Merry Post-Christmas Running

There's almost no snow on the ground this post-Christmastime in Minnesota. Though there's still Christmas trees, Christmas lights, and Christmas music decorating the halls of homes and businesses, Christmas is officially over. As a teacher, it's really nice to have an extended break and spend some time with family and friends. It's also a nice time to think about things bigger than myself--things more important than running.

One thing I enjoy about running is its safety as a topic of conversation (and blog posts). Though people might not like to talk about or hear about running, I've yet to be part of a hostile or argumentative conversation about it. However, running and urinary tract issues aren't the only things that interest me, and if you're uncomfortable or unwilling to read about issues of faith, feel free to stop here.

I've had my doubts, my disbeliefs, and problems with reconciling a broken world with a loving God, but despite my doubts, despite my own feelings of separation from the Creator, I also believe in a loving God. A God who would wrap himself in flesh and come to earth. It sometimes hard to believe in a loving God when it seems like if God loved us, or if there was a God, everything would be better. It's easy to imagine a perfect, or at least, a more perfect world, but imagining how things could be better doesn't make the existence of God, the existence of faith, and the person of Jesus any less real.

I've had a wonderful Christmas vacation so far, and it's an easy time to have faith. I've got to spend time with Laura's side of the family, time with friends, and time running. After the extended family dispersed on Christmas day, I enjoyed an unseasonably warm Christmas run on the paved trails of Rochester, and the next night enjoyed looking at Christmas lights while running through the neighborhoods near Laura's parents' house. Running, alone or with others, it's a great time for me to think about God and how many blessings I have. Here's some photos from my awesome Christmas:

Pre-Christmas hike at Quarry Hill Nature Center:


Getting Smartwool running socks Christmas morning:

Going for a Boxing Day nighttime run to see Christmas lights:

Going Short

December 21st is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Don't get me wrong, it's still 24 hours long. I mean the shortest "daylight" of the year. According to "timeanddate.com," there was only eight hours and forty-six minutes of daylight today. I can neither confirm nor deny that number as it has been cloudy and overcast the entire day, so I had a hard time telling when daylight began and dawn ended and when twilight began and daylight ended.

Although today's the shortest day of the year, tomorrow begins longer daylight hours. I cannot wait. The cold temperatures, the freezing junk falling out of the sky, the snot freezing to my face--all of that is no fun but running in the dark pretty much tops the list of nonsense for winter running.

One of the main reasons I run is for mental health, and part of that psychological benefit comes when the UV rays grace my retinas with their presence. That doesn't happen so much when I'm looking at my own reflection (as handsome as it may be) on a treadmill at the YMCA, or running with a headlamp on at 5 PM. Really? Five o'clock? Yes, that's what time headlamp season's been starting for the past few weeks.

Now, however, with the days moving in the opposite direction, it'll be no time before I start seeing the sunlight on runs that don't take place on a Saturday or Sunday. All this day-lengthening-starting-tomorrow-stuff has me so pumped I went through the lists Laura and I made for upcoming races next year. At first I wanted to go through the list and make it shorter. Bills for my dysfunctional kidneys are coming due, so I thought cutting out some racing would be an easy way to reduce the discretionary spending in our budget. I guess I'm going to need more pecuniary self-control because after I cut out a couple of races, I remembered a couple more I wanted to add. Net change to the budget was almost nil.

I think this cold, which is still keeping me from exercise, coupled with having time off of work, combined with the least amount of daylight I've had all year, has got me a little stir crazy. I got my fingers crossed that this cough and sore throat are going to be healed enough tomorrow to allow me to get a little jog in before heading to Laura's family's for the rest of the week.

Merry Christmas.

