Starting tomorrow I'm faced with a difficulty that most everyone I know wishes they could have. Tomorrow officially starts my summer vacation. Until the beginning of August I don't have to work, save a 3 week summer school session for a couple hours a day. Its this chunk of vacation that usually sends eyes rolling and sarcastic comments flowing whenever I describe my job as a teacher as difficult. Then I get defensive and start detailing my job blah blah blah. That's not what this is about. What this is about is the question: Why would anyone else I know be basking in the glow of two months paid vacation, and I'm looking at it with worry?
As Ive become more self aware, Ive realized one of my biggest enemies is idle time. Don't get me wrong, I'm taking off time over work time faster than anyone you know, but the prospect of two months off feels more like retirement to me than vacation. I need things in my life to occupy my brain so my brain doesn't start looking for entertainment in the places its always looked for it before, namely food and all around misery. Ive been rather successful as of late, running, self reflection, work, the "stress" of the end of a school year has kept me sufficiently busy in my waking hours, but a large part of that is going away.
I'm completely pumped about my marathon training and continuing to loose weight, but I can only do that for so long each day. Even if I stretch it out to a couple hours a day, its still only a couple hours a day. I guess my worry comes from wondering how I will fill the other hours, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared of falling into old habits.
But lemons into lemonade is sort of my new thing, so I'm going to try to be optimistic about actually having to make myself busy/happy/fulfilled without a built in system. And maybe that's the whole key to this. Ive been a master my whole life of looking to "things" to be my savior, to "fix" me, rather than choosing to do it consciously myself. So even though I approach summer with some apprehension, maybe Ill find that I do like having 2 months off as much as everyone else. Or maybe I'm just crazy.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Race for the Pennant
Since I dont have but a couple races under my belt, I figured it was still worth giving a race report, especially sinc this one had some good moments.
This morning my sister Jill and I ran in the Astro's Race for the Pennant 5k that started at Minute Maid Park. We were both surprised by the number of people that were running this race, TONS more than the 5k we ran in just 4 weeks ago. The start gave me my first taste of what a big race is kind of like. Lots of people running/walking at different paces and navigating them was a bit tricky, and I noticed that more than anything it sort of made me run faster. After a bit of bobbing and weaving, we settled in a bit to begin the rolling "hills" of the Elysian Viaduct.
By mile 1 we were feeling pretty good having tackled the first hill or two without much of a slow down, and it was here that we started to see the leaders coming back. What was shocking to Jill and I were the 9 and 10 year old kids that were running at about a 6 minute mile pace. I guess they could have jumped over the median, but they looked like they had been running it all.
As we made the turn to come back I looked at my watch and saw that we were well on pace to finish by my goal which was under 40 minutes. I also knew that the hardest running was yet to come. Right at the turn around was an uphill that Ill admit was not easy. We were getting hot and the sun was beating down, but we were still pretty much on pace.
Right after mile 2 was where things got...interesting. Making a little turn we could see Minute Maid Park. "There it is." I say, but what is funny here is that its hard to remember that a structure the size of a ballpark can still be waaaay in the distance and look like its just right there. The last (and longest) hill was coming up and both Jill and I were getting tired, but still sticking close to that 12:30 pace we had been running all along. Just as we crest the last hill we can see the entire road leading us straight into Minute Maid, Im huffing and huffing, but Im boosted by the fact that we are on a straight road to the finish, so I thought.
About 1/2 a mile from the park, the course took a right turn, Im assuming to add that pesky .1 miles to the end of the 5k. At this point I literally said to Jill "Im not gonna lie, that dampens my spirit a little bit." At this point Jill starts doing everything she can to keep me optomistic, singing to me, trying to immitate my "power song," anything, but I just need to run.
I look at my watch and see that we are at about 36 minutes with about a 1/3 of a mile to go and I know that it is going to be tight. We have run really hard and we are both really hurting at this point when I hear in the distance a familiar voice. I look across a vacant lot, and theres Vic cheering on all the runners as they pass by. I tell Jill, "there's Vic!," and for some reason Jill decides to take off to get us to him. I literally tell her, "Jill, I knew he would be here, we dont need to sprint to see Vic!" But as we turned the final corner towards the finish Vic is cheering for us at the top of his lungs, and he brought Anna from PIM to cheer for us too. For whatever reason, his cheers worked, I found some sort of new gear that I didnt know I had and I started running, like really running. As we pass Vic and Anna I hear Vic yelling still and he even says "Will, wait for us!" as he realizes Im almost at a dead sprint he says, "never mind, KEEP GOING!" This new gear I found was amazing, and frankly I dont know how I would have finished if Vic hadnt been there to push us the last little bit.
