Keep Pressin' On!

More to Come

2011-02-21T16:21:00.001-05:00

Hey, check out some if the changes to come to this Blog.
- Health Related Websites you can trust.
- Health Recipe Websites.

Check back in the coming weeks to see the progress.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Why Running is Good for You

2011-02-08T11:14:00.002-05:00

The Following is an article posted on Runners World. You can access the original article by clicking on the follow link - It Is All Good.

In case you are wondering why I am posting this, well it is pretty simple, there are a few people out there who still think that running is not good for you. I was given a book a couple of months ago that stated the same thing, yet when ever all the evidence is looked at running is healthy, it is good for you, and most of us can do it. - George

The Article is Below:

It's All Good

More scientific proof that running keeps you healthy.

By Amy Rushlow

From the February 2011 issue of Runner's World

Scientists have discovered the fountain of youth—it's running. Studies continue to find that hitting the roads improves health and well-being. "The biggest benefits come from vigorous exercise like running," says JoAnn Manson, M.D., chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Here are the latest reasons to lace up.

LOOK AHEAD
People who run more than 35 miles a week are 54 percent less likely to suffer age-related vision loss than those who cover 10 miles a week.

KEEP THE BEAT
Runners who log a weekly run of 10 miles (or more) are 39 percent less likely to use high-blood-pressure meds and 34 percent less likely to need cholesterol meds compared with those who don't go farther than three miles.

FUNCTION WELL
Men who burn at least 3,000 calories per week (equal to about five hours of running) are 83 percent less likely to have severe erectile dysfunction.

BUILD BONE
Running strengthens bones better than other aerobic activities, say University of Missouri researchers who compared the bone density of runners and cyclists. Sixty-three percent of the cyclists had low density in their spine or hips; only 19 percent of runners did.

THINK FAST
British workers were surveyed on a day they worked out and a day they didn't. People said they made fewer mistakes, concentrated better, and were more productive on the day they were active.

STAY SHARP
A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reported that women who were active as teenagers were less likely to develop dementia later in life.

SLEEP TIGHT
Insomniacs fell asleep in 17 minutes on days they ran, compared to 38 minutes on days they didn't. They also slept for an extra hour on days they exercised.

SNEEZE LESS
People who exercise for an hour a day are 18 percent less likely to suffer upper-respiratory-tract infections than those who are inactive, according to a study from Sweden. Moderate activity boosts immunity.

BREATHE EASY
Researchers had asthmatics do two cardio workouts and one strength session a week. After three months, they reported less wheezing and shortness of breath.

LIVE LONGER
A review of 22 studies found that people who work out 2.5 hours a week are 19 percent less likely to die prematurely than those who don't exercise. A separate study found that active people have a 50 percent lower risk of premature death.

COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO EXERCISE AT LEAST 20 MINUTES 7 DAYS A WEEK HAVE HIGHER GPA'S THAN THOSE WHO ARE SEDENTARY.

The End of 2010!

2010-12-31T15:29:00.000-05:00

This year has flown by. It is hard to believe that it is New Years' Eve and that 2011 is almost here. I have not posted here nearly as much as I planned. But in I thought it still might be fun to post a little bit about the year, to remind me about some of the things that happened during 2010.

500 Festival Mini Marathon (13.1 Miles) - this was a mixed blessing for me this year. I went into feeling solid, but not very fast. I did not think the endurance would be a problem, but I was worried about my time. I normally shot for just under 2 hours, but this year I knew that was not realistic, I started thinking about 2:05.

The day of race was just about the worse weather I had ever had to race in. It was cold and windy. Most of the way out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) the wind was blowing in our face, constant wind was about 18 mph, while the gusts would hit 35 mph and occasionally higher. On the way back from the IMS the wind was at our back, but it never really pushed us and the one time I really felt it push me, I was so warn out that it did not give me a boost, it just made me cold.

