7 mile Quartz Hill loop (52:18)

I woke up this morning to the sound of chirping birds! To me that means NO WIND! I have mapped out a tough 10k course that includes a half mile hill up 65th and a mile steady hill up 60th. I felt good from the start and decided to push the hills a little and cruise the downhills. When I looked at my watch I was averaging about 7:20 pace up the hills. The loop is almost exactly 6 miles and would be a good 10k time trial or tempo run. I finished with an extra mile for a total of 7 in 52:18 or 7:30 avg pace. It was a great morning run.

Some of you may know of Dick Beardsley from the Duel in the Sun with Alberto Salazar at the 1982 Boston Marathon. He is also the Grandma's Marathon course record holder. He also ran a 2:47:56 at the age of 50! He had a total knee replacement in January of this year, not because of arthritis from running (running doesn't cause arthritis, heredity does) but he twisted his knee at the beach and required arthroscopic surgery (his 12th on that knee) but it got infected and the damage required total knee replacement. The amazing part of the story is that 6 months later he is running 40-45 miles per week! Read the article here.

Check out Dick Beardsley's Blog here.
He talks about his recovery from surgery, pretty interesting stuff.


The RunnersWorld Daily blog has been pretty funny this week.
Highlights include this story about beer.
And this one about underwear.


The Twin Cities Marathon that my wife and are running October 4th has officially reached its 11,000 entrant capacity with 3 months to go!

Finally, Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels are back!

Calm before the storm: 18 miles last 2 days

Monday I did some AVRT (Antelope Valley Resistance Training) in the wind for 8 miles. I felt slow and tired. I completed the 8 miles in 64 minutes.

The forecast looked good for this Tuesday morning but called for scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. I figured today would be the last day I should go a little farther if I plan to complete a 3 hour run this Sunday. The wind finally stopped this morning after 7 days of gusting. I had a great run, and my legs felt really good. I ran 10 miles in 1:18 (7:48 pace).


Here is the information on my 30 mile run on July 5th. I wanted to extend the invitation to come out and run/bike with me to all my blog readers. Let me know if you need directions or have questions.

Family and Friends,

I hope your training has been going well and your running shoes are a bit tattered and worn! Not too worn though because the big event is just around the corner! The important information and logistics are listed below.
Karl will start the run at 5:00am on Sun. July 5th at our house. The following is a break down of the approximate start times of each loop. Each loop will start from our house.
15 mile loop 5:00am
5 mile loop 7:00am
5 mile loop 7:40am
1 mile loop 8:20am
1 mile loop 8:29am
1 mile loop 8:38am
1 mile loop 8:47am
1 mile loop 8:56am
breakfast celebration 9:05am
As you can see we took out the 3 mile loop and decided to do multiple 1 mile loops. This change was made to allow walkers and slower runners to start the 1 mile loops and have the opportunity to cheer and support Karl multiple times before finishing with him.
Please arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the estimated start time of the loop you are running. This will assure you do not miss Karl if he is speeding through the run faster than we anticipate!
If you are traveling from out of town and need a place to stay on Saturday night please let us know. We have a large house and would love to fill it with “Karl supporting runners!”

In lieu of gifts Karl would appreciate donations to be made to Karno Kids. He has set up a website to donate: http://www.active.com/donate/karnokids/KStutel His goal is to raise $500 for the organization!
Please RSVP by commenting on the blog or email at kstutel@hotmail.com
Karl has been training hard in preparation for his run! Your love and support mean the world to him. Hopefully we will see you July 5th and together we can celebrate with Karl as he achieves his goal of running 30 at 30!

Karno Kids - The intent of this organization is to provide financial support to organizations and programs that are focused on improving the health and wellness of our youth and restoring and preserving the environment and urban open-spaces. We work with a select number of quality organizations and programs that support this vision in an accountable and quantifiable manner. These currently include: Girls on the Run, The Conservation Fund, Kids on Trails, and The New York Road Runners Foundation.

“We’ve let our health slip in this nation, especially our youth, and it’s time we recognize the importance of physical wellness as an important life priority and take back our health as a country.”
- Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathoner, CEO & President

Still windy!! : 9 miles

The wind has not let up for the last 5 days now. The calmest time is first thing in the morning. I have also found that if I go about 2-3 miles east of my house that there can be little to no wind. I did that today but it did not work. It was windy even in Lancaster and Palmdale. I ended up running through each on my 9 mile loop. Total time was 1:10:30 (avg pace 7:50).

Here is some video from our house this week.

The quote below was on my day calendar today and it reminded me of my sister. I remember when Pres. Bush said this and we thought it was hilarious.

“I do not like broccoli. I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.”—George H. W. Bush

"Cho-pin-bra-co-li"
Now go eat your vegetables!

June Gloom! 8 mile treadmill progression run.

It has been gusty here night and day for the past 3 days. I fully recovered from my 20 miler in about 2 days. I could have run yesterday but the wind kept me in bed. Today I got on the treadmill for 8 miles: 5 miles @ 8:00 pace, 2 miles at 7:30 pace, and the last .5 miles at 6:40 pace and watched the trees sway from inside. Total workout was just over an hour.

I have some good links to check out that I have found over the past week:

Coach Jay Johnson out of Boulder, CO has a great website and some good videos on core workouts for runners. Check them out.

Here is a recent article from the NY Times titled “The Road to Success, Paved with Bad Advice.” It talks about stretching, orthotics, and running form and how the wrong advice, even with good intentions can be detrimental to your training. I think anyone that says that their technique or their product will help everyone or prevent injuries for all runners is feeding you a line. Again, there are so many variables that training, stretching, footwear, etc., have to be individualized for each runner. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had perfect biomechanics?

