The temperature here in Charlotte has been 95 degrees plus for what seems like almost an eternity. It has been the hottest June since I have been living here. I have to get my workouts early in the morning when it is in the high 70s and low 80s and even that can be brutal. I am usually sweating bullets after after only a few minutes and my ability to grip diminishes with each minute.
One particular product that has caught my eye - besides an air-conditioner for my garage - is the Hyperwear Cooling vest. It is made by Hyperwear, the same folks that make my hypervest weighted vest which I swear by these days. They are currently 20% off through June 30th - click here and type "COOL" when prompted to get your discount. Here is a video from the folks at Hyperwear on the cooling vest...Enjoy!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
New Web Host
Made some changes to my web hosting as I am going to create a site specializing in reviewing fitness items. Just like I do here from time to time but with more photos and video and a heck of a lot more effort. I will let you know when I launch!
In case you are interested I switched to iPage for my web hosting. They only charge $3.95 per month have tons of features. I just signed up today and so far I am very pleased. Check them out here.
In case you are interested I switched to iPage for my web hosting. They only charge $3.95 per month have tons of features. I just signed up today and so far I am very pleased. Check them out here.
Worst Run Ever!
My first trail run at Renaissance in awhile and it was a disaster. Terry and I ran a 6+ mile course and around the 2nd mile I felt completely gassed. I just felt heavy and exhausted. I even walked - something I never do - not once or twice - but numerous times. It was 82 outside and extremely humid today which was a big factor but the bigger factor is that I simply lacked motivation today. It was my first training run since running 3 races in 12 days - Uwharrie Rumble 8K, Warrior Dash, and the Rock2Rock 10K. I trained hard for those races and now that they are over I don't have that fire under my butt. Now that I feel humiliated at my poor performance I think I will get the fire back because finishing 5 minutes behind my running buddies does not rest well with me.
I am going to view this as my first day back to training. I have not done any tough high intensity workouts in awhile either so now it is time to get back into the swing of things. We have trail runs planned for Monday and Wednesday so I will have more updates to come!
I am going to view this as my first day back to training. I have not done any tough high intensity workouts in awhile either so now it is time to get back into the swing of things. We have trail runs planned for Monday and Wednesday so I will have more updates to come!
Alkaline Water!?!?
When I did the Waxhaw 5K back in April there was vendor selling an Alkaline water machine. I was holding a free bottle of water that I received from another race vendor and the Alkaline water folks asked me if I wanted to get my water tested. I obliged and handed them my bottle. They put some kind of chemical in the water and lo and behold it turned a sort of purple color and they told me it was as acidic as Gatorade. They then replaced my acidic water with their alkaline water which they claimed would make me feel lighter and will absorb into my cells faster than the acidic water. So I tried it, ran my 5K and as usual, and I felt no different than I usually do.
If you are not familiar with the terms acidic and alkaline, it refers to pH. A pH of 7 is considered balanced. Anything over 7 is alkaline and under 7 is acidic. Most processed foods and carbonated beverages are acidic and a diet that consists mainly of highly acidic foods, like the typical American fast food diet, will lead to health problems. The alkaline water people claim their water will detoxify your body and, of course, make you healthy. This article, written by Dr. Ben Kim explains all about pH and how the body processes acidic and alkaline foods.
This isn't the first time I have seen these water machines and I have been wondering if there is any real science behind them. This link gives you the science and debunks the claims made by these alkaline water vendors...
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
I am sure there are plenty of people who claim these machines work. As the author of the last link states, the placebo effect likely plays a big role. My explanation is that anyone who starts drinking alkaline water is likely to start eating a healthier diet with less processed foods and more healthy whole foods and also likely start exercising. These changes result in improved health and vitality. In this scenario can you truly claim the machine works?
If you are not familiar with the terms acidic and alkaline, it refers to pH. A pH of 7 is considered balanced. Anything over 7 is alkaline and under 7 is acidic. Most processed foods and carbonated beverages are acidic and a diet that consists mainly of highly acidic foods, like the typical American fast food diet, will lead to health problems. The alkaline water people claim their water will detoxify your body and, of course, make you healthy. This article, written by Dr. Ben Kim explains all about pH and how the body processes acidic and alkaline foods.
