Life is like a....

box of chocolates??? No.... like a marathon...more like my marathons that I have run so far!!!! You never know what you're gonna get.... It has been a roller coaster 3 weeks for me, and that is putting it mildly. I had a major letdown... then got brought back up again with other news... and then another major letdown... and none of this has anything to do with running. Needless to say, that is why the blogging has been non-existent. Whatever strength I had over the last 3 weeks, I didn't want to use it up blogging...but I have been getting a few e-mails, questions, etc. from a few of my faithful blog readers, and have been responding... I finally realized that it is easier just to talk in the blog about stuff.

So.... I am still training for Chicago, and through all of these trials that I am dealing with, I am very proud that I have not missed a day of running. This morning I did a run with Chris that turned into a 14 mile run in Tampa Palms. Both of us have never run there before, and we were invited to come out to run with a group of triathletes that Chris's massage company sponsors. It was really cool to talk to new people, and see how dedicated some people are to their sport. Most of the people that we were running with are training for an Ironman triathlon... which consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run.... back2back2back.... makes what I am doing seem like a walk in the park, huh???

We all started together, and ran the 1st mile or so together... until Chris fell into a pothole and twisted his ankle and fell to the ground!!! There is always a funny,dramatic, crazy story when we run together, and this time was no different.... anyways after he got up and everything checked out somewhat ok, we continued to run, and we broke apart from the group and picked up the pace. We averaged a 9:47 pace during the whole run, and enjoyed it quite a bit. It was really cool seeing the improvements that Chris has made over the past 2 months with his conditioning... he is back to where he was before all of the layoffs...probably even more conditioned.... and should really see some nice results in his future races. About 11 miles in, we saw one of my former patients running, and met up with her and ran together for about a mile or so. That was really nice... because she was one of my favorites....even better was to hear that the injury that I was treating her for is all gone... Yay!!!! She also asked me about the blog, and I promised her that I would get back on it today.... so here it is...

The coolest part of the day was after the run. We ran back to where we parked and met a guy who had a "Team in Training" shirt on. I actually can't even remember his name, but we got to talking a bit, and he told us a bit about himself. Within 5 minutes, this guy completely inspired me. He started running in August of 2007 (nearly a year now). He was 360+ lbs back then.
So apparently he met up with his former fraternity brothers at some reunion, and one of his frat brothers told him he was a fat, piece of #%&*..... (just quoting what he told me...) He decided the next day to go outside in 95 degree weather (with a sweater and jogging pants on) and run as far as he could. He ran out as far as he could, and walked back to his house. He later got into his car and drove the route he ran. He ran for..... 2 tenths of a mile.... not too good. The next day he did the same thing.... following day, he did double... and threw up.... same thing the next day... threw up again at the end. He followed this routine for 5 days, and then came home one day, and got a postcard in the mail from "Team in Training", which is an organization that helps you run a half-marathon, marathon and/or triathlon, in return for your raising money for Leukemia and Lymphoma. 4 months later, he ran his 1st half-marathon, and a few weeks after that, his 1st full marathon. So far for 2008, he has run 3 marathons and 2 half marathons..... he is also down to 255 lbs. He lost the first 90 lbs within 3 months. Unreal..... that guy made my day. You can tell how passionate he was about his running, and his team, etc. It was so cool to hear a story like that...
So it just put so many things into perspective. Good things don't come easy... and sometimes life can be unfair... but you have to fight and keep on pushin'.

So over the past few weeks, here are some of my more memborable runs:

A 16 miler in my old neighborhood in Pembroke Pines.

A 6 mile recovery run with Shane on Bayshore:

A 17 miler on the Suncoast Trail... quite uneventful, but I saw an alligator!!!!

You know what bothers me???

