Best Running Song for July - Fitz and the Tantrums - Out of My League

Going with a little bit of old school jazzy funk and soul this month. This is Fitz and the Tantrums with "Out of My League." Just a happy song with a great summer feel to it. This one is always fun when it comes up on the iPod during a run.

And live on Letterman!



And live on Jimmy Kimmel!



These guys did have a bit of a hit a couple years ago called "MoneyGrabber." It's got a WHOLE lot of Motown to it. Pretty good stuff.



Rock that Run!

Past Best Running Songs: June: Atlas Genius / "Trojans" May: The Mowgli's / "San Francisco" April: Spacehog / "In the Meantime" March: Youngblood Hawke / "We Come Running" February: Yolanda Be Cool / "We No Speak Americano" January: The Naked and Famous / "Young Blood" December: Of Monsters and Men / "Little Talks" November: The Black Keys / "Little Black Submarines" October: Cold War Kids / "Hospital Beds" September: Bloc Party / "Octopus" August: Matt and Kim / "Let's Go" July: Gemini / "Blue" June: Joe Jackson / "Got the Time" May: Tiesto vs. Diplo / "C'mon!" April: Grouplove / "Tongue Tied" March: Foxy Shazam / "I Like It" February: Foster the People / "Don't Stop" January: Hot Hot Heat / "Bandages" December: Camp Lo / "Luchini aka This Is It" November: Wolfmother / "Joker and the Thief" October: Phoenix / "1901" September: Matt and Kim / "Daylight" August: Collie Buddz / "Holiday" July: Pretenders / "Tattooed Love Boys" June: The Wombats / "Moving to New York" May: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros / "40 Day Dream" April: Foxy Shazam / "Unstoppable" March: Pharrell / "Fun Fun Fun" February: Puff Daddy / "Come With Me" January: We Are Scientists / "The Great Escape" December: Cee Lo Green / "F**k You" November: Tokyo Police Club / "Breakneck Speed" October: Two Door Cinema Club / "Something Good Can Work" September: Stone Temple Pilots / "Cinnamon" August: Louis XIV / "Guilt by Association" July: Devo / "Fresh" June: Saliva / "Your Disease" May: Metric / "Gold Guns Girls" April: OK Go / "This Too Shall Pass" March: The Hours / "Ali In The Jungle" February: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs / "El Matador" January: White Rabbits / "Percussion Gun" December: Deftones / "Knife Prty" November: The Kooks / "Always Where I Need To Be" October: At the Drive In / "One Armed Scissor" September: Silversun Pickups / "Lazy Eye" August: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros / "Johnny Appleseed" July: Deathray / "I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh)" June: Raconteurs / "Salute Your Solution" May: Tea Party / "Save Me" April: Bloc Party / "Like Eating Glass" Ever: The English Beat / "I Confess"

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Days 74 and 75 of 123

And just like that, we're into Week 12 of the Hansons plan.

Yowza.

The ol' legs were feeling pretty sore after my steep downhill adventure on Sunday, so the Monday run wasn't that fun. They felt a little better today for the "strength" training.

Let's check it out.

-Monday: 6 miles easy
--We've been back into the 90's again, so I've done the last two days on the treadmill. My quads were very unhappy with me, but I slogged through this one.

-Tuesday: Strength Workout
--.5m warmup
--4 x 1.5m at 7:40 pace (10 seconds under my goal marathon pace)
--3 x .5m at 9:40 pace, recovery between the faster segments
--.5m cooldown

I actually had to readjust slightly when I realized I had only run a mile on my second segment instead of 1.5m. So really, I ended the workout with a .5m recovery, then a .5m at 7:40, then a .5m cooldown to make up for my error.

All in all, it was 8.5 miles of fun.

You can see that the Nike+ pace is taking into account the two times I had to get the treadmill restarted (the Dixon treadmills only work for 35 minutes before they turn off automatically) and the one time I had to run to the bathroom. Yeah, I don't pause the Nike+. Just let it run, that's my motto.

Day off tomorrow. See you back on Thursday.

Go buy the book:

Five Ways to Become a Faster Runner

Triathlete magazine/website has a new article just out about some different strategies to improve your running. It's written for triathletes, but there's no reason these tips couldn't work for anyone. Yes, that was a double negative. Let me rephrase: good article, read, run fast.

Check it out here.

Northwest Running and Triathlon Calendar - August 2013

Yes, that's Payton giving me a high-five and yes, I can still fit into those shorts. I still run in them!



