Something new and different

I tried something new today as part of training for my 1/2. I decided that it would be fun to do an open water swim off the coast of Jekyll today. I was reallying looking forward to this event and plan on doing similar swims in the future. When I was in college, for those that don't know, I was a lettered varsity swimmer. That means I joined the swim team, all 6 of us, maybe 7, and stayed around until the end of the year. Swimming in a pool or lake is much different then the ocean for example there are currents, rip tides, waves, man eating animals, etc. Please pay close attention to the last thing listed.

For those of you who do not know south Georgia beaches are crummy even at high-tide the water is never pretty and blue it is brownish and cloudy. I will not bore you with the reasons, but I will say that here in south Georgia we have lots of marshes and some of the most extreme tides in the world. So, all that being sad let me now tell you about my adventure in this swim.

I walked down to the beach and noticed that I was one of only about a dozen people on the beach and the  water looked like it was full of oil, I mean like pitch black. I put my foot in and out several times to double check to make sure there was nothing oily sticking to me. Now logically I knew that the oil was not here, but hey a little paranoia works well for upping the adrenaline. The tide was out and I mean waaaaay out. I started walking to the water and noticed that the sand changed almost suddenly to mud and muck. I was walking maybe 6 miles out to find deep enough water to swim in (maybe more like 50 yards from the beach) and I was standing in ankle deep muck and waist deep water. Having noticed that at this point I was the only one in the water I thought hmmm maybe sharks. Do you hear the jaws theme yet? I did. So I waited several minutes and decided since I was still standing it was OK to start swimming.

Well, I started swimming and the longer I swam the more I was convinced that I was being chased by a shark so after two stops where I had to look up and check my surroundings, and no sharks, I decided to swim a bit longer. Well, I was sore from my strength training work out Monday so I switched to swimming the breast stroke. Now that is not a strong or quick stroke by design and the entire time I was in this pattern I was going nowhere. I knew this because my landmark and I stayed even for the next 20 minutes. I was not worried about going nowhere because it felt like a "forever pool" set up. I also felt safer with this stroke because I as able to keep my head up and look around. I mean since I was going back the way I came I was sure I would see the shark chasing me from before, right?

While swimming I noticed that I was so close to the bottom that a properly executed stroke would cause my hands to rack up muck, so I modified it a little to dig my hands less deep on the return stroke and realized that I looked like a sea turtle. You know slow, fat, and round. When this thought came to my head I was hoping that there were not any sea turtles with eyesight problems and they would think I was a sexy sea turtle in need of some attention...so as I am swimming looking for sharks and worried about being violated by sea turtles and all the while going no where, I figured I had enough and stood up to leave. During this swim time nature was all around me especially the biting fly that bit my head and kept trying to eat me every time my head was above water. Now as I was leaving I was bit by a little fish and felt something sharp and prickly poke my feet.

So, I was now leaving the water at an accelerated rate, remember the adrenaline thing, to avoid any other attacks by nature and after running back onto the beach I realized that I was probably out deep enough to have found Spongebob, if I looked hard enough, and decided that high tide with sand sure beats low tide with muck. Will I do this again absolutely! Will I try to conquer my fear of being eaten a live? Yep. And will I over come my fear of sea turtle assault? I think I have already done that, I mean they are slow and heavy and I am pretty sure I could take one on if it came to close. The little biting fishes there nothing but uncaught dinner. The biting flies that is another story all together. That being said look out beach and ocean I will be back!

Hardcore Running aka Adverse Weather Conditions

When it comes to being hardcore lets face it people find hardcore activities something to be envied or accomplished depending on who you are as a person. I mean I think jumping out of a perfectly good air plane as hardcore others see it as just something to do. I think bull riding is hardcore, and I would love to give that a try, however, right now I think training to push my body to the limit by running 26.2 miles at the end of the next 6 months is hardcore and others find that to be just crazy. So, that being said I like the idea of doing hard things and this is the case with training for my first 1/2 as part of running my first full marathon. Unlike some people I don not enjoy running in the heat, I know, I know I live in south Georgia how could I not like running in the heat it is hot down here like 10 out of 12 months of the year. What I really enjoy is running in the cold...not below freezing death on your doorstep cold, but cold enough that the wind cuts into you a little and it takes a mile or two to warm the muscles, I think that can be considered hardcore running. I also think that running in the rain can be, like all hardcore activities, either really stupid or really cool.

