Training is underway

Yesterday I started my official training cycle for the Cap City Half Marathon on May 5.  I've registered for two half marathons this year, the Cap City Half Marathon in May and the Columbus Half Marathon in October.  In May it will have been two years since I ran a half marathon, and in October it will have been three years since I ran a full marathon.  

I don't know that running a full marathon is in the books for me again, and don't know that I'll ever even WANT to run a full marathon again.  But the bug is there...even after only one day of training, and realizing that I'm not in the kind of shape I was two years ago, I'm thinking about what the possibility is that I might be able to run a full marathon next year.

I took this week off work.  I've been working a lot of overtime in the last couple of months.  I had originally taken Friday and Saturday off so that I could go out and celebrate my birthday if I wanted to, without having to worry about working it around my work schedule.  Then I saw the opportunity to just take the entire week off, so I jumped at the chance.  It was a small window to get the time off, since three of the people at work will be having some type of surgery this month, and will be off work for a while.  That, combined with the inevitable markoffs that come around and the fact that the department is working on hiring a new person, which will take someone out of the schedule to train, means I'm probably looking at a good bit of schedule moves and overtime coming up.  So...I took the time off while I could.

Also working some this week on planning on parents' 50th Anniversary reception.  It's not until March 24th, but I want to get as much planning and stuff done early so that I can minimize the last minute stuff that always comes around with something like this.  

Most of the decorations have already been bought and paid for and are sitting in a box in my living room.  For anyone who's ever planned anything like this, you also know that some things can't be done until other parts of the puzzle have been finalized.  But overall things are running fairly smoothly so far (I hope I didn't just jinx myself).  

So...besides my workouts, this week is pretty much a week of planned relaxation.  I'm not checking my work emails, and I'm not answering the phone if the call comes from work.  The only part of work I'll see this week is today and friday, since the gym where I work out is at the police department.  But running is being done on the roads or parks this week.

Sort of a Bummer

I mentioned in a blog entry a couple of months back that the police dept. I work for is an accreditted agency through the Commission on Accredidation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).  Every 3 years we undergo a process where assessors come to our agency from CALEA to check and make sure that we are still abiding by all the standards.  Our process late last year went very well and our department will attend the CALEA Conference to get their official recognition in March.  Our department will take one police officer, one supervisor and one civilian employee to the conference which, this year, is being held in Mobile, AL.  I was selected to represent the department as the civilian employee.  Unfortunately, the conference is being held from March 21-24 this year.  Had it been any other weekend I would get to take the trip.  But this year I can't go.  It's for a good reason though.  On March 24 my parents will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary, and that's more important than the CALEA Conference.  In three years I will request to go again, and hopefully I'll be selected.  But this not this year.

Can't be waived?!

A little follow-up to my last post.  On Sunday I had my WOW cable and internet installed in my house.  Monday, after going to the dentist, I took my Insight Cable equipment back to their main office and turned it in, thus ending my relationship with them...(well, they still owe me for the bill I paid 1 day before cancelling their service, so I guess I can't say it's over yet).  I went home, laid down to watch some TV and relax and a commercial came on for Insight cable.  The commercial was a special that Insight was offering new customers.  It was a pretty good deal, 50% off all Insight products and FREE INSTALLATION.  That's right, after refusing to waive the installation fee for a long time customer who had experienced some inconvenience, they were willing to waive the same fee in order to get others to become new customers.  AMAZING!

Customer Service?

I worked in retail for several years before ending up in my current job.  My current job stresses customer service too, but I've been wondering lately what that means.  One could argue that I don't really have to provide much customer service in my current job.  I'm a police/fire dispatcher, and honestly, if someone doesn't like my answer it's not like they can shop around for another police department or fire department.  But in the class that I teach a couple of times a year to other dispatchers around the state, customer service is extremely important in our line of work.  One could argue, on the other hand, that customer service is more important in my line of work than in the retail or true "customer service" industry.

This past weekend I experienced what I considered to be a lack of customer service from a company that I've been a customer of for the last 10+ years.  This wasn't the first time that I'd experienced what I considered to be poor customer service from this company, but it will probably be the last, as I've severed ties with them and don't intend to ever go back.

The issue involved my cable TV provider (or now my former cable TV provider) Insight.  In order to cut costs a little over a year ago, I had done away with my high speed internet with Insight.  I had gone to using a Sprint card when I needed internet service.  It wasn't the best situation, and 3G speed does not come anywhere close to matching broadband, so I eventually did away with the Sprint card out of frustration and just decided that any internet activity that I NEEDED to do would be done at work. 

