How Was Your Trip?

How was your trip? That is what should have been asked of me when I was sprawled out on someone's lawn yesterday. Finally, I nice afternoon in Memphis and I was headed out for my 7 mile run. I got to mile 3 and I saw my friend Leigh driving down the road and I turned to wave to her. Then it happened...I hit a a break in sidewalk and took a dive.

I cut the mess out of my hand and either sprained, jammed, or broke my middle finger and not to mention my bruised ego. Now after roughly two minutes or so staring up at the sky and wishing I could hope in my Delorean, hit 85MPH, and fix my idiot move I stood up and weighed my options.

I was half a mile from the half way point of my room. So...should I cut the run short or do I push through the pain and finish what I set out to do. I opted to finish. So I hit my power song and finished the entire run.

When it was all said and done was it worth it? Well it seemed to be worth it until I started typing this blog with one of my digits not working well. You would be surprised what you use your middle finger for besides flipping other people off.

Champions

It has been a couple of weeks since I have blogged. In that time I have set a set a new PR for my fastest mile and had a long run or two, but I must admit last week I wasn't able to run as much as I should have, but in place of two of the missed runs weren't in vain.

I saw two OUTSTANDING movies that are helping me push through those days when I say to myself, "Man I don't want to run today". The first of the two is called, "The Long Run". Though one may be of the opinion that the name isn't very creative, but trust me, it fits. The movies is about a failed track coach who discovers a young woman who has extraordinary talent and with his coaching will be able to win the Comrades.

Briefly, The Comrades Marathon is the world's oldest and largest ultra marathon run over a distance of approximately 90 km (55.9 mi) between the capital of the Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa, Pietermaritzburg, and the coastal city of Durban. The direction of the race alternates each year between the up run starting from Durban and the down run starting from Pietermaritzburg.

Throughout the movie the young woman is able to conquer any obstacle, training wise, that is set in front of her. It is truly amazing, but when race day arrives you see the struggle that she goes through not necessarily because of the physical challenges, but the mental and emotional challenges. Fortunately, a close family friend of mine has actually ran the Comrades. I called him up to get a first hand account of the Mt. Everest of all races. He told me that of all his accomplishments in life (NY Marathon three times, traveled all over the world, a VERY successful attorney) finishing this race was his greatest achievement.

For those you keeping pace at home who are from or familiar with Memphis part of his training consisted of runs up the old Union Planters building downtown (roughly 40 -42 flights of stairs) then taking the elevator down...twice. The second variation of training was going to Shelby Forest and running the hills for 4.5 hours straight. The final stage of training was doing long runs of roughly 35 miles. WOW. I am impressed with just the training.

The second run that missed was because my cousin, my mom and I went say the Spirit of the Marathon. Six emotional stories of dedication, pain, emotion, and at the end triumph. Though the movie was shown only in limited releases around the country I would HIGHLY recommend that all who are interested in running see the movie.

What I most enjoyed from the movie was it's message. No matter if you are an elite distance runner or a single mom who wanted to change her life and running was the catalyst...the desire, dedication, emotion spent, and the final triumph is the same. You are a champion.

So lace 'em up and cross that finish line.

"We are the champions - my friends" - Queen

Running Out of Patience

There is a lot going on at my house later on this week, weathering permitting, as well as work so I HAVE to stick to my running schedule. I decided that since I live so close to the gym (1.25 miles according to the Nike+ chip) that on the days that I do strength training I should just run to the gym. It allows me to 1) change up the training schedule 2) keeps the intensity up 3) allows me to push myself in beating my 1 mile personal best.

On the way the gym yesterday I had a great run and consequently beat my personal best 1 mile. My workout (triceps) was good and I was pretty confident that I still had enough energy to book it back home and beat my previous time.

The first block was a little slow, but I soon discovered that I had plenty of energy left so I decided to go for it. I got about half way home when I noticed that this guy was motioning for me. I didn't want to be rude because what if he was in trouble, so I slowed down a little bit and took out my head phones. The guy wanted to know if I could spare some change for the bus.

Now let us pause for a second, for those scoring at home, and think about this situation. I am RUNNING with headphones in my ear and with what anyone could see would be a running uniform on....so what would make someone think that I had money on me?!

However, not to be too sinical, I politely said that I didn't have anything (which I didn't) and continued on. As I am turning up the volume in my headphones I can hear the faint half hearted attempts to solicit more funds.

I keep running.

