Adversity as a challenge

"Adversity introduces a man to himself". This is a quote from Marcus Lattimore, a running back with the San Francisco 49ers who recently retired from the NFL due to knee problems, without ever playing in a single game. His is an interesting story, but I'll let you look it up on your own. The adversity that he is referring to I think was specific to his physical and athletic challenges and own personal athletic aspirations vs an interpersonal type of conflict.  Taking that assumption, his statement is in line with some physically issues of my own that, quite frankly, have been driving me nuts.

A few months ago I strained my Achilles, I worked my way through it and was able to have a good go at the Reach the Beach Ragnar Relay in September Reach the Beach Ragnar Relay  (http://runningthrutime.blogspot.com/2014/09/reach-beach-ragnar-relay-2014.html). My ankle and Achilles were not perfect, and it hurt, but I figured out how to do the hills and run a respectable pace without destroying myself in the process. I love to run, I love the feeling of running, and even though I'll never win a race, I love to compete. But I won't do it at the expense of permanently damaging myself. And that is where the adversity comes into play.

I understand what Marcus Lattimore means by what he said. Granted, this guy is a star athlete. He's got the goods. I'm just an old, amateur wanna-be runner... But I get it. When something fails to work out as I planned, I get annoyed and I challenge myself to find a way to fix it. I've stopped being disappointed by injuries and feeling sorry for myself, and instead focus on solving the problem and setting a new objective. I'm not settling with the situation or even close to giving in, but rather I make myself accept the facts and look for solutions or other ways to satisfy my craving to achieve a specific goal.

Case in point: I had signed up to run a Half Marathon for this past weekend - but it didn't happen for me. For the last three weeks I've been fighting my Achilles strain and then I managed to roll my ankle, totally compounding my problem. I actually thought that I was going to be ok (after rolling my ankle), but couple of days later it reared its ugly head. I eased my way through my runs, feeling mildly optimistic that things would work out. But no cigar....

On a beautiful early Sunday morning, two weeks prior to my HM event, I started a run and didn't get 200 ft. The pain was a hard signal that I ought not be running. I could walk ok, but running was out of the question. And yeah... I got mad, was disappointed, and felt sorry for myself... I let those feeling last for the entire 200 foot walk back to my house. Time for a new plan and solutions. This half marathon wasn't going to happen for me (although I will admit that up until the night before the event I carried the thought that if my ankle felt better that I would still try to run it... But better sense prevailed..).

What I read from Marcus Lattimore's quote is that when things go sideways you discover if, and how, you are able to handle them. You are truly introduced to yourself. How will you handle this situation. The question then becomes: are we able to, or even willing to, look beyond the problem, the adversary situation. Are we willing to look in, and out of, the box for the solutions... Sometimes it's all about getting our head in the right frame of mind. I think that it's ok to feel the emotions of the moment (the disappointment, anger, etc), but the key is to get over it quickly and move on.

Of course, this particular situation just happened to suck just a little bit more.... I couldn't help but look at the race results yesterday: It turns out that there were only 13 runners in my age group that ran the HM, and given the pace that I've been training at, I had a pretty solid shot of placing in the top 3, if not first in my age group! This kind of set up, an event where there weren't really any seriously faster runners than me in my age group signed up, is a rarity, and it sucks that I could not take advantage of it. <Sigh....> But that's cool - I'm still all in. It just means that I need to put a little more effort into the next one!

How much should I run?

Seriously, how many miles should I run?  How much should any runner put in?

I put this question up with a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek - because the answer invariably is: "it depends".  It depends on where I am in my running experience, level of fitness, and specific goals and targets.  It is easier to answer the question if I have an upcoming race event, and therefore I am structuring my  running mileage accordingly in order to be adequately trained and ready for the event.

But I'm pondering the question outside of training for an event: given my age and overall health (which fortunately is pretty good) how many miles per week will provide me with the optimal return in maintaining a healthy body and mind...?   And the corollary: at what point am I causing damage to my body (by running too many miles)...?

If I put this question up to Google, I get over a billion results... so this seems to be important to a lot of people.

I run about 30 miles per week, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less... I'm prepping for a Half Marathon, so every week I'm doing a 10, 12, or 14 mile long run - no big deal, right?  But I keep asking myself: for conditioning purposes, should I be running more weekly miles, like maybe closer to 40 per week? Or should I be doing fewer miles to reduce the risk of damage or injury?

On the one hand I am concerned about whatever conditioning I might be missing by not running more miles, but on the other I worry about what part of my body I might be damaging or wearing down. We've all heard the saying "what hurts you makes you stronger...", which I've bought into most of my life, but now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm always going to be able to recover from that which hurts me... You can see the conundrum...

Well, it turns out that even science (my usual go-to source) can't help me here, simply because I don't have access to the specific data regarding the status of the wear and tear of my joints, muscles, ligaments, cardio, or vascular systems, etc.  I have to literally rely on "how I feel".  I have to try things and if I feel that there is improvement, continue doing it, and if something hurts, I am supposed to back off. Hardly scientific, but it's the best I've got (short of instrumenting myself somehow and having a budget of many dollars to pay for it).

So as runners, we push ourselves through pain and discomfort in order to build endurance and performance levels. And by doing so, we believe that we are able to do more. If at some point the pain is so uncomfortable that it is not tolerable, we say 'ok -that's as far as I can go', but we do so at the risk of actually damaging a critical part of our body.

Let's not kid ourselves: as we run we are wearing down cartilage and all the other pieces that help us move. And we have no idea how much of that is happening or at what point it will cripple us. For some people it happens faster than others.

So what do we do? What should I do?

I'm going to run until I feel that I've run too far or too much. I'm going to be confident that I will recognize the signals that I should tone down my mileage or workouts. Obviously this is highly subjective and I may be influenced by what other runners my age or older are accomplishing (or not accomplishing) or by my own competitive nature. But the other reality is that we, as a species, never got better by not trying... so therefore I want to push the envelope until I sense a tear in the seam... (does that make sense?).

Now - what about the other part of that question: how do I know if I'm not running enough?

That turns out to be a multi-faceted question since it has at least two parts: 1) how much running is necessary to achieve a desired level of endurance or performance, and 2) how much running is appropriate for a better than average cardio-vascular health?

The answer to the first part is actually very straightforward because it is actually just asking how competitive do I want to be?. If I am really competitive, I have to put in a lot of miles... no bones about it, and guess what?, this falls back into the question of how many miles can my body take...  ahhhh, the catch-22, the self-eating watermelon...

The second part is easier: Thirty minutes of aerobic activity 3 times per week is what is lauded as the "minimum recommended" for general cardio-vascular health, or 90 minutes per week. I have no idea what exactly is that based on, which makes that a somewhat less than a satisfactory answer, but let's take it at face value for now.  [I think that it is based simply on the fact that any activity is better than no activity, which is kind of a lame answer.]

