My hot yoga teacher asked me this question while I was checking into class the other morning. I always show up to class preheated from my run with all my stuff in my pack so it's pretty obvious. I guess she was just trying to make conversation but the way she phrased her question completely distracted me from how to answer it.
Do I have a running practice? I guess that’s what you could call it if you look at it from a yogic point of view. I try to run most days and mostly use it to tu
The first of three races planned for this year. The AQI (air quality) index in Denver yesterday was 451, roughly the same as Beijing on a bad day, due to smoke and ash from the Alberta fires. My wife forbade me from running if the AQI was over 150, so I was happy for the rain overnight which got us down to a salubrious 38. Today it's back up in the 300s and I'm contemplating wearing a n95 mask on my bike ride..
The race is in reverse order of usual, run first and swim last. After the regre
Other titles for this blog:
The 3rd Time is the Charm
An experiment of one.
What works for one may not work for others.
BUILD UP TO BOSTON:
The build up to Boston was ANYTHING but smooth. Right after I ran Rehoboth in December I was raring to go! As per usual I went to the gym a few days after PRing the 13.1. The workout had pull ups and a barbell -- no jump rope or box jumps so I thought it was okay for me to do. Not so much. After doing however many pull ups I dropped
So I didn't intend to drop off after my last post. What I did intend was to push play on a life style reset. I decided that it was finally time to let those unhealthy pandemmy habits die and get back to work on living a different life. All was good, I found a 6am yoga class and moved my Hungarian lessons to 6am on the off days. MAKE myself get up and do things. Put some skin in the game.
And then my nephew, who I am closest to, got arrested for doing something idiotic and shutting down
I drank too much last night again, and feel like an ass. Drinking doesn’t really relieve you of anxiety, it stores it up to hit you all once later.
We shared a bottle of wine while our friend drank vodka sodas in the park. I worry she’s in a bad relationship that’s progressively getting worse but she’s not really in a place to give it up. But her running has really taken off. It’s giving her freedom and confidence she doesn’t have elsewhere.
I spent Saturday with an unfinished feel
My track was still locked this morning when I ran by it so I played on the hills again. My mind was full of pros and cons and I ended my run exactly where I started. I have no idea what to do so I guess I didn't run long enough. Oh well. It's a start.
Tomorrow I'll try five miles with with Aly. She's a writer, runner and Texan and my favorite new addition to my sphere. (Is it a sphere if it's only like two people and a chihuahua?) She also gives me terrible anxiety because she runs ju
We were ring-around-the-rosy children
They were circles around the sun
Never give up, never slow down
Never grow old, never, ever die young.
-- the prophet james vernon taylor
--
She's not worried about pace. She just wants a popsicle.
She doesn't have a heart monitor or a tech shirt or carbon-fiber high-rises. She IS pretty excited about her shoes, though. She says they light up when she walks. Why hasn't Nike discovered this as a way to add another fifty bucks to their shoe pr
I promised myself this year that if I got the urge to sign up for a race that I had no intention to actually train for, I would just mail the RD a check and skip all the guilt and frustration of half-assing my way to a DNS. I just wanted to remember the joy of running for the sake of running. Zero expectations.
🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
I'm running along the Forest Hills route and trying to remember how to write a bloop. It used to be so easy. I'd run a few miles, reflect on life, have all the
Get yourself a sweet Madonna
Dressed in rhinestones sittin’ on a
Pedestal of abalone shell.
Doin’ 90, I ain’t scary
‘Cause I got the Virgin Mary
Assurin’ me I won’t go to Hell.
It’s been a while. Not sure if I remember how this works, but here we go. How do we start again… right, activate your glutes. So I do a squat. Is one enough? I turn around to look at my ass, but I don’t see any activity back there. Great, I probably looked like an idiot doing that, so I do another squat.
What's going on, guys? How's everyone been?
It's super weird not having social media. On one hand, I miss everyone and realize that a lot of connections I had are fading. On the other hand, I really hate Facebook and miss the old Instagram. I miss the old loop too, but let's not turn this post into a lament. We all agree on things and have talked them to death, no?
Speaking of death, I'm still alive! More importantly, so is Brady! When last I wrote, he was diagnosed with heart
We spent a month in S. Africa to see family and old friends, over Christmas. It's made me realize I'm ready for my retirement now..
At first I'd written about this further down, then decided that was burying the lede.
So here's the beg -
My son is running Boston with the Boston Medical Center charity group. Here's his fundraising video..
https://www.givengain.com/ap/ian-kretzmann-raising-funds-for-boston-medical-center/#timeline
That done, here's the story. Denver to Atlant
An incomplete and unordered list of people I still miss, think about, worry about, or am just nosy about who I didn’t have on FB or didn’t post often:
Gonzo (who used to lurk and I hope sees this and gets inspired to post!)