So as we pass up the mile 3 marker and can see the entrance we run through to enter the field and cross the finish, we see "THE RAMP." The ramp leading down to the field, we had been warned several times was extremely steep. I had pictures the whole race of a trecherous slope that had to be carefully navigated, but when I got to it, it didnt look so scary. Enough so that I said, "Screw it, Im running down this." Jill did not however know my thoughts and as I started barreling down this ramp she literally puts her hand across my chest in her best "mommy keeping kid from falling" move but I "knew" what I was doing.
In the final tunnel and the last 40 yards or so we could see the official clock over the finish tick 39:59....40:00. I was instantly deflated until Jill yells, "its the start clock, not our time!!" So with the last energy we had we burst over the finish and I stop my watch, at 39:11. Goal accomplished.
It was such a great run, nice weather, well organized, and I got a PR to boot. Four weeks ago to the day I ran my first 5k in 44:33, so in just a month I shaved 5 min and 22 seconds off my time. My favorite thing Jill said was, "I wonder what you could do with no hills and no lower respiratory infection." I guess we will find out next week :)
This morning my sister Jill and I ran in the Astro's Race for the Pennant 5k that started at Minute Maid Park. We were both surprised by the number of people that were running this race, TONS more than the 5k we ran in just 4 weeks ago. The start gave me my first taste of what a big race is kind of like. Lots of people running/walking at different paces and navigating them was a bit tricky, and I noticed that more than anything it sort of made me run faster. After a bit of bobbing and weaving, we settled in a bit to begin the rolling "hills" of the Elysian Viaduct.
By mile 1 we were feeling pretty good having tackled the first hill or two without much of a slow down, and it was here that we started to see the leaders coming back. What was shocking to Jill and I were the 9 and 10 year old kids that were running at about a 6 minute mile pace. I guess they could have jumped over the median, but they looked like they had been running it all.
As we made the turn to come back I looked at my watch and saw that we were well on pace to finish by my goal which was under 40 minutes. I also knew that the hardest running was yet to come. Right at the turn around was an uphill that Ill admit was not easy. We were getting hot and the sun was beating down, but we were still pretty much on pace.
Right after mile 2 was where things got...interesting. Making a little turn we could see Minute Maid Park. "There it is." I say, but what is funny here is that its hard to remember that a structure the size of a ballpark can still be waaaay in the distance and look like its just right there. The last (and longest) hill was coming up and both Jill and I were getting tired, but still sticking close to that 12:30 pace we had been running all along. Just as we crest the last hill we can see the entire road leading us straight into Minute Maid, Im huffing and huffing, but Im boosted by the fact that we are on a straight road to the finish, so I thought.
About 1/2 a mile from the park, the course took a right turn, Im assuming to add that pesky .1 miles to the end of the 5k. At this point I literally said to Jill "Im not gonna lie, that dampens my spirit a little bit." At this point Jill starts doing everything she can to keep me optomistic, singing to me, trying to immitate my "power song," anything, but I just need to run.
I look at my watch and see that we are at about 36 minutes with about a 1/3 of a mile to go and I know that it is going to be tight. We have run really hard and we are both really hurting at this point when I hear in the distance a familiar voice. I look across a vacant lot, and theres Vic cheering on all the runners as they pass by. I tell Jill, "there's Vic!," and for some reason Jill decides to take off to get us to him. I literally tell her, "Jill, I knew he would be here, we dont need to sprint to see Vic!" But as we turned the final corner towards the finish Vic is cheering for us at the top of his lungs, and he brought Anna from PIM to cheer for us too. For whatever reason, his cheers worked, I found some sort of new gear that I didnt know I had and I started running, like really running. As we pass Vic and Anna I hear Vic yelling still and he even says "Will, wait for us!" as he realizes Im almost at a dead sprint he says, "never mind, KEEP GOING!" This new gear I found was amazing, and frankly I dont know how I would have finished if Vic hadnt been there to push us the last little bit.
So as we pass up the mile 3 marker and can see the entrance we run through to enter the field and cross the finish, we see "THE RAMP." The ramp leading down to the field, we had been warned several times was extremely steep. I had pictures the whole race of a trecherous slope that had to be carefully navigated, but when I got to it, it didnt look so scary. Enough so that I said, "Screw it, Im running down this." Jill did not however know my thoughts and as I started barreling down this ramp she literally puts her hand across my chest in her best "mommy keeping kid from falling" move but I "knew" what I was doing.
