Knock! Knock!

Anybody home? Gosh, I almost forgot about this journey across America. gah! Are we all still running? I think you are cause I have seen it on all the blogs and FB. Let's see if we can't get this baby updated!

Have a great day!

Still here, and still running

Sorry for not checking in for so long, work and running have really kept me busy and my down time has included a lot less computer time than normal. I hope that will change here soon and I can provide more frequent updates.

On the plus side, I have been running. Quite a bit, actually, as my race season is about to begin next weekend. Through today I have run a total of 525.5 miles for the year, putting me at 5,255 virtual miles. A few "Fat Ass" races locally have really helped push my mileage total up, and introduced me to some great trails and people. Seems the Fat Ass race originated in the Santa Cruz area back in the 1980's. Here is a link to a history of the Fat Ass race. Here is a picture of some sweet trail taken by a friend (Luis Velasquez) at the last one I ran:



I have enjoyed catching up with everyone's progress - there is some great running going on out there. Thanks for the reports and keep em up!

Happy running. :-)

1,550.5 Miles & Still Running!

Here I am!!!! To date, I have run 1,550.5 miles in the Journey Across America. Hope all is well with all the runners and we're still tracking our miles. Where is the photoshop dude? Care to plot our locations? Have a great weekend.

I'm somewhere between Milwaukee and Iola, WI. RUN ON!

1106 Miles and a book to share

I'm up to 1106 virtual miles and I've been spending my down time reading a book. I thought I'd share.

Running Until You're 100 by Jeff Galloway
Book #13 (48 books read before I turn 48)

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
If your goal is to run for life or into your 60's, 70's and 100's then this is a great book full of advice on staying injury free, eating right, maintaining weight and enjoying the sport.

I've decide to incorporate several things in this book. One, running every other day. If you want to do high mileage, Galloway advises to do less runs, but longer. Better to do 3 five milers than to do 5 three milers in a week. Your rest days are very important to an older runner. I learned this somewhat from doing my 27 straight run days.

Galloway is most know for his system of run/walk/run in all his training and races. Remember Galloway is an Olympic runner, but he still takes walk breaks so that he can maintain his current running level. I've always taken walk breaks, except for a few 5k races. At my last half marathon Nick and I tried to take a walk break for 30-40 seconds every 4 minutes or so. It worked great. I will continue to take walk breaks, but will shorten them. I've been know to take 2-3 minute walk breaks.

Speed work and hills. I plan to do more of these. My past speed work has been a serious of tempo runs in the middle of a relative easy run. Galloway calls these Acceleration/glides. I would increase my pace to 8-9 mpm and hold it for as long as I could. Then take a walk break and do it again. I'll continue to do this and incorporate running up gradual hills. I can do this at South Mtn. park (main entrance) or Discovery Park in Gilbert.

Weights and pool running. I want to start running in the pool and lifting weights at least twice a week. Galloway and others think that pool running is very beneficial to a runner without the wear and tear.

I highly recommend this book and plan to get other Galloway books.



View all my reviews.

January Update

I've only updated those people who have checked in since last time. People like:

Diana: Mileage, 512; Approximate location, New York City


Greg: Mileage, 870.7; Approximate location, Chardon, Ohio


Jogger: Mileage 1548; Approximate location, Madison, Wisconsin (OK, I'm fifty miles short of Madison. But I went to grad school in Madison, and spent many an hour in this very building, Van Vleck Hall.)


Melanie: Mileage, 547; Approximate location, Paramus, New Jersey (Sorry, Mel, the best photo of Paramus I could find was a shopping mall.)


Peter: Mileage, 776; Approximate location, Erie, Pennsylvania


Turi: Mileage, 353.4; Approximate location, Boston (You didn't think someone in Boston was going to end up anywhere but the Boston Marathon, did you?)

Kennebunkport cancellation

Hi everyone - my VRAA is now pretty close to the Rhode Island border, but since I passed through Kennebunkport sometime last week, I thought I'd share this. I was visiting my parents over the holidays and my father mentioned how excited he was about the upcoming inauguration - because he can add to his collection of special inauguration cancellations on postage stamps! I'd never heard of this - apparently he hadn't mentioned it the whole time I was growing up. (Or maybe he just mentioned it every four years, and I wasn't paying attention. Anyway...) To illustrate, he pulled out a few of them, and one looked like this:



Being a west-coaster, I don't think I'd seen the name Kennebunkport anywhere since the senior Bush was in office, so it was a weird coincidence to see it again on the VRAA route. Just a little tidbit from someone who is apparently genetically predisposed to nerdiness...

Weekend Update

I am absolutely not going to do this every weekend, but classes at my University don't start until next week, and I've got some time this weekend...

Here's where we are, as far as I know


Andy: Mileage, 655; Last report, 1/9; Approximate location, New York City


Diana: Mileage, 270; Last report, 1/16; Approximate location, Belfast, ME


Greg: Mileage, 444.2; Last report, 1/13; Approximate location, Middletown, CT


Jogger: Mileage, 867; Last report, 1/18; Approximate location, Ashtabula, OH


Melanie: Mileage, 266; Last report, 1/12; Approximate location, Portsmouth, NH


NB: Mileage, 110; Last report, 1/10; Approximate location, Bucksport, ME


Nikemom: Mileage, 80; Last report, 1/4 (Helloooo? Nikemom? Are you there?); Approximate location, Orono, ME


Oz: Mileage, 255; Last report, 1/12; Approximate location, Kennebunkport, ME
Pat: Mileage, 249; Last report, 1/7; Approximate location, Kennebunkport, ME


Peter: Mileage, 205.8; Last report, 1/11; Approximate location, Portsmouth, NY


Turi: Mileage, 205.8; Last report, 1/11; Approximate location, Bath, ME