Moving Day

My new blog:  Clydesdale Runner

I'm still in the process of setting it up, but new content soon I hope.

Back again...

I've had various blogs over the last 10 years, and each has served as a creative outlet.  They've explored different topics and had different focuses, and I've found a balance with each. 

I'm still trying to figure out that balance with this blog.

How much do I reveal about myself?  What topics do I explore?  Running, weight loss, sure.  But how much of the rest of my life to I let leak into my posts? 

In the past I've probably erred on the side of revealing too much.  Letting personal drama play too much of a centrist role makes for juicy reading, but it also has real life consequences.

In general I'm a pretty withdrawn and private person...until I know someone well enough to trust them.  Then it seems like I reverse myself and over-share.  Clearly I have boundary issues, but like everything I do I have to make it complicated and have issues on both sides of the plate.

So I'm blaming my sporadic posts on that.

It's my story and I'm sticking to it.

While I've been away several notable things have happened.

First, the good:

• My weight has dropped into the 220s.  It's probably been 10 years, or more since I've been in the 220s.

•  I had my first run at sub-9 minute pace.  I really have no idea how long it's been since I've been about to run continuously at that pace.  High school is the last time I know for sure...

And, the bad:

I tweaked my knee. 

I'm not sure how, or exactly what I hurt anatomically, but I have flashes of sharp pain in my right knee.  There doesn't seem to be a particular motion that causes it.  There doesn't really seem to be a rhyme or reason as to why or when it hurts.  It's been swollen and stiff at times, but anti-inflammatory meds don't seem to help.  With my medical background if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say probably there's a small fragment of meniscus cartilage floating around in there causing problems. 

I took several days off to rest it, and today was my first day back running.  I had a couple of tense moments at the start of my run, but then it settled down and hasn't hurt since. 

Regardless, I think I may be pushing too hard to go further, and faster all the time.  And so to push back at some of the stressors putting pressure on me, I'm scaling back my race expectations.  I was pushing to run a 10k in just 2 weeks, and a half in March 2014. 

Right now I'm putting off the 10k for sure.  I'm almost certain I could run the race, and finish. 

But at what cost? 

To date I've never run 10 kilometers.  And I'm just not comfortable with the race being my first time to conquer that distance.  Maybe that's the way I'll have to approach a marathon, but for a distance as relatively short as 10k, I want to have several runs at least that long under my belt before I step onto a race course. 

I guess I just want to be in control of my race.  No matter the preparation, there's always the possibility of having a bad day and running a terrible race.  I want to step to the starting line with the confidence of knowing that the distance is well within my reach.

What does that mean for my planned half marathon in March?  I don't know.  I'll just have to see how I feel as it approaches.

The drama:

And here's the part where I possibly stray out of bounds for this blog.

My wife and I planned on selling our house and moving this coming summer.  After contacting a realtor to get some advice on improvements to help get the house ready for sale, we actually sold our house, without it ever being on the market. 

We closed on the sale 3 weeks later. 

Now the new owner is allowing us to stay in the house until we find a home of our own--a very generous arrangement.  However the inventory of homes for sale in our desired neighborhoods is ridiculously low right now.  Like 2 or 3 potential homes on the market. 

That's it. 

Somehow through all of this we decided that if there wasn't a perfect house out there for us, we should just build one.  (Because it's every just that easy.)

Facepalm.

The neighborhood we moved into in 2005 has unfortunately bottomed out.  For example, when we moved here, my oldest daughter was in first grade, and the elementary school was rated as exemplary by the state authorities. 

Flash forward 8 years and my middle daughter is now a first grader at the same school.  Unfortunately the school is now a Title I school. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing, except that the entire school seems to be proud of that status.  Instead of expecting the students to perform at exemplary levels, they instead insist on giving students an out and an excuse for not performing well.  Instead of simply taking the extra money and creating programs to enrich the academic experience of the kids (like the program is designed) the administration seems intent on using the money to tell the kids they aren't as good as other kids in the district and require extra help to perform as well.  In my (often jaded) opinion, if you tell kids something enough, they start to believe it.

