I’ve been wanting to do one of the Camino Pilgrimage routes for a long time and finally made some time :). I’m doing the Via de la Plata route from Seville to Santiago (mostly along an old roman road = awesome).

I really really wanted to run it every day, but after spending 3 hours until 2am trying to pack everything into a 1,000 cubic inch backpack (suunto 14l skin pro) I just couldn’t make it work. Plus since I need to bring a laptop and combined with other gear it was going to be heavy combined with water. So after a mere 4 hours of sleep I switched gears into a small day bag and planning to walk the trip. The big problem was trying to plan for winter gear, as its 70f to 80f at the start, but up north it should be really cold and rainy…. Although we will see if that is really true… as after day 1 of the trip I think I could have done it. I also am not in great running shape and can run 10 to 15 miles pretty easily but doing that day after day would cripple me + I have to carry enough to stay warm when I switch to walking. Anyway….

I arrived in Seville on October 10th, bought my sim cards for being on emergency call + 3g, and found a cheap swiss army knife for food/wine, and the next day took a bus North to Caceres so I could start from there. Why? I just didn’t have enough days off to do the complete journey, I’m taking 10 days off work, but then the normal calls and work start :).

So what did I bring?
– 3 pair wool socks
– 3 pair underwear
– 1 pair thermal running tights
– 1 pair thermal long sleve shirt
– 3 t shirts (2 synth / one cotten)
– 2 pair of shorts
– 1 pair jeans
– 1 macbook air 11in
– 3g modem
– iphone
– kindle
– Suunto gps watch
– bathroom goods + micro fiber towel.
– rain cover for bag + a few micro dry bags
– smart wool running hoodie
– wind proof warmth hoodie
– gore tex rain jacket
– gore tex rain pants
– room for food / side pockets for carrying 1.5L on either side.
– sunglasses / cords / water proof stuff for laptops.

I’ve got one walking / running outfit which I wash every night, we will see how that goes :).

I stupidly brought my fav laptop backpack, and its not a good hiking bag maybe… Hopefully the bruises / blood heal quick on my back/shoulders. I say stupid as I have about 15 different bags for the different adventures I imagine myself having back at home.

Fantastic trail running in Split at Marian hill and just loving it. I highly recommend a visit to Croatia and nearby Belgrade :). I can’t wait to come back!

I am amazed with all the green space in Hong Kong once you get out of the city! Some really good trail running here as long as you are ok with some vertical running or a short bus ride. Pollution doesn’t seem too bad or anything either.

Fun hike along the “Dragon’s Back” today and just a little bit of rain at the end…

Short Story…
In late October 2011 I was having some pain after running and it wouldn’t go away, pretty sharp pain in the top of my lower back and deep in either ass cheek. I ended up taking a pretty light month in November running but it wouldn’t go away and turned more dull. I did a few sessions with a Chiropractor that helped but didn’t make time to see a doctor as I was heading to Central/South America. Plus I figured I could just run through it combined with rehab exercises and stretching. And it turned into a pretty solid 24/7 dull pain with spikes of further pain from time to time.

I took January 2012 off to just give it a rest since I believed at that point that inflammation was pinching my sciatic nerve. It got better but not great, and I was back to running in Feb and just trying to live with it. I never really thought about seeing a doc in south america as my spanish sucks, and plus the wine in Argentina is AMAZING. And then I got to Australia and had gotten used to it.

So what the hell caused it?
I went through a lot of testing but I’m 90% sure at this point it was due to a change in my work environment. My normal work environment is a standing desk + a HM chair I’ve had for 5+ years. But with me going abroad for a few years I had moved that into storage and had been sitting in a broken chair which was pulling a lot of muscles off + I was now staring down at the laptop screen (pulling all my neck and back muscles up). And then while traveling I never had my screen even with my eyes until mid way through Australia. And I just kept inflaming the same muscles and never game them time to heal (16+ hour flights don’t help).

Summary: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid (don’t do this).

What I noticed about 24/7 dull pain:
– It turns me into even more of an asshole. For the first 4 to 6 months of it you get really frustrated since its preventing you from running and other sports. And it makes you cranky and you lash out way quicker.
– You get used to it, after 6 months its just there. That is nice since as you get old you will only be an asshole if you really are one or for short bursts as you get used to increased pain levels. So that is nice to know.
– Ibuprofen is an amazing drug.

I woke up a few days ago and the pain is a mere 1% to 5% of what it once was, which is awesome. I attribute this to a better work environment the last few months + a foam roller + a lacrosse ball. And maybe a little magic?

And of course I made a doctor appointment now with a sports doctor now that the pain is so much better. I just forgot before :).

PS. I’m sure I will look back on this post when I’m old and laugh my ass off thinking I even knew what chronic pain was like. If I make it that long. My brother tells me its cancer, and he is almost a doctor.

I sweat like a mad man and I’ve destroyed about 3 pairs of iPhone type running headphones. I finally ended up with a pair of Yurbuds Inspire Ironman Series Earbuds about 6 months ago and highly recommend them. No problems with sweat, rain, etc.

