Finally Feeling Better

Today was the first day that I have felt pretty good.  Since I returned from Arizona Jan 15th, I have been struggling with... well.... basically a whole lot of snot!  Chest congestion and coughing and hacking and sneezing.  I have no idea where all of this snot comes from. It seems to be perpetual.  This is particularly troublesome when one is running.  I have had major trouble in the last two weeks getting oxygen when I run.  It is like my lungs are filled with the crud and there is no room for the oxygen.  It gets worse when your nose is running and you cannot get air in or out through your nose.   Then, the goo get up into your throat and makes you cough, or hack up some goo or at least need to expectorate.  All that would be bad enough in and of itself, but when one is running, all of those things force one to stop breathing to accomplish them.  If you are running and stop breathing even for a second, your breathing becomes more and more labored.  The whole darned thing just gets more and more difficult.

Today I felt better.  I ran three miles at a decent pace... about 8:00 min. miles.  During these last two weeks I have forced myself to run, but my times have not been great.  Instead of 8:00/m I have been running more like 8:30-8:40/m.  Twice in the last two weeks I had to stop and walk during my runs.  I am a little concerned about how I will perform in New Orleans this coming weekend.  With my training runs being a bit shorter than usual and slower than normal, I am worried that I will not be ill-prepared for the race.  I have decided that I will maintain a goal of 1:45:00.  I ran better than that in Arizona, but I think given my poor training, I will be pleased with 1:45:00.

I think Valerie is under the impression that I am going to run faster and better this weekend because she started us on the Run Fast Eat Slow menu today.  I've got to say she has put in a significant amount of effort getting this prepared.  Days of planning, days of shopping, and days of cooking.  She even got up early this morning to make me breakfast before I went to work.  Todays menu consisted of scrambled eggs with spinach and home made bread toast for breakfast, oh and a beet smoothie, a quinoa salad, an apple, and sesame butter for lunch.  A snack of a home made muffin with all sorts of vegetables and spices that are supposed to reduce inflammation and heal muscles etc... and a special ingredient chai tea (antioxidants, spices, etc...).  Dinner consisted of more quinoa and kale and a steak and toast with cashew pesto.  All of it was really pretty good, however it was more food than I normally eat.  I do not generally eat four times a day.  I went for a run today so that I could run off some of the food I ate today.  I was full from breakfast at lunch.  I was full from lunch when it was time for my snack.  I had to eat my snack before I made it home for dinner.  Then I was still full when it was time for dinner.  All of these meals are good/natural foods.  There is nothing processed.  In the chai tea was hazel nut milk that Valerie made -- from hazel nuts, of course.  I enjoyed all of the food -- ALL of it!  I wonder if all of the good ingredients will help me perform better or if I will simply get fat from eating so much.  I hope that it is the former and not the latter.  I shutter to think what my Mii character will look like if I gain more weight.  The way he looks when he blows up makes me think that one day he may explode.  I hope that is not foreshadowing in any way.

At least I felt better today.  Most of the snot is gone and I was able to get some air.  So maybe I am over this persistent and seemingly interminable gunk.  Couple that with the new Run Fast Eat Slow menu and I might just have a chance this weekend.  Off to New Orleans on Saturday, healthy or not.

Trends

There are multiple moments in my life, that I can clearly identify, that my expectations and life's realities are dissimilar if not diametric.  One of those circumstances, as it relates to this blog is progress.  Before I launch into my usual self-absorbed dialogue, allow me a short preface:  I completely understand that my proverbial glasses are rose-colored and my vision of the fantasy world  which I inhabit (much like a hermit) is just that, a fantasy where no person could live, except in their own minds.  I also freely admit that although completely impossible, I actually do live there and quite happily at that.  It is only when the "reality" of the rest of the world invades my fantasy land, do I find it difficult to cope with the inconsistencies.  This post will address one of these inconsistencies in my vision of my fantasy world and "reality".

Progress.  This graph clearly demonstrates my vision of progress.  This is how it SHOULD be.  This is what I would expect to see given a level of effort and time.  As the level of effort increases, and the time that effort is emplaced, the output, the progression, the level of success increases AT LEAST linearly.


Of course, I also recognize there are times when you're not able to participate at 100%, so I can see that there may well be plateaus in the progression.  It makes sense to me that after you see a marked gain, you would potentially and likely see a plateau.  This plateau may be an area where rest is needed or time to rebuild.   I see no reason for a decline.


