The Magic of the Ace Bandage…

With my hamstring still bothering me, I gave some consideration to skipping my workouts today to give it a bit of a rest. On the schedule was a 50 minute run and a 35 minute bike ride. I really did not want to skip the workout if at all possible, but at the same time I really want my leg to heal properly.

So, I decided I would pull out one of my old tricks that I used to use when I first started running. See, back then I went through the first 6 to 9 months of tight muscles all over my legs. One week it would be hamstrings, the next week it would be the right knee then the left knee, and on and on. I have always had a “rule” for myself that if I start running and had planned on going 5 miles, then no matter what I would RUN 5 miles. Many times during the initial “break in” period of my running, I would have to hubble-run just to get the stated miles in. I know, I know, not the smartest thing to do but it was important to me not to allow my mind to stop me – no matter what.

After I would have an injury/tightness, I would get home and jump onto the Internet to see what I should do to make things better. Well, every freakin time the advice would be to REST the legs for a few weeks to allow them to heal. No WAY, if I did that every time I would never have been able to run.

So, instead I bought myself a trusty old Ace Bandage. I would compression wrap my injury and off I’d go on my run. Sometimes, I’d actually have to “limp run” until my injury loosened up a bit to allow me to actually run (can you tell that I’m a bit stubborn?).

Today I just wrapped up the hamstring and on the treadmill I went. The leg felt great with no pain – plus after the run/bike it feels a bit better than before.

So, forget the see the doctor in the morning story – just purchase one of those trusty old Ace Bandages…

Just ran my 10k PR, now I can hardly walk…

So, how is it that each time I run a 5k or a 10k – the next week I have a tough time just walking around? Sore calves or hamstrings or both – what’s up with that??

Could it be that I ran most of the race over my “projected” Maximum Heart rate? So, according to the experts – my so call estimated maximum heart rate should be 220 bpm minus my age. Well, I’ll be 43 tomorrow, so yesterday I would have been 42.999 – which would make my maximum heart rate 177.001.

Towards the end of my race, I checked the Garmin and sure enough my heart rate was 182 bpm. So, I’m thinking – is my possible death worth my 10k PR – well, I didn’t slow down so I guess it was!

But anyway, my left hamstring is now all messed up with bandages and heat pads – my calf’s are a bit sore and it looks like I’m about twice my age with the way I’m walking around.

Tomorrow is my day off but guess what I’ll be doing on Sunday – ya that’s right – I’ll be back on the “horse” hobbling through my run and bike workout. I’ve learned with age that if you let the little pains here and there stop you from your workout – well you might as well just order that scooter.

The joy’s of old age…

Oldest Mini Team BRAZO brings home the SILVER…

2007 Berbee Derby Awards - 10K
MALE AGE GROUP: 1 – 14

1 GERALD LUEBKE OREGON WI 45:26 7:19
2 ALEX MEYER STOUGHTON WI 50:07 8:04
3 IAN BUSH BUFFALO GROVE IL 50:57 8:12


Today, Oldest Mini Team BRAZO and myself ran in our 2nd annual Thanksgiving day Berbee Derby in Madison. The evening before the area got around 2-3 inches of snow, but most of that snow was off of the roads. We did have some of the run paths with a layer of ice in the middle of the trail.

The temps that morning were in the mid 20’s, so we got to the race about 15 minutes before the start and then sat in the car until about 5 minutes before in order to stay warm. We made our way to the start and heard from the announcer that the field today was 4000 runners in both the 10k and the 5k. This year, Oldest Mini Team BRAZO decided he’d run the 10k with Dad – his first 10k.

Our goal was to run even splits of 8 minute miles – that would give me my PR for the 10k. My PR coming into the race was 49:51 which I had run a few years back. We started off in the pack of runners and weaved our way through the slower runners and tried to keep our pace. We hit the first mile marker at just about exactly 8 minutes – right on pace. The next couple of miles went very smooth with both Oldest Mini Team BRAZO and myself not having much problems. We passed the 4 mile mark right on time – a bit below 32 minutes.

At this point Oldest Mini Team BRAZO was having problems with his calf’s tightening up, so he decided to slow the pace just a bit. I continued on at the 8 minute mile pace and made it to mile 5 at again right on pace at 40 minutes. About 4.5 miles, my left hamstring started to tighten up and give me problems. I was a bit worried that this would slow me down but after a bit, I noticed that my heart rate was 180+ so any slowing down would have nothing to do with my hamstring.

I passed mile 5 and we hit a stretch of the race that you pass the runners behind you – I turned the corner and ran just a bit and there was Oldest Mini Team BRAZO not too far behind me. That was AWESOME, I had figured he might have to really slow the pace with his calf’s, plus he no longer had me pacing him.

I get to the last hill before the downhill finish and I’m at the end of my rope. I do everything in my power to keep that 8 minute mile pace going even though my body said to SLOW DOWN. I just kept telling myself that I had my PR if I just kept running hard and I worked so hard during the first 5 miles to give up at this point.

I ran hard through the finish and ended up with a 49:08 (7:55 miles) – which was 43 seconds faster than ever before. I waited in the finish chute and about a minute later Oldest Mini Team BRAZO came running through – he had a GREAT 10k run with a time of 50:07 (8:04 miles) and a 2nd PLACE FINISH in his age group!!!!

Great day…

Historical Run…

Today Mrs. Team BRAZO, oldest Mini Team BRAZO, and myself went on a historical run through the cobblestone streets of Nantucket.



The first place we ran past was the oldest house on the Island – built in 1686 as a wedding present for Jethro Coffin and Mary Gardner – the house is known as Jethro Coffin House. Very large fireplace in the living area allowed for the family to cook their meals.

