Out of the darkness...

Deep in his heart his inner runner lay dormant; a boundless spirit, free to wisp across the open fields like a brisk March wind.  He daydreamed of what it could have been like living in a simpler more primitive time.  A time when he could have run wildly through the forests, beastlike and savage.  Adorned in nothing but his fox pelt loincloth and leather moccasins* he would bolt through the forest leaping over logs and sailing over steams, sweat glistening from his furrowed brow as he forged on in hot pursuit of some unsuspecting wildebeest.  

His feet tread softly on the forest floor making scarcely a noise as he glided** effortlessly over leaf and limb.  As he approached, the prey sensed the presence of the hasty hunter.  It turned its head and in that moment their eyes met.  For a microsecond time froze as the startled beast recognized its dire situation…  And then the chase was on.

In a panic, the wildebeest broke free from the forest, galloping into the open plain.   The hunter followed close on its heels***.  The beast’s terror swelled as it ran for its very life, but the hunter knew that the beast’s efforts were futile.  The hunter could smell the beast’s fear as he sprinted after his prey, the scent pulling him ever nearer to his victim as he used his closing speed to tighten the gap.   30 meters… 20 meters… 10… 5… and then he was upon the creature.  He leapt through the air, legs spread eagle, and straddled the beast’s neck.  Twisting his body in mid air he whipped the beast to the ground and choked the life out of it with a viselike scissor hold of death…

He snaps out of his daydream and back into his modern reality.  The forests and plains have been replaced by cities and concrete.  The wildebeests no longer roam the land.  The primitive utopia is gone, eroded by the sands of time.  But the passion of that primeval runner lives on, burning deep inside his heart and loins****.  In his dreams he has conjured the spirits of his ancient ancestors and he has glimpsed the greatness that lies within us all.  He knows that he must pursue his dreams. He has reawakened the spirit… the spirit of A CHAMPION (echos loudly with plenty of reverb)*****

* and Garmin Forerunner

** or is it glid?

*** actually hoofs would be more appropriate here but that’s not nearly as much of a cliché

****especially his loins.
*****100 blogger posts and counting?

Marathon Monday (4 week lefts... oh crap)

Questions???

26 days left til the Chicago marathon... can that be right?  Does that really even matter to me?  Will I even be running it?  Can you train and complete a marathon in 26 days?...  I guess we're going to find out!

I went for a "long run" yesterday... my first "long run" in about 7 weeks...  I covered 8 miles...  Is it a bad thing when you experience DOMS from the first couple miles during the last couple miles?  :)

The great new is...  even though I'm sore today, I'm not injured sore... just extremely out of shape sore... although, I guess I can't be in that bad of shape if I can run 8 miles, Can I?... now whether or not I should be even considering running a marathon in less than 4 weeks?  Probably   Definitely not...  But for some reason I just can't quite come to the decision to call it quits...  So when am I gonna decide that it's not a good idea to run this marathon?  Alright, that one's easy... I already know it's not a good idea to run this marathon... But when am I gonna give up the idea that I'm gonna complete this marathon?  1 week before the race?  1 day before the race?  12 miles into the race? 

...and now for something completely different...
____________________________________________________

Hitting rock bottom...

So I'm feeling better than I have in quite a while and I think it's because I finally hit rock bottom of my fitness decline on Saturday night.  That's right... I went to Cold Stone Creamery for the first time...

So I step inside and the place is packed!  The girls behind the counter are running around bumping into each other trying to keep up with the orders and ice cream is flying everywhere...  I'm not gonna lie... I really enjoy ice cream... but Cold Stone Creamery takes it to a whole other level.  CSC* is a place for ice cream addicts!!!!

So I finally get up to the counter to order and I realize that instead of normal sizes, CSC lists it's sizes as 'like it', 'love it' & 'gotta have it'...  Now in the past I've been opposed to these places and their naming conventions** but I decided to not be such a crumudegeon and order a 'love it' size of the Coffee lover's only ice cream***.  My wife who was with me ordered a small (spoil sport) candy apple.

