Small Rewards

Posted: January 9, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

So I weighed myself this morning to see if what the results were from tracking my food intake combined with running five days a week. And for the first seven days, from 1/1/2014 to 1/8/2014 I lost 3.8 pounds. Went from 202 pounds to 198.2. This weight loss also has to be attributed to things that I ate and didn’t track also. Mainly, drinks that have zero calories. When I was on weight watchers it was one of my rules that I wouldn’t drink anything that had calories, except for beer. I feel that there are many diet, zero calories alternatives that are worth drinking rather than taking on a couple of hundred calories drinking the sweetened version. It worked out well for me the first time so I thought that I would adopt it the second time around. And when I did drink beer of course I still kept track of how much I drank and look up the nutritional information when I got home.  Here is the site that I use to find that information.

http://www.beer100.com/beercalories.htm

Another exception that I remembered while I was writing this out is sugar free coffee creamer. I have tried a couple of different flavors and they just aren’t a good tasting alternative to the real stuff. And when I do drink them with coffee they are in such small amounts, a tablespoon or two that I feel they are worth the calories. Of course, it is in the morning when I drink coffee so it gives me more incentive to get moving and watch what I eat the rest of the day if I get a reward right when I wake up in the morning. Even though it is a small reward.

Having been on a weight lose plan previously I know that it is totally normal to lose a good amount of weight the first weeks that you start one. I know that normally losing a pound to two pounds is the goal and that I shouldn’t expect to continue to lose almost four pounds a week.

Initial Thoughts On Using Loseit.com

Posted: January 8, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The first two weeks of the year can be rough time for people who want to workout, lose weight and take better care of themselves.  On Monday, the 6th of January I heard all over in the media that it was the day that most people break their New Years habits and revert back to what ever they were going before. Taking better care of yourself and attempting to either maintain your healthy weight or losing weight can be one of the most challenging things that a person can do in their adult livces. And if your just one of those people who goes through the holidays without putting on any weight, well then kudos to you.

The rest of us put on at least a healthy ten pounds between Halloween and New Years. At least I did this year. I kept telling myself that I was going to watch what I was eating, work out more and take better care of myself but it just wasn’t in the cards for the last quarter of 2013. So because of this I gave myself a deadline. 1/1/2014. That, at the very least I was going to track what I ate and run five days a week. And on the morning of the first day of 2014 I dove head first into finding a weight tracking website or app that would be cost effective, had a good data base of food and an interface that was easy to understand. After spending about half a day looking for such a site I found one in loseit.com.

Now I should say ahead of time if you’ve never read my blog a couple of years ago I lost forty pounds on Weight Watchers. I know that WW works and if I had the $15 per month to subscribe to it I would. But since I’m currently out of work and have close to zero dollars to spend in the weight loss department, (although you’d think that being unemployed would cause me to lose weight in the first place), I needed to find an option that was A) close to free and B) had an app for the iPhone with a bar code scanner that makes it very easy to track what you eat.

So, I’m happy to report loseit.com has been a winner in my book for the first week that I have used it. The data base of foods is excellent, the interface is amazing, yes the app is free and they do offer a premium account that is $40 for the year.  Among other features it includes being able to link my Fitbit and Runkeeper accounts to loseit.com in order for anything activity wise that I do to be automatically synced. One of the features that I enjoy about a modern technology is being able to enter it on the app and it being saved on the website the next time I open it up. I know that we’ve come to expect that of the internet in 2014 but I’m still impressed by it.

Also, there aren’t any huge banner ads on either the app or the website. The interface for both are very clean, very well laid out and easy to understand for almost anybody to use. Another thing that I should mention is that this site helps you maintain your weight buy tracking calories and not a points system that a company like Weight Watchers.  So if you wanted to, you could only put the calories into the tracker and judge it on that basis. The site also allows you to enter all of the nutritional information that a product has on it so that you get a clearer understanding of what your eating and not just calories. I think is it very well worth taking those extra couple seconds for the information that you going to be provided for free.

You can also link it to track your blood pressure, weight (if you want to purchase one of their branded scales that syncs through wi-fi), sleep and you can even enter your body measurements to see if the plan is working. In our household we use iPhones, but the app is also available for Anroid, Kindle Fire and Nook. Or you could just go to loseit.com and log everything from there.