Ideally, I would look for the above progression, the S-curve wave... small areas of plateaus, then continued growth.
I could even buy the below progression.... bursts of progress with only a slight dip below peak performance, continued effort, and then another burst of progress.



I also envision that if one were to step back from this graph, that is zoom out, they would see what appeared to be a linear progression as in the first graph.  These things make sense to me in my little fantasy world.

Now the disconnect comes when I evaluate actual performance.  The above graphs are what I envision, what I expect to see.  Below is a graph that displays what I will call "alternative reality", that is a "reality" that is another alternative to my reality.  This may be what everyone else sees as "reality", but is dramatically different than what I expect to see in Fantasy Land.



There is no rhyme or reason to this set of data points.  There is no clear progression, plateau, growth period, rest period.  I see only random, scattered successes and failures that follow no discernible pattern that would lead one to no method to evaluate progress well enough to train for repeatable successes.  The only positive that I can see in this graph is a positive progression from start to finish, but this may only be attributable to the time-frame that was chosen.  Imagine the next data point on the graph may well "end" below the level of the starting point and remain there.

Even though my fantasy world exists only in my mind, there is significantly more logic in my world.  So much more that this graph could not exist in my rose-colored fantasy world.  Thus the disconnect.

If I were to evaluate my races thus far, with the exception of one data point, there has been a nice linear progression.  It is a small progression, but a linear progression none the less.

1:49
1:47
1:43
(I have omitted the aberrant race to show the linear progression I am talking about)... and now that I think of it, I could just as easily merge my version of reality with the "alternative reality" (the reality that shows the documented times) simply by ignoring the races that don't comply... hmmm.  Something to think about.  As it stands, there is no logical place in my graph for a 2:11 finish time.

All of this may seem unimportant to most of you, but as I evaluate the races and my day to day training performances, I feel as if I need something objective to evaluate.  Subjectively, today and yesterday I did not perform well in my training runs, but I recognize that every training session does not have to be longer and faster in order for me to have growth.  I figure each time I am out training, I am strengthening my muscles and conditioning my heart and lungs and mind, so each training session could be beneficial as long as I am not over working and breaking down instead of building.  And the truth is, I am not so sure I can tell the difference.  So, the only way that I can foresee evaluating my progress is by evaluating the objective data of the race times... especially when they are linearly progressing.  -- I know, I know, it is a fantasy.  I am delusional, and I like it here.  Thank you.

Its is absolutely no consolation that this fantasy thought process is in no way limited to running for me, or even in sports.  Most every aspect of my life, in my mind, follows a similar linear progression.  As I consider this more deeply, I can say that is actually a true statement and I often ensure the validity of this statement by quitting those activities that are not progressing appropriately, effectively deleting the "aberrant" data point.  Welcome to my world... isn't it fun here?

The next race is NOLA Feb 5.  I have not yet set a goal for this race.  As you could imagine, having read this far down the page, my goal will likely be faster than 1:43, but I have not had an opportunity to train while I am healthy in order to evaluate a practical and attainable goal. -- 'cause practical and attainable is clearly what I all about.  LOL!

Sick

There is only one thing that I can think of that I love more than my family, and that would be God.  He is good, all the time.

My family is good too and I desire to be around them as much as possible... except when one or more of us are sick.  We are a relatively healthy family, but honestly, with young boys, there is no real confusion as to why one or more of us gets sick from time to time.

Boys, after all are just plain gross.  I don't want to embarrass any of my children too much, so I won't tell you which one, but the other day I was taking Noble -- oops -- oh well -- to football practice.  He was wiping something off of his shorts.  He was working at it fairly diligently.  I asked him what he was doing.  His response was fairly matter-of-fact, "wiping peanut butter off of my pants."  I had been with him most of the day, and I do not remember him eating peanut butter, so I asked, "when did you have peanut butter?"  He smiled and looked up thoughtfully and responded, "I cannot think of the last time I had peanut butter."  The disconcerting part for me was not so much that he had peanut butter on his pants, or that those pants were "clean", or even that this phantom peanut butter had been there for an indeterminate amount of time, but that it seemed normal, common-place, unexceptional, as if this sort of thing happens to everyone.  Just today at dinner, the other one was removing the inside of his roll and squeezing it onto a ball.  They love the inside of the roll.  He was making a ball and compacting it dense with his hands, nearly incorporating his bandage into the newly formed ball as it came off of his finger.  I removed the bandage and tossed it into the garbage asking. "when was the last time you washed your hands?"  The response, "I don't remember."

So, is it any wonder that one of us gets sick from time to time?

