Dusting It Off

No thanks to Mother Nature, it's time to dust off the ol' blog and get ready for regular posts starting next week. Many of you have long had your key race entries bought or key races picked out and know what your goals are, running-wise, for 2015. For you others that run more with the weather, it's time to start thinking about some goals. Whether that be a new race, a new distance, a new pace, weight-loss, or just more consistency in your training, it has been proven that having a goal can help you perform better. It helps even more if you write down. And for most people, even more, if you let someone else know. Something about the writing it down process or the sharing it process tricks your mind into being more accountable. So, for your goalless TRYers out there, use the next week to think of a goal for your 2015 running season. As for a certain birthday girl - I'm sure her response to this will be: "I found that if you have a goal, that you might not reach it. But if you don't have one, then you are never disappointed. And I gotta tell ya... it feels phenomenal." Phenomenal or not, Sue, have a fricken goal this year, OK?

I had assumed I was going to be able to do recruiting for these in person, but I guess not. There were two races I planned on helping out with this spring, but fate conspired against me. One that I have helped for a few years - the "Making Tracks for Celiacs", would surely not line up with a race in my new neighborhood, would it? The "Paint Westvale Purple" 5K Run/Walk and Kids Dash needed some simple web help and just another person to help with ideas, so I offered to help out. It goes half a block from my second wife's new house, and supports Relay For Life, so it seemed like a no brainer. They wanted to avoid Easter so moved 2 weeks later into the month and moved to a Sunday just to see if that would work better. After committing to be on the committee for that I found out that MTFC moved a week early, and also decided to try out a Sunday. So, darn-it-all if they didn't pick the same day after being a full 3 weeks apart last year. They are both on Sunday, April 26th. So, I'm sad. But have to stick to the one I fully agreed to help with - the "PWP" one in the neighborhood. (They picked their date first, being another deciding factor for me.)

I recommend either race to people - the MTFC is a trail (field) run at Jamesville Beach Park. Website is here: Click on "Syracuse, NY" You've heard about this one in years past, so I'm not going to push it this year. If you have questions I'll be glad to answer them as well as I can.

The PWP is a mostly flat road race with lots of gift certificates available for age group awards - such that a few of you  could win $10 or $15 prizes (or more) just by coming out and running an average race for you. There are 30+ age group awards, and counting, available. They are really pushing making this a community event and have 3-4 groups lined up for on course music and entertainment. A sung national anthem, and better than average free food lined up on race day. This will be the third annual event and they are really hoping it becomes a spring staple. Website is here. (Let me know any critiques you have of the website. I want to make it better for next year, so any thoughts are appreciated.)

I selfishly recommend either race, but my heart and time are being spent on PWP, so that is where I'll be on the 26th. It would be great if some of you could join in. If you don't want to run, there are still volunteer spots available - or even just swing on by to cheer. (They plan to have 40+ cowbells on the course already - I wonder where they got a hold of that many bells?!, but could always use more, right?)

Let me know if you have questions. If you decide to run either, it's best to sign up soon to guarantee t-shirts and what not.

That's A Wrap

Tonight is the final Tuesday of the running season at OLP. Meet at 5 for a 5:05 start. Something I forgot and forgot to mention last week - a light or flashy light is not a bad idea since it will be dark by the time you finish. As with last week - we are shattering weather records for the warmest ending of a TRY season! Lucky. Due to darkness the post run cool down walk is cancelled again. Please just safely finish with your group and get safely to your cars.

From the informal survey and responses, it would seem that a Wednesday night group run under the Lights on the Lake is not happening. So, consider this a friendly reminder that both Wednesday night and Thursday nights are available from 5 - 9 PM to get out there on foot and take in the lights at your leisure. Thursday night is dog night, so you'll have some extra obstacles then but still should be plenty suitable to a walk or jog. Just remember to be extra polite either night if you jog - as that is not what the night is intended for. Give the walkers and the dogs right of way.

The Jingle Bell Run is coming up on Saturday, November 22nd. You can save yourself 5 bucks by registering at Fleet Feet the day before. Rumblings say that at least a couple TRYers will be involved again this year as part of our festive tradition.