Anyway....I finally decided that I wanted internet back in my home, and went to Insight's website to check their prices.  I ordered Roadrunner for my house and received a confirmation email saying that they would call me within 2 hours to set up my installation appointment.  After 26 hours I had still not recevied a call from them, so I called the 800 provided on the email.  I explained to the customer service rep. what had happened, she apologized and set up the order for me, explaining that the installation fee would be $45.  I told the rep. at that point that I felt that, since they had not fulfilled their promise of calling me the previous day, and because after ordering their service I still had to call them, which I could have done in the first place, I felt that Insight should waive the installation fee.  The rep told me that she did not have the authority to waive the fee, but offered to check with a supervisor to see if the fee could be waived.  After being on hold for a few minutes, the rep came back and told me that "unfortunately this is a fee that can't be waived."  As I said earlier, this wasn't the first customer service issue that I've had with Insight and before I'm finished with this blog I may end up writing about others, but this was simply the last time I felt I could continue to deal with the complete lack of a company simply refusing to "make it right" for a customer.  So I told the rep to cancel my order for Roadrunner service, and to also turn off my cable service effective immediately.  Now, to be honest, I thought this might prompt some sort of response from her in an effort to try and keep me as a customer...it didn't.  She processed my request and when we were finished she thanked me for calling Insight and said "we value your business" to which I responded, "obviously you don't". 

Now, the way this works is that I now need to go turn in the Insight equipment to their office, at which point they will schedule someone to come turn off my service, and then I will get a check reimbursing me for any overpayment.  If this isn't done within 7 days, the order to turn off my service will be canceled.  I suspect that Insight has a lot of customers who threaten to turn off their service but change their mind.  I however, immediately went to the only other cable TV provider in my area, ordered their premium cable service (more channels and more expensive than I had with Insight) and their broadband internet.  I was surprised to find out that they could come out to my house on a Sunday to do the installation, so the only time I was without cable is when the WOW installer had to unhook the Insight cable that was coming in to my house from outside and plug in his own cable.  Today I will be taking my equipment to the office at Insight and will be done putting up with their lack of customer service. 

I don't believe in the saying "The Customer is Always Right"...but I do believe that "The Customer is Almost Always Right".  Now Insight cable is not going to go out of business because I dropped them.  And I am lucky enough to have another cable company in my area, where a lot of people do not.  But I also started thinking about this.  I didn't see cable TV until I was 12 or 13 years old.  Before that, we watched 4, 6 & 10.  (And 34 when Sesame Street and the Electric Company were on).  I was in my late 20's  when the internet came in to being.  There are so many things that we consider NEEDS nowadays, that when you really think about it, are WANTS. 

I don't NEED cable tv.  It's nice to have, but if I had to I could do without.  I don't NEED the internet at home.  It's nice to have, but I've did without for over a year before yesterday, and for 25+ years before that.  So I know that, should this cable provider show me the lack of respect I received from my last provider, I have very little problem turning them off and buying an attenae or, get this...reading a book.

The Money is Paid

Well, I registered today for the Cap City Half Marathon in May.  I tried to register for the Columbus Half Marathon in October, but registration for that event does not open until January 21.  I plan to register that day because as anyone who runs in these events know, the closer you get to race day, the more it costs to register for the event.  I ended up paying $75.00 to register for the May race, which was a tad bit more than I wanted to spend on a race registration, but I committed to doing this race and I'm gonna do it.  Paying the extra just means that I'll have to give up a 5K sometime between now and then, or find one with a less expensive registration cost. 

One of my co-workers claims that she's going to run the Columbus Half Marathon with me and some other Dublin employees in October.  I had to shame her in to committing to the run, but I will still believe it when I see it.  When she's there at the starting line on race day, THEN I'll believe that she's actually going to run the 1/2 Marathon. 

Getting ready for the spring race may start out a little cold.  Especially if we get weather like we've had the last couple of days.  But I ran in weather like this, or sometimes worse, when I prepared for my first full marathon, so COLD is no excuse.

It Should Be Easy - Right?

On January 29 I will begin "officially" training for the CapCity Half Marathon which will be run the first weekend in May.  That's not to say that I'm not already running, as there is some build up to be done in order to insure that I'm able to move along in the training at an appropriate pace and be ready to run.  But as anyone who has run, and then stopped knows, getting started again is always the hardest part.

Now it really shouldn't be that difficult should it?  As most people who enjoy running, or who enjoyed running, will tell you, when you run you feel good.  You sleep better, you eat better, your body generally feels better.  So why is it that, when you take a break from running, it's always so difficult to get started again?

