Tide to the rescue!

I know I am not the only one that has sweaty clothes. They can get pretty aromatic if you work out in the morning before work and then leave them in your car all day... This is now, when it is often barely above freezing. So, what happens when the sweltering summer heat comes. Scary, I know. Hopefully I'll be running outside at home more and my need for they gym will deteriorate during the summer months.

Until then though I have come up with two ways to help combat the aroma of eau da runner.

1. Run at lunch or after work instead of in the morning and put the lovely's in the trunk.

2. Use good laundry detergent.

Ok, so this post is really a shout out to Tide Sport laundry detergent. Let me explain for you non-runners. Most people wash with their favorite detergent and then use the fabric softener that smells the best. With tech running gear, the stuff that wicks sweat away from the body to keep it cool and dry, you can't use fabric softener. Fabric software will get absorbed by the tech gear and then the tech gear will stop wicking away sweat. The sweat it does manage to wick away will have a harder time drying. This leaves you sweaty and wet. Your clothes will get heavy and irritate your skin. It will be like wearing cotton.

I know what some of you are thinking. Isn't Febreze  just watered down fabric softner? Maybe. I do know that this tide/febreze combo is specially formulated for sports apparel so they keep their wicking properties. Go Tide!

The best part is that when you open the closet or drawer of running clothes, you get that nice fresh scent smell. It is a very nice change of pace.

On that note, yes, I run a load after every run. I know it is a small load, but it really does not take a whole lot of detergent to get the job done. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Keep running,
    Otto

Pumped!

Yup. I am pumped. Last night was a very inspiration speaker at the RETA Banquet, and he pumped me up spiritually but that's not what I am talking about right now.

Last week I decided to stick to a "training" plan that I found online for the 5th 3rd River Bank Run (I still think of it as the Old Kent River Bank Run).

That training plan was the following:
         Tuesday:       4.5 Miles
         Wednesday:  3.0 Miles
          Thursday:    4.5 Miles
          Saturday:     8.0 Miles

Four workouts... that's fine - NOT a problem. Or so I thought.

In the past all my training plans have been every other day. That day of rest gives you much needed recovery. However, it does little to build or improve. It mostly maintains. On the other hand, I noticed having 3 days of running in a row really works you out. I had a real hard time on Wednesday running the 3 miles compared to the other two runs. I do think running with tired legs did give me the brain power to keep going.

The one other thing I have been trying to do is to make my last mile at least as fast as my first because for some reason my first mile is usually about 30 seconds to a minute faster than the rest. Well the training paid off today. Hopefully I can use this training to my advantage here in the near future. Check out todays workout:

Notice my time on mile 1, mile 2, and mile 8 (Start, worst, best). It was a grand an glorious finish. I was really hoping I was around a 10:20 /min mile and I blew that away. This is one thing I appreciate about running on a treadmill. There is a block in my head that tells me a fat man can't run that fast. But on a treadmill I can keep increasing the speed just to see how fast I can run. This week on Thursdays I managed to get the treadmill up to 8 mph for the last 1/10th of a mile.

I feel so pumped! I have never followed a training plan and after I started I figured out I was one week off on the plan so I will be repeating my same workouts this coming week.

So, if you have used a training plan, let me know how it went for you. If not, keep in tune. In about 8 weeks I run my first 25k and we will see how it goes.

Go Running,
     Otto

There's nothing like...

....having a great run to make you want to blog about it and tell the world. 

It has been an insufferable winter. With the extreme cold temps and record precipitation it has made for a tough first winter of running.

I have been outside twice this year for a run and I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Better weather is just starting to come.

So, I ran yesterday. Yes, it was in the morning hours during the wind and snow. Not in the afternoon when it reached 38 and was partly sunny out. However, I had one of the best runs in my life. The best part was that I finished strong. I ran the first mile at right around a 10 min mile, the miles in between at 10:50 ish, then finished with a 10:10 mile on mile 7. So yeah, 7.1 miles and 1 hour and 15 minutes later.

So. I am curious, anyone ever use a training plan? I am running a 25k in May and found a training plan for it. Just curious if training plans work well. 

I usually run M-W-F... But from here on out it'll be T-W-R-Sa. I plan to follow the plan as closely as possible. I'll let you know how it works out.

At least my workouts have been more consistent this year:

I am also curious if anyone else has problems with doing speed work on treadmills. Everytime I push my pace on a treadmill I inadvertently get sore knees. 

So my fastest to date is 7.6 MPH for 1/4 mile. What's your fastest speed for a quarter mile? 

Maybe I'll try more speed work when I start running on the road more. I have a feeling it is the treadmill that is doing my knees in.

Keep Running!

     Otto