So for a "better than average cardio-vascular health" goal, my personal goal would be running a minimum of 200 minutes per week, split up across the week, with an actual target of ~250 minutes, and a stretch goal of 300 minutes. Head's up: this is a purely arbitrary conclusion on my part based on my personal condition. But it seems in keeping with general fitness thought. Personally, I know that if I run at least 200 minutes per week I can drink beer and eat ice cream...  :-)

And just for grin's I thought I'd also toss in this notion that our heart has a lifespan of a defined number of beats (say what? says who? and how do they know?) and so by engaging in an aerobic activity such as running, and thereby increasing our heart rate, that we are more rapidly using up our allowance of heart beats.  And that is so wrong.... As it happens, if you regularly exercise aerobically, your heart conditions itself to the point where your resting heart rate is sufficiently lower than if you did not regularly exercise. There are numerous studies on this - do an internet search - that quantify this in detail. The interesting fact is that by regularly exercising aerobically and conditioning your heart to beat at a lower rate (resting) you actually wind up using substantially fewer heart beats than if you did not exercise.

More as it happens...
Honeymoon HM in 3 weeks.

Reach the Beach Ragnar Relay 2014

Confirmation that runners are truly insane is volunteering to participate in a 207 mile relay race. I was invited to join a team running in this year’s Reach the Beach run in New Hampshire that goes from Cannon Mountain at 2000 odd feet down to Hampton Beach and, oh yeah, it was an experience.

If you don't know what one of these relay events are like, this is how it works:

The first thing you do is get a team of 12 runners together and split them up into two groups of 6 runners, each group has a van. Preferably, each group of 6 can get along pretty well with each other - and this is important, because each group is going to spend the better part of the next 24 to 40 hours in very close proximity to each other. Seriously close.

The next thing is you divvy up running rotations. There are 36 segments, so each runner will ideally run 3 legs. The distance of each leg is determined by the relay event organizers, officially defining a "transfer point", with legs varying between 3 to 9 miles more or less. So, "runner #1" starts the first leg - everybody piles into the van and you drive down to the next transfer point, and he/she passes the baton to "runner #2", and so on. After you cycle through your 12 runners, runner #1 gets another go, and the cycle continues until you "reach the beach" ie the finish line. No hotels, no stopping. You are always hopscotching the current runner. 

Here is the elevation map... wicked for those of us (me) who have spent the last 12 months running on flat terrain:

Each team has to have a name – ours was “Close the Gap”. There is a significance to it, but I don’t remember what it was about... Other teams had crazy names like: “Girls gone Miled”, “Fuster Clucks”, “Beach Balls and Bikinis”, and so on… One of my favorites was “Out of Breathalyzers”.

The teams are divided into 2 vans. Vans 1 and it's 6 runners go through the first 6 segments and then meet up with Van 2, where upon Van 2 takes over for 6 segments and the folks in Van 1 get a little break until they take over at the end of the 12th segment. And then Van 2 gets a little break, and so on.... You sort of getting the drift?

It all sounds very straight forward, and it is, except that we are talking about more than 500 teams, each of which has 12 runners.  Some teams are "elite" teams with only 6 runners, or in our case 11, due to a last minute drop by a team member. Believe it or not, it took us 2 hours to figure out how to fill in the segments that the dropped runner would have run.

The transfer points are chaotic and crazy with vans pulling in and out, runners finishing their segment and handing off their baton (or in some case arriving and not having someone to hand off to because: a) the Van is late b) the van got lost c) the new runner is not ready d) the new runner is in a porta-pot, or maybe e) the runner is so incredibly fast that he/she is beating expected times....). Remember that are over 500 teams and there are two vans per team!  That’s a lot of traffic. This picture is from one of the very "calm" transfer points.

Did I mention that this was a non-stop event? I didn't sleep a wink for 40 hours. It's been a long time since I've done that...

Ok, so let's run through this: I was runner #8 and in Van 2 (the "cool" Van - btw; apparently there is a bit of competition for coolness between the vans...).  At the transfer point runner #7 hands off to me and I take off for a ~6.7 mile jaunt. No biggie; the course goes from the mountains to the beach so it's all an easy downhill, right?  No way dude - we're in New Hampshire - and it is freaking hilly! And the down hills are brutal!  But I gut it out and run hard. But oops, there is going to be a problem...

There are so many vans associated with the event that we have created our own traffic jam in one of the little New Hampshire towns. And I mean serious traffic jam – these are two lane roads and we have overwhelmed the traffic capability. A couple of miles out from the town (and my transfer point) I can see that vans and local cars are all backed up and I start thinking about what do I do if my van didn't make it to the transfer point with the next runner. Do I keep running? Do I just kind of hang around? What is the protocol? So as I'm pondering my options I happen to pass a van that has an arm hanging out the window with a water bottle and I'm think "damn I could use some water", and I realize that it's my van, they see me coming and were thoughtful enough to realize that I might need some water, but even better, had already busted out our next runner who was trekking on foot to the transfer point! Awesome! I happened to catch up with her about a half mile from the transfer point and we jogged in together for the official hand off. Hooraa, one down for me.

But now it's back into the van (after walking back through the traffic to find it), squeeze into the designated "stinky" seat (no time for post run stretching) and we rush to get to the next transfer point before our new runner gets there. Now I can give myself a wet-nap bath, get out of my sweaty running duds (safely locking them into a zip lock bag to reduce some of the stinkiness), and do a little stretching.

My first run had started at about 5PM, and this pic is one of our runners coming in from the dark at around 8PM. My next run, leg #20, isn't until around 3AM. Yeah, you read it correctly. 3AM. But I can't stretch out in the van and take a nap - there just isn't room. It’s just a minivan.. We've got bags, snacks, fluids, clothes, towels, maps, garbage, etc. it's a packed van. Plus there are things to do - like, someone has to drive, someone else needs to navigate, someone needs to keep a eye on a stopwatch so that we can keep track of the runner we just started, the runner that just finished their segment needs to get themselves cleaned up a bit, and so on... Hopefully, we get the to next transfer point in enough time to let the upcoming runner change into new (and dry and better smelling) running duds and ideally warm up for their run. Oh, and we need to keep the other van updated on our progress so that they can be sure to be at the next Van Transfer Point so that they can take over for their 6 rotations. There is a fair amount of necessary coordination and organization. 

