I'm BAAAAACK!!!!!!! (aka I'm writing for the first time in 2 years and I don't know how long it will last)

WOW! October 2009 was my last post? That is REALLY SAD! AD – No teasing please!

No promises here but I will attempt to start blogging again as I participate in a local Sahuarita “Biggest Loser” competition. It is 12 weeks long. I will attempt to do one post a week to keep you up to date on my endeavor. This will be the first such post but hopefully not the last. After the 12 weeks, we’ll see where we go from there…

First, to catch you up… (its either this or you go back and re-read 3 years of blogs!) After my marathon in the fall of 2008 I ran a half marathon 2 weeks later. The combined stress of those two events plus the severe overtraining I was doing culminated in a shredded ileotibial band in my right knee. Following physical therapy, rests periods, reduced mileage, and a year of frustration, I all but stopped running due to the pain. After peaking somewhere in the 285lb range my running had dropped me to 183 lbs at the time of my marathon. I had lost just over 100 lbs and for the first time in a LONG time my BMI was classified as normal.

The year after my marathon and subsequent injury wasn’t without running. I still did another half-marathon in SLC but my weight did start to climb again as my mileage dropped from around 40 miles/week down to 10-15 miles/week. By the fall of 2009 however I was lucky to be running 1-2 times/week if at all. When my wife and I went on our cruise to celebrate our 15^th wedding anniversary that August, I was weighing in at 205.

As my career started a transition in the winter of 2009-2010 my amount of free time shrunk drastically and I focused for the next year and a half on that career change and relocation. The problem was, I let my weight go unattended and it climbed and climbed.

So, that brings us to today! A coworker has participated in some of these competitions in the past and notified me of this one starting. Knowing full well that competition is the key to my success, I figured it is now or never. Next March I cross the dreaded 40 year old mark. I hope by then I will be back in shape, ready to tackle my next marathon and that elusive 4 hour mark that I so narrowly missed on my first attempt.

As for the weigh-in for the competition, I weighed in at 246 lbs (242 at home with less clothing). 60% of my blood sweat and tears weight loss, lost! But just look at the whole new motivation I have to try again! I look forward to your encouragement, words of wisdom, mocking accountability, and probably quite a bit of general apathy as my running has NOTHING to do with your happiness.

Rant, September, Weight, Race, Donations

Maybe this should have been 5 posts instead of 1, oh well. First of all, is my blog still active? I know they haven’t been provocative or page-turners but 1 comment for the last 3 posts combined? Really? Has my running become that mundane to the rest of you?

Anyway, as for the update. Here is my monthly running chart you have seen periodically for a while now:
Each month I am surprised that it continues to climb but this time I think I can safely say it has peaked. During the month of October my running will taper off as I approach my Marathon in early November. It would also be very difficult to do better then September given that I have already doubled the number of running days missed in that month. September 3rd was the only non-Sunday that I didn’t run all month long. Due to a funeral in Ohio, I have already missed two days in October.

My weight plateaued for a LONG time at 196 but about 2 months ago it started a slow decline. I have weighed in below 190 lbs every day for a week now and my 15 day moving average is sitting right at 190. I think it is realistic to be in the 180's on race day, I won't make it to the 183 before then that had been my goal a year ago after I made it to 200, but it is definitely harder to loose weight when you are training so much, the apatite is insatiable!

The other element I wanted to mention was my race on Saturday. I ran my first 5k in over a year. I ran the Stonemill Race for Autism. The Stonemill 5k was the last 5k I ran as well so it was a great measure to see apples to apples how much better I have become with a 1000 miles logged between races. I knew I had improved, just not how much.

When I ran this race in late August last year my time was 23:50. This year, 21:00 flat, a pace of 6:46 per mile. The organizers were smart and asked everyone that ran under an 8 minute pace to step forward first. Due to this, I found myself in the front row for the first time. As luck would have it, I was on the right hand side of the road as well. The course turns 90 degrees to the right 100 ft from the start. When the race started I won the sprint to the corner and found myself leading a race for the first time ever. I cannot tell you how odd it is to look up and see nothing but a police car and pace bike in front of me.