This isn't the first time I have seen these water machines and I have been wondering if there is any real science behind them. This link gives you the science and debunks the claims made by these alkaline water vendors...
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
I am sure there are plenty of people who claim these machines work. As the author of the last link states, the placebo effect likely plays a big role. My explanation is that anyone who starts drinking alkaline water is likely to start eating a healthier diet with less processed foods and more healthy whole foods and also likely start exercising. These changes result in improved health and vitality. In this scenario can you truly claim the machine works?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Warrior Dash SouthEast - Mountain City, GA - May 22, 2010
I did the Warrior Dash on Saturday, May 22nd down in Mountain City, Georgia. It was approximately a four hour drive from my home in Waxhaw, NC to Mountain City. My friend Anthony from Waxhaw and my friends David and Aaron who came up from Florida did the dash with me. That Saturday had over 5,455 participants. There were new heats of about 500 runners every half hour. The event also continued on Sunday as well with total participants for both days combined at over 10,000.
In a nutshell, the Warrior Dash is approximately a 5K obstacle course. The course is designed so that someone with reasonable fitness can complete the course without killing themselves. While the races are going on there is an ongoing big party in the big wide open center of the park with beer, turkey legs, and live music for all the warriors and their entourage. Many warrior came in costume so it was a bonanza for people watchers. The atmosphere was festive to say the least. You could call it a mini-Woodstock for endurance junkies.
For the dash in Mountain City, I would estimate that the total running distance was about 2.5 miles - some of it was on asphalt, some on gravel and the rest on very muddy and hilly single track. There was 11 or so obstacles with the highlight being a big mud pit to crawl through before jumping over burning logs to get to the finish. Other obstacles included walking along wooden planks on the lake (see photo below), running over or through wrecked cars, a cargo rope climb, trudging through waist deep water, bounding over floating logs in a lake, and walking over and through a bunch of tires.
Walking the wood planks which was the first obstacle in the Warrior Dash. This was followed by trudging through waist high water.
I wore my Vibram Five Finger KSOs with Injinji toe socks with my compression shorts and a 3/4 sleeve rash guard. I placed 20th in my age group out of 362. Overall, for Saturday I placed 284th out of the 5,455. I was pretty happy with my performance. The trails were very muddy - the muddiest I have seen anywhere. The mud pit near the end of the course was one of the best ones I have seen - even better than the ones that the local Marine outfits organize. The toughest part for me was trudging through the waist high water in the lake. That really smoked my legs going into tire obstacle but was not enough to stop me. The muddy single track caused many to gas out and I passed a few people on the uphills. The downhills were tougher for me as I did not trust my footing in all the mud. My caution probably ended up costing me some time and a few people zipped past me. On my own difficulty scale with 1 being easy and 10 being extremely grueling I would give it a 5 overall. It was a nice blend of fun and challenging.
Crossing the finish line!
Overall, I was impressed with the course and everything was very well organized and well planned out by the Warrior Dash organizers. I never had to wait to do an obstacle which was great. Parking and getting to and from the race site was easy as well. It also appeared that most of the local community in Mountain City rallied around the event and provided extra parking and other services for the participants. My only complaint is that I would have liked the course to be longer. It was over too fast! Maybe, I should have ran slower but that is not how I roll! Overall, the Warrior Dash was a blast and I will likely enter again next year to see if I can beat my time.
Uwharrie Rumble 8K - May 16, 2010 - Race Recap
This past Sunday I ran the Uwharrie Rumble 8K located in the Uwharrie National Forest - about an hour drive east of Charlotte, NC. The race started just after 8am on a pleasant Sunday morning. The temperature was perfect for a trail run - somewhere in the low 70s.