I ended up running the worst Mini of my life, it was something like a 2:18, really I don't remember, I don't want to remember. Funny thing, as I have talked to people after the race, almost all of them have fallen into two categories, Personal Bests or Personal Worsts with the majority being a personal worst. I was able to run the whole race without walking, with the exception of walking through water breaks to make sure I got my liquid in me. The last mile, I cramped up pretty bad, but kept going. While in the line to get food and goodies, I almost hurled and would have, had it not been for the fact that there were so many people around me that I would have nailed a few people.

After the race, I planned on getting a massage at the massage tent, but it was so cold, there were no mylar blankets to be found, that I decided against it. I stopped by the Indiana Wesleyan University tent and headed to my traditional brunch at the Marriott, it was definately the best part of the morning!!

Some days you race, some days your run, and some days your just survive, This year the Mini was a survival run.

Sprint Triathlon (1000 meter swim, 10 Mile Bike, 3.1 Mile [5K] Run) As soon as I recovered from my mini experience, I started training for the tri. It was my first tri and I was not sure what to expect. I spent most of my time working on the swim, which I am horrible at, and the Bike, which I knew I was lacking in and needed the work on that.

Without getting into too much detail, the day of the race, was not good. I cramped during my swim and have to walk part of the way. I had to use the backstroke because I would go into O2 debt way to quick swimming freestyle. It was ugly.

The bike was not much better, my chain came off as soon as I started to ride, Had to stop and fix it. As I was leaving the transitional area, the leaders were coming in. The rest of the bike ride, I held my own, I was not passed and did pass one or two people. No help there!

The run, which should have been my strong suit, went like the rest of the day. I started out too fast and I ended up walking part of the way. I was tired and turned in my worst 5K ever.

Bottom line, I finished just under 2 hours after the start of the race. I managed to beat one relay team, but that was it and one person got a DNF. It was not my finest hour.

I learned a lot and will do a better job in my next tri, I think I should be able to knock a half hour off my time. I learned that the Triathlons draw a much higher quality of athlete. I will have to really improve to get my into the top half or 2/3s of those events like I normally do in the races I run.

Fall and Winter:
Life has been busy and stressful. Between being sick for a month and busy at work, I missed a lot of running this fall and winter. I skipped my traditional Thanksgiving day race, I was not even sure I could break 30 for a 5K. Figured it was not worth it if could not do that.

David with the CU Flag

I did get to go to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Nationals at Terra Haute - David, got to go with me and it was a hoot. It was real windy, but still a good time. My beloved CU Buffs had a mixed day, The CU Women finished 5th, but the men did not make the top 10. Thought it would be the other way around. Congratulations to the Women, Guys, better success next year!

I have been working out at Snap fitness, a circuit on the weights, 15 minutes on the dreadmill, running barefoot, and another 15 on the eliptical trainer. All in all, not a bad work out. I hope I can keep this going three - four days a week getting me ready to start training for my spring Half Marathon.

Future:
At this point, I don't have a lot of plans for next year. I have decided against running the Indy 500 Mini, I don't feel like jostling with 35,000 of my closets friends this spring. I am looking for another half about that time. Beyond that I don't know, I was planning another marathon this year, but there is some uncertainly in life as to whether I can commit to training for that. In addition, I want to do another triathlon, but the same is true.

If I can't train for a big race over the summer, I am going to work on getting my mile splits down. I want to do a mile in under 6:30 for one mile and I would like to break my 5K PR of 23:53 by at least 23 seconds. We will have to wait and see what the year does.

In the meantime:

Keep Pressin; On and have a Blessed New Year!

Reflections of the Marathon

2010-03-19T15:12:00.025-04:00

A Slide Show of Pictures from the Marathon!
(No Sound with it.)

It has been months (just over 5) since I ran my first marathon. I feel a little bad that I have not posted anything about the marathon to this blog. This blog was supposed to be my getting ready for the marathon and the marathon itself.

