Good Friday, 1998

Birthdays, anniversaries, perhaps the death of a loved one, or a tragedy like 9/11 ... they are dates that are permanently stamped on our personal calendars.  On those days, things happened that changed our lives and we pause to remember, reflect, and hopefully, celebrate!

For reasons you may not suspect, Good Friday is one of those days for me.

On Good Friday, 1998, I left work early, things were slow, and I had company at home.  The unproductive work environment was offset by fertility on the home front.  My wife was pregnant as was our dog.  We had a huge garden growing everything from melons to peppers to tomatoes.  The front yard was covered in marigolds that just took off that year.

Everybody sat in the living room, talking and having a good time.  All of the seats were full, so I leaned, put my hand out behind me, and dropped to sit on the floor when ... BAM!  Something in my back ... I rolled on my side, kicked my legs out straight, pounded the floor with my fist.

Previously I had no symptoms of back problems, but over the next two months my right calf atrophied almost 4 centimeters.  I had no feeling in my toes, couldn't lift my foot.  It worsened to the point where I couldn't drive, couldn't get myself dressed and soon could barely walk, provided your definition of walking is broad enough to include any form of bipedal locomotion.

Physical therapy, rest, ice, heat, medication, chiropractor, prayer, patience, water, change of bed, compression, e-stim, stretching, ... the surgeon said I was almost certainly going to remain at least partially paralyzed in my right leg, and that's if we did the surgery immediately.  Post-operation he expressed amazement at the amount of material he pulled from my spinal canal, "...a hot dog's worth of material," he said.  He was even more surprised that I had feeling and function in my right leg!

"You're lucky you're young," he said.

Lucky huh?

To recover to the point where I could drive and take care of myself took a couple of months, during which time the dog had her puppies and my wife developed high blood pressure during the pregnancy and trying to avoid stepping on said dog, tore an abdominal muscle.

At the time I was in shape, about 210 pounds and very capable-looking.  Know how bad I felt riding around the store in a handicapped cart or standing by the shopping cart while my 8-month pregnant wife loaded bags of dog food into the trunk in July's heat?  People shot me some UGLY looks, for sure!

I made a brief comeback to fitness about 9 months later, but suffered a lot of back pain.  

Then ...

I gave up.

For twelve years.

I was scared.  Afraid of the pain, reinjury, paralysis, all of it.  It wasn't worth it.  So I enjoyed life, neglected things like personal fitness and dietary concern or restraint.  The back was problematic, but hey ... most of the time it was fine. 

And then another date hit ... this one premeditated.  7/28/2010.  Since I was hurting frequently anyway, and the medication was eroding the lining of my stomach, something had to change.  I decided to exercise every day that I worked.  No need to get crazy, a walk around the block would do.

Then I wanted to run.  But that hurt my knees and my back because my form was wrong and my weight was ... well, think inside linebacker for a college football team.

Before Good Friday, 1998, I worked out for nothing but selfish, shallow reasons.  I wanted guns, abs, pecs.  Now, I've come through the other end.

At the present moment I am working through a calf injury.  I took the new dog for an inaugural run.  I could barely run at all, and just went along to see how it felt.

And some words slipped from my mouth, without thought.

"This is fun."

Lucky huh?  Yup, maybe so!

What a way to ring in the new year!

New Year's is our  holiday.  That is, my immediate family does whatever is easy, no pressure.  We usually run around here and there from mid-November until Christmas.  So, it's our time.

This year my youngest daughter spent the night at her friend's house.  My oldest daughter stayed home and played cards with my wife and I, and my wife's parents came over until about 10 pm.  We had ham, smoked salmon, some amazing pickled radishes and pickled papaya (Filipino dishes), some fancy cheese and crackers, homemade apple pie and of course guacamole!  Our plan was to play cards, snack from about 4 pm until whenever and burn stuff we've been collecting for the past three weeks in the fire pit.  It's how we roll!

