Frost 5K Recap: Mike VS. 76 year old Elvis

This race was my measuring stick of where I’m at in the first few weeks of running. I’m glad I did it (now), but I didn’t anticipate it being so humbling … and hard.

My first mistake was picking a race on Paul’s birthday. As I was registering, I knew the date was Paul’s birthday, but I assumed that he wouldn’t want to go out and do much for it (the night before the race/birthday, Saturday). With that thinking I thought the danger of drinking too much and being in good shape for the race was clear. I was right in the regard that Paul didn’t want to go out and be crazy, but I forgot that I wanted to celebrate it (IE have an excuse to drink a few).

My original plan was just to have a quiet night at home Saturday, get a good nights rest and run the race by myself in Manassas. Not too much to ask for. Somehow Paul found out about my running schedule (stupid blogging) and wanted in on the race. He lives closer to the race site so common sense prevailed and  it was agreed upon that I’d sleep over Saturday night and do what grown men do at midnight to acknowledge a fellow mans birthday; continue to drink beer and play video games.

Long story short, my second mistake was drinking till almost 4am and getting less than 3 hours sleep for the race. I woke up by myself (which dumbfounded Paul at 7:10am), slightly groggy, and got myself dressed (hooray me!). I skipped an important step of eating or drinking anything. In the car on the way over I did have a 5 hour energy drink/shot. I don’t know if those things need something already in you to work, but mine didn’t do squat.

So the race is at my old gym near my old work. We go inside and I pick up my bib and shirt and Paul, who hasn’t registered yet (25 min to race time), goes to another table and registers with a check he just so happened to find in his wallet. Last week at Safeway, for the first time that I’ve seen in at least 4 years, someone paid for their groceries with a check. Which nowadays I found odd yet infuritiating because, come on, lets keep this line moving and .. oh god, she didn’t even fill in the date or Pay To part yet? I mean, that was a rookie Check Writer move 25 years ago! Is that enough time, 25 years? Would 50 or 65 work? Too late, committed to 25 years. She commented on how no one writes checks anymore at the store and thats when I gave her the ‘oh, come on’ eyes, but I was looking at US Weekly, so I just looked dumb probably. Anyway, Paul paid with a check. Cool story so far, Mike.

As Paul and I were stretching, he spotted an old dude dressed as Elvis. Paul shares a birthday with Elvis and this race day was Paul’s birthday, which also made it Elvis’s birthday, hence an old dude dressed as Elvis. “Thanks for explaining that so thoroughly” said Everyone in earnest. Paul casually remarked we shouldn’t lose to him because we are a couple of radical, handsome, young and fast dudes. “Duh” I said, as I almost touched my toes while I stretched (out of breath, may I add). There were about 500 people in the race, this would be the last we’d see of old Elvis … or so I thought.

Side note: my bib said Heritage 13.1 Half Marathon and Paul’s said something not related to anything. The Starting/Ending finish line arch was from another race. It was like I had planned the whole thing, except for the whole being in Manassas part. Woof.

Despite the name, the Frost 5K had pretty damn good weather. Almost warm enough for a short sleeve shirt, but most opted not to chance it and wore long sleeves and a hat *raises hand*. As the race was about to start, we situated ourselves near the back of the pack, as to not get in the way of actual runners. It felt really great to run with a lot of other runners. I always run alone, but I enjoy running in a big pack. The running community (anywhere) is fantastic. So supportive and positive. Even the people watching (I don’t understand why they do it, but bless them non the less) are great; always cheering and making you feel awesome, providing you with that extra kick till the cheers vanish and you’re left with your own thoughts again.

I’m really happy with the plan to run a lot of races this year. The original idea was to keep myself on pace and to keep motivated. Now I realize that I’m looking forward to the pre-race ‘activities’ more then the actual race. It’s rare to be apart of something that everyone who’s there is really happy to be there and is all smiles and nothing but positive and supporting to everyone; total strangers included. Everyone’s there for the same simple reason. There’s no competitive fire or nature brewing beforehand. Everyone’s just happy to be apart of the event. It’s really cool. I’ve only been to a couple of these things but I haven’t really fully appreciated it yet, for what it is. I still don’t think I have, but I really do look forward to getting absorbed into it this year.