We (Van 2) finished our first rotation around 8:30PM, sending Van 1's first runner off with a big cheer. We dive into a restaurant eat and try to relax a bit. Then it's back into the van and we navigate our way to the next Vehicle Transfer Point, roughly an hour away. As soon as we get there (a school parking lot) we try to find a place to park and hopefully catch some zzz's. But this is not a nice quiet school parking lot...  There are at least 200 odd vans pulling in and out, there are people (trying) to sleep on whatever patch of grass they can find - picture cocoon-like blobs (runners rolled up in sleeping bags) scattered helter-skelter everywhere - people (trying) to sleep in their vans - car alarms going off because someone accidentally hit the Panic button, headlights, backup beeps, trucks with flashing/rotating beacons... Are you getting the idea yet that this was not the place for some rest? You got it...

Ok - so it's getting close to my turn to run again... Do you remember that our team was down a runner? So, out of all this we shuffled rotations and distances around and I'm picking up a couple extra miles in order to somewhat relieve the guy running before me (because he’s a stud and he picked up another segment). That means that we are going to pull off to the side of the road at a location determined by us and wait for him to reach us (and find us in the dark) for the baton hand off. It's 3AM. Dark. 40-odd degrees. Country road. Hilly. We had already passed a van that pulled off to the side but missed seeing a deep ditch and fell into it, breaking an axel and who knows what else - bad night for them – hope they bought the extra insurance :-(. 

And so we are waiting. I'm all set. Reflective vest. Headlamp strapped to my forehead (I've never run with one before). Blinky light clipped in front and one in back. I'm ready. And we're waiting.  Did he run by us and we missed him?  There are lots of vans and lots of runners going by... Easy to miss him...

But suddenly we spot him as he is passing us - we did almost miss him! and I'm off. Now I'm off on this surreal run - ok, it's only 5.5 miles, no biggie there, but it was just weird.

I'm expecting a run down a quiet, rolling, dark country road illuminated by what's left of the super-moon and guiding my way with my headlamp. Oh no.. not so much... It was not quiet and it was not dark. The road was a constant parade of vans leapfrogging their runners.  Plus, the pavement was not perfectly smooth - hey, it's a rural road, what did I expect? So I had to concentrate on where I was stepping to avoid potholes or cracks in the road or rocks and so on...  I found it helpful to draft a runner and let her find most of them for me. Yeah, it would have been way more chivalrous of me to let her draft me and let me stumble through the mine fields, but hey, she insisted on passing me and I decided to keep up and follow her. Besides..., well, you know.....  So anyway, I never saw much of the moon. The bright side is that I also never had to over-anticipate an upcoming hill because I could never see it coming - I just knew t was there when I hit it. The downhill ones were the biggest surprise because all of a sudden I'm loading up my quads and wondering just how steep and long the damn thing is going to be.

One of the other elements of the event is the concept of "road kills", i.e. how many people have you passed. I'll tell you right now that I got passed a lot, even though I was running at what I thought was a respectable 8:15-8:30 pace. At one point I get passed by this one bonehead who mutters to me as he passes "road kill!" And I shout up to him "yeah, and I've got 30 years on you - how do you feel now?!" To which he now felt some measure of chagrin and I think said "sorry". Some vans made a big deal of it by decorating their van with tally marks of their "kills". It's all good - I get it ;-).  I just thought it was funny.

The hardest part is the third segment, especially after having no sleep. Three of our guys had to run a total of 4 segments so this last leg would be even tougher for them. I managed to rest a little bit by laying down on some grass at the last vehicle transition point while we waited for Van 1’s last runner. With the help of a little 5HR energy shot I gave my last 6.8 miles all the game I had, still managing to maintain an 8:15-8:30 pace. My quads were getting hammered on the down hills and my calves and hams screamed at me on the up hills. From an endurance perspective I seemed fine, but my legs did not like the terrain. I was sooooo happy to finish.

Once we launched our last runner on the last and final segment of the event, we all cram ourselves back into our van and scoot down to the finish line area. Now we are truly combating with all 1000+ vans, plus local traffic (the town of Hampton must of hated us!). Fortunately we had rented a house within a half mile or so from the finish line and could park our van at the house and walk over. The temptation to jump into a shower before doing so was huge, but if we did we would have missed our finishing runner. The bummer of being the last runner is that he had to run about 3/4 of a mile on the beach to the actual finish line – I’m not sure that I would have had the juice in my legs to do that through the sand! But here he trudged, running in his socks, shoes in hand, gamely claiming a "road kill" at the finish line, and we all joined in with him to cross the finish line together with the announcer calling out the name of our team. It was great to be done. Now, where’s the food and where’s the beer!!

We weren't able to capture a "crossing the finish line" picture, but we did get a group pic at the end. That's the beer and food tent behind us - lets go already!

540 teams signed up to run, 530 started, 522 finished. The fastest team finished in 20hr 24min (an incredible 5:54 pace), the slowest finished in 37hr 30min.  We finished in 28hr 43min (an 8:18 pace), 133^rd place overall.

From an event organizational perspective, I was impressed. The race organizers had to coordinate an entire 207 mile route and all that it entailed; through towns and villages, arranging transfer points, traffic and police, signage (i.e. runners: go this way.. Vans: go this other way..), do whatever they can to avoid totally annoying the entire population of  New Hampshire, organizing volunteers (especially tough on those needed to work the midnight hours), and so on. I suspect that it was a tremendous undertaking. I totally appreciate their work and efforts - thank you.

It was truly a different experience for me, so different than running an individual event – fun at so many different levels, hard at others, as well as being challenging. I was running with a team of whom I only knew one person and fortunately we all got along great and helped each other. I’d like to do it again and if I have that opportunity I’ll have a better training routine and a better race-day strategy to manage my legs.  Hooraah

Next up, Honeymoon Island Half Marathon November 8 !

(If you would like to leave a comment I've been told that it may be necessary for you to temporarily allow 3rd Party Cookies - it's not my thing... it's seems to be a Google Blogger thing... For example, if you use Chrome as a browser, go to "Settings", scroll down to the bottom and select "Show Advanced Settings", select "Content Settings" in the Privacy section, and then un-select "Block 3rd Party cookies...".   I would not recommend leaving your settings that way, so be sure to reset it back to block 3rd party cookies.)

Back to the Newtons

This is like one of those "forgive me for I have sinned" moments... Thinking that my old Newton's weren't cutting it I went off the reservation and bought a pair of  Saucony Triumphs. They felt good. They felt different. And I put 150 odd miles on them. But after the first few runs I found that they just were not working for me. My gait was off, my ankles didn't feel right, my achilles got tight... nothing was right...

So I went back to my old Newtons and immediately felt the difference. It was like finding an old friend. They felt great. Well used, but my run felt so much better than my runs with the Saucony's.

But I don't think that this necessarily has anything to do with Saucony shoes from a quality perspective - they are good shoes - they just weren't working for my gait and physical characteristics.

