This Running Life

My wife returned to town last night. She had been gone all week and the Kids and I were home alone. We had a great week, but we were ALL glad to see mommy back. My reward was a Sunday morning alone, running for an hour. I had decided a few days ago I would skip church and run for an hour atop one of our many levies here. I measured the distance afterwards and had run 4.7 miles in about 55 min. Nice, slow, easy and long. The only problem was that my right arch started giving me pain halfway in, but only on unstable ground. When I transferred to road, the arch was fine. My left knee started stiffening about 48 minutes into the run, but that is normal for me. It was warmer than I expected but I enjoyed every stride and feel refreshed.

As I was drafting this entry, I received one of the regular update emails from my buddy Richard, who is in Iraq. He is a major in the Army reserve, a trained Army Ranger, and the most gentle and decent guy you’ll ever meet. He often writes long updates, including pictures, and puts them in Word files and emails them to us. This update was short and sweet and his last sentence was the best news I have heard in a long time. Here it is: “The good news is, my replacement is here. Send no more mail. It won’t be long now.” Richard will be home soon. Time to kill the fatted calf. I think I’ll go dry my eyes now.

Given my heavy activity last weekend, including a 5K, I took this week easy. My wife was out of town as well, which meant I had full responsibility for my boys, which reduced the amount of time I could run. I had two 3 mile runs, mixed with one day of weights for lower body. On Wednesday I ran for 38 minutes, then measured the distance. Just over 3 miles at 3.2. My friend Lisa said it is easier for beginners to run based on time, rather than distance. She is exactly right. Not worrying about how far I have left to run allows me to enjoy the run more.

Friday, a day after nasty weather, forced me inside on the treadmill. I ran a quick 3 miles, then hurried to be with my son at a Dad’s Day BBQ at his magnet school.

I’ll make a nice long run on Sunday (Today is Saturday), since my wife returns tonight and I can get some alone time.

I am still 20 pounds down from Christmas. Currently at 223. I have hovered here for a few weeks. One reason is that reffing soccer has taken me out of my running routine. The other is that I have had more than a few end-of-the-year luncheons (I am a professor) and some job search candidate dinners. So, I am finally back to normal, schedule-wise and will get back to my yogurt and granola lunches. My goal is to reach 220 by end of May, and 215 by end of June. I weighed 243 in December. My long-term goal is 190. I’ll have a party when I reach 200, though. Things I’ve lost: two waist sizes, the need to wear XXL shirts, knee pain, and the list keeps growing.

Here is a shout out to my dear friend, Richard, who is in his last month stationed in Iraq. I miss him dearly and pray for him a lot. He should be home soon and I plan to, as he is oft heard saying, “to kill the fatted calf” when I see him again. He is the most noble man I have ever met, and loyal to the core. To know Richard is a unique privilege. His only flaw is his North Carolina BBQ elitism, which runs rampant through his blood.

Someone named Bob left a short but sweet comment on my first post. Thanks! I was beginning to think I was writing to myself. If you are reading this blog and have input or comments, please do leave a comment.

For his comment I have named Bob “reader of the week.” Congrats.

Okay, I am hooked. I wasn’t home for more than a day before I found in the mail a flier for a local 5K–The Monroe, Louisiana YMCA Healthy Kids Day 5K. On Saturday April 14, I’ll run in my second race. Given that last week’s was cold (32 degrees F), hilly (Birmingham–need I say more?), and I could only breathe out of half a nostril, I have greater expectations for my finish time. I am now shooting for a sub-33 min 5K. Training this week has been difficult–I’ve only run about 6 miles total. My sinus junk moved to my chest over the weekend and on Friday night (April 12) it was just about gone except for a nagging runny nose and an occasional cough. All I did on Friday was go to Yoga class (Luna Blue Yoga–awesome). But I should be well-rested for Saturday’s run.

Here’s a shout out to Lou from WDW radio. Thanks for a great podcast and sharing a love of all things WDW with us.

I also discovered Disney Running. A Great website that posts all things related to running at WDW, including race reports, images,and tips.

Runner’s World online has an interesting piece on 5K strategy–that starting out at a faster pace than previously thought will actually increase physical performance and reduce race times. Let’s be clear here. I just want to finish my 5K. BUT, I will say that the study they site in this piece worked for me yesterday. I ran just about 3 miles last night and started my first mile fast–at least for me! The next mile I ran slower, slower than my standard mile pacing. The final mile I ran a little up-tempo because my I-Pod had some nice music I had loaded just for running–the sound track to the Disney Spectromagic Parade (by the way, if anyone has a better quality soundtrack for that parade–the entire parade, please let me know. I had to loop a one-minutes clip about 8 times to get a decent length). Great music for running. I was thinking a lot about my kids (they’ve been out of town all week with mom for spring break vacation) and I even imagined seeing them as I made the finish line of the Disney Half-Marathon. Got a little emotional too, I’ll admit. But I ran that distance, even with a couple of walk breaks for stretching my back, in a pretty decent time for an overweight novice runner.

The link is here:
(http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-259-11738-0,00.html?cm_re=HP-_-In%20This%20Issue-_-Go%20Out%20Fast%20In%20Your%20Next%205K)