Ok, for the race itself. It was just a little over 3 miles, so not a lot to tell. I didn’t run with my Nike +, so I wasn’t able to tell how fast I was running, so I think I took the first mile too fast. As I was running, I was trying to think of how far we had run. The race took a turn for the worse when I was a little winded (too much beer, no sleep, no anything else) and saw the sign “MILE 1″. When I saw it, I could have sworn we had run 1.25 or maybe 1.4 miles. But only 1? Oh crap. My body was not happy about that. Lucky for us though, the whole course was flat, so there were no hills that would make me weep uncontrollably, which was nice.

I think I was running a bit too fast for my liking, but I thought I was making good time. After burning a couple moms at a turn around the 1.5 mark, I spotted Elvis. Son of a bitch! He’s been ahead of us the whole time, and he’s booking it! Come to think of it, we have the same pace. Son of a bitch! Ok, no more of these shenanigans, I’m passing old Elvis. I’m a radical, handsome, fast and young dude afterall, so long gramps!

The 1.75ish marker had the only water station. Finally, a chance for me to get ready to run this race … eerrrr … continue running this race! As I’ve done at every water station I’ve come across while in a race, I put a quarter of the water on my chest, a quarter in my mouth and half of it up my nose. I hate this. This always puts me in weird convulsion of trying to get the water out by either blasting it out of my nose or smacking my head. Neither works, so I just usually end up running the next .2 miles looking like I have to sneeze while trying to resist the urge to jam a finger up my nostrils and try and swill it out. “This story is dumb and kind of disgusting” said Everyone. Sorry, I’ll get to the old Elvis part.

After I resolve my nose water issue, it becomes apparent one laces has become undone. Shucks. I pull aside and take my time lacing it up (I’m way too tired than I should be, everything I did in the last 10 hours was a mistake. Everything). I get up and hold up a second … Somebody Call My Mama … old Elvis passed me! This injustice will not stand. I get up and aim to sprint right passed him, but it turns out the tank is near empty. I’m going to need to cruise control this muscle car for a bit. But all isn’t too bad, the cheers old Elvis is getting is quite incredible. I liked it a lot … not because I was happy for him but because I was trying to soak in the cheers and take them as my own. Yes he was in front of me and I knew exactly what was happening, but those cheers (for someone else almost 50 years older than me) helped.

Make no mistake, I was not going to lose to him. I stayed within striking distance for the next mile. When the finish line was in sight, I said ‘sorry Elvis, it’s Mikes time to shine’ and used the last .2 miles to dust old man winters. I kept my dignity somewhat in place, but the whole race was humbling non the less. I can’t disrespect races, no matter how short they may seem. Also, I haven’t made as much progress as I thought I may have.

But I can’t complain, I got my bib, got my shirt, beat old Elvis, got a small medal (for participating), got a banana and got some good experience. Next race is a 10K in 34 days. I’ll be more prepared for that race, I hope.

P.S. – Paul lost to old Elvis. Happy birthday to the both of you!

Running Schedules, Running Tights, Running Goals, Running Out Of Things To Talk About

Feels weird not to have a post about 1) I’m hurt 2) I’ve started running again 3) Running is hard and stupid! 4) I ran but now I’m going to see the doctor.

That’s pretty much the pattern of my blogging career. Impressive as it may be, I’m afraid this post may run off the tracks a bit and go into ‘hooray for running and I plan to run more!’ territory.  Sappy, I know. I’m growing nostalgic for my early days of ‘running is super dumb and why am I doing this’ days. I was so much edgier then.

So yes, I’ve been able to run for a month and *knocking wood till my fingers bleed* not get injured. Feels great actually. It’s been a long, long time since I could just only worry about getting better and building endurance. I’m not doing much of either right now, but it’s real nice to just get out there and run, even in the cold (and it’s not even that cold, despite everyone complaining).

