Category Archives: My Running

Race Review: 6k for Water

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About 10 of us met at the Linden Hills Sebastian Joe’s Ice Cream shop to start a 6k around Lake Harriet. The 35 degree weather and impending snow storm wouldn’t usually seem to abnormal but having had near 70’s weather made it a little harder to get prepared for a cold race/run. Gathered among us were 3 strollers! This could have been the 6k stroller dash for clean water!

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Why a 6k? The average distance people travel for water in parts of Africa is about 6 kilometers one way. It took us about 40 minutes to run 3.72 miles, can you imagine walking that carrying a 5 gallon container of water? I can’t. But that is the daily task for many women and children across the developing world. My “registration fee” of $50 helped to provide Edwin from Kenya with clean water for the rest of his life.

Like training for a race, there is a long process for him to get clean water, but the finish line is now in sight. Soon he will be able to walk a short distance and get clean, healthy water. This will improve his overall quality of life by allowing him more time for school, he’ll be sick less often due to dirty water, and he’ll be safer by not requiring long walks to get the water.

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For our part in the virtual event we met at Sebastian Joe’s which happens to be below the local World Vision office. From there our group headed to Lake Harriet and we chatted and had a grand time for the first mile or so. Then like many runs (at least with me) someone pushes the pace, I think this time it was a cute kid and her dad who would run ahead and then she’d hop in the stroller for a bit. And suddenly the group starts getting split up as the pace increases. We were at sub-9 for the middle mile. Around Lake Harriet the running path is pretty flat so we were able to keep the strollers rolling pretty well.

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At the Lake Harriet Band Shell we turned right and headed towards Lake Calhoun. From here until the finish we hit some “rollers”. The hills really aren’t that bad, but those of us pushing double strollers felt them a lot more than normal! I had only glanced at the course map briefly and Anne wasn’t 100% sure so we had to make sure we didn’t veer of course as we turned at the light and then the next light and ended the run on the sidewalk running down Sheridan. At some point around the Band Shell Nadia started singing in the trailer, loudly! We rolled into the finish line and celebrated our success! Our little team had raised almost $2,500 for clean water projects (we were the 5th ranked team as of this writing). We joined 1,400 people in all 50 states for this first time virtual event!!

You can’t be that close to Sebastian Joe’s and not get some ice cream. Even if it is snowing outside! This little guy will probably never know what it is like to carry 5 gallons of water for 6k. And hopefully together we can provide easy access to clean water to for everyone before he starts running competitively. Will you help make that a reality? Please donate to my fundraising mission this year!

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The World Vision Virtual 6K For Water March 22

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Join me in running a 6k on March 22 and provide clean water for life for a kid in Africa. Simple, easy peasy. Click here to do it!

YOU’RE IN!

Thanks for joining World Vision’s first Virtual 6K For Water!

Your registration fee of $50 will provide clean water for one child. The cool part? On March 22, you’ll walk or run with a picture (on your race bib) of the child you’re providing water for.

Next steps?

1. Watch your mailbox! In the next 7-10 business days you’ll be receiving your Virtual 6K Race Kit containing your race shirt, your individualized race bib, and a how-to guide.
2. Log In to your dashboard for access to a Couch-to-6k training plan, announcements, and other resources.
3. Download the the GPS Smartphone app, MAP MY RUN (or visit mapmyrun.com) and choose a start/finish line for your 6K.
4. Invite 5 Friends to run with you. The more friends you invite, the more people in Kenya we can provide with clean water. Share this photo on social media with the message below:
“6K is the avg. distance that kids have to walk for water in Africa. Walk/Run 6K with me on World Water Day to bring water and hope. teamworldvision.org/6k “

We’ll be in touch with more tips and inspiration as March 22nd gets closer.

Thank you!

Running Across Lake Superior

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It isn’t every day you get the opportunity to run across a Great Lake.  Especially Lake Superior.  My buddy Brad and I did that over the weekend.  Our families went up to Bayfield to check out the Superior Ice Caves and the Bayfield Winter Festival.  A part of the Bayfield Winter Festival each year is a race across the ice road from Bayfield to Madeline Island and back, known as the Run on Water. (this year’s winning time was 24:59).

Smartly for the weather, the race starts at 11am.  Sadly, for us this was too late in the morning for us to be able to check-out on time and not ruin the day for our families.  So we set out to run the same course a little earlier in the morning.

