Setting a Goal: Making a Plan

The first, and arguably the most important, step in achieving something is to set a goal.

I do it all the time in business and life then build plans to help me get to where I want to go.  Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t, but I have learned that due to my ADD if I don’t have a goal and a plan, then I’m not going to get anything accomplished.  I’ll just look around at stuff and be busy as all get out then look around again and realize I’ve gone nowhere.  It’s like going to the grocery store without a list to get milk and cereal.  I’ll come back with four or five items but no milk.

 

The longest memory is a short pencil.  I live that.

 
Some of the goals I set are beyond what I really think I can do, but I’ve found that helps me do more than I actually thought I could.  Especially when dealing with physical things like weights or running.  When I set those stretch goals I also have secondary ones that I plan to hit “on the way.”  That way I build in successes so I feel good and keep working.  That’s worked really well the past two years as I try to run a mile in under five minutes.

Only about ten people a year in my age group, or the one above or below for that matter, do that in any given year.  The air is rare up there.  Those guys are fast, fast, fast and I’d like to be up there with them.  Of course I haven’t run a sub-5 mile since I was 18 but, pffft, I don’t care.  It’s a stretch goal! 

I’ve already hit several of my secondary goals and had some great races along the way, plus I’ve learned a great deal about training and perseverance.  I’ve also had the good luck to be able to share a lot of those learning’s with other folks and hear about their successes, too.  So today I want to do some more sharing and give y’all some basic pointers for accomplishing any racing goals you might have.

 

First: Set the goal

 

Write it down, tell someone about it, and talk about.  Those things will help make it real to you and keep you working towards it even if you hit some setbacks.

 

Second: Have a plan

 

Things that are worthwhile don’t just happen.  They take effort and you work for them.  With the limited amount of time we all have, we can’t just be wasting it if we want to do something big for ourselves, and having a plan will help us be more efficient and improve the likelihood of reaching our goals.  Think the plan through starting with the finishing point.  If you’re goal is a PR in a Half Marathon, start with the race date and work your ways backwards understanding that you’re not going to be able to run the needed distances at the needed speeds if you don’t build up to it!  Knowing where you need to be and when will help lay out what you have to do to get there.  And be smart about it.  Don’t just go throwing big numbers out there like running 6 days a week 10 miles a day if you’ve never made yourself do it before.  If you’re a three day a week runner, stick to three days.  Play to your habits and strengths if you can.  If you do have to change something do it in small steps.  It’s really easy to get discouraged so it’s important not to plan for discouragement.  Plan for success and go after it in little, manageable steps.

 

Third:  Vary the plan

 

We all know shit happens.  Sometimes it’s self-inflicted; sometimes it’s not but you know it’s going to happen, so be ready to go with the flow.  Missing a workout isn’t going to be the end if you gave yourself the leeway when putting together your plan.  The other key point here is the “variety” in the “vary.”  Regardless of what you’re training to do, just going out and running several times a week is not going to get you very far.  When I began my training I first looked at what the world class “elites” do.  No, I’m not going to be one of them, but they obviously know what they’re doing so I imitate them!  Which brings up a pet peeve of mine: training plans where you don’t ever run the distance you’re going to race.  Please.  To me that’s just a plan to help you FINISH a distance, not race it.  Now, obviously, finishing is the goal for many people.  That was my goal when I ran my one and only Marathon.  I did pretty well even though I hit the wall hard at 23 miles, but I’d never run more than 18 leading up to that so what the hell else should I have expected?  Elite marathoners do 30 mile runs in their training from time to time.  Those of us who want to really race a marathon should think about doing that, too.

 

But back to the “variety.” 

A good training plan addresses lots of different systems and muscles in your body to help you get the most you can get out of yourself.  Marathoners do speed work, and sprinters do long slow runs.  Just in varying quantities and speeds.  Here are the pieces I suggest everyone needs to do when training for any distance.  There are a gazillion variations on these workouts as well as cross-training opportunities that make a difference but these are the ones that will give you the most bang for your buck.  Read that: give you the most benefit in the shortest amount of time. 

Sprint Work:  Short, 40 to 80 meter, full-out-hard-as-you-can sprints with about 4 to 5 minutes rest between each rep.  Those build leg muscle and help you learn to move your feet faster and faster. 

Speed Work:  Distances from 200 meters up to a mile.  Intervals, where you run at a fast pace then rest and repeat, work the best here.  One of the most used workouts anywhere is a “10 x” where you run ¼ the distance you’re going to race at your goal race pace, then rest for about a minute or jog for about a minute and a half then hit the rep again for a total of 10 times. 

Stamina Work:  Distances ranging from about 1/3 to the full distance of your goal race.  The iterations that exist here are also numerous but think Tempo Run since that’s the most used workout.  These runs are done just a little slower than race pace and usually for a distance a little shorter than your goal race.  These are the workouts the Kenyans (a generality, but there’s some merit there) focus on most.  Supposedly it’s almost all of their training and that makes sense since this most closely resembles your goal race.  If you’re training for a 10K then 2 to 5 mile Tempo Runs will be what you’re doing. 

Endurance:  Distances as long, or longer, than your goal race.  These are really important just so your body is prepared to do what it needs to do for a given period of time and distance.  It’s going to be very difficult to race for an hour if you never run that long in practice. 

The balance and focus of these segments depend entirely on your goal race and secondarily on your physical capabilities.  My goal race of the mile means my time is spent on Speed, Stamina, Sprint and Endurance in that order.  If you’re training for a Marathon then it’s going to be more Endurance, Stamina, Speed and Sprint.  But all of the pieces should be there. 

Plus one more:  Easy Days. 

One of the best things you can do for your body is have a day where you run, but it is short and very easy.  This type of run gets the fluids flowing through you to speed up healing, elevates your heartbeat and breathing so there’s a little cardiovascular benefit to it, but it doesn’t stress your muscles and joints at all.  Very, very beneficial. 

That variety of training will not only improve you physically faster than doing just one type of running, it makes running a whole lot more interesting and fun!  And those two things, interesting and fun, bring me to the last word on a training plan.

 

You're the designer, so make the plan fit YOU!