I would have told you whether or not I had lost any weight over the past week if I had remembered to weight myself when I woke up this morning, but I didn’t so I’m going to have to wait until tomorrow. But since the first of the year I have kept up my end of the bargain by logging every thing that I eat, sans drinks that don’t have any calories such as diet soda and water. Coffee is very low calories but there are still some in there and I log those also. There are times when it is very tedious to do this but because I have a log of what I eat and since it is so easy to track I have found it enjoyable to know that even if I slip one day, I track what I eat and get back on the wagon the next day. And overall it is more healthy than I had been eating in before the first of the year.

Last week I ran Tuesday through Saturday (31 miles total) as we have had some wonderfully cool weather here since the start of the New Year. While the rest of the country has been gripped in minus degree temps I’ve been running in shorts and a short sleeve running shirt. I feel leaner at the very least. My runs burn depending on elevation and distance between 800 and 1,000 calories per five to six miles, and those distances are only going to go up.

So here we are, through the first week and feeling steadier and healthier a little bit more every day.

4 Months Later and 1 More Marathon

Posted: June 6, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I looked at the last time I posted some paragraphs in this running blog and it has almost been four months to the date. A lot of miles have happened since then as I started running in the Whittier Hills. During that time and I stopped running in those same hills because of seeing three snakes and one coyote in a weeks time. The weather got hotter and more creatures came out to show themselves and thats all I could handle of running the roughly 8 mile course that I can constructed of several peaks and hills that are just to the north of where I live in Whittier, CA.

I liked running in the hills because it was uninterrupted.  There are no cars up in the hills.  Yes, there were walkers, hikers and bikers but I would rather run next to them than to worry whether a car was going to hit me at the intersection.  Once you have too many run in’s with cars, and the people who drive them you start to wonder that no matter what you wear it isn’t going to matter when they hit you. Also, running in the hills means that there course was not paved which forced my brain to think how it was going to hold itself upright t while running up a hill that is at times straight up into the sky.  I also liked the elevation gain of the hills which taught me to take my time and savor each breath that I took as I ran up into the hills. I liked taking my time and sweat out each run as I felt my legs getting stronger, leaner and faster when I would run on the streets without any of the difficult hills that I was getting used too.

Since I had to get back to street running that meant that I had to add miles to my runs. It was one thing to run for 8 miles and half of that course be hills, but it was another to get the same feeling and workout running the streets that were smooth and with much less difficulty.  So I came up with a  newer courses in Whittier that were 8, 10 and 13.2 miles to reflect the fact that I would soon be running my third marathon, this time in San Diego. I had 6 weeks to go from 8 miles a day, four times a week to stretching that out to a graduated 8,10 and 13.2 mile courses that were not interrupted running on courses that were not as difficult as ones that I was used to.

Because I was transitioning back longer distances and street running I didn’t know how my legs and body would react to upping the mileage and the time that it took to run these courses. I told myself, like I have before during training for races, “that if you put the time in the results will follow.” 6 weeks prior to running the 2013 Rock and Roll San Diego marathon I wasn’t right sure what time I should be aiming for.  Also, I had to question myself on what pace per mile would my body be willing to absorb and then how long it would take to recover for that 26.2 mile run. Eventually a week before the race I would settle on a 7:30 per mile pace and a 3:31 marathon time. The pace was a time that I would be able to replicate in the weeks leading up to the marathon so I was comfortable going for that time. 3:31 was a decent time, not my best time of 3:03 at the 2012 LA Marathon and not my 4:19 2007 LA Marathon.

To me why 3:31 was important is because its a maintainable time for me to run a marathon in. Three days later I feel good and I want to start running  again. I did have to take an extra day off from work to recover but that is what I expected, I just didn’t tell anyone beforehand.  The best thing about this time is that I know that if I trained 10% harder I could take 10 minutes off of that time. And if I lost 10 pounds combined with staying more dedicated to running that I would be able to take 20 minutes off of that time.  Combined that would put me close to qualifying for Boston again, in any year that I wanted to as long as I maintain the steady pace of running that I have since I came back from my foot injury late last year.

More later today….

Mileage Over Minutes

Posted: April 19, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last week was a struggle. My mind said go go go, my body said wait, wait wait. Combined Monday and Tuesday of last weeks I ran 19 miles. I felt good, sorta.

