Resolution Updates

OK...recap....2013 Resolutions were to to log 1000 miles of running this year and to read 12 books.

For the running resolution, in order to be on track, I would have to have 333.3 miles of running logged for the year.  As of yesterday I've logged 345.52 miles of running.  So I'm doing well, and staying above pace for that goal.  I will start May off with about 3 miles or so on the first, then the Cap City Half Marathon on May 4.  After that I will start a 19 week Marathon training program to get me through the summer and prepare me for the Philadelphia Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon on Sept. 15.

For the reading resolution, I just recently read my 7th book for this year.  So far I've read "The Liberator" by Alex Kershaw, "An Accidental Athlete" by John Bingham, "Sinners and Saints" by Eileen Dreyer, "I Run, Therefore I Am - NUTS!" by Bob Schwartz, "Good Cop Bad Cop" by Rebecca H. Dartt, "Life Code - The New Rules for Winning in the Real World" by Dr. Phil McGraw, and "The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells.

So as we close out the first third of 2013, the resolutions are going as planned.  Let's see what the rest of the year brings.

I Know This May Shock You - But Today's Post is About Running

Heading in to the final week before Cap City and I'm a little more excited than normal for a half marathon.  I think it's because the two worst times that I've ever posted for a half marathon have both come in this race.  Both times I ran this race and finished with times over three hours.  This time I'm shooting for a a personal best of better than 2:04. 

Now, to be fair, the first time I ran Cap City I had not prepared at all.  I had run the Columbus Marathon the previous fall and the Disney World Half in January (another race I didn't prepare for) and had done no other running at all.  The second time I ran Cap City was last year when I had just started getting back to running.

This year, I will run Cap City lighter than I've run it either time in the past and with much more preparation.  I've done a pretty good job at sticking to the training schedule, actually running a little bit more each day than the training plan called for. 

I kind of consider myself more of a basic runner.  While I do use my Runkeeper app to keep track of my milage and pace, I run more based on how I feel than what my phone says I should be doing.  If I'm getting too winded or tired, I slow down.  If I feel like I'm holding back too much, I speed up.  I don't quit though.  If my training program says I need to run 60 minutes, then I run 60 minutes, even if I feel like quitting.

Others out there are much more technical with their running.  They wear the heart rate monitors, they do their slow easy runs, and their tempo runs, and their fast runs, and their hill sprints, etc etc.  For the most part, I just run how I feel.  I try to throw some hills in every once in a while, and I try to change up the course to keep it interesting.  Keeping track of my pace, for me, is more about my own curiosity for how I'm doing rather than a motivator to speed up or slow down.

So really I come back to this "running is like life" thing.  This way of running is what works best for me.  It may or may not be what works for others.  But I run based on how I decide I want to run, not based on others' expectations of me.  I take advise from others, but if that advise doesn't work for me, then I move on and do something different.  I'm not the fastest runner and will never be accused of trying to break any records (other than personal records), but I'm not the slowest runner either.  I'm a pretty good runner when compared to myself, and that's the only one I need to be compared to.

What a Week

I'll start by saying no.  No, I was not in Boston last Monday.  No, I did not know anyone who was running in Boston last Monday.  I do know people who know people who ran in Boston last Monday, and of those people, everyone was accounted for and safe.

I received a request from my mom to stop running marathons.  Denied.  Sorry, but I'm not going to stop based on this individual situation.  I also explained to my mom that I am no where fast enough to qualify to run the Boston Marathon.  This happened in Boston because it was Boston.  The people involved knew they would get a lot more attention at the Boston Marathon than most any other marathon simply because it is easily the most prestigious of marathons. 

I do think that, had I planned ahead, I might have been in Boston last Monday.  Not to run, but to watch, and if I'd have been watching, I would most likely have been standing somewhere near the finish line.  That's the location where you see the joy and sense of accomplishment on the runners faces as they finish a marathon that only a select few are even allowed to run.

I am happy to know that the individuals responsible for placing those bombs are no longer able to commit acts like this in the future.  I'm sure there were probably others involved and I hope the investigation leads to finding who those people are so that they too can be brought to justice. 

The best part of the week was on Friday evening, watching as the police, fire and EMS personnel left the Newtown, CT area after taking one of the suspects in to custody.  The appreciation and joy shown by the residents was something we don't see quite enough of. 

This event cost 4 innocent people their lives and numerous others suffered serious injuries as a result, so I would ask that you keep those who were directly affected in your prayers.

Today I begin my taper.  The time when the running schedule starts to lighten a bit to prepare for the Cap City half marathon, which is less than two weeks away.  I can tell that the half marathons are becoming less strenuous for me over time.  I used to look forward to the taper...now it makes me antsy. 