About a block later I come to a light that I have to slow down for to wait for it to change. I looked back out of the corner of my eye and notice that there is someone behind me. I turn around and it is that same guy with a smile on his face asking me the same question again. "Can I get some money for the bus?" Now I know this gentleman heard me the first time when I politely explained that I didn't have any money so this time I had to AGGRESSIVELY proclaim that I didn't have ANY, repeat, ANY money and that I advised him to quit bothering me.

I believe that he got the message because I was able to complete my run in solitude.

When I reached my front door step I looked at my "totals" for the run and I had missed my personal best by about 10 - 20 seconds.

Running to Catch Up

I am literally trying to run and catch up with my posts from the last two runs. Since the last post I have completed two runs...two COMPLETELY different experiences.

However, before we dive into those I wanted to expand on my previous post. I had mentioned, "The whole "Nike+" concept has really been very exciting so my fellow runners and I have decided to take our little obsession and add a new dimension to it.", about a new project idea that some friends of mine and I had come up with. Well that idea has now materialized into http://www.400mtogo.com

We are very excited about our project and are working furiously to get out initial content out there for you to read, learn, and enjoy.

The purpose of the site is to be more of a grassroots "portal" for the weekend warrior runner. The information will range from each author's experiences (blogs) while training, articles from health professionals, challenges, and other user experiences that you will only be able to find at 400 Meters to Go. I don't want to give away all of excitement just yet, but over the next 6 months we will be unveiling more and more functionality. So stayed tuned.

So back to the lecture at hand...the runs.

400 Meters to Go will offer lots of quick tips for the average runner. Well the first tip that I am going to give here on my blog is: DON'T RUN ON A FRIDAY EVENING. Sure it was a little cold outside last Friday, but the biggest hurdle that I had that killed my run was the fact that I live, work, and consequently run downtown, and had to pass by all these people enjoying life because they were off work, with friends, and having a pint. I was very jealous and it definitely through off my concentration. No matter how many times that I played my power song, I just couldn't run fast enough to get home.

Saturday I finally went and got some new running shoes and wicking socks for Sunday's run. The six miler that I did on Sunday was great. The socks really helped me with my blister problem and having new shoes...well that 's always a blessing. It was great running weather and I went a different route from the last six miler and I could tell a world of difference. Ahhh...the long Sunday runs.

I want to make sure that I send MAJOR kudos to the fine people at Fleet Feet Memphis. Their customer service is outstanding and are always grateful to offer any advice to a customer in order for them to have a better running experience.

Thanks guys.

RMAO

What started off as just a little office challenge has really taken off into something very fun and exciting.

The whole "Nike+" concept has really been very exciting so my fellow runners and I have decided to take our little obsession and add a new dimension to it. Though at the present time I can't go into too many particulars because we are still in our planning stages, I will say that it will be a constant source of motivation for runners of all backgrounds.

First let me start off by saying that my 6 mile run two nights ago was AWFUL. I was plagued with a sore right thigh (probably from a lack of stretching), dehydration (forgot to bring my water bottle), and a nauseous stomach (from the Cheezits I ate at 3:45pm), but the important thing, as in all ventures in life, is that I finished. My time wasn't that bad, but if you look at the graph you can see that I didn't have a steady pace. That is something that I definitely need to work on.

Since this writer's last attempt to blog, I have completed another run (5k). It definitely wasn't as bad as the 6 miler, but I was gasping for breath at the beginning of the run, the first 2 kilometers. I believe that I am starting to push myself, especially at the beginning of the runs, and my lungs are just trying to catch up.

"three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. baby tomato starts lagging behind. poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him... and says, catch up!" - Mia Wallace [Uma Thurman] Pulp Fiction

Treading Air

During the holiday season I would watch on the news as other parts of the country where suffering terrible winter weather while in Memphis we were experiencing spring-like temperatures. The winter running season was GRRRRRRREAT. Well that was until yesterday when the temperature got down to 21 degrees. Granted those runners in Alaska might find my tone a little whiny, but hey everything is relative.

However, I decided to man up and brave the elements (though one of the most important ones, heat was missing) and take to the pavement. With layers upon layers of clothing upon me I ended up having an awesome run. Unfortunately, when I was done I felt as if I was drowning. I couldn't catch my breath to save my life. After about 10 minutes of relaxing and stretching I was ok.

Today the conditions are not much better in the 901, but luckily this is a strength training day so I will be indoors. The schizophrenic weather patterns will continue throughout the week and I am predicting much of the same for the rest of the year.