 

One size does not fit all in the running world and while a plan by Higdon might be a good one, it might not be good for you individually.  The same goes for any plan out there.  I've got books and articles you could read on the subject, but I realize not everyone is as geeked about running as I am.  Just think of yourself and your goals when you lay out a plan to reach them.  Play to your strengths and deal with your weaknesses in ways that you CAN and WILL deal with them.  If you hate rigid things, then it doesn't make much sense to have a 7 day a week plan complete with the time of day you run, rest, stretch and eat does it?  No.  Just make a list of three or four runs you're going to do that week.

 

Interesting and Fun.

 

If you keep those things in your running, you will do it more and do it better.

 

 

Quadzilla and the mountain goat

I ran in a race called Quadzilla the other day.  They call it Quadzilla because the hills are ridiculous.  I did it last year and I hated it.  It was hard.  15k's of hot and humid hills.  I hated it so much that I signed up for it again this year.  I wasn't going to...and then I did.  I have found that most of the things that I hate, I sign up for again.  It is either some kind of self punishment or I am just stupid.  I prefer to think that it is that I like a challenge.  If something beats me up, I want to get it back somehow.  Some of the uphills are brutal.  The type where you have to walk.  Not only walk, but put your hands on your knees and push the legs so they can get up the incline.  Pretty steep.  As bad as they are, some of the downhills are real bitches too.  Really long downhills with sliding rocks and dirt that make it hard to brake.  With certain knee issues, it is almost impossible for me to brake.  I just tried to stay steady and in control and get to the bottom.  Like an arthritic mountain goat I was.  An old and slowish, arthritic mountain goat.  Like most old goats, you can probably look at me and see the shadow of a young goat, but not for long.  Don't even try to figure that last sentence out.  As long as I get what I'm saying, that it all that really matters.  Okay, I will explain it.  If you look real hard and on a good day, you can see my inner young mountain goat.  Just not on those hills.  I was an aged, ungraceful goat.  Whatever.  There were 9 plus miles of this.  When you think there are going to be no more big hills, there are a lot more big hills.  One of the biggest hills is almost at the end.  Who puts a big ass hill at the end of a hot and humid race?  I guess it was God.  If you don't believe in God, then it was the Hill Devil.  If you don't believe it was any of those, it was the race director.  She has devil like qualities, apparently.  She looks innocent enough, but she planned a race that just beats you up.  She probably won't read this, but if she does...Jill, this is a fun run.  How can so much pain be fun?  I really don't know.  I wanted it to be over when it started, but then you start getting up one hill and then another and then you see the miles tick off and you pretty much know you are going to finish.  Plus, it is in one of the prettiest areas in the Lehigh Valley.  Here is the problem with that, though.  I kept telling myself to appreciate the views.  But every time I did, I stepped on something and/or twisted something.  I finally told myself, "hey asshole, look at the views when you are in your car, or take a hike.  For now, just get the hell off this mountain in one piece.  Asshole." 

I ran the race with some friends.  When you run with people enough, you use the word friend kind of loosely.  You love running with them, but they don't think twice about pushing you to the edge of death.  One such friend is Alison.  We run together a lot.  In a race, she is usually ahead of me.  I can usually see her, but I can't catch her.  I know if I do catch her, I will be too dead to run the rest of a race.  One time I beat her in a 5k.  It was great because she stopped to kiss her husband and her kids briefly along the course.  I took that moment of weakness and got by her and never looked back.  That is what friends do, they look for moments of weakness and take advantage of it.  If she slows down because she loves her family, that is not my problem.  Anyway, back to Quadzilla.  She was just ahead of me the whole time.  Near the end, at one of the most horrible hills, I saw her at the top.  Near death, I yelled her name, hoping she would stop and help me to the finish.  I yelled, "Alison!"  Without missing a beat, she just yelled down, "hi, Bob" and then "Bye, Bob" and was gone.  It was a touching moment of friends helping friends.  I'm half joking, but that is what is great about running with good people.  They push you and hopefully you can push them.  I am blessed to be able to run with some really incredible people.  People who motivate me every day.  They know who they are.  I'm not going to mention anymore names.  Suffice it to say, I would not be doing some of the things I am doing without them being my running partners.

I have done Quadzilla twice now.  Next year, I would like to try and really race it.  Not that I was dogging it this year.  I wasn't.  I was all out tired.  I just know there are ways to manage the uphills and downhills better and really take advantage of the flats.  I tend to take a stubborn approach to the uphills and kind of burn myself out on the rest.  I guess that is how I want to approach all my races this year.  With some kind of strategy.  Quadzilla just kind of proved to me that I am well on my way to a comeback from some issues and I am a bit stronger than I thought.  Not bad for an old goat, I guess.

Putting Purpose in your Run

I have really come to love my training schedule.

I love reading it over to plan ahead.  I love going through the workouts in advance and calculating my splits then writing them out.  I love keying in my results into my spreadsheet and comparing them to past results then processing exactly how I felt physically during them and tweek the plan to adjust for something I feel I'm missing.  On top of all that I love reading about coaches and athletes; how they approach the same workouts I'm using, how they overcome the same challenges I face, why they do what they do, and of course I love reading about their results.  Incredible endurance, amazing kicks and blazing top end speed.

That paragraph was awful, but I'm gushing.

I just love this!

I also love that every single workout and run has a purpose.  There is some specific focus or objective, because it is one more step in the right direction on my path.  I'm sure some people wouldn't like having that sort of mind set, and I get that.  Depends on what you want out of running.  But when there is a specific goal in mind, then everything should be aimed at reaching that goal.  Otherwise, you're just wasting time.  Everything I read from great coaches and athletes, as well as great businessmen or anyone else at the top of their field, repeats this point.

There has to be Purpose.  A reason to do what you're doing.

What started out as a sort of fantasy and tangible example of some things I always say about getting the most out of life, has turned into a real passion.  And that passion is delivering all the things I had hoped it would in the beginning.  It's become my Purpose.

First of all is the fact it's made me stronger and faster.  I still flash back on a regular basis to when I was sick.  I know that can get kind of old to hear, but I'm not going to forget it.  I'm reminded of various aspects of that time of my life almost daily.  When I ache I'm reminded of how whatever I feel right now is nothing compared to the pain I felt the first days after surgery and the months around the end of my radiation treatments.  I was triple dosing on the pain meds and still not getting relief.  Whenever I lean in and drive through a turn on the track I'm reminded of how exhausted I would get just walking up a flight of stairs.  And, of course, every time I hear of someone else who's been diagnosed with cancer I'm reminded of how lucky I've been and that I need to be there in some way for them like people were for me.