My mind said that I should get back to running full time, after all it had been nearly three weeks since the marathon and like I told myself before I ran it, I would take some serious time off after I had ran it. And thats what I did. The week after I didn’t run at all. At my best I could have jogged, slowly at that and I wanted too but I promised my girlfriend and myself that I would recover almost fully and then get back to running like I had pre-marathon. I had a new goal in mind after running the LA in 3 hour, 3 minutes, I now want a sub 3 hour marathon time and my next shot at during that is 7/29/2012 at the San Francisco.  I thought to myself that I should create a goal and that it should start two weeks after I ran LA.  I write this about a month after LA and I’m just starting to get back to pre LA condition. My legs feel strong, my recovery is good and I am taking precautions about running too much, too fast knowing that I literally have 3 months until the SF Marathon.

Also, I could run that marathon tomorrow and probably finish in the 3 hour 10 minute area.  What is going to be a challenge at SF are the hills and the roughly three miles that I am going to climb on the Golden Gate bridge. Yes, both ways the bridge it at an incline. Oh ya, and the 530 AM start time. That will be fun.

Ok, back to today. My right heel continues to hurt and ache. I can walk, but without shoes it is very painful. In the morning and the evening it is the most painful, when I get going throughout the day I don’t really have a problem.  One of the smaller goals that I have been working on for some time now is cramming 9 miles into an hour and I almost did it today. I did it in 61 minutes almost exactly. I felt particularly strong at mile 8 and I knew that I had a shot at doing it.  It was a bit windy here in Long Beach today and for the most part it was a headwind. I felt winded at times today because I felt that I was carrying around more weight than I was used too. And I am. About 5 pounds more than when I ran the marathon. Today I weigh 179. I have eaten more than in the past but I felt like I had to get some of my features back, that maybe I’d lost too much weight in the first place on Weight Watchers.

I tell people that running is a habit for individuals who have patience.  It is also for one for people who are looking to build patience. I feel that I am one of both of those people. I am patient, but I am also hasty some times in my life. I bring this up because of the bad habits I feel that I have in running is looking at my watch to much and the physical and mental effect that it has on me. When I look at my watch I have made it a symbolic act.  I say this because when I do look at it, it only displays two numbers, and they fixed in a way as to remind myself what really matters to me and in the orders that they matter to me. Its mileage over minutes.

Even on the worst days that I have running, or maybe when I go out for a run when there is something pressing and stressing on my mind I tell myself, mileage over minutes. Words to live by in my opinion if are going to take distance running seriously no matter who are you. Why I feel this way is that if you are constantly  mentally grinding yourself over a time that you are looking for before you worry about the mileage and the repetitions of distances to achieve those times then you are wasting your time. I still struggle with this mentality even though I tell it to myself all the time and have more months. I’m sure some where some body has written the exact same words that I have, but nobody came to me with such a simple way of looking at things.

I have friends that run and the majority of them are new to running and they want results that usually their bodies are not ready to handle. I worry for them because it is a new runners mistake to take too much on when running long distance and it can lead to burn out, fatigue and injury.

I’m concerned about all three of these equally. It makes me concerned when new runners run a 5K and then next month sign up for a 10K in hopes that they are going to be able to finish it with a doubled time of a 5K, of course because it is just double the distance.  When in reality I believe that they should get a good grasp on the 5K distance ahead of moving on to longer races because eventually they will be able to double their 5K time at 10K race and even look forward to doing so.

Fatigue concerns me because I know that as a runner who is new they don’t feel fully invested into it when it could be life changing and because they want results up front right away they will do it too much and mentally and physically it will not be attractive to them any longer. Distance running is both a checking and saving account for your body.  When you run a 5K for the first time you draw on everything you have because your excited and you want to prove to yourself and others that you can run and finish the race.  But as your graduate to a 10K and further distances it becomes a savings account because you can draw on those previous experiences and all of the savings/wealth of knowledge that you have. Not to mention all of the mileage that you have accrued running at least 4 times a week.  You no longer have to draw everything you have to run and finish races.