December to me was going through my first 2 phases of ‘starter running’; the ‘just get out there and run, stupid’ phase and the ‘shake off the rust’ phase. I’ve been through this many times so I knew what to expect. I knew at first I just had to get dressed and get out the door. Once out I’d start running. It doesn’t how far or fast you’re running at first, it only matters that you got yourself motivated to that point. The rest is gravy. In the beginning, it’s important to try and start habits, which may be the hardest part.

Once you’ve gotten yourself running (the hating it and yourself for doing it part is natural), you have to build a foundation of what you eventually want to build from. I wanted to spend 2 weeks just having runs between 1.5 and 3 runs, mostly in the 2 – 2.5 miles range; no less than 1.5 but push myself to run 3 miles. I wanted to lay ground work of what I’ll want to expect from my body and my mind. The miles themselves aren’t big numbers, but starting from scratch they are. I’ve just come from a long period of nothing but lazy habits, so I need to reteach everything not to quit at first signs of discomfort, which is hard. Breaking lazy habits is harder than breaking smoking habits. Believe me, I’ve done both.

Now that the holidays are over, it’ll be easier to settle into a more stable running pattern, especially when football ends in a month (which has killed any chance of Sunday or Monday runs). I’d like to fit in 4 runs a week from here on out. Having to work late on Fridays and Saturdays means that I’ll most likely have to work them during the Sunday-Thursday schedule. “Just run in the morning” said everybody. “No” said Mike. “Mike doesn’t operate and/or function in the mornings” said Mike, who now apparently speaks in third person on his blog. BRRRAAAHHMMM

I’ve also tried to figure out what races I want to run in. Races haven’t been my thing, but I’m going to make them my thing this year. It started when the only other person that’s not my mom commented on this blog (Hi Dan!) recommending that I run a half marathon as a goal in between the actual marathon. I didn’t actually start thinking seriously about the idea until last week once I got more comfortable running and being able to graft a time table for myself. There’s no denying it’s an excellent idea, one I will totally use.

The MCM 2012 is and always has been my first flag on the map. It’s a little less than 11 months away. I started looking for a half marathon somewhere in the middle.

I didn’t have to look far at all. May 20th, the Marine Corps Historic Half. Seems only right. Seems perfect. Done and done. 2nd flag planted.

To keep up motivation, I want to run at least 1 race a month till the marathon. I think Paul might of had that idea before, I’m not sure, but he’s not blogging much anymore so screw him I’m taking it. It’s a great idea regardless; give yourself motivation, give money to great charities, collect bibs, get t-shirts. The peeps at the gym are gonna get crazy jealous of my new wardrobe (for the record, yes I started going back to the gym and plan to keep doing it. I want muscles in my finish photo dammit).

So far, this is all I got:

Jan 8 – Frostbite 5K (Manassas, VA)

Feb 18 – George Washington Birthday Classic 10K (Alexandria, VA)

March 17 – Irish Sprint 10K (Quantico, VA)

May 20 – Marine Corps Historic Half (Fredericksburg, VA)

A good start. I’m happy with it. I’m ready for the 5K this weekend, but that 10K in February seems like a tough battle right now. I’m going to need the time to get ready for it. I can’t afford to sleep on the half marathon though. That is slowly taking all my previous focus away from the MCM. As it should. Dan’s advice is spot on.

With the 5K coming up this weekend, I knew I had to step up my mileage a little bit this week. I wanted to run a few times this week of at least 3 miles so I can get used to the distance and not look like a total ass outside my old gym in Manassas, where the race is being held (and only less than a mile from my old crappy job!). The beginning of the week also marked the beginning of it being cold. So nice to see you winter, where ya been? You’re a couple months late *pointing at watch*.

In case you don’t have Facebook, everyone who enjoys living inside has complained how cold it got. Seemingly out of nowhere! The nerve! I assume everyone I’m friends with either has to walk over 10 miles to work (uphill I assume) or works outside, because it’s actually not that cold outside. I still can barely see my breath when I run at night.