Those memories are always placed against where I am now, and where I am now is someplace I had only hoped to be.  5:01 in the 1500 and sure of myself that I can break five minutes.  Ranked 30th in the country last year in my age group for the 800 was a total shock.  That part I hadn't even dreamed about.  Racing in a national championship had never crossed my mind, but I've gotten to do it.  My running has given me strength and speed that surprises and thrills me all the time.

Secondly, because I've seeing such gains from my focus and planning on training, I'm doing the same things in work and in life.  I'm looking at something that I want to accomplish, and then working backwards with a plan.  Then, each and every day, I'm working that plan.  Some things have been in place for awhile, and others I've just embarked on.  Either way I know that I have a far better chance of reaching my goals by approaching them with purpose.

Lastly, and probably most important of all of this, is what I hear from various people I've crossed paths with since I set out on this mini-quest.  People are inspired by it.  They tell me about how they've begun running, or have decided they want to see how fast they can get.  A few have asked for help and I'm having a blast working with them to set new PR's.  I get excited knowing that, if we plan right, and the work gets done, they're going to experience the same thrilling emotions I have when they finish that race and look at they're watch.  It's so incredible.

Yesterday I read something in an article in Running Times about the best advice elite athletes have gotten from coaches over the years, and one of them was by Aaron Braun.  This guy ran 10,000 meters in 27:41.  Wow, that's fast.  His college coach told him to "run for something greater than yourself."  His point being that if you're only running for yourself, you may back off in that final lap because you know you'll just race again another time.  But if there's something outside of you that is your focus, you're more likely to push on.

I've found that to be so true.  And not just for an individual race.  It's the same for every single workout.  I push hard the last rep, the last hill, or the last mile and sometimes do "just one more" because there's something greater than me at stake.

People are watching and wanting to see good results.  It inspires them, motivates them to do better as well.

I've had Purpose in my running from the beginning of all this, but it's transformed into something else.  Other people are trying harder, exercising more, living better and smiling more often.  I want to help them along even if it's just a little thing like a random post on facebook that makes them say, "wow, that's fast" and wonder if they could do something like that.

Put Purpose in your running and you will.

Race day report

Well, today was race day.  I am going to give a full and detailed report of my run.  But first, I'm gonna need to talk about what happened after the run.  Most of our running group went out for lunch afterwards.  I have spent this week eating much healthier and I actually lost about 4 pounds.  In the long run, this is going to be great.  Not sure if it sapped some of my energy for the run, but that is an excuse for another story.  The point of what I'm trying to get across now is that I ate way less food this week.  Then today, I ran a half marathon and went out to lunch.  In my mind, the eating healthy and the 13.1 miles meant that I could eat whatever the hell I wanted today.  In the olden days, people would go fairly long periods without eating much.  Then finally, they would catch a bison or an elk or maybe a huge tuna and they would eat the heck out of all that.  This is where the words feast or famine came from.  People were hungry and they were famished and then they caught a warthog and really ate it.  The stories of this always made me hungry.  Stories of roasting a warthog over an open fire on a spit.  Reading of our forefathers and mothers chewing on a greasy leg of an albatross made me really hungry.    Anyway, if we can flash forward to today, I ordered a pierogi casserole.  I think the recipe for this was as follows.  Take 100 pierogies.  Add copious amounts of cheese and onions.  Stuff them in a casserole dish and serve to the masses.  I think what the recipe was calling the masses, were my love handles.  Let's just say they were happy.  My love handles are saddle bag-like remoras of skin and lard.  In times of strife they feed off the potato chips and gravy drippings that don't make it into my mouth.  I think they call this a symbiotic relationship.  I don't know because I haven't taken science since 1956.  All I know is that my love handles need me to drop food to them and I need them for this particular post.  In all actuality, I would like to get rid of them but due to the pierogie pie thing, that won't happen for awhile.  I'm going to try and upload a picture of the casserole, but if you can just imagine a throw pillow of cheese, potatoes and pierogie, that is what you have.

Now for the race.  I felt pretty good for the start of it.  Then for the next 13.1 miles I felt like shit.  When I crossed the line and stopped, I felt good again. 

I have felt like I have been overly sappy lately, but here is the reality of today.  I saw people do incredible things.  Lots of people getting pr's.  People busting their butts to get across the finish line.  People doing whatever it takes to get over the line.  People helping other people to get to the line or get medical attention.  People running that should not have been running.  Gutting it out.  Friends coming out to cheer us on.  The moments of silence for Boston before the race brought tears to many people's eyes.  When I say silence.  I mean there was not a sound.  It was really something.  You could just feel the emotions the crowd was feeling.  I have incredible running friends.  This is one of the few times that I didn't care that much about my time.  Not that I didn't try, I was spent, but just finishing was enough.  To sum it all up, it was one of those days that will leave an impression on me.

In conclusion, it was a good day.  The bad news for my love handles is that their remora days are over. Their days of wine and pierogie pie is done.  I'm on a mission to do some serious stuff.  

I think I should be one of People Magazine's most beautiful women and not Gweneth Paltrow

As I start obsessing over what will be my 8th official half marathon, I had a thought.  It is well documented by whoever listens to me that I keep swearing off anything with the word thon in it.  I actually swore off them after my first half marathon.  My first half marathon came after my first marathon.  My first marathon was the worst experience of my life.  It took forever.  I think my time was three and a half days.  As we all know, the crowds for these events are incredible.  It seemed that all of New York was out that day in 2007.  They were all cheering for me.  At least I'm pretty sure they were.    This cheering went on for the first part of the first day.  By day two, people had kind of forgotten about me.  Day three of my marathon came and the people were getting hostile.  They wanted me out of their city.  They finally said take your medal and get out.  I did, and I swore off thons.

