Running …

… because I can … because it's fun … because it's healthy … just BECAUSE.

Tag Archives: lessons learned

No changing my training

I’ve never come away from Shamrock weekend with so few thoughts. Usually the day after I’m ready to sign up for the next year (which I will sometime this week) and browsing hotel costs thinking I’ll find a deal (although now I’m pretty set on staying at La Quinta next year).

This year I’m just kind of mad at myself for not being in prime shape for my favorite race. While I ran a time that I fully expected, I can’t help but know that I could have been more mentally and physically ready this year.

That said, I woudn’t go back and trade my down time for more runs; I wouldn’t go back and do more tempo mileage; I wouldn’t change anything from my long runs.

If you think I’m beating myself up, I’m not. I know I can’t have it both ways, so that’s why I’m using Sunday’s race as a measuring point.

I still ran sub 1:50 for a half marathon. I ran a good race, just not my best for this course. And just like I said in my post about the rain the other day, so what?

There’s nothing I can do about that now, so I’m moving forward and will talk about the Blue Ridge Half Marathon soon.

My final thoughts from Shamrock aren’t going to come from me, but instead from a photo of my son.

His joy of running a short kids race reminds me of the finer things in life. All my PRs and goals and personal experiences aren’t nearly as important as seeing this kind of happiness.

2013 Shamrock Leprechaun Dash

Why I keep going II

why I runI don’t know how many times I’ve asked myself lately why I’m running or why I’m focused on another race or why don’t I just do something else.

I think it’s a natural stage of running, and it’s one I haven’t been through in a while. I think my previous post really hinted at changes that I’m making.

As I creep closer to 1,000 blog posts since 2007, as well as nearing my 10th anniversary of the day I started running (Jan. 1, 2004), I’ve been reflecting on old blog posts. Some of it is figuring out what I want to do next; some of it is just fun to see where I’ve been.

In between the endless posts about training for specific races, being ecstatic about PRs and many other random thoughts, I occasionally have these moments that are obvious breakthroughs that keep me going.

I think I’m in the midst of one of the moments.

Today I read a post from October 2007 titled “Why I keep going.” I don’t know why I stopped on that post to read it all the way through, but I did. Today is also the 8th anniversary of my Uncle John’s death, who died after a courageous battle with lung and brain cancer. Maybe he had something to do with my mind stopping and focusing on that post.

My Uncle John was such a great guy. When I first started running I thought a lot about him a lot. I thought about him throughout my first marathon experience, knowing that he would have thought that was the craziest thing to do, but still would have been one of the most supportive people out there. He gladly would have had a beer with me at the finish line.

With every Relay for Life that I’ve done, I feel like I have conversations with him, giving me some advice about life along the way.

Since that original post there have, of course, been a lot of other life changes. My grandfather that I wrote about in that post has since passed away; my father, while cancer free, continues to have to worry about cancer returning as he still gets a PET scan every year.

There are so many other joys in running that have come up since then — I now can have my son run alongside me when he chooses; my sister is training for the Shamrock Half Marathon; my wife did her first 5k last year.

We’re not out there running for ourselves. We don’t necessarily run “because we can,” like my blog says.

I run for my health; I run to bring awareness to diseases such as cancer; I run to have conversations with people who are no longer with us; I run to enjoy things in life such as sunrises or the peacefulness of snow.

I don’t run because I want to set PRs for the rest of my life; I don’t run because I think I’m cooler than someone else; I don’t run because I want to run on the streets of Boston one day.

Sometimes I run for others; sometimes I run to be selfish.

I run to build memories with Duke; I run because I want my son to grow up and live a healthier life than me; I run because it keeps the stress away; I run because I know when I don’t that I start to drive my wife a little crazy; I run so that I can find new places for my family to enjoy mini-vacations in places we probably wouldn’t normally travel.

Running isn’t a “thing” I like to do on the side; running is a part of who I am and, yes, helps define and shape my personality.

I’ll never apologize for going for a run or talking about running. I won’t apologize for a post like this that’s more than 500 words, nor will I apologize if I don’t go into details about what’s going on with my running life.

So … why do I keep going?

Because I have absolutely no reason to stop.

Image courtesy of Vlado/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

3 things: Lessons learned

2012 Richmond Marathon training logoThis is not a dwelling-on-Richmond post. In fact, I feel like it’s the opposite.

In my lack of really doing a race report (not sure what else I’d really say) and following it up with a list of random things), this is my first serious post about what I’ve realized this week and why I may actually will run another marathon sooner rather than a few years from now. Much more on that later.

1. What are you doing after the marathon?
Such a common question others would ask me. My answer was taking a break. I don’t want to run for a while. I think I said that so much that I started shutting things down way too early.

It’s not that I had too many bad training runs at the end, but I got too complacent. I was too comfortable with my training, thinking that they hay was in the barn and all that was left was 26.2 miles. I really screwed that up, more mentally than anything else.

2. Go to bed, go to bed, go to bed.
Olympics. Debates. Election night. I’m a sports junkie and a news junkie. These events are why I loved working in a newsroom for 7 years. And this year on too many occasions I stayed up until 11 or later, getting just 6-7 hours of sleep. Some people can do that. I really can’t.

