Two more weeks to Boston's Marathon

Boston Marathon will take place on Monday, April 15. Marathon runners are starting to taper, to save energy for the grand day. People are getting very excited. The most important marathon in the USA. Hopefully weather will cooperate. Shalane Flanagan is one of the favorite women to win. She was one of the three American women to run London 2012. Kara Goucher is another favorite and another London Olympian. They both have been training together. Desiree Davila appears to be injured and might not run Boston this year.

Advocate Student Program @ SEJHS

South East Jr-High has a program where different invited people visit the school and talks to a group of male (or female) students. I will be talking to a group of students tomorrow and I am very excited. I know some of them most be Karen's own students. I am looking forward to get to know them and see how I can keep in touch with them.

Sandos-Caracol in Grand Coral

We thought we made a reservation for staying at Sandos in Playacar. But we realized we were in a different location when the bus dropped us at this other hotel. We checked documents and saw that the reservation was indeed for Sandos-Caracol. This hotel has been remodeled since we were there the first time and it is now an eco-hotel. There is an excellent side-walk outside the hotel for running. This hotel is located at Grand Coral.
Sophia is becoming a great swimmer. She can swim from one side of the pool to the other one. She liked to jump into the pool and swim all day long.
I went scuba-diving a couple of days. Went to Jardines and also Cueva de XXX. Enjoyed all four dives. We saw a shark in one of the dives!
We had breakfast in one of three restaurants, International, Mexican, or Mediterranean. Lunch was in one of the three eating places too. There were more restaurant options for dinner. We enjoyed the Japanese restaurant the most, the Brazilian was too much food. The chef in the Japanese restaurant did a show for us preparing the food. We ate like nine different meats at the Brazilian restaurant. There was this kid's club where Assen and Sophia loved spending hours playing inside. They even watched movies in there.

Sandos-Caracol Spring Break 2013

Spring Break is coming

Can't believe the week went by so fast but I was able to run 4 miles each day of the week. My plantar fascia is still hurting, but I believe short distance low intensity runs should not be doing any harm to the PF. I taped my foot following the advise I learned in youtube videos and I also bought a small cushion for my foot that I hope helps me to relieve the pain.

Students are leaving town and the swimming pool had a few empty lanes. I swam 11 laps taking short breaks between lengths last night. I felt very glad I was able to complete more than ten laps. Assen did not swim on Tuesday, but was able to swim on Thursday.

Taping

Decided to try taping my foot.  It seems to hold better and the tape kind of helps to alleviate the pain.

Barefoot Running

I am suffering of Plantar Fasciitis. A lot of people tell me I need to take a break from running. Some others tell me I need different shoes. I strongly believe that most injuries are caused by shoes and the improper way we run when in shoes. So, I have been running with no shoes for short distances. I also believe going up hills should be beneficial to strengthen the different muscles in my feet and legs. Today, I ran on the treadmill, very slowly, and used the incline. I moved up the incline every minute until I got to 8.5. My pain on the PF almost disappeared while running. I am going to keep these exercises and see if things improve.I am tempted to go out running slow with my wife one of these days. That should be a test. I also hope the PF stops hurting in Spring Break!

A Runner's Perspective

It's amazing to see how the runner's mind works! We run 400 m. We know how fast we need to go. We run 10 miles. Our mind knows how fast we need to go so we can finish those 10 miles. If we don't do that, our body will break and won't finish the race. But, what about when we run on place? We will be trying to fool our mind! we will not know how far we are going. We are not going anywhere!

When we go outside every morning, we need to think we are running for a life time. Our body will know how fast to go. No need for Garmins!

Hawkeye 25K

I was not able to run the Hawkeye 25K race this morning. I injured the PF more by doing a few intervals on the track yesterday, but it was a test to see if my foot was recovered. Definitely no. The day was cold, the ground was covered with snow, so actually, I am not that upset I did not run this race today. I feel frustrated not to know when my foot is going to recover.  I am trying to do more cycling and other cross-training exercises to alleviate the PF.