I've got a bit of an itch. I think it has to do with not having run a race in a while and a recent desire for some trail running. Last weekend I took the family camping at Badin Lake in Uwharrie National Forest.

A cove of Badin Lake near the camping area. This is a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image I created in Photoshop from five actual photos.

Part of my desire to see this area was due to a trail race there this coming weekend. Unless you have a straight and smooth path, trail running is quite different from street running. You are constantly watching foot placement to land between roots and rocks, making quick turns and ups and downs as the trail dictates, dodging low hanging branches and trees on the edge of the path and hopping over bigger rocks or logs that cross the trail. It requires much more concentration on what you're doing than street running.

Saturday morning I set out to experience this for a few miles. I planned to follow a route used the previous weekend for the mountain biking leg of an Xterra Triathlon. I had even downloaded the route to my Garmin Forerunner. It found the course pretty quickly which started on the gravel road leading to the campgrounds. However, the first turn onto a trail and the Garmin displayed, "Off Course." I had a map and had looked at the route enough to know I was going the right way. Maybe the dense tree cover threw it off. Whatever it was, it meant I was doing manual navigation with the map.

That's where the trial part of the run came in. The map I had was not topographic and only covered the area around the campground. As I came to an intersection with another trail, I would stop and pull out the map to figure out which way to go. Adjoining trails were labeled pretty well, but the supposed painted blazes were not as helpful (is that green or dark green?). I did this several times and at one point I went down what looked to be the correct turn, though it was not labeled. About 100 yards down a steep hill later and about 30 feet after realizing there was no more trail, I turned around and walked back up and stayed on the previous trail a bit longer to find the one I wanted. Garmin Connect details.

Running in the forest was quite enjoyable. The shaded solitude, chirping birds and scurrying squirrels alleviate the challenges of trail running. I also feel I did a good deed for anyone else hiking, biking or horseback riding these trails later that day. I cleared countless spider webs that crossed the trail. Since I had not brought a broom for this task, I chose to use my knees most of the time. But occasionally one would be higher up so I used my head for those. Perhaps this is the true cause for the itch I have.

Happy running!

Three kids on a log at sunset. The middle one has about five or ten different Star Wars shirts.

Caution: Yard Sale Shoppers Ahead. That would have been an appropriate sign for the neighborhood the Birkdale group runners went through Saturday morning. It was a neighborhood wide yard sale. Although we usually run on the left side of the road and leave the sidewalk to the dog walkers, the amount of cars parked on the curb and pulling in and out necessitated use of the emergency lane as I called it. Randy and I managed just over 5 miles with an average pace of 7:49. It was a great morning with overcast skies and a nice breeze.

The weather was so great all weekend that I tried to be outside as much as possible. Sunday morning I got up early and went to North Mecklenburg Park to run the singletrack there. It is a 3.1 mile loop with lots of twists, ups and downs. I ran it once and then turned around and ran it again in the other direction. Trail running definitely drains my energy faster. My pace started out around 8 minutes per mile, but soon dropped. On the second go around I found a pretty comfortable pace and just enjoyed the environment. Garmin details

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Vasque Mindbender Review
The Vasque Mindbender shoes did well. These are the trail running shoes I picked up at REI a month or so ago. This was only my second run with them, but they feel great. The run I did was on a very twisty single track with quite a few tree roots and minimal rocks. The one creek crossing is narrow enough to jump over, so I haven't gotten them wet yet. The trail is maintained by the local mountain bike association and they added an occasional log obstacle and jump.

The shoes are light and quite stable. I was very pleased with their stickiness on the tight turns. Their light weight made me feel quite nimble going over the roots and other obstacles. Although I've only had them a short time and done very few miles, I am satisfied and look forward to putting more miles on them soon.

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On my way into church later that morning one of the guys told me to be at a park at 3pm for some touch football. I hadn't played football probably since high school, but ran around for about 2 hours with 12 or so other guys from the church. It was a good time. With the forecast for almost 90 degrees, I was worried about being out in the direct sun for that long. But ample sun block, a good steady breeze, and copious amounts of water and gatorade kept me quite comfortable.

Monday afternoon I noticed some new soreness in my legs. I'm not sure if it came from the trail run or football or most likely both. I had already decided that a rest day was in order for Monday. The soreness confirmed that as a good idea.