One of the things that I noticed while running with the Saucony's was that my left foot was toe'ing in. A friend suggested that it was because of a weak or tired muscle - but I was somewhat skeptical about that. I did sort of notice was that when I ran in my old Newton's that it did not happen, but that little fact did not totally register with me until later.

Then, on a whim, I went into a local running store to re-visit Newton's and the woman who took care of me suggested that perhaps I needed more of a stability shoe.

I said "nah.... I'm good, I want to try the Gravity's that I've got now"... I did, and as I ran around the store she noted that my right foot was caving in from time to time.  Hmmmm.  I mentioned my issue with my left foot toe'ing in, and she said yeah, that makes sense. That the left foot was basically compensating.  More hmmmmm.  I'm not totally sure about all of it, but ok, I'll take it at face value. Then she had me try the Newton Motion Stability model - and I absolutely noticed that both of my feet were on track, no toe'ing in. They felt great. I want to be back in Newton's!

And I would have pulled the trigger on buying them if they didn't cost $175.  Folks, that's a ton of money for me, and so I didn't buy them, much to that woman's disappointment. I also had a little issue with the woman, but I won't go into that - it was just a little off-putting, and that was another factor in my not being that anxious to give her my money. But still, $175 is a lot of money.

But guess what?  I was able to get a 20% discount directly from Newton. I feel bad for not being able to support my local running store, but 20% turns $175 into $140. And now we're talking.  I'm hoping to get them before I leave for my Reach the Beach relay run in New Hampshire next week. Hopefully, I'll be able to have a great run with them!

Struggling but I'm winning

The summer humidity, the ongoing commitments of day to day life, and some nagging ankle issues are working hard to beat me down. I'm struggling, but I'm winning, and I can't wait to see the view from the top...

I make an effort to be committed to my running goals, but they always get re-prioritized by life's other priorities (family, work, social commitments, etc - you know how it is...). When I have a pressing ongoing project I am tempted to forgo my morning run so that I can get an even earlier start on the project, the rationale being that there are other people that are affected by the status of the project. On the other hand, I'm not being true to myself and my health by dropping my run.

I remember years ago rationalizing that there was no way that I could get to a gym or start a running routine because I had "urgent and pressing" responsibilities that just had to be addressed. Once they were taken care of, then and only then could I think of myself... but of course that never happens.

Of course, I've had people tell me that I needed to literally schedule my workout time as if it were a business meeting, i.e. make it mandatory. And predictably, I never did that. I always felt too committed to my work and family priorities. It was not until I sold my company that I suddenly had the time to run - which is how I started running...

Now I'm facing the same issues again, work projects and family commitments are demanding time and I've been tempted to forgo my runs to take care of those responsibilities. Just a few weeks prior to the Marine Corps Marathon last year I got enveloped in a huge project into which I felt so committed that I scaled back my marathon training - at obviously the wrong time - and I am sure that helped contribute to my tough marathon. It's not an excuse - it was my decision, but in hindsight a bad one.

But I've pushed back.

I am forcing myself to reschedule projects and meetings in order to accommodate my running and training routines so that I can meet my running and training goals.

The current levels of humidity are a different story, and there is not much that I can do about that. It has a way of just sucking the mojo out of me - it is so hard to run when it is so oppressively humid. Ugh.  I've been scheduling my runs early in the AM before the sun breaks the tree line - it's still humid, but at least the solar radiation is not knocking me down. Plus I'm working on the premise that by gutting it out and pushing through my runs that I'm actually getting stronger (yeah, right....).

I'm also fighting an Achilles strain, which requires careful running, resting the ankle, ice, and elevation. I've got a Ragnar Relay coming up in a month, and I'm determined to have a good run!

I'm struggling, but I'm going to win my battles!

It's all about the shoes

Newtons, Saucony, and Cloudtec

I have fallen out of love for my Newton running shoes (Gravity)…  After running 560 miles in my first pair and 515 in my second, I just wasn’t feeling the love anymore for the Newton's. Perhaps my gait has changed, but something is different. At 500 miles it is obviously time to consider new running shoes, and as I readied myself to do so, I have to admit that the cost of the Newton’s was also a consideration in my choice of a new pair.

And so, after trying a myriad of different running shoes, I opted for Saucony Triumphs – and so far they feel good. They are a little bit heavier than the Newton Gravity’s (306g vs 252g) with an 8mm heel-toe offset. To be honest, I can’t really feel the difference between the weights of the shoes. The important part, of course, is that they just feel right when running. The odd thing that I've noticed while running with the Saucony's though, is that I’m not as focused as I was with the Newtons with regards to landing on my midfoot/forefoot, although I know that I am still doing it. I do notice that my steps are quieter. For some reason I was unable to land as softly as I would have liked with the Newtons and I tended to hear a “plop” sound with every step. Odd. It may have been my gait.

When I took up running with the Newton Gravity shoes I noticed that I was a tad faster, probably because I became more focused on my form and doing the midfoot/forefoot thing, and so I have been curious what the effect, if any, would be with the new Saucony’s. The answer is still TBD… It has been so hot and humid, that any real evaluation or analysis is going to have to wait until the weather gets a little more cooperative. I’m still running in this humidity, but not with a tremendous amount of gusto. My running mojo is sucking…

But then entered a wild card…  I fell into a pair of CloudTec Cloudracers (230g, 5mm heel/toe offset) (website: www.on-running.com) the night of a 5K. I immediately felt the lightness of these shoes. Wow, so this is what lightweight shoes feel like! But they are a little weird in that the soles of the shoe have these rubber “eyelets”, or bumps (see the picture...) that are kind of little bouncy, spongy things… My initial reaction when I saw the shoe was “yeah, right… forget about it”, but then I tried them on and ran the 5K race with them.  And I PR’ed it… on an incredibly hot and humid night (it was

a midnight 4^th of July run…) I ran the fastest 5K I have ever run. It must have been the shoes...! (uh-huh...) But yes, they really, really felt good. I felt a little extra spring that was very dynamic. Maybe that is what those rubber eyelets thingy's do.

I’m a little skeptical with regards to how many miles I can get out of the Cloudtec shoes, because I am sure that the rubber eyelets will either fatigue and collapse, or will rip out. We’ll see. I may just use them for events. But they do feel real good!

Next up: I'm hoping to run in one of the Ragnar series relays, the New Hampshire Reach the Bay (or is it Beach?) in September.  Never done one, hope to see what it's like!

After that its a Half Marathon on Honeymoon Island in November.

The Cost of Running $$

I made the mistake the other day to consider how much that particular run was costing me, as in how much per mile (I sometimes like to do math while I’m running… I know, crazy…)

Ok, it’s not a ton of money, but it turns out that it is not insignificant either.   If I include the broad assortment of running related goodies, from shoes to gu, it costs me about $0.80 per mile…  More on how I’ve arrived at that in a sec.  