There is an old saying that goes something like this, "If one cannot lie to oneself, then who can one lie to?"  It is old and someone said it.  No one knows who and no one really cares.  It is one of those things that someone said around a fire or beside a river and the scribes wrote it down and it got lost in the translation over time until I found it again and put it here.  I'm bringing it back because it applies to me. I lie to myself all the time.  I keep telling myself that I am not going to run this stuff anymore and then I do.  Right now I'm mad at myself because I don't feel that I am well enough prepared to do what I want to do.  Every race I run, I want it to be faster than the last.  I'm pretty sure that isn't going to happen this time.  I try and tell myself that I don't care.  That I can just run and be satisfied that I did it.  But that isn't me.  In addition, I'm just never that happy running 13.1 miles.  I am the happiest guy in the world when I'm done.  Well, about 20 minutes after I'm done, but not when I'm running.  I have moments, for sure, but it ain't every mile.  I've done enough half marathons, that I know when I'm at the starting line on Sunday, I am going to say, "what am I doing here?"  I also realize that I'm lying to myself again because I know why I do it.  Because I like a challenge.  I like to push myself.  I love the feeling when I'm done.  I say this to anyone...just running 13.1 miles is an accomplishment.  There was a time that I could barely run from telephone pole to telephone pole.  I know there are many people who can relate to that and I appreciate all the work that runners put into running.  I appreciate all the work people put into life.  It is not easy.

I have set a new goal for myself and that is to try to eat healthier.  I've rationalized long enough that I can eat what I want because I exercise a lot.  At my age, that is not the case.  It is hard to keep the weight off.  I have a goal weight in mind.  I want to make sure that I'm getting proper nutrition to ensure I keep muscle on while losing the weight I want.  I really want to see how fast this old body can go.  I do not feel I am at a plateau yet and I feel the need to really push.  I hope I have the will power to push it where I want it to go.  I would like to know, just once, that I reached some sort of potential that I have.  I love the quote by Steve Prefontaine.  "To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift."  We all have gifts, very few really appreciate them or use them to their potential.  I know I haven't.  I don't think it matters whether you are faster, stronger or smarter than someone else.  What matters is that you are as fast, strong or smart as you can be.  Wasted potential is a sad thing.  As you get older, it becomes more profound.   The feeling of lost potential.  You cannot get that time back, but, if you are lucky, you do have tomorrow.  I have tomorrow and there are some things that I want to do.

In conclusion, my concentration has been ruined by Jeopardy.  It is on, and I am trying to finish this and answer questions to Trebek.  If I were on that show, the realization has hit me that he would say, "Nourse, stick to running and lifting weights."  I'm okay with that.

Rest is an important part of exercise

I took a couple of days off.

My hips hurt, my legs felt tired and during my last few runs I’ve had little pains show up.  Both Achilles tendons have felt hot or tight here and there.  My glutes, or at least that tendon at the top of the hamstring, definitely have a little inflammation thing going.  With the intensity of my training the last two months along with all the heavy work I’ve been doing around the house on nights and weekends had taken its toll.

None of this is anything I couldn’t ignore and keep going.  I’m sure I could cut my pace back quite a bit on my easy days, still keep my mileage up, and heal up just fine, but these are things I shouldn’t ignore.

My coach during my “comeback”, Robin, once told me that during the peak times of her training she actually set her schedule over a two week period as opposed to weekly.  That way she could keep speed workouts at least ten days apart to allow her body time to fully recover and adapt.  I’ve really fought that advice.  I keep laying stuff out by the week and definitely squeeze those HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) runs closer than seven days apart.  I’ve had some weeks when I did two of those workouts.  I’m pretty sure I do that because I never put them that far apart when I was 18, so why should I now?

Because I’m 49, not 18, that’s why.

I’ve gotten much faster than I was in January, but I feel like I’m struggling now as opposed to feeling stronger.  Not the way I should be feeling with less than two weeks to my first competition.

So I took these two days to just rest the legs and joints, and it’s time to lay out my training to get me through May, June and July anyways.  I’m going to try and pay more attention to the spacing of my workouts and force myself to go easier on my “easy” days.   The trick is figuring out what to do on the days that I’m not planning anything intense.

I’ve found precious little that talks about anything other than specific workouts that will build endurance, speed or stamina.  There’s plenty out there on workout ideas and plans, but the workouts always add up to something like 10 to 15 miles of running and then they just toss in a weekly mileage total of 30 to 40 with no explanation of how you get there.  A couple of ten mile runs? Four 5 mile runs?  What?

I do have one good source, 10K & 5K Running, Training, & Racing: The Running Pyramid by David Holt, and he actually lays out nice schedules that show what to do each week for about a year in order to peak for a one month period for those types of events.  That’s helpful.  He only runs four days a week, but other folks I read suggest five days a week.  I think I'm finding out that I should stick to four ...

So I've had two days off and tomorrow morning I get on the track again to do a pyramid workout.  400, 800, 1200, 800, 400.  This will help with my stamina (endurance at speed) since that's where I feel the weakest right now.  After that I'll have a couple of fartlek runs, then real easy to nothing  by the middle of next week.

Sunday morning is the 800.

And I'll be wearing these!!

 

I was not in the market for racing spikes, I have a pair and seriously how many does an old guy with this hobby need?, but I had won an award from GM for work and that came with a gift card.  Just a couple of days after getting the award notification I got an email from a member of our track team and these babies were on sale for $20!!  So I added two more pairs that were on sale and am donating my two older pairs to the thrift store in Manteo.

Here are the other two pairs.  One for shorter, faster training runs and 10K or longer races...

and the others for longer training runs.

Now to just lay out what all those runs will be over the summer....

Running in Manteo

Despite having to take an unplanned rest day for sudden shin splints, I had a great Tempo Run this morning putting 3 miles behind me in 20:54 after a mile run at 8:30 pace then followed those miles with almost 3 and a half more at below 8:30 pace.  That part of my training, speed with some distance, is going well.  However, after my 10 x 200 workout on Sunday, I know that my lactate turn stuff needs improvement.  Especially since I have the 800 to run in Maryland on the 24th.

I have those workouts on the schedule so I'm confident it will come together.

But for today's blog I wanted to give y'all a look at my long run on my "original" training route in Manteo, NC.

I start and finish at my house (duh) right at the rose arbor I built a few years back.

 

Crepe Myrtles are pruned and ready for spring.

 

 

I head up the street, right to left in the picture above, and around the corner to head up to the North end of the island.

 

After rounding the corner, I run along the sidewalk where I blew up my ankle by stepping on a pine cone in the dark, and then past the high school and my church then come up to the next corner where I turn right to head towards the sound.  Right at the half mile point and at that corner is a house where I've done a bunch of work.  I transformed an unfinished garage with a dirt floor into a two room efficiency with a kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom with one of the coolest decorative ceilings I think I've ever designed.  I also created the paint scheme and selected the colors for the house which was nothing but peeling white paint before I got ahold of it.  We actually used 3/8 paint brushes to do the railings.  But even now almost 6 years later it looks fantastic.

