Tiger Woods

I have to admit, I'm a Tiger fan.. when Tiger Woods is in contention for a tournament or leading for that matter, I tend to want to tune in and watch what incredible feat he comes up with this time. I just don't get too psyched up to watch the likes of Vijay Singh battle it out with Chris DiMarco on the final round of a tournament (even though they are great players) Today was no different, as Tiger headed to the 72nd hole, tied for the lead, but having a 35 foot putt to win the tournament. Most golfers in that situation would play to send the tournament into a playoff and just not screw up the situation... not Tiger... the guy just has nerves of steel... eyes down the putt... and sinks it. Just unbelievable!!!! I have seen him do so many amazing things since I have been watching him play and win all of these tournaments, but today was no exception. Just as amazing as all the others.... so it brings me to this point. People say... Tiger Woods is a freak (with his not so human capabilities as it appears at times). I fully agree with that, but in my opinion, I think sometimes people get natural born talent and the ability to be great at a sport mixed up. I think there has been more than a few people out there that are as gifted as Tiger Woods. The difference with Tiger Woods (Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Wayne Gretzky, Alex Rodriguez, etc...basically anyone who excels at their sport) is that they take their work ethic to the next level.... beyond all of their competitors and just have so much confidence and such a mental edge, because of their preparation. Martina Navratilova, who was one of the greatest female tennis players of all time was asked the question, "What made you so confident, week in and week out, feeling that you could beat any other females on tour, for so many years?" She said, "My confidence was based on my preparation. Because I feel like I was prepared better than anyone else, I felt extremely confident that I should beat that individual because my preparation is far superior to most of my opponents"
Currently I am assisting a former patient, who is a fairly high level marathoner, with her return back to running after a few months off the road d/t injuries. Every week, information about the program I have set up for her is sent to me through the Garmin watch. I can see everything that she does on a weekly basis, how fast the runs are, the cross training she performs, etc. The times produced from some of the marathons my client has participated in have been in the 3:20's, which is extremely good. At the Gasparilla 1/2 marathon last year, she placed 3rd overall in her age group (which is quite impressive considering it is such a big race). So my point of saying this is that a lot of people would think, "She is a gifted runner"... which might be the case.... but when I see the amount of time that she puts into her program, week in and week out... she has put herself in a position to be a great marathoner, because of the work she consistently does to make herself a better runner.
I guess even myself, who has taken the running seriously over the last 2 years... sometimes thinks that I put alot of time into running. But when I see some people's schedules, I realize, I'm not even close to being on the same level as them. Everything is so relative sometimes...
So I guess my main point of this blog is that.....
People want so many things sometimes, like
1. Being in a position to win the Bay Hill Invitational on the 72nd hold with a 35 foot putt, and having the crowd roar, and collect a million bucks!!!
2. Run a marathon in under 3:30 minutes (I'm talking to myself here!!!)
3. Lose 50 lbs
4. Make the high school varsity team
5. Lose 20 lbs in 1 month
6. Contentment with life.....

Whatever it is... we all want it, and feel like it's attainable because we see someone else with it, but we have no stinkin' idea what type of dedication, time, effort, sacrifice, has to actually go into pulling something like that off. I mean if it was easy, we would all have it, right????

I write this blog to hopefully encourage someone out there, by getting under their skin... hopefully making you want to work harder and harder at getting that thing that has eluded you. I have actually just pumped myself up to go do an extra workout now... See ya!!!!

Good news... bad news....

I ran for the 1st time this week... and I got some good news... and some bad news...
Bad news first... My knee started to bother me at the 2.5 mile mark. It didn't bother me a lot, but it didn't feel like my other side, so instead of doing 8 miles, I only did 5 miles.
Good news... as I ran faster, it completely stopped bothering me, and more importantly, I started to run really fast, and I could tell that I haven't lost any of my conditioning. I was able to run at a 6:30/mile pace for 1 1/2 miles, which makes me think that even though I am mostly doing the bike as of late, my body is still making improvements. So overall I'm pretty happy... have to try to think what I want to do next week with running... let me see first if there is any residual soreness tomorrow. But no problem... I will continue to do the bike if needed.
Everything else is going well. I am very excited about the response we have gotten over the May Classic 5k in May. I think we have about 20 people signed up so far, so thanks to all that have committed to doing the race. It should be a fun day.

The 5k Challenge!!!

