Friday, March 23, 2007

Virgil the Triathelete

Dante is a great dog. He has many strengths. Jogging on his leash is not one of them. Some days I blame myself for training his poorly when he was young, but I really think he's just stubborn.
He also has bad hips. Not the full blown dysplastic types seen in too many Goldens, but not normal. He never did like to run on the leash and seems to need a break earlier than the other dogs when playing.

Now Virgil also has his weakness. If you had to rely on him for warmth, then you'd freeze to death because he doesn't cuddle. At least he makes up for it with his tireless fetching and his love for a good jog.

I took him out with me today for my jog and had a blast. I think he had a grin on his face the entire time. This dog just doesn't quite seem happy unless he has wind blowing in his face. My pace wasn't too good today, but it was nice to run with company besides the iPod. And as usual, he was an angel on the leash even with all the traffic at the pre-rush hour time we ran.

I better go get ready for my meeting

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Damn I'm Slow

After my wardrobe malfunction, I've had a series of alarm clock user malfunctions. I kept forgetting to turn my alarm clock on. My morning is pretty busy and about a half hour delay in getting going in the morning can ruin my schedule.

I was due for another mile time trial today and I guess considering it's my first jog in about four days, I guess it's not too bad. I wish considering how hard I thought I was running that my time wasn't in the high 7's.


Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Six Runs and Wardrobe Malfunctions


It's interesting to see what kind of wear running takes on your body. After my second run I realized that one of my toenails was rubbing on the adjascent toe which left me with a small but moderately annoying scratch. The annoyance lasted for five days. Now, not only am I trimming my toenails really short, but I'm finding that I need to tape some of my toes to protect them.

Today I found something more annoying than a scratched toe -- a misplaced seam. All of the compression shorts
(BOXER JOCK from Under Armour) that I usually wear to run were dirty, so I wore another shorter pain of compression shorts. Whoa, did I learn my lesson. The chafing on my upper thighs got to the point after about 3 1/4 miles that I just stopped and walked home. First thing I did when I got home was put the Boxer Jocks I usually wear into the wash. Tomorrow after call I'm headed straight to the UA store to buy more.

I was aware of pulling muscles in the gym and the bruises from football. Now I've learned the hard way about the dangers of being a runner.

Run was pretty good today otherwise. Happy about my overall pace over the week. Six runs in seven days. Total of 16.84 miles.



Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Mambo Run #5

My attending said something funny to me yesterday after rounds. She told me that contrary to what she had heard about me, I was actually a really good intern! Compliment? Well, I took it that way. I'm uncertain who told her bad things about me. The only two attendings to formally evaluate me at the VA gave me all superior and excellent markings on my eval. Instead of losing sleep over who raked me over the coals, I'll just try to be pleased that I've impressed her. (But at the same time not forgetting that I've pissed someone off...)

Had my longest run today with the Nike+ system. My pace could have been better. I didn't realize until I finished with another half a mile at the best pace of the run, that I could have run the first part so much harder.
Link
I'm still hesitant to drop shift early in my runs.


My newest research project is moving along very nicely. I had a talk on the phone with the Assistant Director of Coriell Cell Repositories yesterday morning. This is a branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute and is responsible for establishing, maintaining, and distributing cell cultures and DNA derived from the cell cultures. The AD didn't think my project was a strong fit for the CCR, but did think it was an interesting project. Pretty cool to get a compliment from a scientist at that level.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Five Total Runs

I didn't feel much like jogging this morning. It's probably because I broke my self-imposed rule against napping. Yes, I was weak yesterday and fell asleep in the afternoon for about 3 hours. Then I had trouble getting to sleep at night. Then I had trouble waking up in the morning.

I had a light warm-up jog with the dogs today and then dropped them off before I set out for my two mile solo jog. The pace was crappy -- 9'06".

I guess it's a victory of sorts even if my pace today was weak. I've had five total runs and only bought the kit six days ago. I'm going to increase my run length this week and plan on running two mile trials to work on getting my speed up.

Here's the run:

Saturday, March 10, 2007

First time trial

Went out this morning for my first "time trial." I set a goal for myself when I bought my Nike+ system to run five time at a pace of under 7'44". Today was my first one at a distance of a mile... I think.



