Bloody Nips and Bloody, Nips!

So I made a rookie mistake today. I forgot to tape up my nips. I never thought it could happen to me. I have seen pictures of it before, men in white tshirts, crossing the finishing line with two parallel trails of blood running down their shirts. But those pictures are of men finishing half-marathons/marathons/ultras, not doing an easy 8 mile weekend run. I guess I was wrong. It didn't help that it was a chilly morning, with temperatures in the mid 20s after factoring in the wind chill.

Moral of the Story:
Running with untaped nips: Bad Idea
Running with untaped, pointy nips in cold weather: Really Bad Idea!

Now just to be clear, it was nowhere near as dramatic as shown in the picture. But it hurt and they were on fire for a good hour or so. I was dreading entering the shower, as I stood for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out how to avoid getting hot water on the affected area. Finally, decided to man up and just feel the burn! And man, did that STING!

And of course, this got me thinking about the 200,000 year old question...why do men have them in the first place? If 200,000 years of evolution can't explain it, I certainly can't but I think the message is clear: Men, tape your nips!

"60% of the time it works, every time"

And I am not talking about Sex Panther. I am referring to the Runkeeper App on my iphone that I was using to track all my runs. Well, as it turns out, the damn thing is off by as much as 10% in most cases. And that's only  if it doesn't lose signal or crash in the middle of the run. If I am going for a 10 mile weekend run, I want credit for the whole thing, not a measly 9! And more than the distance, it's the pace that really threw me off. So I may be scorching the trails, running at a blistering 9:30/mile and the app shows me going at a rather pedestrian 11:45/mile. Inconceivable!

So I decided to man up and bought the Garmin Forerunner 305 last week. And you do need to be a man to sport one of these, or have really big wrists, 'coz this thing is freakishly big. But it's also pretty damn cool, has a lot of neat features, and is also one of the cheaper GPS watches on the market. And most importantly, it's really really accurate! And after strapping my iphone on my arm for the last 6 months,  I barely notice this thing on my hand.

Moving on to more exciting news, I ran my 100th mile of 2011 this past weekend! WOOP! WOOP! This milestone came sooner than I expected, and I have justly rewarded myself, by not running at all this week (this has more to do with being super busy at work and traveling for the rest of the week)

Also, just found out today that our friend, Stacey, will be joining Yelena, Chris and me at Seattle RnR Marathon this June. I guess what they say is true..."Misery loves company. Stupidity loves it even more!"

Running Goals for 2011

I guess I am a month late in making this post but I think it's the best place to start.

We all make New Years Resolutions and here are mine, specifically wrt running:

• Run a Marathon (Seattle Rock N Roll on June 25,2011)
• Run 600 miles by Dec 31,2011. (Averaging 50miles/month)

Given that I have been running for a year now, I think both of these goals are quite achievable, barring any serious injury. I have given myself 6 months to train for Seattle RnR, which is plenty , and in essence, my first goal will help me achieve the second one. Achieving my second goal may become challenging during the second half of the year, but Hood to Coast and the Columbia Gorge Half Marathon should help me keep on target. 

Now having outlined my goals, I am quite proud to say that I did achieve my target for January, racking up 63 miles! But thinking back on it, maybe I shouldn't have set the bar so high in the first month! It's going to be a tough act to follow, especially with February being a shorter month and a couple of business trips planned in the next few weeks. Oh well...

Before I sign off from this first post, I would just like to give a shout out to my partners in crime, Yelena Bean and Chris Nunez, who are both doing the Seattle RnR with me. I do my long weekend runs with Yelena and Chris and also run a couple of times with Yelena mid-week. The three of us are going to be spending a lot of time running and training in the coming few months!

If any of you reading this want to get in on the action, just let me know and we'll work something out :)