Saving Lives and Kicking Butt

Greetings!  The last several months I have been stuck in a quandary. I would like to donate blood but my running as been going so well that I find it hard to find enough time for it. It isn't necessarily the hour it takes to donate that is the problem but the several days after that it takes until my running feels back to normal.  I used to donate my blood on a regular basis. Well, maybe not on a regular basis but a few times a year. I hate needles, so give me a break.  Then I learned that my blood was useless and all these years I have been donating, they have been taking my blood just to humor me. You see, my blood type is AB+ which means the only recipients are other AB+ people. According to oneblood.org, AB+ makes up only 3% of the population. So I can imagine gallons of my blood sitting on shelves until they expire and then disposed of. So all that fear and stress of donating my blood was for naught.

As you can see, I can take blood from everybody and give to only one. Mua-ha-ha.
(source)

I have recently learned that the plasma of my blood is universal and therefore is the preferred donation from me. The problem with that is, it is a longer process and I have already stated that I am a baby and don't like needles. It is bad enough to lay there for 15 minutes for whole blood donation but having to lay there for an hour. For me that is the equivalent of rolling around on an ant hill for 15 minutes or 60 minutes. But because I am a glutton for punishment, I wanted to find out excuses not to donate how plasma donation would effect me and my training. I discovered through the inter-webs that plasma donation is actually better for active folk in terms of how it effects training. Donating plasma has a much shorter recovery time in comparison to donating whole blood. According to this article in Runner's World, research shows that after 48 hours your performance will be close to normal after donating plasma versus 7 days with whole blood.

So now I just have to figure out who I need to talk to about getting rid of the really personal cryptic questionnaire they ask you in front of everybody. Why ask me if I ever received blood in Europe in 1980 every time I donate? Do they believe that I created a time machine from the last time they asked me two months ago? Even if I did create a time machine I think I would have better uses for it than to travel to 1980 and collect Foreign blood.

Anyways, I am sure you guys are bored to death about blood now. I will leave you with a little personal fun fact:

Mrs. Speedypants and I both have the same rare blood type of AB+. 


What blood type are you and do you donate?

My Cross Training and Other Stuff

Happy Friday! First week of August is over and it has been pretty good. I have done 2 days of cross training. Woo-hoo!  It is a workout video that I had won from a giveaway a couple months ago from the awesome blogger Michelle. The DVD is MASH UP conditioning. The video itself isn't very good but the exercises and workouts are. I have done two 30 minute workouts and have been sore all week. So either the workouts are tough or I have been neglecting my whole body workouts for far too long. I am sure it is the latter.

Stock Photo

Next week I will return to the pool to swim some laps during my lunch hour. I have been real sporadic with getting to the pool the last couple months and I hope to change that. So here is my weekly plan.

Mon- MASH UP, stationary bike.
Tue- Run, swim
Wed- Run, swim
Thu- Run, swim
Fri- MASH UP, stationary bike.
Sat- Run
Sun- Run

This schedule should be a vast improvement over what I had been doing previously which excluded any workouts that wasn't a three letter word that started with R. So here is hoping for the best!

Other Stuff

I have really been enjoying my new to me Garmin watch. It is a refurbished Forerunner 610 that I had found cheap on Ebay. I was worried that the touch screen on it would be troublesome but it has worked great so far. Previously I had been using the Forerunner 405, which I loved and used for several years. But my trusty 405 started having some freezing issues and the new Garmin Connect activity up-loader doesn't support it. So I took that as coercion from Garmin an opportunity to upgrade.

Garmin 405

Garmin 610
Wait a second, my new watch makes me a whole minute a mile slower.

I gave my youngest Brother his 2nd place loser trophy. He has vowed to come back at the end of the year to redeem himself.

It rained hard this week, and in the desert that means you get flooding. So now even my road runs I need my trail shoes.

Anyone else recently get any new gadgets?

July Recap

It is almost a week into August so I probably should let everyone know how the month of July ended up. Well, July ended up being a pretty good month for me. I had a couple good races with podium finishes in my age group. My youngest Brother came and visited from Georgia for a week and it is always fun having him around. July was another month of awesome running but a lack of cross training. I only was able to get a few rides on the stationary bike, a few swims, and only a couple of hours of strength training in. I just really love running and all the other things, not so much.

It is always nice to get away from the desert for a run.

Doing a preview run of the Xterra Snow Valley course.

July Stats

Total Miles - 107 miles
Longest Run - 13 miles
Total Time - 18:35:55 (hrs: mins: secs)
Elevation Gain - 13,661 ft.

July Races

July 4th - Apple Valley Firecracker 10K (recap)

Official Time: 49:30

Overall Place: 18 out of 82

Age Group Place: 2nd

July 27th - Xterra Snow Valley Trail Run 21K (recap)

Official Time: 2:19:07

Overall Place: 18 out of 64

Age Group Place: 2nd out of 5

Summary

July was the third consecutive month of 100+ miles. All my running stats seemed to stay the same except I had an increase of 6,000 ft in elevation gain compared to June. I suppose that is no surprise since I have been spending my weekends up in the mountains near Big Bear Lake. Now, with the risk of jinxing myself I have gone nearly a year without injury (knock on wood). I think it has to do with running smarter and trying to take recovery seriously between my runs and races.

August Plans

I had plans of doing a local 5K race but the school year for my kids have really come up fast so I will be spending the weekend doing back to school shopping instead. Now that I do not have any races planned for August, my main goal for the month will be to cross-train, cross-train, and cross-train. I will be seriously disappointed with myself if I don't succeed.

Stat Total for the Year

Total Miles - 593
Longest Run - 15.9 miles
Total Time - 102:28:31 (hrs: mins: secs)
Elevation Gain - 49,835 ft.

How was everyone's July? Is it just me or is the summer really passing by fast?