At the end of all this, I ran too many miles tired; I didn’t sleep well the week of the marathon; I’m pretty sure I only had about a half tank of gas in my system, thus the falling apart in the second half of this race.

3. Have fun.
It’s the ultimate end goal for me. Most of those 4+ hours were not fun Saturday. Neither was much of my experience in the Cleveland Half earlier this year.

I know how to have fun in a race whether I’m on pace to hit my goal or not. Of anything that went wrong, I’m more mad at myself for that and more determined to not let that mind frame slip back again.

Now, about this other marathon …

2011: Top 5 running moments

These past couple of weeks have been fun reflecting on what happened in 2011. Today I bring you the last of my lists with my top running moments of the year.

Narrowing down the top 5 running moments of the year is hard, but honestly anything longer than that is boring and diluted. Anything beyond 5 is like having honorable mentions, which I will not do. This list is completely different from my top 5 racing moments of 2011 – this list is more broad and not necessarily as focused on one specific moment.

5. Monument Avenue 10k
While this was my No. 1 racing moment this year, it’s definitely not the top running moment. It was huge though, but from an overall perspective it wasn’t as important to me as other things on this list. Gradually building my mileage in the first quarter of the year, getting back to the start line and then setting a PR, though, still make this a great moment.

4. The Holiday Run Streak
In a few months, perhaps this will be higher on the list; it’s actually tough for me to include this here as it’s happening now with another day to go. That said, my running streak through Jan. 1 is teaching me a lot about running for the sake of running. It’s fun to just go out and run with training pretty far from my mind. I’ve run in the rain, in the wind, in awkwardly warm December weather, through neighborhoods brightly lit by Christmas lights; and included a few races to close out the year.

3. “Most ever” moments
It’s important to me to not confuse “most ever” with “best ever.” When it comes to this year, I won’t touch the “best ever” phrase. I’ll just use “best so far.” And with that nod comes many “most ever” moments this year — most weekly mileage (41.5 from Sept. 5-11); most ever miles in a month (135 in August and September); most ever mileage in a year (1,040.4); most ever races (13); and most ever consecutive races (4 in 4 weeks) are the highlights.

2. Watching my son race
I’ve learned a lot this year about running by watching my son. He has fun; he notices things like barns off in the distance in a race; and he runs just to run. If you don’t have kids, I highly suggest that you watch a kids race. Not the one with 10 or 11 year olds – the real kids race where everyone is under 5 years old. You’ll learn a lot.

1. Baltimore Marathon
This “moment” isn’t about that specific October day – it’s about the rush of signing up in April with no idea whether I could run anything beyond 6 miles; the gradual buildup of mileage through June; training through summer and early fall; not feeling 100% on race day; crossing the finish line itself; and being injury free after.

Baltimore Marathon finisher certificate

As for what’s coming in 2012? I’m not making a schedule for the year like many bloggers are doing — I have my focus on the Shamrock Half in March and I may still do a spring marathon. The Richmond Marathon will definitely be huge in November, but I’m not really thinking that far ahead now. Besides, what’s the fun in telling you what I have up my sleeve?

2011: 5 things I did differently

My friend Jeremy (Train to Tri) asked me in a comment recently what I felt like I did differently to stay injury free during Baltimore Marathon training. When I think about this year and what went well, I like to think that the combination of what I did differently worked. Here are 5 things – in no particular order – I did that I think have contributed to my well-being this year.

Epsom salt baths
I think I started doing a salt bath once I got to 16 miles for the long run. They’re so relaxing and always left me feeling refreshed. I would usually do one the night after a long run and then occasionally during the week. For those screaming at me to do ice baths, I tried it once and couldn’t bring myself to do another one. Maybe next year. Scream away.

running, differenceRunning faster
Getting quicker was not high on my priorities this year, but speed, as well as drastically improving my race times, was definitely a big factor in making this year a different year. And in this last month as I run in a non-training mind frame, I’m only getting faster without intentionally running faster.

Rotating shoes
I’ve been a big fan of rotating shoes since I started that in early 2010. This summer I added in another pair to the mix and now rotate two pairs of Brooks Ravenna and one pair of Brooks Ghost 3, which is nearing the end of its life. In addition to alternating shoes when running, I also alternate what I wear to work from a brown casual pair to a pair of New Balance to a couple of pairs of retired running shoes. I think all these combinations have kept my legs and joints from another repetition-type injury.

Walking at work
I don’t talk nearly enough about this, but the job I started in the spring has a great workout program. I generally add a couple of walking miles a day to the time on my feet Monday-Friday. That extra movement, especially on days that I feel sluggish or sore, has been key. That said, if I ever change jobs, I will insist that I be allowed walking time.

Better training log
While I was training for Baltimore, I utilized a Google Documents spreadsheet to closely monitor my weekly mileage, as well as my cumulative mileage and how it compared to what I did in 2010 when training for the Richmond Marathon. That led me to always know where I stood with my mileage at any given time. I’ll admit at times it make me obsess a bit more about things than I normally would have, but I intend on refining the process in 2012.

As I look ahead to 2012, I’m looking forward to trying even more new things and improving on what I’ve already done differently. Things such as cross training, which I did a lot of in 2011, need to take more priority, as do losing 10 pounds that I never seem to try hard enough to lose. For now, though, I’m looking forward to these last few days of the year.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net