I was talking to a co-worker yesterday.  She had been running last summer and fall and had to stop for personal reasons.  She talked about how she really needed to get back to running.  She talked about how much better she felt when she was running.  How she was less irritable, weighed less, ate better, slept better.  She even talked about how much worse she felt now than she did when she was running.  But for some reason, and I'm just as guilty as everyone else, getting motivated to do something that has proven itself to make you feel better, is difficult.  How is it that we can complain about feeling bad, know what it takes to make us feel better, yet not do it?

So I'm running again.  Today was a day that I did not want to get out of bed at 4:00am in order to run before work.  I was very tempted to reset the alarm for 5:00am and go back to sleep.  But I also knew that if I gave in today, that would make it easier to give in tomorrow and so on and so on and so on. 

I'm not as good a runner as I was two years ago.  I hope to one day get back to that point, but if I don't that's ok too.  What I DON'T want to do is ever again get to the point where I have to force myself to start running again.  I enjoy running.  I like the way I feel when I've completed a run.  There really is a "runner's high".  It's not imaginary, it does exist.  It really does help your body to deal with stress in a positive way.  It does happen.  It's not imaginary.  It really does help you to sleep better.  It does happen.  It's not imgaginary. 

Now I know those people who say they don't like to run.  I used to be one of those people.  That was back in the days when I HAD to run.  When, instead of waking up at 4:00am to the sound of my alarm, I woke up at 4:00am to the sound of a screaming drill sergeant.  That was a time that I was told that I WOULD run on the cross country team at school, like it or not. 

Now I run for MY OWN enjoyment.  I run because I like to run.  I run because it makes ME feel better.  Don't get me wrong.  I've had those bad days.  Days when I'm running and thinking to myself, "I don't want to be here."  But it's when I've finished that I always feel better.  Regardless of how good or bad I felt during the run.  I ALWAYS feel better after the run.  Yes, I do get sore sometimes.  But it's a "good" sore.  It's the kind of sore that makes me feel that sense of accomplishment.  And for those LONG runs...there's always the ice bath to take care of the soreness.

You're Not Good At It

I've said it before...but it's worth repeating...

Don't try to read my mind.  History has proven that you're not very good at it.

Now on to other news.  I started 2012 out right with a 5K run in Westerville.  The first two miles were pretty decent, but most of the last mile was up hill and that slowed me down.  But I was out there on the roads running and that's all that really matters to me.  I had been running on the treadmill before work in the mornings.  I feel pretty good when I'm doing that, but waking up at 4am was getting to be a little early...so I tried running after work instead.  That didn't go quite as well, so I'm back to running before work.  Yeah, waking up at 4am isn't ideal...but I've gotten used to it now and it's really not THAT bad.  That will actually help me out when it comes to running the Cap City and Columbus Half Marathons later this year, since both will require me to wake up early and head down town if I hope to find a place to park anywhere close to where I need to be to start running.

New Years Resolutions

Naturally there is a lot of talk out there about New Years Resolutions.  The article I've seen the most of the past few days talks about why most people fail to accomplish their New Years Resolution.  The reason most people fail, according to the "experts", is that they do not make a plan for how they intend to achieve their goal. 

So here is my New Years Resolutions, along with my plan to achieve it:

1 - Run 2 Half Marathons - I intend to run the Cap City Half Marathon the first weekend in May and the Columbus Half Marathon in October.  I will begin training for the Cap City Half Marathon on January 29 using a 14 week training program developed by John Bingham and found in his book "Marathoning For Mortals"  This book is what inspired me to run two full marathons back in 2009.  It has information about preparing for marathons and half-marathons and comes with a total of 8 training programs (4 to train for a half-marathon and 4 to train for a marathon).    The training programs are for a walking program, for those who intend to walk the full distance of their race.  A Walk-Run program, a Run-Walk program and a Run program.   I will be using the Run-Walk program, meaning that on race day I intend to run 5 min, then walk 1 min until I complete the 13.1 mile course.  This was the program I used for both marathons that I completed in 2009.  I will begin training for the Columbus Half-Marathon on July 8.   I actually expect my training for the May 1/2 Marathon to be a little easier, as the weather will be cooler than training for an October 1/2 Marathon, where most of the training will take place during the "dog days of summer". 

Really?  Only one resolution?  Yep!  That's it.  I figure that's a pretty decent resolution and should help to accomplish all those other things like..lose weight, get in shape, exercise more...etc etc etc.