And of course injury.  Injuries are a part of running no matter which way you cut it. You get injured and your going to have to figure out what to do about it and whether you can run with it or not.  I have  a feeling that this dissuades a lot of people from running because they don’t want to chance hurting themselves. Every runner understands that. My best advice. Listen to your body. If you planned to run 5 miles and your legs feel tight, stop running and walk. Stretch if you would like. I’m not a big stretcher myself and have had minimal leg injuries because of it. If you feel winded and your heart is pounding, remember mileage over minutes, slow down and let the milage come to you. You are not going to able to run that next race from a coffin.

If running is a habit that you are going to allow to mature in your life then you will also come to a better understanding about body than you did before. The more you run, the more you will have time to think about ways not to injure yourself.  Heck, and maybe even change habits that you thought were good when you were first running and now you’ve learned that they aren’t.  For example, something that I have learned and keep in mind on longer runs is that it ok to be slower than when covering a shorter distance.  I used to go out and pound the pavement at the same cadence no matter the distance and I would pressure myself for equally good results no matter which distance I ran that day.  For instance, today I ran 9 miles. When I think of running that distance I break it up into 3 5K runs and used each of the three for something different.  First 3, concentrate on getting a good pace, find your stride, start to sweat. Second 3, find your breathing pattern, maintain cadence, stay mentally engaged. Last 3, ask yourself, “what’s left in the tank”, start to concentrate on finishing time, think about tomorrow.

2012 Honda LA Marathon Recap

Posted: March 20, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Just over 48 hours ago I finished the LA Marathon with a time of 3 hours, 3 minutes and 8 seconds crushing the previous time that I had run the marathon in 2007 by 1 hour and 16 minutes.  When I set out to run the LA Marathon about a year ago I had the goal of finishing the race between 3 hours and 3 hour 10 minutes but it was only brought to my attention a couple of week before this years LA Marathon that for my age bracket at the 2013 Boston Marathon that I had to run a qualifying time of 3 hour and 5 minutes or less. It was then that I sought out that qualifying time for the 2013 Boston Marathon in my first marathon in five years.

The days leading up to the LA Marathon made me worried that I was not going to get enough rest because recently I had switched Walgreens that I worked at. At the store I had come from it was a no brainer that I was going to get the time I needed off from work as I had requested and been approved for the time off four months in advance and was looking forward to cruising into the marathon with three days off ahead of it. Because I was asked to move store I assumed that it would jumble up some of time off requests as is known to happen when you work with new people, not everything meshes very well sometimes. In the end, on the last day my old boss bailed out the guy that I work for now so that I could have the Saturday before the marathon off.  I really don’t know why the manager at my new store thought that I wouldn’t fight having the day before a marathon off from work, especially since I was told that I would be give these days off when I moved stores. I almost got screwed because of some one scheduling error in something that I had trained a year for and lost 40 pounds to run. What the hell!

Now that I got that off my chest time to move on to what it was like on the day leading up the marathon and then the day of. The day leading up was a lot of rain and it was expected to rain on the day of the marathon. It was rainy and 50 degrees in Long Beach, CA and as J and I drove up to Dodger Stadium, the location of the Expo and the starting point for the race.  At least I felt healthy, mentally and physically prepared to run in the rain if thats what was needed to start and finish the marathon in the time that I told myself I would.

The expo was fun and laid out with plenty of room in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium. Thankfully parking was free and there were quite a few vendors and freebies which is always nice. At the Expo I signed up to run the San Francisco Marathon on 7/29/2012 figuring that it was going to the cheapest to sign up in person without any processing fees and any questions answered by the rep from the marathon. Jessica signed up to run the 5K at the OC Marathon on 5/6/2012.

After the expo it was time really start relaxing and thinking about how the rest of the day was going to work out. To think about what the weather was going to be like at 7:24 AM, Sunday, the time the race was going to start and the fact that we’d made plans to wake up at 3:30 AM in order to make breakfast and take plenty of time to get to Dodger Stadium incase there were any traffic problems. I thought, well its LA traffic problems are always an issue, even at 4 AM on a Sunday morning.

I went to bed at 8PM on Saturday, before that I had a great spaghetti and meatball dinner knowing that it would have all night to process and leave me ready to run early in the morning. I got a good nights sleep in, waking up here and there up overall I woke up feeling refreshed  and with plenty of time to eat and get on the road. Jessica and I picked up Elaine along the way, and the three of us went on to the stadium were we sat in the car waiting for the day break, watching the clouds and the 1,000’s of people pour into the stadium parking lot for 90 minutes before we got out of the car and made our way to the starting line.