It was a surprisingly warm morning (and weekend) which we were not going to complain about!

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Before we set out on the ice we had to make sure our YakTrax were installed.  Brad was wearing the coilly YakTrax Pro and I was wearing the new spikey YakTrax Run.  We both had decent traction given that most of the run was on sheer ice, think running on an ice rink!  This is the view from the Bayfield side of the ice road.  The road gets plowed and maintained by the County! 

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The race course was pretty much already setup for us! Pretty low key! 

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Here we are on Madeline Island at the half way point! They did have mile markers posted for the race, but no sign indicating the turn-around spot.  So we stepped foot on the island and then turned around! 

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This is the view from the turn around, looking back at Bayfield. 

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There were a few of these little signs reminding drivers to be careful.  The speed limit on the road is 15mph, so I guess it is to be extra careful! This year’s race also included a longer bike race that went 12 miles instead of the 4 for the runners.  I’m not sure what their course was.  But as we were leaving town we saw some people riding a tandem bike with a race number affixed to the handlebars! And it wasn’t a fat bike. 

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Here is a picture I took of the ice.  It was really pretty in places to look down and see 2 feet worth of ice below you! 

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We made it to the finish line in one piece! Neither of us fell so that was a great thing! 

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Here is the GPS of our run! Straight across the lake and back! Pretty unbelievable! 

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Our pace was pretty slow throughout the run.  We were taking shorter strides than normal and we could both feel it in our quads and hip flexors.  Shorter strides meant less chance of falling though!! 

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Here is the Strava data from the run:

2015 Challenges Ready to Go!

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Welcome to a new year!! So much happened last year that wasn’t planned or expected that it is hard to imagine what the next year will bring!  But like last year I’ve decided to break down the year into 12 (ok 18) manageable 30 day challenges.

Last year was a successful year and I really liked some of the challenges.  This year I’ve got 18 Monthly Challenges I want to complete and 9 other year long goals.  First the larger goals:
  • Run more than 2014 – So I need to run 341 miles (.9 miles a day)
  • Bike more than 2014 – So I need to bike 1,372 miles (3.8 miles a day)
  • Go on a short backpacking trip – we’ve talked about trying to go as a family, but I definitely want to try and get up to Superior again.
  • Get stronger by going to Solcana regularly and completing other challenges below!
  • Finish 12 Books I’ve already started.  I have a lot of unread books in my Kindle library.
  • Be Tab/Inbox Zero at the end of each quarter.  I’m already starting really far behind!
  • Read the Billy Graham Devotional Plan at YouVersion.com
  • Become more flexible by doing mobility daily. From the Ready to Run Book complete at least one mobility exercise.
  • Go on 2 kid-less dates each month!
Some of those will take more work than others to accomplish. But things like running, biking, Solcana, and the Bible plan are already pretty routine for me, so listing them is more of a just needing to express them than something new to change or do!
Now for the exciting part! The Monthly Challenges for 2015!
January – Unfriend, Unfollow, Unsubscribe – After doing this last year I got rid of a lot more than 30 items, friends, or newsletters.  And it gave me the motivation to keep doing it sporadically throughout the year.  Time to do it again!! The less stuff that I have to click archive or scroll past the more free space I’ll have for important things.  And it makes me more careful about what I subscribe to or follow.
I’m also going to do a 5 minute plank challenge.  At the end of the month I should be able to hold a 5 minute plank!
February – Read a Poem a Day – I downloaded a great app last year and I also ended up buying a collection of Maya Angelou book for the Kindle so I’ll have lots to choose from.
Write a couple of poems!
March – Declutter! Time to get rid of some crap! I mean used wonderful stuff! This felt really good last year.  We got rid of a few boxes of stuff! Similar to the online decluttering, it is hard to stop once you start!
I also want to get out on the bike and start riding it!
April – 30 Days of Biking – Need I say more? Get out and ride.  It will be a challenge to ride to work most of those days! But we don’t have any spring break plans yet and since I won’t be traveling internationally for work I won’t have that excuse!
May – Daily Yoga – Already have an app for that! I might be so flexible from doing mobility that I won’t need it, haha! This will be good for me to slow down during a stressful time of year!
I’m also going to try to drink only water for the month. I might need to add some electrolyte’s but we’ll see how straight water goes!
June – TED Talk a Day – I might regret this one in summer, but it will be a good chance to expand my learning and hopefully find some really good ones along the way!
Last year’s push ups every day went really well, so more pushups! . I’ll need to decide on a set number to do or something like the 100 push-up plan. A college buddy just did an insane pushup challenge and he looks pretty cut from it!  He did the total of month x day + 14 so 1/1 was 14 pushups and 12/12 was 158.  He said he did over 42,000 pushups for the year! I’m not that crazy!
July – Take a Photo a Day – July should be a good month to take some nice pictures! I’ll only be limited to where we go!! I want to try to be creative or at least get some nice pictures!
August  – Be Outside Every Day for 15 minutes or more.  As school starts back up it will harder to get outside and enjoy the gorgeous August weather!
September – Read a Proverb a Day – you can’t ever get enough of the Wisdom Book and it is setup perfectly to read a chapter a day!
October – Run or Bike Daily – before the weather turns it will be good to try and force myself to get out every day.  The only challenge might be over fall break if we travel again!
November – NaNoWriMo – I’m writing this with trepidation…  I didn’t finish last year’s write a thank you note a day, so how do I expect to write 1,600 words a day? I don’t know…  Hopefully I’ll come up with some ideas to write about!
I’ll also revist the Plank Challenge for January and see how it goes…
December – Write/Read About Advent – As we ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus I can passively read or I can do some reflection and writing on the topic.
So there we go… I don’t have any races scheduled for the year, but I’m sure we’ll do Powderhorn 24 again.  I’m thinking about signing up for some type of race series so that I’ll have some motivation to get out and run on  a regular basis.  Team World Vision is doing the same half-marathon at the beginning of August so I’ll probably do that.
What are your plans for 2015?