Either way, it's time to get my kids somewhere that is intent on challenging them. 

So that's what I've been up to lately.  :-)

Calorie Anxiety

I use MyFitnessPal to track my calories every day.  Every single day, otherwise my calories get away from me.  It's a truly perfect tool for me.  I love that it scans bar codes and imports nutritional info.  I love completing my diary every day and getting the evaluation, "If every day were like today, in 5 weeks you would weigh Xlbs".  Talk about keeping your eyes on the long term. 

But something I've noticed is what can only be called "calorie anxiety" and I'm a little worried that it might be interfering with my health.

Essentially, calorie anxiety (as defined by me, and I'm making it up) is skimping on breakfast and lunch calories out of fear of running out of calories later in the day, and ending up hungry.

It tends to be my general MO.  I'll eat a packet of oatmeal for breakfast--130-160 calories.  And then for lunch I'll limit my calories to around 320-350 calories.  What this often means is I've only eaten 500ish calories by dinner time, and I end up eating the bulk of my daily calories in the evening between dinner and bedtime.

So far I've been extremely lucky that this practice hasn't sent me into starvation mode and I've continued to lose weight.  But it's something I continue to work on, with some success lately.  I've left my breakfast routine alone most days, although I've added a glass of juice before I leave on work days.  I had to do this because I've had days so busy that the first time I've thought about eating has been about 2 in the afternoon.  At least with the juice I've had a few calories.  Lunches I've allowed myself more calories--500-550.  Choosing wisely allows for a great deal more food than before. 

I've continued to lose weight, so I can only assume that it's at least as effective, and probably more.  I think it's probably a more healthy approach both metabolically and mentally.  At times I could see how people might end up with an eating disorder...

Overall it's a lot less anxiety.

How do you break down your calorie intake through the day?

Shoe fly, shoe!

Much to my wife's chagrin, I added another pair of shoes to the stable--a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 9s.  I had gotten the Brooks Adrenalines as my go-to pair, and my Brooks Pure Cadences for speed work and intervals.  However, I find myself spending a disproportionate amount of time in the Adrenalines.

At this point, I'm not sure I want to push things with the Cadences--they are more of a minimalist shoe, and designed for midfoot strike.  I've heard and heeded the warnings of both minimalist and non-minimalist proponents:  If you're going to transition, do it slowly.

Very slowly.

I have been 100% pain free using the Cadences, both while wearing them and in the days immediately post run.  But given the fact that I'm still dramatically increasing my mileage and my paces, I just don't want to chance it.  So far, one workout a week (I'm running 5 days pretty consistently now) has proven to be just enough.  I love the feeling of wearing a different shoe.  And I can feel my pulse quicken when I lace up in them, because I know they are for running fast, and I'll soon be in the midst of a blistering intervals workout. I do notice my legs are tired in different places after my Cadence workouts.

It's a great feeling.

Anyway, all that to say that I thought another go-to pair would be a good idea for the rest of my runs.  This way I can rotate between the Inspires and the Adrenalines and potentially eliminate any overuse injuries from running on the exact same platform all the time.

I read lots of reviews from lots of different sources, but I couldn't find a place locally that had my 14s in stock.  So I took a chance--and I'm thankful that after trying them on for the first time today they feel perfect.  Haven't run much in them yet, but the heel grips my heel, the laces snug them down on my midfoot, and the toe box is nice and roomy.  Looking forward to putting some miles in in them. 

And just look at them.  I'm crushing on that blue and yellow scheme.

Another exciting and proud-papa moment is when my 7 year old daughter came home from school and announced she wanted to be part of the running club.

After making sure she knew what running actually entails, I set about finding her a good pair of shoes.  The poor girl is cursed, unlucky, blessed with my long and narrow feet.  So it only stands to reason that the same shoe would fit her needs.

Introducing her very cool purple Brooks Adrenalines For Kids.

Too bad the first day of Running Club she was promptly informed that 1st graders weren't allowed.  Only 2-4th graders.  She was devastated, and we were a little miffed we'd spent the money on these shoes for her.  But what can you do?  Public school will be public school--nobody every claimed it all made sense.