When I first started to run 5 years ago I literally went out with my day-to-day sneakers, a pair of shorts and a cotton tee shirt.  After all, running is commonly known as the most inexpensive form of exercise – no equipment needed and the roads, sidewalks, and trails are free.  The only thing required is one’s effort.

Well, I’m sure you know the story…   To start with my shoes sucked (they were my non-work shoes that I played with my kids with, mowed the lawn, walked around downtown with, etc..), so I got into more appropriate shoes dedicated to running. That was the first cha-ching.  And course, special socks became the next mandatory item since my cotton/polyester sox didn’t do my feet any favors. Another cha-ching.  And so it goes – you know the drill.

So let’s just start with the shoes and sox…  For example, I recently bought a new pair of Saucony Triumph’s for $140 and some new sox for $10.  I’m hoping to get 400 miles out of the shoes, so that comes to $0.35 per mile.  I’ll get maybe double the miles out of the sox, so let’s say that comes to $0.01 per mile. For my feet alone, every mile that I run every day is costing me $0.36. So for a 30 mile week, that totals out to $10.80 a week.  I’ve spent more for a gym membership that I never went to…. So I'm totally cool with that; a pretty cheap solution to better physical and mental health.

But guess what? It doesn’t end with just the investment in my footwear! Here is a list of the crap that I’ve wound up buying to support my running habit:

•  More sox
• Non-cotton t-shirts
• Running shorts
•  Winter running pants and shirts
• A rain shell (for those drizzly or ice-spitting mornings)
• Headgear, i.e. hats and skullcaps
• Sunglasses (ok… I might have bought them regardless, but interestingly enough, I only wear them when I’m running…)
• Nutrition (like gu, shotbocks, Gatorade,  etc.)
• First-aid junk (band-aids, ace-bandages, wraps, creams, Epson salts, etc)
• Running app for my phone (vs buying a GPS watch)
• Ear buds for music (they break, get lost, etc.)
• A waist-pack to carry all of my crap in
• Camelback and a water belt

And now I’m pushing $0.80 per mile. This calculation is the result of putting all of the above items into a spreadsheet, establishing a cost and then dividing by how many miles I might get out of them.  And that $0.80 may even be low, but nevertheless it is still way better than paying for a gym membership that I never went to.

But wait ! There’s more !   How about running a race, or four, every year? And here is where the real money comes in. Event costs vary, and I’ve paid anywhere from $25 for a 5K to $140 for a marathon. My annual costs for event entry fee’s is around $300, and this does not take into account any costs associated with me getting to the event or lodging, etc.  I probably dropped between $700 & $1,000 to run the Chicago Marathon in 2011, between lodging, transportation to Chicago, cabs, food, etc.

So the net-net here is that running isn’t free… it has costs and they are not necessarily negligible.  Shoes are expensive. Sweat-wicking shirts and shorts are expensive. Events are expensive. No wonder that running is a multi-billion dollar industry!

But at the end of the day, running is arguably still the cheapest form of cardio-vascular exercise available that has the added value of providing awesome mental refreshment.  

Hot run

What's better than a mid-day 6 mile run with the temperature at 90 degrees plus, and heavy, heavy humidity? And no wind, by the way.

Everything and anything... But I had that hankering to do a tough run.  It had been a big weekend of drinking and eating and I had a lot of bad ju-ju that I wanted to sweat out. So I had good cause…

I got myself prepped with the necessary goodies for a "you-must-be-crazy-to-run-in-this-heat" kind of a run: Vaseline, sunscreen, a camel-back loaded with ice, a sweat-wicking skull cap, and sunglasses. And off I went – and I had a great, but tough, run.

I kept myself at a very easy pace, 9:50-10:15 min/mile pace and never got to a point where I was predominately breathing through my mouth (For me, that’s a key indicator of my aerobic intensity. If I’m breathing through my mouth 100% of the time, I know that my heart rate is pushing 130bps, and so if I’m breathing mostly through my nose while running I know that my heart rate is likely around 120 or so.

But it was hot, so hot and muggy!  My route had a lot of shade trees, but I had stretches of a half-mile or more that had no shade whatsoever, and those parts were brutal.

I started out sipping water from my camel back every half mile, and then later in the run when I was feeling the most heat (and I was definitely hot from exertion) I started drinking much more often as well as soaking my skull cap with the cold water from my camel back. I got hot enough that I took a walk break in a shady area at mile 5 so that I could cool myself down after a long stretch in the sun.

But overall it was a great, focused, run. I felt that I ran with purpose and determination. It goes without saying that the plunge into the pool afterwards was awesome. And I definitely felt like had relieved myself of most of the bad ju-ju... I know I have a good sweat going when the sweat is flying off my fingers as I run.

I lost 3 pounds during my run, despite constantly taking in fluids.  According to an article that I read, that equates to 3 pints of water loss – which sounds pretty crazy.  A three pound loss also comes out to 1.8% body weight loss for me, which I think is within the safe zone of temporary weight loss due to sweating fluids out. But the 3 pints of water still sounds nuts to me. That would be on top of all the water that I drank while running (which turned out to be ~2 pints). Hmmm

Stages of a Marathon

This is my take on the 10 stages of a marathon... If you've ever run a marathon you'll so get it... If you are considering running one, now you'll know what to expect!

Stage 1: Pre-start Anticipation

Standing (or sitting) in the Starting Corral. Sun is just peeking up over the horizon. Anticipation and excitement are high. It’s chilly, you are ready to go, and you are packed in with 1,000’s of fellow runners, all anxious to get this thing going. It’s a little boring. You’ve already been up for 3-4 hours. And you need to pee…

Stage 2: Miles 1-6, finally running

Slowly getting the kinks out, trying to warm up and not hurt anything. Lots of noise and cheering. Trying not to get too hyped up and blow energy. Gotta find a place to pee.

Stage 3: Miles 7-14, in the groove

Ok, this is what you’ve trained for. Cruising along, not too fast, trying to remember when and where to find some fuel or fluids. You are feeling pretty good. Everything is normal. Hey, this isn't so bad!

Stage 4: Miles 15-20, starting to feel kind of like work

More than half way done, less than half way to go. Keep her steady, remember fuel and fluids. You've trained for this. All good. But jeesh, this is beginning to feel like a haul.

Stage 5: Miles 20-24 – crossing the chasm

You are now running in the black hole. You’ve never run this far before (except for maybe your previous marathon…), and there is no telling what is going to happen. Training runs maxed out at 20 miles. Can you even run further than 20? Don’t think about it. Just run. You won’t get to the finish line if you don’t run. Just run. Gotta keep running. Do not stop.

Stage 6: Mile 24 – things hurt

Multiple body parts are complaining. Must keep running. Very tired. Feet say stop. Head says not yet. no way. Spectators yell “you are almost there!”, but you know that already, you just wish that it were true. Digging deep for the will to keep running. There is a vague mirage of a finish line somewhere ahead. Could it be? Gotta keep running.

