You know you're a true runner when...

...you have icicles on your eyelashes and eyebrows following a run!

Dang it was cold out tonight for my run! I'm still freezing an hour after coming back inside!

I've had a hard time posting lately as I've been so swamped with work - and this post is no exception - but I wanted to just check in and say that despite the frigid temperatures and the occasional drop, I'm managing to keep up with running per my plan for the most part. Certainly much better than I've done in previous winters.

Anyway back to work - more later....

Time out for Tech

OK. I was supposed to run tonight. But I have way too much work to do, and a serious lack of energy to run. Plus I am tired of running in the snow. I will make up my run sometime this week - not sure when exactly, but I know I will catch up those 8k one day.

So, instead of writing about a run - and instead of focusing on the mountain of work I have to do - I am going to take a quick timeout to highlight three quick cool things that make up the other 2/3 of this blog's title. For those not paying attention, that would be Create and Code.

First off, I neglected to mention something very exciting last week. My company - Red Piston Inc. - recently launched our first major game, called Banzai Blowfish!. for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Banzai is the result of many, many months of hard effort from my colleagues Ali, Jakub and Patryk. They've done a tremendous job, and on Thursday, our app was selected by Apple to be featured in the "New & Noteworthy" section of the App Store. This is a HUGE deal for us, and I'm proud of the guys. And, while I wasn't directly involved in the day to day development - other projects have kept me busy - I threw in my $0.02 from time to time on level design, sounds, game play, etc. In any case, check it out and let me know what you think.

Secondly, I came across this article today on one of the sites I read daily - daringfireball.net. John Gruber is an Apple pundit, and often has great scoop on what's happening in Cupertino and on the tech scene. Anyway, he posted a link to another site tonight to an article that just shows how much attention to detail Apple pays to their products. It's stuff like this that makes owning and using an iPhone so great, and 99% of the time, you don't even think about these types of things as you use them. Reading stuff like this is a reminder that the small details do matter, and that winning isn't always about hitting home runs, but rather taking care of small details like hitting singles, advancing the runner, etc. How's that for mixing metaphors of baseball and life? Anyway, the article deals with how new email is displayed when you're currently checking out your inbox - it's worth a read, even if you're not a tech-nerd.

And finally, I came across another cool little mention from the folks at iPhoneInCanada.ca - Google has made checking the weather - regardless of what city you're in - just a little bit easier. You need to be connected to Google.com (google.ca doesn't work yet for some reason) from your iPhone or Android, and do a search on Weather. You'll get a cool little interactive weather forecast, without launching an app. Normally I prefer dedicated apps to web apps, but this is pretty cool. More details and screen shots are at iPhoneInCandada.ca.

OK - that's it for now. Next time, I'll bring the run report, but I can't promise that this is the last tech talk....

Fast 3K!

According to my training plan, tonight was supposed to be an easy 3k at 6:56 per kilometre (somewhere around an 11:00/mile). But, for whatever reason, even though I worked all day, taught at the college after work and was heading out into a chilly snowstorm at 9:00pm, I felt like I had some speed in me.

Maybe it was the fact that I wanted to just get the run over with, and get out of the snow, but I slapped on the YakTrax, and blew out a 14:58 3k run! I felt a little out of control at times as I dodged ice and mounds of snow, but otherwise felt pretty good! I'm not sure that what I did was really a wise thing as far as training goes - and I really need to work on my endurance, not so much with the speed, but every now and then it's fun to race against the clock.

I'm currently having some issues locating the cord that connects my Garmin to my computer, so I don't have my split times. I'll post them when I find the cord...

Snow. Wind. Done.

My training plan called for a long, slow 10k today....and it's a good thing. We've had our share of snow lately (a lot for Windsor, anyway), and just got another dusting last night. This made for some slushy, snow-covered roads and sidewalks, and made for a bit of a more difficult run today. At some points, I felt like a deer - high-stepping it through the fields. Hopefully no one who saw me would describe my running style as 'prancing', but that's kinda what it felt like.

I tried to pace myself around a 6:00min/km, and overall was just a hair slow, finishing my 10k in 1:01:32. Not too bad, considering the last half of my run was directly into one of the more fierce, blasts of wind I've cared to be out in for a while.

Anyway, not much else to say about today's run, other than I'm glad I got out there. When I woke up, I looked outside and immediately tried to think of excuses why not to go, but as usual, now that I'm done, I'm glad I did. I would have kicked myself all day if I just sat around and hid from the effort.

