Moving out.

Sorry blogger, just can't deal with you anymore. Thanks for the good times.

You can find me here now.
www.bmorunning.wordpress.com

I think I lost my mind

So lets go over the race line up for the year.

January 15th: Run for Regis 50k
January 28th: Dirty Snowflakes 4m
February 12th: Dirty Love 10k
March 3rd: Green Jewel 50K
March 24th: Dirty Feet 8K
April 1st: Fools Run 50K
April 28th: Outrun 24 hour run
May 12th: 50's for you Momma 50 mile
July 22nd: Pirate Triathlon (Sprint)
July 28th: Burning River 100 mile
August 4-5: MS Point to Point 150 mile(bike)

I am sure that I am missing some random race that I signed up and forgot about. The main goal is the BR100. Every race before the BR100 is just another training run. Well maybe not the Pirate Tri, that one is to have as much fun as I can with my peeps.

2012 Lets do this

1. Get my wife to stop smoking.
2. Get my children more motivated and active in a healthy life style.
3. Try to have more family activities together.
3. Become a better Vegan, stop eating crap.
4. Remove negative thoughts towards people, replace them with happy good ones.
5. Be happy with the things I have.
6. Realize that I have limits and it's ok not to be the first or the fastest or even number one.
7. Let people help me.
8. Help random people for no reason at all.
9. Discover more great music.
10. Run a 100 miles!

Thank you 2011

I am welcoming 2012 with open arms, ready to embrace every new day. I see a lot of people sending off 2011 with the middle finger. Not me, I loved every damn day. Well almost everyday. I was humbled and learned humility. I learned to swim and swim far, I was reunited with the lost love of cycling. I rode my first century ride and backed it up with a 80 mile ride the next day. I competed in not only my first triathlon but three.
Most of all I have found a few new life long friends.

January: Ran 82.3 miles Cycled 29 miles Swam 0.0

In January I set out to finish my ultra training with the 2011 Run for Regis 50k. Being humbled I only made it 13.1 miles before dropping out.

February: Ran 82.3 miles Cycled 95.5 miles Swam 6.6 miles

After Regis I started training for the Cleveland Marathon. Using cycling as cross training and started to learn to swim.

March: Ran 90.4 miles Cycled 54.2 miles Swam 6.7 miles

Returning to the Mill Creek Distance Classic Half Marathon again I PRed the course by over 15 minutes from the last year!

Also returning to the first 5k of the year Strides of March 5k, I PRed the course and my 5k time 25:33. The best part of the race is I met my running BFF Kirsten from Days go By. Ok not only running BFF, but maybe a straight up BFF.

April: Ran 120.2 miles Cycled 24.2 miles Swam 7.5 miles

No races, just a very epic birthday run. I had this planned for awhile, the plan was 40 miles for 40 years. Mission complete.

May: Ran 77.7 miles Cycled 241.1 miles Swam 4.8 miles

West End YMCA Run 5k a raining VFF Bad ass PR 23:50
Then comes in my second marathon the 2011 Cleveland Marathon. The plan was sub 4 hours. Mile 16 all hell broke loose. Cramped up legs ruined my day. I was done. I was broken. I thank the lord above for my savor to carry me the last miles.

June: Ran 68.6 miles Cycled 180.9 miles Swam 12.2 miles

Warrior dash! What can I say but the best 5k ever!
Lake Health Distance Classic Half Marathon this was my second time running this race. I have only a few small words about this race. HOT AMD HUGE HILL.
My very first biathlon! The Lions 2011 biathlon. Learned a lot on how to pace your run and bike.
Crossfit Akron Triathlon Sprint distance! I loved it! I am hooked! Swim bike run till I die!

July: Ran 63.8 miles Cycled 359.5 miles Swam 13.6 miles

Lake Metroparks Pirate Triathlon Sprint distance. PR! Hands down top three races of the year. Just plain stupid!

August: Ran 69.4 miles Cycled 349.6 miles Swam 4.8 miles

Greater Cleveland Triathlon Olympic distance. One of the hardest races ever. The swim, I don't think I could ever explain. The bike was fun ass hell. The run was a death craw. Best thing I got out of this race was I learned to never stop moving forward. Push until you can't push anymore, then dig deeper and push more.

Bike MS Point to Point 175 mile ride.
Once again a first for me. A century ride the first day then a 80 mile ride home. I didn't know or expect this ride to be so meaningful in my life. I have so many memories from this ride I just don't have the time. Once again I learned to push myself beyond any thing I could ever expect. I hope this will be a yearly tradition.

