I have never run an "official" marathon since starting to run again. I have run over a marathon distance a couple times in my long runs over the past year, but have never ran a race. Next Saturday I'm running my first official trail marathon as a training run for my 50k training.
I've been having a nonchalant attitude about the event. Don't get me wrong. I respect the distance. Through my training I have grown the confidence to know that I can do the distance. I also know that it won't be a cake walk. In the past three or four weeks I have done a twenty mile run each week. The distance never seems to get easier, but I do finish the runs with plenty of gas in the tank.
I guess I'm just having the realization that I'm overlooking the accomplishment of my first marathon because it's a stepping stone along the way to a much bigger goal. Part of me is thinking that the perspective I've adopted might be a little wonked. Of course, signing up for a 50k before I've proven myself at the marathon distance might be a little wonked too.
The Eagle Creek Trail marathon isn't going to be a slouch. It's a 6.5 out and back that you have to do 4 times. People I know that have run it say that it's more of a mentally challenging race as opposed to a physical one. Most of the people reiterate that it's still a marathon and the physically grueling challenge is still there.
I suppose what I would like to accomplish is to finish the race uninjured and have fun doing it. I just hope I don't let myself get sucked into a competitive macho-dickwad mode. I need to be a little conservative and just keep my training pace. This will ensure me success on the big day. The big day that I've been almost dangerously overlooking.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Listening to the wisdom of others.....
It's safe to say I get excited about new things I like. So excited that I tend to overdo things. For instance, I have just started reading about Buddhist philosophy. I have finished several books ranging from basic to more advanced writings of Tibetan Buddhism. One book I had to stop reading because my knowledge wasn't extensive enough to really grasp the concepts. I had to make the reluctant decision to cease reading that book and move onto something whose content was more easily understood. I have since moved onto a book called "The Art of Happiness" co-written by the Dalai Lama. The concepts presented are easier to grasp and I don't feel overwhelmed or that I'm over my head.
As far as my training, I recently joined a fitness facility that offers personal training. I figured it would be a nice compliment to the vast amounts of running I've been doing. I joined about a month ago and I absolutely love it. Being a lifelong "non-morning" person, I was surprised that I had no problem getting up at 5am four times a week for the past month.
I have been cruising along for the past month rising early on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. My running schedule has me running every day except for Tuesday and Friday with Saturday and Mondays being optional running days. So far so good.
This week my training mileage got to 36 miles by midweek and my wife and the personal trainer at the fitness facitliy have raised concerns that I might be on the verge of overtraining. On Thursday morning when I showed up for my morning workout my trainer asked what kind of mileage I ran the previous day. I told him 20 and was planning on running 10 more that night after work. He raised concern about doing too much without getting enough rest. The magic equation is: Training = work + rest. He was beginning to think my work and rest starting to be at an imbalance.
I have been so excited about this complimentary work schedule to my training that I never really thought that I might have "lit the candle at both ends" as they say. I have been trying to soak in all the new and exciting techniques and exercises that the idea of physical burnout hasn't even crossed my mind. I have seen the two activities as independent from each other. The only problem is that I didn't make the connection that I'm using the same body. Oop.
When I went in Friday morning for another workout session. My trainer again raised concerns that I'm heading down the road of overtraining. He asked if I had run the day before and I told him I had run 10. He told me about his episode with overtraining and how much it sucks. My attitude was pretty nonchalant and I assured him and myself that I would be careful. I agreed to bring in my running training schedule and he would fine tune the workout he created for me to compliment it.
After our short conversation I went onto my warmup and my workout that day was a mix of victories and defeats. I did well on some of my sets while I did poorly on others. My hips were too tight to properly execute one of the exercises properly and I had to abandon it to do some self myofascial release stuff on my glutes and hips. I hadn't realized how tight they were and the myo release was actually a little painful. I left the workout and headed home and discussed the issue of overtraining with my wife before she had to leave for work. She was concerned about me heading in that direction too.