I have never been on a bike for more than 60 minutes in my life....until today. I rode the stationary bike at my house for 90 min. this morning. Gosh, my butt hurts!!! Anyways it was a good workout... not like running, but a good workout. I feel like I am getting some good benefits from the bike, and most importantly my knee didn't bother me during the workout. So hopefully, I will be back on the pavement fairly soon. Did anyone watch the 6:00 news on Channel 8 (NBC)? Well guess what??? My little neighbor that I talk about, Zack, was on TV! Apparently, there was a fundraiser done for him and another child who is battling with leukemia, and they raised $30,000 for the Children Cancer Center!! Wow!!! So, basically I wanted to use this blog today to say thanks to those of you who have supported Zack and given donations to the cause of battling leukemia. I greatly appreciate your generosity and again, if you are interested in giving to caring bridge or the Children's Cancer Center, please let me know, and I will give you the appropriate information to make that possible for you to continue giving.
Okay, so I have a challenge for any of you that are currently reading this blog today, that live in the Tampa Bay area. Coming up in May, there will be a 5k race and a 1 mile Family Fun Run in Hyde Park. The race is called the May Classic. Here is the website. This is a great race, and this was the 2nd race I did when I decided to take on the sport of running. I also did it last year, so this will be my 3rd year in a row doing this race. Well, this year my daughter said she wants to run, so if she doesn't change her mind, I will be running with her in the 1 mile Fun Run.... she always wants to run with me, so I will test her out around the neighborhood and see if she likes it. So, with that said... if my 5 year old can do it??? Then so can you.... c'mon.... give it a shot... The May Classic is having a Corporate Challenge, in which our company, Renewal Rehabilitation is going to participate in. Basically, the local business that gets the most amount of people to sign up for the race gets a unique award (assuming it's a trophy or something like that). So we need your help!!! I think it would give those of you who want to get in shape, and get going with your fitness a good, very attainable goal in the next 2-3 months. You don't have to run, you can walk it also... so this would be very fun. After the race, we all meet at our S. Tampa clinic (which is a 5 minute walk away from the start) and usually have a barbeque or some sort of food after the race. It really is fun!!!! Are you interested? Oh... I know what you are thinking.... how will I start??? I can't even run 10 feet!!!! No worries, I have a program already set up for those that haven't run in 50 years or so!!!! If you can walk for 5 minutes or more right now, you will be ready for the May Classic. No excuses....let's do it!!!! Please e-mail me if you are interested...

One Step Back....

Sometimes they say you have to take one step back to take 2 steps forward, right? Well, I have decided to take off a few days because I have been dealing with a left knee irritation (I can’t even call this an injury) for the past 10 days. After the Ft. Lauderdale marathon, I took off 6 days before attempting to run again. I ran 5 miles without any problems. I didn’t run again for another 5 days, but this time, I ran for 10 miles. I had no problems during the run, but when I went inside my house and sat to eat breakfast, I noticed that my left kneecap felt sore, and then really started to stiffen up. I took an anti-inflammatory, iced my knee and the symptoms were gone by the end of the day. The next morning, I felt absolutely nothing at my knee…everything seemed to be back to normal. I decided to run the following day, and again I felt perfect at the knee, but when I got to the 10th mile, it started to bother me, so I decided to walk the rest of the way home…just being very cautious. It is one of those things that if it happened during a race, I could’ve just run through it, but since this wasn’t the case, it didn’t feel like it was worth it. So again, I followed my same treatment as a few days ago, and again it was completely gone by the next day.
I decided that this week I would run shorter distances, and run slower, so as not to put too much pounding on my knees. The discomfort has not been as bad after the runs, but I’m still getting that stiffness under the kneecap after I finish…. So I feel like I had to make a decision on my running…. But…..
I usually can’t think straight when it comes to myself. Other people? Yes. I do that for a living, and I feel completely comfortable making decisions for others and telling them what to do, when to do it and how long to stay away from their training routine. But I just think that I have a very difficult time making decisions because I love to run (just like everybody else that‘s a runner) so your judgement gets a little cloudy when you are the patient. So you know what I have to do?
I thought of the last patient I treated, with a similar problem to myself, and look at how I treated that person, and I have decided that is how I will deal with my problem…..crazy, huh? So, with that said, I will not be running tomorrow morning; instead I will be doing the bike for about 90 min. (the same length of my scheduled run). I will not attempt to run until Tuesday at the earliest, and I will substitute all of my runs for bike sessions until I am fully back to normal. Will keep you updated.

What's the trick?

So, I have been thinking about some stuff today... and I want to try to blog about it...hopefully this will make sense.
As most of you know, besides being a physical therapist, I spend 2 days per week on setting clients up on the Therafit program that my business partner and I designed about a year ago. Things have gone well with the program and people have had some incredible results. On Sunday, most of my clients will send me their information of their weekly workouts via e-mail, and I usually spend a few hours reviewing the information as it comes in throughout the day. Today I got an email from one of my clients stating the following,
"Greg
I am working hard. I feel so good. People are starting to tell me they see a difference. I feel such a difference."
This is from someone who has been on the program for only 1 month, but the ironic part about this, is that about 1 month ago, I blogged about consistency and I talked about one of my potential clients I met with that day, who happened to be the same person that just sent me the e-mail I received today. At that time, she was not on the program, but I think that part of the reason she has done so well is because I was truthful with how hard it is to lose weight the "right way". You see the truth is that I have lost 40 lbs over the last 2 years, but I think the best way to lose weight is to not think about losing weight. I started running because of health issues, but I wasn't going on the scale every day to see what my progress was.. because it would probably have depressed me. I mean if you think about it, 40 lbs is a lot of weight, but over a span of 2 years, it probably averages out to like 1 1/2 lbs per month... not too fast, huh? This hasn't been hard for me, because participating in running events took my mind off of weight loss. I started to just focus on initially completing the races, then on completing the races in particular times. I started to focus on training for these races, and participating in training regimens that would give me the best opportunity to achieve my goals for that race. In other words, weight loss hasn't even been a goal or an issue for me for probably about 22 of the last 24 months that I have really taken care of myself from a health standpoint. I think that is a better way of doing it, IMO. As I started to focus on my running goals, I realized... maybe I shouldn't eat that at 9:00 pm, or let me not have that fattening piece of pork, or let me hold off on that McDonald's apple pie.... (they are so good, though!!!) You see, if you can just find a way to participate in a healthy lifestyle through exercise and healthy eating habits that makes you happy on a daily basis and brings you benefits that get you to the point that you start to look forward to your routines each week.... well that's when you have hit the jackpot!!!! Learn to love your exercise routine... if you don't???? Find an exercise routine that you can learn to love. Running is not for all of us... trust me I know that, but it might be Zumba, or biking, swimming, walking, circuit training, going to the gym, spinning classes... whatever... just find something that you can train yourself to love to do. Remember it shouldn't be a chore... it should be fun!!!
Well I did run this weekend... and it was fun (even though it was at 6:45 am)!!
Ivy Lake/Suncoast Long Run