My daughter is the "guac" expert. I bugged and bothered and pestered her all day until she made the guacamole.

Eventually my daughter brings me the bowl of guacamole and some chips for me to do a taste-test.  I was outside getting the fire ready. 

All was wonderful, it needed nothing but my attention, so I took the guacamole and stepped backwards, tripped and fell all the way to the ground, the arm holding the guacamole shooting up, sending the guacamole sky-ward. 

I landed, terrified!  I stretched out and got my hand under the guacamole bowl, but not with any dexterity, more like playing hot potato with a five year old.  The bowl flew back up, seemingly in slow motion.  But this time I caught it, open end facing down. Only about two tablespoons were lost!  I am so happy I had a witness! 

The New Year came as it normally does.  We were all tired.  My wife and I were watching stuff on Netflix, well actually I was watching, she'd fallen asleep, and my daughter was upstairs reading. 

This morning I got up and prepared for a 10 or 12 mile run.  What a way to ring in the new year, right?  I had eaten a lot of salty, rich, and fatty foods last night, not to mention consumed a fair amount of alcohol.  I didn't get drunk, but considering I was going to run for an hour and half minimum, any is probably too much.

Twelve miles would be cool, being 2012, I thought, but also, I've been sick and my knee hurts.  One of my resolutions is to be safe and while 12 miles would send the message that I'm serious, 10 is what was planned. 

I decided to run 10 and be smart.  The twelve would've been for show anyway. 

Also, I'd only run 10 or more miles twice, one time being the half marathon.  I ran slow and easy, trying to make the first mile slower than 9 minutes (it's down hill ad I'd have 9 more to go), and the rest around 9:30 or so.  But really, I was just going by feel. 

Check the link  here for some cool graphics Garmin puts together.  I made my last mile my fastest, 8:34.  The overall average pace was 9:47.  Not fast, but that's okay.  I was happy with the run, it felt good, especially since I really didn't want to run this morning.

On a side note, I ran with compression socks for the first time.  I run in toe-shoes most of the time, but also have a pair of racing flats I run in.  Today was the shoes and the compression socks.  I just bought the knee-high dress versions from Wal-Greens at $20 (can find them about half as much on Amazon I learned later).  They worked great, my legs feel good.  I'd recommend them without hesitation!

To all I wish a happy, healthy, and productive 2012!

Running Workouts and Injury

Until a few months ago running was the workout, at least in my reality.  Sure, you can have long runs, short runs, hilly or flat runs, even running in sand.  But mile repeats, tempo, hill repeats ... really, I thought.  That's insane.  A running workout is like ... a swimming swim? 

Hello, Department of Redudancy Department, hello.

I started doing a few of these workouts before I had a sufficient running base built and got injured.  I'd take a few weeks to heal and try again with similar results.  I just wasn't ready physically or mentally.  Physically I didn't have the flexibility or strength, certainly not the mechanics.  Mentally I didn't have the experience to say "UNCLE," and not feel like I was wimping out!

Then I had a major injury, not releated to anything like this (stepped in a hole on a trail run and injured my hip and knee).  The time off and the subsequent SLOW rebuilding while paying attention to a specific injury did me a lot of good actually. 

Now I have the base and the experience.  I know how to gauge my exertion and have a general idea of my pace.  I know how it feels to quit a run after 3 minutes of running.  I know what it feels like after 40 minutes.  Regarding pace, I don't know how a 7:00 mm feels different from a 7:30 mm, but I know how a 7:00 feels different than an 8, or 9 and 10.  That's good enough for now. 

Before this morning, though, I only suspected I knew as much about pace.  Today I wanted to shoot for sub-8 minute miles for my mile repeats.  A friend of mine suggested I try them opposed to 400 or 800 repeats after reviewing my previous injuries and how they occurred.  So, I rolled out of bed at 4...well, 4:10, I hit the snooze button, did my normal calestenics routine and then a mile warm up, three mile repeats and a mile cool down. 