 

 

There are 8 different colors on the front door alone.

 

 

From there I chug down Scuppernong (a street name), past mile marker one and turn left to run along Mother Vineyard that parallels the Sound.  Along there is a couple of my favorite spots.  A tunnel cut out of cedar trees,

 

 

and the 1.5 mile mark where I can look out across the Sound to Nags Head.  Many mornings I've seen the sunrise from this corner, and the view is always something that makes me smile.

 





 

 

The road bends back around to the left here and I have almost a half mile exactly before turning right and heading North on the bike path.  This is a long stretch, about 3 miles, but full of niceties along the way.  Mainly there are always people out here and more than half of them I'll know.  Along with their dogs.  It's always fun to hear, "Hey Ed!  In town this weekend?"  Of course sometimes I'll yell back, "Nope," and watch their faces crinkle up then laugh.

 

One of the neat places I pass is Island Farm.  It's a place set up to show what things were like on the island back in the 1800's.  Complete with cows and native horses.

 

 

They ignored me when I called them today.

 

 

Further up the path, at about the 4 mile mark is Fort Raleigh Park.  That's where the first English colony was established on this continent back in 1587.  And, yes, it's the famous "Lost Colony" which vanished without a trace before supply ships returned to them after being away during the war with Spain.  When I want to go 11 or 12 miles I'll duck down into the park here and run through the trails in the woods around the Fort.

 

 

 

After that it's just a mile to the end of the island and the Mann's Harbor Bridge.  That's where over 300,000 purple martins roost every summer.  Watching them come in at night is something everyone should see.  It'll take your breath away.







 

 

 

 

What's totally cool is that I took that video after running 5 miles in under 40 minutes and I'm barely breathing.  Love it.

 

From here it's back down the path passing all the same stuff, but from the other direction.  (Captain Obvious strikes again.)  Including "the Hill."  Every time we come to this point we yell, "Hill!!" and charge up it.  All three strides....

 

 

Hey, It's a flat island.

 

 

And here's a shot of the bike path I took on the run.  It's sort of the same view a dozen other times along this route...

 

 

A little farther down the path is one of the several horses people own.  This one decided to at least look at me.  I guess it knew I hadn't brought any baby carrots with me because he didn't come over to the fence to see me.

 

 

 

Just before I make that last turn onto my street there are three little houses called the Toy Boat Houses and they're a great place for folks to stay when you come here for Relay for Life in May! 

 

 

Note the totally cool tree house!

 

Just google "Roanoke Island Accomodations" and the first link is to a friend of mine's website.  It's an amazing site that will give you all you need to find in the Outer Banks.  I'd put the link up but telling you to just google that proves that this guy owns Search Engine Optimization.

 

 

 

And when you come visit I'll be right on this front porch to welcome you.  I probably won't be sweaty and have the red eyes from running in the freezing cold...unless of course we go for a run!

 





A Running Addiction

I'm having a good couple of weeks here training-wise.

I've been following my schedule tightly and it seems to be working really well.  To review:  Each week I have a variety of runs and exercises designed to develop a different group of muscles, a different system in my body, or some different discipline that will help me race faster.  I have one long, moderate run of 10 miles.  A Tempo or Steady State Run where I go about 85 to 90% of 5k race pace for anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes.  Then there's a Speed or Hill workout of intervals from 200 meters to 800 meters, and finally a Sprint workout where I'll do 50 meter or shorter full out sprints and plyometrics.  I had gotten away from doing the heavy leg lifting, but my coaches admonished me enough so that I went straight to the gym after practice last Sunday and did my squats like a good boy.

I say "admonished" and by that I mean they were saying, "That's okay.  Just be slow," or "what are you some sort of baby?  Is it too hard for you?"  That sort of thing.

Bitches.

 

Here's a heat in practice.  I'm the white guy....getting beat by everyone including the 14 year old girl.  Sure she's a prodigy, but still.

I showed them.  I did my squats and threw in some deep squat jump ups in between each set under the bar.  Which is why I had to move my week around on Tuesday.  My butt cheeks, hammies and quads still made me flinch every time I moved, so I wasn't going near a hill workout in that condition.

To fill in the rest of my week I either rest or run 5 to 7 miles at a very easy pace.  I've found that running a very relaxed paced 5 miles the day after a hard workout doesn't seem to stress my body all that much and it's enabled me to move my weekly mileage up nicely.  I shouild get to about 40 miles a week by next month.

My last Tempo Run was a beauty for me and I think is a great indicator of how well things are going.  Based on my last couple of months and I had scheduled my Steady State and Tempo Runs to stair step up in distance and stair step down in times in hopes that I could get myself to the paces that the McMillan Calculator says I should be using for those runs.  (I hadn't been within 20 seconds of those paces for runs of 2 miles or more)  So this last Tempo Run was supposed to be a set of 2 two mile intervals; each one being 7:15 pace.  The Calculator said I should be doing these at 6:50 to 7:10, but I hadn't gone that fast yet and didn't think I could.

I ran my first mile warm up in about 8:30 and took off into the first of the two intervals.  Mile one went by easily in 7:13 so I picked it up just a hair and did the next one in 7:08.  Before that 2nd mile was done, though, I felt so good I decided to keep going.  Mile three felt good again and was still a little faster at 7:03.  Time to go...  I pushed into the 4th mile feeling very good and could even talk.  Yes, I talk to myself when I run sometimes.  I'm pretty sure I even use my hands when I do it...

Mile four was my best at 6:53.  Negative splits just like I'm supposed to and right in the wheelhouse.  I finished the last two miles of warmdown at just under 8:30 and was not even breathing hard at the end.  My legs were drained and tired but I swear I was just over my resting heartrate.

Sweet.

Today I took my scheduled day of rest to give my legs some extra time to get ready for tomorrow's Short Hills.  I'm planning on doing 8 reps this time; two more than a couple of weeks ago, and we'll see if I feel as comfortable as I did then.  I'm not bumping my planned times down just because last week was so fast.  I'm still aiming at 1:20 or less for each rep, but I'm adding two more reps to the stack.  I'm also putting a full one mile warm up and cool down in as well to increase my mileage for the day.

