Dear Running of the Pink friends,

    I have heard from several people, including a couple of runners coming out of long retirement. They have been following my suggestions, which causes me to wonder:  Didn’t your mother ever teach you anything when you were growing up? Like don’t jump off a cliff because that dummy does.

    Safety

        I promise to tell you the toilet paper story if you take these safety tips to heart.

1.      Always run facing traffic. This gives you time to react to bad drivers, drunks and people who are mad at you for not answering their Facebook messages. When I cross an intersection I always make eye contact with the drivers. You can never assume that you are seen.

2.      Wear a reflective vest if it is even a little dark. Even as a perceptive runner, I am startled by runners wearing dark cloths thinking that because they can see you, you can see them.

3.      I have begun to carry my driver’s license with me. While I am likely to perish of old age on my runs, you certainly want an emergency responder to be able to identify you. They make neat ID’s that go on your shoelaces, but I like the license idea.

4.      I love the headband headlight solution. I have fallen many times through the years and the headlight would have solved that while making me visible to cars during my upright moments.

Toilet Paper

    I lived in Valley City for a number of years and one foggy New Year’s Eve a number of us fat boys decided that we were going to run the Grand Forks Half Marathon. We met at the golf course the next day and couldn’t jog the 350 yards to the first hole. We used the steps I have been suggesting in this blog and they worked. I was lucky that two of my running mates were Earl and Glen Pomeroy. Even then, they were such politicians that they stopped at every old lady’s garden and complimented Mabel or Sadie on the glory of their produce, while I got to walk and recover for the run until they spotted the next likely voter. We never ran more than eight miles, but eight, thirteen, what’s the difference? I have found that if you prep well you will have what it takes to run faster and further on race day, although eight may have been a little weak and I would practice ten or eleven as I have gained experience.

    

    We stayed in Grand Forks the night before the race and I ran into some NDSU elite runners who were going to do the marathon. Being accustomed to the old bland spaghetti dinner the night before the race, I was shocked at the new rules that allowed them to suggest we meet for pizza. In a lifetime first for the Pomeroys, we got there early and in the spirit of this new dietary guidance we ordered pepperoni and sausage pizza and beer. When the elites arrived they ordered cheese pizza and water. Hoo Boy.

    

    At the seven mile mark, I was well on my way to win the $75 bet we had ginned up when the Shakey’s Supreme began to speak to me and it wasn’t saying see you in six more miles. As a modest North Dakotan, I realized my only hope was an upcoming shelterbelt. I left the road, seeking inner peace at a discrete distance, finding my solace was only a one row belt. Either my front or my back was going to become famous. Shakey’s said “It’s now or never” so step one was solved. Now in a rational mind I concentrated on step two, I tried every reasonable tactic, I tried to tear the bottom half off my shirt, no go. I tried to tear the tops off my socks, no go. I contemplated running the next six miles with one sock, no go. As a good Altar boy, I was finally struck with an epiphany; I would use a leaf from the tree I was standing under. Turns out that God does know if you are paying attention at Church, the tree was a Russian Olive with leaves the size of my fingernail. I finally bunny hop with my shorts around my ankles to an Elm, not contemplating for a moment the chances of Dutch Elm disease being transferred in the fashion I intended. 

    

    Back on the street with renewed vigor, I passed the Pomeroy boys going into the chute, won the $75 and was forced to use my $75 to buy them a $100 lunch. 

    

    Carry a little toilet paper on a longer run.

    See you soon,

    Casey

Dear Running of the Pink friends,

    

    While it is uncertain if we will be able to hold The Running of the Pink, it makes sense that we all get in shape as though it is going to be held on June 6^th.  I have tried to keep this blog about how you can start running even with little prior experience, but today I would like to give a surprisingly good report on my progress using the tips we have been sharing.

    

  On Thursday I jogged three miles on the treadmill and was slower than last week at 11 minutes per mile. A little disappointing to have slowed down, but our point has been to do the miles and not worry about the time, which WILL solve itself. On Friday, at 50 degrees, I jogged a somewhat hilly three miles and scored 10:30 per mile with no walking. I was encouraged enough that I went out on Saturday and finally tried four miles. I scared myself with four 9:59’s. Mixing the treadmill with the elliptical has worked. The extra miles also helped my weight, which had stalled at 187. I am now down 19 at 186, with a base goal of 180 and a stretch goal of 175. My original goal for the 10 K was to make it without walking. I have toughened this up a little looking for 11 minute miles with a stretch goal of 10’s

Equipment

    I am a minimalist on equipment. As a fat boy, I wear shoes with lots of heel cushion (I will tell you a story about these in a moment). I strongly recommend a light wind shell with a front zipper because you can adjust your inner temperature as you warm up or get cold turning into the wind, by zipping up and down.