Stage 7: Mile 25 – 1.2 miles to go

Oh me oh my – yes, there is a finish line up there somewhere, you can smell it, you can hear it. You are struggling, but can’t stop for nothing now. Anyone can run 1.2 miles. Anyone. C’mon baby, c’mon, dig deep.

Stage 8: Mile 26 – New Life

You can see the Finish Line… It is shimmering with all of the wonders of sweet relief and promises of untold wealth and happiness. New found strength floods your legs (where the heck was that back at mile 23?). Praise the gods, you are going to finish the marathon. Nothing short of a bolt of lightning is going to keep you from crossing that finish line. And yet those last 385 yards are like an impossible distance. Why is this not over yet? Why is there a hill here? Are you freaking kidding me? C’mon baby, c’mon!

Stage 9: Finish Line – Euphoria

Relief, disbelief, unbridled satisfaction, euphoria like you have never experienced before in your life, and so much more flood your body. It’s done. You did it. You did something that others won’t or couldn’t. You took yourself out to the edge and you brought yourself home. The feeling is indescribable. You will never be able to explain this feeling to anyone.

Stage 10: Later that day – Now what?

Ok cool – you did it. Your walking is a little stiff, but you feel good. Now what other seemingly insurmountable challenge can you conquer?

In the event of interest, here are links to my two marathons. They were hard, no stellar times, but they were great experiences:
Marine Corps Marathon 2013:  Marine Corps Marathon -2013
Chicago Marathon 2011:  Chicago Marathon - 2011

(If you would like to leave a comment I've been told that it may be necessary for you to temporarily allow 3rd Party Cookies - it's not my thing... it's seems to be a Google Blogger thing... For example, if you use Chrome as a browser, go to "Settings", scroll down to the bottom and select "Show Advanced Settings", select "Content Settings" in the Privacy section, and then un-select "Block 3rd Party cookies...".   I would not recommend leaving your settings that way, so be sure to reset it back to block 3rd party cookies.)

Preparing for an 8K

I’m gearing up run an 8K (5M) event in a couple of weeks and I’m finding the process to be so much different than the training I’ve gone through for a HM or a marathon. Strictly speaking, a 5M race is like a 10K, it’s all about speed and endurance, but mostly speed. The trick is to be able to sustain the speed for entire distance. Assuming that I had some speed, I would be very serious about my training, but since I don’t I’m focused on meeting or beating an arbitrary goal that I’ve set, which is to finish in 44 minutes or less (very possible), with a stretch goal of 40 minutes (not likely). Anything in between will be a home run for me.

I’m pretty comfortable running 5 miles, so the distance is not an issue. What will be my challenge will be to do so quicker than usual. My 5 miles runs have ranged from as much as 48 minutes to just under 43.  

One of my many challenges has been my first mile: it seems to always be my “shake out” mile and almost always is close to a 10 min/mile pace. That first mile is where my body works out all of its kinks and my joints loosen up and my muscles warm up and so on... That slow start strategy has worked fine for HM and marathon events, but obviously not applicable to short distance events. Totally different situation for me.

The times that I’ve run a 5 mile route better than 44 minutes have all been when I’ve been able to do that first mile in the low 9 min/mile range. After that first mile I’ve been pretty good at paring down the next 4 splits, but when that first mile is 10 min/mile, wow, that’s a lot of time to win back. And I have not been able to pin down why I was able to run that first mile faster on those days.

Typical splits for 5 mile run might be:

Mile 1: 10 min

Mile 2: 9:30

Mile 3: 8:50

Mile 4: 8:30

Mile 5: 8:00

Which approaches a reasonable ~44:45 total time…  which is just "ok" …. On good days I can do the 4th mile at closer to 8:00 and the last mile under 8:00.

Obviously, if I can get through each of those first two miles at closer to a 9 min/mile pace I could be reaching into a 43:xx time…”.  So I’m working on that by warming up more prior to my 5-6 mile runs, and we’ll see what happens. On the day of the race I will probably jog a mile or so before the start to make sure that I'm loose and ready to run those first miles a little faster. I'm not worried about the distance - I'm pretty confident about my endurance - I'm more worried about sustaining the speed.

In the meantime, I managed to do something weird to my foot while doing speed intervals. Felt good running, but afterwards the top of my left foot is very sore and it hurts to walk. I skipped a running day, but did a slow 3 miles today. It hurts now, but not as bad as yesterday. Hmmm. What a pain in the ass…

The event is on May 10. It should be interesting!

Humid Humid Humid

Humidity has hit my neck of the woods (FL) and it is only mid April.  And there is no such thing as a cool morning run - it is humid even before the sun comes up. And then when it does rise over the trees, the solar heat just adds to the joy. It's amazing what shade does to make you feel cooler.

Interestingly enough, the humidity drops after the sun has been up for a bit. If I could delay my runs until the sun has been up for a couple of hours, I don't feel the affect of the humidity as much. But then I have to deal with the actual solar heat.  Aye, such a dilemma...  (truth be told, I'm just glad to be able to be running).

Over time I've learned a few things about humid running:
- run slower
- run shorter.

If running longer:
- take with or have access to plenty of water, Gatorade is nice but not mandatory,
- look for shade,
- it's ok to take walk breaks,
- lube up to prevent chaffing,
- keep an eye on HR, either by feel or with a monitor
- wear clothes that breathe and wick sweat away from my skin,
- if I start tasting salt on my lips, walk and take water liberally,
- if I start feeling hot, stop running. (this is a big judgement call that I'm not good at...)

Normally I like to run with a hat to protect my head and shield my eyes, but when it is humid it simply loads up with sweat so I wind up sticking it my waist band (where it does nothing other than to annoy me).  So I found a white skull cap that does a great job capturing the sweat on my bald noggin and gives my head a little bit of UV protection. More importantly, it feels much cooler than the cap. The only possible down side is that my wife thinks that I look ridiculous - but fortunately I don't care... :-)

As long as I follow my rules (above), I still get a great run, sweat out all the bad juju, and move on.  And a jump in a pool afterwards always feels good!

Today I run

Today I run so that tomorrow I will be strong. So that I will be strong and resilient to the things that might hurt me.

Today I run so that I can eat well today and tomorrow. So that I can eat and not grow in places that I shouldn't.

Today I run because it sharpens my mind. It sharpens my mind and tones my senses. I am so much more aware of things now.

Today I run because I am scared shitless of getting old. Very scared. 

Devices and Electronics (really?)