Notes:
– The weird twist lock in your ear thing is actually comfortable and stays in perfectly. I haven’t had them fall out a single time.
– Sound is very good plus they have opening so you get in some of the surrounding sound in case you want to avoid cars and bikers.
– Mic is great too in case you need to record a note to yourself while on a run (I run with an ipod shuffle unless I’m on trails)
– Easy to skip songs and adjust volume off the little clicker near the y split too.

Highly recommended!

I run a fair amount and over the last couple years I’ve bought a wide variety of socks from SockGeek, running stores, Zappos, etc in an effort to find a good pair that will last.

I am ready to crown a king! The Darn Tough Run – Merino Wool No-Show Cushion are the winners by a long shot. I first bought 3 pairs of these back in 2009 and they are still freaking awesome, not a single won has worn out or anything. They are great for trail running, street running, normal wear, cold and hot weather, and they never smell. Crowned!

2012 was a decent year for running. With all my travels I didn’t run as much as I wanted and my long runs went into a decline. I took January off to nurse an unrelated injury (sciatica from a bad work chair incident in late 2011 – me being stupid), plus I was in Cusco Peru at 12,000 feet altitude and missing my dear friend oxygen.

For 2012 I ran 780 miles in 122 hours, my second best recorded year. My longest run was 23 miles on Easter Island, and my best month was March in Buenos Aires where I ran 123 miles (awesome trail running park near my apartment). I’ve slowly been building my runs back up over the year in Australia…

For 2013 I want to beat my 2011 record year (1,198 Miles). I’d like to get my monthly miles above 100 miles each month and do at least one 20+ mile long run monthly. My time in Australia is up May 30th and I would like to do some running tourism in Greece, Romania, and other countries. One of my 2013 goals is to be active a minimum of an hour a day so that will help get me out of the house and off my butt.

Holy Pollution! Santiago Chile is a mess, went for a run for what is my 2nd day here and I had to stare at my feet as I ran because you can see the smog just looking down the road a mere 15 feet. The only place I’ve ever seen this bad was Cairo Egypt. The city is surrounded by snow capped moutains and I can barely see them over the dirty smog covered film, it’s gross.

Back in 2008, experts measured the airborne particulates in the city at 444 micrograms/cubic meter while the normal should not go beyond 50. Santiago is also unfortunate to have high ground-level ozone based on WHO studies.

From this link.

Guess I’m going to have to find a gym to run in for the month of May while I’m here.

They have a pretty good running path although surrounded by 6 lane traffic. Better than most cities but still sucks, the pollution is out of control. Hopefully they can pull a Bangkok and fix pollution as quickly as possible.

This year was a great year for running goals! I ran two marathons on my own before getting injured due to changing my desk/chair setup and needing to take a long break. I basically got sciatic and learned to do some better core stretches. I’m rebuilding now and hope to get back up to speed soon.

For 2011 I ran 1,198 miles in a total of 175 hours. Which breaks down to 8 minute 46 second miles.

For 2012 I’m going to be traveling a lot through May so it’s going to be hard to do a lot of running, especially in South America where there are not great trail runs in cities. So I’m going to take it slow and try to rebuild up to about 100 miles a month and I hope to get up to marathon length again by the end of the year. And depending on how things go maybe an ultra at some point if I’m feeling great!

I ran my first marathon today! 26.2 miles! I was planning to run 22 to 23 miles, but felt good around 21 and decided to just go for it. I think I can go a lot faster as my last 6 miles were all under 8 minute miles as I figured out I had to start moving if I wanted to finish in under 4 hours.

Running conditions

1. No sleep – I had a green tea and coffee yesterday so I couldn’t sleep. I gave up at 7am and just got up.

2. Carrying 3 liters of water, pair of socks, gels, salt pills.

I started at 9.35am and finished at 1.29pm. Temp wasn’t bad like 85 to 80 most of race as I picked a path that is 70% on trails surrounded by woods. Some hills.

Totals and cool stats…

Length: 26.2 Miles
Time: 3 Hours 54 Mintes
Average Heart Rate: 146
Calories: 3,155 kCal
VO2: 53ml/kg/min
EPOC Peak: 92.9
Respiration Rate: 37 bpm
Altitude: 1,243 ASC, 1,374 DSC
Max Speed: 8.83 mph
Avg Speed: 6.70 mph
Peak heart rate, 192, but I think that was a fluke reading.

I have no idea what VO2/EPOC and some of that is.

Splits…

Mile 1: 8.52
Mile 2: 8.18
Mile 3: 8.41
Mile 4: 9.12
Mile 5: 9.17
Mile 6: 9.44
Mile 7: 11.59
Mile 8: 9.06
Mile 9: 9.18
Mile 10: 8.51
Mile 11: 9.10
Mile 12: 11.50
Mile 13: 9.38
Mile 14: 9.00
Mile 15: 8.46
Mile 16: 9.07
Mile 17: 10.48
Mile 18: 8.10
Mile 19. 8.30
Mile 20: 8.49
Mile 21: 7.45
Mile 22: 7.35
Mile 23: 7.47
Mile 24: 7.34
Mile 25: 7.42
Mile 26: 7.17
Last .2: 1.34

You can definitely see the water breaks to refill my giant water backpack, or change socks. Plus when I figured out at Mile 21 that I had to book if I wanted to stay under 4 hours.