Any who, it’s gotten just cold enough for me to whip out and wear my running tights out without looking like a total goon. I love these things. I think I’ve already talked about my love affair with them, but allow me to reiterate: I feel awesome in them and it makes me feel faster. You can take whatever you want from that, but it makes my legs a little bit more warmer and makes my chicken legs feel not as … chicken-y.

Today marked the 4th day in a row I wore them, and I only ran the last 3 days. Math majors (and some minors) could deduct there was 1 day that I didn’t run but still wore them. I was actually called out to wear them out in public (Hi Stacy!) and did so accordingly. I know most people didn’t appreciate the lunges, but I just had to.

It’s only the beginning but I feel, so far so good. It’s the exact times like these when I realize how far I actually have to go. The road is very long, but at least I’m moving forward.

 

312 Days Left

I didn’t know how to start this post because I’ve already written it 2 or 3 times. This is the “I’ve started running again after quitting and/or injury and it’s hard” post. Part 4. Maybe 5.

To save you 1,200 words of reading, here is a summary of what I wanted to say again for the *counting on fingers, counts ring finger twice, gives up* time; When you are not in shape, running is an activity that can prove to be difficult.

In the last few days, I’ve re-read a lot of my old posts. The first reason was to make sure my previous posts didn’t make me look like too much of an idiot (sorry Stacy!). The second was to gauge how I reacted and responded to starting anew.

Loyal readers (Hi Mom!) will remember I’ve started and stopped to only start again weeks/months later many, many times. In the interest of Future Mike re-reading these (Hi Future Mike!) and just re-hashing things Previous Mike said, I’ll skip to talking about recent procedings.

It’s been about a month since my last post, where I tried to shake off the rust of being inactive too long. It was a futile effort because Thanksgiving was around the corner and that was the only excuse that derailed my weak start. That, and that stupid ass Nike + problem.

I decided not to run again till I got new shoes because I convinced myself that that was the only solution to my problem. It was too aggravating to me to run in my shoes; it kept resulting in wildly incorrect readings which is exactly what it would take to deflate my desire to run.

Luckily, my mamma (Hi Mom!) was coming into town and knew of my desire for new shoes and had graciously offered to buy my next pair from my favorite running store, VA Runners in Centreville (remember Mom, that’s supposed to be my only present, don’t do anything else!).  My new Nike kicks are pretty sweet and fell great.

I went home with them to test them out with my Nike + nonsense. Bad news was that they still only would read me running at an average 9’30” pace. I was pretty sure I was running at an 10′ – 10’30” pace. I ultimately decided just to say screw it and just have 9’30” be my new 10′-10’30”ish pace. Somethings rotten in Denmark and I can’t figure it out. I’m not running that fast. Not yet. But I’m not going to let it stop me from running anymore.

Once I got the shoes, I only ran twice in the first week. I can’t remember if my excuse was to not tire myself out or rain or if I was just lazy, but the bottom line was I shoulda ran more. I don’t want Fat Mike to dictate how or when I work out, I learned as much through older posts, I can’t afford to get lazy about how I tackle a far away goal.

Just having the giant carrot dangling in front of me (the Marine Corps Marathon 2012, which is 312 days away, for those really not paying attention) may not be enough inspiration to keep me running like I’ve thought in previous years. I used to think one goal is enough to persevere numerous hurdles over a long span to achieve it. That may be true for some, but I think over these last 2 attempts at this ‘long term goal’, I’ve learned that, for me, one goal isn’t going to cut it.

I want running to be my passion. It’s hard to force a hobby or an ‘exercise’ to become your passion. It used to be. I want to get there again. It’s hard when you’re not good at it. I used to be at least OK at it, but I want to get home from work and be excited to run, to be excited to beat my run from earlier in the week or from the week prior.

I want this to be the last time I have to write a “I’m starting anew, I’m doing it this time, dammit!” post.

The ‘one giant carrot’ in front of me won’t push me for 11 months this time. I’m going about things differently this time. Sure, in the coming months I’ll continue to write terrible posts about how running is boring except for how my own running experience is super cool. You’ll either think the posts are incredible (Hi Mom!), grammatically shameful (Hi Stacy!) or just ignore them (Hi Paul!).