After Cap City I have no half marathons scheduled until September when I will run the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia.  This will be the longest break between half's that I've taken since I got back to running, so I knew I had to put together a running schedule to get me through that time.  I decided to prepare for that half marathon by running a 19 week marathon training schedule.  This schedule will have me running more miles over the summer than I've run in a long time.  I wanted to do this kind of training for a couple of reasons.  First off, it will give me a chance to see if I'm ready to run a full marathon again.  Second, I figure that after training for a full marathon, running a half marathon would be a nice break for me.  So instead of "gearing up" to run  a half, I'd actually be looking at the half as a little bit of a break from the 16-20 mile runs I'd be doing to prepare. 

Gonna Set Goals Again

On May 4th I'm scheduled to run my third half-marathon of 2013.  This half is right here in Central Ohio, and I'm hoping to spend a little time enjoying the post race celebration at the Columbus Commons in downtown Columbus.  Last year I ran Cap City recording my slowest half marathon time ever with a 3:08:06. 

This year I'm hoping to improve my time by over an hour.  I would like to run a faster time than I did a couple of weeks ago in Lexington.  I ran that half marathon in 2:08:10, and given the number of hills I had to deal with in Lexington, I think I can beat that time in Columbus.  My "ultimate" goal for CapCity is to run a personal best time.  That would mean running faster than the 2:04:26 that I ran in Myrtle Beach back in February.  The difference here is that Myrtle Beach was a very flat course compared to Cap City.

I don't think running a sub-2 hour half-marathon is in the cards for me just yet.  Not sure that it will ever be in the cards for me.  But if you'd have asked me if I could run a 2:08:10 in Lexington with all those hills I would have told you that there's no way, so I'm still keeping my sights set (at least a little bit) on breaking that two-hour mark. 

In other news, the Oxygen network TV show Snapped is airing an episode tonight about an incident that happened in Dublin, OH.  It was a shooting that occurred back in December of 2010.  I was dispatching that day and worked that incident, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the TV show tells the story.  It will also be interesting to hear the parts of the story I didn't know from the perspective of friends and family of the victim, as well as the victim himself.

And today's thought of the day...when someone has proven themself to be a liar, cheater and thief (and coward), don't be shocked when they lie, cheat and steal.

Running Imitates Life

I subscribe to Runners World magazine.  I know that probably comes as a shock to all of you.  As I read it each month there is invariably an article about some life changing event in which running played a role.  Now I'm not talking about how running got someone in shape and saved their life (that's usually in there too).  But, I'm talking about the old "running imitates life".  If you look hard enough there is probably something like that in every sport.   Running means this and football means that.  Heck, there was even a baseball movie that followed this theme.  Several of them actually.  I've never subscribed to that theory about any sport, even running.

However, today I had one of those "zen moments".  Today was a scheduled 60 minute run, which usually means that I'll run about 6 1/4 - 6 1/2 miles.   There are a few places that I run, but the problem with running so often is that sometimes running the same places gets boring.  Boring is not a friend to the runner.  Running is a mental sport too.  While keeping my mind occupied on a run isn't a requirement, it helps tremendously.

So today, I tried to figure out where I could run that was different.  I decided to run an area I'd run before, but run it differently.  I basically ran a modified version of a course I've run many times.  While I have always run this 6 1/2 mile course clockwise, today I ran it counter-clockwise.  Now you may think, "Chris, it's still the same course.  There's nothing different."  I thought the same thing as I started.  But I quickly realized that it wasn't the same course at all.  Areas of the course that were once inclines were now down hill and vice versa.  As I ran north along Spring St. I saw something different.  I'd always run south on Spring St.  Now I was seeing the south side of all those houses that line the street.  The side of the house that gets the most sun, and therefore where most people do their landscaping work.  I had never seen those areas before because I was always running away from them.  The parts of the course where I was normally tired, were now fresh.  The parts of the course where I was usually fresh and just starting out, I was now pushing through.

So how, you may ask, does this mean that running imitates life?  Maybe "imitates" is the wrong word.  But it did make me think.  It made me think that maybe we need to get a different perspective more often. (See how I did that?)  Maybe we need to look at things from a different angle.  Maybe, before forming opinions or conclusions, we need to see all sides of the course/topic/situation.  Maybe, instead of just seeing the driveway and the front of the house, we need to make a point of checking out the side that faces the sun most often, there can be some beautiful landscaping on that side, or it can be a side of the house that's not kept as nice as the front yard.  But without running the course from a different direction we wouldn't know that.  We accept what we see in the front yard without taking time to check out the whole yard.