The splits were 7:42 (overall drop in elevation, but biggest single hill of the three miles), 7:52 (reverse of the first mile), 7:24 (greatest elevation change and all up hill).  The last mile didn't actually feel like the fastest, but maybe that's because it was uphill.  (There was a timed 2:00 break between the repeats.)

You may wonder:  What do I have to say about running workouts now?  I love them!  I'm excited about them.  I can't wait to get better at them and learn more of them.  I'm excited for what changes they'll promote and I love how I feel after finishing one. 

Ain't the honeymoon great?  How long until I wake up at 4 am and sarcastically moan, "Great, more mile repeats!"

But after several months of barely running at all, it's fun to run hard! 

Bad Run, Good Run...We Succeed Because We Fail

Saturday's trail run was terrible.  As I mentioned in my last post I was slow, sore and when I finished I was totally exhausted.  I was exhausted for the entire day, like a zombie on Nyquil.

Sunday I had time to reflect on the run.  I reviewed my training plans.  I was beginning to worry about not being able to do well on the race and that worry devolved into fears of not being able to complete the half marathon.  I want to run 13.1 miles in under 2 hours.  I've not been able to do any training at all because of a hip/hamstring issue.  I completely sucked at a 5 mile trail run...how was this going to work?

I wanted a chance at redemption Monday morning.  I had hoped that my problems were fatigue and heat and maybe just a bad day.  Hoping to do better, I couldn't sleep Sunday night.  I got up at 3:30 am, an hour before my 4:30 alarm.  I needed to do better.  I am better than that performance.

At 4:30 I got out of bed, brushed my teeth and did my pushups, crunches and some new hip exercises I'm trying out.  I was out of the door by a quarter to five for my hilly six mile run.

I kicked butt.  I decided to speed up a bit more than I've allowed myself over the past months.  I pulled down the first two miles in just over 14 minutes.  I hit the hills and then finished the last mile, which climbs about 200 feet, in 8:10.  I wouldn't allow myself to really push hard as my number one priority is still to finish healthy.

I feel encouraged and revitalized.  Redoubling efforts after failure ... yeah, now I feel better.

Finally Healthy, and some costume pics.

I think I'm finally healthy.  My injured hip complains rarely, and only when I first start going down hill.  The hills don't hurt once I'm properly warmed up.  It's been a LONG time, since the end of June.  I'm very happy about my current condition.

I've started my half marathon training, along with training for the Tour de Tucson, which I may not join.  I may not have the money for it.  The idea is that I'll alternate long rides and long runs, one per week.  I have noticed some significant improvements in my riding lately.  What's funny is that, like last time, the jumps in speed and power are seemingly out of nowhere.  All of a sudden instead of struggling to maintain a 14 mph average on these particular hills, I'm cruising at 18 to 19 mph!  If you're wondering about tailwind...nope, done it consistently the past three rides.

With the change in seasons there is less fresh fruit around.  Much of what remains isn't so great.  As a result I've not been eating as well as I was over the summer.  Also, with it getting colder outside, it's been tough to haul my butt out of bed in the mornings and go to the gym.  I've not skipped any runs or rides, but the gym has seen decreasingly less of me since school started.  I need to recommit to going to the gym more frequently and to work on my diet.

In addition to those things, I'd forgotten what a commitment training really is.  I run before work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I am supposed to go the gym in the mornings on Tuesday and Thursday.  I ride Tuesday and Thursday.  Saturday is a long ride or long run.  It's tough to do all of those things with a full time job, a part time job, meetings after school, totting kids around and so on.  I'm beat!

I did miss my long ride last week.  I decided to tune up my bike before the ride and noticed some fancy cracks in my Bontrager RaceLites.  My trusted bike shop owner warned me of them and told me what to look for.  I purchased a new set of Mavic wheels and am now riding in style.