But I’ll also be undergoing (started Dec 1, suckas) my own side project to keep myself not only motivated to run the MCM 2012 but to keep running constantly throughout every month till Race Day.

Then I have another project idea for Race Day.

I won’t disclose my plan(s) here, but I imagine getting them from me in person won’t require a great struggle.

I’m really excited about the plan; it throws together a new passion with an old one. A lot needs to happen for either to happen, but I like the idea of having 2 different year long ideas that feed each other. Sorry, but I’ll let you in on the other half in October.

P.S.

I mean to honor the request of a new reader (Hi Stacy!) to picture my recent shopping habits. First, the picture, then my explanation:

Ok, with the new running comes the Mike Thinking that I should eat better to get in better shape, cause not eating complete crap and some exercise equals being more socially acceptable. I want to drop weight while adding a little muscle while not starving myself and not eating food ordered by a number.

Run? Check. Gym? Check. Eat Really Good? Ehhhhhh, I need help there. I’m notoriously a picky eater, not only in how I ‘pick apart’ my food, but in what I eat.

Long story short, I eat what I like. Don’t really try much outside of the “Mike Box”.

If I want to try and eat healthy, I have to try and find something I like that is healthy and eat a lot of it. My usual tastes usually end up in the ‘not healthy for you’ category. When I find something that isn’t universally panned for killing you or might be not terrible for you, and I like it, I’ll jump on it hard when I’m a ‘healthy’ kick.

2 shopping trips ago, Cheerios were on sale. I figured if I bought a lot I’d have to eat them (assuming I didn’t buy other ‘bad’ crap to eat). So I bought 5 boxes.

Last trip, Reduced Fat Triscuits were on sale. I figured if I had to snack on something, it might as well be them and not … I don’t know … regular chips? So I bought 7 boxes.

I’m trying to pin myself into eating better. Maybe it’s not considered ‘healthy’, but it’s a step in the right direction.

In closing, please tell me when things that are kinda healthy are on sale.

Not Quite The Start For Year 3 … But Close

We’re close. The current era of Lazy Mike is almost at an end. It’s gone on, admittedly, too long. I just haven’t felt the need to run or work out or forwardly progress toward my goal lately. Without the overhanging threat of an upcoming uncompleted goal, I’ve let Lazy Mike reign. It’s been a needed fun, relaxing and ‘eat whatever the hell you want’ period, but it needs to stop.

I’ve been reluctant to run recently because of my Ipod/Nike+ equipment has not been working recently; it constantly does not record my accurate pace (min per mile). Not even close. It makes me mad to no end. Such to where I won’t run because of it.

I’ve mentioned it a few times but, I didn’t run regularly before Nike + and I won’t run without it. I just don’t see the reason to run if its not being accurately recorded (to compare with past and future runs). Call me a product of the current video game generation, but if I don’t have accurate information of my activities that I can compare with my own history or that of others, I don’t see the point.

I use Nike+ as motivation to run farther and get better. If I don’t have an accurate record of how I’m progressing, I’ll lose interest … fast.

I don’t want to look back, but I might have said that same sentence, verbatim, in an earlier post.

Anyway, it’s been hard for me to run lately with my Average Pace being so screwed up. In the last 6 months, I’ve bought an additional 2 Nike+ Sensor Kits and 1 Ipod Nano to correct the problem, but to no avail, as of 2 weeks ago, my equipment at times still thinks I run at a 5 min/mile pace (I can’t do that, I like it when I run a 10 min/mile pace).

I emailed the Nike + people over the course of 2 days going back and forth of my problems and what I’m using (equipment wise) and how I’m using it and giving me a couple troubleshooting suggestions. I try them and no dice. Boo.

The next email tells me to call Nike + cause this is a weird problem. I call and go through my problems (multiple Ipod Nanos, multiple Nike+ Kits, still an Average Pace problem) and then try and give some more troubleshooting solutions. I say ok, I’ll try em, but I’ll probably end up calling the next day.

Guess what? None of the suggestions work. I call again, asking if there’s anything else I could possibly do. They say not really. They say I should call Apple, maybe theres a problem with my Ipods.

