Blog entries from 7ships

I've talked about my mom in previous posts and about how she told me running was like flying to her. She used to go out into our ghetto Chicago neighborhood and run all winter long while Chicanos hollered at her out of their hooptie windows. The only women on the street at 5am were selling something or other, and it made her jogs a bit of a toll to be grouped in with them. Despite this she...

I've been thinking a lot about the training season, injuries and the conversations I have with my running buddies about training. My thoughts on the subject are as follows and this is essentially the lecture I would give my clients when I was a personal trainer. Running is a repetitive motion. Think about your image of a 19th century factory, or a modern cell phone factory for that matter,...

I won't be running this one barefoot (middle of November, ice bath and lots of obstacles). I'm trying to decide whether it's Minimus or Trail Glove this time. So first off thanks to everyone who pitched in on my question hunt for this Sun. I got some good ones lined up and I can't wait to start editing video when I should be preparing to defend my thesis. Just asking for input brought up some...

Running is medicine. There's the cardio, long term health, weight loss piece that's really important but the thing I'm talking about is another kind of medicine. Life is full of challenges. There are always these moments that push you toward breaking, or at least questioning whether you know what you're doing, and whether or not what you're doing is right. Any big decision or long commitment,...

Post marathon, mid-semester, pre-thesis defense, I just don't have time to do serious training right now. I'm now doing what I call short and sweets because they just feel great and keep my head clear. When my brother was having IT band issues and other aches and pains, my advice was long winded, but on the running side I told him he had to reduce his distance to runs that never reached the...

I'm still having trouble with embedding video in the forum so I'm linking to my original blog post about this lovely weather and running! Thanks for reading and good luck out there!

So...first marathon, first 26.3 mile distance, in my hometown, basically running through the history of the first 30 years of my life, with a couple of really great friends jumping in to keep me company, my family meeting me during the race to cheer me on...what more could a slob like me ask for. I didn't end up carrying my camera so unfortunately you'll mostly get pictures of me taken by my...

Actually I run to thrive not survive but I do have some materials to keep me smiling. My plan is to take it pretty easy at first and try not to get swept up in the excitement of the start and push too hard. I'm going to give it a few miles to see where I'm at, make sure the bod is ready for the haul and then let loose. I'm shooting for having a good time rather than running a short time. It's...

In this post I embedded a bunch of videos. It's a bit of a pain to import all of that stuff so follow the link please... Knuckledraggers!

http://youtu.be/DfYtpW4_7o0[/video]"]A Knuckledraggers video of how much fun a mud race is!I'm trying to bring as many people on as I can because it will probably be my last race of the season. I've got a marathon to think about in a week.I'm sending good vibes to my good friend running theRock Creek Stump Jumptomorrow morning.If all goes well with his race and my marathon we'll be doing...

I've had a number of creative habits like playing music and creating art in my life. None of these ever came to me as visions where I could see finished products in my head and went about making them real. For me it's always been about thirsts that needed to be satisfied. I get a longing and I start looking for something to satisfy it. Or there's a pressure inside me that I have to let out or...

Ok, I give up, it's fall. It was an early start this year and I kept the Indian Summer thing in the back of my head, but today I was rooting around for warmer clothing and put all of my shorts away. I went for a barefoot run last week after a frost and the cold pavement was just too uncomfortable. I couldn't loosen up and the cold ground combined with my tightness just felt like it would be...

So Sat was 21 miles, I took a couple days off and Tues was 8 miles. Tues went pretty badly. It took me 4 miles just to warm up, my legs were tight and unhappy and I had to run/walk the whole thing. I felt good when I was actually running but kept getting tired. My recovery drink Sat was chocolate milk as I've readthe study that showed some serious benefit to low fat chocolate milk as a...

I think one of the best parts of being in the middle of my first real race training season, is that I keep running my longest distance ever. 14, 18 and now 21 mile distances are the longest I've run, the last was just this Sat. My run Sat was great. I was a bit creaky for the rest of the day, but spent some time rolling out my legs with a rolling pin and staying hydrated and I felt fine. I...

I was doing some speed work today. I've been doing this with my mouth closed, trying to push the speed at which I can run without mouth breathing. I'm certain this has made me faster although I haven't been timing anything lately the way I used to. On a day like today I am pushing as hard as I can such that I desperately want to open my mouth to get that big gusting breath, but then I just...