Team Cross Runs

Happy Memorial Day & May Update

Today we celebrate Memorial Day, honoring our military men and women who died in battle and marking the unofficial beginning of summer.

Summer came early with many hot, hot days in Minnesota. We’ve already had a handful of days in the upper-80′s and 90′s. I go back on the 1st for my follow-up on Lyme Disease and hopefully permission to run again and that my body is disease free.  I just watched a video about Bart Yasso, Comrades, and Lyme Disease. I haven’t really been doing much besides biking for workouts and frankly a 3 mile ride to work isn’t much of a workout.  But this past week I biked almost 28 miles.  I was going to aqua jog on Tuesday night, but the pool was full and the lady said I couldn’t aqua jog, but I could join her water aerobics class.  I did and actually got a pretty good core workout.

Monthly miles -

Biking – 134 miles

Run Around All Named Bodies of Water in Minneapolis

This whole not being able to run thing is still cramping my style on this one.

Read the Entire Bible in a Year

Another good month.  Almost half-way through.

Read a Book a Month

I didn’t start a new book until last weekend, so it was a good thing that it was short.  It was actually a thought provoking read. Henri Nouwen has written a lot of though provoking books, this month was In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership.

Blog Regularly

Now that we’ve been getting our CSA again, I’ve been at least posting a picture of that on my personal blog.  I’ve struggled to have the free time to keep this blog updated, even though it just celebrated its 3rd birthday! My 365 blog is still going strong. It is a creative challenge some days when I realize at the end of the day I haven’t taken a picture yet.  My hyperlocal Midtown Phillips News blog is still going well.  I’d like to have the free-time to develop it some more, but it is good. I was told it was too conservative for our neighborhood – which is odd since it is mostly aggregating news from other sources!

Treatments for Plantar Fasciitis is back in the most popular post for the month by almost twice as much.  Google blows away all other referral sources!

This week’s ONE POST is It’s time for… (a discussion about shoes).

Lyme Disease & April’s Thoughts

Lyme Disease.  That is my my final diagnosis for my knee.  When my sports doctor got back from a conference the final results from my blood work had arrived and showed that I had a confirmed case of Lyme Disease.  This is the dreaded thing ticks carry.  We aren’t sure when I actually contracted it, but I never had the tell-tale rash and being a runner Lyme Disease wasn’t an obvious choice.  So now I’m on a month-long course of antibiotics.  Assuming they work I should return to normal life.  I didn’t realize this but Bart Yasso has chronic Lyme Disease.  Obviously the knee has helped set the tone for the month.  I logged 68 miles on the bike, most of which are commuting miles and did a 3 mile test run.  Hopefully by the end of May I’ll be running again.

This weekend I went backpacking with a friend at Jay Cooke State Park.  We had a good time hiking and exploring. Last year Jay Cooke was our final run of mancation and hiking there brought back some memories from then!

I’ve set a few random goals for the year:

Run Around All Named Bodies of Water in Minneapolis

This whole not being able to run thing is really cramping my style on this one.

Read the Entire Bible in a Year

Another good month.  Mark is a really small book, but they’ve spread it out over 2 months!

Read a Book a Month

I read Cause Wired which is about the digital revolution and the social (philanthropic) sector. It combines two of my favorite non-running topics – social media and the nonprofit/social justice realm. I received it free for taking part in the Blog Action Day Against Poverty.

Blog Regularly

I haven’t posted since March 10 on my personal blog (I hope it isn’t dying).   I posted regularly on here and that’s more important for you!   I continue to do well on my Project 365 (taking and posting 1 picture a day). I’ve almost forgotten to post a picture and have actually forgotten to post the picture I took, but I’ve taken a picture (some better than others)!

Other things of note… Things have been really good but very busy.  We’ve gotten some yard work done and ended up doing more landscaping than we’d planned on.  I was getting a little tired of looking at weeds in the “flower beds,” our yard is full of dandelions and I’m pretty sure my one neighbor hates it.  Sorry! One of the things I did was buy a hanging plant, sadly a bird created a nest in it and destroyed the flower, but there are pretty little Robin eggs in it!