To that point I submit to you that if you go out to run when it is a torrential downpour not hardcore...kind of dumb. However running outside, as I was today, and the rain comes well that looks much better there is less of a stupid element to it. i know what your thinking - How will the people driving by you while your running know the difference? Well, granted they won't, but you will and it makes it easier to push through the run and feel good coming in to the house and then your significant other is not so quick to make fun of you for being caught in the rain versus leaving in the rain.

So, as the summer rolls on I will be out there either early in the morning or late into the evening picking 'em up and putting 'em down as the training goes on and will I be hardcore? I would be content to not fall over from too much heat. I will wait for those late day thunderstorms to help me look hardcore.

The Joy of Healing

Well, I have been off the road for about 10 days now I must say that it has not been a good 10 days. I have hurt and cramped and felt thick in the middle. It has not been as fun as I thought and the worst part is my training regimen for the 1/2 marathon is 18 weeks and I only have 14 to go if I start next week. AHHHHHHH! I have three training runs from my 5k left over. So it looks like I will be finishing that off this week and then I start next week picking up at the 4 week mark and get going again. I am looking forward to it. I am not sure what has been the benefit from the healing time. I mean sure I have slept later and my feet don't hurt like they used to and I have downloaded some new songs to keep me going and motivated to stay in motion...so really what was the benefit?

So, now comes the super important mental switch. I have to find the motivation to throw the switch and get running again. I think I will allow myself to splurge and buy some good running sun glasses to help me in these summer runs. I also think I could use about 3-5 more running songs. I am leaning toward LL Cool J and a couple of other artists to keep me moving. On the other happy note when I add new songs I tend to dance while I run until I successfully incorporate them into my running brain. The odd thing was I thought I was good on the training until next week since I thought it was 12 weeks, but apparently my training site changed the plan and now it is 18 weeks, oh well.

You know the other thing that comes to mind is that since I intend to run the Disney Marathon in January I will be starting in the middle of that training program as well. Should I consider this a year of short cuts? Or should I take my left over weeks and make them into my 15k training program for Jacksonville? Decisions, decisions.

The race is run!

The race has been run now for about 48 hours and it was an absolute blast. I think the 90/10 change occurred for me at some point Saturday. I knew I was going to do it and kick some tail in doing so. I had trained my body for weeks and I knew I could do this physically and then as I looked around at all the other runners I simply needed to know that I owned them, no matter what I was going to take them on and beat them.


This kind of talk is necessary to flip that mental switch to remove doubt. There comes a point in every athletes life, where the physical does not matter at all due to the training it was now only you and your thoughts that cause for the race to be a success or a failure. Once you start there is no going back there is only going forward! I love it when that happens when I reach that point of serenity in my thoughts that makes running fun and the races worth running.

Of course it helps to get a medal and some lovely parting gifts on race day and now the moment all have been waiting for a picture of the medal that I and my wife won. I am such a sucker for a medal!
 

Race Day in less than 1 day and 1 hour!!!

The best part of all the training has now come full circle; this has been race week! All the sweat (there has been a lot of that), all the pain (some of that), all the music (new and old), and having for the first time ever my wife with me makes it all worthwhile! Now, I know that there is probably nothing in this world less fun than going to an endurance race if you are not in the race so I am very appreciative of her being at my first race and now running with me. This will be fun and there needs to be a good attitude and loads of laughs; in order for yours truly to accomplish this I have thrown away the idea of personal bests, I can shoot for that in my July race on St. Simon's, I just want us to enjoy ourselves.

That being said I am starting to get ramped up in a big way for the race...the bloods pumping a little quicker the slight taste of adrenaline is hinted at when I swallow...its GO TIME BABY!!!!! Time to dial it back a notch again....man that can be hard. I just love countdowns and this is going to be one for the books. Tomorrow will be my last pre-race post when I expand on the 90/10 split from earlier and I believe that will set the tone for what needs to happen when it comes to flipping the "switch" to mentally be prepared.