A Disturbing Trend

What better use of an extra hour than to prepare this weeks blog post early for once? For those of you in Arizona, you get this benefit for free!

This week and next week we will meet at 5:00 with the group run starting at 5:05. We lost an hour of light with the end of daylight saving time but we only move the start up by 30 minutes in order to keep as many people involved as we can. This does mean it will be quite dark by the time the run completes, so be smart, run with someone if you can, and we skip the final cool down walk to shave 5 minutes off the end of our routine. (Another good idea is to choose a shorter run but to do it at a higher intensity to maximize the time available.) Remember that the bathrooms get locked at 5 as well, so arrive before that if you want to get relief right before you run.

A personal story on why I probably will not be there this week (and next?): after a failed attempt to sign Joseph back up for swim lessons at the Y on any weeknight but Tuesday we need to find an open time that will work for taking him ourselves. Naively the only time that works for us will be an early Tuesday night slot that is currently set aside for TRY. I’ll provide an update in the FB comments once I know for sure as I still need to check open pool times and compare schedules.

Since those of you who want to run through the winter will have to soon consider some treadmill running I thought now is the perfect time to share this article on how to make treadmill runs equivalent to running outside. It gives advice on how to get equal effort out of a treadmill run, then gets confusing, then comes around to a surprising conclusion. I am going to make you read it for yourself just to enjoy the circular journey it takes you on. (It is sort of fascinating and it’s my attempt to “amaze my running buddies” as is suggested in the final sentence.)

Due to underestimating the popularity of the “Seneca 7” race, the TRY team missed out on getting in before it sold out on Friday morning. In a continuation of a disturbing trend, the time you have to sign up for these popular, capped entry, races decreases exponentially every year. (In this case it went from a 5 day window last year to about a 1 hour window this year.) This sucks on so many levels that as a natural procrastinator I am basically catatonic. (Damn you, Adam Duerr and all you "Punctual Pete's" out there!)

Do any you have experience with other races that you've done that sell out (either triathlons or popular races throughout the US) and what creative ways they are coming up with to make the sign ups more fair? OK, fair may not be the right concept – but more drawn out? Is there any solution being tested out? All I know of is to switch to a lottery system which has plenty of flaws in its own right. Is there any creative way around this?

Another side effect of this trend is that entry limited races are free to start to raise their prices, because why wouldn't they? The law of supply and demand is clearly out of whack here, so why not crank up the price until it somewhat balances out? If race directors and accountants at the Seneca 7 and the Boilermaker do not raise their prices significantly next year then they must fall somewhere on the scale of “lousy at their job” to “morons”. Every race is in the business of making money. Either for themselves or for a charity. To not take advantage of us participants to make more money just does not make sense.

I’ll work through the example for the Boilermaker since I’m so much more familiar with that one. Two years ago everyone got the early bird pricing of about $35 as it sold out in about 3 days. This spring they were smart enough to raise the price to what had been a mid-process price of $50 and it sold out in a few hours (at a gain of over 200 hundred grand). If nothing changes, then this year it will sell out within an hour or two. If I were them I would raise the price to $100 just to see what happens. At 14,000 runners that extra $50 is well over 700 hundred grand of pure profit (assuming they were already making at least a little money) just by snapping their fingers. If there is any concern about not selling out, then play a game of chicken with the participants and set the early bird price at $100 with some reductions built in for a couple months, then have an inflection point and start increasing the price again as the race day approaches. (So a “V” instead of a straight line increase that we are so used to races doing to increase early entry.) Really, it’s such a good idea that there is no way they don’t start doing something like that soon. And it SUCKS! There is really nothing we can do about it. If the race still easily sells out, then they can (and should!) just raise the price again for the next year. Their sole financial goal should be to find the price point that is just high enough to barely sell out the race. If they get backlash from the running community they can either pump some of that money back into the event or make their charitable contributions more evident. (Or in the Boilermakers case, if they don't actually want the money, they could say, "Here Utica, have $700,000 on us! Anyone still complaining?") Any race that sells out in less than a day clearly does not realize the value of their product. (Does Disney World charge over $100 a ticket because that is the minimum they need to be profitable and to keep you appropriately entertained for the day? Or have they figured out that just happens to be the “magic” price to keep the “kingdom” full to capacity at that point in the year and will raise their price as soon as demand is high enough again to warrant it? Since they are not running some sort of Mickey Mouse operation there, I’m almost positive it’s the latter.)