By this point some runners at been waiting at the starting line for an hour but I didn’t want to wait in the cold. So within 15 minutes of getting to the starting line the race had begin and for the next 3 hours and 3 minutes I would run and run and run some more until I got to Santa Monica were at the finishing line I would walk around for at least 20 minutes attempting to stop what was going to be a pulled thigh muscle if I did stop walking.

The start of the marathon needs to be wider. According to various sources, from the LA Marathon officials to the Los Angeles Time there were between 23,000 and 26,000 runners in this race but at the very beginning of it I had to run by walkers, who started walking at the starting line. It took a couple of miles and I’m sure a couple of minutes off of my time dealing with the fact that the course, at the start isn’t wide enough for all of the people and their various expectations of the race.  I would say, only by mile 6 did the runners that were going to forge ahead an get a 3 hour time or below and the rest of the pack languish in the slight hill that took us back to Sunset Blvd.  The first six miles of the race were run, running through downtown and there were plenty of people cheering us on, but with the late start it got me thinking early on what that would cost me later in the race, when I would tired and hard pressed to make up time in mile 20 through 26.2.

It was around this point the race, mile 6 that the race actually started to me, when in my head I thought, well 20 more. And about 15 minutes away I would plan on seeing my Mom, Ann, her husband Mike and my middle brother Andy. It was going to be nice to see people that I actually recognized and I knew that they would have something to eat and hand warmers. And the three of them were just beyond the 8 mile point in the race and just short of an hour into the race for me. I couldn’t eat the Clif bar that they had for me, it was just to hard to chew when my mouth at that point in time for was nearly frozen shut and totally concentrated on breathing. I kept the hand warmers around for a couple of miles as it was nice to have something to hold on to and for it to be warm was a million times better.

It was at this point in the race I would say between miles 8 and 12 you realize how the streets pitch upward when your running them like you never noticed in a car. Even the slightest degree of extra energy that your legs have to exert is noticed, and at this point in the race you are starting to the notice that your grouped with same people for the next two plus hours of running barring some kind of injury.

Overall this is a fun, well planned out race that had plenty of volunteers, cheer squads, music from rock bands, to an 80’s band to a punk band and even a soul one that performed in Hollywood. It seems like at least every half mile there were people handing out refreshments, whether they were with the LA Marathon, runners groups, businesses or just people on their own handing them out. It was amazing to see so many people cheering on the runners and having a great time doing it. Also, I went to the bathroom once during the race but if I had to go again there were always plenty of bathrooms around each mile marker to be able to jump in, go and start running again. Also, there was no mistake as to where the race lead or went. Plenty of police and paramedic presence up and down the course. The location of the course and the neighborhoods that it goes through makes you feel like your a tourist in a city that you live near by, at least for me because I live in the LA area. And if I wasn’t from LA I would like that it travels through so many diverse areas and landmarks of the LA. From City Hall in downtown to the Hollywood walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive and of course ending at the foot of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica.

At the finish line there was plenty of room (two blocks at least) for runners to get medical attention, food and drink until they could be greeted by their friends and family. Seriously, medical attention is all over the place. A nursing student from Santa Monica Community College approached me as I was staggering around  at the finish line and walked with me for at least 20 minutes to make sure I was going to be OK. I really appreciated all of the volunteers who were at the end doing anything they could for the runners to be comfortable. The finishing line was so well planned out the planners didn’t put the only thing all of us wanted at the end, chairs. The worst possible thing for people who had a just finished running 26.2 miles because they knew would be all stiffen and cramp up and it would make our day even worse. Plus, we probably wouldn’t want to move out of the finishing area either.

It was all you and eat bagels, bananas, pretzels and plenty of other snack items.  Of course there was plenty of water and pink, bubblegum tasting like water also to be drank, in other words, nobody from the marathon was rushing you out of the finishing area, runners could stay as long as they wanted to and indulge in everything multiple times over. And the best part was that there was plenty of room since the area was completely blocked off by covered fences and there was security at the end of the finishing area as to not let anybody else in. It was only when you were ready to venture out to find your people that you actually had to, and if you wanted to go back into the runners area to get medical attention or more food you could without a problem.

