Running is therapy

Great run today. I was feeling strong and ready to go. A buddy and I drove out to Pine Grove Furnace State Park. We ran on the Rails to Trails trail there. We started off with a .5 mile walk to warm up. Then we took off for the 4 miles, keeping an eye on pace I tried to keep us around 11:15 - 11:30 miles. We often were going faster than that, but it was a nice range to shoot for. We actually ran for 4.18 miles because we weren’t really ready to stop at 4. I could have easily run another 2 miles. Mentally and physically I was feeling very strong. It seemed like one of those zones where I could have run and run and run and never stopped.

After we decided to start walking again, we walked about another 1.3 miles.

These longer runs (and this is just the beginning, I really want to add more mileage) burn up the calories.

Stats:
Time (total): 1:16:17 (pace: 11:58)
Time (running): 46:29 (pace: 11:07)
Distance (total): 6.37
Distance (running): 4.18 mi
Calories Burned: 920

No doubt this will be all over the place by tomorrow…but, there is a new mile record.

Week 3 is coming to a close, and I will be topping it off with a 4 miler tomorrow. Today was cross training and I had scheduled a hike with Sun and Bob. We trekked up to Flat Rock this morning.

This is an exceptional hike. I recommend you try it if you have any inclination for walking in the woods. The view at the end, especially on a clear day like today is pretty damn breath taking.

Happy Hiking!

1. Start running 6 months earlier. I recommend the Couch To 5K program.

2. Come to the realization that you will not get much faster without quitting smoking. (Do nothing about it yet).

3. Start dating. I recommend you sign up for online dating sites. This will teach you two important lessons. The first lesson is that not many people smoke anymore. The second is that there are a lot of strange people in the world, many of them single with an internet connection.

4. Shake off the feeling that you’ll never meet anyone good. While it could be true, it won’t help the cause to get all realistic at this point. Buck up, ugly people meet people all the time.

5. Have a friend’s father recommend that you try Chantix. (This one is tough, if all your friends are stupid, I recommend you get better friends).

6. Get a script for the pills.

7. Read Alan Carr’s book.

8. Take the pills for 7 days.

9. On the 7th day, right before bed, throw away all your lighters and ash trays. Spray some febreeze around the place, it smells bad in your house. (Note, not even fabreeze will fix the funk that has accumulated as a result of dropping chicken bones between the cushions…just an FYI).

10. Stop buying and lighting cigarettes. This step is key, I tried skipping it in the past, and people get really angry when you smoke while telling them you are a non-smoker.

(This post is part parody part recap. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine what parts are what)

Tonight was HH10K W3D4. On tap, 2 mile run followed by strengthening. I went over to the barracks even though I am in desperate need of a new place to work out, the scene is getting old there.

I walked .5 miles, ran 2 at race pace (18:05 <– PR) and then walked 3.5 miles. The 2 miler was the fastest two miler I have done since returning to running in January. Man did it feel good. There wasn’t really a choice for me. Out loud all day I proclaimed I was going to do a slow burn tonight since my quads and hamstrings never fully recovered from Monday’s mile. But, two steps in and my legs laughed at my attempts to make them settle down. I took off at a 9 m/m pace, and basically held it for the entire two miles. If I could have gone faster, I am not sure how.

Then I was going to finish up with a mile and half walk, but decided at the end of that to do two more. While I am coming around in the first mile of that last 2, I notice a woman up ahead with her car key on a string. She appears to be deep in thought walking along, head down, good walkers pace. I get a little closer and I think I see that she has her car key on a necklace. Odd, she doesn’t look like someone that would need to keep a car key on a necklace. Then I start reeling her in, and I actually see what it is in her hand. She was saying the Rosary while walking. As I passed her I said, “Way to multi-task that.”. She laughed and said “I just get in the zone you know?”. Yeah, I know.

Stats:
Total Time: 1:20:42 (pace: 13:22)
Running Time: 18:05 (pace: 9:02)
Total Distance: 6.03 mi
Running Distance: 2.00 mi
Calories Burned: 749

Week 3 already…crazy. So tonight was 35 minutes cross. Despite Marcus telling me I don’t know how to cross train, I gave it hell tonight.

Unfortunately the Garmin was running out of battery, so I had to go it alone with just the Timex. Ended up doing over 40 minutes when it was all done. I did a nice long warm up and then steady ride all over town till I wound up at the barracks. On the barracks trail I put in two fast miles. I did the first in 4:40 and the second (tougher) mile in 4:57. My goal was only to break 10 minutes, which I did (9:37). The next thing I’d like to do over there is repeat that feet, but 3 times in a row for a total of 6 miles. Someday.

Ok, so I want to set some new goals for running, and I want to put them here so I can keep track of them.

1) Run 6 miles without walking. This one should happen. 10K is over 6 miles, and I plan to continue with my 10K training and run 6.2 miles on a Saturday in August.

2) Cut my mile time by 19 seconds (a 7:30 mile). This one will be a little harder since I don’t really train for the mile at all, but I think 19 seconds is doable, I am gonna shoot for this before the year is out.

