675 miles (thanks, Brooks)

This is what 675 miles over 8 months looks like.

That isn't how far I ran, because sometimes I ran in the other pair of Brook Adrenaline GTS 11s I have, or a pair of light blue Vibram FiveFingers, or, of late, a pair of Saucony Kinvara 3s (which I am quite enjoying, by the way).  But these shoes saw 675 miles.

I don't really think I need to get rid of them, they seem to run OK still, but mentally it's time for them to go.  I can't really say why, it just is.

The matching pair will become my longer-distance shoes.  The Kinvaras will be my shorter-distance shoes, and the Vibrams will remain my treadmill shoes.  And these will go to the donation bin.

When I took that photo, I sort of thought I'd see more in it.  675 miles is a long way.  They ran in the hot heat of August in Ann Arbor.  They ran in the moderate winter we had, through a little bit of snow and ice, but not too much.  They ran through a warm and muddy spring.  They ran with Tim and Reed and Matt and Michelle and Maggie and, once, Kelley.  Mostly they ran by themselves.  They never tripped, they only led me nearly into a car once.  They followed along with the rhythm of Daft Punk and Girl Talk, Kevin Rudolph and Eminem, Bon Iver and Mumford and Sons and MGMT.    They finished one race (the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot).  Most importantly, they kept me injury-free for all 8 months.

For me, 675 miles is about 54,000 calories, or about 277 bottles of a decent I.P.A.  For that, they more than earned their keep.

Thanks, Red Brooks Outside.


p.s. Yeah, this isn't strictly a Starving Heart blog post, but is sort of is.  After all, doing this to a pair of shoes as part of running over 1,000 miles in 8 months is heart healthy, or so they say.

two year stent-iversary!

It's been two years since my stent was placed.  Only 35 more years to go (although no one seems to know or want to say what the mortality is for a 38 year old with a stent).  What will I be doing for the next 35 years?  If the last two years are any indication, I'll be doing a lot of running:

In the past two years, I've run the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 5k twice (2010: 23:09, 2011: 22:46), the Big House, Big Heart 10k twice (2010: 47:41, 2011: 44:10) and the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half-Marathon (2011: 1:51:40).  I've run over 1,700 miles (2010: 655 miles, 2011: 1050 miles), burned over 200,000 calories, and lost 35 pounds.

Why would anyone do that?

I've seen my daughter's 3rd and 4th birthdays, three Christmases, her swimming, tennis, and soccer lessons, and spent millions of valuable minutes with her.

I've celebrated my 12th and 13th wedding anniversaries with my wife, and travelled with her to Japan and Croatia and Las Vegas, NV, Marquette and Petoskey, MI and spent millions of valuable minutes with her.

I've spent countless hours with friends, most of them were either running or drinking or with cameras in our hands.  I've turned two of them into runners (and they've lost a combined 100 pounds) and helped return one to running, so the health effects spread.

That's why someone might run 1,700 miles.

Happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me.  


And thanks for all the help - you know who you are.

a year and a half

A year and a half, yay!

My RunKeeper Log

My RunKeeper Log
Originally uploaded by Andrew Caird

I'm not saying that moving 700 miles in one year (mostly running, some biking, walking, and hiking) will keep you alive after a stent, but other people claim it helps. Who knows. In any case, 700 miles between the end of March and the end of December isn't bad.

The sad part is that 74,642 calories is only about 15 Anthony's Pizzas, or one piece every three days. Which is far, far less than I would like to eat.

On the other hand, it is 487 bottles of beer, which is more than one a day. That has its appeal.

Thanks RunKeeper!

one year

hey, I lived a year.  yay for me!

Thanks, everyone. :)

50,000 calories

50,000 calories
Originally uploaded by Andrew Caird

aka:The Data Driven Life

I'm sure there is some psychological insight to be drawn about my desire to look at the numbers. And my desire to make them come out even(ish); I waited until I could run for about 600 calories so that I could cross both the 100 activities and 50,000 calories mark - if I had known I'd be at 419 miles, I probably would have run another mile today.

Psychological insights aside, using tools like RunKeeper and LoseIt work for me for trying to make sure I get my 30 minutes of elevated heart rate per day and don't eat too much saturated fat, doing both of which I'm told improve my odds of staying out of the hospital.

I met with a nutritionist yesterday and in preparation added up all of the calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein, etc. I've consumed since 12/31/2009. I averaged 1,936 calories, 13g of saturated fat, and 195mg of cholesterol per day over almost 9 months. More numbers. More boring.

These milestone-type posts might be sort of lame, but it's a nice journal for me.

Six Months

As of yesterday, I've lived six months with a stent.  Which is, perhaps, longer than without, but we'll never know.

What changed in six months?

• I eat less cheese.  Far, far less cheese.  Including on pizza.
• I eat practically no chips and salsa.  For me, that is a powerful change.
• I run 20 miles a week, or so.  That's a lot more than I used to.
• I weigh 30+ pounds less.
• My blood cholesterol and triglycerides are far lower than they used to be because...
• I take more medication than I've ever taken in my life.
• I'm addicted to LoseIt and RunKeeper to keep track of all of this.

For my 6-month anniversary I went for a 10k run and had lunch with friends (lunch: Chipotle burrito, 890 calories because I splurged and got the 290 calorie tortilla).

Somewhat surprisingly, to me anyhow, is how little has really changed.  Life moves on.  There's a lesson in there somewhere, I'm sure.