I would say that this race is a complete success. Great course, plenty of resources and volunteers, the text messaging of times, splits and estimate of arrival of the runner to the end of course was great, and included in the purchase price of running the marathon. Great idea to start it at Dodger stadium instead of the previous course which had participants park in downtown LA and Metro up to Hollywood for the course start. No extra parking fees for the expo or to park for the race start was great, and just having all of that room to park for the 1,000’s of people both running the race and watching it made us feel at ease because we didn’t have to worry about looking for a place to park. And if I need to take a tram from Santa Monica or Central Station in downtown both were available also, all built into the cost of the marathon price. Looking forward to running it next year, although I hope I’ll be planning on getting into the Boston Marathon which runs 4/15/2013.

26 Hours To Go

Posted: March 17, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yes, in just about 26 hours will I wake up and be out the door on our way up to Dodger Stadium. Also, ahead of this point I would have sleep for 10 hours, ate a good dinner and give it plenty of time to digest. Of course its quiet right now as I’ve stayed up late to finish watching the Rum Diary with Johnny Dep which was better than I thought it was going to be and to wait for this storm to roll in that the weatherman has been predicting for the past 10 days. So far at this time of night there has been light rain but it is expected to rain all day Saturday and into Sunday. The marathon planners have already sent out the email that they were preparing for the worst case scenario and who could blame them?

I made it through the last four days of work with some frustration but that is in the past and I’ve made it to the first time that I have had three days off in a row in months it feels like, but really it has only been two. If weather permits later today I will go out for just a three miler before taking the rest of the day off to mentally prepare myself and make those final plans with the people who are going to see me both run and finish this race. I couldn’t be happier.

Five years ago when I ran the LA Marathon I only had the person I was dating at the time go to the race with me.  Maybe people who knew me didn’t think I could finish or maybe I didn’t want them to attend this time around I know that I am finishing and maybe I feel its more of an accomplishment because of all of the miles, weight lose and my own expectations placed upon me to run this in about three hours.

The one thing I haven’t done in all of this is seek out the advice of people who have run multiple marathons in the past. Then again, throughout all of the time I have run in the past year I haven’t sought out much advice except for running my monthly issue of Runners World. The best advice that I have gotten is from listening to my body and how far I have been able to push it for 5 days a week. Yes, this could be considered a special case but I plan on doing what I have been doing all along. Putting the mileage in,  enjoying the scenery and the fact that I am able to run like this and let the time fall where it may. Over the course of the last year I have told myself this, over and over and over and I include it in the advice that I give friends of mine who are runners. They are words that no doubt I am going to have to tell myself repeatedly tomorrow morning no matter how many times I have told myself in the past.

Hitting My Stride

Posted: February 14, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hard to believe that a week and the 51 miles that I covered last week and the 7 I did yesterday have gone by since I last wrote here. While there has been plenty on my mind I have to say that everyday I think about the LA Marathon and how I am going to feel before, during and after the race.  The highs and lows, the accomplishment of finishing it no matter what time I come across and the millions of things that I am going to think about while I am on the course.  I wish that I could tape record so many of the ideas that I have in my head while I am running.  Lately also I have taken to running without any audio device or running belt, except on my long run (which this week is going to be 18 miles) or when it is hot, I don’t want to take a chance and have something happen without a liquid to drink right away and something to eat.

On Wednesday of last week I completed my long run, which was 17 miles in two hours and 1 minute. That is roughly a 7 minute and 11 second split over that distance. To put it into comparison with say the 7 mile run that I do twice a week, or the 10 mile runs that I also do twice a week I can cover those distances between 6:47/mile and 7:00/mile, so the longer distance does take some pep out of my step, and it should, after all it is two hours of non stop running. In fact I was so weak and in pain after this past week that I needed a ride home from where the run ended, it was about mile walk back home but I didn’t want to test myself in even walking that mile. I ate nothing and drank nothing until finishing the run and I’m sure that is why my body broke down like it did. I was light headed and I found it hard to concentrate, so hard even that I couldn’t make dinner that night and we had to go get some great Chinese food at Chen’s.  But by the time the next day rolled around I was chopping at the bit to put some more mileage on the road in hopes that it would make my legs feel better and it did. Its one challenge to run such a distance and its another to tell your mind to hold back from the pace that your used to run so that your legs can recover from the abuse the day before.