Homemade Sore Throat Remedy

After getting really tired of "Throat Coat" herbal tea yesterday, I decided it was time to invent my own sore throat remedy. I don't understand the science behind why both hot and cold substances seem to temporarily placate the angry rodent wreaking havoc on my tracheal lining, but this seemed to do the trick last night:

1 and 1/2 cup frozen "Tropical Blend" Market Pantry fruit
the last bit of frozen "Berry Blend" Market Pantry fruit
1.3 second squirt of Agave nectar
1 cup milk
Mango Malibu to taste
Tortuga Tropical Rum to taste
Blend well

After drinking half of the alcoholic concoction I decided it was worth taking a low-quality photo so you could enjoy the strange color of the drink contrasted with our kitchen table Christmas centerpiece.


I can't say its power to soothe my sore throat was any stronger than that of Traditional Medicinals' "Throat Coat" (whose website, by the way, has a Hilary Clinton lookalike sipping tea in one of the promotional photos). Still, what I'm dubbing, "Tropical Sore Throat and Good Judgment Remedy" had an infinitely higher percentage of alcohol than "Throat Coat." Though the TSTGJ is probably more expensive than the tea, especially considering Laura's mom gave the tea to me last winter, it was a welcome relief from the dull sobriety and painful throat that punctuated my unproductive, running-free existence yesterday.

I feel much better this morning--my symptoms have been reduced to a slightly-less stuffy nose and the painful claw scrapes inside my throat have dulled to an irritating itch. I'm going to try a little jog through the suburb of Eagan and hope that it doesn't end as disastrously as my Sunday bike ride did.

Cross Training

It's been a weird December in Minnesota. The temperatures have been uncharacteristically warm and after yesterday's high shooting into the mid-40s, there's almost no snow left on the ground. Saturday morning I enjoyed a nice 15 mile jaunt through Minneapolis and St. Paul with some MN Running Wild pals. We ran over a thin layer of snow that would be gone by the afternoon. While it's a little cooler today and the temperatures are suppose to drop for the rest of the week, I was still excited to get outside during my two week hiatus from teaching to enjoy some runs during the daylight hours.

Yesterday was so lovely that I got this great idea to take a quick spin on the bike before going for a run. Regrettably, spending a couple hours outside in the unseasonably mild and sunny weather was not to be. Rather, my upper respiratory system refused to cooperate and instead unleashed a fury of fire in my throat and lungs. I'd been stuffed up for a couple of days, but now this so-called cold had migrated from my sinuses into my tracheal depths. As I pedaled my bike in what I hoped would be a leisurely hour long ride along the river, my throat became a tube of unquenchable fire while my laborious breathing squelched any further hopes of spending a pleasant winter afternoon in aerobic pursuits.

My mucous glands are working overtime today and my throat feels like a small, snot covered rodent has managed to crawl up and down my trachea using its sharp little rodent claws, inflicting painful damage throughout. I was hoping to run today with a MN Running Wild friend, Don, to get another longish run in, but instead I'm going to sit at home writing fever-induced, nonsensical blog posts, drink tea, continue reading "Team of Rivals," and try to motivate myself to grade thirty-one middle school writers' short stories.

But enough about my respiratory health. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm planning on doing a triathlon this spring. It's looking like Laura and I are going to do the Rochesterfest Triathlon. It'll be Laura's second triathlon and my first. Right now my main goal is to make it through the swim portion without drowning. With such a lofty goal in mind, I've been spending a decent amount of time swimming. While swimming is not my first choice of exercise, it's become somewhat more enjoyable over the past couple of weeks. I still have absolutely no idea how to pace myself, but I'm hoping that with continued practice I might be able to not only not drown, but even swim the entire quarter mile without having to switch strokes to prevent said drowning.

Running, however, remains my number one fitness priority and I was hoping to get some quality mileage in after several mediocre months in a row. With the time off from work I was pumped to continue the swimming while having more time to get extra running in. If this upper respiratory nonsense doesn't get better soon, I'm going to be exceedingly upset. On the plus side, while I was lying miserably in my comfy chair last night, Laura felt sorry enough for me to make me a fish sandwich and a salad.

Weekend Ruckus

One of the vocabulary words I taught this quarter was "raucous." Inevitably, my middle school students confused it with "ruckus" when trying to use it in a sentence. Rather than writing, "the raucous behavior of the students was so out of control that Mr. L. couldn't teach," they wrote things like, "There was so much raucous I couldn't think." I hate to break to you kid, but you got bigger problems than raucous.