   

   I was visiting with a new runner who asked me how much water she should take along on her runs. She was hauling along a quart container, which must have been a pain, and then was throwing up two miles in. I have had great success drinking 3 or 4 ounces of water before I run, which have carried me easily through 6 plus miles. I would recommend a little toilet paper (a good story about that in another week).

    

   My shoe story is that I have always purchased my shoes from Gun and Reel, too often for their bottom line, from their half price rack at Crazy Days. I was out of town and had forgotten my shoes, saw a store where they video you running, measure the hot spots on your feet and match you to the exact shoe you should wear. I am all excited about becoming a movie star until the “consultant” turned out to be an 18 year old kid, working on a stringy goatee, who watched my wonderful running video and looked at my foot hot spots and said “you need XYZ”, and I speculate, runs to his half price bin, tears off the sale label and charges me full boat, because I was in his video. What I did learn was to buy a shoe ½ size bigger than normal so that the shoe fits during and after your runs. The best ending is that I just bought a pair of Asics Kayanos from my Gun and Reel friends and they are great.

    

   Keep up your workouts and your attitude. This is a great time to run, mentally and physically.

Casey

Treadmill advice

    Dear Running of the Pink friends,

   

     I hope you are making good running progress as we get closer to the Running of the Pink. Being a wimp, I am still doing my workouts indoors and because of my advanced age, I am doing the elliptical four days and running just one or two. We talked earlier that we don’t have to get there all at once. Making progress step by step is great. I was able to do three miles on the treadmill yesterday at an average of eleven minutes. Again, the time doesn’t matter, slowly adding distance is what counts.

    

    Several years ago I was all ego tripping about how well I was doing on the treadmill. I was far and fast and easily convinced myself that I was a stud. Finally on a beautiful February day I took my new found speed outside and bombed completely. I learned that I was practicing at dead level and that doesn’t match outside conditions. I now jog at a two percent grade and while my ego is bruised, I now match my treadmill times when I am on the street.

  

    My other finding is that all elliptical doesn’t convert to running. I may be in overall good shape after a winter of elliptical, but I can’t run a step. The two muscle sets don’t cross over well. I am very pleased with my results when I substitute a couple days of treadmill for the elliptical every week.

    See you June 6th.

    Casey

Mind Games

     I am fortunate that I have run for 60 years. I only have to defeat one devil on my shoulder. There are two, constantly whispering defeat messages. One says my body can’t make it. That one can be right and needs to be slowly defeated every day as I add miles or speed. The other devil whispers that I am not capable of doing this. My 60 years allow me to know that is bull. If I put in the miles and slowly and not even purposely increase my speed, I will succeed.

    

     Like the trick of getting dressed even when I don’t want to go, I am also able to fool myself by negotiating. When the mind devil whispers that I am too tired and I need to walk, I negotiate with him and change the big picture of not being able to make the whole run, into a small picture: I am tough enough to run 200, or 300, or 400 more steps. Because I can’t multitask, I start counting steps and a couple of hundred in, all I am thinking about is the count. All whining about not being able to make it is gone and even if I do give in, I made 400 extra steps, so the next time the negotiation is for 500 steps because I now know that I can do 400. Wasn’t it Abe Lincoln who said “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time”, but you can fool yourself every time?

    See you on June 6^th.

Casey

   

   

Fooling Myself

    I am lucky to be dim witted enough that I can keep secrets from myself. When I don’t want to run, I often tell my little pea brain to “just put on the shoes and trunks, you really don’t need to decide to run.” By the time I am dressed to go guess what happens? I am all dressed up for the ball, I may as well go dance. If I can fool myself that easily, imaging the fun you, as a thinking person, can have with me.

    See you on June 6^th.

Desk side Olympics

    As part of getting ready to run, I thought it would be fun to tighten up a little bit, but often my jog or elliptical workout leaves me with little ambition. So, I have decided to do simple, non-sweating, exercises at my desk when the spirit moves me. I am alternating three sets of sit-ups with three sets of push-ups and throwing in a little light weight three curl sets to round it out. One of our salesmen came running into my office after seeing me lying on the floor immobile. I thought that beat my inclination, which would have been to run the other way. It’s OK Wade, I appreciate you. Now my creators of unending torture are advising me to throw in some planks. I am up to two and a half minutes, but I am shaking like a leaf. No world records for me.

What you do in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas

    I have been silent for too long about my progress. Our dealership was recognized by Ford for the good works they and you do at Running of the Pink. We got to hob nob for a couple of hours with the big shots, including Edsel Ford and his son Henry the Third, before we were turned back onto the street. Unfortunately “What you do in Vegas does not stay in Vegas when it is calories.” I am now back to 187 but somewhat more in shape from a “fun” plan I have undertaken.