We get up to the register and everything is so crazy there that they forget to ring us up (the girls making the ice cream are also working the register)... So we wait... and pretty soon the next customer reaches the register and they ring him up...  so we wait, trying to catch the girls attention (without much sucess). And the customer behind us says "I bet you could walk out of here without paying" 

So I turn to him and explain that even though I know I could walk out right now without paying, I pretty much want to pay anyway... an not really because of my conscious... cuz honestly (an it pains me to say it****)... I'm not really a pinnacle of morality and I'm pretty sure I could steal an ice cream cone and not lose a wink of sleep about it... but because I pretty much feel that I'm at a point in my life where pulling a dine and dash on 8 bucks of ice cream just because the poor workers were busting their asses so much would be a blow to my self-respect...

Oh to see the look on that guys face... He was truly confound!  I'm pretty sure he's still sitting at home wondering why on earth I didn't walk out with free ice cream...  Like I said CSC is a place for ice cream addicts!

So we finally pay for the ice cream and my wife takes about two bites and announces:  I'm done... it's too rich for me...

and that's where I have an out of body experience... and I look on in horror as I take my spoon and scoop her enormous 'like it' (i.e. small) sized ice cream into my even more enormous 'love it' (i.e. medium) sized chocolate dipped waffle cone.

By the time I finish her scoop I'm already full... but if you read the first part of my post you'll know that I'm no quitter... and soon I had devoured the whole thing and was finishing up stuffing the last bit of waffle cone into my sticky ice cream covered face... belly full  of cream and sugar... heart full of shame...

One nightmare full, restless night later I knew I had hit rock bottom... and that's when I decided to put an end to the pity party... I spent Sunday eating healthy and exercising and now I feel much better... and hopefully this is truly the start of my next fitness revolution!

*I'm calling CSC it not because it's my trendy new hip nickname for the joint but because otherwise your google ad sense will think that you're a CSC fanatic and all your ads will be about ice cream for the next month which might cause my readers to fall into a fitness downward spiral much like the one I've previously experienced

**Damn it Starbucks... It's 7 in the morning and all I want is a small regular coffee... why do you have to make ordering this coffee more difficult than it already is?

***and just in case you were wondering I told them that I want the 'love it' size in the most effeminate voice I could muster because a) I just spent the morning watching old clips of Men on Film from In Living Color on YouTube... and b) how could I not?

****Not really

I ran today...

I'm back... 

...no wait... 


training resumes now!!!

...nope, still not quite right... 


I ran today...

...Yep, that's just about right...


It's been a tough patch.  I've taken the fall from top fitness.  I've been detrained and totally unmotivated... but I ran today and when you're in recovery you take it one day at a time...

Every new story has a beginning...  maybe today is mine... then again, maybe it isn't... but no matter... I ran today!!!

My new passion!!!

About 15 months ago I took up running... I did it to whip myself into shape, to re-energize myself, to challenge myself, and to cross marathon off my bucket list... I hit the pavement with a passion and quickly fell head over heels in love with running; I was infatuated!!!

For months and months I gave my life to running... I didn't eat - I fueled... I didn't drink - I rehydrate...  polyester became my go to fabric of choice (and not just for pickin' up the ladies)...  I read blogs, magazines, websites, forums, and even books about running...

But like many good relationships the initial passion that running and I shared started to fizzle.  I started to begrudge the fact that I'd have to go out and spend my precious free time with running...  Running must have sensed my resentment and as backlash induced pain and suffering into my runs... the time we spent together became less and less fun, until eventually I began to hate running... finally, the pain became too much to bare and I stopped running all together!

And that's when I found my new passion...  sitting around on my ass!!!

A great thing about my new passion is that I have a whole new attitude about life...Everyone expects runners to be energized, active, and full of life. This is not the case for sit-around-on-your-assers... now I can sit around and be in the most depressest, foulest, grumpiest mood imaginable and nobody bats and eye... it's fuckin' great!!!!

Another thing about my new passion is that it's really improved my relationship with my wife... my wife used to quickly grow tired of me constantly talking about running... she'd hate when I wake up early on the weekends to squeeze in a long run on when we could be snuggled under the blankets, sleeping in... Now things are much better... here's a little look into our new home life:


     Wifey:  "Honey, the lawn needs mowed, the dishes are dirty, and the trash needs taken out..."