Roger (Jagger and I run)
John Wayne
ChocTop
Bob! - I can’t remember his loop name
The running monk
Wasatch Runner
There’s more. Everyday I feel like I think of someone and wonder about them. I wish I could go back and read old
Where to start?? Let's see -- my last post was from Ironman AC 70.3 on 9/10/22. I had a TOUGH time recovering from that all out effort. The heat, dehydration and race effort led me to feel super sore and fatigued for about a week. I still had SO many races and events on my calendar that I really wanted to rebound quickly, but I really tried to listen to my body.
I had a super fun Crossfit competition on 10/8/2022.
I joined RunEatRalph's GAP relay team (10/15/22) at t
Back by unpopular demand – an account of my WSER
Be patient: I’ll try to keep it as short as possible.
A salacious “Gravity is a b*tch”, uttered by a fellow runner, greets the first, steep uphill known as the escarpment. The race only started a few minutes ago; the anticipation, the jitters and tension, the excitement and fear giving way to focusing on breathing and not going out too fast. I stay well behind: I can actually see the sweep team not far behind me. But this w
I've wandered the Red Desert of Wyoming for decades now, first shown to me by my fishing/canoeing/hunting friend Ken. His father was the state geologist for Dept of Transport and knew all the good places. The Red desert is sometimes red but more often a sagebrush green and grey. This is the Great Divide Basin, where none of the precipitation drains into any ocean, directly or indirectly. The Continental Divide runs through the middle of the basin, which seems odd. Though it's a desert there is a
The last several years me and runners from our running group have been running Gilda's 5K which starts and finishes at the local High School. One of our group runner's employer was a sponsor the race, but they stopped being the sponsor and there was only a few people of our group running this year. But the race is for a good cause and gives me chance to test my speed.
My training this year has been pretty casual; earlier in the year I had bursitis in my foot and didn't run much. After
I’m having a hard time figuring out how to write this RR. I didn’t blog any training details beforehand.
Last year I did this exact race for my first 70.3. I trained well-ish. It was my first real foray into open water swimming. Turns out I’m a pretty okay swimmer. I spent a lot of time on the bike and got consistent with hitting 17-18 mph. Somewhere along the way I hurt my achilles/heel while running. I ran the race with an injured achilles and managed a 7th place in my AG while injured. 6
442 miles on the bike in August. Did long rides of 20, 30, 40 and 50 miles. 50 felt like it was enough. Don't know if I'll go farther than that, unless someone dares me or challenges me. I can never resist either of those. Except for doing a triathlon. Or bungy jumping.
As for running, I did all the simple exercises I found. Most of them I've done before from time to time. This time I was much more consistent. Wasn't until the end of 4 weeks that I stopped feeling the pain in the IT band an
Because it's done.
Met with the superstar marathoner guy as scheduled. Thought about editing the last entry to update. Then thought about adding another post about how it went. Considered saying a final goodbye to the Loop. Finally decided I needed more time to process things before I could put anything down.
Anyway, here we go.
The visit was a total disappointment. I won't say he just blew me off, but he sort of just blew me off. The basic message was, "You'll old now and have to
Yikes! Another two weeks slipping by without my noticing.
With some limited progress, and today I have the long anticipated appointment with the marathon running doctor. As time goes by, everything seems to be getting SLOWLY better anyway, so I'm now worried that there won't be enough pain for him to help me.
Two weeks ago I ran 2 miles twice.
Last week I ran 2 miles on Friday and 4 miles on Saturday. At 2-1/2 miles, I was able to feel the spot in the ITBand twinge a little. Made
I think it’s week 6. Or maybe week 5. Whatever week it is, the 5k is this Saturday and I have been diligently telling my husband that I am not running a marathon this weekend. There is a BIG difference between a 5k and a marathon. Please don’t be telling people that your wife and child are running a marathon this weekend. My body is definitely not marathon ready.
Last weekend we took 2nd place in the PHRF II fleet at the Whidbey Summer Classic Regatta. WSCR, pronounced “Whisker” bec
very late, race report..
In the old days (early 2000s) it used to take me 2 hours to get to the race site down in Pueblo CO. This year it took 1h 20min ? Well I'm getting faster at something anyway. The 2004 Ford Sport Trac is apparently quicker than the old 1990 Geo Metro used to be.
It's on the CSU campus, nice and quiet, up on a hill with a view across the plain to the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The hill is good for views, not so wonderful for running or biking back up at the end of e
I ran the Ragnar Michigan Trail Relay a couple of weeks ago; June 24-25 at the Hanson's Recreation Area near Grayling, Michigan. Things did not go as smoothly as we wished leading up to the relay as Kevin our captain had to drop out, and another runner had to drop out a few days before the relay due to an injury, Normally a Ragnar Trail relay team consists of 8 runners. Fortunately we were able to recruit another 2 runners; one from a Ragnar Michigan Facebook page and another that was frie
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