Topping things off each day I make sure to get my pull ups, push ups and sit ups in as well.  I'm now doing 15 pull ups, 40 push ups, and 40 sit ups with 10 twists on the last one.

And of course at night I'm tiling still.  Well grouting now.  Here's the living room tonight:

You can see the wet grout I just did

 

 

There's still a little bit of tile cuts to make for the corner under the TV, but I'll do that Saturday after a quick trip down to Manteo to get the chop saw, stand, compressor and nail guns to do all the baseboard work.  My wife has also come up with an idea for a mantle which I will be building in the coming weeks.  The magazine picture she found is taped to the wall where I'll be doing the construction.

 

All in all I'm a happy boy.  Even if I'm a Running Addict.

 

 



What a bunch of crap

My running is getting better.  I am able to go longer distances at a faster pace and I am able to talk for a good bit of it.  I partially judge my fitness on how much I can talk on a training run.  I actually can't believe that I have become a running talker.  Or a talking runner.  I think it comes from my inherent hatred of long distances.  I need something to take my mind off the miles.  When running with people I am comfortable with, that means talking.  When running by myself, that means I need music.  Trail running provides all kinds of distractions.  Squirrels, bears, twigs, roots, rocks, cliffs, etc.  The miles go so much faster when I am distracted.  We ran yesterday in the aftermath of a "snowstorm".  In our area, we got about 5 or 6 inches of snow, which wasn't bad, but it was windy.  Very windy and cold.  The wind was blowing right in our faces for much of the time.  We also run in a fairly hilly area.  I found that the concentration it took to not let the wind blow my face off, took my mind off the hills.  My friend said that the hills took his mind off the wind.  It is all in the perspective.  My point being, I like stuff taking my mind off the run.  I may have said this before, but I don't think that I am a runner who goes out to run to clear my mind.  I don't find joy in the run.  I find joy in the effects of the run.  In other words, especially when I run by myself, I just want the run to be over.  Once it is over, I think back to how wonderful it was and I can't wait for the next one.  I think part of the euphoria is that I didn't die.  My runner's high comes at the end.  I'm in my car, I have a Dunkin Donuts coffee, and I am alive and thinking about what I just did.  Time spent with good friends sharing in the run is also incredible.  During a race, I am totally different.  I don't want to talk.  I can't talk.  I shouldn't be able to talk.  For those running purists out there who say you should just be in touch with your body and listen to your pace or your feet and shouldn't talk or listen to music or communicate with squirrels...well, fuck you.  I am a middle aged, average looking, middle of the pack amateur runner who is just trying to stay in shape and die in a healthy manner.  Speaking of music, I have had disagreements with people over whether to listen to music or not when we run.  My opinion is that if I am too stupid to see or hear a car coming, or a bear attacking me, then I deserve to be run over and/or eaten.  There are runners out there that take themselves far too seriously.  As important as it is to me, I have to rein it in every once in awhile and say it is just running.  I am a decent recreational runner with some goals I want to achieve.  Therefore, I train with the intent to perform at a certain level.  That level kicks me out of the run for joy club.  The joy I get is seeing my body respond to the miles and the surprise I still have when I am able to get certain results.  I am on a quest to see what my body can do at a semi-advanced age.

I just read an article about what aging does to performance.  Everything falls apart, basically, as we age.   I don't really need to read this to know it, but it when you read about it, it is kind of scary. Testosterone levels, heart rate, muscle tone, bone structure, fat loss, brain cells, rate of recovery...pretty much everything.  What gets stronger as we age, at least in some of us, is the resistance to quitting.  When we are younger it is just easier to quit.  We think we have plenty of time to make up for things.  Well, time catches up with us.  We get older.  Life beats us down.  At least it thinks it does.  But we make it to a certain point and we make it through certain things and we kind of beat time and life.  It pounds us and pounds us some more, until it just doesn't hurt that much anymore.  And something like running, while painful, is really nothing.  It is just running.  I personally feel that I am still in my twenties.  I am an old, kind of wrinkly, gray and sore twenty year old, but mentally I don't feel like maybe a 52 year old should feel.  However, I realize every day that I may hit a plateau physically at any time and I'm not ready for that yet.  I want to try to pull every bit of performance out of myself so I can start the slide down the other side knowing I did everything I could to see what I could do.  I can't go back to high school and do things again.  Back then I half assed everything, never really pushing too hard.  I can't get that back, but I can do what I can right now.  I would like to see what I can do.  All I really know, is at this age, pain just doesn't hurt that much.  I'm gonna leave it at that.

A Long Run

Today was my day to do my long run.  My goal was 10 miles, but with being sick and still having a bit of a cough I allowed myself to be happy with 7 as long as I got 3 in tomorrow to reach my goal of 20 miles for the week.

The sun was out for the first time in almost a week so that had me pumped up, and the fact that it was only 28 degrees motivated me, too.  With all the cool stuff I've bought over the last year or two for winter running, I like having the opportunity to actually use it.

Another nice thing about the weekend runs is that it's not going to be pitch black out so I get to wear my iPod and run to music.  Most times I don't because I want to be able to hear the packs of wild deer or raccoons if they try and attack me from the woods.  Daylight means more cars, so I have to pay attention to that, but I don't have to worry about critters as much.

I put on two pairs of my long stretch pants, three long sleeve shirts, my running jacket with the cool little iPod holder, and hat and gloves.  Turned out it was too much, I was sweating my butt off during most of the run.  Obviously I can handle even colder temperatures!  Bring it on, baby.

Since I haven't run a good, long way in almost three weeks, so I told myself to go out easy.  My McMillan calculater showed my target Long Run pace range to be between 7:52 to 9:05.  I decided I would be happy with 8:45 and thought that would help me make 10 miles.  But like I always do, I hit the half mile mark under 4 minutes.  Dude. SLOW DOWN.  I don't know why I have trouble running at slower goal pace when I'm alone.  I need to be better at this because it's how I'm going to get faster.  I need these long runs at the appropriate pace in order build my endurance, while recovering from the more intense speed and hill workouts.

Well, I forced myself to slow down and just relax.  Meanwhile, Green Day started playing which made it tough to slow down.

I reached the end of the street outside of my neighborhood and turned the corner to go up and cross Midlothian Turnpike for the first time.  This happens right at Mile 1 which I hit in 7:58.  Sheesh.  I thought I was slowing down.