     Me:  "Not now, I'm busy sitting around on my ass..."

     Wifey: "Oh sorry.  Never mind, I'll take care of it"

Yep, we're communicating like never before... plus, sitting around on our asses is something we can do together... not only that, but nobody expects people who sit around on their asses to complete things that they finish... in fact, it's a victory to even start something... just like this blog post!

Injury update...

In case anyone was wondering I believe I might have just self-diagnosed my random leg injury...

It's my sartorius!!!

Look at how that bastard wraps from hip across the quad and groin and down to the inner knee...  I hope I'm right because it would totally explain why my hip, groin, quad, and inner knee are all randomly tight or sore all the time...  now let's hope I can find some info on rehabbing it!

Also, I've ran 3 times so far this week; a 5 miles, and two 3 milers... not exactly the kind of mileage that will allow me to competatively complete a marathon in less than 2 months, but at this point I'm happy to be doing anything...

Finally (and completely off topic), the Cardinals are playing the Cubs tonight so in honor of that I'll leave with this Cubs fan hat fail... yep, that's a typical Cubs fan for ya...

I'm back?

It's been 3 weeks since I went down injured!!!... talk about a long and frustrating healing process!

I was starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to train again... in fact, it's been so long I'm starting to doubt if I was ever a runner in the first place... Did I really run 1500+ miles over the last 15 months or was it all a dream?

The good news is that my undiagnosed right groin/quad/hip/knee/blank* injury is slowly but steadily healing and I even got out for a relatively pain free (if you exclude the excruciatingly slow pace) 5 mile jaunt today.  It wasn't my only run during the last 3 weeks, but it was most certainly my most successful... Not only was I pain free enough during the run that I could actually enjoy it a little bit, but I am also pain free enough now (several hours after the run) that I'm not regretting the decision. 

Anyway, after today's run, I'm optimistic that I might actually be able to run more than once this week (especially since it's Monday)... heck, maybe I'll even get double digit miles in... so based on my current condition, I'm going to tentatively declare myself "back".

Next on my agenda... preparation for a little local race coming up in just over 2 months (I think it's called the Chicago Marathon)... Oh well,  I'm not going to worry about 26.2 right now... I'd be content if I could get in 2.6 miles tomorrow!!!

*name any random leg part

Life on the DL...

If you happened to notice my recent lack of blogger activity, here's why:  I'm Injured!!! 

It's been a rough couple of weeks... Lack of running has left me feeling completely unfocused, unmotivated, depressed, and otherwise blah! 

The good news is that I'm starting to feel better.  After 8 days off (minus a 2.75 mile run/walk/disaster somewhere in the middle) I successfully was able to run 5 miles on Tuesday at recovery pace and then another 5 miles today at general aerobic pace. Just getting those few miles in has drastically improved my disposition.

So what exactly is my injury?  Good question... Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure... I have a couple of theories, but all I really can say is that I have a gimp right leg... It might be a quad strain?  I definitely feel some weakness in the quad, but I've found soreness in my groin, inner knee, and hip... also tightness in my hip flexor and ITB...

Not sure if the Plantar Fasciitis in my right foot caused me to modify my stride which led to my gimp leg conditions or if the gimp leg caused the PF or if they're even related at all...

All I really know is that when I ran, it hurt!  Not sharp pain that I could pinpoint but just general tightness and discomfort in all things right leg. 

For a while I ran through the discomfort... I found that if I could make it through 4-5 miles it would eventually loosen up and feel ok... I trained through the pain for 2 weeks, hoping it would improve... it only seemed to get worse... at a certain point I realized that my stride was changing since I was basically limping!!! So, I finally made the tough choice to stop training and let the damn thing heal...

I'm still not 100% but I'm definitely improving...  not sure how this will effect the big picture of my marathon training... I'm hoping I can easy back into it over the next two weeks but I'm probably going to have to cut down a bit on the mileage and intensity... I'm just going to get back to the basics:  Listening to my body, training within my limits, and let the cards fall where they may...Overall, I'm optimistic.