So there I was feeling a little dejected about my efforts for the past month. I spent the day thinking about everyone's concerns and was a little blue about it. I squeezed in some gluteus stretches throughout the day to try and restore some flexibility. I got home from work that night and decided to stretch while I watched television. I had been neglecting to do any serious stretching in the past month. I immediately found that a lot of muscles and muscle groups were tight. Some muscles that I've never had a problem with were now tight. Working out various body parts for the first time in a while were causing tightness to creep in. It was during this session of stretching that I made the decision that I would have to cut back on my extracurricular training at the fitness facility but could offset this by using my rest days for stretching. I would have to concede to those who were speaking with the authority of wisdom on their side.
The frustrating thing about everybody voicing their concerns about my overtraining is that I don't have the experience to see where all this work could be leading me. I've been in the mindset of doing the work to improve my performance and my fitness. I hadn't give much thought that I could be overtraining or headed for an overuse injury. I'm feeling thankful right now that I do have people who are looking out for me.
Ceasing to read a book whose concepts are above my understanding was a lot easier for me to figure out than doing a physical workload that may or not be beyond my physical threshold. I didn't immediately grasp the idea that I could be on an unsustainable schedule. I suppose averaging 40 to 50 miles running weeks is enough activity in and of itself. Let alone adding four to five hours of crosstraining to the mix. It has been a mildly humbling thing to admit that they are correct. I would rather ere on the side of caution right now than to find out what they already know through experience. I realize that they don't want me to pull over or get onto a different road. They just want me to slow down and keep myself under control to prevent burnout or injury.
As far as my training, I recently joined a fitness facility that offers personal training. I figured it would be a nice compliment to the vast amounts of running I've been doing. I joined about a month ago and I absolutely love it. Being a lifelong "non-morning" person, I was surprised that I had no problem getting up at 5am four times a week for the past month.
I have been cruising along for the past month rising early on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. My running schedule has me running every day except for Tuesday and Friday with Saturday and Mondays being optional running days. So far so good.
This week my training mileage got to 36 miles by midweek and my wife and the personal trainer at the fitness facitliy have raised concerns that I might be on the verge of overtraining. On Thursday morning when I showed up for my morning workout my trainer asked what kind of mileage I ran the previous day. I told him 20 and was planning on running 10 more that night after work. He raised concern about doing too much without getting enough rest. The magic equation is: Training = work + rest. He was beginning to think my work and rest starting to be at an imbalance.
I have been so excited about this complimentary work schedule to my training that I never really thought that I might have "lit the candle at both ends" as they say. I have been trying to soak in all the new and exciting techniques and exercises that the idea of physical burnout hasn't even crossed my mind. I have seen the two activities as independent from each other. The only problem is that I didn't make the connection that I'm using the same body. Oop.
When I went in Friday morning for another workout session. My trainer again raised concerns that I'm heading down the road of overtraining. He asked if I had run the day before and I told him I had run 10. He told me about his episode with overtraining and how much it sucks. My attitude was pretty nonchalant and I assured him and myself that I would be careful. I agreed to bring in my running training schedule and he would fine tune the workout he created for me to compliment it.
After our short conversation I went onto my warmup and my workout that day was a mix of victories and defeats. I did well on some of my sets while I did poorly on others. My hips were too tight to properly execute one of the exercises properly and I had to abandon it to do some self myofascial release stuff on my glutes and hips. I hadn't realized how tight they were and the myo release was actually a little painful. I left the workout and headed home and discussed the issue of overtraining with my wife before she had to leave for work. She was concerned about me heading in that direction too.
So there I was feeling a little dejected about my efforts for the past month. I spent the day thinking about everyone's concerns and was a little blue about it. I squeezed in some gluteus stretches throughout the day to try and restore some flexibility. I got home from work that night and decided to stretch while I watched television. I had been neglecting to do any serious stretching in the past month. I immediately found that a lot of muscles and muscle groups were tight. Some muscles that I've never had a problem with were now tight. Working out various body parts for the first time in a while were causing tightness to creep in. It was during this session of stretching that I made the decision that I would have to cut back on my extracurricular training at the fitness facility but could offset this by using my rest days for stretching. I would have to concede to those who were speaking with the authority of wisdom on their side.
