Higher Ground

properly motivated

Sunday morning I awoke a tad after 9 a.m., no longer able to sleep. I Keuriged myself some coffee and slapped together a Nutella and peanut butter tortilla, and set about to fill out some reports for work. I resisted my typical urge to check out Facebook, Twitter or ESPN.com, because I didn’t want to be rudely greeted with the results of the Australian Open final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. To my delighted surprise, I found shortly after turning on the TV that the ESPN “Instant Classic” replay was already in progress. Score!

The work I needed to get done was not a great amount, and I found myself torn between two worlds at about 11 a.m. I was finished working, but the match was still going on (in its fourth hour and still only nearing the end of the fourth set). I had planned on heading out for a good long run as soon as wrapping up my work, but how could I possibly leave if the match were to go into a fifth set between the top two players in the game right now?

The simple answer: I couldn’t. As the match entered set No. 5, I tried to think of a way that I could more easily justify my sitting around at home rather than getting out for a run… Perfect! A large pile of laundry needed to be folded. That was my ticket to sticking around the house to watch the fifth set in its entirety while still being productive and not feel like I was just sitting on my ass rather than getting in a good run.

In the end, I’m glad I did stick around for the conclusion of the match. It was a great match to watch, if not more than a little over-dramaticized by Chris Fowler and Patrick McEnroe. I don’t know that I agree that Nadal and Djokovic “rededfined the limits of what is physically possible,” though I will say that to see them both play at such a high level so long, at the end of a grueling two weeks, was very impressive. I sometimes wonder if American tennis analysts are worse than other tennis analysts and their grandeose descriptions, or if it’s just a part of tennis analysis to over-sell it. Oh well…

As soon as the match was over I was already getting the shoes on, filling up the bottle and stuffing my pockets with some HoneyStinger banana gel for a good long run. I’ve been gradually upping my weekend time out running over the last few weeks. Two weekends ago, I logged my typical daily hour on Saturday, followed by two on Sunday, Last weekend, I did 1.5 hours Saturday and 2.5 Sunday. This weekend, I made it out for two runs, each close to an hour on Saturday, and logged a wonderful 3 hours after the Nadal-Djokovic match Sunday.

Heading out the door I was certainly feeling a bit more juiced up than normal on Sunday, and I’m sure it was becuase my mind was flooded with images of the match. I hit my groove early and stayed in it for entire 3 hours and change I was out, even feeling surprisingly strong over the final 30 or so minutes.

I love long runs, but simply running around pancake-flat Alamosa is not  prospect that ever manages to get my pumped for a good long effort. It tends to take a good 15 minutes to really start enjoying being out, and I tend to start really wanting a chance of scenery, or for the run to be over, after two hours. But that wasn’t the case yesterday, as the right motivation made all the difference in the world.

commitment > resolution

Resolutions, I feel, are pointless. They’re like diets. The calendar flips back into January and you get all gung-ho about some resolution you’ve made - like going to the gym or walking more often - but a month later it’s been ditched and you’re back into your old, crappy habits.

You don’t make resolutions when you’re serious about self improvement. Resolutions are elementary school writing assignments: “Write 500 words on your New Year’s Resolutions and how plan to accomplish it.” They’re topics of discussion designed to allow ”doctors” to come on Good Morning America and The Today Show to talk about losing weight, as if they don’t already freature enough gimmicky weight loss segments.

No, resolutions don’t work any more than diets. The change you want to see may come about quickly, but it won’t last.

When you’re serious about making a change, you don’t serach for the get-rich-quick-scheme of self improvement. You make a commitment to something; you make it a lifestyle choice.

Like 99 percent of the world, I’ve made attempted lifestyle changes in the past, and like 99 percent of that percent, I’ve struggled and failed. And again, like 99 percent of that 99 percent I’ve gotten back on the horse because I know that a lifestyle change isn’t something that works overnight, nor is it something that gets derailed overnight. I’ve fallen off the bandwagon on some these attempted changes for long periods of time, and it’s never really concerned me: “I’ll jump back on next week” I’d say… no big deal. Part of this non-chalance has come from the fact that I’ve always remained active as an athlete and runner, and because of that when I did fall off the bandwagon on living healthier, the physical effects of that were not always quick to come about. My activity level allowed me to fool myself that what I was doing was okay, I was a believer that “if the furnace is hot enough it will burn anything as fuel.”

True… maybe, but that doesn’t mean it’s not gunking up the engine.

Over the last three weeks I’ve had a terrifying, and terrifyingly close, view of just what happens when the engine gets gunked up.

