i love running and i love running races. the race atmosphere is always a lot of fun and very encouraging. part of the reason that pam started running was because she so enjoyed the atmosphere of the road races that i was running in and she wanted to be a part of it.

i love biking. this love has developed since moving to the point area. we have such wonderful weather and trails for biking. biking is a part of the spring and summer culture around here and i have been sucked into it.

since i love running, biking, and races i thought it might be a good idea to try a duathlon and thereby combine these items. i did my first today. it was the portage country united way “run, bike, unite” duathlon. i thought it would be a simple way of testing this combination of two activities i love. all i can say is that the combination of running and biking kicked my butt worse than either of those activities ever has ever done by themselves. since i had never done a duathlon before i didn’t really know what to expect. i was pretty pleased with my time of 1:26:35 for a 2 mile run/ 13 mile bike ride/ 2 mile run. i biked a little faster than i had thought i would.

i think i’ll end up doing this again.

i’ve been training for grandma’s marathon in duluth, mn for about 4 months. i was pretty excited about it because i have been consistently running personal best times with each of the last 4 races i have run. i was convinced that i was going to break 4:30:00 for this marathon. this is not fast but it is better for me. for the first time i really trained for a marathon rather than just a half marathon. unfortunately auto trouble has killed my excitement.

i was driving from point to duluth tonight to pick up my race packet for the race tomorrow. i stopped for fuel just outside the thriving metropolis of spooner, wisconsin (population 2,653 – SALUTE!). up until this point everything had been running fine. my car had not indicated any trouble. the problem occurred when i tried to start the car back up. nothing happened. well that’s not actually correct. all the power came on which indicated that the battery has plenty of juice. but the starter didn’t even budge. no sound, no rotation, nothing. so it is either starter trouble or ignition trouble (i’m guessing ignition because the wheel suddenly doesn’t lock). all i know is that the tow truck operator says there is no one in town who works on mazdas and he can’t take me to a town large enough to have a mechanic that does work on mazdas until later tonight.

so i am now sitting in the schmidt’s economart deli waiting for 8 p.m. when the tow truck driver will take me to chippewa falls which is a little closer to home. the good news is that schmidt’s has wifi in addition to its greasy food and thankfully perry and andrea polnaszek are going to put me up for the night. i’ll make plans for tomorrow.

i am very thankful for my friends in chippewa falls but my feelings about the general situation are ARGH!!!!!

SIDE NOTE – if there is anyone in duluth who would like my bib number contact me and i will gladly give it to you so you can go all bandit on the race.

those who know me know that i don’t care a great deal about clothes. if at a particular moment i am dressed with any style at all it is because pam bought me those clothes. when i decide that something is comfortable and that i like it then i have a tendency to wear it a lot. take the sweater vest for an example. i never knew it until moving up to wisconsin but i was born to wear sweater vests. i wear them so often that devon (tapestry’s  all around tech guy) has declared the sweater vest/jean/chuck taylor combo to be the tapestry uniform and wears it on sunday nights to mock me (yeah i feel the love). pam and my parents can tell you stories from high school concerning a t-shirt i stole from chris lee that i wore every other day (it’s graphic said “cajun power” and it was awesome).

so that’s why it is with almost shame that i now admit that i have discovered i have a passion to find the world’s most perfect running jacket/windbreaker. i presently own 4 windbreakers and i find myself looking for new running jackets all the time. i almost bought a new yesterday because i saw one on sale. did i need it – nope – but it was on sale and had a hood (one of the things on my list of what makes a perfect running jacket). i didn’t buy it but i came real close to doing so.

so here’s my list of what makes the perfect running jacket.

• weather resistant – it should block the rain and the wind. you would think this was a given but one of my four windbreakers is a rain magnet. if i run with it during a mist i gain 5 pounds of weight from the rain it soaks up.
• supple – my current favorite running jacket is a sugoi versa convertible jacket which is so smooth it is like running covered in butter (which was meant to describe a good thing but now that i think about it probably isn’t). a good running jacket should be incredibly smooth and move well with you while still being weather resistant. this also helops the windbreaker to fit well next to your body.
• lightweight – the less it weights the better. if you need warmth then put layers on underneath the jacket BUT the jacket itself should weight next to nothing.
• good zippered storage – there needs to be plenty of storage for gel packs my cell phone and ipod. these pockets need to be zippered and positioned in such a manner that i can position my stuff in such a way that the jacket is balanced on my shoulders. my sugoi is perfect for this with unzippered pockets on the inside of the jacket, two front zippered pockets and a pocket in the small of the back of the jacket.
• a collapsible hood – this is the only thing that my present sugoi jacket doesn’t have. if it did it would be perfect. i so wish my sugoi had a hood. it would be an absolutely amazing jacket then.

one advantage that my sugoi versa jacket does have that is not on my list is that it is convertible from a running jacket to a running vest. as i said at the beginning of this post i like vests. when i bought the jacket i didn’t think being convertible to a vest was that great of a thing but soon realized how amazing it was on a day of dramatic temperature change when i was able to cool off by removing and storing the sleeves during a long run.

anyway for a guy who doesn’t care about clothes and i am somewhat bothered by the fact that i now find myself drawn to and tempted by windbreakers every time i’m around them.

when it gets as cold as it is right now (3°F at noon) i always struggle with what to wear for running. fleet feet sent out an email today with good suggestions for cold weather running attire. i thought i would share it. you can find more info on fleet feet’s winter gear suggestion page.