September: Ran 105.6 miles Cycled 90.5 miles Swam 0.8

It's Better in Mentor 5 mile great race with my BFF

Believe and Achieve 10k trail race. This was my first real trail race. I killed it! Omg I'll never race on roads again.

Akron Half Marathon PR! 1:55:00 sub two hours! Some thinks that I was helping them get that sub 2, true confession I could of never done it with out there help. Lunch was crazy stupid.

October: Ran 140.1 miles Cycled 29.4 Swam well let's just say done for the year.

November: Ran 174 miles

Ran my second year at Autumn leaves 5 mile
PR the shit out of my 5 mile race at the CLE turkey trot!

December: 182.2 miles!

Ran my first 10 mile trail race at Salt Fork! It was, well to say the least it was a little muddy.

I ended 2011 with a running total of 1,271 miles in the books. Tons of new friends and a new love for trails. Will I miss 2011? Hell ya I will!

Bring on 2012! The year of ultras!

What I think about when I run

I need to get some more miles in. Maybe I'll just run later. Sleep. Ding Ding. Sleep. I should run. Morning. Not sure. Good idea. Eat first? Where area headphones? Shorts or tights? Sweatshirt or jacket? Garmin or Runkeeper? Ok going for a run, see you in a hour. Did I dress warm enough? iPod or Pandora radio? Go right or left? Why does my right shoe make a funny sound. I should start running. Wow I am tired. Love these shoes, is 500 miles to much for one pair? I'm cold. Does anyone watch my RK live? Wonder if it posted to FB? Wonder what smalls is doing? I am running slow. Wow it's windy by the lake. The waves are huge. That swim was crazy. Wonder if I'll do any triathlons next year? I'm cold. I should of worn gloves. Starbucks. How does mike run so fast in the middle of his long runs? Chickens. I hate when my feet get wet. Sure wish I was on trails right now. What song is this? "RK update 5 minutes" Can't wait until I get away from the lake. Morning. Cute dog. Finally good pace. I need new road shoes. I hate wearing my headlamp. Love running in the daylight. Lots of deer out here this morning. It's cool when run threw here at night any only seeing glowing eyes. Wonder if I'll hit the harbor before 15. Mine. These socks rock. Regis. Prayers. Wonder how far I'll run in the 24 hour. 8:51 first mile? Really? Speed work sucks. I think I'll just run home from my dads on Christmas. That's only 12 miles. Oh well I guess I'll just run what ever. Now run that 5 times. Br100. Tattoo. Morning. Lol scared the shit out of that person. Harbor. Lol I remember when it took me forever to get here. I am hot. I knew I dresses to warm. Thank god I didn't wear gloves. I hate this up hill. Wish I didn't work Saturdays. Bowling. Running alone sucks. Well not really then I would have to talk. This hill rocks! It's RK better on a 3gs or a 4s. 8:39 what the hell? I thought I was running slower. Left turn. Do these cars see me? Wonder if I got hit by a car people would know because of rklive? This hat is way too tight. Beards. Mine. Christmas ale. What's for breakfast? Hot. Where am I going to live? Wow that was a fast 5k race last year. Wonder they are doing at work. Who cares. Wonder if I could turn this into a ten miler. Nope no time. 8:54 that's better. Right calf is tight. Love that mailbox. I need to eat better. My first 5k was slow. My last 5k was fast. I wonder how fast I can run. 24hours should be fun. I wonder if people can run laps with you. So glad I am running. I want to go to pg in the morning. wonder what time we will close tomorrow. Tuff mudder cost to much. I could run 5 local trail races for that amount. I want to run more ultras. Wonder if I'll run Cleveland. I hate this part of the road. Makes my hip Hurt. 8:37? Really? Slow down dumb ass. Mine. I wonder if mike killed his chickens yet? Fat mans beard rocks. I am hungry. Has Jason ran lately? I could never get my 24/12 in this weekend. Good song! 6,5,4,6 only going to be at 21 for the week. Maybe two loops in the morning. I'm soaked. Wonder what they did with the horses. 8:32. What!? Has Kelly been running? Runners prayer. No matter what, to the end. #FF. Doug chews. I miss chewing. I want new Newtons. I think I'll take the long way home. How many other people are running right now. Damn totally over dressed. Gonna chill the last 1/2 mile. I wonder what I think about when I run. I should record my thoughts one time. Tomorrow I'll run 10 then Sunday maybe run home from dads. That would give me about 40 for the week. I hope that's enough. Mine. Breakfast please!