 This running boom is off the charts right now and we are about to start paying the price for it if we want to participate in the most sought after races. It's a disturbing trend. :-(

It's Almost That Time

How about today's weather? Supposedly we'll be running in 70 degree temps even after cooling off a few degrees from the days high. Soak it in, everybody.

Some people noticed this last week, but a warning to everyone: (unless the weather inspires them to change their hours) the bathrooms will be locked up at 6 PM tonight. Plan your bathroom needs accordingly. Next week, they start being locked up at 5.

Speaking of next week, daylight saving time ends on Sunday, which means even less light for us than we have had and the final two weeks of TRY at the park will have to meet starting at 5 PM in order to get the run in with even a hint of light left. The park "closes" at dark, so we do our best to play along with that. They have always allowed us (and others) to push that limit a bit if you are out there exercising, but safety becomes a concern as well. So, next week and the week after, the meet-up time is 5 and the run starts at 5:05. For those who cannot make the earlier start time, stay tuned for the run under the lights plan and for the after season TRY plan from mid-November til the snow sticks.

I have a mish-mash of actual interesting and useful things for you this week. No, really!

Duerr - here is the [world's most annoying] training plan you asked for. Have fun clicking on all the links. I only did a few clicks and was not impressed, but who are we to question them? Surely there was no way to combine that into one page?

Normally I tend to give away the answers, but this time you have to read it for yourself. Along with this interesting list of "Old Wives Tales - Fact or Fiction", the "must read" for me was the fourth one that that tells you whether or not you should be covering up your head as you run in the cold weather this fall and winter. (I had stumbled across the same conclusion somewhere else recently and felt compelled to share.)

After "always" being on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, the Jingle Bell Run has sure gone squirrelly on us! Last year it moved location and dates - to the Sunday before the Sunday before - then proceeded to start the race before the official start time because of the crappy weather everyone was standing in. Which was a nice thought, except at least one VIP we know of was doing what he thought was a last minute bathroom break, only to get back outside with the race already started. Anyway, this year, it's back to the weekend before Thanksgiving, but now is on the Saturday. Conclusion - Saturday, November 22nd is this years Jingle Bell Run (still at OCC - race day registration at 8, race at 10 - so they say - but they are NOT to be trusted.) We have a tradition of good TRYer turnout, who plans to do it this year? Early bird pricing is over, but it is still a $5 savings through November, 21st ($25 for adults) compared to day of registration.

I found this last thing interesting. For those frequent travelers looking for a quick workout without needing equipment or for people looking for something they can quickly do while in their living room while watching Once Upon A Time. Here is the "Scientific 7 Minute Workout" (well, it talks about apps you can get, but also has links to the workout itself). It is supposed to work out your entire body and must work because it's scientific. Science!

I grabbed the little cheat sheet for my own convenience:

For those who need more than that, you could always do it again or change the amount of time on each exercise as you see fit. (Since some of you refuse to read what I link to - the recommendation is 30 seconds per, with 10 seconds recovery, meant to be done at 8 out of 10 exertion level. Because, science!) There is also the "advanced" version you could read up on, but that involves dumbbells which, to me, defeats the purpose since it can no longer be done anywhere. Keep it simple, science - no need to get all mathematical on us.

Down To Four

We are down to four weeks of regular TRY (counting tonight) before we have to leave the park.

Tonight, some people are starting early to run a long run - see Aaron's post on the line for details of that. I'll meet up with the others at the regular time and do our thing. Plan for some light rain.

Nothing jumped out at me this week - except for this one article from Syracuse.com. Am I the only one who is totally reminded or own Quick Courting Corey? Now, obviously there are some major differences, but the underlying love story is that they were engaged within a Corey and then are going to be married within another Corey. Eerily similar? Right? It shows that love works in mysterious ways and you never know when your true love will enter your life.

Is Something Better Than Nothing?

I cannot even blame it on the drain this week...