The main reason that have not posted anything before now, was this, I was embarrassed about my performance. I was dreaming about a 4:00 time, I was hoping for a 4:15, and I really thought I could get a 4:30. However, I finished a lot slower, my time was a disappointingly 5:19:49. Many have told me that I should not be upset because I finished and that was my biggest goal. I guess that I can find some solace in that. I know that I should be happy that I finished the race and in a real way I am, but the part of me that is a runner was disappointed. Oh, I had no delusion of qualifying for Boston, that is not in the cards right now, but I really thought I was capable of a better time.

There are a lot of reasons, why I did not do as well as I should have. I will list those at the end, for any who wish to read all of them - in the end, does not matter, I got what I got and on any given day, there are always problems that need to be overcome in order to have a good day. I think the thing that really bugs me is I wonder which of the next questions is true. Did I have a bad day? Am I just not as good of a runner as I think I am? I know, in the grand scheme of things it really does not matter, but it is one of this things that bothers me, I know I will never be a real good runner, but I want to be decent.

There were a couple of things that did come up that really did create problems for me. I hurt my right foot a week before the race. My foot started hurting bad at mile three and by mile eight it was mostly numb. Not a real comfortable way to run 18 more miles.

A Note About the Training Plan I used: (Marathoning for Mortals - by John "The Penguin" Bingham and Coach Jenny Hadfield) I will admit that at first I was skeptical about the plan, because although it had me run a lot, it also had me running slower because it was a heart rate based training plan. I have come to realize that without the slower running, I would never have had the ability to get through all the training and be able to get to the race doing most of the training runs (I only missed about three runs out of the approximately 110 runs.) and I would not have been nearly as healthy as I was. Although, I wonder if the slower running trained me to run slower all the time, I am pretty sure that without the slower running, I would have never made it to the starting line. I am happy that I followed the plan, I am using a slightly modified version of their plan for the Half Marathon I am doing in May. I am adding an interval run and a farklet run each week. I also up the mileage a little on the long runs, after the marathon, the mileage seemed kind of light. All in all, I have to say a big thank you to The Penguin and The Coach, I don't think I would have survived without them. I would recommend the book, there was a lot of good information in it.

As I look back at the marathon now, I am really glad that I did it. It is nice to have finished something that most people will never do. It did take discipline, it took effort, and it took perseverance. And while I did not have a great finishing time, I did not get a DNF, (Did not Finish) which a lot of people do get. (I may get one someday, but not yet.) I am already planning another Marathon, although it will be in 2011 or beyond. I don't think I can take the amount of time it takes to train this year. (I will be doing the Indy Half in May and I am planning a Triathlon this summer.) I am being a little more realistic next time, at this time my goal is to break 5 hours. I will do at least one more Marathon.

There were some funny things that happened along the way:

I ran my first 10K in 1:02:02 - which is my PR for the 10K, by about 4 minutes. (Former PR was at the Bolder Boulder at 6000 feet of elevation.)
I ran the half in 2:19:50 - (PR is 1:59:27) - if I could have kept that pace, I would have had a 4:40, even a 4:45 that would have been a lot easier to swallow.
I met some neat people along the way. One lady around mile 18, I passed her and I said, "Hi." A couple of minutes later, she caught me and said, "Talk to me, I need something to distract me." We just talked about our families and anything else we had the energy to talk about. We stayed together for about 10 minutes or so. Another lady, I met around mile 20, was raising support to be a missionary in Africa. That was fun, met her husband at the finish line.
About Mile 22 or so, I got the biggest craving for a coke I have ever had and it had to be a coke from a fountain. I was dying for it. A couple of miles later, I ran past a McDonald's and I was tempted to run over there and grab a coke. As bad as I wanted it, I knew that if I drank one then, I would have cramped up like crazy. After I finished, I did beg my wife to find the first place that we could to get me a Coke and it had to be Coke, on Pepsi.
I don't think that I will ever forget the words of the finish line announcer - "Finishing now, the pride of New Market, George Dosher!" It was cool to hear those words! It felt good!