A day like yesterday bothers me. I hardly ever go on rants (on this blog, that is).... but this is the right time to do it... at least for a paragraph or two. I got to bed a little past 11 pm on Monday night (partially d/t the Rays game vs. Red Sox (wow!!!), but I knew I had to run on Tuesday to stay with my running schedule....especially considering that I would be heading down to Ft. Lauderdale later in the week, and who knows what will happen with my running once I am down there. So needless to say, it was a struggle for me to get up at 5:00 on Tuesday morning. I did it, but I was slow moving.... and it was taking me forever to get moving. I didn't get out the door until 5:40 (I should have left by 5:30 at the latest, considering I had an 8 mile run with 10 x 100 meter sprints to complete. So, already I was off schedule, because I knew I had to leave my house by 7:00 am, since I had a 7:30 patient. I only had about 50 minutes to work with. So I decided to not push the pace, since this was my 5th day in a row running, and just cut the workout short. Work obviously takes precedence over another 2 miles of running.
So I ended up finishing about 6.1 miles of running, rushed inside the house, and took a quick shower.... no breakfast and sped off to work. When I was about 5 minutes away from the office, Cheryl (the office manager) calls me to tell me that my first patient canceled, saying he was too busy to come in today. I didn't have another patient until 8:30 am..... ugh!!!!
Couldn't he have called yesterday??? Not like 10 minutes before his appt???? Geez!!!!
So why does it bother me so much???? Because just like everybody else, my time is truly valuable (to me, that is). Chris and I were just talking yesterday about time commitments, and maintaining a healthy balance with work, family, hobbies, etc, and how it is so difficult to make time for everything, especially when you want to be great at all of those things. And if you are good at all those things, you have to use your time extremely efficiently and wisely. It doesn't help matters, when people only take into account their time, and not yours. I could've slept a little longer, finished my 2 miles, and see my kids wake up and kiss them before leaving the house, if this person would have just called the day before and notified us of his cancellation. Just got me off to a bad start... but whatever...
Again the rest of the day was a microcosm of what I talked about previously. Trying to find a balance.... I have my nephew here from Tallahassee for a few days, so my wife brought him and the kids to my office for us to have lunch together. Unfortunately, I had to do a mini-meeting with a fellow co-worker that was extremely urgent.... trying to find the balance... didn't do too good there. I got back to my office with about 15 minutes before lunch ended... thinking I would have a little time to actually talk to everyone, but people were standing outside... waiting for me to open up the doors.... sigh!!! (Ok sweetie, gotta go!!!! Love ya!!!) Kerry is so understanding... God Bless her!!
Later in the day, I had to re-organize some work-related things, so that I could spend some time with my nephew, as this would be the only time I could spend with him, given my hours at work. Again...stressful, but I know I made him happy and I am glad we got to do some fun stuff together.
There is a saying in Jamaica, which goes like this:
If yu wan good, yu nose afi run!!!!
Translation: If you want good things.... sometimes its gotta hurt or be uncomfortable....

And that's about it. Anything good for you is not always the easiest route... no way around it. That's the way it will always be, and sometimes you just gotta suck it up and keep on going if you want it (or all of those things) bad enough.

What's next????

I got through the week.... Yay!!! You know, it's probably not that big of a deal, but it feels like it is to me. I guess since I am fairly new to the running thing, and would never think that running 40 miles in a week would be remotely doable with my schedule... this does seem like a big deal. But probably a few months from now, this will probably be a routine week for me... actually I will only go under 40 miles for the week 2 more times for the next 3 1/2 months...so I better get used to it. My body feels pretty good right now... just a little stiff, but overall I feel good. So, since the last time I posted, I have run 3 days in a row. On Friday, I cranked out a 9.5 mile run with Shane (had to cut it short, because I knew I was tight with time, with my first patient at 7 am. On Saturday, I ran a 5 mile recovery run (it was supposed to be 4, but I wanted to make up for the 2 days that I had to cut my runs short this week). Today, I ran a strong 14 mile run. The first 9 were at a 9:00 min/mile pace, and the last 5 were around 8:15-20/mile. The only thing that bothers me was my heart rate. I didn't pay any attention to it, but it was quite high at the end. The high 180's... but I felt fine. It was also quite hot, and I know the HR starts to climb as the temps climb, but hey.... that's how its gonna be for the next few months, so I just have to deal with it.
Next week, I will go up to 42 miles for the week. It might get a little tricky again, because we are headed down to Ft. Lauderdale for the 4th of July. I have to find some places to run....especially with a 15 miler that I have scheduled next Sunday. I might change around my schedule a bit, because it will probably be chaotic throughout the weekend down there. I might do my long run before I leave...I'm not really sure yet... I'll just play it out as the week goes on.