A warm day out of nowhere for our run this week. By the time we run, the heat will be diminishing, but it looks like we will still be running in temperatures in the low 70s which is crazy-crazy for mid October. Should be a beautiful night for a run.

I often allow inspiration to seek me out on what to put in the weekly blog entries...and more often than not lately it has been failing me. I must have offended my muse somehow? I have a couple things to share, that I don't even consider worthy, but am assuming that something is better than nothing so am sharing them anyway.

For those of you who listen to music when you run - I read an article that was so wishy-washy and with such lousy research that I can not even bear to share it with you. I will include the concluding quotes because I thought they were OK:

'There are certain situations, however, in which the dissociative approach to running with music can be unsafe or even rude.

"For safety reasons, don't run with music after dark," says Corkum. "I also recommend leaving music at home for most races as a courtesy to other runners around you. If you choose to use music in a race, keep the volume low enough so you can hear if a runner asks to pass you."

For the majority of runners, music will come in handy on some runs and be better left at home for others. Unplugging and allowing yourself to pay attention to your surroundings, body and breathing can be a highlight of any run.

"Many runners are surprised at what a different experience running without music truly can be," Corkum says.'

[This is back to me now - I know when I cheer at races, there is a noticeable difference in how people with headphones respond to my attempts at cheering, usually to the point of not noticing me at all. So, I personally have a bias against people listening to music on race day because I feel they are missing out on some of the race day experience. I do realize that they don't give a crap what I think, so we silently agree to disagree.]

The second reference is one of those dreaded "slideshow" type posts that are way too common these days, but since we have a lot of women in the group, I figured I should share "10 Reasons Why Women Should Run". Some of these are unexpected reasons as this was meant to be some "fun" reasons, and quickly cover bone density, dealing with your mensies, and increased sexual satisfaction. You're welcome ladies!

That's all I've got for this week. If you have ideas or topics that you would like to write about - or have me research and write about, let me know as I need some new sources for inspiration. (Obviously.)

Blame It On The Drain

Another late post - and rather than accept responsibility for my own actions - I'm going to blame it on the drain. (Gotta blame it on something.) Read to the end for details.

I'm including links to an educational video about eating gluten free (almost 9 minutes) and a yoga video (about 25 minutes). If interested, remember to come back and watch them when you have the time.

Tonight - break up into like minded groups per usual.

Did you know that counting this week, we are down to 6 weeks left of Tuesday night running at the park? The Lights on the Lake is starting earlier than ever - this year they are starting two Fridays before Thanksgiving - but they've shifted days so we actually get the same amount of Tuesdays to run on.

The dates that matter:
We can do TRY at OLP up through Tuesday, November 11th.
The "stroll" (walk that we have ran the last few years) is on Wednesday the 12th.
The dog walk night is on Thursday the 13th.
(Once again there is an end of season run through - Saturday, January 3rd at 11 PM. I've never been crazy enough to do that one.)
I expect enough interest that we will move TRY to another location - typically the creekwalk starting on Tuesday, November 18th.

Are you curious about Celiac Disease or have you considered starting a gluten free diet? This video via Upworthy pretty much debunks the need for a gluten free diet unless you have Celiac disease. It's very interesting if you want to know what little proof there is on the benefits of eating GF for someone who does not have to.

Do you do yoga? Or are curious about it? Here is a video from Runner's World claiming to be "essential yoga" to make you a better runner. If I was as flexible as her, I feel like I could run like a deer. Some of the moves would break me. On the website, below the main video are a couple others I  plan to check out - including one claiming to be yoga with a foam roller.

Lastly - my excuse for not posting on time. I was the perfect cliche last night and went to Lowe's at about 9:30 to buy some parts for a toilet. I mean, really? Why do they stay open til 10? For moron's like me who need them open that late. It was a minor fix and seems good to go as of this morning...but the delay allows me to "blame it on the drain".

FYI - a couple of you claimed to not know anything about "Milli Vanilli". So, go back to a blog post from two years ago, scroll down to the youtube clips and listen to them for 30 seconds each. I assume you all have heard the songs? If not, give them a listen. They were hits back in the day.

One of those turned into a Weird Al spoof that he called "The Plumber Song", but I always thought of as "Blame it on the Drain":