Wednesday, June 27, 2007

My Creds

OK, so I didn't run track in high school or any school for that matter. I'm not a track coach. I have not been running for 20 years. I'm not the fastest runner (not the slowest either). I'm not winning my age group (yet) and I haven't yet qualified for Boston (yes, it only counts if you qualify).

But I am proud of where I've come from and what I've achieved over the last 3 years.

Scranton, PA Steamtown Marathon 2006 - 3:38

LAPD Lewes Deleware Half Marathon 2007 - 1:41

Princeton Fete 10k 2007 - 43:41

Big Chill 5k New Brunswick, NJ 2006 - 20:14

Beyond those PR's I've run a dozen or so 10ks. Maybe 10, 10ks, a couple 5 milers and 10 milers and 3 or so half marys (I love half marathons. There's a post on that topic I'm sure).

I'm not sure how I'm doing it but I've been on a PR streak. I have PR'd every race I've run in. I can't quite figure that out. I'm getting older but faster. I've had many theories on this but keep coming back to this one.

I'm either not running 100% race day or I'm not training optimally and learning more each year. I suspect it's the later since there's plenty of races where I'm about ready to puke as I cross the finish. (I'll cover the Steamtown Marathon some other time). I'm sure it's not that I'm a genetic freak like those guys (and many girls) running 5 minute miles or faster.

It's taken lots of hard work for these times and although I'm proud of them, I'm not yet close to qualifying for Boston. Then again when I see what others are doing including Seth (my bro-in-law) I'm not doing nearly what the other half (or top third) is doing in terms of training and commitment.

I've trained hard and have been very committed but have seen that there are different levels of commitment that goes along with progressive increases in performance.

I'm pretty sure that my first marathon training season I was doing the most I could without risking injury (and I still got injured - groin/hip and as my wife tells it to my friends "my pubis"). But after that initial "Let's just make sure I finish but at a respectable time (3:51)" I found it pretty hard to stay as committed as I did.

Yes I ran a more challenging training program and put more miles in but I didn't watch what I ate as much. I didn't work the core and get in to the gym and of course I didn't cut back on the beer/wine like I did the summer before.

Although I took 13 minutes off my previous marathon (I've run 2 so far), once you get up to the point of getting beyond "just finishing or picking a time that is just beyond just finishing" there's a whole other level of training.

I'm pretty sure that once you can past that first one and maybe the 2nd like I did, you realize to get faster (as you get older!) there's a whole other level of training.

I see my brother in law (granted 3-4 years younger). BTW I'm 39 next week, training twice as long as I do. He's in the gym, Oh something like 4-5 days a week but also was running 5 days a week on top of that. Not just running but full on training (track, tempo, hills, long, pace, plyometrics...) and he's pretty fast. I'm trying to keep up.

So what's holding me back from getting to the next level?

Time - I don't have the time to train like that. Or I can't make the time to train like that. He's up at 5:30 running and then hitting the gym after work and when he was training for the Iron Man, swimming at lunch.

Commitment - I still like to eat when I go out and every once in awhile I like french fries (and other things). I still like a glass of wine (or two or more) a few times a week. I don't get to the gym because I hate the gym. In general with my training if I don't have it in writing and don't have someone helping me push I can't get all of these cylinders firing at once for 4 months (It's a way of life and not just 4 months though).

So when it comes down to it, it's commitment. I can find the time to do this (I could be doing crunches, stretching, yoga... but I'm writing this instead as Kill Bill volume 1 is on) but choose not too.

Maybe this is the proper balance. Maybe it shouldn't be the most important thing in my life just as long as it is important in my life.

Either way, I'll try pretty hard to keep my PR record going (actually 5 years if you count a couple of pauses in my running years at the beginning) but you know what? I can't let it kill me if I don't PR in my next 10k. There's the Revolutionary Run 10k coming up on July 4th, the day after I turn 39. I haven't been training for it but it's a tradition.

I'll think I'll run just to run. If I PR, great, if not the streak ends but you know what? It's going to happen. I'm approaching 40 and at some point my body is going to say "that's as fast as you can run and you're getting older".

Stay tuned and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Monday, June 25, 2007

How I Got Started

This is really my first post. The last one was more of a discussion that my wife captured. This one might be a bit boring since I'm not sure if you want to hear about how I got started but too bad. I'll get to the other stuff tomorrow.

It was December 31, 2000. I was 32 years old. The family (my wife Stacey, her brother Seth, father Fred and mother Tanya) were spending the new year in Saratoga Springs over a long weekend of cross country skiing.

Turns out that night Saratoga has a First Night 5k. Stacey's family all runs. Seth was on his way to running his first marathon. Fred had run a few and Tanya, well what can I say, was still running hurdles up until a couple years ago (ACL but still runs). I digress. They all decide to sign up for the 5k including Fred and Tanya's friends.