Another interesting thing I noticed as I was downloading my last few workouts this morning. I ran for exactly 6 hours this week. When you really think of it... it's such a small portion of my week, even though I thought this week was such a big deal. I sometimes spend 6 hours/week watching reality shows (when my favorites are on) or doing some other mindless endeavor... this is so much more beneficial than wasting time listening to Ryan Seacrest or some other joker.

Ok, gotta go... I will update as the next week progresses. Have a great week!!!!

Trying to chill

I'm trying to chill today. I was supposed to run 10 miles this morning, but after my week so far, I told my wife that I am not doing anything today (running wise). I felt so tired last night when I got home. Unfortunately, my body is used to waking up at a certain time, so around 5:40 this morning, my eyes were wide awake. I had to try to fight it and go back to sleep... but I couldn't. I still stuck to my guns... and I didn't run, so I decided to go upstairs and take care of some work-related stuff, and just watch TV. The week has been a bit tough so far, but I am still on schedule. I ran 8 miles on Tuesday, 3.5 miles yesterday, and I will run my 10 miles on Friday (instead of today) with my buddy Shane on Bayshore. Luckily, the clinic is next to Bayshore, so we will start at 5:30, and hopefully finish a bit before 7. My first patient starts at 7 am, so I should be okay.
Today should be fun, because it's my day off from work, and I want to do stuff with my kids (maybe go to the movies, or go to the pool... just something fun!!) So not running today will make my day really easy with them.
BTW, did any of you see the concerns re: air pollution in Beijing for the Olympics? This is really disturbing... Click here

Run on feel

As much as I love gadgets, such as the Garmin Forerunner 405, I think sometimes you really lose your ability to just run off of feel. Sometimes I fall into the habit of not listening to my body, and I become a slave to all the data that the watch shows. Am I in the right pace zone?? HR to high?? HR to low?? It's just too much information sometimes to take in!!! This morning I set out to run at 4:30 am, and in a way, it was a blessing in disguise because I could not see my watch due to it being so dark. So after a 2 mile warm up, I started to run at a comfortably hard (if that makes any sense) pace. I did look down on my watch in the beginning and saw that I was running at a 7:05/mile pace, and after that I did not look at my watch again. I just wanted to run off of "feel", not worrying about what the watch stated. At the end of the run, I felt like I should have felt... worked hard, but not absolutely wasted!!! Once I got home and looked at my stats, I was within 6 sec/mile for each mile, which was great!! I'm happy about that. It is now 11:00 am, I have seen about 6 patients so far, and my body feels really good. I hope I don't crash after lunch or anything. Still got a full day of work left before I go home.

I must admit that it was pretty desolate as I was out on the roads at 4:30 running... and it made me think... is this too crazy to be out this early? Well, I went on RW forums for the Chicago Marathon, and there has been over 14 people so far this morning that have posted information re: their runs.... 8 of them started at 4:30 or earlier... misery loves company!!!!
Click here to see my run. Have a great day!!!!

Challenging week ahead...kinda...