About two weeks ago, one of them caught the "crud".  I think it was actually the daughter.  There was hacking and snot and I'll spare you the rest of the details.  Then, like lemmings jumping off a cliff, one after the other, came the rest of the family.  I avoided them... all of them.  I gave air hugs and blew kisses across the room for two weeks.  Then I left for Tempe.  All was well until the plane ride home when I started experiencing just a little sniffle.  No big deal.  I just run a half marathon.  This sort of thing is expected, right?  Well, I got worse.  Monday I was not feeling too well.  Tuesday I crawled home from work only to go to bed and remain there until time for work Wednesday morning, 14 hours later.  Wednesday was similar, and Thursday consisted of hacking up "planets".  I have isolated myself from my family the entire week, and don't forget I avoided them for two weeks prior to my infestation.

I love my family, but I was really hoping to avoid the whole sickness thing.  And, BTW, I am not one of those high maintenance men who are super needy when they are sick.  I would much rather be left alone.  I am very thankful to my wife for trying to take care of me and to my kids who have been super understanding.

Needless to say, I have not been training since the race Sunday.  I had a hard enough time walking from the bed to the bathroom and back, much less running multiple miles.  Today I felt poorly... still... but NEEDED to train.  I have another race in two weeks.  It was not pretty, not my best performance, but I did manage 5.6 miles.  I did not die after, but I was dizzy and maintained a nice headache and runny nose.  I am hopeful that tomorrow will allow me to feel even better and allow me some decent training time.

BTW... For the record, although the above stories are both true, I cannot blame the boys entirely.  I am betting there were other factors that contributed.  Maybe someone one one of the plane flights?

Rock-n-Roll Arizona Half Marthon -- Tempe, AZ

Here is the race recap for the Rock-n-Roll Half Marthon in Tempe

Registration:
I registered online.  This one also required proof of time in order to get into the appropriate corral, although at the Expo all you had to do was go to the change area and ask to be put into any corral you wanted, no questions.  I gave them an expected finish time of 1:45:00.  They put me in corral 3 based on a 1:49:00 expected finish time, and I moved up to corral 2.  

I am still only signing up for these races three months in advance.  I do not want to schedule too many of them and too far in advance in case I get injured or otherwise have some issue.  I also do not want to wait too long to register because the fee goes up and the hotels book up.  So, three months at a time is what I am working with at the moment.  

Fee:
$107.48 total

The Expo:
This expo was in at the Phoenix Convention Center.  The South Convention Center.  It apparently is the older on that they still use, but built a newer one right next to the older one... and it makes a difference.  There were multiple people walking around, confused, in circles trying to find the expo.  I had a bit more time for this one, so I milled around and looked at all of the exhibits.  Tried all of the samples of protein bars and cardboard cheese, etc...  This one was set up in such a way that you were forced through areas.  You had to get your bib and bag in one area and then move into the next area to get your shirt, etc...   It would be difficult to forget something like I have in expos past.

I found it interesting that the Expo was in Phoenix and the race in Tempe, but I guess Tempe is basically a college town at The University of Arizona and there is not likely a large convention center there, also I think the marathon was held in Phoenix.  The shirt also mentions Scottsdale, and I assume that is because the race started in Tempe and ran through Scottsdale before heading back to Tempe.

Shirt:
The shirt was a wicking, what they call a tech shirt.  I had ordered an XL, and simply and easily swapped it for a L... my "new" size.


Race Day:
Sunday

Race Start Time:
7:50 am, which I thought was a bit odd -- but we did not get started until 8:14 am

Course Map:


The course was super well marked and there was plenty of police presence and traffic control.  This was the most organized race so far from the actual racing standpoint.  I did not have to think at all about where I was going and what I needed to do.  Just try to breathe and keep one foot moving in front of the other.

Race Type:
This was all road race.  The streets were cleared and policed and clearly marked... see the previous comment.  There were two bridges that we crossed over a river coming and going, and I seem to remember running underneath a road, that is a road went over the course.  The only real scenic area was at mile 9.  There was a big incline up a mountain, and it was nice and pretty, then to the turn-around and back down the same mountain.  Actually, now that I think of it, the rest of the race from there had a nice view.  Up to that point, though it was all just the road.

Accommodations:

It was a bit difficult to find a place to stay near the start and near the finish.  I ended up 1.3 miles from the start and 2.something from the finish.  I kinda limped back to the studio (garage) apartment, but it was OK.  My mom flew over and rode along side of me, so she walked back with me... man does she walk too fast though.