Guh.

I call Apple. After a whole whoodeewhoo, I get the main girl in charge. I give here the whole story of whats happened and what I’ve tried. She’s been with Apple since the start of Nike+ and has never heard of this problem. What luck!

Couple more suggestions and officially Nike + and Apple have no answers to my problem. I take no solace in stumping both of them.

My next course of action is to investigate my theory that both sides said ‘didn’t matter’, the theory of that my personalized orthopedic soles in the shoes may have done something.

“I doubt they made any difference, the sensor is secure in the holding in your shoe” said both Nike + and Apple.

So as is typical with any idea of mine that gets shut down, I get behind it evenmore so.

I try an old shoes insole in my shoe that holds the Nike+ sensor and try to re-calibrate it. I don’t get the exact readings I want, but its close. No longer does my Average Pace sometimes dip to 7,6 or 5 min/mile, but it keeps a steady 9min/9:30min per mile pace, which I figured, while running, was about a minute off.

But hell, that’s progress, and that’s something I can live with, for now.

I plan on getting new shoes to start the new training with. Hoping they solve that problem.

I ran today. Not far. Barely made it 1.25 miles. And it was tough.

Lazy Mike did a work on me, but I think I’m ready to let Active Mike take the reigns. About 49 weeks left.

Consider this the pre “I’ve officially started …. again” post.

Planning on doing 1 post a week. Every Thursday night. Cause blogging about running anymore than that would just be crazy.

Let’s hope 2012 is fulled with dog pictures and injuries that don’t happen in the last months before the marathon. And also a kick ass Avengers movie.

 

Plan For 29

FYI, surfing dogs is the theme of this short post.

So the marathon is a scant 3 weeks away. I’ve made my peace of not running it. I still don’t enjoy all the emails and facebooks posts I get about it. I haven’t deleted yet because I still want to use it as motivation.

Ever since I got the boot put on, I’ve been in full blown Fat Mike mode, meaning no exercise and eating whatever I want. I’ve tried to ween myself out of Fat Mike and into Active Mike slowly but with little avail. 2 weeks ago was the time where I could start running 1 – 2 times a week from the doctor. I’ve only run twice since then. The runs were fun and exhilarating, in the way that I missed running, but they were hard for me, especially since they were only like 1.5 miles each.

October snuck up on my like it always does. Before I knew it, I had only 2 weeks till by birthday. My birthday hasn’t been a thing on my radar for a long while so when the shadow draws near I dread it; I never know how to celebrate it properly, if I should at all. This year I’ll let the chips fall where they may. I’m more interested in the year after.

I’ll turn 29 next Saturday. I haven’t given much thought to the number, except for that its a little close to 30 for my liking. 30 is a number a lot of people dread I suppose, a number I guess represents not being young anymore. There’s a big jump from your ‘twenties’ and your ‘thirties’.

On the ride home from work one day, I thought about how I’d attack the 2012 marathon. 6 months of training? How would I train? I’ve tried twice and got injured both times. How do I make this third try different?

It’s not so much as making it different as it is as making it longer.

I don’t want to be lazy about this attempt. I don’t want to take weeks or months off. A crazy thought entered my brain which I haven’t been able to shake and I’m just gonna go with it cause why not; I’m gonna train all year.

I have 2 goals. I have 2 things I want to say in October 2012:

1: I’m 30 and have never been in better shape

2: I’ve run a marathon

If I had 3 things I’d like to say the 3rd would be ‘The Avengers was the best comic book movie I’ve seen by far’, but I won’t hold my breath but I am hopeful.

*passes out*

*wakes up sweating*

*fanning self nervously*

Ok, well … ya, it’ll be good

*remembers reading about a scene where the bad guy says “I’ve amassed an army” and Iron Man says “Oh, well we have a Hulk”*

*passes out*

*wakes up*

*tussels*

*remembers about Hawkeye*

*passes out*

*wakes up*

So ya, I’m totally serious about training and running this damn marathon next year.

Then seeing The Avengers right after.