This past week was Spirit Week at the high school.  I decided to participate.  :D  Here's Tacky Tuesday:

I worked hard to be tacky without being over the top.  A coworker saw me and said hello.  I asked how I pulled off tacky...she stopped and said, "Oh, good.  I wasn't going to say anything because you look awful!"  

She thought I dressed that way out of poor taste, not in the spirit of Tacky Tuesday.  SCORE!

Wednesday was nerd day.  I had to learn to tie a real bow tie.  That sucked.  I learned a lot about those that wear bow ties.  They don't do things by accident.  

Now the last was Western Thursday.  I got a big ole grin to go along with my outfit.

Some runs are special

Vanilla may be the least exciting flavor of ice cream, but it's the coolest color of sunrise.  I realized that this morning.  The sunrise was SPECTACULAR.  My leg was quite good too.  I was down the hill (3/4 of a mile) about two minutes faster I have been in the past few months.  Still, I know by sitting wrong, or stretching or bending over, that if I stretch it out on a run I'm gonna be in trouble!  P A T I E N C E

Regardless, it was awesome to run a bit faster.  I didn't set out to increase my speed, I just go by feel.  If the leg is fine, no complaints, then I'm fine, no complaints.

I explored the neighborhood, deciding at the last second to turn left "here" and then right "here," and so on.  Then, I saw something I never knew existed.  It was a triple rainbow...but not like this kind.  I didn't have my phone, so no pictures.  :(

I've seen double rainbows like in the video before, but this was different.  First, there was no space between the rainbows.  Normally you just see one spectrum, yellow through violet.  Here, though, after violet, was yellow again and it repeated.  The rainbow didn't go across the sky, I only saw a small portion of it, like a random swipe from a broad painter's brush.  Either way, the colors were extremely vibrant through the middle and it was PDN (pretty darn neat).

When the rainbow was gone I looked at my watch and I'd run 28 minutes.  From where I was I could've been home in about 4 minutes, but that wasn't long enough.  I explored some more, wandered around and figured out later I did about a 5 mile run in 45 minutes or so.

I stretched, put the leg on ice and chowed down.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes.  I'm trying to decide if I should run again tomorrow morning or not.  It's that or an early morning bike ride.  Hmmm, decisions decisions.

Anyhow, here's to seeing PDN stuff while running and recovery!

Disappointed my running partner this morning and a running documentary review

My youngest daughter received some running outfits from her aunt and uncle for her birthday.  She asked if I was up for running on Sunday, but I wasn't.  I needed a day off.  But, I was going running this morning, early.

She said to wake her this morning and she would decide then if she wanted to get up that early.  So, this morning, I tried waking her.  Normally, she's easy to wake.  But after 3 tries without response I figured I'd had my answer and went without her.

I explored the trails around a wash near my house and found a nice 4 mile route.  I am still nursing my injured leg, so I just went at a barely moving pace.  I really did what would be called a Zen Run on a show I watched last night.

When I returned home from my run my running partner came down stairs.  She slept in her running outfit.  She was so disappointed that she didn't wake up when I called her.  I felt terrible.  She was so cute all sleepy faced wearing her running outfit.  She came up with a contingency plan for the future...cell phone under her pillow.  I can call her in the future if she doesn't wake. 

Last night we watched The Spirit of the Marathon.  It followed six (I think) participants of the Chicago Marathon, all of various walks of life and ability levels.  The movie did a good job following each different person through their trials and background. 

One particular person had the best quotes, or at least, recited them.  Her name was Lori and she was a mid/late 20's woman (I'm guessing) that was running to raise money for an adoption agency.  She trained seriously and enjoyed running.  I believe it was her first marathon. 

One thing I really identified with was when she said people asked her if she was going to win the marathon.  To all but a very select elite, winning has NOTHING to do with participation.  So, not just people around me don't get that (though mine was on a bike race not a marathon).

Lori's boyfriend mentioned that he believed that the purpose of public transportation was to assist those needing to travel farther than 5 miles.  He also mentioned the insanity of running 20 miles when one ends up where they started.  Good points, both of them!

