Maiden entry

Well, here is my initial post. Hi. I figured I'd create a blog as I have a couple of different running journals and thought this might be a better avenue for recording my running exploits. I might use this as a venue to discuss my theological musings on biblical theology vs. systematic theology and possibly post articles I write that my counselee's have found helpful.

   So currently, I'm doing a cycle of low hr training following Dr. Ernest Van Aaken's Method put forth in his book The Van Aaken Method. The approach can be summarized in a sentence: "Run daily, run slowly, drink moderately, and don't eat like a pig." I dig it. I combine this with ideas from some of his more modern incarnations ala Dr. Phil Maffetone and Stuart Mittleman.

From Maffetone I have a MAF of 140, being 40 years old and in good health. From Mittleman, I'm trying to correlate my hr's with my perceptions to eventually do away with the hr monitor. I'm a burgeoning tech geek so I use a Garmin 305, though my sound shorted out from sweat, so I also wear a timex hr monitor to alert me by sound if my hr goes to high. I would like to sign up for Motionbased as well and use that in the future to post maps of my runs. 

   I started trail running two years ago after reading Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. I was gripped by the vision of being hard core like Mr. Karnazes. I quickly ran into an injury. I then slowed down and built back up to run the VT50 in 9/07. I have been too inconsistent with my training and only ran 1 50K last year, the inaugural Bimbler's Bluff 50K in CT. I converted from a 190lb powerlifter to a runner in that time frame. My hope is to be a gnarled old runner running ultra's in my twilight years. I'm trying to get my weight down to 160-165 or maybe 150, ripped and gnarled. I have studied nutrition informally for years and probably will talk a great deal about that too. 

   I have 4 kids all of whom I adopted and a wife of 2.5 years (length of time married, not her age!!) That's the crew above. I also have 3 dogs, two cats, two birds, two fish, and a rabbit. It's hell getting a house sitter when we go anywhere. One of our dogs is blind and 70% deaf, Braille. He's a product of poor breeding. We totally love him. That's him in the picture above. 

   Anyway, there's a brief bio. Feel free to leave comments. 

4.95 miles today, all at a hr of 135-140, though I popped over a few times. No biggie. Clear and windy out today. Beautiful invigorating run. May hit the dreadmill tonight too. We'll see.