Michael Jackson started up in my ears with Wanna Be Starting Somethin' as I tried to get across the street.  I was clear from one side and got across to the little median and turn lane but the other light had changed and traffic started pouring along.  So I just ran up the turn lane, checking over my shoulder now and then.  I got close to the next light with no way of getting across, so I kind of slowed up and the music was great so I kind of skipped to a stop then bounced in place.  I have no clue what got me right then, but I did a quick spin and started to dance like I was in my living room or something.  The cars came to a stop at the red light so I bounced off in between them to waves, laughs and someone honked.

Too funny.

I tooled on down by the high school and passed a couple of other runners who had just started out.  From there I cut down through a neighborhood that has a steady incline for about half a mile then drops down for about half a mile until I come back out the other side down by the interstate and community college where I get my first good uphill run.  I was at Mile 3 and decided to change my watch to the average pace and saw that I was at 8:10.  Still too fast and I could feel it when I got to the top of that hill.  I was breathing hard and still had the hardest hills in front of me.  I can go as slow as a 9 minute average, so I pulled back some more and had to tell myself repeatedly that going easy was the smart thing and would be good for me.

I went the "long" way on the next turn because I decided I would commit to going at least 9 miles and used that to keep my pace in check.  I just loved the music with some of my new additions of Neon Trees: Animal, Jack White: Shakin, and Dion: The Wanderer.

There were a lot of people out running and walking so it was kind of social with lots of waves.

I got hot though, but really liked the fact that my new Nike running gloves were warm.  My hands get cold first and sometimes it's pretty uncomfortable.  But not today.  I almost felt like taking them off for a bit, but it was below freezing out so I figured I'd just leave 'em on and put up with being a little warm.

I cruised up the last steep hill of my run between Mile 6 and 7 and was still running along 8:15 pace.  I told myself I could back way off and still come in faster than 8:45 pace and go the full 10 miles that would be nice Little Victory for the day.  I still had a lot of uphill running to do through the last neighborhood, but it's not real steep.  Just a mile of steady climb.

I got back up to Midlothian Turnpike and this time I didn't have any trouble timing the traffic and just needed a little burst to get across.  I always like that.  A quick sprint here and there just to jazz things up.  I rolled along back down to my house and saw that I would be right at 9 miles, and my hips were tired.  I could tell I haven't gone this far in a while, but I felt good, so I decided to bypass my neighborhood's entrance and run up one street and down by the railroad tracks.  I trotted down and back out and only had to run a little ways past my house to get to the full 10 miles.

One of the neighborhood kids was going to find his friends and decided to run along next to me for a little ways and we high fived as I turned to my house.

Just a little something that made me smile and add a little more fun to a successful run.

10:06 miles in 1:23:30 and 8:18 pace.  I really felt great about going the whole 10 miles and holding a pretty decent pace for having such a long layoff.

I knew I'd get back on track in short order but now I'm feeling more confident about that.  Although I have my first Short Hill workout coming up next week I think I'm ready to wade into that pain again.

So tomorrow I've got church and will try to get my sprint workout in during the afternoon.  I need to keep that piece in my routine so I've got those additional muscles for when I begin the 100 and 200 workouts.  I'm really looking forward to that!  Plus I have a couple of indoor meets coming up that I could do and would like the opportunity to see what I can turn an 800 in.

The work continues!

Plan Training to Build Confidence

I'm finishing up about a week of gently training my way through flu recovery and have been asked to give advice to a number of friends, family and a new member of our Master's Track team and then I read Bob's most recent post and I noticed there's a theme to all of the advice I'm giving, and using myself, these days.

Make Confidence a goal of training.  Right up there with endurance, speed, strength and weight loss.

We all have those things in mind as we map out our training plans, jump into them enthusiastically, but so often we don't achieve the goals we set because something stops us.  We fall off the band wagon, lose sight of the goal and then just go back to where we were to start with.  Not at all what we want, and yet there we are.

Why?  What the hell happens?

Looking back honestly at my own behavior I've seen injuries, illness, job changes, life changes, bad weather and just plain bad decisions derail my plans.  But I also noticed something else that is by far the biggest culprit in my failures.  The plans themselves.

With all the Sales training I've been through and taught others I can spout off all sorts of aspects to a good plan with no problem at all.  The most important one I always preach is that you must set a goal that is both measurable and has a time table.  But all my advice this past couple of weeks is about another piece of setting that goal.

Set progression goals, too.

Those also must be measurable and have a time table, and have one other very important part: they should be easy to achieve.

Progression goals help you lay out a path and time table to reach your big goal.  Making them easy to achieve will help keep you on track if something temporary, like bad weather, pops up.  If I have a weekly mileage goal that's not a huge stretch, missing a day is not going to blow my week.  And that leads me to the most important part of having easy to reach progression goals.

Little Victories.

My biggest problem in reaching goals is that I've gotten hit with something temporary or had a setback of some sort, fall off track and then before I know it I'm not getting near my goal anymore.

So with all the folks I've talked to about running the past couple of weeks I've emphasized setting easy to reach progression goals that will help them reach their big goal.  And I mean REALLY easy.  You should be able to celebrate a Little Victory every day or so.  One person I talked with wants to race a 10K next fall.  Not just finish it; she's done that before.  She wants to race one and we picked it out and have the date.  Next we talked about the sort of distances and workouts that she'd be doing, but then I went to the easy progression goals.  The first one we set was to put on her running shoes every day.

That's it.  At the end of every day she needs to have put on her shoes once that day.  No excuses.  Some of the days in that week she'll run, but every day she'll put on those shoes.  She might get sick, real busy or something and forget it once or twice but that can be handled by putting them on twice the next day to make up for it!  Little Victories!

Experts generally agree that in order for us to establish a habit we need to do something every day for 21 days.  Sounds like a piece of cake, but if the habit we're trying to form feels like work or is overly involved we probably won't make it through those 21 days with a new habit at the end of it.  But if that activity is easy and even fun, we'll get it down no problem.

And with that new habit we'll get that supremely important sense of accomplishment.  That's supremely important because it will help us keep moving towards the big goal.  Without it we will probably get derailed and lose sight of that goal.  And those easy to reach progression goals give us the opportunity to get that sense of accomplishment whenever we need it!

