Chris....STOP TALKING!!

While I'm trying to do a better job at this, I have to admit that I do fail at times.  The title of today's entry was actually said to me recently.  Now, the context in which it was said is much different than the context in which it is meant today.

I've done a pretty good job of destressing my life over the last 7 years.  I found that it really takes a conscious decision though.  I, at times, have to make the conscious decision to not let the stuff bother me that I can do nothing to change.  I, at times, have to make the conscious decision not to get caught up in conversations of judging others.  I, at times, have to make a conscious decision not to START conversations of judging others.  I, at times, have to make a conscious decision not to throw my two cents worth in when it's no one has asked me for it.  (Chris....STOP TALKING). 

It's all part of destressing.  If I'm allowing things to bother me that I can not change, then I'm creating my own stress.  I may not be able to control what's happening, but I can control how I react (or don't react) to it.

If I'm getting caught up in conversations of judging others then I'm stressing about their actions, even when their actions don't affect me.  I have no control over what someone else chooses to do or not do or how they choose to act.  But I can control my reaction to it.  I also need to remember that things are seldom as they appear on the surface, and conversations judging others are usually based on partial information and speculation, so those who are taking part in that are usually stressing over things that aren't even accurate anyway.

If I'm starting conversations of judging others...ditto.

It's a process...I'm far from perfect.  I'm better than I used to be, but one other thing I've learned.  I can't judge myself based on others.  I have to base my performance, my life, my accomplishments and my failures on my values.  Not on anyone else's values.  But more importantly, I can't judge others based on my beliefs, my accomplishments or my failures.  The only one who has a right to judge another is that person (or a judge).  At the end of my life I will believe that I will be judged by God.  It will not matter to God what I did in comparison to others, only what I did and how I lived my life.  It will not matter to God what others' opinions of me are, but how what I did formed those opinions.  It will not even matter what my minister or other members of my church think about how I lived my life, but how I actually did live it. 

God also doesn't much care what I think of how Joe Smith or Jane Doe live their lives.  That's between them and God.  God has yet to ask me my opinion of anyone.

I'm not perfect.  The conversations will happen.  On occassion I will throw my two cents worth in to the conversation.  This isn't to say that it's always wrong to do.  Sometimes throwing in my two cents is done to remind people that they don't have all the facts, and maybe before they judge, they should base their opinions on facts rather than their own speculation.  But sometimes my two cents worth is based on my own speculation and not on facts, so I'll continue to try to do better.  I hope we all will try to do better.

I'll try to remember to STOP TALKING and do a better job of listening.  Not just hearing, but listening.

Thanks Lauren.

All Goals Met (Revised)

Rather than create an entirely new post, I'm just going to revise this one.  Home now from Myrtle Beach and getting back to life and work.

I ran the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon last Saturday with three goals in mind:

1 - Run the entire race with no walk breaks
2 - Beat my personal best time of 2:16:29
3 - Run a 10:00 min per mile average or better for a finish time better than 2:11

Myrtle Beach posts both chip time and gun time, but uses gun time for their official record.  I use chip time since it is a more accurate record of my time on the course.  Basically, "gun time" means the clock starts once the gun goes off, where "chip time" means that the clock starts when the runner actually crosses the starting line at the beginning of the race.  For a runner like me, who starts closer to the back than to the front of the pack, gun time can add quite a bit of time in races with a lot of people.  In the case of the Myrtle Beach run, it took me 2 min. 32 sec. to get to the starting line after the gun went off.

As for how I did in accomplishing my Half Marathon goals...

For goal #1...For the first time ever I completed a half marathon with NO walking breaks.  The last couple miles were very rough, but I remembered the words of comedian John Pinette, "Ravioli's and a nap".  I also thought of a young child whose family attends my church.  Aiden Welling is a five year child.  Last year his mother noticed a hard lump in Aiden's abdomen.  When they had it checked out they found that Aiden had a malignant tumor.  The doctors caring for Aiden and Aiden's parents chose an aggressive course of treatment and Aiden has had many struggles over the past year.  Things are optimistic at this point, but he still has many challenges as he now prepares for radiation treatment and a bone marrow transplant.  Aiden had no choice but to go through the struggles he's gone through.  So if he can have the courage and perservance to go through this, surely I can keep running a couple more miles.  It didn't have to be fast, I just had to keep moving forward.

For goals #2 & 3...My gun time was 2:06:57!!  While my chip time was 2:04:25!!!  That's an average pace of 9:25 per mile for the 13.1 mile course.

So, by the will of God, I accomplished all three goals at Myrtle Beach.  I decided to drive home a couple of days earlier than I had originally anticipated.  Myrtle Beach is a nice place to vacation, but there's only so much interesting about it when you're there by yourself, and I did those things the first few days I was there.

Back home now, I went out yesterday for a slow run.  I was able to get almost five miles in (4.98 to be exact).  I was actually happy about the fact that I was able to keep the pace nice and slow for the 50 minutes that I was out running.  It's a little funny to think that I now consider a 10:00 min. per mile pace as "a little slow" for a 50 minute run. 

