Run and Drum Blog

Running and drumming are two things that I am very passionate about and they feed off of each other.

Drumming is physical and running is rhythmic. In this blog, I explore the connection between the two.

Marathon Training Week 15? - You're Not Wasting Your Time

My last long run of the marathon training cycle was a couple weekends ago now. This was the run I was waiting on before I made a decision on signing up for a race. I wanted to feel good after hitting a 20 mile run and then I would feel good about signing up for a marathon with 3 weeks to taper. I made it about 8 miles in before I realized my body was not - and is not - ready for a marathon. My legs were cooked. The problems on this run were largely to do with the fact that

Marathon Training Weeks 10 and 11 - The Time Involved In Training for 26.2 Miles

(I think those week numbers are right.) The most consistently difficult thing about marathon training, that I've found, is the time that it takes. Even having dropped back to only running four days a week, I'm logging somewhere on the order of 7-8 hours weekly. That's not even taking into account warming up, cooling off, the extra time it takes to get out of bed the day after running 18 miles, meal planning, meal prepping, and the list goes on. Any kind of exercise is a com

Marathon Training Week 9 - Putting DIY Hydration Solution To The Test

My homemade hydration mix got its first intense field test this past weekend due to me forgetting that I was out of Gatorade powder and not wanting to buy it anywhere but Costco (it's a much better deal, ok?). Fortunately, my prep paid off: my 17 mile run went great and I felt like my concoction kept my hydration at a good level. I stopped for a top off at a water fountain that is beautifully located about halfway down my long-run-route, but hell, in this humidity I probabl

Marathon Training Week 8 - Get Salty

Staying hydrated is an ongoing struggle. Particularly, as I noted in my last post, since I sweat a lot even when running isn't part of the equation. Add in running, the heat and humidity of a summer in the southeastern US, and the miles that I'm logging and my hydration situation can actually be a health concern if I'm not careful. I noticed after my long run this past weekend that I had salt build up on my upper arms - it was probably other places as well, but my brain was

Marathon Training Week 7 - Picking Up Where I Left Off

This past Friday was the first day in months that I went out for a run and the weather felt legitimately cool. Cool, in this context, is certainly relative. Stacked up against running in 80+ degree weather with humidity about 95%, my definition of cool weather is biased. Regardless, those 4 miles felt wonderful. There's an incredible difference between feeling close to death by the end of a run and feeling refreshed and even if I'm only marginally less sweaty in the latter

Marathon Training Weeks 4 and 5 - Back To Actually Feeling Like A Runner

It's alarming how derailing it can be when something gets in your head. When the weather started warming up, I didn't have any targeted running goals, my schedule was a bit off, and I straight up was not ready for the effect that heat can have on running. I peaked with a 14 mile run that felt great back in March or April and then had a decent 15 mile run the next week, but since then it's felt like a steady decline in my ability and/or confidence to get both the distances an

Marathon Training Week 3 - Chasing The 6:00am Club

Maybe you're somehow not aware, but it's miserably, oppressively hot outside. This isn't my steering wheel is a little too warm in the afternoon kind of hot either. It's literally 80 degrees with 75% humidity at 5:30am kind of hot. On Monday, I was making up a 6 miler that I had neglected over the weekend and I figured I would get an early start so I was getting cranked up around 7:30am. That turned out to be one of the most miserable 6 miles of my life. Scarcely more than

Failed Experiments In Running Schedule Changes

As much as I get on a soapbox about listening to your body, I'm still pretty terrible at it. This post was originally about how I had started running at night since the weather had begun changing and how that was so much better than running in the middle of the day. I was so confident that now I could look back at my running data and my blog posts over the past year to gauge how I should switch up my running with the seasons. Which, sure, running when it's 95 degrees and hum

Changing Up Training To Prevent Physical and Mental Burnout

As logical as the situation may seem, it took me literally months to come to the conclusion that trying to run my first marathon in June or July was not a great idea. Despite the fact that there are - rightfully - not many marathons in those months, I was still trying to make it happen until I eventually came to the conclusion that my high sweat rate and proclivity for running in the middle of the day do not mix well with 14+ mile training runs this time of year. After many

Marathon Training - Week ?