Transportation:
I saw no transportation, other than regular transit busses and ride share (Uber/Lyft).  Since I got the AirBNB, I walked.  Most everybody was riding a bike or a scooter or a skateboard through the ASU campus.  I had to take an Uber from the airport to Phoenix to pick up my race packet and then another Uber to get to the room in Tempe.

Weather:

The weather was great.  It was forecast to rain, but was simply overcast.  It was about 55 F and rose a bit, but I was finished before 10:00am.  I do remember being cold as I walked back to the room, but while racing the temp was really nice.  Not hot, not cold.

Race Morning:

There were 20 corrals for this race.  I was in corral 2, but my pacer was in corral1, so I guess I should have moved myself up to corral 1.  10,278 finishers in this half marathon and there was a 10 that started with us, so there were LOTS of people.  The start was a wave start.  Corral 1 went off and we waited 1 minute 14 secs before we went off.  I watched my pacer disappear before I started.  (The good part was, I caught him later :)  ).  It was cool at the start, but not bad at all.  The corrals got a bit congested as people began to prepare to start, but it was fairly well controlled.

Race:

The course was all pavement.  All roads.  No traffic, no confusion on where to go.  There was one area where the 10k split from the marathon, but it was early and clearly marked and people with megaphones guiding traffic, so no confusion.  The course was mostly flat.  There were some minor elevations as you would go up a bridge and then the resultant descent, but pretty flat until mile 9.  Mile 9 was a steep ascent.  Several of the racers were huffing and puffing and grunting and complaining (I had no music this time).  They hated this hill.  I did not care for it either. It was a mile long ascent and steep.  I checked my time and realized I was maintaining a sub 8 minute mile even uphill, so I did not complain.  Then the turn-around and the rest of the race was primarily down hill.

Water/Food Stations:
Plenty of water and Gatorade. I did not see any food or other drinks.  The only other thing I saw was Gukos Energy packs just before the uphill at mile 9.  I drank one and am happy I did.  There may have been other stuff, but I don't always see everything, and the things I do see are not always clear to me at the time.

Scenery:
Most of the race looked like this.


Some looked like this:


Away from the course a bit and certain areas we could see from the course looked like this:


Race Entertainment:
As I mentioned, I did not have any music for this race.  When I went to put on my earbuds and get my music all ready, they would not turn on.  Just dead.  Charged and ready, but nothing.  I do not know why, but they will simply not turn on.  I am currently trying to find out from Bose what is the deal.  So, since I had no music I was able to hear all of the bands and chatter.  There were multiple bands along the way playing all sorts of music.  Some better than others.

Finish:
The finish was back in Tempe and a welcomed site.  I happened to see my pacer just in front of me when we made the turn at the top of the mountain, so I was determined to catch him, and I did.  I don't usually have enough energy left to "kick" at the end, but I wanted to catch him.  There was a hoard of people at the finish.  Bands were playing, food and drinks were being passed out, medals, a DJ was announcing finishers.  It was a party.  There was a long walk past the finish leading everyone out of the racing area and it was lined with water stations and chocolate milk and protein bars and bananas, etc...  The photographer were all set up along there too.  Once you left the racing area there were tents set up to sell all sorts of products, beer tents, engraving tents (presumably to engrave your finisher's medal).  It was a big party.  I had a hard time finding my mom.  I had to walk several flights of stairs with my water, my banana, my chocolate milk, my protein bar, and my Gatorade in my hands. (I tried to take one of each).  Once I got up stairs, I was able to locate her, which meant I had to walk down several flights of stairs to get to her... then we walked a couple miles back to the room.  I was ready for a nap.

Bling:

Valerie was not impressed.


Misc:

This race was clearly the most organized with regard to the on the road racing.  Everything was marked clearly and there was plenty of police presence.  They had water stations on both sides of the course which was nice.  Some runners get their drink and stop in front of you right at the water station and clog up the entire area.  It was nice to be able to go to either side depending on which lane was smoothest.  Plenty of spectators and cheering and a large contingent at the finish line.  As I mentioned, the finish and outside the race area was one big party.  It was bigger than the expo and in a larger space.  I am imagining that many of the racers and supporters stayed around there and parited all day.  I walked back to the room.

