Posted on Jul 22, 2009 under Random |
I was recently asked to be interviewed by Dave Tiefenthaler of tips4running.com. I have never been interviewed before and although this was not a traditional interview in person, I still felt pretty special to even be asked in the first place. Just so everybody knows, Dave interviews many runners on his site, which you can read here. Either way, it still felt cool to be asked about how I got back into running, what kind of workouts I do and a lot of other personal questions that showed that he was truly interested. The answers to some of these questions I have never mentioned on my blog before. Not necessarily because I didn’t want to, but just never found the right time to say them. Dave did a great job asking interesting questions that allowed me to really express how into running I currently am.
The interview is linked at the top of my blog, but click here to read the running interview.
Posted on Jul 16, 2009 under Training |
The great debate about running in the morning and running at night.
Morning Running
Athletes have different preferences when it comes to running in the morning or running at night. Back in high school we would run in the mornings during the summers and weekends. But once the school year started, we would run in the afternoon after class. The reason why we ran in the mornings during the summer was because it would have been way too hot to run in the afternoons. It worked out because big invitational races were always on Saturday mornings, so we would be running in the same conditions. However, when the school year started, we had no other choice but to run after school, which was a lot harder than the mornings. But during the school year, our league meets against other high schools were after school, so we would be used to those conditions as well. There were a few times during the year where we decide to run at night..
Night Running
Night running is a lot different from running in the mornings. We once ran with glow sticks, but that didn’t really help and my teammate just threw his into the trees on the run back. Running at night is actually pretty scary for a couple of reasons. When we ran on the trail, we wouldn’t be able to see the path ahead or anything on the ground so we could have tripped on rocks, branches and other stuff. It was also dangerous because there could easily be an attacker hiding in the bushes and we wouldn’t be able to react or anticipate it. Because of those reasons, I always ran a lot faster at night than when I would run in the mornings, similar to how I sometimes run faster in the rain. There are a lot of reasons why I run faster at night, and fear is definitely one of the main reasons. There have been many runs where I ran faster because I was running with the fear of my teammate catching up to me and beating me. In the case of running at night, I was always afraid that there was something or someone coming up behind me, so it was like it was being chased the whole way.
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Posted on Jul 16, 2009 under Reviews |
I used to go to sleep with my earphones on with my mp3 player, even though I would literally fall asleep within minutes. The problem with that was that I was falling asleep with loud music playing and sometimes slept on my sides. It was not until I heard about Tinnitus and Meniere’s Syndrome that I realized how bad of an idea that was.
There are many diseases in the world that I’m unaware of, but one that I didn’t think was that common was Tinnitus or Meniere’s Syndrome. In fact, 50 million people suffer from this strange disease. Fortunately, it has been something that has been addressed and nutritional/dietary supplements like Lipo-Flavonoid have helped people cope with and even end symptoms of Tinnitus and Meniere’s Syndrome.
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Posted on Jul 15, 2009 under Reviews |
I was given the opportunity to review a variety of Certain Dri products including: Certain Dri Feet Microsponge Powder, Moisture Control Pads and Solid Anti-Perspirant. To be honest, I have never really heard of this brand before and the packaging makes it look like a very generic product. But after reading about the product, I found out that it has been the number-one doctor-recommended brand for over 30 years. I have never used products for foot odor or moisture before, but I’m sure if I asked around what others use, I’m sure a good amount of them would mention this product. And about the Certain Dri Solid Anti-Perspirant, I have grown up using the most common types of deodorant and anti-perspirant on the market, Right Guard, Axe, Old Spice, etc. and I thought they were doing their job..
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Posted on Jul 13, 2009 under Training |
Since I haven’t been able to log as many miles during my weekly long run or for the overall total miles for the week, I was thinking about other ways to get in a workout instead of running. About a year ago, I bought a bike on Craigslist to just to go cruising during the summer. However, that lasted only about a month or two and then it just sat in the garage for the rest of the year. So I was thinking of putting it back into use and bike a couple of miles after my regular run. I mentioned this on DailyMile and got some great feedback and advice and someone mentioned something about a Brick Workout. I have heard other runners talk about this before, but I never really understood what it was. I read that it’s a great way to cross train and help improve overall endurance. This would be a good way to ease myself into running a lot more miles and get some use out of my forgotten bicycle.