While the timing of this eye-opening happened to be right at the turn of the New Year, I assure you that what I’m making here is not a resolution, but a commitment. It’s a commitment to putting the right things in my body far more often - whole, unprocessed foods and H2O - while leaving the wrong things on the shelves in the grocery store more - Oreos and anything containing primarily ingredients that I can’t pronounce. I’m not going to eliminate a hearty plate of nachos or a pitcher of beer, or even diet soda completely, but I am going to consider everything I put in more closely than I ever have before. And this doesn’t mean starving myself either, it means putting as much of the good stuff in as I crave, with the caveat being that the stuff I do keep putting in is in fact the good stuff.

Will this all lead to weight loss? I’ve no doubt that it will. But, that’s not the goal. For that to be the goal would be too short-sighted, and would leave in a few short months right alongside all those resolution-makers, wondering what went wrong and why I’m already back to my old ways.

back on (the) track

At lunch today, I did something I haven’t done in well over a year. I laced up the running shoes and rather than hitting up the trails/roads in Alamosa at a leisurely pace, or getting some decent climbing in on the treadmill, I jogged about 100 meters across a muddy-but-supposed-to-be-grassy field to the track.

I’ve set foot on the track in more recent months, but very rarely to run and not once to run fast. But, having caught the bug to run fast again last week when I did a couple of longer repeats along Highway 160, heading back to the track had an almost fun sound to it. I was even thinking about my lunch hour track workout when I woke up before my alarm clock went off this morning to do some ab work.

And, while highly tedious, my return to running on the track was actually FUN! Like, “I can’t believe I don’t do this more often!” fun. Nothing I did was exceptionally fast, but that’s what >1 year of not doing any serious speed workouts and 7,544 feet of altitude will do to you.

I kept things fairly simple as the “big oval” and I got reacquainted, running 5x800, 5x400 and 5x200 with active rest in between each. I debated throwing in a final hard mile at the end, but I didn’t want to push it too far, too quickly; a rare bit of self-restraint. I came a lit unraveled at the end of the 800s, but was hitting my goals on the 400s and 200s throughout, so that was a plus.

While more than just a way to mix things up a bit, it did feel great to do that today. I don’t think I’ll ever get so tired of running around the Alamosa City Trails that I dread heading out to the loops of dirt just North of town, but clearly they can get repetitive and even a few dozen trips around the inside of a stadium can lead to a greater appreciation of the normal route.

But something much larger was going on in my mind as I consciously made the decision to hit up the track, put on a watch and time myself as I ran in a circle. I know that to meet my running goals for this year, putting some more pace in my training is going to be necessary for successful marathon and ultra running. December’s TNF50 Championships in San Fran showed that jogging will no longer get the job done for ultra distance races: Mike Wolfe and Dakota Jones both ran about 7:20-:30 pace for 50 mile.

Also, I’m pretty sure I’ll be signing up for the Chicago Marathon in a couple weeks (fingers crossed), and I’ll certainly be shooting to destroy my first 26.2 time, and feel that 2:45 is an attainable goal. My rationale: I ran 3:08:XX after putting in fair training for the Veterans Marathon (Columbia City, Ind.) on a hilly course in 2009; this past November, on only a couple months of post-injury running and two workouts that involved any speedwork at all, I shaved several minutes of my half-marathon PR with a time of 1:25:XX, due almost entirely I’m sure to the fact that I live at altitude and had a half-decent base; with some specific training and even better fitness, I see no reason I can’t aim for a huge marathon PR on a fast course in Chicago.

my job is lame

December, as a month, is infinitely better than January. There’s just such a let down once you check off that final day of the year and whip out the new calendar.

And I’m not just saying this becuause December is home to both Christmas and New Year’s Eve, two of the best days of any given year. Rather, it’s because December is a month filled with so much promise of what the New Year will hold, and all that promise and the excitement that comes with it can never quite be matched by the beginning of the New Year itself. Just think of how excited everyone gets about joining the gym for the New Year, only to ditch that resolution yet again before the egg nog has even expired or a single hole has been put in one of those new pair of socks they bought for the gym.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least be able to revel in the excitement during the 12th month, right?

Well, apparently, my job disagrees whole-heartedly.

You see, as a runner, this time of year offers the chance to disregard most issues of practicality and logistics and come up with the IDEAL year of racing. Sure, race entry fees may be expensive, and travel might make a particular race an uber-wallet-gashing prospect, and any number of health issues could come up, thereby derailing all plans, but just about any race should seem like fair game at this time of year given some good planning.

