Monthly Archives: January 2010
Through the elements: January
One of the runners from the Terrapin Mountain run earlier this month posted this photo yesterday of our crazy run.
Somewhere along the way in my blogging I stopped doing some sort of monthly reflection. And now that I’m back in full training mode, I think I’ve done myself a disservice doing that. Even in a down time, I think I should take a look back at the previous four plus weeks to look at the lessons learned, enjoy my successes one more time, figure out what went wrong and then forge ahead.
That being said, this January has been one of the craziest months I’ve experienced in a long time for many different reasons. It didn’t start well at all — I had a horrible cold and didn’t get in my first run until Jan. 4 — all of two miles. My big goal for the month was to do 31 exercises in 31 days — “31 in 31” as I called it — but that kind of fell apart after my big mountain run and was pretty beat up for a few days. However, I think it failed for more reasons than that — I didn’t plan well enough for it. Next time I try to do something like that, I have to plan it out better. Poor planning leads to poor results and I honestly did a poor job with that.
For a while this month, I was rolling along with the 100 push-ups program, but after falling in the mountains, my elbow was pretty sore for a few days, so I decided to take a week off with that. Things feel better now, so I hope that in February I can finally roll along with the program again. January surely wasn’t a complete disaster with this though — I did 591 push-ups overall.
That's me on the right crossing the last creek looking like I'm about to fall in on the Terrapin Mountain run.
January’s biggest highlight has been with my running. When Jan. 1 hit, I decided that it was time to move on from the previous two years. For me 2010 was a complete new start and that there was no need to compare this year to previous years. It’s not the easiest thing to do that, but I’ve pretty much have. It’s quite liberating to look ahead instead of looking behind. I think a once-a-month reflection, and a big once-a-year review, is enough.
So with running, I can simply look at my mileage — 75.3 — and be happy with that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled about passing 75 miles for the first month of the year. But those 75-plus miles have been through a bad cold, through cold weather, in shorts, in pants, in rain, in some pretty decent weather, through ice over a mountain and in the past two days through snow. I’ve done things I had no idea I could do, and I’ve done many things I simply wouldn’t normally do. Yesterday’s 2.5-mile run through snow and temperatures in the mid-teens put the icing on the cake for this month.
The next time I’m ready to make an excuse, all I have to do is look back at January 2010 to know that no excuse is good enough. It’s hard to believe all this has happened in the span of 31 days … here’s to the next 334 being just as great.
Here are a few photos from yesterday’s snow run. By the time it was over, we were just shy of another foot of snow.
Weighty issues
I never, never, never, never discuss my actual weight on here. I always just say I need to lose 10 or 15 pounds. I don’t like to talk about it really. I don’t mind talking about once weighing 220 pounds and then getting down to 180 six years ago — but I always hesitate to bring up the fact that I gradually gained some of that weight back.
I’m a big fan of “The Biggest Loser,” and it amazes me each season what these people can do in a short time frame. But believe me, that type of weight loss isn’t easy. Plus they get to work out for six hours a day, have strict diets and have constant supervision. And that type of weight loss doesn’t pertain to me. I also need to realize that I’m not 25 anymore and that my metabolism is different from before and that when I say no cookies (except for Friday) that I mean no cookies. My thought process has been this: if I think about it enough, the weight will come off.
Well, no, it doesn’t work like that. I can’t think it off. I can rely on faith to help set my mind straight — once I win the mind game, I can win the physical game. Once I win both those games, I can win the battle with the scale. It’s a work in progress, but it’s happening. This month has been a good test for me. While I have mostly stayed away from my “No List,” I haven’t done enough. Creating that list, though, has helped tremendously. Now I need to take the next step — I need to be stricter; I need to eat less; I need to talk about my weight more.
So that’s what this blog entry is about. My weight. On Jan. 1 I weighed in 197.2 pounds. This month I kept Friday as my weigh-in day and will continue to do so — it was kind of nice for Jan. 1 to be a Friday. My other Friday weigh-ins have been 194, 195.2, 195.2 and 193.4 today. So that’s 3.8 pounds lost this month. Although I didn’t set any goals for the start of the month, I would have liked to have been down 5, but I’m happy with nearly 4 pounds lost in that time frame. Do that again next month and I can finally be back in the 180s.
As far as goals with weight loss are concerned, I learned from several years ago that it’s best to take things a few weeks at a time. My end goal at this time is not important. It’s the little steps I have to take to hit that end goal that are. Goals within goals, mini-goals — whatever you want to call it. But right now at 193.4 pounds, my next step is to get to 189.9 and be done with the 190s.
The important thing to me now is that I feel great. My attitude toward running has changed this month and my attitude toward food is slowly getting back to what it used to be. I’m focused and I’m fearless of what lies ahead.
Digging deep
Last night I continued my new Wednesday tradition of long runs. Earlier this month when I was planning in my head what my long runs would be to get ready for the Shamrock Half Marathon, I had hoped to be at about 8 miles this week and ideally hitting 10 miles in mid-February. But I hit 10 miles last night — my first complete double-digit run in January ever. (For the record, my 12-mile journey this past weekend will count as running miles since it was that much effort and then some, but it wasn’t 12 complete running miles. Make sense?)
