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5 Days Until Our First Marathon

Apr 262011
 

I’m scared! 

Not really, but I quit training for our first marathon in 6 days.  My knee was bothering me on each run, so I decided to rest it entirely until we run in the Orange County Marathon. 

I have been getting a lot of advice the last few days about my knee and the consensus is that it is a problem associated with the IT Band.  Wikipedia had some information on the IT Band which you can find by clicking here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome.  But basically, it is what my sister and my brother’s girlfriend’s sister, an athletic trainer, had told me all along.  That I would need to stretch the IT Band and the more stretching that I could do to it, the less likely it would be that it would hurt me in the future. 

Starting tomorrow, I think I am going to go to the gym to lightly work out my upper body and stretch my IT Band and maybe do some brief elliptical work.  With just six days to go I’m a little stressed about the prospect of running a full marathon, but I’m excited as well.  At least I will know that I will have a time to improve on for future races.

Ironman Training – Week #16

Apr 252011
 

Weekly Amount:

Running = 18 miles
Biking = 62 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 82.5 miles

Overall Amount:

Running = 221.5 miles (20.5 miles to Las Vegas)
Biking = 712 miles (261 miles to Seattle)
Swimming = 61,200 meters or 39.2 miles (71 miles to San Diego)
Total = 974 miles (1 mile to Seattle)

Accomplishments:

Zeb Swims to L.A.

Melt downs and Blow Ups

Apr 242011
 

I really like Top 10 lists, Sportscenter does a great job with plays-of-week and their other lists. So recently I saw a list of the 9 Biggest Sports Meltdowns, Temper Tantrums and Blowups. Running and other more cardio personal events didn’t really make the list. I thought these temper tantrums and blowups were limited to team events but John McEnroe proved that theory wrong. So maybe it is more about events where you can compete against a clock that leaves people to only look inword when them reach their goal or fall short.

To find some motivational stories about running, I wanted to find some motivational running stories. These stories, for a lack of a better description, were BOORRRRRING. The number 1 on the list of “The 10 Best Moments of the Decade for U.S. Distance Running” was ……drumroll……Olympic Marathon Medals for Kastor and Keflezighi. While it seemed like a motivational story it was not that exciting.

I also think every runner has their own best or most favorate moments, so far in my career I have a few high school memories and crossing the finish line at my two half marathons. Hopefully, there is more to come.

Do you remember any of your favorate running or sporting moments that maybe didn’t get the aclaim they deservered.

Exotic Animal Siting on a Run Through Chino Hills

Apr 232011
 

I’ve grown up and lived in Chino Hills for almost my entire life.  And all of my running, biking and swimming has taken place in other cities.  This past week; however, I have been running through my hometown . . . and you’d be amazed at the type of things you encounter when you run through the town that you call home.

Can you guess what my favorite animal is?  I’ll give you a hint.  The first three letters of the animals name matches mine . . . This is Zeb writing by the way.  Have you guessed it yet?  No???  Man, you’re slow.  Ok, this animal also has black and white stripes all over it and looks like a horse.  Wow, finally you guessed it.  Don’t think you’re some kind of genius now.

Anyways, I thought Zebras only lived in Africa, or at that zoo.  I had no idea that Zebras actually lived in my hometown, but they do.  And it was awesome.  When I went to take it’s picture it was standing about 15 feet away from me, but as soon as it realized that I was taking its picture, it came right up next to the fence to pose for a picture. 

Running has it’s advantages, as you are likely to encounter things that you would not normally see.  For me, I was able to see my favorite animal up close, like I had never seen one before.

Chino Hills Zebra

The Running Brothers Movie – Part #2

Apr 222011
 

Thank you for watching The Running Brothers Movie.  We hope you like the outcome.  If you haven’t seen Part #1,  you can click here to watch it – http://runningbrothers.com/982/the-running-brothers-movie-part-1/.  If you like our movie(s), please be sure to share them with your friends and post them to your Facebook pages.  The most fun we get is hearing from people who we’ve never met before that tell us the movie was awesom, so don’t be shy, tell your friends. 

Thank You From The Running Brothers!!!!

Novelty Running

Apr 212011
 

I have always been a sucker when it comes to shopping. I buy some stupid things and I get excited when I get something new, I think everyone does this to an extent. I also understand that it is not a financially healthy addiction. Nonetheless when I am trying to get motivated to do an activity, I usually buy something to get me excited about it.

To start studying for a test I will order a special book, to start a home improvement project I will buy a new tool when another tool I have would work, and when I need to start working out I need something new. This time I got new running shoes. I can think of a few other things that I can resort to when my motivation is getting a little low:

  1. Running watch
  2. New shorts
  3. Swimming googles
  4. New handle bars for bike that allow me to stretch out a little more
  5. Icy-hot (I have never used it but people say it really helps mucsels and I want to try it)
  6. A new gym membership

So when I am losing some motivation I may resort to some of these. I should probably try to keep my motivation beacause of the good workout feeling but I guess I am a shopping addict. Is there anything that you buy or use that help to keep you excited about working out?