Runners seem to fit into two very diametrically opposed groups: Those who are ok with running with some kind of electronics and those that run with nothing but their shoes, shorts, and a t-shirt.  The latter group is what I call the “purists”. The former group is, well, they just aren’t as radical as the purists…  they are still runners by every definition, but they like their electronics, be it in the form of music, heart monitors, or even pace and distance GPS devices.

I admit it, I run with an iPhone. I use it for music, to track my run, for a map when I get myself lost, occasionally as a camera, and sometimes I’ll even take or make a phone call…  I’ve also messed with a HR monitor, either as a separate wrist display or, with newer technology, integrated into my iPhone app. To take it a step further, I also wear a digital sports watch. Also worth mentioning is the fact that I also carry an emergency contact card in case something bad happens, a couple of $$, some Gu, and a doggy bag (the doggy bag serves to wrap my phone with in the event of rain or if I need to ice an ankle or something).

Ok – I agree that the value of all of this stuff is nebulous at best.  The most useful things on my above list are probably the digital watch and the doggy bag.

I wish that I could be a “purist” runner – just lace up my shoes and head out for an hour or more, with nothing but my thoughts and a small notion of how far I am going or how long it took me. And from time to time I do run with nothing other than my watch.  But typically these are short runs, like 2-4 miles, and my only goal is to clear my head, stretch my legs, log some miles, or all of the above. Interestingly enough, I do find it to be refreshing to be gadget-free and I am able to listen and pay attention to my footfalls, my cadence, and my breathing. But on a regular basis, if I am going solo, after 20 minutes or so of running I get bored, so the music helps to distract me and in effect, entertain me. The music also helps me with my cadence; I pick a genre or music style that fits the run I want to take and it helps me stay in a groove.

But there is more to it than just the music. I like to know my “metrics”: how far I’ve run, what my average pace was, what my splits were, how high were the hills, how many, and so on. The iPhone app that I use is RunKeeper (www.runkeeper.com).  I’ll review the data to see if I’m improving and look for areas that I should focus on. I keep a spreadsheet of my runs and I’ll add little notes about each run (good run, GREAT run, and occasionally, bad run, humid, cold, etc.). The spread sheet sort of works like a coach for me.

I use my digital sports watch to track my splits real-time. Even though RunKeeper will give me this data either through my ear-buds or on the display, I find it less intrusive to just have the RunKeeper ping me every mile at which time I’ll tap my watch to check my split. I used to have RunKeeper tell me the mile marker, average pace, split pace, overall time, and probably a few more metrics – but it was just way too much for me to absorb. Now I just have it tell me what mile marker I’m at, I can glance at my watch to check my pace and split, push the split/lap button, and carry on.

For a while I was also running with a Heart Monitor (HM), but I started to feel too-connected, too many gadgets, too much crap on me, so I ditched it. More realistically, I realized that I could subconsciously feel if I was running within my aerobic range or if I was trending anaerobic. Plus I was getting annoyed with the fact that there is so much bad advice out there about the use of HM’s and what one’s heart rate should be at any given moment. I was collecting interesting data, such as nominal HR at a given pace or distance, MaxHR during sprints or hills, and probably the most important I thought was how quickly my HR recovered from MaxHR. But ultimately, all of that data was not relevant to me on a day to day basis for my runs.

Another aspect of the available electronics is the location capabilities. From time to time I’ve run some very extended runs in areas that I am not familiar with, sometimes on trails that are not well travelled. Should something happen to me, at a minimum my wife would be able to track me down by locating my phone – and I know… given the current conversations about big brother watching this can be a touchy subject, but yet it’s a very real situation. I’ve only had to be rescued once, and I am glad that I had my cell phone with me because I was a loooong way from home.

So I’m wondering what type of device will come next? Something that will measure available oxygen in your system and calculate VO2Max? Or glycogen stores? Perhaps something to measure hydration levels? How plugged in do we feel that we should get to run or train optimally? Or to ask the question differently, will this type of data gathering help marginal athletes become great athletes?

I feel that as humans, we like to know things, and that’s why we have all the various type of devices and electronics available to us for running, conditioning, and training. For some runners, time is all they need, for others it’s the entire suite of performance data. It becomes a balance to meet whatever need feels like the priority at the moment… It all depends on what we are individually looking for.

Winter running - and Florida

Within my relatively short running history (most of it up north in the mitten state), winter was a period where I dialed down the miles but I would still get out there and run. After a year of training, struggling through injuries and scrambled recoveries, and running a few events, winter was almost a welcome relief. No pressure. Run for the sheer whim and fun of it.

I would run outside as long as there wasn't any ice. And if there was I'd find a treadmill or do the stairs in my house. I learned how to dress for various temperatures (thin layers), that a windbreaker is a godsend, and something for my bald head was essential. I've run in snow, while it's snowing (a very cool experience - no pun intended), sleet, and in temps as low as 8 degrees F (that was a coooold experience...).

I am now in FL, where it seems the "running season" is reversed: winter is the time to run, summer is the time to recover. And I've had an interesting time adapting. My body is saying "back off - we had a tough year last year" but the weather has, for the most part, been phenomenal. Perfect running weather. Some mornings it is as cool as 40 degrees, warming relatively quickly to 60, others it just starts out around mid 60's and tops out at maybe 75. Low humidity, sunny... In other words, perfect.

And yes, I do get out and run, knowing full well that in a few months the hot, sticky, humid weather will set in, making running a tad more difficult. If it is chilly out I'll wear a long sleeve something over my running shirt, knowing full well that as soon as the sun pops over the trees that I'll be shedding the long sleeves and tying it around my waist. This morning it was mid 40's at my start, and I had a long sleeve, a windbreaker, plus I wore gloves - within 30 minutes, as the sun got high enough over the tree tops, I was down to my running shirt with everything else tied around my waist.

What is also interesting about FL running is that unless I get to run over a bridge, most of my running territory is flat as a pancake. Absolutely zip for vertical climbs. No hills. And honestly, I kind of miss hills. Hills were (are) a challenge as they engaged different muscle groups which I think was (is) helpful overall in endurance conditioning. I can't even do the stairs in my house, simply because I don't have any.... (single story house).

So that is yet another challenge to handle... all good ;-)

Pre-run nutrition really matters (?)

I am so confused about pre-run nutrition... I had an odd experience today:

I had gotten into the habit of eating something before my runs, like a banana or a piece of toast with peanut butter or some yogurt, about an hour before I start. And that pretty much was ok - no issues.

But not too long ago I had a conversation with a fellow Marine Corps Marathoner, who happened to be a doctor, and his opinion was that pre-run fueling like mine was unnecessary. He stated that the food that I might eat an hour before running simply does not have time to run through the digestive process in order to really affect my body, with the sugar content being the only exception. The sugars in the carbohydrate content get processed very fast (in fact any sucrose, glucose, matodextrin or maltose) to produce glycogen, the fuel needed to make muscles work. But this is typically short term fuel, i.e. it won't last me long...

