The Running Mike

Paleo / Primal Coach, Runner, and Triathlete

Archive for the category “Jesse and Mike”

05 Mar 2012
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When in Doubt: Keep Moving Forward

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

–Walt Disney

Some of you may not be aware of this… (note sarcastic tone) but life has a way of getting in the way of running every now and then.  Sometimes this happens several times in a short proximity and can wreak havoc on a season. 

Already in 2012, I started the year with a calf injury (2 weeks of taking it easy), my mother had a surgery (I spent 2 weeks helping out-post surgery, with limited training time), and am dealing with the flu now – spending most of the last week sleeping 16 hours a day. 

Perhaps I’m more emotional because I’m sick, or perhaps I’m hallucinating (also a possibility) but that Disney movie (Meet the Robinson’s) was right.  When we are knocked down, tired, feeling beaten up and everything is telling us to stop – we just need to KEEP MOVING FORWARD. 

March and April are some of the best times to race, and although I’m likely going to be unprepared for some of the events, there are still lots of events this season. I know once I get over this flu, I’ll head back out on the trails and get my cardio back up.  Besides, I’ll get to have fun and do some fun, shorter events instead Smile 

There is nothing wrong with adjusting your schedule and getting back in line with your training progress… especially if you just keep moving forward. 

Posted by The Running Mike in Jesse and Mike, Status Updates and tagged
21 Feb 2012
4 Comments

A Whole New Respect for Runners with Kids

WP_000939My brother and his wife went on a weekend getaway and I agreed to watch the nephews for the weekend.  They are… wait for it… 18 months and almost 4 years old.  Jesse and I always have fun with the little guys and were happy to give them a break and hang out.  I had my usual workouts over those 3 days (2x Runs, a bike ride, and a recovery swim), but surely I’d be able to sneak these in before they got up or at nap time.  After all – how hard could it be?

I should at this point mention that we hadn’t had them overnight but had taken them to our fair share of Chucky Cheese adventures.  I should now mention that I was not nearly prepared for the carnage of the next few days Smile

WP_000895The first night, the 4 year old started complaining about an ear ache well past his bed time (and mine).  We managed to get him calmed down but he repeated this every 20 minutes or so  for half the night.  We called his parents half way through and were preparing for ye old emergency room if need be.  We were both happy that he finally slept for a solid 5 hours before being wide awake prior to my morning run.  Needless to say, I happily traded my morning run for confirmation from him that he was feeling much better!  Besides, I still had nap time right?

By noon we realized he needed to see the doctor because we were pretty sure he had pink eye.  We were able to get him in Friday afternoon (luckily the pediatrician is a family friend) where we confirmed pink eye and an ear infection.  After a long wait at two different pharmacies (the first didn’t have the prescribed eye drops), I was ready to call my own mother and let her know that I understand what a day in her life was like. 

Don’t get me wrong, we actually had a blast playing with toys, making them laugh, getting tattoos and teaching them to ride a motorcycle.  It was clearly a full time job with every spare second keeping them moving – and we often had to do so on limited sleep.  I didn’t make it out to a single workout (including my weekend long run), didn’t write any blogs, and only a limited tweet or two.  To be honest, I was just happy to find the few minutes to get a shower.

So now that I’m comfortably back in my own house, I already miss them and can’t wait to hang out with them again – but I came away with a new appreciation for parents and time management Smile  For all you runners out there with kids – I take my hat off to you!  Wow, I now have some inkling how much exhausting work it is and am totally impressed.

Posted by The Running Mike in Jesse and Mike, Status Updates and tagged ,
30 Oct 2011
2 Comments

A New Home, A New Blog Home!

For those of you on Twitter, you’ve noticed I mostly disappeared for the last couple months.  I haven’t been on a computer very much, and haven’t been blogging because…I made a major jump in my life.  I moved to Tucson, Arizona Where the weather is currently hovering around 75 degrees!  

There were a lot of reasons like moving closer to family and spending more time with my wife… AND being afforded the opportunity to spend more time doing what I love (Running). 

After long discussion, my wife and I agreed to make the jump Smile 

With the car loaded, I drove much of Route 66 to my new home: Tucson, AZ.  I have to say that I was pretty amazed by some of the amazing things I came across on the cross-country trip and wanted to share a few pics.  First of all, near St. Louis I found a mini-Stonehenge that actually worked (had a mechanism based on lunar cycle to tell what day/month it was):

 

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Found a large boot somewhere in Texas:

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Some really tall shirtless guy….

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a 25 foot pistachio:

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Wisdom of the ages… (Note: the small text reads “These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA”)

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And my last stop for gas in Arizona, the resting place of “The Thing”, which I didn’t actually pay the $1 to see, but was nonetheless impressed with the large attraction signs. 

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It’s taken much longer than I anticipated to get settled into the new house, but on the plus side, I’m back to a regular training schedule Smile  and will have no problems training through the entire winter!  Did I mention it was 75 degrees here?!?

Also, as many of you have noticed – I thought my blog deserved a new home as well.  Since I’m TheRunningMike on Twitter, I thought the blog should also be www.therunningmike.com.  Thanks for stopping by!

Posted by The Running Mike in Jesse and Mike
31 Mar 2011

Welcome to our Blog!

Hi, I’m Mike.  My wife and I like to run and sometimes bike and swim.  Every time I get around other runners or triathletes, we talk about where we are at with our season training, the last few races, and of course…the cool stuff we love.  We’re also big fans of runner smarter whenever we can.  In some cases, good gear can make the difference between a good run and a DNF.

My wife (Jesse Marie) and I had a lot of discussion about sharing our opinions on what works and what cool stuff we like. I’ve been running for a while and started doing triathlons last year.  Jesse Marie is newer to running, but has spent many hours on the sidelines cheering louder than anyone else.  In addition to having her own fan base for her “I Love my Runner” shirts she wears at events, she has the distinct honor of winning “Aunt Jesse’s Frostbite Pro-Am Zoo Fundraiser 5k Fun Run Race for the Pie and/or Donuts”

Our intent is to share  the coolest, funnest, and most usable products we like and use.  We want this to be more than just the “stuff we like” and will blog about where we are with training and what is going on.

Posted by The Running Mike in Jesse and Mike | Leave a Comment

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