I also mentioned that my earbuds were not working.  I heard some interesting things that I have not heard before.  At mile 8 there was a guy who looked to be about mid twenties.  He kept yelping, over and over again.  "Hooow!!", "Whoop!!!!", "Whooo!!"... I counted about nine times before I had to pick up the pace and get outside of earshot.  I don't know if he had turrets syndrome or if he was just excitable or what... all I kept thinking was, "This must be what the fox says."  And then, of course, I could not stop singing, "fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!"  I had to get away from that ancient mystery... quickly.

Post Race:

There were glitches with the results and runner tracking system.  Many of these races have a runner tracking system that allows you to receive a text when your racer crossed certain points in the race.  These texts did go out, but there were no times associated with these texts.  They apologized for the glitch, but it was still a glitch.  The race results were not readily available after the race.  I was checking on line in the airport about 4-5 hours later and they were still not available.  When I landed in Tampa, the results were up.  Some glitch that caused some delay.  Not sure what or why, but they are up now.

I was pretty pleased with my performance.  I caught my pacer who was 1'14" ahead of me, so I would have gotten a PR if I started with him and stayed with him the whole race, but I was about a minute and a half faster than that!!  YAY!!  I was happy with the race, maybe because I had a good time, maybe because the race part was better organized, maybe because I could breathe.  I felt really good, and I believe I can run faster.  I tried to conserve energy throughout the race, and I think I could have pushed harder.  Next race is New Orleans Feb 5.  It is also one of the Rock-n-Roll series, so I am expecting something similar to this one.  Wish me luck.

Narcissistic ??

I have recently read an article that states that people who post their fitness routines to Facebook are narcissists.  In fact, the title of the article reads,

People who post their fitness routine to Facebook have psychological problems, study claims.

You may well be aware that I do, in fact post many of my fitness routines to Facebook and of course here on this blog.  Am I a narcissist?  You may have your own opinion about that.  I have never really thought of myself in that way as it pertains to my running routine.  I will explain that a bit more in a sec.  The article continues to read:

The research found that:

• People with low self-esteem more frequently posted status updates about their current romantic partner.

• Narcissists more frequently updated about their achievements, which was motivated by their need for attention and validation from the Facebook community. These updates also received a greater number of "likes" and comments, indicating that narcissists' boasting may be reinforced by the attention they crave.

• Narcissists also wrote more status updates about their diet and exercise routine, suggesting that they use Facebook to broadcast the effort they put into their physical appearance.

• Conscientiousness was associated with writing more updates about one's children.

One might also argue their opinion that I have low self-esteem, or maybe their opinion is that I have too high self-esteem -- I have heard that before.  I have, however posted numerous times about my children and about my fitness routines, and about my achievements.  I do not post about my current romantic partner (this is where I would normally write a joke that I would be afraid to post about my romantic partner for fear that my wife would find out.  Good thing I am more mature than to type a joke like that now.) --- AND YES!!! IT IS A JOKE!!!!  MY WIFE IS MY ONLY ROMANTIC PARTNER!!  Promise!  So, according to this article I may be OK with my self-esteem, but am clearly a narcissist who needs attention and validation, but at least I am conscientious.  And thank you all for the attention!  I appreciate it.

I mentioned that I have never really viewed myself that way as it pertains to my running.  I do post the workout routines to Facebook and to Strava and Garmin... and then document it in some way on this blog -- Does all of that make me a narcissist?  I post them for a reason, but I don't THINK it is narcissism.  I post them for accountability.  Seriously.  When I run, I think about many things... usually nothing too deep.  I sometimes find it difficult to focus on one topic for long.  I pray a lot -- short scattered prayers hoping that the Holy Spirit will intercede for me and interpret my prayers and that God will "hear my heart" no matter how it "sounds" as it is "uttered".  The other thing that I think about a lot is you.  Yes, you.  The collective you.  You all, or y'all, yous guys, all y'all, etc... You (all) get the idea.  My thought pattern often goes something like this:  "Boy am I tired!  I would love to quit!  Maybe I could just stop and walk for a while, or call an Uber.  Wait, I can't stop now after only (insert a number of miles here) miles, that would look terrible on my run stats.  Those collective yous will see that I only ran (insert a small number of miles here) miles and wonder why I wussed out today.  I can't even walk because that would ruin my minutes per mile stats and those collective yous would think that I was either injured or more likely just old and fat and slow... maybe even stopping regularly to puke.  Heck, I cannot even slow down.  It would be embarrassing to put up a slow and short workout.  Maybe I just won't post the workout.  Wait, you cannot do that.  If you were going to do that, then you might as well just stay at home, kick back in your easy chair and have some more chocolate.... but remember to stop at the mall and buy some larger pants."

