196 Days to Go, 38# to go - Climbing the Mountain

“I believe that if you set out on an adventure and you’re absolutely convinced you are going to be successful, why bother starting?” — Sir Edmund Hillary

I've got no problem with overconfidence.  Most of the time I wonder if I can make it to the finish of my next two mile run.  Thus according to the logic of dear ol' Edmund it is time to get going!  The training has been going well.  Other than the fact that I skipped a short run yesterday (shocking!).  I'm back in the twenty miles plus per week range, and I'm feeling motivated to keep grinding towards the goal.  10% weekly mileage increases, one at a time.


However.


There are a couple of obstacles (challenges?  opportunities? Happy Fun Balls? other optimist-flavored fluffy terms?)  that are raising their ugly heads.  So lets just be blunt shall we?  Identify the enemy,  analyze its weaknesses, and then attack.  And don't forget to pack the moist towelettes.


Here they are:
     1.  Plantar Fascitis  My self-described term of endearment for this is P.F. Kang.  (As in Kang the Conqueror.)  This is my own self-diagnosis, but as far as I can read, I meet every symptom.  And I'm getting really sick of it.  Basically I've been running with pain in both heels/feet for most of the last two years, through the streak, and up to now.  The heel pain comes and goes a little bit, but I walk around at work perpetually limping and I have to keep answering questions like, "What in the world is wrong with you!?"  and "Why do you have that pained look on your face?"  and "Why are you having conversations with the office plants again?" Let me just say it doesn't really sell streak running or running in general when you are constantly dragging a leg behind you.  Thus I need to attack it (raging, Hulk style me thinks).  I thought this site, of the many I've looked at, seemed to have some good practical advice for self treatment, and defeat of the P.F. Kang mosnter.  One of the challenges associated with P.F Kang of course leads to the next item...


     2.  Lose some weight!  Since I started running, I'm down a net of 50#s.  I'm pretty happy with this, as it was one of my goals for starting to run again, but I am not satisfied.  Besides all the, if you lose X pounds you will run Y minutes/mile faster (less time running, yeah!),  and the whole ten times your body weight crashing down on your joints when you run, and hey wouldn't it be nice to not have to examine the structural integrity of every chair you plan to sit on?  I know that packing a piano on your back, doesn't help one get up and down Hope Pass two times (the highest point (12,200') on the Leadville 100 course).  So its time to get back at it, and start moving the needle down again.  I think 38 more 16oz tubs of I Can't Believe it's Not Butter would be a good start.


Its probably a little obsessive, but I remember a motivational speaker-type story from way back, where the protagonist was asked by his mentor on a regular basis,  "What did you do today, to make it possible to achieve your goal?"  I like that question.  So I'm going to start asking myself that question on a regular basis.  That and other questions like "Does all you can eat, really mean all you CAN eat?  Or perhaps something else?"  or "Why did I have to endure the emotional pain and suffering caused by Jar Jar Binks?  Why George?  Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!"


What did you do today to achieve your goal(s)?

203 Days to Go Starting line = Finish Line

Sometimes I wish I could fast forward.  I wish I could just jump ahead right now to August 20th, with all the training having been done, all the hard work poured in, ready to toe the line and hit the course.

Of course if I did that, I would miss out on a lot.  I would miss out on the joys of a basic little two miler on the treadmill.  I would miss out on all the late night strategy discussions with my coach aka teh wifey.  I would miss out on long runs in the mountains of Colorado while our family camps.  I would miss out on all the races we have planned, and the trips to go run (and you know visit family and have vacation.)  I would miss out on that sweet satisfaction of stopping, after a long run; of that "I'm done with my run" feeling that I love so much.  I would miss out on that pre-race flurry of craziness and insanity that I know will set in the days, hours, and minutes before the race.  (Did I ever tell you about my midnight shopping spree the night before the marathon where I bought three separate rain-proof jackets at three different stores?  And later returned all but one...)  This is the fun of the journey.  The journey to get to the starting line.  I can't wait to break the tape, but I'm gonna try and enjoy getting there too.

207 Days to go - Winter Series II Race report aka Celebrating your Successes!

So I ran a race yesterday.  Thanks to the kindness of a church friend, I got to join teh wifey and another friend on the second leg of the Pikes Peak Road Runners Winter Series.  Teh wifey was signed up for the whole thing, but due to our flu from a few weeks ago she missed the first race.  The Long series (does anyone really bother with the short series? hee hee) :)  increases from six, eight, and ten miles and then finishes with a 20k race.