In my case, however, every time I see a race that looks like it’d be fun, my excitement is soon shattered like a glass at Jewish wedding, because I take a peak at the ASC athletics calendar only to find that I have a definite conflict that weekend.

….Honestly, you’d think there’d be at least one weekend between March 1 and June 1 during which there’s a trail race between 26.2 and 50 miles in a 6-hour radius and I won’t be working a home athletic event, but I’m starting to have my doubts.

a lesson in extreme discomfort

Throughout yesterday’s department meeting, I was constantly trying to will my co-workers to consume more and more the pizza that had been ordered for lunch. I was hoping there’d by anywhere from 0 to 3 pieces left at the end of the meeting, thus preventing me from having the chane to drastically over eat as I am wont to do when pizza is in play.

However, my Jedi mind tricks weren’t performing up to snuff. Long story short, after demonstrating the will power not to touch the cheesey, saucy and delicious triangles of awesome before and during the meeting, I was unable to demonstrate will power sufficient to not eat 7-ish pieces when there was soooo much left after the meetings. Certainly the fact that the pizzas were left on a counter directly outside of my office didn’t help, and every time that I got up for the next hour, I grabbed a slice.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling sluggish, enormous and overwhelmingly uncomfortable.

Fast forward a few hours, and I found myself changing for what I had planned on being an easy run on the treadmill. Were I to let my stomach dictate what I was about to do, it certainly would have been an easier run that even I had imagined when packing my bag with running clothes in the morning.

However, after my poor decision and lack of restraint around the lunching hour, I did the only sane and rational thing I could think of: I made myself pay for the earlier transgressions and decided to make it a hard effort on the treadmill.

I could tell as I began an easy warm-up that this was not going to be at all comfortable. You know the wat that an untightened backpack bounces around on your back when you’re sprinting to catch the bus? My stomach felt like that going at 10:00/mile pace. Clearly, the the 3x1 mile repeats I was going to force myself to do were not going to be comfortable by any stretch of the imagination.

Follwoing a 15 minute warm-up I cranked up the speed of the ‘mill until I was clipping along at 6:40/mile. “F—k!” Not even 1/10th of a mile into this and my stomach was in total knots and each stride felt like a punch in the gut. For a brief moment after going about 0.25 miles, I thought I might be finding my stride and getting into a zone where it wouldn’t feel so bad, but I was totally wrong. I finished the first mile and barely made it through the 1/2 mile rest in between repeats before having to sprint off the ‘mill and to the nearest bathroom.

Call of nature out of the way, I returned back to the treadmill and eased myself back to just under 7:00/mile pace for the next repeat. With the stomach feeling a tad bit better, my first thought once I hit speed was just how much harder doing one single mile at this pace was than it was for me to run 13.1 at 6:32 pace just two weeks ago. WTF, altitude? Though it still hurt considerably, I finished the second mile uneventfully and dialed the belt back to a resting pace for the final mile.

The first half of the final mile started off very smoothly. My legs were feeling half decent for the first time, the sloshing in my stomach seemed to have subsided considerably, and I was able to take full breaths without the fear of hurling all over weightroom. Alas, things turned south very quickly, and I found myself running in fear over the final mile that a bowel movement might not wait for me to get off the treadmill and into the bathroom. As soon as the last mile was completed I was off the ‘mill and into the men’s room before the belt could even slow down. WHEW!!

…..So maybe what I did wouldn’t be considered sane and rational by 99.9% of the human species. But it was kinda fun, in a sick, twisted and really-really-really demented sort of way. It was a good suffer-fest, though of a completely different variety than the long climbs in the mountains that I prefer. Above all else, though, I think I’ll think twice before gorging like that ever again… and if I do, I know there’ll be a treadmill waiting for me.

later ‘11: ending on a high note at the schaumburg 1/2

Last Saturday, whilst back in the Chicago-land area for Thanksgiving, I capital ‘R’ Raced for the first time since…. July 2010? Yea, I guess so. Damn, that was longer than I had thought.

Sure, I’ve done a few races in the meanwhile, but just local 5Ks. And while enjoyable and a good opportunity to test myself physically and mentally, it’s just not a distance that I can get terribly excited for.