That's a lot of money!!!

As I posted earlier this week, my next marathon will be in Chicago in the middle of October. It was a toss up between 3 marathons that I wanted to do. Chicago, Marine Corps, and New York. The Marine Corps was the one I initially wanted to do, because I have never been to D.C., and I thought I could kill two birds with one stone, by being able to run a race and see the monuments at the same time. Well my son's birthday is around that time, so I threw that one out the window. So, it was between Chicago and New York. New York is the premier marathon in the US.... all marathoners have told me that I have to do New York at some point in my marathon "life". But check this out... it is $155 to register for the race... $11 to process your application, and you are not guaranteed to get into the race!!! Over 100,000 people attempt to get into the race, and only 40,000 get in... so it is based on a lottery system.... isn't this quite strange??? People (including myself) will pay a pretty penny, to be placed in a lottery system to get into a race, where you are going to punish your body for hours... classic!!! If you really sit back and think about it.... it's pretty stupid in some aspects.... pretty smart in others.
The stupid part needs no further explaining.... paying money to run 26.2 miles is all that needs to be said....
The smart part is that, people are willing to invest in their well being and health.... they are willing to challenge themselves to do something that seems quite out of reach for the typical human, and push their bodies to further levels, and commit to at least attempting to train and complete a beast of a task like this... and most importantly...putting their money where their mouth is.
When I look at it, spending $155 for a race, is somewhat comparable to many people that spend hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars to purchase pills, invest in fad diets and go to the extent of having costly procedures done to lose weight. Actually, I would say it is much safer, much more rewarding, but obviously much harder.... what do you think?

So, this morning I ran my longest distance since the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon.... 10 miles this morning... and it was cold (well for us warm-blooded folks here in Florida). Check it out....

Where's the next race?

If you click on this map, it will show you all of my splits for the race.
I am still working on gathering pictures from last weekend's race. Everybody had their own digital camera, and I am still waiting to have people download pics to me. I can tell you this though... nothing will top the pictures that were done by the marathon photographers... I really had too much fun with it... so here are a few links to them. These photos are your typical ones during the race and post race. This photo is the most special to me, because it's of me and my dad... his 1st half-marathon (or race of any matter). He did great... 2 hours 21 minutes... unbelievable!!!This photo tops them all... as I said, I had a lot of time on my hands, so I had fun for the cameras. This was my second favorite.... who said marathons aren't a lot of fun? This photo shows off my modeling potential.... or lack thereof...but it has a nice background of the ocean. Ok, more will come, but trust me.... they don't top these. Now I have to decide which of these I should buy and put up in the clinic... so my patients can laugh at me on a daily basis!!!!

Ok, so let's get back to business... I have decided where I want to run my next marathon... I'm going to do the Chicago Marathon. I have decided on this because it doesn't interfere with my son's birthday at the end of the month, and it is one of the big ones... put it like this... Disney, which was overwhelming, had their biggest registration ever with 18,000 participants... Chicago???? Try 45,000 racers and 1.5 million spectators throughout the course... whoa!!!! I gotta check this out!!!! So, I reserved my hotel and I'm in...

Why is it that I always have a race planned to do? Well, it keeps me focused... motivated and driven to keep myself in shape. That's why it is imperative that I always have multiple races that are in the near future, so I know that I won't slack off. So this is a general idea of what I will be doing from now until October 12th... God willing....

My next race will be at the End of April at the Draft Day Dash at Raymond James Stadium - 5k - The time I do in this race will give me a good idea of what my different paces should be as I get ready to start my marathon training for Chicago in June.

The following week, we will participate in the May Classic 5k, which has now become tradition for us at Renewal Rehab to participate in. Not running that one very competitively.

Maybe somewhere during my training for Chicago, I can do a tune-up race, but don't know how much will be available out there as it is in the midst of summer that this will be happening. Not too many races available.

BTW, I did run this weekend.... here it is... Ivy Lake Easy Run