It was kind of a rough run with lots of hills — around here there’s no escaping the hills unlike where I was living in Richmond. I had to dig deep the last couple of miles. My legs really didn’t want to do it, but my mind did. And last night my mind won. That usually doesn’t happen.
Then tonight I went out for a planned short and slow run with my dog. That turned into a nice 4-mile run in 35:43. Suddenly my slow pace has gotten faster, all on hills. I already wonder what I could do minus 10 pounds and on flat ground.
With tonight’s run, I passed 70 miles for the month. It’s by far the most January miles in a few years. And these have mostly been good miles on hills, in the cold, through rain, into the wind and over mountains. Quality AND quantity.
Disproportional soreness
Three days removed from the Terrapin Mountain adventure, I’m almost over my soreness. I had a nice short recovery run last night, am taking tonight off and will continue with a planned long run tomorrow night of 9-10 miles. I’m still all giddy about that run/hike the other day, but perhaps the most surprising thing is how sore I’ve been.
While some of the soreness is due to the fact I probably could have waited a month to do that, I’m also discovering what it’s like to recover from running on rocks and falling on ice and leaves. While my elbow soreness is going away slowly, my legs are sore in completely different places. It felt weird yesterday to walk around. Today it’s just a dull soreness that will be gone by the morning.
I continue to be bummed about dropping my “31 in 31″ plan and 100 push-ups for at least this week, but it is what it is. I can’t let that get me down when I have so much more going for me right now. I haven’t felt this great about running in a few years, so I have to take this momentum and roll with it.
On hold
This weekend was a blast. At the same time, though, it’s derailed my plans for the month. After a couple of falls during my run and due to the fact that I probably wasn’t ready for that big of an adventure, I have to hold off on “31 in 31.” My legs hurt too much to try something new for a couple of days and my right elbow is still sore from one of my falls. My body is out of whack and doing something new right now is not the smart thing to do.
That all being said, I’m still pretty jazzed up about what I did this weekend. And, fortunately, I’m not really injured — I’m just sore. I can keep running. I’ve learned a good lesson with “31 in 31″ and I’ll be more than ready to tackle something like that later this year. I need to plan it out more and stick to a schedule. I went day-by-day and that sort of thing just didn’t work.
Also, because of this soreness in my elbow, I’m putting the 100 push-ups program on hold too. I did a couple of push-ups last night and it felt OK, but today as I type my arm seems to stiffen up. As much as I think I could push through it, I don’t want to hurt myself. I have to keep my eye on my bigger running goals right now. I’m quite bummed that I’m doing this, but I think it’s the right thing to do.
Game changers
A few days ago I ran 8 miles in the rain. What’s next? Climbing mountains? Yup.
Today I met up with a group of people to run Terrapin Mountain in Bedford County, Va. It’s funny that I grew up in Bedford and have spent much of my life in the area, but I’m completely unfamiliar with the names of the mountains beyond Sharp Top and Flat Top. I’ve spent a lot of time on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so these areas are familiar to me — I just never took the time to learn more about them. Anyway, the idea today was to pretty much tackle the half marathon course for upcoming races on the mountain.
Until today, I really haven’t tackled trails too much. I’ve done a few runs and races on trails … but not a mountain. Not something with a 3,200-foot elevation change. What a huge difference that really is. My friend Travis has been talking up this mountain and other trail races for a while and how different it was — he always explained it as a run/power walk/hike. I thought, walking? Hiking? That’s not running. But after today, I’m a big believer in this method of working out — running to a hill, power walking it, running when you can. That’s really the best way to explain it.
But there is so much more, especially today. A couple of miles into it, I was surprised that we had to cross a creek with no rocks to really step on — yes, my feet were getting wet weather I wanted them to or not. Then as we gradually climbed the mountain, things got a little icy and then suddenly we were going through an ice machine. The ice that was at the top of this mountain was like fast food ice. We had to climb up it, then across it and then down it. I seriously had to remember some of my skiing moves to avoid busting my butt.
That didn’t stop me — or others — from busting my butt though. I did it twice. The first fall was on the ice and I scraped my leg up a bit; my second fall was later on some crazy wet leaves that left my right elbow and shoulder aching. Then there was also leftover snow from last month’s /storm that we had to go through that left cuts on the front of my legs.
On the way down the mountain there were some smaller creeks, which allowed me to refill my water bottle. Then toward the end of the trail there was a final creek to pass through — similar to the first one, only bigger. Like water up to your knees bigger.
Aside from the workout, there were two or three spots that just had some breath-taking views. They were the kind of views that just make you appreciate life — it’s tough to find the right words.
All told this was a 12-mile adventure. Besides some soreness with my legs, I feel great. It’ll be a while before I decide whether I want to do this again or not. Right now I’m just happy that I did it.
I’ve had two runs this week completely out of normal for me. I thought an 8-miler in the rain was crazy enough; today was just wild. These types of runs are ones that change my thinking; they change my routine; they change my focus. This is the boost I’ve been looking for since … well, I’m not sure when. It’s been too long.
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