So, I think I am going to try and let my mind wonder and not focus on the race. It has been really difficult since Monday to not look at the map everyday and scrutinize the website everyday, to talk about the race everyday, but I would have driven people nuts if I did, so I am trying to be considerate, but trust me there will be an extended recap of the race and the adventure. I am ensuring pictures by bringing my phone and since it has a flash I don't worry about the lighting!! Now if only the weather holds, talk of rain is at 40 percent, but that I can safely say I have been checking daily since Monday....I mean I need one little indulgence to me mania side (insert maniacal laugh here),

It could be the music

It is no secret that my runs have been averaging 12 minute miles for the last several long runs leading up to the race next week.What may be a secret is that I have changed my run music, well that may not be entirely true, I have actually replaced my music with OTR and that has had a negative effect. See when I run short runs I listen to music and get lost in the beat and run accordingly. On the long runs I have mistakenly convinced myself that radio dramas are good ideas, they are not! They drag at time, I want to listen to the story line and that tends to slow me down and take away from the energy I put into running. I was pretty convinced that I could run with just about anything playing in my ears. I am clearly wrong. I went running today and my ankle bruise held up well, but I was still slow and pitiful and the only thing that could make sense was what was going on in my head. Even when I run to just the sounds of nature I run better, so clearly I need to have better tunes. I am going to go back to my old run playlist and try to find a few new ones to add to the list, since change is the spice of life I now know that for training OTR is not a good spice, I may need something new to work from. This one is particularly short because I am tired and need to get to bed. I have an early run in the morning before church...7 miles and then a pool party later in the day. Next week as we start the race countdown I hope to express well my excitement.

A little bit o'pain

It has been a few days since my last post so I thought I would talk about what has been going on since my last post. I have managed to put down 15 miles in 3 days and I was terribly tired those three days. I have managed to drop a couple of pounds and then put them back on, but that's OK since they were never off long. Then something strange happened to me this week...I was going to work hard at catching up on some missed work outs while the kids are out of town and then I would not have to make a choice about finishing my calender or letting it go (and that does not sit too well at this point). The strange thing was that I listened to my body and I mean really listened for a change and did not push hard.
Let me explain more of what I mean...I am currently dealing with heal pain and the first thing that ran through me was panic, self imposed, but panic none the less. See, I had a crazy wacky idea this year and that was to make 2010 the year I did it all! Every Disney race out there finishing strong with the marathon in January and then have a more normal running life regarding runs, medals, t-shirts, etc. but I wanted this and I wanted it bad. See I consider myself a driven person, but not always a finisher. I often start things and have difficulty staying focused on the prize to complete tasks in a timely manner. Examples: I have a book on my night stand for almost a year (what the hell?), I am a week and a half late on going through paperwork of a former employee, I have yet to wash the truck (which I wanted to do this week), and the list goes on. Well, I was tired of being that person so I decided this would be a way to start and finish something with out getting distracted. I think at times I slip into three year old mode and I see a new shiny "thing" and move toward it when I am not done with my current shiny "thing". Frustrating!

Now back to the panic  - I was worried that it would be bad heel damage and would put me out of running for two to four weeks that would eat into my marathon training schedule. That left me one choice keep training through the pain...well I didn't I could just see in my head with every step more fibers of my Achilles tearing away from the bone and running be a "once did". You know those statements "I once did run a marathon, I once did swim for my college at the varsity level..." these are all like old war stories and since I have yet to be running a year I did not want to have those war stories yet. I wanted to be able to say I ran the Peachtree Road Race, the Boston Marathon, earn the Disney Coast to Coast Medal, and even one day do an international run (now that would be fun!).

Well, last night I stretched and massaged to try to work out the pain. I was not seeing any reasons, no tale tale stretch marks, no bruising, no cuts, nothing. I went running again today and it still hurt the pain was different, but it hurt all the same, and that was a whole different set of worries. Feeling worried I asked my gracious wife to rub my heel since I really can't reach that far. Thanks sweetie! I noticed something the pain was isolated and not through out the foot. That meant a possible ray of hope; it was probably not serious! (at this point insert singing angels) So, I rubbed my ankle and it was true - isolated pain. Now detective work to find the source..then I noticed it a small round and deep brown bruise! A bruise I can handle that I have those all the time. I was thrilled it was a plain old fashioned inconvenient bruise. That also means I probably stepped against something and did not realize it until the bruise came to the surface. That raises separate questions related to footwear, but that is a different post. So, this means a few days off the course and I should be fine. So, while I internally wrestle with the changes to my training schedule I have to remember what Hal Higdon states about his programs and that is that they are simply recommendations not iron clad rules to run by...sigh!

I find it irritating to break in the middle of my routine, but that is OK I would rather treat it while it is small than let it become something big. I think I am going to use this as an example to myself that if I want to be a finisher then I need to get back to finishing my tasks, not just my current shiny thing...which reminds me I think starting tomorrow that book needs to really get read.