The frustrating thing about everybody voicing their concerns about my overtraining is that I don't have the experience to see where all this work could be leading me. I've been in the mindset of doing the work to improve my performance and my fitness. I hadn't give much thought that I could be overtraining or headed for an overuse injury. I'm feeling thankful right now that I do have people who are looking out for me.
Ceasing to read a book whose concepts are above my understanding was a lot easier for me to figure out than doing a physical workload that may or not be beyond my physical threshold. I didn't immediately grasp the idea that I could be on an unsustainable schedule. I suppose averaging 40 to 50 miles running weeks is enough activity in and of itself. Let alone adding four to five hours of crosstraining to the mix. It has been a mildly humbling thing to admit that they are correct. I would rather ere on the side of caution right now than to find out what they already know through experience. I realize that they don't want me to pull over or get onto a different road. They just want me to slow down and keep myself under control to prevent burnout or injury.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Moderation.....or something
So I've been thinking a lot about being sober lately. Somewhere around this summer marks my first year or so of sobriety. It is probably safe to say that I've spent the last 17 to 18 years not being sober. I have no idea how that happened. I started out being curious about drugs and alcohol to a full blown pot head and alcoholic. Not to mention experimenting with and abusing other types of drugs. In that time I met and married my wife and have no idea how I managed to keep my relationship with her intact. We have certainly had our ups and downs thanks to my addictions.
Throughout the last several years,I tried multiple times to quit smoking pot and drinking. I eventually stopped smoking pot after getting married but substituted that addiction with more drinking. Alcohol was a lot tougher for me to shake free of. I progressed from being a weekend binge drinker to almost steadily drinking every night of the week. I tried several times to quit without telling my wife. I would take several days and not drink. Only to fail and drink myself silly after the brief time of abstinence. Then I would wake up, go to work, buy a six pack or two on my lunch break, and go home after work and repeat. I didn't think anything of it. I didn't think this behavior was abnormal. I was miserable and drinking was my way out of the misery. Actually drinking this much was what was causing me to be miserable. I just didn't realize it.
I would wake in the morning and feel like crap. But I was used to feeling like crap. I had conditioned myself to exist in a fog. A fog consisting of headaches and bodily pains. To take myself to the limits of alcohol poisoning and grow my tolerance to the poison. The addiction was ever growing and bigger than me.
Somewhere in the fall or winter of 2011 I was going to lay down after a night of sitting and drinking in front of the television. I woke my wife and confessed to her that I couldn't control myself anymore. It was impossible for me to have a beer or two. I had to have 8, then 10, then 14 all in a two to three hour span. Earlier in the day I bought two or three six packs of India pale ale that were supposed to last me for a couple of days. I drank most of them that night. She knew my addiction was out of control. I don't know how she lived with me. I was in denial of the mess that I had become. I was miserable and dying on the inside. Dying physically and, I guess, spiritually.
Sometime after my tearful confession she talked me into going on a trail run at the Paynetown state recreational area. The trail was hilly and long and I had no idea what I was in for. I spent the rest of the day recovering on the couch. My legs and body were spent. I believe we went the following Sunday as well. The night before I had to stay sober so I could actually run the trail. I do believe it was the first Saturday I had been sober in many, many years.
That was the beginning of my second life as a runner, I suppose. (I had run cross country in junior high and high school.) I loved being out in the forests running trails. I had enough sense to know that I couldn't go on abusing alcohol and run also. I had to make a choice: continue drinking myself silly, making myself miserable and risk losing my wife, or stop drinking and start running. I quickly replaced one addiction with another. Running miles replaced drinking alcohol. Instead of seeing how many India pale ales and vodka shots I could do in a night, I tried to see how many miles I could run in a row during the day. At night I was too tired to want to drink any alcohol.
I started to run more and more. It was the only way to keep from drinking at first. Then my runs kept getting longer and longer. I started to enjoy pushing my physical limits. Just as I had tested myself to see how much I could drink in a night, I began to see how many miles I could run in a day.