There was a couple who were serious marathoners trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  The women said that she admired those who ran without watches.  She called then Zen Runners.  They run for the pure pleasure of running.  Well, sometimes, they also run that way because they're recovering from injury (as in my case)!

There was an older man, close to 70.  He started running marathons when he was 65.  He helped a lot of first timers train and enticed his daughter and new daughter-in-law to run the marathon.  He said something that struck me, and I'll paraphrase.  He said something along the lines that, Running consumes you.  Even if you don't want to talk about it, it's what you think about, so it comes out.  You don't care if people get tired of hearing about running, it's on your mind.  

In all, it was neat to hear each runner's perspective, motivation and initial spark of interest in running.  It certainly made me want to run this morning! 

Today's art work is in celebration of one of my favorite foods...chili. 

Knowledge Versus Belief

You can believe something without knowing it. You can know something without believing it. Further, there are different types of belief.

Example: I believe my wife will want this color.
Example: I know you just said it, but I can't believe it.

I want to share an anecdote that exposes the difference between belief and knowledge on a more personal level. I hope that you can get something out of this story.

I knew I could run two miles in less than 11:54. No doubt in my mind. It wasn't bravado, I didn't brag to my buddies that I could and would do it. It was my goal and I knew I could do it.

How did I know? Because I was faster than people that had done it. I just needed to do it on Physical Fitness test day.

A time of eleven minutes and fifty four seconds on a two mile run earned you 100% of the points on the running section of the PT test if you were male and under 22 years old. After 22 years old, the time increased to 12:35. (Now, for comparison, the 100% time is 13:00.)

My very first 2 mile run was 14:20. I was dying the whole way, walked a lot. Man, I was out of shape. The next was two weeks later and it was 13:10. That beat the time of my drill sergeants (former Rangers in their mid-20's) and I was surprised. The next was 12:30. From then on, I never was slower than 12:30.

During basic training we'd run in ability groups. When I joined the second to fastest group (13:10), I was told I didn't belong there. But I stayed because my time qualified me to be there. I didn't stay long. I soon moved up to the next group. In that group we would run two miles in 12 minutes, and then run two more.

In Germany, my Battery Captain loved to run. He'd organize these cross country course and he and I would race. It wasn't much of a race really as I'd just stay in front of him and speed up when he moved to pass me.

Once, on a regular run, segregated by speed, he let me be the pacer. (By regular run, I mean we ran in formation, which really sucked since it was always slow.) But now, the pacer, I could change that. He warned me to keep it steady and keep us together. Screw that! I wanted to make the lungs of the other runners turn to ash and their hearts to explode.

I ran the first mile at a comfortable pace, around 7:00. I ran the second mile at 6:00. There were some fall outs and a lot of complaining. The Captain though, he was always up for a challenge. So, I ran the third mile as fast as I could, which was in the low 5 minutes. I don't know the exact time because the person with the stop watch was long gone. But he said he timed me and watched me finish the course. I turned the formation of 20 into a formation of one.

They never let me pace again.

But on test day I could never beat the 11:54. I could get 12:10, 12, 12:20...but I'd always start off too fast and bonk.

Then I turned 23. My new time for 100% score was 12:35. No problem. I could do that without issue. I dogged the run, took it easy. At the mile point the time was just over 6 minutes. No problem. I didn't push until the last half mile. I was expecting to hear 12:15 or so as I crossed the finish. But what I heard as I got closer was Sergeant Skipper (really his name) counting eleven 21, 22, 23, ... I put it in high gear and crossed at 11:30.

It occurred to me later that while I knew I could run that fast, I didn't really believe it. There was always a shadow of doubt. When running with other people, they paced me. I was right by them and had someone pushing me. On these test runs, if you were around people, you were two minutes slower than I was.