Running with Skis

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CAM05865Well, I didn’t run with skis on, that’d be ridiculous.  But I did try running while pulling the kids behind me in our Chariot with the ski attachment.  I’ve been trying to think of ways that I still be able to work out this winter some outside with the kids. So I thought, why not try pulling the Chariot Ski while running trails.  Iposted awhile back in the TC Trail Runners Group on Facebook (the group isn’t super active, but has provided some feedback about other things) and didn’t get a response.
CAM05864This weekend it was going to be warm enough for me to feel comfortable running with the kids and there was still some snow on the ground even though it was starting to get slushy.  The challenge is finding a place to run that has a short loop (in case it was a disaster), had a place for the kids to play after (trying not to be selfish), and most importantly a place that would be fine to run on (not destroying cross-country ski trails; though the weather did that for us).
I decided to run from the Richardson Nature Center at Hyland Park. They have a few winter hiking trails from the center that make a few nice loops. They also have some ski trails that start at the center.  The Nature Center is a great building with restrooms and super small concession stand, you can also rent snowshoes for $5.  But most importantly they have a nice indoor play area for the kids and a really cool outdoor exploration area!
CAM05879But back to the running.  I forgot how hilly it was.  Oops, try pulling almost 100 pounds of weight behind you up a hill. My heart rate had to be maxed out for most of the run. Going downhill wasn’t much better as you are trying to slow down 100 pounds behind you and not get run over or fall and spill the trailer!  But the flats didn’t feel to bad. Once you got moving it actually seemed to go just fine, maybe even better than actually pushing the stroller. It would be interesting to know which would be easier overall.  Pulling the skis I was able to maintain full arm motion and just had the belt pulling on my midsection.  You do have to be careful as you turn – its similar to pulling a trailer with your truck, you need a little bit more room. Actually turning with the skis on snow was easier than with the tires on pavement. I wore Yak-Trax to help with extra traction, but I think it was too slushy to make much impact.
A couple of key things, the trailer is attached by firm poles to a belt around your waist.  The trailer can’t actually run you over, but slipping and falling could potentially really hurt, both for the runner and the kiddos!  Our Chariot has a zipper rain fly which is a little bit nicer fit, though the flap keeps slipping off the rail allowing cold air or rain/snow to get into the compartment. You obviously can’t use the skis without snow so I had to use the wheels to get to the snow and then switch them out.  This wasn’t too problematic as I did it with the kids inside still. But you then have to carry the tires with you too.  They fit easily into the rear storage bag, but took up most of the room.
Final verdict, I’d do it again! I would maybe try to pick a place that is flatter!  Do you have any recommendations of places to try?
Here are the stats from Strava: