The End is Near

2011 has been a roller coaster year for me and my family.  Turmoil in areas we least expected, and calm seas where trouble has historically emerged.  Health issues, job issues, etc., we’ve been burning stress for fuel far more that ever wanted or expected.  In the last couple months we’ve taken some steps to try and get back in control, and we may be at the tipping point for the better.  Professionally my wife and I are both proactively working to change our situations.  Health-wise, a string of bad news has been followed by relative quiet, and no health news is good health news right now.  As for running, after running my first 2 marathons in 2010, the only race on my schedule for 2011 is the Marine Corps Marathon, which I’ll be running 23 short days from now.  2011 has been a long road figuratively and literally, but hopefully by the time I cross the finish line in DC at the end of the month we will have crossed the finish line in other areas of our lives as well.

After starting off the year bonding with my orthopedist and therapist again, and spending most of January and February on the sidelines trying to get healthy enough for training, I got started on 36 week plan to build a solid base back up, and then train hard to try and cut another 20 minutes off my marathon time.  I’m in the 33^rd week of that journey, and although you never know what race day is going to have in store for you, I’ve done everything I intended to do in that plan to get me ready to race.  There have been pains and setbacks along the way, but I’ve managed them with as much common sense as I can muster, and kept them all from forcing me to shut things down.  Unfortunately I lost my training partner along the way – he’s still alive, and I didn’t actually lose him … I know where he is – but he developed a calf issue and had to defer his entry.  After adding tempo/speed work to my training for marathon 2, I’ve embraced hills and trails for this one, and actually enjoy the hilly long runs now more than the flat ones.  Go figure.

July, August, and September were strong training months.  Hot …. but strong.  21 runs in July for 143.38 miles, 19 runs in August for 146.11 miles, and 19 runs in September for 131.79 miles.  Not as much speed work as I would have liked, but more hill work than I had planned.  I’m hoping the hills are building more quad strength for me, which in turn will stabilize my knees more so I’m not running this race with any braces.  So far so good.

I’m starting to get excited for the MCM.  I’m not a huge fan of crowds, so this should be a pretty wild experience, as I’ll be surrounded by a crowd for hours and hours, all heading for the same place.  This is one of a very short list of marathons that have specific meaning for me and are ones I want to do before I find another pursuit to rob me of sleep and beat my body into submission.  Just need to stay healthy for 3 more weeks.  The end is near …

Blogjam

Having a hard time finding time to spend in the blog world lately.  Reading, writing, etc. - all of it is just out of reach.  Work is soul-crushingly intense right now.  Impending layoffs, poor quarterly results, and survival-mode instincts make for a pressure-cooker climate.  More stressful than any time I can remember.  Compounded with some bad health news for a family member, the blood pressure is not in a good place.

Thankfully running/training has been going well.  Still trying to adjust to the sudden onset of Summer, but I've been sweating out some of the stress, which is therapeutic.  Logged my first week of 30+ miles last week and my body held up as well as can be expected.  Started the week with 9 miles (almost) at target marathon pace (8:15/mile versus marathon target of 8:09), and it felt good.  Exhausting, but good.  After an injury stalled start to the year, I've finally crossed 300 miles for the year, and I feel like I've got a solid base going for the start of official marathon training in July.  Injury is not an option ....  "ain't got time to bleed".

Unofficially I'd like to find some sort of race to do in June.  This would be my first foray into anything other than a Marathon, and I'd like to diversify a bit.  Ideally I'd try a half-marathon at my target full-marathon pace, but I haven't found anything reasonably nearby in this timeframe.  I'll keep looking.

Back to work .... deep breaths ...... serenity now.

Chai Tea and Tai Chi

Serenity now.

2011 has gotten off to a stressful start for a variety of reasons, and my hip issues have left me largely without my main personal recalibration tool, running.  Actually, injuries continue to add to the overall fog of stress that permeates my personal landscape these days.  I was hopeful that some time off during the holidays would cause the stresses to pack their bags and head for warmer climates, but instead they seem to have quietly rehearsed and choreographed their efforts, and met me with a Youtube-caliber stress flash-mob to start the new year.  Time to fight back.  Get busy living, or get busy dying.

Chai Tea is something I’ve discovered in the past couple years, and it seems to have a stress-relieving effect on me.  Not in a cheesy ‘International Coffee Moment’ kind of way, but more in a ‘forcing me to hit pause on my day for a couple minutes’ way.  Even just a couple minutes of processing can make a world of difference in my personal and professional effectiveness.  BIG fan of the Big Train brand Chai Tea, which I order from Amazon in the ‘Rodeo Clown Drum’ size container and keep in my office at work.  I’ve never been a fan of hot drinks, so I was thoroughly surprised to find I like this stuff.  Worth a try if you’re not a coffee drinker, which I am not.  Juan Valdez and I have just never really hit it off.

I’ve never tried Tai Chi, but I thought it fit today’s motto and made for a catchy title.  I have, however, tried Yoga, and I’m planning to give it another shot.  I had added yoga to my routine as part of training for my last marathon, since I am brutally lacking in flexibility and thought it might help ward off injuries.  Ironically, just when I was getting going with it, I had to stop because of the Plantar Fasciitis in both of my feet that was badly agitated by the calf stretching inherent in yoga.  The PF hasn’t really gone away, but I think it’s minimized enough now to give yoga another shot.  I’m going to ease into this slowly, to see how my hip responds, and hopefully make this a significant part of my routine while I’m not training for a specific race, and figure out how to make this a x-training activity when I do start actively training again.

I'm confident that one day I too will be able to bend over and touch my waist.