The most popular post for the month is my more up to date Curing Plantar Fasciitis which finally outstripped the older Treatments version.  One a side note, I still have PF.

This week’s ONE POST is about Recovery and Detraining after a big race.

Thoughts on March

March 2010 is the first time the Twin Cities hasn’t had snow in March since 1878. The month ended with temps in the 70′s.

March barely surpassed January (18 miles) for total running mileage with a sad 19 miles for the entire month.  I can’t seem to get a break on injuries.  Who would have thought that my knee would randomly swell up? I was doing pretty well at the beginning and was going to step up the mileage.  I did get the bike out for a total of 20 miles, a quick swim, and some very easy cross-country skiing round out the month.

I’ve set a few random goals for the year:

Run Around All Named Bodies of Water in Minneapolis

I didn’t add any new bodies of water.

Read the Entire Bible in a Year

This was a much better month.  It was actually fitting to finish reading Matthew during Holy Week.

Read a Book a Month

I finished two this month. I actually finished the Enjoying Prayer book that I started in February. I had started reading another book but was getting bored by it and we happened to stop in Magers & Quinn and I got several running books including Christopher McDougall’s  Born to Run. I finished it, so look for a book review coming soon.

Blog Regularly

I only posted 3 times at my personal blog.  I posted regularly on here and that’s more important for you!   I continue to do well on my Project 365 (taking and posting 1 picture a day). I also started a new “hyperlocal” news blog for my neighborhood.  It is more of a news aggregator than a publisher of new content.

Other things of note… I found out that my position at work will be funded again for next year, so that is good news. We’ve really tried to get outside as much as possible, though its been a little hard being gimpy but we had our first picnic.  Sadly, we had to cancel our first camping trip of the year due to my knee. It didn’t make sense to go camping and hiking when I couldn’t really walk normally.  So that was sad.

The most popular post for the month continues to be Treatments of Plantar Fasciitis! Actually, so far for 2010 this post has double the visits as any other (except for visits to my home page).

Thoughts on February

Where did January go?  31 days into 2010 and it is just starting to feel normal to write 2010.

February was a better month for running.  While generally I struggle with the motivation to get up and run, especially in the morning, I doubled my monthly mileage from January.  February saw 35.4 miles added to my shoes.  I hit double digits for weekly mileage at 11.9.  March should be a good month to continue ramping up the mileage.  My longest run was 6.5 miles with the guys on a sunny, Sunday morning.  February also marked the one-year anniversary of having Plantar Fasciitis, check out my 18 steps to try to get rid of it.

I’ve set a few random goals for the year:

Run Around All Named Bodies of Water in Minneapolis

I didn’t add any new bodies of water, though I did run the Get in Gear loop two times which takes out a section of the Mississippi River.

Read the Entire Bible in a Year

This was tough this month.  Partly because February only has 28 days, but also because this month included reading the entire books of Exodus and Leviticus. Luckily, the legalism of the Old Testament is balanced with reading from Matthew and the grace found in Jesus.

Read a Book a Month

I failed on this one.  I picked a small book called Enjoying Prayer. It is only 140 pages long, but the format and topic made it a little hard to finish.  Its setup to read a chapter at a time with thought provoking questions, not like a novel. I should finish it soon and get a book for March.

Blog Regularly

I only posted 4 times at my personal blog, oops.  I posted regularly on here and that’s more important for you!  I did make some updates to my blog theme.  What do you think? I continue to do well on my Project 365 (taking and posting 1 picture a day).

Other things of note… February was a busy month all around.  It seemed like there was something going on almost every night.  I’m on the board of the Young Non-Profit Network for the Twin Cities (YNPN-TC) and we had a busy month welcoming new board members.

One Post this week is about Running Groups, I really enjoy the group I run with.

The most popular post in February was Treatments of Plantar Fasciitis, again!

Thoughts on January

Where did January go?  31 days into 2010 and it is just starting to feel normal to write 2010.