I was able to get in 2 good runs this weekend. Saturday called for a 5 mile run at a fairly slow pace, but Chris and I decided to run together from my house, so I ended up going an extra 3 miles. The purpose of the run was to make sure my body was ready for today's run, and since I didn't give much of an effort, I felt pretty good after. This morning, I ran 13 miles before church. It was kinda weird, because the weather was almost perfect (for June that is!) at the outset. I guess with all the rain we got yesterday, it cooled down everything, and I felt absolutely great!!! I was around a 9:00/mile pace for the first 8 miles, and my plan for the last 5 miles was to average 8:15/mile. I stayed with my plan, even though it started to get pretty hot. I was able to do that, but for the last mile, I probably used a little more energy than I wanted to expend. I didn't feel wiped out by any means, but looking at my heart rate (which was hovering around the high 180's), I probably should have slowed it down. The biggest thing that I want to accomplish during my runs is to not feel wiped out throughout the day. This time, last year, I would have felt like a truck ran over me during a long run. Now, I felt just fine within 30 minutes after the run. I am sure my wife and kids fully appreciate that. Kerry and I taught 4-5 year olds at church, and then when we left church, I took Adryana to a local pool and practiced her swimming with her. I even swam 3 laps, just to try to work on my swimming strokes (triathlon in the future???)
Today I was talking to one of the ushers at church, who is a faithful blog reader, and he asked me how I got into the blogging? My wife, of course got me to do this... but I was also thinking about how people that read this blog are so helpful in keeping me on track. I use the blog to act as my accountability partner. Like everyone else, there are mornings that I want to sleep in later, and not bother run that early... but d/t having accountability in many different ways (the blog being one of them), I will usually fight it off and get my butt going. I never regret it, and I am grateful for that.
This week will be another challenge for me, as my running goes from 4 to 5 days/week. I have never run 5 days/week.... ever!!! But the overall mileage is 40, and due to the extra 3 miles that I put in yesterday, it brought this past week to around 39-40 miles... so that shouldn't be an issue. It is really just the logistics of my schedule. I work from 7 am to 7:30 pm M,W,F this week (usually don't leave the office until 8 pm) and I have to split my schedule between 2 clinics (one in the morning in Hyde Park, and the other in the afternoon). Tuesday, I will work from 7 am to 3:00 pm at the Wesley Chapel office, and then work with my Therafit clients ( I think I have my last scheduled client at 6:00 pm), so I should be home by 7:15-7:30...
Forgive me because I am thinking out loud how I am going to pull this off....
Monday: NOTHING
Tuesday morning, I will get up at 4:30 and run 8 miles, with 4 at tempo pace ( means hard, but I'll live)
Wednesday: Wake up at 5:00 am and run 4 miles... leave the house at 6:00 to get to the office by 7 am.
Thursday: I have the day off!!!! Run 10 miles.
Friday: No running
Saturday: 4 miles
Sunday: 14 miles
I guess it's not so bad...
I am assuming that many of the people that read this blog have blogs of their own. If you struggle with sticking to an exercise plan, or struggle with weight issues on a whole, I advise you to talk about your plan on correcting your problem via your blog. It will make you accountable to a lot of people, and might just give you the kick in the rear that you need. Just a thought.

Thursdailies

I was able to get a surprise last night as I was getting ready to leave work. My wife called me and said that the kids were going to spend the night with their auntie, and that they would be coming back home tomorrow. That very rarely ever happens. We have never let our kids stay overnight anywhere, except for with their grandparents in Ft. Lauderdale... so this was the first time we were doing this. But after our initial reservations, we decided to have a little fun with the break that we had. My Wednesday work day was a 12.5 hour shift at work, so I got home around 9 pm; so we decided to go and catch a 10 pm movie. Didn't get home until close to 1 am. It was so nice to get out though. I woke up at 6:30 (tired as can be) and headed out to do a 10 mile run. It started out crappy (literally)... and I didn't feel well at all. The lack of sleep, and pounding down popcorn and fruit punch at 11:30 pm, while at the movies was catching up to me very early in the run. But there are times that I have felt worse than this, and usually, my body just starts to warm up during the run.... which is exactly what happened this morning. By the 3rd mile, I was feeling better and luckily the sun didn't come out, so it made the run quite manageable. Usually when I run on the Suncoast Trail, it is very nice quiet time for me because you just don't find too many people biking or running during the week at that time in the morning. This is pretty much how it looked this morning on the Suncoast Trail:

While running, I glanced down at my watch and saw that I was running at a pace that only 1 year ago, was my pace that I ran my tempo runs at. It was very satisfying to think of how my fitness levels have improved over the last 10-12 months. I guess that is why my relationship with running is still in the "honeymoon" phase... because my improvements have been so drastic, that it just seems like this is how it will always be... but I know that is definitely not the case. I did think that when I used to run 9:30/mile runs, I never thought I would get to the point that I could run a 9:00/mile pace for more than 5 miles... but it happened. And the improvements have continued... so you never know. Anyways, I will continue to enjoy the "honeymoon" phase. This weekend, I will do a 5 miler on Saturday and a 13 miler on Sunday. That will put me at 36 miles for the week, which has been around my average before starting this structured program for Chicago.