By the end of that thought process, I have usually covered another 2 or 3 miles.  So, THAT is why I post my fitness routines to Facebook.  Does that make me an attention craving narcissist with self-esteem issues?

Yeah... OK, fine... Now I am convinced.

21 days

Is it 21 days to start a habit? Or 21 days to stop a habit?  Does it matter if it is a good habit or a bad habit?  I am not sure I know the true answer for everyone, but I can tell you that it surely makes a difference for me.

Wikipedia defines a habit as follows:


A habit (or wont) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

I can tell you that I do not do much that is good subconsciously... except maybe breathe and complain, oh, wait, that is not good... well, I suppose I breathe subconsciously, except when I am running.  Breathing while running is entirely conscious.  I am forever conscious that I am not getting enough oxygen and that my breathing is heavier and heavier the longer and faster that I go - and less and less efficient, now that I think about it.

That same wikipedia page discusses habit formation in this way:

Habit formation is the process by which a behavior, through regular repetition, becomes automatic or habitual. This is modelled as an increase in automaticity with number of repetitions up to an asymptote. This process of habit formation can be slow. Lally et al. (2010) found the average time for participants to reach the asymptote of automaticity was 66 days with a range of 18–254 days.

BTW, a simplistic definition of asymptote is a line tending toward infinity.

This suggests that a habit could take up to 254 days to form... as few as 18 days and an average of 66 days.

I am sure there would be some complex mathematics involved to answer my next questions, but what if you do something for 64 days in a row and then skip the next 6 days?  Do you have to start over?  Is it necessary to perform this activity for 254 days without missing one day?  Phew... I am getting tired just thinking about it.

I really don't know about any of that, but what I can say with some level of certainty, from my own experience is that it becomes easier to do whatever it is you are trying to do, the more you do it.  To hopefully make that more clear, the more you do something, the easier it becomes to do.  Is that a subconsciously occurring behavior?  I am not so sure... but it is at least easier to do.

Getting started seems to be the most difficult thing for people, then after the excitement wears off the next most difficult thing appears to be continuing.  I read a cartoon the other day that read:  "Two days onto my diet and I am still not skinny!! This [stinks]!!  (I changed part of the quote.  This is a family blog).

From my perspective the most consistent aspect of my training appears to be the number of excuses that I have at any given time to allow me to not train when I should or as much or as long as I should or as hard as I should.  Consistency is the key though, right?

There also appears to be a yin and a yang for everything.

The Yin and Yang are complete opposites, yet one cannot apparently exist without the other.  They both must exist and are equal, creating a process of harmonization insuring a constant, dynamic balance of all things.  There can be no darkness without light and conversely no light without darkness.

Balance has never really been one of my strong suits.  My version of Yinyang has often been all or nothing.  Does that qualify?  This newest venture of mine has been somewhat humbling in that it is clear that there NEEDS to be some balance.  Training full out, too hard, too fast will surely cause you injury and you will be sidelined.  Race weight must be maintained as a balance and it must all happen gradually.  Too much weight loss too quickly, even if you are still above your ideal race weight will cause you difficulty.  Balance... patience... not too much, not too quickly, it takes time... blah, blah blah... I am certain that Freddie Mercury said it best when he wrote "I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now." -- just my opinion.

Short excerpts from another blog: "Not all runners are created equal, but patience and time can go a long way."  "The answer: patience and time." "the lesson should be about patience in your training."
"Be patient enough to understand how much just a tiny increase, even one as small as one mile per week every two months, could have on your training over the course of 8-10 years. Once you learn and fully appreciate this secret, the sky is the limit."

The above excerpts are from http://running.competitor.com/2014/07/training/the-secret-to-high-mileage-training_82973 if you are interested in the entirety of the blog.

Anyway, it has certainly become easier for me to go run a few miles.  I went out running today and ran 3 miles with Noble.  We kept a pretty good pace of 7:28 per mile average.  We ran back to the house and I decided to go out for another 3 miles by myself.  You may recall that prior to October I had never run more than 6 miles at one time.  Now I can go out and run six miles pretty much whenever I want to.  I still struggle at around the ten or eleven mile mark, but it is becoming easier.  I can see the progress.  The difficulty I am having now is understanding when to train harder and when I can expect gains and improvement and when I should rest and relax and recover.  When I was a kid, there was no talk of rest or relax or recover.  If you were sore, it meant you had worked hard.  Now get back out there and work harder.  I am afraid that if I were to do that now, then I would injure myself.