Factors that Led to my Time Being so Much Slower than I Anticipated:

The pain in my right foot - hurting after 3 miles, numb after about 8 miles.
I was probably a little overly optimistic to start with also - I think 4:30 - 4:45 would have been more realistic - with that pace, I would have had more energy later in the race.
I was about 20 pounds over what I consider my ideal running weight. I like to be between 160 - 165, where I was about 185.
I was wearing new shoes, I had only had them for a week. I was not used to them, basically I was not comfortable in them and that hurt my confidence. (My old shoes had about 600 miles on them - so running in them was not a good option. I think the last run in the old shoes is what gave me the foot problems.) [Next time I mail order, I do it extra early]
It was a lot warmer than what I thought it would be that day. (52 degrees and breezy) I think I did not drink as much as I should have because I was used to running in low 40 degree weather and I did not drink as much in the cooler weather. I was soaking when I I finished. (To say nothing of the flakes of salt that was all over me.)
I started out to fast. I joined a 4:15 pace group, that was really a little faster than what I should have been doing. So, I started off faster than I should have and it hurt me later.
Once I knew that I was not going to meet any of my goals, I did not push myself, as a result. I am sure that hurt me a lot. There were times I walked just because I felt a little bad.

Still Going

2009-08-28T15:26:00.006-04:00

Keep Pressin' On lately has meant more about finishing my last Graduate Studies class than it has about training for the marathon. In reality, I have been doing both, but it seems that the homework, which was requiring at least one hour everyday and 3 - 4 hours 4 - 5 days a week. However, I think I have crossed that finish line. I won't celebrate too much until I get a response from my Prof's GA that he has the assignments in his e-mail in box. Don't worry, I have been getting my miles in every week. I am still getting 28 - 34 miles a week in.

I thought I would mention some little things that I have learned over the years to help me in my running. Some are weird, but still helpful.
- To dry out your running shoes that have gotten wet in the rain, try this: Place old fashion oatmeal in either some thin sock or some ankle length hose and tie the end. Shove the oat meal filled hose in the shoe, they will generally dry out in 12 - 18 hours. (I got mine soaked after the Bolder Boulder in a rain storm while waiting for the bus.)

- To keep your laundry loads smaller and keep my running clothes smelling good - err not so bad, try this: Shower in your running clothes and then hang them to dry. It rinses them out and the technical fabric dries quickly if you hang them up. Also, keeps the house, hotel room, or even dorm room from smelling as bad.

- To help keep your stomach from rumbling on runs, try this: Eat a couple of Tums before you run. If you do this, make sure you have a couple of drinks of water with it. Morning runs are normally on an empty stomach or sometimes with a cup of coffee in me. My stomach will often get upset with nothing in it. I don't want to eat because then I get sick unless I have about a two hour wait before I run. (Sorry, not getting up at 4:30 am for a 7:00 am.) Tums work well to settle the stomach and not make me sick. By the way, if I do have more than one cup of coffee, I will have 4 Tums instead of 2. Added Benefit - Can you say - "Extra Calcium?"!

- To help your mouth feel better on runs, try this: I start my run with a couple of mints in my mouth. The cool minty feeling makes me feel better. Also during a run, sometimes I will pop a mint mid run, the saliva helps me keep my mouth moist and keeps me from being as thirsty.

Some Things to Avoid:
- You don't need a sports drink after every run. Long ones great, but short ones, you are better off with water. Save the calories. Just because your burn 300 calories does not mean you get to replace it with 500 calories worth of Sports drink and power bars.

- Same thing with protein powder. I save it for after hard interval training and after my long runs. (By the way, I define long run - 8 miles and up. How you define it is up to you. I used to say 6 and up, but I sometimes do 6 miles on a regular day.)

I know, some or even all of these are weird, stupid, or common sense, but I do use them and I know it helps me when I do and hurts me when I don't. Try them, you may like them.

Eating on Plan

2009-07-09T10:49:00.002-04:00

I got on the scales after the finishing week two of marathon training. I thought surely I had lost some weight. Nope, still heavier than I want to be and that after 2 weeks of 25+ miles of running.