I’m Back!!!

Apr 202011
 

I have to admit, my training has taken a bit of a hit or as some people call it a haitus. I have not trained, other than soccer for about 3 weeks. It is easy to make excuses and most people are above naming them…… but I am not, so here is a list of the things that I blame for cutting in to my training time:

  1. I had a professional exam that required a lot of studying,
  2. Fish weren’t going to jump on to hooks themselves,
  3. Golf balls needed to be lost at a few golf courses,
  4. (I think the most common) Work is crazy; and,
  5. I had a blister on big toe and it really really hurts.

So I took my test and the results don’t come back for three months, work is still there but I am getting off earlier and I used some mole skin for my toe blister (btw- whoever created moleskin is a life saver). So to keep my training going I will have to let the fish be and save some money on golf balls.

Zeb at A Snails Pace

One other thing helped me get going. As you read in Zeb’s post, we got new shoes!!!! I have been an Asics shoe guy since they semi sponsered/supported or gave discounts to my high school cross country team. After our visit to A Snails Pace the highly informed and helpful staff told us Saucony’s would work best. They feel good so far. I already got about 4 miles in them and they are still working.

Joined Up With Some New Runners: Rocky Duran and Chris Sydow

Apr 192011
 

It had been months in the making, but we finally added “some color” to The Running Brothers team.  Several months ago, I told my friend Rocky Duran about our website as we had played soccer for over a year together and actually won the championships together the year before.  He decided to quit soccer in order to train for the L.A. Marathon, but we were able to still keep in touch through Facebook and get together to play some golf every once in a while.  For whatever reason, our schedules never meshed, but we talked about running frequently and finally, yesterday, we did it.

We ran about 5.5 miles up and down some pretty decent sized hills, which was some good training.  Yesterday was the first day I was able to run in my new shoes and man, what a difference!  My knee did not hurt me at all during the 5.5 mile run which gave me hope that I would be able to complete the Orange County Marathon on May 1.  When I did the half marathon in February, my knee began hurting after the third mile and I haven’t been able to run farther than that since then.  But, today I ran 5.5 miles with no discomfort whatsoever. 

With that in mind, my goal for the upcoming marathon will be to complete it in under 4 hours.  My half marathon time was 2:04, but, like I said earlier, the only thing that was slowing me down was my knee.  I really think that if me knee were not in so much pain, my time would have been much faster.  I’ll be eager to see what my time will be in the OC Marathon, but one thing is for sure . . . I will be going all out.

I’m not exactly sure what Rocky meant by “some color,” I think it’s because he thinks that he’s a really funny guy.  Rocky is such a colorful character.  Rocky, Chris and I were able to talk for most of the run, about business, about life and about running.  Overall, it was a great time as we ran through the hills of Chino Hills.  We talked about running together in the future, although, I’m not sure that I can keep up.   They say that they frequently run more than 10 miles on the weekends and that seems pretty intense, but I’ll give it a shot.

We Went and Bought New Running Shoes – Saucony Progrid Ride 3’s

Apr 182011
 

My brother and I went to A Snail’s Pace in Brea, California to get fitted for new running shoes yesterday.  If you have been keeping up with our posts, you will know that I have been experiencing some pain in my left knee when running.  My Uncle Steve, a former marathon runner wrote a blog post about ways that would help to alleviate knee pain and he said that the most important thing to eliminate knee pain was to get properly fitted shoes.

We arrived at A Snail’s Pace and were approached promptly by Katie Lowrie, a worker at the store who took us to a foot calibration machine.  Basically, you stood on this machine and it provided information about where you apply pressure in your feet.  She told my I had high arches and applied too much pressure on my right foot and basically said the same thing to my brother.  She then brought out the shoes she thought would fit best.  We tried them on and ran up and down the store.  She was trying to determine if we overpronated or underpronated . . . and as it turns out, we both had normal pronation. 

We got Katie laughing pretty good with all of our ridiculous questions and one-liners.  My brother thought that she was just doing that to be nice, but who knows.  After fitting our shoes my brother and I settled on the exact same shoes – The Saucony Progrid Ride 3’s.  However, mine were slightly larger at a size 15 and my brother got the 14’s.  (We all know what that means). 

We made sure to make Katie promise to watch our movie along with other member’s of the staff and got out of A Snail’s Pace having spent about $100 a piece.  Who knows if the shoe will help out my knee pain on those long runs, but it’s worth finding out.  And now, my brother and I have matching shoes, matching shirts and matching track suits . . . yeah, we know we’re cool.

Ironman Training – Week #15

Apr 162011
 

Weekly Amount:

Running = 17.5 miles
Biking = 60 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 80 miles

Overall Amount:

Running = 203.5 miles (38.5 miles to Las Vegas)
Biking = 652 miles (321 miles to Seattle)
Swimming = 57,200 meters or 36.7 miles (.1 miles to Los Angeles)
Total = 892 miles (81 miles to Seattle)

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