Maybe I absorbed the physical impression I made on people. That is that my ideal body was is in the mid 150's, but I was 210, had no neck and had legs like tree stumps. The impressions was, "This guy must really lumber down the track." Maybe it's because I knew I didn't deserve to run that fast. A lot of people I knew, and helped, worked really hard and couldn't get any where close to me.

The real puzzle is, why do we sometimes perform better when our confidence is high? When you know how have done and believe you'll do it again, your chances of success are great.

Now I know that for people that really run, 11:30 isn't much to brag about. But for me, it is and was a big deal. That's my personal best. It's a time I'd sorely love to beat now. But now, I know pain a lot better than I did then. Now, I don't know if I can do it. So the belief is of the sort that's just a guess. Believe this, I'm going to find out.

I used what I learned in this experience to better perform on my first (and to date, only) road bike race. I had a goal pace and I kept that pace on all training rides, always. Only once did I drop below that pace and there were some incredible conditions slowing me down. I knew that nobody would be on their best race in those conditions.

So on race day, I was confident. I knew I could meet my goal and I believed I would. Why did I believe it? Because I'd done it again and again and again. It was never easy, but I never gave in. I knew that to meet my goal when it was official, I had to do it when it wasn't official. It was the training that counted, not the performance! The race makes it official for everybody else. But I knew I would do it because I always had.

When trying to run 11:54, I knew I could do it because I had the potential. I didn't believe it because I had not yet realized that potential. I hadn't done it when it really counted. It counts in training.

Bike versus Run

I love riding. The distances that can be covered, the speeds attained and the sense of accomplishment after a long hard run is incredible. Riding helped me really get into fantastic cardiovascular shape, to the point where my resting heart rate was in the low/mid 40's! I probably could not have spent that much effort on running, not weighing as much as I did.

On April 16th of this year (my birthday that I share with my grandmother), I competed in a road bike race. It was the Tour of the Tucson Mountains. As races go it was an easy one. It was flat, never had to get out of the largest chain ring (big sprocket on the front) and 73 miles. I had hoped to finish the race in 5 hours, but finished in 3:45, way before my family showed up to cheer me across the finish line! It was a huge rush competing and doing well in that race. I can't wait to do more!
This is a picture shortly after the race, when I'd recovered.

As much as I love riding, and plan to keep riding, I prefer running. There's a zone I easily fall into when running that I cannot find so quickly when riding. It's something when I'm tired and my lungs burn a little but I just find a pace and push through. I love it.

I now find myself having to find time for riding. There's gear to wear, stuff to pack, and routes to be considered (for safety reasons, cars). But with running, throw on the shoes, look for a trail and go. So, here's to running.

Road Bike

I went on a really fun trail run Friday afternoon with my youngest daughter. It was about a half hour run through a narrow canyon. We saw a tarantula, snake and had a stink bug squishing contest as we ran. It was a lot of fun. My knees though, not so happy with the result.

That run motivated me to buy a road bike. So I picked up a Fuji 24 speed bicycle. I've never ridden a bike for exercise before I purchased the bike. But I'm excited about the prospect of being able to do some work with lower incident of injury while I lose weight. I am going to cut the running to a maximum of 2 days a week for now...may not run at all this week. I need to get my knees some time to heal!

I also need to continue to improve my diet. For the past two weeks my lunches have been carefully designed with calories and nutrition in mind. My breakfasts have been done in a similar fashion. It's dinner that gets me in a bit of trouble, but not too bad. The real killer is liquid carbs...AKA beer. I love beer. However, I'm NOT going to have a beer for the rest of this month! I need to drop some pounds and that's the most obvious thing to cut. Wish me luck!

Cardio

Since I've started posting I've lost about 12 pounds. I'm happy about that. It's steady but in my mind too slow. I know it's not too slow, but I want to lose weight.

Because of the extra weight, sometimes, running kills my knees and lower back. They don't usually complain during the run, but later in the day or the next day they do. I had to skip this morning's scheduled run because of sore, swollen knees. At this point I'm having to remember to be patient, I'm in this for the long run (awesome)!