I won’t harp on the details, but in terms of running 2011 was less than ideal based on the hopes I had at around this time a year ago. However, getting back to running in the late summer/early fall was refreshing and I’ve been very happy with the progress since September. I’d really hoped to add a couple mountain races, 50ks and 50 milers to my resume this year, but clearly with work and money constraints, that wasn’t in the cards for this year. But, I figured the next best thing would be chasing down a personal best that I’ve had my sights set on for a while…

Enter the Schaumburg Turkey Trot Half Marathon. While my goal was to hit a PR in the race, and go under my previous best of 1:27:XX, run during the first half of the Veterans Memorial Marathon in Columbia City, Ind., I didn’t want to harp on that too  much, because the days leading into the race made me realize more than anything that I just wanted to get in a really good effort in a race environment. However, there were certainly things on my mind making me think that a PR was and wasn’t in the cards. I felt it was certainly possible because A) for the first time I realized in the three immediate days before the race that running near sea level in Illinois was incredibly easier than in Alamosa, B) my legs were feeling well-rested and fresh, and C) I hadn’t been experiencing any lower leg pain in a while. However, knowing that I hadn’t really done much in the way of hard running other than some 800 repeats left me totally unsure of what pace I could sustain over any real distance. I also wasn’t sure how the stuffing of the face and guzzling of beers during the 48 hours before the race would affect me.

As has been my modus operandi of late I did not wear a watch for the race, a first for me. Knowing that I’d be at least pretty happy with anything under 90 minutes, I lined up for the race just ahead of the 1:30 pace group, settling in between the guys you could tell were going to go out comically faster than they should and the others with obvious collegiate XC/track experience.

The race start was among the easiest I’ve ever hard. Despite needing to pass some dudes that clearly overestimated themselves in the first few hundred meters, the fact that the starting chute only allowed for about five people to take off at once cleared the course of any sort of traffic jam, and I pretty quickly settled in with a group of five others.

Though I didn’t have a watch on, I know that we clicked off the first mile a bit faster than I would have liked, in 6:09. How do I know this? Because just a few steps before the 1-mile marker I heard five Garmins beep in unison and a couple of my current cohorts announce the time. Though faster than I anticipated I should start, I was feeling incredibly comfortable (thank you, altitude) and knew that the strong wind at our backs was certainly beneficial.

Our group stayed around each other and packed fairly tightly for the first three miles, but then drifted apart, and I soon found myself leading a conga line, and then running all alone. I was surprised at this point how quickly racing tactics just seemed to take over. As soon as the footsteps faded out, I immediately found myself gently reeling in the next couple of runners ahead of me, and once even with them just settled into that group  for a mile or so.

Miles 3-10 were spent primarily in this way: catch a group or a runner a bit ahead of me, relax and run with them for a few moments, and then set my sights on the next group. It worked wonderfully, and I believe I was passed just once during the entire race while consistently moving up in the field.

A very encouraging sign was that on the out-and-back sections of the course, I could see runners a couple minutes ahead of me slowing down and looking wrecked, while I was keeping the pace up and feeling great. It was easy then to set my sights on catching that runner by mile X and focusing primarily on that goal.

The longest, windiest straightaway on the course went from mile 9 to 10, and I found myself holding my pace and making leaps and bounds of time up on the runners ahead of me. I caught a pair of runners who started the bike path about 100 yards ahead of me, and hung with them ‘til hitting the 10 mile marker. As good as I was feeling, I decided to turn this final 5k into an all-out effort and see how I’d respond physically and mentally.

The results: it turned out pretty good, and I crushed the final 5k loop, passing about 10 runners, most of whom I couldn’t even see around the first bend. The path was crowded with a great many walker from the 5k run/walk that began 30 minutes after the 1/2 marathon, but they were very polite in staying to the sides of the narrow bike path as we made our way.

I don’t even know if there was any sort of finish line clock for either the 1/2 marathon of 5k bunch, and didn’t even know my time until checking the website Saturday evening. My finish time, 1:25:40, was good for 31st overall and a nice PR of about two minutes. For not having really “trained” specifically for the race, I’m really happy with that!

And it’s got me feeling great about where I’m at right now heading into 2012. I’m not going to commit to anything too soon, but as the New Radicals once said, I’ve “got the dreamers disease”. There’s lots and lots of things on my radar and swirling around in that dome on top of my neck.

Last year at this time, I took a couple weeks completely off running, first with a total rest week and then a week of easy X-training. I won’t be taking time off running this year, but I’ll spend the month of December just doing one run a day and doing some X-training most days as well… already this week I’ve done some rowing, biking, elliptical, stair climbing, and would have added swimming as well but open swim hours were done by the time I was able to sneak out of the office at lunch yesterday (rats!).