3) Enter a 10K and finish. That is all the farther I want to go with this goal. Finishing is the goal, to hell with the time.

4) Race two more 5K’s before the year is over. Again, this should be doable still only July, and I plan to run at least one in October and one in November (mostly because it will be cool out).

5) Last but not least, break 28 minutes for the 5K. This one is a little tougher. It could come easy, if I get the right race on the right day, but I don’t want to be cocky, I want to try for this one.

I am in no hurry to go super fast. In fact part of the fun of all this is setting these kind of goals and then chasing after them one at a time. I have been making little mental goals for myself, but this time I thought I would do something a little more formal.

Wow, so…I haven’t posted too much about smoking lately. I have been really juiced about running, and training that I kind of feel like I am spamming readers here with my mundane drivel. However, I do want to chronicle my cessation, so, here is some more spam.

The last week has been about the same everyday in terms of urges. They come, they go. They don’t last long anymore. Usually with in 30 to 60 seconds they are gone, and it’s not that hard to wait them out. It’s unpleasant but not impossible. It has been kind of drag that they don’t seem to be any less frequent or severe today, than they were this time last week. I had made such a good recovery of the first few days I kind of expected that it would just get easier and easier. I feel like I have plateaued. And that’s ok, I am complaining, however I remember it still being a constant struggle at this point in quits past. I complain, it’s a hobby.

I am really loving that my running seems to be taking off. That alone gives me plenty to hold onto when the urge strikes.

On the way home from running tonight I was thinking about my cessation, and what it means for the rest of my life. I know that I will have urges, likely for a long time to come (not cravings, that seems to be over). There will be times throughout the rest of my life when the idea will pop into my head “Man I would love a cigarette right now”. And each and every time I will have to meet them head on and know that that is not a good idea. It’s hard to explain to people who have never been addicted to anything what that is like, but let me tell you, it kind of depresses me.

I don’t blame anyone but myself for getting addicted to cigarettes, but it’s a little depressing that the actions of a stupid kid affect the life of a 35 year old man. However this is my life, and I want the rest of it to be smoke free, even if that means I may feel something unpleasant from time to time.

Inspirational slogan of the day: “I’d rather be a non-smoker with the occasional urge to smoke, than a smoker with the constant desire to quit”.

Happy breathing.

Woke up this morning and completely forgot that I was supposed to run the mile today after work for the Office Olympics. So I didn’t take any of my running stuff to work, nor did I take my garmin. I was also wearing a pair of running shoes that had long ago ceased to be fit for running in.

After some friendly goading by others set to compete tonight, I realized all I really needed was proper shorts. Since one can never have enough pairs of running shorts, I ran over to the store over lunch and grabbed a new pair.

Here I am, new shorts, old shoes, same tshirt I wore to work, and my trusty Timex. Eh, what the hell, it was fun :)

We drove over to the nearest high school’s track and jogged a half mile to loosen up and get ready. There were 4 of us in this heat, and there was no doubt that I would come in last, none. There was also no doubt how the other runners would come in. Marcus, Melissa, Eric then me. And there was no animosity there, we were all pulling for one another, and all racing against ourselves.

Another coworker, Jenna, had agreed to work the clock for us. She set us off, and off we went. I took off and ran about 100 feet with a freak out pace. I was really nervous, I never do this type of running and I was completely unsure of how to pace myself. After one lap, all the jitters were gone and I was in a groove. Jenna shouted our times as we went round. My target was 8 minutes. I don’t recall my lap times exactly, but I do know I did the first lap in like 1:37 (or something nuts) and got really scared I was going to die out there. By the second lap, I had lost a lot of that 23 second lead, and had settled into my pace. By the third lap I was almost dead on at 6 minutes. The first half of the last lap felt like I was going to die. Then I hit the last half lap and realized I might live afterall, so I took off in a dead sprint. Somehow, in the last 60 yards or so, I found yet another gear and turned it on, finishing that lap in 1:50. Final time was 7:49. Not bad for an old man like me, even if I do say so myself.

I just finished the 7th book in the Sword of Truth series. Great book. This one takes off on a tangent, and you are introduced to other illegitimate off-spring of Darken Rahl…and by necessity brothers and sisters to Richard. Much better twists and plot turns in this book than in previous books. I won’t put any spoilers in this post, but I will say there is a badass scene in the book with Richard kicking some major ass (And that is why dudes read these books right? To read about bad ass ass whippings). If you are looking for more of the Kahlan and Richard saga, you’ll be let down, they play a very small role in the book. A lot of attention is focused on characters that you have not met until this book.

The only let down, and it wasn’t even as bad in this book as it is in others, is the heavy handed approach to Objectivism throughout the book. I get it, you’re an Objectivist Goodkind, enough already. Get back to the ass kicking! :)

Again, he makes the same mistake Rand makes. His reactionary politics stem from a blatant distaste for Communism, which comes through loud and clear in his writing. Fair enough. However both he and Rand, by employing fiction to layout their philosophy make the opponents arguments absurd by their extremism. Even I could win an argument using that device.

Don’t get me wrong, they are good books, I just wish he wasn’t so heavy handed about it.