Aaaaaand we're back.

It's so tough to get going again when you take a blog hiatus.  Ideas form in the head, take shape into potential posts, and then the hurdle of restarting causes them to wither like fruit left on the vine too long.

There's the pressure to explain why it's been a month since your last post.  There's the mild embarrassment that others have had to reach out to make sure you're doing OK, that nothing bad has happened.

Well, I had a little hiccup.  I had a crazy work week, combined with exhaustion on my days off.  And then I left town, and then crazy work schedule when I got back. 

Oh, yeah, and that event that sent 5 years of work and focus down the drain--not getting into grad school.  I'd like to think I took it all in stride, and certainly I didn't have a nervous break down--I kept getting up in the mornings, and going to work, and playing with my kids.  But all that was habit if nothing else.  Sticking to the routine was a way to avoid dealing with and feeling the loss of a dream.  I was bobbing and weaving, my gloves were up, but I was against the ropes and more than a little punch drunk.

Through all of this, I did the worst thing I could have.  I stopped running.  And so, add the loss of my stress outlet to all of the above.

But I'm here now.  I've been running regularly for almost 2 weeks back now, after a 2 week hiatus.  It's always amazing how quickly things start to regress after a break.  Especially when a new runner like I am.  Something I'm glad didn't regress though, was my weight loss.  I gained a couple pounds, but it was easy to get back on track.

The blog, apparently not so much.

Soon with new content.

5K Finally

Finally.

That's all I can say.

Finally I had a decent 5K experience.

This morning I ran the Rahr Oktoberfest 5K.  It's an interesting race to be sure.  It's put on by a craft brewery that's become a fixture in Fort Worth, and there's a whole sub-culture that has developed around it.  It's an interesting crowd that shows up on race mornings--beer culture meets running culture meets local Fort Worth culture.  It's a lot of culture packed into one pretty small place.

The start line from half pack.

With a 9 am start time (the crack of dawn for the beer people and nearly lunchtime for the running culture) the unpredictable Texas weather had the potential to turn this into an ugly venture.  In fact the morning dawned overcast and muggy.  Temperature was in upper 70s with humidity in the 80-85% range, and a wall of thunderstorms out to the west were steadily on the march towards Fort Worth.

In a word, the weather was sticky. 

But what I was truly worried about was the sun coming out and really steaming things up.  And I forgot my sunglasses at home.  So I was hoping it would stay overcast, and it did.

My own little starting pothole.

Rahr & Sons Brewery is set just south of downtown Fort Worth in an older part of town.  It's a little dilapidated, a little overgrown, and a little rough around the edges.  But there are also scores of thriving small businesses firmly entrenched in old business districts of yesteryear, with older neighborhoods surrounding.  It's an odd juxtaposition of living, breathing community in such run down surroundings--especially here in Texas where society seems to worship the almighty new construction.

After the gun, (and about 1:30 getting up to the line,) the course left out of the brewery, headed south down the block, and turned west onto old Magnolia Blvd.  It was fun to run along the wide, divided boulevard under the old growth pecan trees.  The Fort Worth PD was out en force, with officers and cars at every single intersection--big and small--making sure we were safe.  We ran several city blocks along Magnolia entering into the hospital district.

Pretty cool bib.

Save a few brief uphills, almost the entire time from the moment we left the brewery we were headed downhill.  I concentrated hard on keeping a handle on my pace, trying to balance keeping my cadence up but not going out too fast.  Scores of people blasted past me, lured in by the downhill course--and I got seriously cut off several times to the point where I was worried I was going to get tangled up in them and trip.  But I just smiled to myself thinking, "We'll see y'all again in a little while."  There was the usual dodging of people that never had any intention of running the course, but insisted on starting at the front of the start line.  I'll never understand it, but I'm hoping they just don't know any better.  The worst is when there's 5 or 6 of them spread out abreast of each other, like a slowly moving roadblock.  I'm hoping as the length of my races increase, the number of joy-walkers decreases.