About half way through training for my first marathon, I've stalled. Only the first attempt, though. After clicking along well for 7 weeks, I had three weeks of my training going progressively off the rails. I muddled through the 15 miler in week 8 despite torrential rain about halfway through and generally not feeling great through the run. The next week was supposed to be lighter, tapering down with a couple days of rest before having a simulated half marathon race. I w

When Running Goals Become Just Running

It's a strange thing when a previous goal becomes simply a stepping stone towards another, bigger goal. For over a year, my running goals were relatively centered around the 13.1 miles of a half marathon. I trained for months to push my body into a state where it could run that mileage and then I spent as much or more time training my body to run that mileage faster. All that time, my focus was still on 13.1 miles. I didn't realize how much of a mental block I had around th

Marathon Training - Week 5.5

The fifth week of my marathon training started to really stretch me beyond what I'm used to for training runs. I ended the week with a 12 miler which is tied for my longest training run ever and just shy of my personal distance record of 13.36 miles that I hit in the Thanksgiving half that I did in Atlanta last year. Even though it's not much of a cut to my weekly mileage, going from 30 miles to the mid-20s with my long run only being a 9 miler feels like a pretty light week

Marathon Training - Week 4

Four weeks into the training schedule for my first marathon and the magnitude of the run that I'm preparing for begins to set in. Less than a quarter of the way into training and my long runs on the weekend are pushing up into the longer runs I've ever done. As the weekly miles start to increase, I remember how hard it can be on my body. In week 7 of the 18 week program, I have a 14 miler which beats my half marathons for the longest runs I've experienced. That alone is a b

Grinding Out Marathon Training With Accountability

As the first two months of 2016 march swiftly on, I've started to feel nagging anxiety about my goal to complete a marathon this year. I had grand delusions that I would take two weeks off after the half I ran this past Thanksgiving and then dive headfirst into the 18 week Hal Higdon plan for a marathon. Somewhere in the first week of training, after more than the planned time off and amidst the holiday season, I got knocked off course. And around two months later, I'm only

Traveling Woes of A Runner

Building my running routines and morning routines has been a great part of my past couple years. While I've managed to stay on course for the most part, when I'm at home, I've found it exceedingly hard to transfer the same habits when I'm traveling anywhere. For the last week, I've been dogsitting out of state for my brother and his wife. I had grand illusions of knocking out my weekend long runs on the trails here and exploring their part of the world for my midweek runs.

Tuna Run 200 - 2015

Note: Yeah, this event was a couple months ago, but registration is open now so it's timely again! I had never really heard of distance relay races before my parents told me they were getting involved in one. They told me teams of up to 12 people ran from Raleigh, NC to Atlantic Beach, NC over the course of about a day and a half. That didn't have much effect on me and I told them I'd be an alternate for their team without knowing what I might be getting myself into. I co

Layering It Up For Cold Runs

With winter setting in as late as it has this year, I had forgotten what it was like to run in the cold. There had been a few days where I needed to pull on the thermal shirts to stay comfortable and even more rarely did I need to find my gloves and hat. The day after Christmas, I was walking around in a t-shirt and shorts and on New Year's Eve, I played an outdoor show with The Slip Slams. Both times I was quite comfortable. Clearly, this is not the average progression f

Running and Drumming as Meditation

Until you've tried it, meditation can seem a little out there. I had never given it much thought before I was editing for the Learning Leader podcast and heard several of the show's guests talk about the benefits of meditation, so I started to give it a shot a few months ago. Since then, I've included meditation in my morning routine which I make an effort to stick to at least 5 days a week - optimistically - and it definitely does help my mindset as I start my day. Simply t

Mental Recovery From Running

After my first half marathon, I figured out that it actually is pretty important to make sure my body had recovered from the race before I got back into running hardcore. In the post from my last half marathon, I dug into a little bit of the mental aspect of distance running. Since my second time around running the 13.1 distance, I've been finding that recovering on the mental side of it has been a lot more difficult than the physical. Long runs can be pretty grueling. Any

Unseasonably Beautiful Weather and Gear Strategy

I can't remember a time when eating crow has tasted so good. One of my posts from September was an exhortation to embrace the 2-4 weeks of beautiful weather between hot and cold weather seasons. But here it is, halfway through December and I was able to get out for a run in gorgeous 70 degree, sunny weather. Seriously, I couldn't be happier to have been wrong about this. The sentiment from my above-referenced post remains though: get out there in this amazing weather! At s

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Run and Drum

Marathon Training Week 15? - You're Not Wasting Your Time

Marathon Training Weeks 10 and 11 - The Time Involved In Training for 26.2 Miles

Marathon Training Week 9 - Putting DIY Hydration Solution To The Test

Marathon Training Week 8 - Get Salty

Marathon Training Week 7 - Picking Up Where I Left Off

Marathon Training Weeks 4 and 5 - Back To Actually Feeling Like A Runner

Marathon Training Week 3 - Chasing The 6:00am Club

Failed Experiments In Running Schedule Changes

Changing Up Training To Prevent Physical and Mental Burnout

Marathon Training - Week ?

When Running Goals Become Just Running

Marathon Training - Week 5.5

Marathon Training - Week 4

Grinding Out Marathon Training With Accountability

Traveling Woes of A Runner

Tuna Run 200 - 2015

Layering It Up For Cold Runs

Running and Drumming as Meditation

Mental Recovery From Running

Unseasonably Beautiful Weather and Gear Strategy

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My First Half Marathon and My Fiftieth Post!

The Secret Power of A Catchphrase

Why Run and Drum.

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