My life is much better now that I have rediscovered running. I have been contemplating my new life as a runner on my weekly long runs. The last several runs I thought about the parallels heavily drinking and lots of running have. Of course, one activity is senseless and destructive while the other is productive and senseless. Moderation is the key to both, but here I am training for my first ultra marathon. Even though I haven't even run an official marathon yet.
The long runs have also become somewhat meditative and therapeutic for me. The exhaustion,isolation, and peacefulness of the local trails enable me to deal with emotions and past events that I was trying to avoid and bury with my drinking. Family deaths, people I have hurt with my addictions, depression, and the realization that my addiction days are hopefully behind me. I finally have a natural happiness knowing that I have become a healthier person mentally as well as physically in the last year and a half.
Throughout the last several years,I tried multiple times to quit smoking pot and drinking. I eventually stopped smoking pot after getting married but substituted that addiction with more drinking. Alcohol was a lot tougher for me to shake free of. I progressed from being a weekend binge drinker to almost steadily drinking every night of the week. I tried several times to quit without telling my wife. I would take several days and not drink. Only to fail and drink myself silly after the brief time of abstinence. Then I would wake up, go to work, buy a six pack or two on my lunch break, and go home after work and repeat. I didn't think anything of it. I didn't think this behavior was abnormal. I was miserable and drinking was my way out of the misery. Actually drinking this much was what was causing me to be miserable. I just didn't realize it.
I would wake in the morning and feel like crap. But I was used to feeling like crap. I had conditioned myself to exist in a fog. A fog consisting of headaches and bodily pains. To take myself to the limits of alcohol poisoning and grow my tolerance to the poison. The addiction was ever growing and bigger than me.
Somewhere in the fall or winter of 2011 I was going to lay down after a night of sitting and drinking in front of the television. I woke my wife and confessed to her that I couldn't control myself anymore. It was impossible for me to have a beer or two. I had to have 8, then 10, then 14 all in a two to three hour span. Earlier in the day I bought two or three six packs of India pale ale that were supposed to last me for a couple of days. I drank most of them that night. She knew my addiction was out of control. I don't know how she lived with me. I was in denial of the mess that I had become. I was miserable and dying on the inside. Dying physically and, I guess, spiritually.
Sometime after my tearful confession she talked me into going on a trail run at the Paynetown state recreational area. The trail was hilly and long and I had no idea what I was in for. I spent the rest of the day recovering on the couch. My legs and body were spent. I believe we went the following Sunday as well. The night before I had to stay sober so I could actually run the trail. I do believe it was the first Saturday I had been sober in many, many years.
That was the beginning of my second life as a runner, I suppose. (I had run cross country in junior high and high school.) I loved being out in the forests running trails. I had enough sense to know that I couldn't go on abusing alcohol and run also. I had to make a choice: continue drinking myself silly, making myself miserable and risk losing my wife, or stop drinking and start running. I quickly replaced one addiction with another. Running miles replaced drinking alcohol. Instead of seeing how many India pale ales and vodka shots I could do in a night, I tried to see how many miles I could run in a row during the day. At night I was too tired to want to drink any alcohol.
I started to run more and more. It was the only way to keep from drinking at first. Then my runs kept getting longer and longer. I started to enjoy pushing my physical limits. Just as I had tested myself to see how much I could drink in a night, I began to see how many miles I could run in a day.
My life is much better now that I have rediscovered running. I have been contemplating my new life as a runner on my weekly long runs. The last several runs I thought about the parallels heavily drinking and lots of running have. Of course, one activity is senseless and destructive while the other is productive and senseless. Moderation is the key to both, but here I am training for my first ultra marathon. Even though I haven't even run an official marathon yet.
The long runs have also become somewhat meditative and therapeutic for me. The exhaustion,isolation, and peacefulness of the local trails enable me to deal with emotions and past events that I was trying to avoid and bury with my drinking. Family deaths, people I have hurt with my addictions, depression, and the realization that my addiction days are hopefully behind me. I finally have a natural happiness knowing that I have become a healthier person mentally as well as physically in the last year and a half.
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