Some people think that if you run, you can eat anything you want and you will still loose weight. The truth is, that although running burns calories, if you take in more than you burn, you still gain weight. 3500 calories make a pound. If you take in 3500 more than you burn, then you are going to gain a pound. If you burn 3500 more calories than you take in, then you loose a pound. According to my Garmin Forerunner - I burned 3909 calories last week. Yet, I am pretty sure that because I was extra hungry, from all the running that I was eating more. Most of the time I was eating good food, but even apples and bananas have calories.

If you are taking up running just to loose weight, make sure you keep a good eye on what you eat. Remember, good foods fuel you better than junk food. Treats are okay every once in a while, but ice cream once a month is fine. Ice cream 3Xs a week, well, probably a little too much!

Good luck and happy running!

Keep Pressin' On!

Reflections on Week 1 of Marathon Training

2009-06-29T21:34:00.009-04:00

Saturday (6/27) was the end of week one of Marathon training. It was quite a week.

I ended up with a total of 25.25 miles for the week! It was a big jump over what I had been doing of late. Even at the peak of my training for the Bolder Boulder 10K, I was not doing that many miles.

Also, it was a hot week - several of the runs were in the high 70s with humidity in the 90s, with heat index's in the high 80's and 90's.

Between the increased mileage and the high temps, I should have died, at the very least been injured. Instead I felt great at the end of the week. I think I am really becoming a believer in this heart rate training method. The basics of it is that most of my runs are at anywhere between 70% to 75% of my max heart rate. The result of that was that I had to slow down for what I normally did and I was not all that tired at the end of the runs and I after a brief rest and a drink, I normally felt like I could be ready to head out for another run.

Granted, my speeds were slower, but although I have questions about if this will help me be as fast as I want for the marathon, I do believe that it help me to finish the marathon. Really, I think after another week or two, I would be ready to a run a half marathon.

By The Way - it is official - I am registered for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon - Nov. 7th - 2009. Anyone Care to Join Me!

Marathon Training - The Beginning

2009-06-22T11:59:00.002-04:00

Today was day 1 of training for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, which will be ran on November 7. That's right, Nov. 7 and it is June 29th and time for training. Wow, it seems wild to me to be starting this far out, but according to the book it is time.

I am using the book "Marathoning for Mortals" by John "The Penguin" Bingham and and Coach Jenny Hadfield. I have only read about half of it so far, but plan to finish it in the next week or so. I like the book, they have geared the book and the training for non-elites, which certainly includes me.

The plan most days calls for so many minutes of running and to run most of them slow. One of the ways they recommend running is with a heart rate monitor. Since I have one, I decided to follow that plan.

Today was a 40 min run at 65-75% of my max heart rate, which means I had to keep it below 138 bpm. I had to run real slow to do that. I think I normally average about 160 bpm. In a way, I was very bored and I began thinking I don't know that I can do this. However, when I finished the run, I felt great! I almost think I could have done the run again, I felt so good. Then I started to think, hey, I have a lot of running to do (6 days a week), if I am doing a bunch of this slow, it will strengthen me and not wear me out. Of course there are days that I am running at greater intensity and longer distances. This week's long run is 5 miles. The longest is 20 miles about 3 weeks before the marathon.

Right now, I am feeling pretty good about it, the lenght of time and number of days on one hand seem overwhelming. Yet on the other hand, if most of the days are at this percentage, then I think it will be much more doable.

On Saturday, Michelle and I joined a new health club in town. I am heading over there tonight to have my training session with a trainer to teach me the equipment. I was a little worried about being able to work out on weights after my run, but since I feel like I could do another run right now, I don't think it will really be a problem.

Day 1 of Training - 138 days to the race!

Keep Pressing On!
George

Warm Ups

2009-02-13T16:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the first edition of Keep Pressin' On. I have been toying with the idea of blogging for sometime now. In reality, I wanted to add this to New Market Christian Church's web page, but I have not been able to accomplish that yet. It may happen someday but for now, this is where I am blogging.

I hope that this blog will be informative and useful to others. I hope it will be a resource for others. Mostly I hope it will be an encouragement to people and will glorify God.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I will see you in the future!

Keep Pressin' On!
George