For posterity's sake, here's my stats from my Garmin:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	01:04:38	10.32	06:15
1	00:05:41	1.00	05:41
2	00:05:44	1.00	05:44
3	00:06:08	1.00	06:08
4	00:06:00	1.00	06:00
5	00:06:24	1.00	06:24
6	00:06:22	1.00	06:22
7	00:06:23	1.00	06:23
8	00:06:18	1.00	06:18
9	00:06:14	1.00	06:14
10	00:06:12	1.00	06:12
11	00:03:06	0.32	09:45

Sometimes You've Got It

(a.k.a. the prequel to my future, inevitable, blog post titled "Sometimes You Just Ain't Got It").

As you may or may not recall, I downloaded the "SmartCoach" app from Runner's World to my iPhone, and tonight I started my official training for the Angus Glen 10 miler with an 8k "Tempo" Run.

Technically, according to my plan, I was supposed to do my Tempo run on Wednesday night, but I play Volleyball that night, so I've had to move some stuff around. I'm going to follow all the runs from the plan, just on different nights. I'm hopeful that as long as I keep my long run where it's supposed to be, and generally stick to the same distances, styles and rest days, that I should be ok. I'm also taking some of the suggested training times into my own hands, as I find the plan that is mapped out to be a bit slow for me.

Anyway, as I mentioned, tonight was supposed to be a Tempo run. According to the plan, I was supposed to do a slow-ish warmup for 1.5k, Tempo for 5k, and then a 1.5k cool down. The 5k time was supposed to be at a 5:56 pace, and according to the description, at Tempo pace, I should be running hard enough that I would find it difficult to talk, but not racing. Well, so far, based on my previous runs, 5:56/k would be a bit slow for me. I decided to just run tonight at whatever pace I felt comfortable at. Ultimately, that turned out to be a pace of 5:33 - just a hair off of my target pace of 5:30/k!

What's better, is that I felt very comfortable throughout and enjoyed the run. It was cold, but not insanely so, and there was very little wind, traffic or anything much happening out. Just me and the crunch of my feet on the snow.

All in all, if this is what training for the 10 miler is going to be like, I'll have a blast. And, since I know it won't be all sunshine and roses, I'll bookmark this post for future reference!

Here's my splits, for those keeping score at home (the 9th km was a walk/jog):

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:52:09	8.93	05:50
1	00:05:35	1.00	05:35
2	00:05:25	1.00	05:25
3	00:05:44	1.00	05:44
4	00:05:34	1.00	05:34
5	00:05:19	1.00	05:19
6	00:05:41	1.00	05:41
7	00:05:23	1.00	05:23
8	00:05:33	1.00	05:33
9	00:07:51	0.93	08:27

Run Observation of the Day

I love the look you receive from people on the street when you're out for a run on a cold / rainy / snowy or extremely hot day - it's kind of like "Good For You! (you incredibly stupid, crazy son-of-a-bitch)"

I'm Committed Now...

Yikes! I just officially signed up for the Detroit Marathon this year! Crazy or not, there's no turning back now...

Until January 10, 2011 they had an early -bird special where registration was 50% off. If there's one thing I like more than putting my body through the torture of training for a marathon, it's saving 50% off!

I put my goal time as 3:55, which is an 8:58 pace per mile (5:30 per kilometre). That's what I can do for a 5k, so let's hope I can just go out and repeat that 9x on race day.

I guess it's about to get a whole bunch more serious now....

The Brain is Definitely in Charge

In my nearly four years of running, I'm continually amazed at the lengths that the human body can be pushed to. With appropriate training, we are pretty much capable of anything we set our minds to. And that's really the key point. It's whatever the mind wants.

Now sure, you can have those days where you just don't physically have it. No matter how many positive Jedi mind tricks you throw out there, your body just laughs at you. But the overwhelming majority of time - at least in my case - the brain is clearly in charge. I've lost track over the number of times where I've told myself that I was going to run a certain distance, certain length of time, or just run until I pass that house, mailbox, etc., and immediately as soon as I reach the goal I started out with, my body just completely shuts down.