So that's about a 10-year stretch there...admittedly, there were a few years in the middle of those two photos where I couldn't have fit into them, but still.

Why are we talking about my running shorts? Umm...I don't know. Moving on...

Just an awesome batch of triathlons here. Not too many trail runs or ultras, but then, this is about the hottest part of the entire year. So...it's sort of strange that we have a couple endurance runs. I don't know about you, but I don't want to run for 12 hours straight in the middle of August.

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF AUGUST 12th to AUGUST 18th

August 17th / Hamster Endurance Run 24hr and 12hr / Bellingham, WA

August 17th / Where's Waldo Trail Run 100k / Willamette Pass, OR

August 17th / Top of Idaho Trail Run Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Mackay, ID

August 17th / 6 Hours in Hell'na Trail Run 6hr / Helena, MT

August 17th / Forest Park Marathon and Half Marathon / Portland, OR

August 17th / Albany Half Marathon / Albany, OR

August 17th / Pound the Ground for Ultrasound Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Lakewood, WA

August 18th / Every Girl's Half Marathon and 5k / Ridgefield, WA

August 16th / Aquaman Duathlon Sprint / Richland, WA (Friday Night Race!)

August 17th / Beaver Lake Triathlon Sprint / Sammamish, WA

August 17th / It's About How You Live Triathlon Sprint / Lakeview, OR

August 17th / Polson Triathlon Olympic / Polson, MT

August 17th / Rush Triathlon Sprint+ and Sprint / Rexburg, ID

August 18th / XTERRA Wild Ride Off-Road Triathlon Sprint / McCall, ID

August 18th / Whitefish Lake Triathlon Sprint / Whitefish, MT

August 18th / Athleta Iron Girl Women's Triathlon Sprint / Seattle, WA

August 18th / West Plains WunderWoman Triathlon Olympic and Sprint / Medical Lake, WA

August 18th / The Coeur d'Alene Crossing Open Water Swim 2.4m / Coeur d'Alene, ID

August 18th / West Linn Triathlon Sprint / West Linn, OR

August 15th / Deschutes Brewery Twilight 5k / Bend, OR (Thursday Night Race!)

August 16th / Lumaglow Fun Run 5k / Lakewood, WA (Friday Night Race!)

August 16th / Electric Run 5k / Puyallup, WA

August 17th / Good Samaritan Challenge 12k and 5k / Corvallis, OR

August 17th / Silvan Ridge Twilight 5k / Eugene, OR (Saturday Night Race!)

August 17th / Philomath Shrine Run 10k and 5k / Philomath, OR

August 17th / Neon Glow Run 2.75m / Portland, OR

August 17th / Friday Harbor Loop Run 8.8k / Friday Harbor, WA

August 17th / Benton Franklin Fair Rodeo Run 5k / Kennewick, WA

August 17th / 12k for K12 Run 12k / Monroe, WA

August 17th / Foster Kids 5k / Redmond, WA

August 17th / Bonney Lake Days Fun Run 5m / Bonney Lake, WA

August 17th / Catapult Rock n Roll Run 15k and 7k / Anacortes, WA

August 17th / Lise and Faith Memorial Run 10k and 5k / Puyallup, WA

August 17th / Miles for Memories 5k / Bellingham, WA

August 17th / Run in Color 5k / Oak Harbor, WA

August 17th / Skamania County Fair 5k / Stevenson, WA

August 17th / Snoqualmie Railroad Days 10k and 5k / Snoqualmie, WA

August 17th / USA Freedom Run 5k / Portland, OR

August 17th / Strides for Strong Bones 5k / Medical Lake, WA

August 17th / Scramble for Ethiopia 15k and 5k / Bozeman, MT

August 17th / Tase T. Lentil 5k / Pullman, WA

August 17th / Cady Run in the Spirit 5m and 5k / Idaho Falls, ID

August 17th / Thunder Rumble 5k / Tumwater, WA

August 17th / Get Your Run On! 10k and 5k / Lewistown, MT

August 17th / The Zombie Run 5k / Seattle, WA

August 17th / Jordan Crouch Memorial Scholarship 5k / Vancouver, WA

August 17th / Muddy Frogwater Fun Run 5k / Milton Freewater, OR

August 17th / Run for the Fallen 5k / Portland, OR

August 17th / Tillamook Bay Run 10k and 5k / Tillamook, OR

August 17th / Run the Big Hole 10k and 5k / Wisdom, MT

August 18th / Serious About Fitness 8k / Redmond, WA

August 18th / Columbia Winery Charity Run 10k and 5k / Woodinville, WA

August 18th / Lake Union 10k / Seattle, WA

August 18th / The Daedalus Project 5k / Ashland, OR

August 18th / REI Muddy Buddy Seattle 5m / Issaquah, WA

August 18th / 5k9 Run 5k / Portland, OR

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Days 71, 72 and 73 of 123

These three workouts were done in the blazing heat and dry, dry air of Ellensburg, Washington. Tough place to run.