My old bike I used for the Brick workout..
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Posted on Jul 06, 2009 under Race |
This was the first time running a 10K, so I didn’t know what to expect coming into the race. I knew I wasn’t in shape to run it as competitively as I would run a 5K, so I took it more like a hard workout. I also wanted to try and work on my pace and make sure that I would be able to finish all 6.2 miles. Race Results: 42:29, 6:51 pace. Avg HR: 185 bpm, peak 199 bpm, total calories: 909. Splits: Mile 1: 7:04, mile 2: 6:51, mile 3: 6:50, mile 4: 7:04, mile 5: 7:00, mile 6: 6:22. Placing: 29th out of 78 in my age group, 153rd out of 1500+ overall. Some neat features of the Scripps Ranch 10K and Fun Run: USA T&F sanctioned 10K course around scenic Miramar Lake – This is where I’ve been having my ‘long runs’, so I was very familiar with this course. The 10K will use ChampionChip timing for unsurpassed accuracy – This is my first time racing with these chips, I think it can tell when you actually pass the start and finish lines, but I could be wrong. Each subsequent race I’ve been doing has gotten bigger and bigger. First race was like 2-3 hundred, and this race was over 1500! But like all previous races, men and women runners of all ages, including very young runners not even 12 years old! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jun 22, 2009 under Race |
The Bonita 5000 5K Race is the 2nd race of my ‘season’ and I finished at 20:05 at 6:29 pace, 74th out of 387, and 9th in my age group. Looking at the finishing time, you can say that it was a pretty good run. But if you read on, you’ll see that I probably could have run a lot smarter and faster! So the last few workouts that I’ve ran before this race have not been that great. I would start off ok, but after each mile, I would just feel really tired and not be able to keep up the pace. I was afraid that I would come into this race and not run as fast as I was able to to run in the UCSD Grove Run 5K. And the fact that it was a 30 minute drive to this race would have made it even more disappointing to not run well. But I guess that didn’t really happen since I improved my time by about 15 seconds, and again, it probably could have been faster if I were a smarter runner..
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Posted on Jun 16, 2009 under Race |
Race Pictures: UCSD Grove Run 5K
So the race pictures for the UCSD Grove Run 5K has been available online for a while now, I just didn’t have time to actually post them on the blog. These aren’t even all of them, just the ones that summarize the race and ones that I’m (sort of) in. Read the UCSD Grove Run 5K Race Report or view all the pictures from the race.
Note: I wanted the gallery to display using Lightbox (like the race banner), but I can’t get it to work. Maybe for the next race.. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jun 12, 2009 under Reviews |
I bought my first pair of Skullcandy Ink’d Earbud Headphones back in February of 2008 when they were on sale at Circuit City (when they were still in business). It was around that time that I started running again too and only one earphone of my current Sony headphones were working, so this was much needed for my runs. I am far from being any type of audiophile, but I was very pleased with those earbud headphones. The sound quality was really good, they actually stayed in my ears while running (can’t say the same with the headphones that come with iPods) and I had no real issues with them while they were functioning. The only reason that they died on me was because after I was done using them, I would wrap them around my iPod shuffle and after doing that so many times, the wires seem to have gotten loose and started receiving static noises and eventually died. I got another pair to replace those and have learned my lesson about wrapping the headphones around the iPod. The problem now is that transporting them from work and back home is a little bit more difficult as they get tangled with other stuff in my bag. But if that means that they will last longer, it’s definitely worth the trouble.
Posted on Jun 07, 2009 under track |
Workout: 1 mile warm up, 4-1 mile repeats at 6:40 pace, 1 mile cool down
Time: 6:39 (172 bpm, 127 calories); 6:38 (181 bpm, 137 calories); 6:39 (183 bpm, 140 calories); 6:23 (186 bpm, 138 calories) 1:24 all out last lap. Peak HR: 201.
Weather: Sunny and windy around the backstretch and final 100 meter
The last time I ran on the track, I ran one mile all out just to see what kind of shape I was in. I was pretty happy with running a 6:02 considering it wasn’t that long after I started running again. Fast forward a couple of months after a lot more miles and even an actual race under my belt, I decided to try mile repeats on the track, which is an interval workout which I used to do in high school all the time. Read the rest of this entry »
