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.

I’ve never seen any of the USA above Denver (besides Seattle) so while I was homeless the last few weeks I drove up to Missoula Montana and went through Grand Teton national park and Yellowstone on the way up, and highway all the way down through Wyoming. It was a a great road trip with some awesome landscapes that change quite a bit over the drive. It is always nice to know how quickly you can drive to Canada and Mexico if the need presents itself.

Yellowstone was an odd place with water bubbling up and just looked like what you would imagine biblical drawings of hell to look like, plus it smelled of sulfur. I read a Bill Bryson book a few months ago and he had a great story about some of the employees tat Yellowstone, it seems that some of the hot ponds are about as warm as a hot tub and even though it is not allowed some employees go to them at night, one night they jumped into the wrong one after drinking and it was way way too hot and boiled them alive. Crazy.

I really liked Missoula, it reminds me of Fayetteville in a lot of ways. They even have bumper stickers that say “Keep Missoula Weird” which is the slogan Fayetteville uses as well (I think we all stole it from Austin Texas). They had awesome running trails and since I was not at high altitude I had some really nice long runs. The third day I headed out on their trails and had gone about 4 miles out when this giant giant wind started going through the trees, at first it was pretty but then it didn’t stop and kept getting louder and louder, I actually had to jump off the trail behind a sturdy tree as branches started flying off the trees and a few trees actually fell over! I thought I was about to get sucked up into a vortex of wind, some type of flash tornado or something when it finally settled down only to start raining cold splats of water, I took off sprinting back to town but still ended up getting soaked and luckily there wasn’t any lightening or I would have gotten very cold cowering in a ditch covered in icy water. Bad planning on my part but a fun adventure, and at least I didn’t get chased/eaten by a bear.

I don’t think there are daytime speed limits on highways in Montana is another reason to visit.

If you are in Missoula I highly recommend the running trails (even if you walk them), Indulge Bakery as it was delicious and I learned what huckle berries are their constant struggle to collect them while fighting against the bear army, and Kettle House Brewery as I actually liked their Cold Smoke Scotch Ale.

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.

I’m hanging out in Washington D.C. and visiting Iris, although she had to split a few days after I got here for a trip she had planned. She has an awesome apartment in a great area so its been nice to have that all to myself. The weather has been amazing, 60 to 80 degrees and sunny or just a little overcast.

Out of all the cities I’ve been too here are the best running cities…

1. Washington D.C. – Awesome trails all over and off the roads. I love that they have hiking all over the middle of the city and parks. Or at least where Iris lives.

2. Fayetteville AR – Only because the new bike trail.

3. Denver CO – Since I leave near the park, although I need to try out their long bike trail but I’ll have to drive to get near it. I’ll reeval once I start driving to go trail running this summer and Fall too.

4. Dublin Ireland – Mostly doesn’t have good areas but Rose leaves near a really great park with a nice long running trail around and through it. Seems to really depend on your area.

5. Boca Raton FL – Not that great, everything is near the road and side walks are many times broken with little or no warning.

Not mentioned as they don’t really have people who run due to pollution and donkey traffic, Egypt.

I was able to shave a little over six minutes off my previous half marathon time, I’m pretty happy with that plus I felt a lot better. My legs didn’t hurt or tense up and I could have pushed a lot harder and probably done under eight minutes on my eight through eleventh miles. So my time for the 13 miles was 1.43.41.

My Mile Pace:
1 – 7:58
2- 7:44
3- 7:34
4- 7:34
5 – 7:39
6- 7:53
7 – 7:55
8 – 8:02
9 – 8:06
10 – 8:19
11 – 8:26
12 – 7:57
13 – 8:27

Woo! I tried out the new Fayetteville bike trails and they are just awesome, I was so motivated I ended up running a full half marathon today which is a first for me! I kept my target marathon pace and none of the injuries from about two weeks ago came up. Been icing like crazy the last week so I think that and the rest really helped.

Here are the details from my Suunto T6 watch:

13.11 Miles

1 Hour 50 Minutues

Max Heart Rate 171

Average Heart Rate 154

Average Speed 7.2 MPG

EPOC Peak 123 ml/kg

Altitude Range 954 ft to 1164ft

1536 Calories Burned

Temp 71F to 86F

Ventilation 130 l/min

Oxygen cons. 39 ml/kg/min

Respiration Rate 38 bpm

Hopefully I don’t collapse shortly, I felt pretty good until the last two or three miles and those were a lot harder.

Here Is my mile pace:

1 – 8:16
2 – 7:31
3 – 7:33
4 – 7:40
5 – 7:54
6 – 8:15
7 – 8:44
8 – 8:24
9 – 8:31
10 – 8:40
11 – 8:54
12 – 9:04
13 – 9:18

Ever since I got back from Egypt I have been getting injury after annoying injury. In Egypt I was running around 10 miles every other day as planning to run a Marathon at the end of October in Dublin. I won’t be able too now as I haven’t been able to run in a few months really because of injuries. I wouldn’t consider myself injury prone but since I’ve got back they have been hitting me non stop!

First, I play an ultimate tournament the first weekend I get back and pull a hamstring on Saturday. Not a bad pull but the next day I snap the other hamstring to where I hear it make that POP noise. I try jogging the next day and it snaps again during a very slow warm up. I rest it for a week, ice it every day, and it slowly gets better but I still can’t sprint without hurting it. Ends up taking around four weeks until I can really start pushing it and sprinting slightly. During this time I have to sit and watch two ultimate tournaments which is the worst.

Then, for the first practice I can finally sprint on it without a wrap and feel almost 100% I run into someone at practice. That usually doesn’t hurt but somehow my fist gets caught between us, all the pressure hits my chest causing the cartilage connecting my sternum to my rib cage to rip. Incredibly painful and I’m told not to do anything for four to six weeks besides high doses of anti inflammatories and vicodin. This stops me from running for about three weeks but I can’t wait longer or I’ll go crazy as running keeps me sane. I run and my hamstring is all better due to all the (insert expletive) rest. So a month later the chest is getting better, I’m back to running, and besides some tenderness and problems throwing and catching I’m mending without any terrible pain.

So yesterday I’m running and jump over a concrete wall to get off a parking platform onto the grass, the drop is a bit more than I estimated and I turn to grab myself to lower myself down. Bad move as the wall is rounded, I can’t grip, and my hand grates against rough rough concrete. My main throwing finger for ultimate basically gets mangled and I run home holding a big piece of skin with blood draining out of my clinched hand along the street. Its not too bad but a huge chunk of my throwing finger is gone and I got very frustrated at practice today as I can’t throw anything without ripping more of it off. And sectionals is this weekend. ( Insert expletive sigh.)

So all that fraking sucks. Frak being a cuss word from Battlestar Galatica and totally family safe (for more info on FRAK click here).