I had never run the trails out at Uwharrie. Two weeks ago I was supposed to check out the area with my friends but I had badly messed up my feet running a 5K here in Waxhaw (see previous post) and could hardly walk so I opted out. There are two main loops at Uwharrie - Keyauwee and Supertree. My friends, Terry and Morgan, checked out Keyauwee which appears to be a technical single track with lots of uphills. The FAQ on the Uwharrie Rumble website led us to believe Keyauwee would be the loop we would run but as it turned out, we ran Supertree which is mostly dirt and LOTS of gravel and also lots of hills. My friend Terry briefed me about the hills so I was prepared to be doing quite a bit of hill running. Terry learned that we were going to run Supertree just moments before the race so his advantage of having some familiarity with the course was instantly erased.
Supertree is completely different from the trails I run at Renaissance Park and the Whitewater Center. There are no switchbacks and the trails are mostly wide with plenty of room to pass with only a small segment of singletrack which was somewhat winding but no harrowing twists, turns, dips or big drops. I don't recall many roots either. I only recall lots and lots of gravel. Most of the trails can be described as a typical hilly dirt road. One nice aspect of Supertree is that you can see your competition that is well out in front of you. At Renaissance if you are behind someone by twenty seconds you usually cannot see that person or if you can see them it is hard to gauge how far you are from them because of all the turns and switchbacks. On Supertree you can see way out in front of you. This aspect made the race fun for me and made me more competitive. More on that when I get into the race.
We lined up at the starting line, the usual runners were up there with me - my friend Terry, Todd Daczkowski (who beat me in the last race) and Kelly Hoce who was the overall winner in the previous race in this series at Whitewater in late March. There were two other guys up in front that looked like they were pretty experienced runners - one tall guy and one short guy - so I knew there would be some really good competition in addition to Terry, Todd, and Kelly.
The race began and sure enough the two guys that I couldn't identify took off in front of the pack. Turns out that one of them, the tall guy, was Derek Katt. Derek won the first race, a 3.8 miler at Whitewater by a huge margin back in January. He didn't run in the Sticks and Stones race back in March. The other mystery runner was Anthony Nero (31 from Spencer, NC).
Initially I was in the mix trailing Kelly and was even keel with Terry and Todd. My initial goal was to win Masters and I figured with Anthony and Derek out in front and Kelly establishing 3rd, I needed to beat Terry and Todd which was easier said than done. I decided to try to keep up with Kelly and at the same time keep Terry and Todd at bay. Slowly the pack spread out after the first mile or so. Anthony and Derek were completely out of site before the second mile. Kelly tried keeping pace with them but to no avail. As Kelly started breaking away from me, I started breaking away from Terry and Todd but was not comfortable as I felt any time one of them would sneak up behind me.
We entered an area of single track somewhere in the 3rd mile and Kelly increased his lead and at a few points I could not see him. I almost conceded that he was leaving me in the dust when I completed a hill climb and noticed he reappeared in the distance. After that I noticed that I was gaining ground on him on the uphills. I kept note of my running form and breathing on the uphills trying to ascend as efficiently as possible and it appeared to be paying off.
Also around the third mile I decided to look back to see where Terry and Todd were. Much to my surprise they were nowhere in sight. At that point my paranoia subsided. I no longer felt like prey and changed my whole perspective to predator and trying to catch Kelly. Somewhere around the 4th mile marker there was a water stop. Kelly was well within striking distance. When he slowed down to get water I narrowed the gap by opting to not grab water. I continued gaining on him on the uphills and finally passed him with only a few tenths of a mile left in the race. At that point I was in a state of disbelief that I actually caught him and almost felt like celebrating. Before I could revel in my new position I heard him break into a sprint and he passed me running like a locomotive. Apparently he saw the finish coming around the final downhill and put it into overdrive. As he passed me I had no idea the finish line was so close and got on my horse as well but it was too late. I ended up finishing just 5 seconds behind him in 4th. The links to the times are below.
Uwharrie Rumble 8K Results
I was somewhat bummed about giving up 3rd but I was happy with my performance and keeping pace with the guy who won the last race was a great confidence builder. Next up is the Warrior Dash!