I started doing some boxing training. Whoa, what a level of intensity and what a complete body workout. Muscles in your neck, feet, core, forearms, not to mention your major muscle groups are all spent after a short amount of time!

I'm interested in buying a street bicycle to ride a few days of week to give me some variation from running.

Also, my daughter's cross country season is over. So, I'll be taking her running a few times a week. Now that the summer is slipping away, running in the afternoons is a possibility! That means that I won't always have to get up at 4:45 am to get a run in!

Nutrition

My biggest challenge early will be maintaining a running schedule without serious injury. I'm overweight and have a surgically repaired back, so I'm a missed step away from being laid up for a few months!

This morning I couldn't run because my back wasn't feeling right. Depending on how it feels this afternoon, I'll run after work.

In the mean time I have purchased some boxing equipment and tried it out yesterday. Wow, what a workout. That'll help bring some pounds off in a low-impact fashion.

The other issue I have is nutrition. I really don't eat bad food, just too much of it. Also, I eat like a body builder...not enough carbs and too much protein. Not atkins diet style, but still. So I'm going to focus in on a more suitable diet, including proper portions. I've been reading that eating good carbs before and after runs helps with recovery and energy and found that to be true. I've never trained for running before and as expected, the energy demands are quiet different than from weight lifting! DUH!

Anyhow, I'm doing well, enjoying running and look forward to getting a good workout when I run. Also, I'm getting faster and faster each run, stretching the run out more at the ends (I mean longer, faster strides) and my recovery time is shortening. All in all, I'm feeling positive and am enjoying running.

This morning was a fight.

I didn't run yesterday even though I was scheduled to run. My knee was swollen and my hip was sore. So I took the day off. Mondays (yesterday) and Wednesdays I work from about 6:30 am until 8 pm with a dinner break in the middle. So naturally I'm tired on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

This morning I didn't want to get out of bed. I did. I didn't want to warm up. I did. I didn't want to run, but I did. The run was a battle. I kept having to motivate myself to move forward, keep picking up my feet.

After about a half mile or so I forgot I was running and started thinking about stuff. So, I wasn't running hard, but I was running and that's OK. The run took me significantly longer than usual, but I finished it strong and ran really hard the last quarter mile.

Anyhow, here's to fighting!

Day Off, Unscheduled

In the past I've had a number of times where I was going to get back in shape. I usually start off slow and build momentum and right about then, I get injured. I want to avoid that mistake.

Last week I ran 10 miles, which may have been too much too soon. I don't believe I injured anything, but this morning I was still sore and my left knee and hip hurt. They hurt Saturday too, and I ran anyway, they were fine during the run. But today, I decided I'd take the day off. I've got 2 1/2 years to achieve my goal, so pace and patience will be important. Another thing to consider is that I can no longer take ibuprofen which is awesome for minor inflammation and so on. It would definitely help today!

In the meantime, especially until I drop a lot of weight, I need to have an alternate, low impact but high intensity cardio program for days like these. So I'm looking at elliptical machines, exercise bikes, real bicycles, and boxing stuff. This is also a cue to redouble my efforts on fixing my diet.

I have done better with serving size but have a long ways to go. I have done better with eating more frequently, but have a long ways to go. I have cut out sweets. I have chosen more appropriate foods, but have a long way to go. I have cut back on beer, but need to cut it completely.

Anyhow, this will be a tough week because of how it started...not running but thinking. When running, especially right now at the beginning, there are many victories which leave me feeling positive and charged. Today, no run, no victory. Time to get organized!

A lazy run.

I'm a little sick. Not enough to stay home from work, but enough to feel crappy all day. This morning I didn't want to get up and run. I was battling myself.

I would say, "Hey, if you were still in the army, you'd be running today."
Then I'd reply to myself, "Yeah, but I was 19 then."