It's a blow out

It's been awhile since my post. Lots of stuff catch up on, race reports, training and for now my lost love.
I love the Saucony Peregrine trail shoes. The 4mm drop and super traction up and down hills, how could I not fall in love. After the first 150 miles in them I noticed that I blew out the outer sides of the shoes. I trip back to the best local running shop ever. They swapped out them for a fresh pair. Back on the trails I logged another 100 or so miles I noticed the night before Salt Fork 10 mile trail run that the right one started to blow out. It was way to late to change out shoes so I decided just to run with them. Durning the race my damn left shoe kept coming untied, after getting past by around ten people I started to get a little pissed. Then I lost my left shoe in some deep mud. More on that in my race report, for now I was mad as hell and done with those shoes.
So returning to the running store I told them what was going on and I wanted to trade. After deciding on a new pair I walked out of the store with some bad ass Merrell trail gloves! I had my eye on these shoes for a while and wanted to try them out. That night all shoe high I wore them around the house and soon found out that I hated them. They felt like crap. The high was replaced by a low. The next day with my head down I walked into the store handing them the Merrells and walking out with my money back. I was now lost. Two days later I went out on the search for new trail shoes. I ended up at a not so local running shop that carried a huge selection of trail shows. The best part of the store is the employees, they are all trail runners! Some even ultra runners. After explaining my story to them and my running plans for the year the nice lady brought out a huge stack of shoes. I think I tried on four pairs and nothing really felt right. Another guy came over and suggested that I try the New Balance MT101rx.

She grabbed my size and it was love. I took a small run down the street to make sure they were a match. I walked out of the store with new shoes and a new pair of socks ready to hit the trails.

Today I headed out on the trails sporting my new NBs.

What can I say, they felt really good! I would say even better then the Sauconys. The only down fall was that they don't have as much grip on the down hills. A bonus is they don't hold the mud! So after running threw tons of mud they don't weigh ten pounds.

So for now they are my new best friend.

New Shoes Please

Fall is back! and so is the trail running season for me. A few weeks ago training for the Run For Regis 50K started. I am going to try really hard to run all my weekend long runs on the trails this year. That being said I dug out of the closet my trail running shoes, a sweet pair of New Balance 875s.

I ran most of my trail running with these shoes. I even screwed in spikes for the Regis run last year. I have been running trails during the summer, but I have been sporting my Vibram TrekSports.

I love Vibram FiveFinger shoes so much! So much I own three pairs of them. The TrekSports, Bikila LS and the KomodoSports. Even tho the TrekSports are a great trail shoe, I ran a 10k trail race in them and towards the end I was loosing my form and started to slightly heal strike in them on the trails. My heals hurt for days, maybe even weeks. So when I got home I dug out my 875s for my next run. I was doing a short mid week run of 5 miles on the trails after work, so I grabbed my 875s and gear. Soon as I put them on it felt like I was wearing high heel shoes. They also felt so so so heavy. I didn't have any other running shoes with me so I just ran in them. I remember coming out of the woods still feeling like I had tanks on my feet. I knew I needed some new trail shoes with a very low heel to toe drop.

Very Clean

A trip to the local shoe store was in order. When I walked in I told them I wanted a trail shoe designed for a mid-fore foot strike. One that had a small heel to toe drop. I told them that I usually run in Newtons and Vibram FFs. He showed me two different shoes that would do the job. The Saucony Peregrine and some green shoe. The green ones had a lower drop but it still felt weird to wear. The Peregrine felt nice and very light, also it has a 4mm drop.  I was running a 8K run that night so I thought it would be the perfect way to break them in. 

The last time they will look new

It was late when I started my run and it was getting pretty dark in the trails. My headlamp is not that good, I think it was one I got on sale. It got me threw the trails, I think that will be my next purchase, a nice bright one. Anyways as 

soon as I started down the trail I felt at home again. No high heel shoes, They even have just a tad of cushion to them. The only complaint was they felt tight in the mid sole, I had them laced up maybe a little to tight tho. I found lots of mud to throw at them and even some nice stream crossing to soak them. The traction was insane! I felt very confident on the downhills. I bought them a 1/2 size larger then my normal size to prevent the my toes from jamming into the front of the shoe. The up climbs up out of a small valley were no problem. Even soaked and full of mud they never felt to heavy. The mud also seemed to clear out pretty quick from the bottom of the shoes after a few 100 feet.

Overall with only 5 miles on them I am really happy so far. I plan on doing almost all my trail runs in them. 

When I got home I just sprayed them off with the hose and threw them on my shoe drier. This morning they look like new again! Good Stuff!

I need some mud floor mats

Thats better