I was going into this eight miler as a training run, and a chance to run in a race with teh wifey which doesn't happen to often.  Overall I felt pretty good, talked to a nice guy for about ten minutes (while running!), and pushed it hard enough throughout to make a goal time, which in this case was under 90 minutes, (finished in 1:29:28.)

Now this, as we know whenever we are talking about my running times, is not fast.  In fact for this race it is very slow.  In fact it is so slow that of 254 male and female runners I finished 243rd out of 254.  (I beat three guys total.)  Now how can I rectify the two facts that, 1. I in my own relative perspective met my goal time, and yet 2. finished in the lowest 4% of runners and in the last 11 runners AND the winner finished in half the time I did and and and and...

Here's how I do it.

There are, by my own rough scientific approximation, 500,000 people who live in Colorado Springs.  Yesterday I ran faster thant 499,757 of them.  The four hundred or so who ran the "short" race all would have been disqualified for the eight mile race since they didn't cover the distance.  The other people who had nice runs in the Springs (you fast people know who you are) weren't on the right course so you are disqualified. That means on January 23rd, for the greater Colorado Springs area,  I finished in the top 99.99514th percentile of all runners for the eight mile winter series race.  That might be a little bit of silly warped logic, but it all points to one thought.  Celebrate your successes!  Even if you're like me (ok we know you're faster than that) and barely finish before they close the finish line, but you have a good run, and make your goal? Celebrate!  Too often I find myself discounting things, or rationalizing away any good things that are accomplished because I let "others" define the parameters of my success.  Well, not today.  Today we celebrate!  Quaff a Mountain Dew, let loose a hearty battle cry to the sky, cheer on Fulham FC,  then run three more miles the next day.  :)



What successes have you missed out on celebrating?

210 Days to Go - Piling on

The treadmill is here.  I've run on it.  I've already decided that the best thing about having a treadmill in your house, is that if you wait until your kids are in bed, there is no dress code.  Absolutely none.  Teh wifey might chuckle at me running in my undergarments and dress socks, and it might make you throw up in your mouth just a little, but I can still do it.  Just because.  Ok enough nausea.  p.s. there will be no pics of that...yes, you're welcome.

Hey how does running this sound?  50k shouldn't be too bad, right?  Just a nice long training run in the park.  And its close to the house.  Rock on.

Sheesh, all these races, and you would think that I actually like running...

219 Days to Go - I'm not ready for my closeup.

My apologies to all.  The treadmill pics will have to wait.  This is due to the fact that the idiots/sales professionals at the store, have decided it is reasonable to wait a week to ship the thing out.  My post-flu, cough-plagued lungs are full of hate.

On another strange note, in a series of strange notes.  I am now a TV/running star.  Or at least I will be on February 1st when I make my nationwide debut.  Yeah settle back, here comes another one of these strange things that Ace talks about, that really aren't that strange when you find out what it actually is, but I blather on about them anyway.

So a while back, I gave in to the incessant calls from a TV producer who shoots pieces for a short news magazine piece  The program (usually about two minutes long) is one where they give advice to parents/family types on how to live a better life/be a better parent/not go insane and give in to the murderous thoughts you have towards your children.  Apparently the other topic they are adding is how to become an uber runner type like me.  Well sort of.  The topic in our little "episode" is something like taking time for yourself.  You know so you can retain some of your parental sanity that left the moment your first child was born.  So there are lots of shots of teh wifey (who looks amazing! says amazing things! and is generally amazing!  (for some reason they included her speaking a whole lot more than me?  go figure!?)) and myself (yeah opening shot of me I have a massive wedgie, thanks camera guy!) doing things together and with the kids and then some shots of us doing things alone.   AND THERE ARE SHOTS OF ME RUNNING!

Yes I am now a professional TV running celebrity.  I'm sure millions across the land will be inspired by the wondrous images of me, plodding down the street in front of my house, looking like I'm about to keel over and die from physical exertion.  A new nation-wide running obsession is clearly about to begin.  There is a shot of me running with teh wifey where it looks like she is smiling and enjoying the whole running thing (true) and I look like I've recently given in to a death wish, hauled myself off the couch for the first time in six months and decided to commit ritual suicide using running shoes (only a little true.)  Either that or I look amazing.

I'm not exactly sure if I always look like I'm in severe pain while I run, or the camera guy just managed to catch that magical moment.  Either way, on February 1st TV sets across the land will be able to decide for themselves.  Either way I expect the royalty checks to come pouring in.  Probably about the same time the treadmill gets here....