I knew it wouldn’t last but it was a great feeling while it did. I lead down the first hill to the next turn. I lead up the next incline leading us through a parking lot. In all I lead for just over 2 minutes, the first third of a mile. I guess I should have focused on the last third, not the first third. A group of 7 runners passed me over the next third of a mile. I fell to as low as 8th but I still felt strong. By the two-mile mark I would climb back up to 6th only to be passed again by one of runners and finish 7th overall, out of a field of 190.

The fun part was that I made the podium for my age group. I was awarded 2nd place for the 30-39 year old males. It is the first time I have placed in any group in any race. I just got a certificate, but man it felt good. Now I just need to cut another 20 seconds per mile off and get under 20 minutes, THAT, would be something!

Well, I am now down to less than 5 weeks of training until the big day. As for my Diabetes Action Team fundraising, I have officially logged donations of $290, have another check in hand for $250, and a handful of people who have told me that they have either mailed in a donation or intend to do so. At this point it looks like my $1000 goal is still a bit of a stretch, but not out of reach. Thank you to those who have donated, those who are still planning to donate, and those who are donating your prayers and good wishes. I am humbled by each and every one.

Increased Expectations?

I noticed something today. Where I used to celebrate and crow about every milestone reached with my running, I noticed I haven’t done it as much lately. Examples for this include: I posted when I crossed the 100 mile mark on my log but I haven’t really celebrated the century marks the 5 times since then (ok, looking back I marked the 200 miles this year point). I posted about my first 80 mile month and my first 100 mile month, but when I repeated the 100 mile month in June, I didn’t rush here to write about it. I have almost 100 miles on my "new" shoes (below) I got over a month ago but I didn’t write about them at the time like I did the first time I spent $100 bucks for a pair of shoes… (FYI, I just moved from the Saucony Omni 6 to the Omni 7 which is this year’s version – I like the 6’s more). So, the question is, how fast does something move from monumental to mundane? If I didn’t run 100 miles in a month I would feel like I am letting myself down but I now EXPECT to reach that threshold each month. Reality is that to prevent injury when running as many miles as I am I have to replace shoes after around 500 miles on them so big whoop if I got a new pair. I was excited somewhat, but why should you be excited? Of course, that question could be applied to the entire blog concept I guess.

Perhaps I am jaded by the lack of comments and say, "Wow, I didn’t get a single comment on my 100 miles post, why should I point out 200, 300, etc…." Maybe celebrations are not meant to be linear and I will be as excited about crossing the 1000 mile mark as I was about 100. Logarithmic Joy? It used to be that some of my runs were so exciting to me that I transformed them into fictional stories to glorify them further, where now, other than races, the only way I write about the events of individual runs is when something other than running occurs. So there may be a combination of dynamics here as to why I write about something one time but not another but the question is, does it even matter? I think you would be even MORE bored to read that this morning I ran 3.7 miles in the dark and saw 1 deer, 5 frogs, and countless dried worms on the sidewalk.

Maybe the constant droning about running gets stale. Maybe that is why my wife had to throw in a picture of an 18 year old (at the time and time since) backside. Running posts can only convey so much enthusiasm and dynamics. Of course, my life is not exciting enough as it is to support a blog. Other topics from the last few months I could write about? Movie reviews: Indiana Jones, C+ - IMHO, too much unrealistic reliance on CGI, Kung Fu Panda, B - I saw with a screaming 3yr old but a bit predictable, WALL-e B+ - funny and original but a bit too heavy on the anti-corporate/lazy human propaganda. Swimming Pool Maintenance: balancing pool chemistry is harder than you would think, no wonder pool boys would rather be doing something else… I’ll try to put up video of Caleb and me on a roller coaster when I get a chance, but other than that, I got nuthin…

Of course, I’m still doing better than my parents and 7 siblings combined who either don’t or RARELY blog and hardly ever comment!

P.S. - Many Many Thanks to my sister Coleen and her Husband and my High School Friends Ryan and Deanna who are my most recent donors toward my marathon fundraising efforts. I am truly humbled by every contribution! I am 17% to my goal with 4 months to go… I also only recently found out about another person in my life now taking Type II Diabetes medication but I will leave it to HER to tell others as she sees fit as she has decided not to broadcast it but yet not keep it a secret either.