I may need to change my tag line for this blog: "I don't count calories. I burn them." I started tracking my calories about a week ago on the Livestrong website. Using the My Daily Plate feature you can enter your height, weight and daily activity (not including exercise) to get a base number of calories your body requires. You can also select a goal such as gain one pound a week or lose one pound a week. It adjusts your calorie needs based on this.

Then, on a daily basis you enter everything you eat and any exercise you do. It tracks how many calories you've eaten and how many you've burned and tells you your surplus or deficit for the day. It is a great way to motivate you to exercise so that you burn calories that you can then consume back, as long as you don't go over the total for that day.

I like the label on the button you click when you enter something you ate: "I Ate This."

For the first week I put in I wanted to lose one pound per week. I currently weigh about 150 and wanted to get closer to 140, mainly to lose the small spare tire I have around the gut. I was surprised how many calories were in some of the things I snack on (trail mix, gatorade). However, I did not majorly change the amount or type of foods I ate, just watched it a bit closer. I did drink more water and less soda (none) and lemonade type drinks. I did like seeing the calories burned from running get added back in. That helped me to justify the occasional ice cream or chocolate milk evening treat.

I also did not change the amount of exercise I do in a given week. Lately that has been running 4-5 times a week for about 5 miles each, with maybe a longer run on one day. I have also been doing about 30 minutes of weight lifting 2-3 times a week. And maybe once or twice a week I will do either Bob's Weight Loss Yoga or a walk with my wife.

Based on the Wii Fit / Balance Board weight measurement, I lost 1.9 pounds from Sunday to Sunday. I say the calorie counting worked. It will be interesting to see if I can do another pound or so again this week.

I haven't posted in a while, though I have been continuing the push ups and doing much running. Some NCAA tourneys, family visits and such have kept me from the blog.

March 20 Pushups (Wk 5, Day 2, Col 3 from plan):

Set	The plan	What I did	Difference	Post Rest Time
1	19	19	0	45 secs
2	19	19	0	45 secs
3	22	22	0	45 secs
4	22	22	0	45 secs
5	18	18	0	45 secs
6	18	18	0	2 mins
7	22	22	0	4 mins
8	45	30	-15
Total:	185	170	-15

Start of my 9th week. March 23 Pushups (Wk 5, Day 2, Col 3 from plan, 3rd repeat):

Set	The plan	What I did	Difference	Post Rest Time
1	19	19	0	45 secs
2	19	19	0	45 secs
3	22	22	0	45 secs
4	22	22	0	45 secs
5	18	18	0	45 secs
6	18	18	0	45 secs
7	22	22	0	7 mins
8	45	45	0
Total:	185	185	0

March 26: Exhaustion test: 60 push ups. A bit better than the 50 from my last exhaustion.

I need to get back into the push ups. I did not do a third day last week, and have less motivation at the moment. I have still been running and working out. I am trying to lose a few pounds. Each Sunday morning I do a weigh in on the Wii and record my weight. A week ago Sunday I lost 1 pound, this past Sunday I lost 2. I have been running quite a bit each week and doing some weights too. I feel pretty good with all that I've managed to fit in lately.

I ran about 6.5 miles last night after work with my running buddy Tim. And though it was quite windy, I'm loving the longer daylight in the evening. The local running group is starting some evening runs so I may join in on some of those too. I weighed myself on the Wii on Sunday and it said I had lost a little over a pound in the last week. It also suggested a new goal of getting my BMI back down to 22; it is currently around 23.5 or so. I don't feel like I need to lose any weight really, but do have a bit of a "spare inner tube" I wouldn't mind losing. So I'm going to try to eat a bit healthier - maybe a few less carbs and sugars and more protein.

I attempted Week 5, Day 1, Column 3 of the 100 Push Up challenge this morning before work. As usual, I took longer rests than the plan's recommended 60 seconds. I hit all the marks, but probably only because of the longer breaks, especially the 6 minutes before the last set. It was longer partially due to something rhyming with vowels.

Set	The plan	What I did	Difference	Post Rest Time
1	36	36	0	2 mins
2	40	40	0	2 mins
3	30	30	0	2 mins
4	24	24	0	6 mins
5	40	40	0
Total:	170	170	0

Day 2 of this week will be interesting as it has less reps, but more sets. We'll see what happens.

After the push ups I went to the weight room and did some bicep and shoulder exercises too. I probably need a plan here too. I'm just doing whatever, but trying to push the number of reps and amount of weight each time if possible.

