Category — Fitness/Wellness

This week is a taper week for me - 9 miles. Weather looks like it will be perfect.I’ll probably do ten since I’ve found a route I really like. It still floors me sometimes that I can look at ten miles so flippantly.

Beyond that, don’t expect many updates here. We’re off to a friends place on Wind Lake for a little R&R and maybe down to Chicago for a family picnic. To top that off, I think we may start painting yet another room in the house. I’ve also got some prints to order for a client (my first paying photo gig!)

In sad news, I wanted the commemorative New Balance Jacket for the marathon though I felt a bit guilty since I still haven’t run it yet. I got it last week and while it was really nice, like most clothing for me, the sleeves are way too short, so it went back yesterday. I still want to get a decent high-performance jacket for when the weather gets colder. I’ve grown to love running outside too much to seriously consider spending all winter on a treadmill. I remember trying one on at REI last year, so I might start there. I just wish I could remember who made it.

Things are all set this morning for the longest run of my life so far.  I’m attempting 22 miles this morning and thank the maker, it looks like the rain will stay away.  I was fully committed to running in the rain today though my biggest fear was not having my iPod with me due to lack of headphones that could withstand 4-plus hours of rain.

Hopefully I remember to update later today… if I’m not dead.

The marathon post from yesterday garnered quite a bit of inbound traffic (beyond the normal Google searches for “Thomas Recall.”)  Thanks for all of you who stopped by - hopefully you’re still here. In following some of the referral links, I stumbled across a few other bloggers who are also in training.  One that struck me was A Marathon Leap, who has a countdown calendar on her front page that reads “…and there are 58 days until the Chicago Marathon.”  As they say - Hole-ee key-rap!  That is not to say I don’t think I’ll be ready, but, dang! that is coming up quick.

The main meme across everything I read seems to be how much the heat sucks for training.  Can’t say that I disagree there, but I think I’ve been lucky weather-wise through the whole training process. I’ve been consistently running three days a week since April 14th and have been rained on twice, yesterday being the only time it actually got me wet of any mention. I do know there were probably a couple early midweek runs that would have been rain soaked if I’d done them outside and not on the treadmill, but the only time I can fit those runs in was very early morning and given the time of year, it was pitch black outside.

The weather for this Saturday looks to be ok for the morning. My nine miles should take me just over an hour and a half, and if I squeeze it in the morning I should stay dry and relatively cool.

I remembered the other day that I announced my insane plan to run the Chicago Marathon, then let it fall off the radar in terms of this blog. Since I do get asked a bunch, “How’s the marathon training going?” I thought I’d answer.

First some perspective. I’ve never been athletic. Sure, I participated in some sports pretty much up to freshman year in high school (soccer and wrestling), but I was far from the star athlete. On the contrary, I was the one who fell prey to the cruelness that is youth, being called “fatso” and other colorful names. In college I treated my body like a temple in so much as the money-changers did back in the bible before Jesus kicked them out.  That is to say, health and fitness were not good friends of mine.

A few years back started to get serious about my health and fitness.  We joined a health club after we moved to Brookfield and I started working out on a regular basis. In 2005 I participated in the Hustle Up the Hancock stair climb and quite surprisingly didn’t collapse. As a mater of fact, I actually had a lot of fun. Quite a few people in their congratulations joked, “What’s next?  A marathon?”

At first I dismissed it as folly.  Me? A marathon? That is a good one.  But in my training for the stair climb, I did a lot of running (albeit on a treadmill) and found I actually liked it more than most of the another cardio options at the club. I decided to enter the Crazylegs Classic 8k run in 2006 and ran the five miles in around 55mins.  During the race I remember thinking, “Could I do this for another 21 miles?” and the answer was, “maybe.”

The big challenge was the time.  Beyond the physical commitment, training for a marathon takes a lot of time. The long runs on the weekend take several hours to complete, and there there is the commitment to all the mid week running. Most programs are at a minimum 16 weeks. My wife was pregnant with our second kid and there was no way I could commit the time last year.  After much discussion last December I decided 2007 would be the year. While she still thinks I’m crazy, she was willing to make the commitment with me so I could get all my training in.

