get me through the week. Unfortunately, it was the donuts that went, not the long runs.

My plan is to have a guest blogger write the post, hopefully something related to running and also include something about their favorite local donut place. Not an interview, but an actual post that I don't have to write, but simply post on my blog. I'll get credit for a new post, but will have to exert very little effort. I envision having runners and non-runners alike featured to give us their perspective. I know my mother-in-law is itchin' to tell us that running's not good for our knees, but she's a special lady that we can all learn something from.

I have a very special guest blogger lined up for the premier Donut Friday. He's someone many of you may know and I think you'll appreciate his insight.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! If it weren't for the women in my life, I wouldn't know how to tie my shoes, cook a decent meal, pick up after myself (ok, still working on that one), or many of the other things I can do all.by.myself.

My mom is a regular reader and lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. We don't get to see her often, but she loves us very much. She's an awesome example of setting a goal and doing everything in her power to achieve it. She started college after I graduated from college and earned her bachelor's degree after turning 50.

My mother-in-law, Mama K, is also an incredible woman. I couldn't find a digital picture of her to upload. She raised six stellar children who also read my blog. She resides in Montana and enjoys gardening, sewing, and talking to me on the phone.

And no Mother's Day post would be complete without praising my wife. She's my best friend. She married me before she knew my hairline would start receeding before I turned 30, but she knows a good deal when she sees one so she snatched me up. She's an awesome mother and my boys are blessed to be raised by her. Guess what she wanted for breakfast on Mother's Day? DONUTS! Do I have good taste in women, or what?!

So Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

10K on the 10th race report

Thanks, Nancy, for spoiling yet another perfectly good Saturday morning when I could have laid around watching cartoons while eating donuts and drinking Dr. Pepper. You and your motivating ideas...geesh. I did, however, stay in bed until 9:15 a.m. entertaining thoughts of claiming a bogus injury so I wouldn't have to run. But alas, as always, I caved and ran another one of those dang virtual races. This time was the 10k on the 10th.




This time I went out to Shawnee Mission Lake Park, home of the first 10k I ever ran. This is also the first time I've run one of Nancy's virtual races 100% outdoors thanks to a cool, overcast morning. Laced in my new Asics Gel-Cumulous 9's and armed with Duncan, my new running partner, I hit the trail. What an awesome day for a run! Instead of turning left to follow the trail I ran during the Pilgrim Pacer 10K, I turned right. I'd never gone right so I figured new scenery would be good, and I wasn't disappointed.


About a mile into things, I found out why other runners turned left a mile back. I'd soon (relative term) be looking down at the pavement and seeing the words "Slow Keep Right" and a yellow line down the middle. A word to the wise, if you see something akin to that, turn around. If that doesn't do it, the sign at the top that says "Slow, Steep Grade" will mock your incapacity to understand what "Slow Keep Right" at the bottom meant. Yowza!


While I was hoping to be under an hour (my 10k PR is 55:15), I didn't quite make it. I finished in 1:01:50, but considering the hills I don't feel too bad about that time. I had to get 8 miles in today, so I still had 1.8 miles to go once the race portion was done.
At the end, I was spent, but this song ("Australia" by The Shins) got me through the last couple of minutes. It always does. Enjoy! (And if you haven't voted for the best sports blog yet, don't forget. Unless, of course, you have something better to do).