I realized that calibration of the Nike+ system wasn't really optional, but encouraged. I'm not really sure how far or fast (or slow) that I've been running, because I haven't calibrated yet. Tomorrow is a good day to go down to Tempe Town Lake after rounding in the morning for a nice calibration run.

Better get cleaned up for work now.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Running Post Call

My second call this month at the VAMC was pretty tolerable. I only took two admission and cross-cover was only moderate. I had three vets who decided to have chest pain last night - one of which was actually having a heart attack.

The chest pain patients won't be as memorable as the cancer patient who threw me out of his room, told the entire nurses station and my attending that I "need to work on my bedside manner", then proceeding to bad-mouth me to everyone who entered his room for the rest of the day. Prior to this explosion I had consulted mental health for issues with the patient's depression. I ended up being immortalized in the consultation note as "the clown..." Oh well.

Had a good run this morning. Not really sure what was going on with my pace for the 3/4 of a mile. The Nike+ calculated it as a 5'34"/mile pace. Heck, if that's true maybe I should do my time trials post call!


I'm hoping this lighter jog will loosen me up for a time trial mile tomorrow. I'm going to try for a mile under 7'44". If today's first mile was accurate then, that shouldn't be a problem. I don't want to set too lofty of goals just yet. I'm not yet accustomed to running on pavement.

Shower time. I stink.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

2nd Run with Nike+

I improved my time a tiny bit this morning. I'm really liking my gear. The nano is a much better running partner than the Video iPod. It's hilarious to think of any of the iPods as being too big, but I could never get the Video comfortable on my arm for running.

Here's my run.

Since I'm on-call tonight, I'll probably have a lesiurly jog tomorrow. After I get into the swing of running again, I'll start taking Virgil with me. He'll like that. "Why not Dante, too?" you ask. Because he's not great on the leash and doesn't like running on the leash. Stubborn. I don't know where he gets it from. Probably Karen.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

High Tech Running

Philosophically I had a problem with the idea of paying for a new iPod nano ($149 - $249) and special Nike running shoes ($99 - $129) to get back into running. That was until Karen got a Nike+ kit to use with the nano I bought her for her birthday. Man, did that thing seem cool. She showed me online the detailed graphical representation of her run. She showed me the tracking of the goals she had set for herself. Neato!

It was then clear to me how freaking cool this Nike+ system was. Don't get me wrong -- I was annoyed that the Video iPod I already owned wasn't compatible with the Nike+ system. I also wasn't happy that I couldn't (well not exactly) continue to use the New Balance brand of running shoes that I've been wearing for about four years. But hey, this setup is cool and I've got to exercise.

The LA Fitness thing has been going pretty well, but a continued problem is the extra time and energy it takes to drive to the "meat market" and get my gear situated. You might be thinking that the 4 mile drive is trivial, but only if I'm working a 40 hour week -- a rarity. This month when I'm working 70-90 hours a week that extra time really cuts into my motivation. Running is a nice alternative where instead of spending time driving I can spend it breaking a sweat.

I wanted to try to save a buck or two by keeping my NB shoes and getting a sock for the Nike+ sensor. The reports I read on Amazon.com concerned me about this idea. There were a handful of reports that the sock didn't allow the sensor to read properly causing the distance of runs to be shortchanged. I sure wouldn't want to take a chance of ruining my enjoyment of the new product by having my runs belittled by an aftermarket workaround to the Nike+ shoes.

As you can probably guess, I went ahead and bought the whole setup. Pretty sweet. I bought my Video iPod about two years ago and forgot how easy it was to setup Apple toys. I just had to plug it in to my Mac Pro and add some music to my new toy (I got the red 8gig one!). It took nothing to pop the sensor into my new Nike shoes and it instantly was communicating with my new nano.

I couldn't wait to get running so that's what I did (despite the sun was falling). And here's my first run...

I'm excited about this device. Now despite Karen being in Vermont we can both see each other runs. I just can't share Virgil with her. I've set some goals that I can track and also have already challenged Karen too see who can run the most miles this month -- too bad she's hurt her leg.

I'll give an update soon enough! Got to get some rest for my run in the morning.