Fun!

April was a great running month! I’ve been slowly increasing my workouts as I train for a marathon (and just longer runs in general) and I ran 112 miles in April even though I was on vacation from the 19th to 30th.

Stats And Averages
My longest run in April was 16 miles, which is the longest I’ve ever run. My fastest mile during the month was 6 minutes 7 seconds during a speed workout. So my average speed per mile was 8 minutes 25 seconds.

So I got to Frankfurt Germany yesterday and made it to Europa Park by about 2pm. Yes, the work conference is at a theme park. And of course with it being Sunday there was no food easily accessible. So being super tired and jet lagged I crashed with no food. I slept around 10 hours and read for a while before departing for German breakfast…

So why do I love Germany so much? German breakfast is fucking awesome. And what is even more awesome, they literally were serving the same breakfast rolls I had when I was in high school on a trip to Berlin and my host mom served breakfast (which I love (they are so good)). Here is what I ate for breakfast:

Coffee (rare for me but jet lag)
1 Breakfast Roll
1 Wheat Breakfast Roll
1 Whole Wheat or something slice of German Bread
1 Piece Bacon
1 Piece Wurst
1 Piece Random Pig Something
1 Egg
1 Random thinly sliced pig something.
1 Another random thinly sliced pig something (also delicious)
1 piece Swiss cheese.
1 glob of 3 fruit jam.
1 glob of real butter.
2 pieces of Bree cheese.
Apricot Yogurt
Raisins
Fruit Salad that had MANGOs!!!!
And, 1 of the most delicious cinnamon bread hunks I’ve ever had.

I can’t wait for breakfast tomorrow, because there is even more to try.

So after I ate this awesome breakfast I accidentally invaded Poland, I just couldn’t help it, I had so much energy and I just accidentally took it over. Oh well. If anything the Versailles treaty should have limited the awesomeness of the German breakfast, no way would WW2 have started.

And later I ran 15 miles, longest yet! Awesome trails through this area and got to see a lot of the surrounding country side. And made it to some small town that had a cool church.

I spent Thursday to Sunday in Miami on South Beach and had a great time, the conference was well done and they had some great speakers! I was also impressed with South Beach, although not that I could ever live there. Unless I get an operation that infuses me with three popped collars, hair gel, fist pumping, non stop base thumping, and general douchery. I should note it did have great beaches and lots of normal people.

It also made me realize I am super burned out and need a vacation to let my mind rest. I ended up skipping the conference parties just because I needed too and catching up on reading and just nothingness. The weather was amazing, a solid 80 degrees and a gorgeous boardwalk to run on. I ran on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I did my longest run in a while with 12 miles. I’m doing a marathon training schedule Apey gave me, and going to see about a marathon later this summer I think.

Oh and Cuban food and coffee is awesome. I already knew this from my time living in Boca Raton, but I really miss cheap delicious Cuban food…

I read 4 books and I highly recommend this book that talks about factory girls in China and was just an amazing story (and very well written). Talk about hustlers, I can’t wait to see what those girls do over the next 40 years with their kids and careers. I can’t imagine leaving town at 16 to get a job and navigate such a crazy world, what an adventure!

Please pardon any spelling mistakes, I’m super tired. I’ve actually been getting up while I was there at 7am or 8am to run in the mornings or for the conference.

Over the last few weeks I’ve have had a blast, I played Fright Flight with Liquor and Cleats, went to the Rally To Restore Sanity, and then played Harvest with our college alumni team back in Fayetteville. Liquor and Cleats got second at Fright Flight and our Alumni team lost in semis at Harvest, but we did win the spirit disc (and both were costume tournaments with great people which are always fun). Fright Flight is one of the funniest tournaments I’ve played in and I’m really looking forward to playing Paga in Italy again this year.

Some pictures of the DC rally below:

Just got back from trying the Bergen Peak trail run. It was really good although I’m not used to the elevation gain during the initial part of the run. The trail was low on rocks for the most part and pretty soft on the feet, the backside still had snow on it though but walked a good chunk of that. Ended up running the first three miles which was a ton of elevation gain, walking a mile, then running another 3, walking a mile, and running the last half mile. Good little run especially when it warms up, and there are some trails in the plains below it if I had wanted to extend the run by 3 to 4 miles.

Working on getting my runs back up to an hour as winter always drags me down to only 40 to 50 min. Running on a treadmill just sucks for any longer then that.

Some good info on this trail below:
– Map, Review, and pictures!
– Info and Driving Directions. It’s past lakewood after I70 and not too far from Denver.