After blogging yesterday I decided to do a several sets of push ups over the course of the afternoon. I started at 2:15 and did a set of twenty, five minutes later another 20, and then a set of 25. And so on for the next hour or so. I did 285 push ups over that time. Then I took almost a two hour break while doing other things. At about 5pm I started up again and over the next two hours, I did another 265 for a total of 550. I'm not sure if this will help in the 100 Push Ups challenge, but I thought it was worth a try.

This morning I got up and did some weights. While there I was looking longingly at the sunrise coming up and thinking I wanted to get out for a bit but didn't want to run as I had done four days in a row already. So out came the bicycle. The temperature was about 50 which made for cold toes and fingers, but it was a good ride anyway. I got about 15 miles in before having to get back and get ready for church. The spinning felt good, though my back is always a bit sore after biking, especially when I don't ride regularly, other than my work commute. I hope to fit some more rides in this year.

I got up and out early again this morning. I've enjoyed the early sunrise and cool morning. I only did 4.5 miles today, but it was a great start to the day. I went on the greenway that is close by for part of the run. At one point on there about 50 or so yards ahead I saw two deer bounding through some tall grasses toward some trees. They must have caught site of me or smelled me. Pretty interesting to have deer in what is really a pretty developed area. I guess there is just enough woods between neighborhoods and the interstate that they manage.

For the Hundred Push Up challenge, I attempted Week 4, Day 3, Column 3 tonight. I actually met all the numbers goals, but with one modified rest break before the last set. That feels a bit better. I was a little concerned after a max out of 50 on Saturday night. No change from the max attempt a week or so ago. Maybe I just needed a longer rest. I guess we'll see what happens on the next round.

Set	The plan	What I did	Difference	Post Rest Time
1	29	29	0	2 mins
2	33	33	0	2 mins
3	29	29	0	2 mins
4	29	29	0	4 mins
5	40	40	0
Total:	160	160	0

I visited the workout room twice in the past four days. I hope to stay on a bit of a schedule going there to keep up the bicep, shoulder and back exercises there.

I got up and ran before work this morning. It was cold (28 degrees) and clear. I enjoy watching the sun rise and catching the first rays of light as I run. I did about 5 miles and then got ready for work.

After work I did the same round of push ups as Monday and Wednesday this week. I shortened the rest to 1 minute after the first three sets. But even with a rest of three minutes before the last set I could only do 20. My energy was just not there. Oh well, I'll keep trying. I think I need to see what I can do for a max again tomorrow.

Set	The plan	What I did	Difference	Post Rest Time
1	25	25	0	1 min
2	29	29	0	1 min
3	25	25	0	1 min
4	25	25	0	3 mins
5	36	20	-16
Total:	140	124	-16

Tomorrow morning is the Birkdale Running/Walking group meetup. The number of members has been growing as has the number of people showing up for the runs. This is great and fun to see so many getting into it.

I decided to get up and do a run before work yesterday. I was up and out by a few minutes after 6am. It had snowed the night before and was in the low 30s, but the roads and sidewalks were only wet and not icy. I had to be back by about a little before 6:50 so my sister-in-law could drop off her kids. I figured I could do 40 minutes. I set my iPod to the preset 45 minute workout and figured I would just turn around when it told me 20 minutes had been completed. But at 20 minutes I was real close to a good turn around point so I kept going just a bit further. Not a big deal as the second half of most of my runs are faster than the first due to a slower "just getting going" first mile.

Soon after I started heading back toward home I went around a corner and hit a head wind I had no idea would be there. The remainder of the run turned into me keeping the pace up so I would make it back in time. Push it, push it, up a hill, raising that heart rate. I managed to get through the one busy intersection without having to stop and wait for a stop light, but a glance at the Garmin read 6:44am and I was about half a mile from home.

I rounded the corner to where I could see my apartment building and was relieved to see my sister-in-law wasn't there waiting. About a second later I saw her pulling up and was happy that my timing and pace worked out to get back just in time.

After work I did another round of push-ups. I fell a bit short of the total, but with shorter rest periods and one more in the final set than Monday. Baby steps.

Set	The plan	What I did	Difference	Post Rest Time
1	25	25	0	90 secs
2	29	29	0	90 secs
3	25	25	0	90 secs
4	25	25	0	3 mins
5	36	33	-3
Total:	140	137	-3

I also got up early this morning (Thursday) and went to the workout room. I did a couple of miles on the treadmill and about 20 minutes with some weights. The weather is turning toward spring like temps again, so I hope to get some good weather running in again.