So how has it been?  In a word, tough.  I’ve only been running for maybe 5 years (running in the sense of jogging/fitness running - I’m not counting trying to sprint between gates to make a connecting flight at the airport) and up until this year I’d run almost exclusively on a treadmill.  At the advice of former co-worker and friend, Adam Hecktman, I decided to follow the training regimen in Jeff Galloway’s book, Marathon: You Can Do It! I started the program back in April with a weekend “long” run of 3 miles.  I moved to running on the road and have grown to love it.  Along the way, I’ve totally fallen in love with running, which must sound weird.  Why would you attempt a marathon unless you liked running?  The marathon was to prove to myself that I could do it; I’m not that slow fat kid anymore. I wanted to get in shape and a big audacious goal like running a marathon was a good motivator.  I still need to complete it, but I know I’ve found a past time that I’ll be enjoying for quite a while into the future.

Around early July, I completed a 16 mile training run.  Afterwards, I felt a little funny, but after massive amounts of hydration and food (it is crazy just how hungry running for three hours makes you) I felt better.  Then on Tuesday for my midweek run, I got a searing pain in my left buttock.  I gave it a few strides, but it only got worse, so I knew I needed to give it a rest.  Then the fear set in.  Is this the end?  I know that most training schedules are pretty strict in that you can’t take a ton of time off from them.  After a week and a half’s rest, I gave it another go, and ran 12 miles with no issues.  Phew!  So far that had been the only snag.

Fast forward to this past weekend - I ran 20 miles this past Saturday and didn’t die.  I felt like I was going to probably around mile 18 or so, but pushed through it. I kept something I read in the back of my head which I’d paraphrase as, “If a long run isn’t that hard, especially the first time you attempt that mileage, then its not doing you much good.”  If got two more really long runs left before the big one (and its crazy to look at this week’s 8 mile run as “easy”).  I know they’re going to be hard, but so far its been worth the pain.

Huge mare’s nests of cables have always drove me crazy.  Having recently had to re-locate our home PC to another room for a bit, when I put it back to its location in our living room, I just plugged everything back in so it would work, forgoing the nice cable management I took the time to install on the table it sits on.  It bugs me, but I haven’t had time to clean up the mess dangling from the table.

Then I read this post by Christine Kane this morning explaining the feng shui of how those huge cable messes sap energy (spiritual energy, that is).  I can’t say I accept or dismiss the principals of feng shui - I’m truly on the fence with this one, but one of them I learned a while ago, having your desk face the door, is one I’ve followed whenever I can.  Whether my chi is affected or not, most of the time the practices “feel right” and I feel better (which I suppose is the whole point.)  Either way I can at least justify my OCD tendencies toward wire ties.

Update:  I re-read the original post and felt it a little harsh on the whole feng shui thing.  I re-worded my statement a bit.

Thanks to all of you who wished me well.  I did my 3rd ascention of the John Hancock tower in Chicago yesterday.  The offical results are in, and my time was 20:04.  A little slower than I’d hope (my PR is still my first try which I did in 19:45), but I’m happy nonetheless.  The event continue to be a whole lot of fun, and extremely well run.  Every volunteer I dealt with was great and lines for everything (elevator ride back down, gear pick-up, etc.) moved very quickly.

Overall results for 94 Floor Climb.

So as I eluded to earlier, I’m planning on listing out my goals for 2007 here, not as some public display of coolness, but to give myself a bit of accountability since now I have my throngs of readers to hold my feet to the fire.

In no particular order (and with detail that hopefully will be fleshed out in later posts):

• Read 12 works of fiction (so one a month). This is a goal I set most years, but never really have tracked to see if I do it. When I do it, I really like reading, so I think I should hold up my end of the bargain here. No qualifiers either - my first book was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown which I finished last night.
• Run a Marathon this year. I registered for the 2007 La Salle Bank Chicago Marathon this morning. I’ve wanted to do this last year, but I didn’t think I’d have the time to devote to training. I don’t necessarily have more time this year, but I think I can make it work. I ran my first race last year (The 8k Crazylegs Classic in Madison) and didn’t collapse. Granted, I’m going more than 21 miles further, but I still feel confident I can do it.
• Finally update my MCSD. I got it was back in the VB6 days and didn’t keep up with it too much. Mainly since I was busy doing actual work. No difference now - I’m still busy, but seems like a good thing to try and do.
• Post regularly to this blog. I went in fits and spurts ont he MSDN blog. Finding the time to actually write is a chalenge, but we’ll see how this one pans out.

That should keep me busy.