I believe that my legs and my eating habits are starting to meet in the middle. And by that I mean my weight is starting to balance and maintain in the mid 170’s. I weigh myself every Saturday morning to see what the good or the bad news is from the previous week of eating. Some weeks when I think I have have done great, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and less sweets it turns out that I gain a pound or two. And those weeks were I let things gone a little it turns out that I loss that pound or two. But over the past couple of weeks it has started to level off to be about the same weight every week which is a good feeling and tells me that I must be doing something right.

It feel good to be able to put the work in and feel the success of getting faster second by second be it may, that’s just how running is. A couple of weeks ago now I remember writing an entry and coming to the conclusion that I should let the mileage just come to me and not worry about the times and that is what has happened. I stopped looking at my watch so much and set that distance goal in my head of what I wanted from body. I told myself that I was worth setting roughly an hour a day, five days a week for me and it has paid off faster and faster times and longer distances that I am able to cover. Also my endurance for almost everything that I do is greater also. My body and my focus for life is has strong as it has ever been. And the same goes for my commitment to running.

A New Week, Fresh Legs, Here We Go

Posted: February 7, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last week, well seemed like months ago. I remember sitting here in this vary chair writing that I felt like even before I ran on a Monday no less that I was sluggish and slumping.  That my legs were having a tough time getting under me which made me very unhappy.  Last week also I didn’t make my mileage goal of 50 miles and the miles that I wanted to cover and so I knew that I needed a change of plan that I enacted on Thursday of last week. I felt that I was letting myself down and the goal that I wanted to achieve. That a month before the LA Marathon I should be in better condition and smarter than keep running mileage that my legs couldn’t handle and that mentally was becoming very boring and dry to me.  One of the key reasons that I decided to make some change was that I felt like I should be running mid runs of 10 miles twice a week, with a long run of say 17 miles this week and then shorter runs of 7 miles twice a week. Instead I was pounding myself into the ground by running a long of 17 miles surrounded by runs of 9 miles, 4 days a week. I needed a change of pace all the way around but one that wasn’t going to hurt the number of mileage or the amount of time that I would devote to each workout on a daily basis.

Also, by the time it was late last week I mentally told myself that I must watch what I eat better. I had gotten into the habits of eating too much chocolate and sweets. I love both and when I think I am doing good working out my mind will say that I deserve a treat but in reality when I am pouring in so many miles I should treat my body even better and watch what I put in it even better because it is putting a lot of hard work in running mile after mile. And so I have done that and stuck to the Weight Watchers Points plan over the weekend, even on Superbowl Sunday when I knew that my points were going to be over the top I kept track of what I ate. I knew that I would able to dig myself out of the points hole because of all of the mileage that I would put in this week. That if I ate better I would feel better, and the mileage would easier to run and yesterday 10 miles was actually shall I say, easy. Heck, I even did the closing shift at work and it is now passed 1 AM and I still feel good. I hope it is from watching and keeping track of what I’m eating, and instead of eating Nestle Crisp bars I’m rewarding myself by eating four bananas and Greek yogurt instead. Another thing that I have kept in mind is that I need to eat a couple of hours before I run, and keep in mind the time that I am going to be working out and the distance that I am going to be covering.

Gone are the days were I would stop at 5 miles and have plenty of time to eat lunch before I went to work. Now I run twice as far which doesn’t take twice as long because I am faster than I was when I first seriously starting running in the early part of last year. Gone also are the days were I thought that since I am working out that I can eat what I want and everything is going to be fine, that just isn’t the case but I think a lot of people who do workout even a couple of days a week fall under and that designation.

Either way tonight my legs feel good and looking forward to pounding out the seven miles that I have to do in the pouring rain because there is a 100% of it today. The last time it rained here I did 9 miles and by the time I got to the last 2 miles of that distance it was clearing up and the sun was out. It was quite fun.  Most people have this naive idea that you get sick from the rain and that is just crazy. I ran shirtless in very thin, and probably see thru when completely wet shorts in low 60 degree temps for an hour in pouring rain about three weeks ago and since then I’ve never felt sick for a minute. It was very rewarding to finish that run in the same amount of time as if I was running on dry pavement the whole time.