In the final tunnel and the last 40 yards or so we could see the official clock over the finish tick 39:59....40:00. I was instantly deflated until Jill yells, "its the start clock, not our time!!" So with the last energy we had we burst over the finish and I stop my watch, at 39:11. Goal accomplished.
It was such a great run, nice weather, well organized, and I got a PR to boot. Four weeks ago to the day I ran my first 5k in 44:33, so in just a month I shaved 5 min and 22 seconds off my time. My favorite thing Jill said was, "I wonder what you could do with no hills and no lower respiratory infection." I guess we will find out next week :)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Goals
As my half marathon training officially starts this Saturday, I thought it would be good to set some goals, short and long term, to lead me through the next seven months.
Short Term:
-Run the Astro's Race for the Pennant 5k on May 30th without stopping and at least a little bit faster than my first 5k.
-Run the Heights Fun Run 5k sub 40 min
Mid-Long Term:
- DON'T GET INJURED!!
- Stick consistently to the In Flight Training program, especially the cross training and weight lifting, not just the running
- Run all of the Race of the Month Series races
- Finish the Aramco Houston Half Marathon
- Cross the start line of the half marathon 50 pounds lighter than I cross the start line of the Heights 5k
Some goals may be added or modified, but this is what I'm starting with.
Short Term:
-Run the Astro's Race for the Pennant 5k on May 30th without stopping and at least a little bit faster than my first 5k.
-Run the Heights Fun Run 5k sub 40 min
Mid-Long Term:
- DON'T GET INJURED!!
- Stick consistently to the In Flight Training program, especially the cross training and weight lifting, not just the running
- Run all of the Race of the Month Series races
- Finish the Aramco Houston Half Marathon
- Cross the start line of the half marathon 50 pounds lighter than I cross the start line of the Heights 5k
Some goals may be added or modified, but this is what I'm starting with.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Feeling Like Crap
I felt like crap all day. I was convinced for a moment or two that I had caught West Nile Virus from one of the over 80 (yes I counted as much as I could) mosquito bites I got sitting in a friend's back yard a couple nights ago. This would be the same back yard where I ate too much and made myself feel like crap mentally. Maybe his back yard is a bad place for me :) I basically spent most of my Memorial Day in a Benadryl induced fog and am feeling a little better now. I was really hoping to have a good run today in preparation for my race on Saturday, but alas I had to walk almost all of my 3 miles this morning. My knees have also been really sore since my long run on Saturday so an extra day of rest probably is good for them as well. Ill be kicking my but on Wednesday for my final pre-race run, then the 5k on Saturday with Jill. After that, its a whole new animal, training for the half marathon. I still cant believe Im going to do it, but Im terribly excited.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Is this good or...?
See, fat people find comfort in shared misery. Me and my other two fat friends would get together and laugh jovially as we scarfed down any combinations we could find of bacon, sausage, gravy, bread,...the list goes on. But more importantly than eating all this, was sitting around talking about how great it was that we ate it. There is this shared pride in "look how fat I can be, I bet I can eat more of this fried gravy than you can!" (And yes, I literally have eaten deep fried gravy at one of these gatherings) Well, I hadn't been to one of these get togethers in some time, and certainly not since I had adopted what I don't feel I'm out of place in calling a healthy lifestyle. One of my partners in crime had also adopted healthier habits, and dropped quite a bit of weight, but for some reason all this went away last night. There is almost an unspoken reward amongst my friends for who can bring or consume the most heinous concoction of food and alcohol. My feeble attempt was bringing a 40 oz. bottle of Old English, trying to look my best fat white boy gangsta. My effort was thwarted several times over. First by a 50 inch peperoni pizza that was literally delivered in the bed of a truck, and lastly by BACON ICE CREAM. I had seen it on Iron Chef, I knew it existed, but here I was at 11:30 on a Saturday night, actually eating it. "Why are you doing this?" kept running over and over and over in my head. I was summarily flying in the face of all the good choices and healthy habits I had developed over the past couple of months, and I even knew it, but I kept going. Call it a slip up, call it peer pressure, call it whatever you want, it didn't feel good, and it doesn't feel good this morning. But... What I am taking as good from it, is the fact that feeling this bad about what I did, IS a good thing. In the past, I would wake up this morning with a smile..."I just ate bacon ice cream... how cool is that?" But not today. Ive spent my morning trying to think of ways to make up for my night, and I have NO desire to repeat last night. What this does tell me is that I do have to prepare for every situation, because if I'm given the chance to overeat and "fall off the wagon," I'm gonna do it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)