I argued that my "eat something an hour before" practice seemed to work, to which he replied that this was simply because my body's metabolism had become accustomed to sucking the sugars out, but then also suggested that I probably felt the need to refuel by mile 4 or 5... which is true.

So after the MCM I tried to get into the habit of not eating prior to a run.  Since I run first thing in the morning, I would just have a cup of coffee (ok, maybe two cups) and then out the door.  And that seemed to be ok. Granted, my recent runs have been less than 10 miles, lots of 3's and 4's, with 5's, 6's, and 8's scattered in there. For my longer runs, I would suck down a GU around mile 5 or 6 to get me home (he also had an opinion about that, but that's a separate topic).

But today I had a really odd experience:
I'm up early, but got involved in various tasks and did not get out to my run until almost 3 hours after my intended time (bummer). Feeling that I might need some fuel since I had delayed my departure so much, I munched down a banana and a small piece of whole wheat bread with some peanut butter (I felt hungry...), and about 20 minutes later I was running with a 5 mile run planned.

At Mile 2 I felt the beginnings of what I call "fuel fatigue", that feeling that I'm lacking fuel and I'm running out of gas. By Mile 2.5 I felt like I was going to bonk (so weird!!), so I sucked down a GU and ran on.  A quarter of a mile later, I had to walk. I felt like I had nothing in the tank. Bonk.

As I walked my mind is scrambling to figure out what was wrong. By this time it had been an hour since I had the banana, and about 45 minutes since I had the bread (albeit small piece) and peanut butter. I realized that the GU would take a few minutes to take effect, but why the hell hadn't the banana and peanut butter kicked in??!!!

About 10 minutes after I sucked down the GU I felt recharged enough to run again. In fact, without even thinking about it, I posted a very nice 4th and 5th mile times.

I owe the last two miles to the GU - I am sure that stuff is the only reason that I was able to run well. But conversely, I don't like the fact that it worked - it is such a crutch. Perhaps it signals an issue with my body's inability to store and manage glycogen. Or a lack of preparation on my part for the run...? I finally realized that by the time I started my run it had been 16 hours since my last real meal, and the banana and peanut butter were tea-spoons of fuel too close to my run start.

I'm going to pin my mid-run bonking issue on the period of time since my last real meal (16 hours) and the fact that the banana and peanut butter had nothing to work on and were unable to be digested into usable energy.

Interesting stuff - time for a better plan...

(If you would like to leave a comment I've been told that it may be necessary for you to temporarily allow 3rd Party Cookies - it's not my thing... it's seems to be a Google Blogger thing... For example, if you use Chrome as a browser, go to "Settings", scroll down to the bottom and select "Show Advanced Settings", select "Content Settings" in the Privacy section, and then un-select "Block 3rd Party cookies...".   I would not recommend leaving your settings that way, so be sure to reset it back to block 3rd party cookies.)

Running felt bad until one day it felt good

“Running felt bad until one day it felt good” (read this line in an article by Marc Parent in Runners World, The Newbie Chronicles (www.runnersworld.com/newbie) – I think that is such a great statement.

I didn't like to run when I took it up at the ripe age of 52 - I took it up to improve my cardio-vascular health and to get other parts of me moving. I didn't like the dynamics of a gym, and so I was looking for something else and I thought that running might be it. But I didn't like to run. It didn't feel good to me. I didn't know how, I couldn't go far without walking, it hurt, and it was hard. As a kid I played a lot of soccer, and in PE the coach would have us run around the fields and so on, but I remember running (when not playing soccer) as being more of a punishment than being fun. I had some odd knee pain that bothered me whenever I tried to run and that was always an instant discouragement (or an excuse…).  Nevertheless, I took on running because I felt some urgency to improve my health.

So here I was at age 52 struggling to figure out how to run, knowing in the back of my head that it was supposed to be good for me, but not having any fun at all with it. It was so hard and I was sooo bad at it. I couldn't even go a full mile without walking. It was embarrassing.

Regardless, I trudged on, struggling to run a mile without walking, and then 2 miles, and then 3. It took me forever to reach that 3 mile milestone. I even ran a half marathon without feeling great about running – I did the HM just to prove to myself that I could.

And then, not too long after that HM it suddenly did feel good to be running – it wasn't like an epiphany or a sudden revelation – I remember going out for a run and thinking how good it feels to be running. In fact, in my log I noticed that my notes started saying things like I had had a “great run”; not just a good run or an ok run, but I had a GREAT RUN. It was as if my physical and mental cogs finally got lined up and I was now in sync. I am sure that it was because my endurance levels were substantially better than when I started running, the weather was great, my music was on cue to my mood, I hadn't eaten too much the night before, I had gotten a good night’s sleep, and so on… But that was a big turning point for me.  It felt good. It was no longer this horrible struggle. I could run, I could feel the endorphin's kick in, and I knew that when I was done with my run that I would always feel better for having run.

The point here is that I know now that whenever I’m running that I-will-feel-good. Admittedly, not every run is a great run... sometimes there are bad runs - but for the most part, most of the time, running does feel good...:-)

(If you would like to leave a comment I've been told that it may be necessary for you to temporarily allow 3rd Party Cookies - it's not my thing... it's seems to be a Google Blogger thing... For example, if you use Chrome as a browser, go to "Settings", scroll down to the bottom and select "Show Advanced Settings", select "Content Settings" in the Privacy section, and then un-select "Block 3rd Party cookies...".   I would not recommend leaving your settings that way, so be sure to reset it back to block 3rd party cookies.)

If you are not challenged, you will not be changed

If you are not challenged, you will not be changed.

I don't remember if I've heard or read this somewhere, or if it just came to me, but it is true. If I am not challenged to get better at something, meet a goal, see something, etc., I never will. But this also goes along with that "will to persevere" thing... I have to (you have to) have the "will" to do it, to be challenged. And it can be a pain in the ass and often inconvenient, but the results and rewards are tremendous.

I have been struggling to maintain my physical activity (running) goals in the face of the various priorities and interruptions of "life" and it is difficult - it is a hard balance. And this is where the challenge part comes to play: I challenge myself to meet my goals and to accomplish certain things. And often by accepting these challenges, I am in effect, more than halfway there because in my head, I'm already doing it. It's kind of interesting from a mental viewpoint. And meeting and exceeding those goals is an incredible feeling.

For example, I've noted that when I'm gearing up to run 3 miles or 18, my head is already into the fact that I am going to run the target distance. Why? Because that is what my goal is, that is what I want to accomplish. I start running and I'm done when I'm done. And when I finish my run, I am fully satisfied because I did what I said I was going to do. Obviously this applies to all other areas of life...

I am challenged, and I will continue to change for the better.