Tonight was one of those nights. I set out with the plan to run 45 minutes, which I figured I should cover 8km. I started out feeling a bit cold (run temp was somewhere around 25 degrees F) and took about 1km to warm up. Once warm, however, my 2-5km were great and I felt that I might push for a 10k. My 6th km was a bit rough, but I really felt that I pushed through the wall as I cruised through 7k. As I started to approach my 8th k, things just fell apart - my legs felt heavy, my lungs burned and I pretty much mentally checked out. As I reached the spot where I figured I would be at 8k, I checked my Garmin to find that I was only at 7.7km! Those last 300 meters were some of the longest and most painful I have done in quite a while! How could I have been feeling great just 5 minutes earlier?

Oh well, I still banged out an 8k run, in just over 45 minutes, which I'll take any day.

For those interested, here's my run log from my Garmin: January 6, 2011 - 8km by ndkl at Garmin Connect - Details

A Combo of Running and Technology? I'm sold.

To be honest, one of the things that really got me hooked on running was that I could integrate technology into my new weight loss routine. Initially, this meant the Nike+ system and an iPod Nano. Of course, that meant I got to buy an iPod Nano - my iPod mini with a black and white screen seemed sooo dated - and a funky Nike+ dongle. After every workout, I eagerly checked my stats, and studied the wonderful graphics of the Nike site.

Unfortunately and eventually, my Nike+ chip died, and I couldn't be bothered to replace it. I'd moved on to a Garmin 405 - what a piece of crap! - and then did a "downgrade" (but really so much of an upgrade) to a Garmin 305. The satellite tracking and Garmin web site are top-notch. Of course, along the way, I'd also become quite a fan of my iPhone, but have yet to really embrace running with the phone, due to it's bulk and my serious fear of killing the phone from excess sweating.


Yet, even though I don't really want to use my iPhone for running, I've come across a few good apps that can help complement my Garmin. One that I'm currently looking at in my quest to find a decent, flexible training plan is the SmartCoach from Runner's World. I'm not really going to give it a full review - there are plenty of those out there already - but from what I've seen so far, this might be exactly what I'm looking for.

The price is perfect - Free! - and so far, all I've had to do is answer some basic set-up questions - what day do I want my long run to be on, when is the event I'm training for, what's my typical 5K time, etc. - and it spits out a training plan to get you where you need to go. In my initial test, I set up the info for the Angus Glen 10 Miler, and it 'customized' a plan for me that actually seems like something I can follow.

I'll keep you posted on how it works, but for now, I'm quite satisfied.

Another Day 0

As this is my first post here, I'm sure this will ramble quite a bit, so if you're reading, please bear with me.

I've started and stopped many blogs over the years, as I realized that I never really had anything worth posting and/or lost interest pretty quickly. So why now? Well, I'm training for a marathon, and I figured that was as good a topic as any. At least I'm supposed to be training for a marathon. And that brings us to the title of this post. 

I have many months left to train. The race I've selected is the Detroit Free Press Marathon, as it's my hometown race. I've already run the half-marathon twice, and - while I've felt extremely glad both times when I've rounded the corner to finish the half instead of veering off to continue on to the full - I figure it's time to go for it. Anyway, it's January 4, and the Marathon is not until October. So, as I said, I have plenty of time. I ran a 5K tonight, but it was nothing special. And that's why I feel that today was another day 0.

One of these days, I will begin my training, but for now, I seem to be only motivated to continue running the way I have for the past few years. And that means whenever I felt like it. Usually that means 2-3 times a week, and it's usually nothing more than 8K.

In order to ramp things up and get serious, my first order of business has to be to find a training plan that is realistic for me, and that fits my schedule. I own my own company and work full-time, have two young daughters, teach at the local College 2x a week (5-8pm), and my wife is training for a half-ironman. Training time is clearly at a premium. My hope is that documenting my "progress" and putting it out there on the web will help keep me focused and motivated. 

Prior to the Marathon, I have the Angus Glen Ten Miler race lined up for April, and I'm part of a relay team, running the half-marathon leg of the Steelhead Half-Ironman Triathlon in Benton Harbor, MI., in August. I suppose in some respects, my Marathon training won't get into full steam until April, but training for the 10 miler, will certainly count, won't it?

So there you have it. A long rambling first post that I really didn't want to be my first post. I wanted the first one to say, "here I go, I'm on my way to being a marathoner." But then again, maybe I am. I guess putting it in black and white that I plan to do the race is the first step. The first of many on the way to 26.2. Stay tuned.