Next, here is a great article from Exercise Physiologist and Coach Jason Karp Ph.D. out of San Diego, on training by time and not mileage. Definitely worth a read! He has an online newsletter on his site called REVO2LT that is also worth checking out.

Did anyone watch the Prefontaine Classic this weekend? I thought the women’s 1500m was the most exciting with Jenny Barringer almost catching Gelete Burka of Ethiopia at the tape. See the bell lap on video here (it was Flotrack's Tasty Race of the Week) start video at 2:23. She became only the third American woman ever to break 4:00 in the 1500m. Mary Slaney and Suzy Favor-Hamilton are the only others. See her reaction here. Quartz Hill HS graduate and 2x world champion hurdler Michelle Perry won the 110HH at the Pre Classic in 12.74. Second place also ran 12.74 another photo finish!

Finally, the California state high school championships was this weekend. There were two local girls that represented the Antelope Valley well in the sprints, both making the finals in the 100m and 200m. Jessica Davis, a Junior at Highland HS in Palmdale was 2nd in the 100m and 3rd in the 200m. Jordan Hasay won the CA 3200m for the 4th year in a row by 18 seconds in 10:05! After looking over the results of that race I noticed that nearby Saugus HS qualified 4 girls in the 3200m final and placed 2 in the top 5 and all 4 in the top 20 (only 1 senior--the 4th one)! Amazing! See all the results from the meet here.


Looking to visit Hawaii this year? Seach on fly.com they have some tickets as cheap as $99 each way!

28 mile weekend in Phoenix!

I missed a post on Thursday but put in 8 miles in 59 minutes (7:23 pace) and felt great!

Friday night I left for Phoenix. My cousin Will Schmid was ordained as a Catholic Preist on Saturday! It was an incredible ceremony and he has worked very hard to get to where he is now. He is a great person and will help many people.

I stayed with relatives in a time share in Scottsdale (the north east corner of Phoenix). I had mapped out a running route before I left using google maps.

Saturday I got in 8 miles in 59:18 (7:25 pace). What I didn't realize looking at the satellite image is that the route I chose was a steady uphill all the way out and downhill all the way back. I felt great on Saturday averaging 7:40 on the uphill (probably 3-5% grades), and 7:00 on the way down.

Sunday I got in a 20 miler! The route I picked on google came out to be almost exactly 20 miles on the Garmin 305. I extended the run from Saturday so the course was 10 miles uphill and 10 miles downhill with grades a little steeper towards the peak. It took me 2:36:19 for 20 miles (avg pace 7:50). I was averaging 8:20's on the way up and 7:20 on the way down. There were some low points where I wondered if I could make it but was able to rally back and finish. Then I hopped in the pool for 10 minutes! It ended up being a very good run, tough by myself, but gave me some mental confidence for July 5th!

National Running Day

Happy Running Day!

I had big plans that didn’t work out this morning. My son was up for 2 hours last night. I was actually wide awake at 3am and briefly thought about just going for a run then, but decided I needed to try and get some sleep more than the run.

The folks at flotrack interviewed some elite runners about how they started running and what running means to them. See the interviews here.


It is fun to reflect on all the good times running has brought me. I have a picture of me holding a medal for being the youngest runner to finish a local 5k at the age of 7. I started running competitively at Mohave Valley Junior High School in AZ. We would run about a half mile for time in PE class on an old dirt road out and back course near the school. Our PE teacher would time it and post the best times on a window at the schools main office. This was one of my favorite days as I would usually finish in the top few in the school. I joined the track team there and we traveled to Kingman, Bullhead City, and Lake Havasu for track meets in the spring. We would have practices after school where we could try any of the events to find out what we liked and what we were good at. I tried hurdles, long jump, and shot put! But I always enjoyed and was more competitive in the “long distance” events (1200m was the longest event at the Jr. High meets). The experiences in Arizona motivated me to join the cross country and track teams when we moved to Henderson, NV before my freshman year at Green Valley High School, and the rest they say is history.

Running has given me an outlet.
… has helped my self esteem.
… helped me pick my university.
… is how I met my wife.
… helped me pick my career.
… has helped me get a job.
… has helped me set goals.
… has created many friends.
… has filled my competitive spirit.
… has become a part of who I am.


So how did you start running and what are some of you fondest memories that involve running? Share any stories you wish.


“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people…who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept…Generally, by the time you are Real, most of you hair is loved off…but these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” –Velveteen Rabbitt

8 mile marathon pace run (59 min)

After days of running at 8 min pace I was fed up and needed to run a little faster. Sometimes I feel better after a harder effort than I do running slower. I used the first 1.5 miles as a warm up to Lane Park and then did 1 mile loops around the park (5 loops at what felt like a tempo marathon pace effort) and then returned home. Here are the splits: 8:22, 7:47, 7:28, 7:08, 6:53, 6:45, 7:23, 7:16. Average pace on the entire run was 7:22. Only mile 5 and 6 were at goal marathon pace (I have some work to do there). I felt better on this run and afterward than I have in weeks.


Need some inspiration? US 800m runner Khadevis Robinson is always good for a motivational interview.


Here is an interview with Jordan Hasay's coach Armando Siqueiros his history with Jordan and her future. Wow!! What an amazing coach and person.


See a tour of Alan Culpepper's running store in Colorado Solepepper Sports. Watch for his running shoe museum! Cool!



Finally, tomorrow June 3rd is National Running Day! Hope you all have a great day and get in a good run.

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die from a misprint." --Mark Twain