Over the Christmas break, from Dec 23 to Jan 1, I ran almost every day.  I felt really pretty good too.  My times were fairly fast and my distances were varied.  Some long, some short, some moderate.  When Jan 2 came, I was back at work and my time was not as free as when I was on vacation, but I thought it would be good to take a couple days off to rest my legs as my calves were hurting a bit.  (As I mentioned, it seems easier to start a new bad habit than it is to continue a good habit).  Well, as it turned out, I took most of the week off.  I did not run again until Jan 6.  I logged about 40 miles the week I was off and a mere 5.8 miles the week I got back.  Today I ran a little over six miles and I have a race this coming Sunday... a week from today.  My calves are still aching a bit, but I do not think that is going to hinder my race. But this balance and moderation thing stinks.

I have also put on some weight.  I had apparently lost too much weigh too quickly.  31 pounds since August.  Well, bad habits are easier (for me), I put back on 5 pounds in 2 weeks.  The sad part is that I am hungrier, craving more food, craving more unhealthy foods, and... AND... I feel frumpy.  I don't like to feel frumpy.  I have a race this coming weekend, so I am not going to make any real changes in my diet from what I have been eating in the past two weeks, BUT... When I get back from this race in Tempe, Valerie and I are going to start eating from:

You can find it on Barnes and Noble or Amazon among other places

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/run-fast-eat-slow-shalane-flanagan/1123154457?ean=9781623366827&st=PLA&sid=NOK_DRS_NOOK+EBooks_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP25491&k_clickid=419x25491&utm_source=Google+PLA&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=NOOK+EBooks

https://www.amazon.com/Run-Fast-Eat-Slow-Nourishing/dp/162336681X

It looks like the initial setup will be difficult, and it will be more time consuming to prepare the meals some days, but also looks like it will help us to maintain a nutritious diet and find the appropriate competition weight without worrying about eating enough or eating too much.  I am looking forward to it.  I'll let ya know how it goes in Tempe.

My mom has decided to go with me to Tempe.  I certainly don't mid the company... particularly someone that will be there to cheer me on instead of beating me to the finish line. LOL.

The Body is Incredibly Complex or God is Amazing and/or I am Not Sure I Completely Understand Either

I suppose I could also entitle this post "The More I Learn, The Less I Understand" or "The More I Know, The More I Know I Don't Know".

The human body is simply a miracle.  The more I learn and understand about the body, the more I am convinced that it is utterly impossible for this to have been an accident!  The body is incredibly complex and amazing.  Everything works together in such a complex and intricate way.  It is a miracle... plain and simple.

The body itself is not at all simple.  It is incredibly complex.  I cannot figure it out.  The things that this body was designed to do and endure are mind boggling.  How everything works together is unfathomable.... I love saying that word.  Not to make me sound smart or funny or anything, I just like the way it sounds.  For those of you old enough, I kinda say it like a daffy duck cartoon, spit out of my bill and all. "unfath.::;':,.omable".  It is so complex, though that I get lost in all of the detail.  Then of course there is all of the marketing propaganda that muddle all of the "science"... and yes, the "science" is intentionally in quotations, like the "research" done to "prove" that the product being sold is beneficial for us, but that is a whole other blog post entirely.

All of this makes it really hard to figure out what one is supposed to do.  I am totally aware that it is not simply one thing... there is no magic pill.  It is a very complex plan to get the most and the best from your miracle -- the body.  We have such an ability to adapt and compensate and endure and overcome that it makes it difficult to determine exactly what will work best for you at any given time.
I'll seemingly shift gears a little, and hopefully circle back.

I have been incredibly blessed in my life.  I have been afforded immeasurable opportunities that have allowed me to accomplish many things.  In all of the endeavors that I have actively pursued, I have been able to rise to a very high level within that "community", group, or activity.  I have been able to work and play and train and teach with the best of the best... not because I am or was anything special.  Certainly not because I am or was the best athlete, the smartest, the strongest, the fastest, the most organized, or the best in any way.  I attribute any level of success that I have been able to accomplish to what I like to call "sticktoitiveness".  Please do not misunderstand, I attribute all of my successes to God, because He has gifted me and allowed me and provided for me.  I am nothing without Him.  I am nothing, except where He has allowed me to be something.  He has gifted me with sticktoitiveness.... and I use this regularly to achieve.  Basically all it means for me is that I will not give up.  I will not go half way or half speed.  I believe that I can accomplish whatever I decide I want to accomplish.  I will fail.  I will falter.  I will fall down.  I will tank a race.  I will make mistakes, but I will not give up until I accomplish what I am intending to accomplish.  There are way too many stories of individuals and groups who have accomplished a thing that was seemingly impossible and against all odds for me to believe that I cannot accomplish whatever I make up my mind to accomplish.  It may not look the same as how I intended or envisioned, but I will not give up.  I will not accept defeat.