We turned the corner and headed back north on 8th Avenue, and it was time to pay the piper.  The uphill was mercifully shorter, but diabolically steeper.  And that's when I began to catch up to and pass the jackrabbits.  I concentrated on not tripping over the walkers, keeping my cadence up, and also on attacking the hill.  With such a large crowd, and a well protected course, I pumped up the volume on Pandora and let the music drive me up, up and away.  The trip up 8th took us past Cook Children's Medical Center where my wife has been a PICU nurse for more than 11 years.

Thistle Hill

As the hill topped out, we turned the corner and headed east on Pennsylvania Avenue.  This took us past Thistle Hill mansion, (where my wife and I got married), and past more hospitals.  The course was mostly gentle rolling hills at this point, and I began to catch the faster runners that were casualties of the hills and the humidity.  As I went by I tried encouraging those that had dropped to a walk, reminding them we didn't have but a mile left in the course.  I started seeing some of the much speedier runners running back on the course to find friends and family members to help cheer them in--easy to identify since they were holding the commemorative pint glass, ha!

As we turned back south to head to the entrance to the brewery I hopped up on the sidewalk to miss a sudden walker, and nearly ran into the traffic light pole, hidden just around the corner.  At the same moment I realized that the entrance to the brewery was much closer than I had anticipated, and I belatedly picked up the pace for my final push to the line--much later than I could have.  Dang.

One final turn into the back alley of the brewery, and up the short, uneven, pothole-y chute to the finish line.

Into one hand the volunteers thrust a bottle of water, into the other my commemorative pint glass--which I promptly dropped while juggling my phone, my headphones, and a slippery bottle of water.  Miracle of all miracles it didn't break even though it was dropped from waist level onto asphalt.  Weird.

Beer line!!

Storm Cloud IPA.

I strolled around a bit to cool down, and then headed over to get my beer glass filled.  The lines were long, but the beer was good.  I picked the Storm Cloud IPA.  It seemed fitting with the weather, and a good crisp IPA was just the perfect thirst quencher (after my bottle of water that is!).

As far as the race goes, my official chip time was 31:33, for what they're calling a 10:07 pace.  RunKeeper said I ran 3.17 miles in 31:43 for a 10:00 pace on the nose!  If only I'd realized how little of the race was left and started my final kick just a fraction sooner, would I have broken into the 9s?!?  That would have been so epic for me.  But a 10:00 pace in humidity and unknown hills?  I'll take it!!

According to RunKeeper, my splits broke down like this:

Mile 1:  10:12
Mile 2:  10:01
Mile 3:  9:52
Mile 4:  9:22

I'm pretty proud of the fact that my splits got progressively faster, despite the humidity and terrain.  Obviously work yet to be done, but it's certainly gratifying for the moment.

Now that I have a solid race under my belt I feel a little more prepared to start pushing the distances and paces in the future.

After the race I skipped out on the belly-busting German/Czech food and headed home to shower for soccer games and birthday parties.  The race was a great way to start a busy day though!

Interval Boost

I decided to just head home after work last night.  It had been a rough day, I was tired, and I was hoping to get to bed early.  I had planned an interval workout yesterday, then take today as a rest day, an easy run tomorrow, and then the Rahr Oktoberfest 5K on Saturday.  Instead, I counted yesterday as a rest day, then got up and ran my interval workout before work this morning.

Last week when I ran my interval workout I found myself feeling so strong by the end of the 5th fast interval, I just pushed straight through to the end of the workout without taking a rest interval. That kind of clued me in that maybe I better step up my paces.

So this morning I did just that.  I ran 1/4 mile intervals for 3 miles.  I increased my slow interval pace from 10:43 to 10:21, then I ran my first two fast intervals at a 9:05 pace, then the 3rd at 8:57, 4th at 8:49, 5th at 8:42, and last at 8:34.  Overall average pace for the 3 miles was 9:37.

I didn't have the issue of feeling too strong at the end of my 5th interval this time.  In fact I had push to make it through the 6th.  Which is exactly what I was looking for. 

Here's to getting stronger and faster.

What's your favorite interval workout?