A variation on that theme of setting easy to reach progression goals is to plan your workouts to do the exact same thing.  A long run doesn't happen in an instant.  Hell, neither does a sprint workout.  There's time and reps and opportunities to feel good about what's happening if we plan for them.

This morning I had on my schedule to do 800's.  I wrote that done when I laid out my training plans to get me to the Indoor Nationals I'm running in at the end of March.  Then I got the flu and it wrecked all that.  Or could have.  But I have progression goals all through my plan and I've been thinking through each workout or run in a way that will make me feel like I'm getting somewhere.  So this morning it was cold and raining and I was NOT going to go out feeling like I'm 80% just so I can get sick again and lose another couple of weeks.

Instead I had figured out how I would do the same workout on a treadmill, so I was going to get this done despite the weather.  I got to the gym, got the machine going and figured out how to do the speed controls easily.  Little Victory number 1!

My original plan had me doing six 800's because I was only able to do four three weeks ago and figured I would be in better shape right now.  But I'm not.  I'm still coughing and not entirely back up to strength.  Knowing that, but really wanting to get the full workout in, I decided to make the first ones slower than I would have.  The treadmill made it easy to set a 3:20 pace so that's what I did for the first two dropping down to a walk, then jog of 12 minute pace for a quarter mile between each rep.  This meant I would be resting a little longer than my typical three minutes, but I was also covering a 400 between each 800 which I never do.  Little Victory number 2!

The first one felt tough, but the first one always feels harder than it should.  It's called warming up.  The second one felt like I didn't even really try and I was breathing pretty well with only a little bit of a cough here and there.  I picked up the pace to 3:14 for the next two reps, was breathing hard, but breathing.  It felt like running!  I knew I could get two more in no problem.  Little Victory number 3!

Telling myself to celebrate those Little Victories got my confidence rising and I decided to push the last two reps.  800 number seven I clicked through in 3:04.  That had me gasping pretty good, but I felt strong all the way through.  One more and I was going to go sub-3.  Once again I set myself up to succeed and celebrate by setting the pace on the treadmill at 6 flat, or 3 flat for the first half of the last 800.  When I had one quarter to go I was huffing, but hit the speed button just once to drop two seconds off the last "lap."  I lengthened my stride and grinned my way through that last 400.

All six 800 reps in!

Little Victory number 4!

I set the pace to 8:30 and ran the last 3/4's of a mile to get me to six miles for the morning.  That little bit put me at 11 miles for the week.  Which means I have two more days (tomorrow is a rest day for the legs) to get in 10 miles which will put me over 20 miles for the week.  And that will get me ANOTHER Little Victory!!

Dude, I'm so fired up it's funny.

Even though I'm not all that strong lung-wise right now, and I've missed two weeks of training, I still got in a full, real workout that my legs are feeling tonight as I write this.  And that will pay off Saturday when I got out to run, and pay off again next week when I hit the short hills again.

This morning's workout had pieces built in that would be easy to hit, too.  Those easy to hit targets gave me reasons to celebrate along the way, built my confidence and helped me succeed in my goal for the morning: 6 x 800's averaging below 3:15.

And that's important for the long range goals, too.

We've all got the big goal out there.  Now figure out some progression goals to work into your plan that will help you reach your big goal.  Then make sure at least some of those progression goals are easy.  Ridiculously easy.  So there's no way you can make excuses and you'll form the habits that will get you to your big goal.  And celebrate those Little Victories every time you reach one.

That will build your confidence, which builds your enthusiasm, which will carry you to success.

Race Day!

Have you heard the flu is going around?  I've had it for two weeks now, and while I'm feeling much better than I did that first week I'm now very sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Enough is enough.

I've been a good boy and doing the rest and tons of fluid thingy the past week and even though I felt like I could run I haven't.  Rest, rest, rest is what doctors are preaching regarding the flu and I'm paying attention.  It does bug the crap out of me that I've missed two fun weeks of my awesome training spreadsheet and the beginning of my interval workouts again, but I figure if I take it easy now I'll be better off in the long run.  Hey, I just used a running metaphor in a blog about running!

Sweet.

So, two weeks off and I had a race today in the Outer Banks.  I registered for it awhile back and since it was a 5k I decided to use it as a way to move back into my running with a short, relaxed run with my friends in the Outer Banks Running Club.  And, once again, they put on a really nice race.

The Frostbite 5K is the OBRC's annual membership race and they do it up with something cool each year.  This year we got embroidered jackets!  Here being modeled by myself, Matt and my Cancer Compadre, Shane.  That's my buddy Joe the Plumber in the white.  ...and, yes, he actually is a plumber.

>

The weather this year was really warm, about 60 degrees, but it was a dreary looking day with all the fog.  There was an Adrienne Barbeau sighting early on and a couple of people thought they saw a guy covered in seaweed carrying a big meat hook.  From what I heard, though, we had as many finishers as we did starters so all were accounted for.

 

The Front Porch Cafe provided coffee and hot choclate and others brought cookies for all the runners to enjoy.  Shane played EmCee at the beginning to introduce the new Board of Directors for the club and get us all over to the starting line.

 

I lined up with a few of the folks I know, figuring I'd go out pretty quickly just to move my legs and see what my lungs felt like.  I got a picture of Jessica who went on to be the top female finisher as we were covering the first couple of hundred meters.

 

 



 
She's very quick so I was lucky to get a picture.

Another friend, Pete was with the lead group and right behind me when I got the picture.

"Hey look at Ed running a 5:30 pace!" just before he chugged on by me and left me in his dust.

However, I did get a picture of him LOSING to me for a little bit there.

I settled back into a comfortable pace when I had a brief coughing fit and decided I wasn't getting any air in my lungs. My legs felt great, but I wasn't going to be going to set a PR today. We ran through a neighborhood that led back up to the dirt road that would take us up into the woods to the turn-around. A few more people passed me as we went and got a couple of good pictures as we ran.

The dirt road.

The trail after the turn-around. High fiving friends as we passed each other. About here I decided I needed yet another running self portrait since I just think that's funny.

Goofy, yes.

 

Then it was back down the dirt road, through the neighborhood and a hard right turn through the finish line.

 

 

 

I got a 23:06 official time, so I immediately told myself I could've found 6 seconds almost anywhere on that run, but it was off to the coffee and cookies!

 

 



 

 

Thanks OBRC for another fun race!  Looking forward to getting back on track (literally) and actually making Pete race me....