I had never run the trails out at Uwharrie. Two weeks ago I was supposed to check out the area with my friends but I had badly messed up my feet running a 5K here in Waxhaw (see previous post) and could hardly walk so I opted out. There are two main loops at Uwharrie - Keyauwee and Supertree. My friends, Terry and Morgan, checked out Keyauwee which appears to be a technical single track with lots of uphills. The FAQ on the Uwharrie Rumble website led us to believe Keyauwee would be the loop we would run but as it turned out, we ran Supertree which is mostly dirt and LOTS of gravel and also lots of hills. My friend Terry briefed me about the hills so I was prepared to be doing quite a bit of hill running. Terry learned that we were going to run Supertree just moments before the race so his advantage of having some familiarity with the course was instantly erased.
Supertree is completely different from the trails I run at Renaissance Park and the Whitewater Center. There are no switchbacks and the trails are mostly wide with plenty of room to pass with only a small segment of singletrack which was somewhat winding but no harrowing twists, turns, dips or big drops. I don't recall many roots either. I only recall lots and lots of gravel. Most of the trails can be described as a typical hilly dirt road. One nice aspect of Supertree is that you can see your competition that is well out in front of you. At Renaissance if you are behind someone by twenty seconds you usually cannot see that person or if you can see them it is hard to gauge how far you are from them because of all the turns and switchbacks. On Supertree you can see way out in front of you. This aspect made the race fun for me and made me more competitive. More on that when I get into the race.
We lined up at the starting line, the usual runners were up there with me - my friend Terry, Todd Daczkowski (who beat me in the last race) and Kelly Hoce who was the overall winner in the previous race in this series at Whitewater in late March. There were two other guys up in front that looked like they were pretty experienced runners - one tall guy and one short guy - so I knew there would be some really good competition in addition to Terry, Todd, and Kelly.
The race began and sure enough the two guys that I couldn't identify took off in front of the pack. Turns out that one of them, the tall guy, was Derek Katt. Derek won the first race, a 3.8 miler at Whitewater by a huge margin back in January. He didn't run in the Sticks and Stones race back in March. The other mystery runner was Anthony Nero (31 from Spencer, NC).
Initially I was in the mix trailing Kelly and was even keel with Terry and Todd. My initial goal was to win Masters and I figured with Anthony and Derek out in front and Kelly establishing 3rd, I needed to beat Terry and Todd which was easier said than done. I decided to try to keep up with Kelly and at the same time keep Terry and Todd at bay. Slowly the pack spread out after the first mile or so. Anthony and Derek were completely out of site before the second mile. Kelly tried keeping pace with them but to no avail. As Kelly started breaking away from me, I started breaking away from Terry and Todd but was not comfortable as I felt any time one of them would sneak up behind me.
We entered an area of single track somewhere in the 3rd mile and Kelly increased his lead and at a few points I could not see him. I almost conceded that he was leaving me in the dust when I completed a hill climb and noticed he reappeared in the distance. After that I noticed that I was gaining ground on him on the uphills. I kept note of my running form and breathing on the uphills trying to ascend as efficiently as possible and it appeared to be paying off.
Also around the third mile I decided to look back to see where Terry and Todd were. Much to my surprise they were nowhere in sight. At that point my paranoia subsided. I no longer felt like prey and changed my whole perspective to predator and trying to catch Kelly. Somewhere around the 4th mile marker there was a water stop. Kelly was well within striking distance. When he slowed down to get water I narrowed the gap by opting to not grab water. I continued gaining on him on the uphills and finally passed him with only a few tenths of a mile left in the race. At that point I was in a state of disbelief that I actually caught him and almost felt like celebrating. Before I could revel in my new position I heard him break into a sprint and he passed me running like a locomotive. Apparently he saw the finish coming around the final downhill and put it into overdrive. As he passed me I had no idea the finish line was so close and got on my horse as well but it was too late. I ended up finishing just 5 seconds behind him in 4th. The links to the times are below.
Uwharrie Rumble 8K Results
I was somewhat bummed about giving up 3rd but I was happy with my performance and keeping pace with the guy who won the last race was a great confidence builder. Next up is the Warrior Dash!
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