I do have to continue running in order to keep pace with my goal of running 1000 miles this year, and to train for my next half marathon.  Next on my list is Lexington, KY.  As of right now I plan to run Lexington just for fun with no real goals in mind other than to have fun and enjoy the run.  But I think anyone who reads my blog knows that will probably change.

Time to Start

In one week I will be running my first of five half marathons for this year.  As has happened the last couple of times, I go in to this week optimistic about how I will do in this half marathon.  This morning I ran my last "long run" for this training cycle.  Since I'm in my taper, it was only 5 miles.  (Actually I ended up running about 5.8 miles). 

That seems funny to think about now also; the fact that when I talk about running 5 miles, I precede the "5 miles" with the word "only".  I remember when I was happy to be able to say that I ran 5 miles without taking any walk breaks.  Now I'm happy when my long run for the week is ONLY 5 miles long. 

Today's run went very well.  Typically I average anywhere from 9:30 to 9:45 per mile on a long training run, but today I was running about 9:10-9:15.  I judge my long runs based on my own perceived effort, so I run with the same effort every time and allow the time to be whatever it is.  That may be part of why I still have a little bit of a problem finishing a half marathon without taking any walk breaks.  My effort is fine for 5 or 6 miles, but I have to learn what the appropriate effort is to keep my legs going for a full 13.1.  It's almost counter-intuitive for a runner to slow down when the legs are feeling fine right now, but sometimes that's what needs to happen to make sure the legs keep up for the entire distance. 

Again next week I have that goal of finishing the half marathon without stopping to walk.  I learned some things with the mistakes I made in Las Vegas, and I also have the advantage of running Myrtle Beach early in the morning (Start time is scheduled for 6:30am).  Morning runs always seem to work much better for me than afternoon or evening runs.  I don't run the risk of eating too much during the day and my legs are fresh after getting a good night's sleep.  So yes, I am optimistic.  Also given that this is a pretty flat course, I think I have a real good shot a personal best time.

Besides heading to Myrtle Beach to run, this will be an opportunity to take a little time off and relax a bit.  Enjoy weather that will be a tad bit warmer, although it's not looking like it will be quite as warm as the last time I went down south.  I will, of course, get the pralines, and if they survive the trip back, will get some for my parents to enjoy.  I may take in this year's show at the Alabama Theater.  They always put on a very good show. 

I'll spend the time relaxing and enjoying my time away, but I'll have to get back to running pretty quickly.  At the end of March I'll be heading to Lexington, KY for my next half marathon.

Thanks

Just a quick note of thanks to friends who came out to dinner with me last night to help celebrate my birthday.  I enjoyed spending some time catching up with an old friend I haven't seen in a few years and enjoying the company of others who I see more often.

We went to Hunan House, one of my favorite Chinese restaurants, by my house.  I was joined by my brother Mike and his girlfriend Lorie; Paul, Lauren and Nancy from work, as well as Paul's wife Debbie; Greg, an old friend from high school (with the emphasis on old), and my dearest friend Carey.

My brother tried to get the staff to sing Happy Birthday to me in an effort to embarrass me.  What he didn't realize was that, besides being my favorite Chinese restaurant, I picked this place because I knew that they did not do that.   However, they were nice enough to bring me a slab of some of the best chocolate desert I've ever tasted.

Although she was a little shy about being around a lot of people she didn't know, Carey was not shy about letting me know that she was going to have a taste of the cake.  I'm glad she did too, because as good as it was it helped me to justify (in my own mind at least) eating all the rest.  It really was very good!

 

 

Thanks again to those who came out and joined me, and to those who couldn't make it, you missed a good time with some good food and good company.

 





Resolution Updates

2013 New Years Resolutions were to:

1 - Read 12 books this year.
2 - Log 1000 miles of running.

Obviously, in order to read 12 books this year I would have to average reading one book a month.  In the month of January I read four books.  I actually started a fifth book, but abandoned that book last night after realizing that I do not like how the book is being written.  The book, a non-fiction story called "Killer Dad" is the story of a man who murdered his wife and daughter.  As much as I like crime dramas, especially real life crime dramas, this book, in my opinion, was not well written.  It basically took the transcripts from the phone calls, interviews and trial and copied them in to a book.  It didn't tell the story as much as it told me what the transcripts said.  So, I'll move on to a different book for my fifth of the year.

In order to log 1000 miles running this year I need to average 83.3 miles each month.  In January I logged just over 80 miles running on the road and 10 miles on the treadmill.  So, with 90 miles under my belt in January, I am slightly ahead of schedule for where I need to be.  That will help out over the next couple of months, since I have races scheduled in mid-February and late March the actual mileage I put in to training decreases in order to give my legs time to recover and prepare for the race.  I expect to be right about on track at the end of February and March.

For this weekend I'm looking forward to a nice four day weekend.  I'm going to spend Saturday having dinner with some friends, Sunday will be spent watching the Superbowl, and Monday & Tuesday will be spent just taking some time to relax.  Also, I'll spend some of my weekend getting items ordered and bought for my sister's 25th anniversary reception in March.  I'm a little behind in preparation for that, but not so far behind that I need to stress.  By the end of my long weekend I should be on track and have just about everything I need.  After this though, I'm done throwing parties.