As I mentioned last time, the runs were as follows:

Friday:
-7 miles easy
--We were staying at a camp up in the foothills, so the Friday and Saturday runs were downhill for the first half, then uphill for the second half. Also tough.

Saturday:
-8 miles easy
--Down, down, down...up, up, up. On this one, I had the additional pleasure of a seriously upset stomach during the last few miles of the run. The camp food was NOT agreeing with me.

Sunday:
-16 miles at 8:30 or better.
--Well, for the first 10 miles, I dropped about 1000 feet, so I didn't have any issues making pace through ten. It got a little tougher after that, although I didn't turn around on this one, I just kept running right into Ellensburg proper, then had my brother pick me up and drive me back. Otherwise, you would have seen the vultures picking at me along the side of the road somewhere along the uphill return.

Back to Corvallis and back to normal for Monday's workout.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 70 of 123

Yep, next week I'm moving the tempo day from Thursday to Friday. That's all there is to it. It can't be any worse.

So today's workout was 8 miles at tempo pace, or for me, 7:50 per mile. My legs were so dead. I did maybe half the miles at the correct pace. Maybe. I'm going to spare you the whining, but it wasn't pretty.

So with warmup and cooldown - 9 miles total.

The updates will be sporadic for a few days, so here is what's coming up:

Friday: 7 miles easy
Saturday: 8 miles easy
Sunday: 16 miles at 8:30 or less

Fun times dead ahead. I'll be back with a full report soon.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 68 of 123

So starting off on Week 11 here, we no longer do "speed" work on Tuesdays. Now we do "strength" work, although it's still plenty fast.

To make it easy to figure out, the Hansons call the Strength pace like this: goal marathon pace less 10 seconds. So for me, since my goal pace is 7:50, all of my Strength runs for the next 8 Tuesdays need to be run at 7:40 pace.

Easy peasy.

Well...

So today the workout consisted of six 1-mile strength runs at 7:40 pace, with .25m recovery in between at 9:30 or so pace. Throw in a half-mile warmup and a half-mile cooldown and you've got an eight and a half mile day.

I actually felt really good through the first four. The last two were more of a struggle, but I hit the pace on every single one, so I earned my day off tomorrow.

See you Thursday.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 67 of 123

Remember how I whined yesterday about how tired and sore my legs were? Ha!

The yesterday me wouldn't have known tired and sore if you hit him upside the head with a wooden leg!

Now the today me? Yeah, he knows.

For some reason, I went outside after work today to run my 8 miles easy...right into the 91 degree furnace. Lord, it was hot. Why I didn't just stay at Dixon and run inside, I have no idea.



Lots of stoplights on this route, so the adjusted numbers look a little better. Still, you can tell by the wild pace swings that I was really suffering on this one. I cut it about .75m short because I was about ready to pass out.



I gotta say, I'm not sure how I'm going to get through my first Strength/Speed day tomorrow with these oh-so-done legs. Should be interesting.

See you then.

Go buy the book:

The Oatmeal and Matt Inman Go Running

If you're not already familiar with The Oatmeal, what exactly are you waiting for?

I've been a fan for a long time, but many people became aware during the Funny Junk dispute, which is rightly now in the Internet Hall of Fame.

Now The Oatmeal is taking on sport of running (Matt is actually a pretty good runner in the Seattle area) and as expected, it's glorious.

And yes, I will soon be the proud owner of a "Blerch" running shirt!

Hanson's Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 66 of 123

And just like that, we're done with week 10.

So we followed up the 10 mile easy Saturday with, yes, a 10 mile easy Sunday. I'm going to have to say the Hansons Cumulative Fatigue theory was definitely taking hold today. My legs were beat going out, beat during the bulk of the run, and beat coming home. Just beat.

So frankly, I'm happy that my pace wasn't really too bad.



Two miles at 9:17, everything else under 9:00 and I finished off the run with one of my faster miles of the entire run. I'll take it.

Back at it tomorrow for the start of...gulp...week eleven. Man, this training is flying by.

Go buy the book: