With the marathon approaching the two-weeks-away mark, I’m becoming obsessed with all things running; why I’m running; why others are running; I’m searching for running quotes; I’m looking for new running blogs; but then today I remembered something awesome. My favorite movie of all time. Forrest Gump started running for “no particular reason” … he just felt like running. Sometimes you don’t need a reason to run. You just do it.
And then after you start doing it, it all makes sense …
“Don’t give up! U may have a craptastic run one day, then go out & the best run ever the very next day.”
“do it because you love it … the rest will fall in line.”
If you missed the first ever #runchat with me and Scott from iRunnerBlog last night, you missed out on some great conversations about running. Just a few days ago, I had this random idea of doing a chat on Twitter after I briefly took part in #fitblog, a chat about fitness that had a lot to do with running. And when I searched for a possible chat specifically geared toward running, I didn’t find one … fast forward a few hours and we had the chat planned for Thursday night.
I had no expectations. I figured a few comments would come through and maybe, just maybe, someone would want to do it again. But what I got was a wild ride and rediscovered how passionate runners are about racing, handing out advice and so much more. I’m still struggling to come up with the right words to describe how awesome it was.
So for everyone who took part in #runchat, I wanted to give a big THANK YOU for taking part. Last night was the first of what I hope are endless #runchat conversations. We’ll be back at 8 p.m. ET Thursday doing this again. I’m looking forward to asking new questions and continuing the running conversation.
If you have ideas for questions or themes or any other suggestions, please leave a comment below or use my Contact form to email me.
I feel like I just hit the 300-mile mark for the year … now I’m headed toward 500. On last night’s run, I passed 400 miles for 2010. And with tonight’s run, I’m at 403.7. That’s more than two-thirds of all of last year. It’s kind of hard to wrap my head around that, but it feels great.
That’s all …
* After such an awesome April, May has very much started ho-hum. Not that I didn’t need it — the first four months of the year were so good that I didn’t have a chance to slow down. And my blogging has slowed too. There’s nothing wrong going on — I’m just easing back on the gas pedal for a short time.
* Ten years ago yesterday I graduated from Lynchburg College. I actually had a good post typed up yesterday about where I’ve been since that time and how I want to surprise people at my 10-year reunion at Homecoming in October, but my computer literally ate what I typed. Disappeared. Gone. Maybe by October I’ll get around to putting those thoughts together again.
* When a run goes bad, get out and run the next day. On Wednesday, I had a horrible run. It just felt bad; it was hot; I felt slow; my breathing felt totally off; I felt like I had taken a shower with my clothes on. Then on Thursday, I had a great run. Take the bad things that happened the night before and reverse them. A key to bad runs is to bounce back like that and forget about them. Consider it forgotten.
* I really, really, really need to get my nutrition in check. This whole losing 5 pounds in May thing isn’t going anywhere. The scale says what it did two weeks ago, and I have no one to blame but myself. After a bad dinner tonight, I’m mad at myself. And, usually, if I get mad at myself, I can turn it around. It’s worked with running this year. Now I just have to get the other half of the puzzle done.
As part of my new site, I hope to bring some outside voices to my posts through guest posts and Q&A sessions. I’ve had a few guest posts before to sort of test how things would go, and they’ve been very popular. So today I start what I hope becomes at least a monthly feature on this site.
Here's Steve at week 20 of his weight-loss journey. He's now at week 27.
Meet Steve, fellow blogger at 265andfalling.com. He’s the guy you like to make fun of at McDonald’s … or maybe he’s the guy who caused the line to backup in the drive-thru because he wanted a couple of extra McDoubles off the $1 menu. Yeah, that person. Or should I say, he WAS that person. Let me try again … Meet Steve. He’s one of the few people in 2010 following through with what he said he wanted to do. It’s not easy, and he’ll readily admit that, but he’s changing his life, one day, one exercise, one mile, one pound at a time. Steve and I are exchanging posts today - you can visit my entry here to read my post. For my site, Steve is doing a Q&A …
Q: You seem like a pretty honest guy. Your “Old Me” page talks about McDonald’s. So, being as honest as you can, what was your “ah-ha” moment to spark your change?
I didn’t really have one particular ah-ha moment … for almost a year every time I saw a picture of myself, or stepped on the scale, it was like an ah-ha moment. I just didn’t do anything about it. Then one day, I stumbled across some weight-loss blogs. I read through three or four that day, and I thought “I can do this.” Since I wasn’t doing a very good job at keeping myself accountable, I thought I might try to let the world help. So I took a deep breath, set up my blog, and started telling my story.
Q: You started this lifestyle change in October 2009. How much weight have you lost so far?
It’s been a bit slow going, but right now I am down 34.8 pounds.
Q: What’s been the hardest thing to do?
Diet! I love food, in all ways, shapes, and forms. I haven’t reached a point yet where I don’t crave the McDonald’s sometimes, or the pizza, or the fried chicken, etc. I may never NOT crave them, but if I can keep it in control then I think I’ll be okay.
Q: What’s your favorite exercise?
The answer I’m about to give is something I never thought I would say: Running! The ARC Trainer is a very close second. I’m trying to learn to like strength training, but it’s been slow going on that front.
Q: Do you have a favorite new food? Something that you had no idea you’d like?
Salad. It sounds cliché, but it was something I always avoided. Why get a bunch of lettuce with your meal when you could have a pile of delicious french fries? But hey, salads are actually pretty versatile, don’t have much as far as calories (if you are conservative with the dressing), will fill you up and won’t make you feel like crap (ala french fries). My favorite salad consists of romaine lettuce, bruschetta mix, a little bit of feta cheese, and low fat Caesar dressing. Awesome!
Q: What’s been the most surprising thing so far?
This kind of goes back to the exercise question, I never, EVER thought I would like running. Walking has always been sufficient. Running scared me because it seemed like a lot of work. When you are heavier guy, running isn’t always a pretty site either (imagine fat rolls and mobs flying in every direction). But I tried it. It sucked at first, I won’t lie … but it wasn’t long before it wasn’t really sucking. And now I love it, and if I go too long without doing it I feel bad. It’s really cool, but considering my view on it just 6 months ago, it can be a bit weird to think about.
Q: I really like your goals page. One of those goals is a marathon. What kind of reaction to you get when you tell people that? And what’s your reaction to their reaction?
My plan is to run the Baltimore Marathon in October. I may have jumped the gun a bit, because I had only been running for a couple weeks when I thought “Hey, a marathon would be cool,” but I am still going to do it. The people I tell think it’s cool, but I still suspect there is a sense of disbelief surrounding it. The Steve they know is not a runner. I know I blew a few peoples minds when I ran a 5k road race in January, so I suspect that once it gets closer, and it becomes more apparent that I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO DO IT, there will be some shock.
Q: For someone who deciding right now, this very day, to get off their butt and make a change, what advice would you give them?
Just do it. Don’t sit there and make a huge elaborate plan, because you are pretty much guaranteeing your failure right off the bat. Make a change here, and a change there, and just do it. You will see everything will fall into place from there. Oh, and buy non-cotton underwear, especially if you plan to run. Just trust me on that one.
I’m not sure when I ran four days in a row last, but the April streak has started off well, despite the challenge of traveling over Easter weekend and keeping very busy. My mileage hasn’t been what I had hoped, but that’s not the point right now. I wanted to start off slow and not burn myself out.
Day 1 was supposed to happen around 6 a.m. Thursday, but I slept to my normal time and ended up running 2.2 miles that evening. Since I traveled on Friday, I got up the next morning and ran 3.5 miles — perhaps the first time I’ve ever ran twice within 12 hours. At least I don’t recall if I’ve ever done that. Also on Friday, I spent much of the afternoon at the North Carolina Zoo, which is enough exercise for two days in itself. I capped off the day by playing cornhole for about 2 hours.
Saturday morning I got up and ran 2.1 miles in my brother-in-law’s hilly neighborhood. I wanted to do more, but I was flat-out tired from the day before. Then last night I had a decent run of 3.8 miles. Four for four.