General Rules of ‘Numb’

• Dress as if it is 20 degrees warmer
• Think layers of technical fabrics to wick sweat
• Zippers at the neck or gloves you can adjust will help you regulate as you heat up

 

COLD

• 30 degree weather: 2 tops, 1 bottom. Long sleeve base layer and a vest to keep your core warm. Tights (or shorts) for you polar bears.
• 10-20 degrees: 2 tops, 2 bottoms. A jacket over your base layer and wind pants over your tights.

 

COLDER

• 0-10 degrees: 3 tops, 2 bottoms. Two tops (fleece for the cold prone) and a jacket. Windbrief for the men.
• -10 to 0 degrees: 3 tops, 2 bottoms, an extra pair of mittens, 1 scarf or neckwarmer wrapped around mouth or a balaclava.

 

COLDEST

• -20 degrees weather: 3 tops, 3 bottoms, 1 balaclava, sunglasses.

turns out that the above list actually came from runner’s world. fleet feet just republished it. you can find that article here.

i love running in the snow!

as most of you know , i m not a fast runner. i don’t usually beat very many people in the races i enter. i’m thrilled if i’m in the top 50%. therefore, i rarely ever really feel like a runner when i talk about the speed at which i run. i know people who can speed walk faster than i can run. while i don’t run very fast i am very committed to running. this is why i love to run when it is raining or snowing. the uncomfortable times are when other people usually will not run and therefore i usually feel like a real runner for being committed enough to run even though the environment isn’t very conducive for a positive running experience. it’s times like this when i feel like a real runner.

since we had a storm moving in last night (in fact A BIG STORM) i couldn’t miss the chance to run right when the snow began. i went to the plover river trail to run on it before the snow got high enough for cross country skiing (the point area has the best trail system and it is very rude to mess up the groomed cross country ski trails once there is enough snow to ski). it was an amazing run along the plover river with its edges icing up.

yet the truly fun part began when i started to drive home. you see i had been running in winter tights and a jacket. it works perfect for running because its just barely warm enough. while it is great while i am running it is not really something i want to wear into stores and around public. it is also very cold if you are not running. on division street (the main drag from point to plover) my radio died. i thought that was a little weird but it came back on so i dismissed it as static electricity resetting the radio. then it happened again and all the lights on my dashboard came on and immediately blanked out. at that point i was fairly sure that the alternator in my car was dying. i figured it out for sure just about the second that my car stopped running. i was stuck on the busiest street in stevens point during lunch hour and the beginning of a snow storm. i was going to have to get out of the car and push it on division while wearing just running tights and a jacket.

i desperately thought that i might be able to get someone to stop but apparently people don’t respond well to tall guys in tights. three guys finally had pity on me and came over to help push the car to a safe place. i’m not real sure why they laughed constantly while they were pushing the car.

last night i went to the wisconsin dells with pam for a conference that she was speaking at (yes, i am married to an impressive woman). if you have never heard of “the dells” you need to understand that it is the big vacation spot in the mid-west. tons of large resort hotels with indoor (for the winter) and outdoor water parks. anyway, pam was presenting a seminar on assisted living technology with the chair of her department and one of her students. so pam was going to be at the conference and since they provided a hotel for the night i went with her. my only goal was to spend the evening with pam without the boys and then i thought i might run around “the dells” during her conference.

well last night was a fun date. pam left in the morning for her conference and i prepared myself for a winter run. now you need to know my typical winter running attire. actually my tops don’t matter, it is what i wear on my legs that you need to know about. i am a little ashamed to admit this but i have been converted on windy winter days to just wearing running tights on my winter runs. when it isn’t windy or super cold i still just wear shorts – my legs warm up quickly when i start running. unfortunately they don’t warm up at all when it is super cold or especially windy in the winter. i have to wear tights then. at first i wore shorts over my tights. i changed when i realized how much unnecessary laundry i was creating. it was at that point that i decided to just wear the tights. after all it’s a pretty typical thing to see around the point area – you see winter runners in central wisconsin all the time wearing tights and a jacket.

so i was in my tights and windbreaker when pam called and said she needed me to perform tech support on her computer. they couldn’t get the projector and computer working that they were going to use in their lecture (rather ironic that no one in an assistive living conference could operate this technology). well this is part of my duties as the husband. pam regularly says that my job is to open jars, kill bugs, and keep the computers working. so i had to decide – do i run over to the conference in my tights to fix the computer or do i get dress in normal clothes first? it’s one thing to wear running tights for a morning run and only be seen on the street. it is quite another thing to wear tights when you are bending over working on a computer. of course the problem was that pam needed me to fix the problem before they started her seminar. i had to move quickly.

i will leave it to your imagination concerning what i decided to do.