It was great that I was finally able to start running again.  I ran for a total of 17.8 miles this past month, a far cry from previous year’s (86 in 2009), but much better than all of the 0′s from previous months!  I still have plantar fasciitis and will soon be celebrating the one-year anniversary of its onset (2/24).  I’m confident in the weeks ahead that it will disappear!

I’ve set a few random goals for the year

Run Around All Named Bodies of Water in Minneapolis

Check off Lake Calhoun.  I didn’t have a camera and I’ll be running there more this year so stay tuned for more information about it.

Read the Entire Bible in a Year

I’m following a plan that only makes you read 25 days out of the month, which is pretty nice and I succeeded in accomplishing that this month.  This includes the entire Book of  Genesis.

Read a Book a Month

I’m cutting it close, but will finish Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, which I got as a Christmas present.

Blog Regularly

I didn’t make this goal.  I skipped at least one post here and haven’t been consistent on my personal blog.  Though I am succeeding on my Project 365 (taking and posting 1 picture a day).

Other things of note… I’ll start co-teaching a leadership class for 6th graders today!! It should be fun and we are using a curriculum developed by the school district called Peace Lead.  It should be a great experience.

We continue to piddle around our house and get lots of little things done.  I finished painting the bathrooms over Christmas break and we got some new couches this month which had some extra comfort to the living room!

One Post this week has to be the Week of Garmin series from 2008 after I got my Garmin Forerunner 205.

The most popular post in January was Treatments of Plantar Fasciitis.

Weekly Highlights

Still haven’t run. Foot goes off and on from hurting. I’ve also had some IT and hip pain lingering from the marathon. I wondered why everything still hurt so much then I realized it has only been two weeks!! We’ve been doing a lot of work on our house so it hasn’t all been lazing around on that front either.

Previous Posts

This comes a little late for most of us, but some of you are in the midst of a taper.  Have you heard about Bad Ben? He’s stopped writing much on his blog but he has some crazy stories.  Green this and Green that – what about Eco Gyms.  I was amazed and pleased that last year I surpassed my fundraising goal for Team World Vision.  I wrote up a final sumamry. Foto Friday was of my first recovery run post marathon on the Mississippi River.

Here is a random update on the catheter story.  My wife, the nurse, informed me that my picture on my previous post about the story was incorrect. Here is a more accurate picture.

Post- Marathon Update

In case you were wondering, I haven’t run since the marathon.  I don’t plan on running again for awhile.  The problem with an early fall marathon is that you miss out on a lot of great running weather.  Especially when you have a nagging injury for almost 9 months.  I have biked to work 2 x’s since the marathon though and gone to stretch out and use the foam roller at the gym once.  This training cycle really burned me out.  I am excited for many of my friends who set great PR’s and BQed.  Congratulations!!!

Below are some old highlights from past years for the past few weeks.  The last highlight reel was Sept 21.

I obviously talked about the marathon last year!  I wrote about a 2 minute video preview of the course. This year was a pictorial preview. Here is last year’s race plan and then my grading of it.  That was followed by a more thorough race review and chart-filled post. As part of last year’s race I raised money for Team World Vision.  In this time span I wrote about my first impressions in Ghana and a brief reflection on my time in South Africa.

Foto Friday’s for this time period included a beautiful lake scene, my trip odometer hitting 26.2 miles and my 2008 TCM race shwag.

In 2007 I wrote about the importance of adding accelerations into your training. I was also the featured blog of the week on Phedippidations. A friend chimed in with a guest review about the Lewis & Clark Marathon, not the flooded out one though.  While he was running 26.2 I had a great 4 mile race to fight Ovarian Cancer.  Hands down, one of my all time favorite posts is about t-shirt ettiqute.  Remember the dreadful day in October 2007 when it was in the 90′s for Chicago and TCM marathons?  I was a volunteer at Chicago and got cussed at because our water stop (mile 2) was out of water.  Not a fun day for anyone. Here are some pictures.  I found a great list of last minute marathon tips.  I started a series where I wrote about the blogs I read.  The first stop was one about race directing.

Thanks for hanging out.  I did find my camera cord, so I’ll eventually get some pictures up here.