There is a whole other topic here that would require too many blog posts, but if you are interested in the above topic there are some amazing books that I can recommend for you to read.  I highly recommend that anyone interested in success of any kind in any "thing" to read "Talent is Overrated" and "Bounce".  There are many others in the same topic range, but those are a couple good ones to start.


Part of the discussion in those two books and the last topic, which will help me circle back, is the aspect of "rubbing elbows" with the greats.  Surrounding yourself with people smarter than you.  Training and working and playing with people better than you.  As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17.  

Two or more people working together, competing, collaborating, working, discussing, growing, encouraging, inspiring each other make both and/or all of them better.  A quick story about racquetball.  The common story that we hear on a regular basis is, "Racquetball?  I used to play racquetball... 20 years ago."  Well, I used to play racquetball with my dad when I was a kid.  He always beat me.. although I knew that if I were to win a game, it was because I earned it.  But, I started playing racquetball with my buddy and Minister of Music at church, Rev. David Shenning.  David is 6' 9" tall, and I kid him and tell him he moves good for a big guy.  The truth is, he moves well for anybody.  He is tall, but he is an athlete and has been playing many sports (yes, even competitive basketball), but particularly racquet sports for decades.  Anyway, I started playing with David and he would murderize me.  He would play left handed and stand in the middle of the court and run me around in circles until I got tired.  It was a bit humiliating, but I would ALWAYS want to play "one more".  He would appease me until he got bored.  But then I would ask if he could play tomorrow.  He was much better than me, so I was determined to work and learn and become better.  I knew that if I accepted the defeats that he was handing out liberally that I would never get better.  I eventually got better and competitive.  We played like that for several years and we are now both much better players.   Thanks David!  Iron sharpens iron.  He made me better and then we made each other better.

When it comes to running, I am not yet at the point that I can compete with the elites of the sport.  And given my advancing age, and given my body type, and every other excuse that I can come up with, I will not likely ever be able to compete with the elites, but maybe I will be able to compete with the old guys who are really good.  I have not yet found that person or that group that will sharpen me, but I have received some great advice and encouragement from several folks that has been beneficial for my growth... Tommy Medlin, Chris Caito, Greg Smith, Derek Hopkins, and my mom.  Thanks guys.  As I learn more and make more mistakes and learn from those mistakes, I can then figure out the little nuances of all of the complexity that will benefit me.  Drawing back to the racquetball example.  It did not matter what racquet I was using when David was running me around in circles.  If I bough the best and most expensive racquet ever made in the world, I would still had lost.  I needed to learn the game, the angles, the strategy, the rules, etc...  

Running seems so simple.  Seriously... how hard is it.  Most of us grew up running.  It is almost inherent for us.  But the more we learn, the more we know we don't know.  To achieve peak performance and then enhance that to an even higher peak... is just hard.  It kinda seems silly when you think about it.  What the heck difference does it make if you run a half marathon in 1:45 or 1:30 or 1:18?  And logically you would not think that it would be all that difficult to improve your time from 1:47 to 1:45, right.  That is only 2 minutes faster.  Big deal... but it really is a big deal.  That is 9 seconds faster per mile, every mile.  Maybe that does not sound like much, but it really is a big deal.  And that is the part that requires the sticktoitiveness.  That is the part that requires deliberate practice (a key theme in the above referenced books).  That is the part that requires learning and understanding the complexities and intricacies of the human body.  Nutrition, energy, fatigue, muscle mass, muscle growth and development, slow-twitch, fast-twitch, rest, over use, atrophy, cardio, weight and race weight -- oh my gosh, my head is spinning -- and that is not even the start.  All of that, and miles and miles and miles of running for nine seconds -- and then another ten seconds, and then another 20 seconds, etc, etc, etc...

BTW... I am beginning to learn the reasons for my recent poor performances.  There are apparently several reasons.  Yes, the last race was cold and I was having difficulty breathing and that was a contributing factor and a convenient excuse, but I think I have determined another reason.  I think I lost too much weight too quickly, and I did not have the energy storage to draw from, so I crapped out.  I am working on that too.  Getting better.  We will see how it goes.  Next race, Tempe, AZ.  Jan 15, 2017.