But the lack of raucous awareness in my middle school language arts classroom is neither here nor there. The raucous, er, ruckus I'd like to discuss is my past couple of weekends. I've got two words words for these past couple of weekends: raucous ruckus.

The weekend of December 2 started out with an ill-informed coworker couple of Laura's entrusting us with their small son. What did I do with the well-mannered bundle of three-year-old? I took him running in the dark!

We took a spin around the neighborhood--a spin I found exceedingly difficult every time this spin involved moving the Target jogging stroller up steep inclines. On Saturday morning I wised up. First, I put some air in the jogger's tires. Then, I made Laura push it. Cha Ching!


I also took a video of Laura pushing the jogger down the sidewalk but she says I can't put it on the blog. Although she's not the boss of me I was hoping to get her to make me a fish sandwich tomorrow so I'm going to have to respect her wishes.

The next day, Laura and I spent over two hours at the YMCA. I lifted some weights while she ran to the Y and then we both did some swimming. I've got this crazy idea I should do a triathlon this spring and my #1 goal is to refrain from drowning while competing.

I also planned to do a little running in afternoon and I procrastinated just long enough to catch the beginning of some significant snowfall. It was the perfect amount of snow--just enough that my Yaktrax had good traction without scraping the pavement and not so much that the depth slowed me down significantly.

While running in the snow I got to try out our new ipod touch. I don't really need music when I run, but it was cool taking some pictures on the Big Rivers Regional Trail from underneath a bridge. The photo opportunities alone make me glad that I let Laura wait in line from 10 PM on Thanksgiving until 2:30 AM on Black Friday.


This past weekend raucousness continued. Laura's side of the family came up from Rochester and we got to do some kicksledding at Lebanon Hills Regional Park. I'd never done it before but I'd definitely do it again--it was a lot like pushing a jogging stroller except steering is even more difficult and you can jump onto the sled when going downhill. The minimal steering guarantees that you'll run into something at least once. I mostly pushed the kicksled but I also got to ride in it for awhile.

For some reason I felt like I was pushing the sled faster than I got pushed, but maybe it just seemed faster because I was at a higher vantage point.

Yesterday the ruckus of weekends ended and today the raucous behavior of my students began. I'm looking forward to putting in some extra miles next week as there are only four more days until Christmas break! Who knows? Maybe I'll even write an extra blog post or two.

Shoe Review: Saucony Kinvara 2 and Saucony Hattori

Remember back when I was going to write shoe reviews? I reviewed the New Balance MT 10 and was really hoping the shoe companies would pick up on what great reviews were happening on this blog and the boxes would start piling up on my doorstep. Unfortunately, the genius of this blog seems to be lost on the rich shoe company executives as these high-powered CEOs prove once again how out of touch they are with your average, working-class American. So, I've had to resort to buying my own shoes to review.

I usually spend way too much time at Run-n-Fun, Marathon Sports, The Runner's Gate, and StartLine because I like to try on and run in no fewer than 18 pairs of shoes before deciding which one feels best. Last spring, at StatLine, I heard they had a sale on Saucony Fastwitch. It turned out they didn't have a sale, but it also turned out that I didn't like the Fastwitch as much as I liked another pair of fancy shoes, the Kinvaras.

They were comfortable out of the store as well. I enjoyed them so much I put over 500 miles on them until I wore a hole in the side of the upper. I was so impressed with the Kinvaras, I decided I should try out the Kinvara 2s.

I really appreciated how light Kinvaras were, and the Kinvara 2s feel almost identical. They have good cushion and my feet have never gotten sore while running in them. One complaint I have about the Kinvaras, original and sequel, is they’re a bit narrow. My right foot seems to want to spill over the last instead of being able to flatten out on impact. The Kinvara 2s feel a little bit better in this respect, but it might just be in my head. The only other problem I’ve had with them is how they started to feel after I got a pair of Saucony Hattoris.