I did get up and run, and took my time! That's pretty cool. I ran about two miles, which a week ago would've been a tough thing. But today, I just took my time. I ran at a slow pace, wasn't tired, and finished the run strong. It felt really good.

Unfortunately, I'm still sick. But hey, the longer I continue to correct bad habits, the easier it'll be to keep them corrected.

6 miles and the Monster

I'm proud of myself so far this week. I've run a total of 6 miles and the longest was today, when I was feeling really beat up! Today I ran what I call, "The Monster." It's a loop around my neighborhood that's about 2 3/4 long or so. The thing is, it's super hilly. The highest point is several hundred feet higher than the lowest point. The direction I ran today has a 1 mile portion that goes from the lowest to the highest point, progressively getting steeper.

Anyhow, legs are sore, knees a bit swollen, feet and back hurt and I'm beat. And...I have to go to work. Today is both jobs, the high school and then the community college in the evening.

So, here's t0 6 miles so far this week. The most I've run in a decade by far!

Introduction

I'm a 37 year old man that likes to drink beer and watch football. I like to eat hamburgers and play guitar and ride motorcycles and play video games with my kids. I like to take my wife out to dinner and eat awesome food. I like teaching math because I like the feeling of helping people accomplish something, that is, overcome a hurdle in their lives.

Here is a picture of my on Labor Day weekend, 2010. I'm sitting on the couch with a beer in my hand (what I do best). This, mind you, is after working out for five weeks, five days a week. I'm the one waving to the camera.
I'm very overweight. I have been for about a decade. A handful of times I'll decide to do something about the weight and cut back the beer, start working out and drop a few pounds. On a good run it'll last for three months. But, eventually, since I never had a goal other than to "be healthier" it fizzles out when something new comes along.

So of course, my question is, will this time be different? If history is any indication of the future, no. I'll stick with this until November and be back to my old self again.

The thing is, I wasn't a fat ass my entire life. Not until I was 28 or so. Before that, physical prowess had been a big part of my identity. I had won a strong man competition in high school, was a member of the 1000 pound club (weight lifting), had run a mile in under 5 minutes, but really stood apart from others when it came to distance running.

I'm 5' 10" and in the army I weighted 210. Not exactly a runner's build. But I never got tired running. I couldn't keep up with one or two people that could run 2 miles in the 10 minute range (although I smoked heavily then), but otherwise, I was so much faster than everybody else that it was what I was known for.

When I got out of the military I was married, had a family, quit smoking, went from a laborious job to a desk job and gained a lot of weight. I got back in shape and when I had a severe back injury. The doctor said I had a 90% chance of being permanently partially paralyzed in my right leg.

SCREW THAT!

So, I used that as an excuse, well the fear of it repeating, for a long time and did nothing. All the while life became more complicated and I settled into progressively worse habits. Now I'm 37 and about 280 pounds. I'm thinking that in 3 years I'll be 40 and will have likely lived half of my life.

My dad had told me about people that always relive their past through stories, but have nothing to be proud of in the present. By-gones is what I call them. People like me who can brag about past accomplishments but now ... well, I can drink more beer than most people. See what I mean. It's a sad commentary.

So here it is. In my 40th year, I want to run a marathon. At least, now that I'm in my 37th year, I think I'll want to in my 40th. I'll have lived half of my life if I make it to 40 and want to run a marathon to prove that I still have the desire and drive that I used to have.

You may wonder, as I have, "Why a marathon, why not just try and get to some former level of fitness?"

The answer is, "That's not how I work." If I set an easy goal, I'll lose interest. When I went to college, I picked the hardest subject I knew, math. That's what I majored in. I want a big goal because I want a big accomplishment. I don't want to brag about it, I just want to accomplish it!

This is something that I've been thinking of for several weeks. I'll post updates here to keep those that are interested informed of how things are going. In the mean time, I plan to do a lot of "road work," pickin' em up and puttin' em down. We'll see how it goes.