LA Marathon Sign up Day

Posted: January 9, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

A couple of nights I sat down and paid $147 to run 26.2 miles on March 18th, 2012.  It will be the first time since 2007 that I would have run such a far distance. I have no doubt that the distance is going to break me physically and that it is going to do the same to 90% of the people running the race. At the moment I signed up for it I felt more instantly more confident  than the first time I ran it five years ago.  I know that mentally I am a stronger person. That physically I will be in much better shape that I was then even though I am five years older. My Mom’s husband asked me tonight if I felt my best days were behind me and I replied, “well in distance runners time  I’m entering my prime.” And I really feel that way when I think about the last eight months of running and the last five months of both losing weight and maintain my now 175 pound frame that was 213 pounds about five months.

A lot has happened in my life over the past year and even six months before that.  It was a period of questionable decisions, tough choices, moving an hour away from where I am from (Upland, CA) into a totally different location that I was used to (Long Beach, CA). I was scared. But I knew that I wanted to run and workout, and that I wanted to run in the 2011 LA Marathon but that wasn’t going to work out. I would have to set my sights on the 2012 marathon. And up until I paid for it I wasn’t sure I was going to have the money to pay for this one. $147 isn’t cheap, and that with a $10 active advantage membership discount.

This race is now a little over two months away and I have already requested the time off from work and talked to the people who I would like to attend, or mention to people who might be interested in being there for support. I have started to mentally prepare myself for the days leading up to the race and the pressure that I will put on myself to make the time that I think I can finish in, somewhere between 3 hours and 3 hours 10 minutes. Between you and I I would love to call myself a sub 3 hour marathoner. That is my short term goal. Another goal that I have is qualify for the Boston Marathon. In my life I would also like to run the New York Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, San Francisco Marathon and one an international destination. I would like to make marathoning an after thought in my life where I would able to cover 26.2 miles with the same amount of effort that I now cover both 8 and 13 miles five days a weeks with. That is the unique thing about running. No matter the distance you think you are best at there is always more distance to cover until you reach that fitness were you can cover 26.2 miles and then walk away from it like you just got out of the shower, feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. That sounds like a lifetime commitment and I hope I’m up to fulfilling it.

The Two Day New Years Break

Posted: January 2, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

I’m glad that it is now 2012.  Not that 2011 wasn’t good in a lot of ways but this year I can clear the schedule and run for the entire 365 days. Not that I will run every day but this year but I will get to look at it with a 12 month calender on my mind, that as long as I stay living in the area I will probably think about doing year after year trying to beat my times in the same races.  At the end of last year I did a couple of half marathons to get my feet wet and to see how I could handle running 13 miles against competition and see where I would place in my age bracket.  Almost one month removed from my last race in Pomona, CA on 12/11/2011 I feel good about moving forward and up to doing another marathon.  The last one I did was LA in 2007 and the course was completely different than it was then.  I was going to run the Rose Bowl half marathon in the middle of this month, but that fell through and maybe it did for the best.

Upon running a half marathon I’ve found that it does take time to recover both mentally and physically from it.  I didn’t factor that into my equation before I ran the Malibu Half Marathon in November, but I have come to the conclusion that I am one of those people that gives that extra push on race day and it takes everything that I have to do it.  One of the benefits of that push is the fact that I took off four minutes from Malibu to Pomona, from one month to the next. True, I know the courses are different but even after just one additional month of training I felt like a more polished runner and I felt that I knew what to expect after I had finished the race.

Both running and working the last three days of 2011 I needed a break going into the New Year and sitting here I already feel like I made the right decision doing so. I’m already thinking about tomorrow run after work. The route that I am going to do. What the weather is going to be like. How I am going to conserve energy during the day and what I am going to eat throughout it so that when I get home I will be in the mood to run.  But even on crappy days where I don’t feel like it I still put the milage in.  If anything just to jog and to listen to All Things Considered, or one of the podcasts that I have on my Blackberry.  Even though I walked all around Six Flags yesterday I can tell that my legs feel refreshed and happier than they did a couple of days ago. Also, that my soul is better intact and ready to kick off this year of running in a much better place that it was 365 days ago.  And in the coming days during the rest of this week I will write my thoughts on what I would like to accomplish in 2012. I have some ideas but nothing is 100% solid yet. Yes I know the new year has already started but I want to absorb what happened last year and where I am this year and how I want it to be different, some the same and always better.