I love the Hattoris up to about four miles running easy and three miles running fast. They stay out of the way, are super light, and let my feet do what they’re supposed to do. The problem I have with the Hattoris are their complete lack of cushion. I’ve had the same problem with other racing flats—the bottoms of my feet get hot. If I’m going slow it doesn’t bother me for a while but when I’m doing a hard workout or racing my feet get hot—almost like a friction burn.

Now I’m going to have to make a choice for my next pair of shoes—after running in the Hattoris my Kinvara 2s feel a little clunky. I can’t feel the road in them at all and even at seven ounces they are noticeably heavier than the four ounce Hattoris. Do I keep up with the Kinvaras and use the Hattoris for speed workouts and short races? Do I see if I can get my feet used to the Hattoris enough that I could run a 10k in them? Or, do I look for something in between the Hattoris and Kinvaras?

Luckily I have a long time to make that decision. The shoe companies probably aren't going to start sending me their newest models, I've got two pairs of Kinvaras I’m rotating along with the Hattoris, I still use the New Balance MT10s for trail running, and snowshoe running is right around the corner. And, at the rate I’m going with staying busy with work and getting knocked out of commission for a week with kidney stone surgery, it’s going to be awhile until I’ve got enough miles on my shoes to buy a new pair.

Weekend Reading: Zen and the Art of Running

In Zen and the Art of Running, Larry Shapiro uses basic principles from Zen Buddhism shows how runners can use them to their advantage. He starts out with the Buddhist idea of attachments—how attaching negative emotions to bad weather, running in the city, and darkness can create problems. Then, he explains how to change these attachments and improve motivation using the Buddhist idea of mindfulness.

Shapiro's method for explaining Zen principles relies heavily on stories to illustrate his points—some real and some hypothetical. I particularly enjoyed his explanation being mindful of one's reasons for running and using this mindfulness to avoid family tension. Spending so much time away from the family to pursue a hobby can create conflicts with family members, and his explanation helped me sort out some of my own reasons for running.

I tried some of the advice Shapiro gives on meditation and meditative running and found them to be a pleasant and different way to experience something I already do for hours a week. I enjoyed trying some meditative running on a treadmill after our first snowfall left our sidewalks icy and snow-covered. Shapiro pointed out that for some, meditative running may be easier than sitting and trying to meditate in a quiet room. For this runner, that was definitely the case. I'm someone who usually has a lot of thoughts flying through my head and entering a state of relative quietness significantly lowered my stress level. The time on the treadmill also went by quickly and was a great alternative to watching TV, and I found it to be a pleasant and relaxing experience.

While I enjoyed most of Zen and the Art of Running, I could have done without Shapiro’s chapter on training the Zen way. Perhaps newer runners who are clueless on how to train can find some benefit, but Shapiro would have done better pointing runners to other resources on training than coming up with some of his own terms and training ideas. Or, he could have talked about training programs that were out there and explained to runners how to use the Buddhist principle of the middle way to evaluate and modify these programs.

When I first began Zen and the Art of Running, I couldn’t decide how I felt about Shapiro’s tone. It was different than any other running book I’d read—very conversational. It seemed like I was listening to Shapiro give a lecture on Buddhism and running, which makes sense as he’s a philosophy professor at the University of Wisconsin. After reading a couple chapters I came to appreciate the tone, although at times the stories he included seemed too fabricated.

As far as the Zen Buddhism, it was very surface level but also easy to understand. An appendix offered more information for the interested reader. This book was not about Zen Buddhism but got me interested in learning more. Much of Zen philosophy is more a system of thinking and experiencing the world, not religious doctrine. In fact, a Lutheran professor who, after spending some time in India, told me he believed there were Buddhist Christians.

Overall I enjoyed Zen and the Art of Running. Some of the advice was particularly timely as winter approaches with its slower paces, miles of stationary indoor running, and shorter daylight hours. I'd recommend Zen and the Art of Running to anyone who struggles with motivation, wants to experience their running in a different way, or would like to understand more about why running is important to them.