Oh, I forgot to mention. This all occurred after 5 solid hours of cross country skiing (I was new at that at the time as well).

Now I haven't run even a mile in my life time. I hated running. All that wheezing, burning quads, sweating... So I wanted no part of that. But here I have Seth calling me a wuss, Tanya and Fred saying you'll have no problem and you can run a bit and then walk with everyone else at the back of the pack and of course my wife telling everyone 'Tom Loves to Run" (you'll learn more about in other posts). So we're standing there at sign up and they're all filling out forms and writing checks and I look around at all of these people with all different shapes and sizes and ages from 10 to 90 and I'm thinking, "hell I can do this" I'll just run until I can't and walk the rest.

I sign up. I receive my race number and some weird piece of plastic that I'm told to tie to my shoelace. I'm looking around at where I'm suppose to put this race number and pin it on (only on the top which I learn later was a mistake).

Forgot to mention, it's COLD. About 20 degrees. I have no running gear. Just my cross country pants. I don't have real running shoes. Just some trail shoes. I look around and I see shorts, high tech fabric tops, people stretching, did I mention shorts?

I line up with the 500 other "runners". I lined up with Seth and Fred (running for years) and my heart is begins to race. Now I'm nervous. What if I collapse. What if I have a heart attach. The gun goes off (OMG they really use a gun) and I practically duck thinking drive by. People go flying by me. Seth is gone. Then I start.... OK I'm not sure if I would call it running. Not quite jogging (see previous post) but more of a slog. My legs are tight and tired and hell, it's midnight.

Then people stop passing me and I'm actually running with the pack. I'm RUNNING and I don't feel bad. Adrenaline starts to pump and I see some guy who is... well... fat. OK I don't like that word. I have to say that right now and I was no string bean. (6'3' 220) but this guy had a beer belly and he passes me. Suddenly something new comes over me. It touched a competitive nerve and I speed up. I feel like I'm running 5 minute miles. The cold wind is in my face and I catch up and PASS him. Holy shit. That felt good. So I try another and another...

I'm feeling good. I think I can do this and throw away the plan that included walking. Just before mile 2 I spot the water stop but I'm feeling good so I cruise by those suckers who need water. I spot the mile 2 marker and OH SHIT. My stomach starts to ache, I'm wheezing, my legs are burning and I'm sweating profusely even in the blistering wind. I'm in trouble. But I plug on just a bit slower.

Then Stacey's mom goes cruising by. OK that hurt my ego a little but common, she's in shape and been running for years so how I can I let the bother me. I run on.

Then Stacey goes cruising by. My loving wife. What does she say? Think Nelson from The Simpsons. "Ha Ha" and goes by.

There's thousands of spectators (It is New Years Eve) and they are all cheering you on. By god I'm not letting the rest of the party run by. I suck it up and pick up the pace. I turn the corner and I can see the finish line (later I learn this is the shoot). I break into a sprint. God I must be breaking 5 minute miles I'm thinking. I cross the line and someone hands me a medal. Well I should mention they hand everyone a medal.

I AM HOOKED.

We go to the results board and I look up my time 34:58. OK so I wasn't running 6 minute miles like I thought but hey, my first 5k. I RAN 3 miles (and some). HELL not bad.

Later I learn that I burned around 300 calories (about 100/mile), that the pain I felt was something called a side stitch (my in-laws found it very funny when I told them about this odd pain and didn't know what a side stitch was and learned that Fred and Seth were running 8 minute miles or so but just cruising along taking it easy. They ask if I broke 10 minute miles. Well no but they say that's OK.

Then it came to me. My New Years Resolution was to run a sub 30 minute 5k.

Later that year I did just that.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

The Fred and Tan Show: Running, Jogging, Slogging, Trotting and Other Forms of Locomotion



Tom:
"The difference between running and jogging is the race application. If you never run in a race, you are a jogger."

Mom: "That's just arbitrary and capricious."

Dad: "Here's the difference between jogging and slogging: Over 12 minutes a mile and you're a slogger.

Mom: "That's just arbitrary and capricious too."

Tom: I don't like when people say, 'oh, you were out jogging.' I want to be a runner."

Mom: "If you only go out once a week, you are not a runner or jogger. You're nothing."

Dad: "This is really complicated and too complex to be decided now. We need to conduct a survey. When we see someone locomoting down the road, we pull up and we ask. 'What are you doing?'"

Mom: "No one is going to admit they are slogging. Who the hell would say, 'I'm out here slogging.' I would be very insulted."

Mom: "Even though it has lipstick on it, that glass is not mine. Someone else was drinking out of it and it is no longer mine although it was mine earlier."

Dad: "What is trotting?"

Mom: "Trotting? That's on a horse. If a human is trotting, it means something else."

Dad: "Ken Cooper, MD, the father of aerobic exercise, says if you run over 15 miles a week, you are running for something other than fitness."