The next place that we ran past was the Quaker Meeting house. The meeting house was actually built in 1838 but the meetings of the Quakers began in 1701. The funny thing with the Quakers of Nantucket was the fact that when they first started out, the idea was to be able to “pray to god” without the need of the organized/costly/all encompassing religion. So, they would just meet once a month to give each other support. Well, over the years the Quaker’s split into three (3) different organizations because the leaders were not happy that the members did not show up to meeting enough, that the members did not donate enough, and on and on…back to the same problems they had with organized religion.

In between these places we ran past some of the 800 homes listed as National Historic Landmarks – great places.

One issue we had with the island homes compared to other towns that we have visited such as Annapolis, MD – Charleston, SC – is that the island of Nantucket requires that all the homes be painted one of 12 colors only. This sounds good, but it takes the character out of the old homes.

One nice part was the fact that the town does not allow for the “tearing down” of old homes and then building new homes in their place. Instead what you see around town is contractors lifting homes off of the old foundations, digging out the dirt, putting in a new foundation, and then putting the house back down on the new foundation. Now that is refreshing to see compared to the tear-em down and build up a new house.

At a clothing shop we saw a shirt that said “Turn Left at the GREY house with the WHITE trim…” – sufficed to say, that was just about every house.

Nice 4 mile run…

Ok, that was totally unfair…

So, tonight after dinner oldest Mini Team BRAZO and myself decide to go for a nice little run around the town of Nantucket. This is a bit dangerous at night, not because of the criminals, but because of the cobblestone roads.

We decide to loop around the downtown area just imagining Benjamin Franklin running through these same streets centuries ago – well, alright, maybe not Ben – he might not have been into the fitness craze at the time.

So, what is the un-fair part – well, it is the fact that oldest Mini Team BRAZO just finished up with his cross-country season and is lightening fast compared to Dad. I spent the whole time just trying to keep my legs moving as fast as I could to keep up – then when we hit the down hills – it was virtually impossible to keep up. My only hope was to tire him out, but that did not work.

He forgot that I have 28 more years on these old legs then he has on his. This was the first time I was able to run with oldest Mini Team BRAZO since he started cross country and it was awesome. Very, very fun to run with him when he is in such great shape.

Looking forward to the next run with oldest Mini Team BRAZO…

How do you run on these streets...

Today we made our way via ferry to the island of Nantucket to spend the week. I knew that the streets in town where made of cobblestone, but I did not realize how hard it is to walk on these streets - much less run on them.

I haven't had a chance to run yet, but I'm not looking forward to the cobblestones -- but I am looking forward to running through all this history -- won't even feel like running, just fun!!

Vacations = ability to run in cool locations…

So, I love my vacations with the family and just the time getting out of Madison for a week. One other item that I love to do on the vacations is to run in the cities and places that we end up in. In the last three (3) years I have run:

n Along the boardwalk in South Beach

n Downtown Key West

n Along the beach in Naples, Florida

n Along the beach in Gulf Shores, AL

n Through the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD

n Along the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD

n Through the awesome homes in Cape May, NJ

n Through the streets of St. Louis, MO

n Through the retirement homes in Mesa, AZ

n And a few other great locations….


How fun is that – what a great way to see the places that we visit on our vacations.

So, this week we are on the East Coast (NY, CT, RI, and MA) and I plan on adding a few more awesome locations to the list.

Stay tuned…

High School Cross Country…Again

Today was my son’s home cross country meet. My son is a freshman and runs on the JV team and just has a blast (not running, but hanging with the guys and gals). So, after they had run the boys and girls races – they had a 5k race that anyone could participate in – coaches, fans, parents, ex-students, etc. I had seen this being done at a meet earlier this year, but I was one week out from the IronMan at the time and I could not take the chance of injury or going too hard, so I had to pass on that one.

This time my son did not know if they were going to have an “Open” race after the meet or not, so I didn’t bring my running gear with me. As the last runner in the boy’s Varsity race came to the finish line, we started to walk over to gather up my son and head off for some mountain bike riding. On the way, we notice that indeed they were having a 5k Open race and it was about to start. So, off goes the sweat pants and off to the starting line. The participants at the starting line included recent high school grads, some of the High School Cross Country coaches (btw: my son’s coach was 7th in the Madison Marathon a couple years ago – ya, I think he can run!), parents, and just members of the community.

I decide that if I’m going to run the 5k, I’m going to go out hard and see what these old legs can do. I probably haven’t run a 5k since high school – which was like centuries ago. I had actually run in the exact meet 26 years ago.

So, I started off at a pretty good clip (no garmin watch to pace myself) and tried to stay with the “back of the front group”. I knew I had the endurance to keep up a pretty fast pace (at least for me), but I didn’t know if that was the pace I was going or if it was much slower. At first, I just kept focusing on catching and passing the person in front of me. This went well until probably one mile into the race then the rest of the way was just trying to hold my position. I held my position until the last 400 yards when a lady passed me – I attempted to keep right behind her – but no luck.

At this point in the race, I’m ready for that darn finish line to show up RIGHT NOW. So, with the cross country teams lining part of the course cheering on all of us “Old folks” – I finally made it to the finish in 22 minutes and 10 seconds and in 14th place (they gave each of us a ribbon with our finish position as we came across the finish line). That turns out to be a 7:08 pace – which for me is extremely fast.

So what did I learn today – stick to the endurance racing – much easier.

Go slow and long – build the base -- Gotta love that!!

Later I’ll report on our mountain bike ride – one of the funnest things I’ve done in a long time.

– xt4, I found a great place to ride (right outside of Stoughton).