Sharing is caring...except when it's about unasked for training advice

I am a self proclaimed student of marathon running…I read books, I spend my days at the office listening to podcasts on marathon running, I read articles and scour all online sources for any little tidbit of data that will make me a better runner. I ask questions of anyone that I know that is faster than I am or has completed races that I hope to complete. I look for that person that is where I want to be with running and I learn about them and from them. That being said, I admit that I get frustrated when I am given unsolicited advice on training.

Regina inquired about my long run over the weekend, I replied that we did a little over 10 but walked a bit more than either one of us would have liked. To which a fellow classmate decided to provide me with her take on how walking will improve my marathon and that I need to work on increasing my walking speed. I politely explained that I need to increase my running speed, not my walking speed as the pace we completed on training on Saturday would not get us to the Bridge in time.  Unfortunately she was insistent that working on walking speed would help with my running speed. I was trying to be polite and not blow her off, especially since initially I felt as if her intentions were good. However, I became increasingly frustrated that she chose not to listen to what my goals/needs/desires were and instead focused on walking.

I don’t dismiss walking as a key part of a marathon…I have walked more than half of the last two I have completed….which is EXACTLY why I need to work on my running speed. My strength training. My stretching. My mental game. These are a few key factors that I need to work on to achieve my goal. I think what frustrated me was the assumptions made about me and my talents/abilities without asking.

I admittedly made assumptions about her talents and abilities based not on her age or her appearance but on the amount of grumbling she does about exercises we do. Personally, I assume if you regularly grumble about the number of lunges you have to do that you aren’t going to have a desire to push yourself to complete a marathon with a serious goal in mind. Also, if you don’t let me finish my sentence when explaining why walking isn’t the goal I’m personally going for, I’m not going to listen.  

 I  guess I need to remember that not everyone has the same thought process as me…that it is better to inquiry about the persons training plan and learn what works for them. And if the conversation warrants it, then share your training plan not as a “this plan is the end all be all” but more in terms of a “hey we’re both doing this whacky crazy thing, here’s what works for me” exchange of ideas.

 

 

 

 

Making Memories That Are More Important Than Running

Last night Jesi and I traveled to a Group Mission Workcamp Site in Pennsylvania in order to surprise her Dad for his 50th birthday. I will admit I was a bit bummed that I would be missing my training run since I've finally found a training rhythm, but sometimes there are things in life that are more important than training runs.

I lost my Daddy about two years after his 50th, it was sudden and shocking but at the same time I didn't grasp the far reaching impact of his loss. I was 18 years old and so overwhelmed with decisions and choices that instantly ended my childhood and made me an adult that I didn't really have time to think about anything. It wasn't until I continued to grow and age and have those important milestones that I truly grasped what that loss has meant to the overall picture of my life.

While Jesi kept thanking me for driving five hours round trip, missing my training run, staying up until 2:30 in the morning all so that we could spend a few hours to surprise her Dad; all I could think about was that I needed to make sure that she has as all the chances to do stuff like that. It's not a poor pity me, but more a desire to ensure that no opportunity is lost to make a special memory.

Training is important, critically important if I plan on meeting and exceeding my goals....but it's the memories of the people and those that we love that will last larger than finishing times and whether or not I got my Wednesday night run in.

Avoiding the Negative

Running effortlessly. Where everything falls into place. Your breath is perfectly timed to your foot fall. Your feet are softly touching the ground but have immense power to propel you forward with the lightest of touches. It’s a perfect moment in a runner’s day. That moment where everything is literally perfect. Seemingly effortless because it truly feels effortless.

 I had that feeling for a brief fleeting moment on Tuesday. Where I thought for a moment this is what the greats feel like. I am one of the greats. And then, my moment was shattered by a fellow classmate who snapped “JJ she said run to the yellow sign, not sprint.” Thankfully Regina spoke up and told me to do my thing.  

I honestly didn’t realize I was sprinting, to me I was just enjoying the feel and the moment and the energy of that fleetingly perfect moment. I was thinking about how this training session was going to make me a better runner. I was thinking about my footfall and how it was touching so softly, not that clodhopper like sound they make when I am tired and dragging. I was feeling the mechanics of my body and making those unconscious adjustments.

I will admit that I have been struggling with my reaction since Tuesday. In an instant, I had allowed someone’s negative, snarky really, comment to take away the awesome feeling that I was having. I was frustrated by her intrusion in my moment. Embarrassed that my hard work and effort were being belittled.

I appreciated Regina coming to my defense, but I spent the remaining time in class stuck in my head, and the thoughts of that morning still continue to pop in and out of thoughts. In an instant, I was left feeling like the odd person out. It is a lonely feeling, to feel as if you are the only one pushing and striving for something beyond the comfort zone. Reaching for something bigger than yourself. Reaching for something that just seems ever so slightly out of reach, but yet you know that if you keep going, keep pushing you will get it.

 I am not intimating that my fellow classmates are lazy or lack drive, we are all there at 6am when one could be sleeping in, but I feel that our goals, our DESIRES are different. In that difference is the basis for the snappy comment. The jab at me as a person. Me as an athlete. Me as a dreamer. Me as goal chaser.

 Andy Frisella talks about the concept of haters in one of his recent podcasts. It's such a common turn of phrase in modern lexicon that I must admit I was quick to use on my classmate. However, she wasn't a hater, she wasn't offering constructive criticism but she wasn't a hater. She just lacked understanding of who I am as a person.

And going beyond her lack of understanding of me as a person and taking myself out of the equation all together, the statement was more about her. She was stating something about something she is personally battling, something that was unsettling inside herself.

Though the larger philosophical part of me is trying to continue to hold that thought in my mind, it still bothers me that I allowed someone else’s negativity to impact my run. It is honestly something that I struggle with on a daily basis in my non-running life. Hopefully with time and practice, I will figure out how to discard/ignore those negative thoughts and vibes and just focus on that effortless feeling.

 

Day Two...here Wii go

The morning started out promising, I spent the morning running about a mile and change while stopping to take part in various cardio like torture at the direction of my trainer Regina. The five person boot camp ventured out and around running and exercising, laughing and getting to know each other as we began on our day by with an outdoor 6am exercise routine in August like temperatures and humidity.

Three miles was on par of the day. I prefer not to break my miles up, but was going to get at least two miles in after work with a goal of actually shooting for three consistent steady miles. Alas, Mother Nature decided to blanket us with torrential downpours, thunder, lightening and a myriad of warnings that caused me to make alternate plans.

The Wii....the island lap (the longest of the "runs") is roughly a mile....I did two island laps and a short lap just for good measure. Not exactly the run I wanted but I had to keep moving. I knew that if I didn't find some way to create the miles I would frustrated before I even began. On the upside, Wii Fit Island is a pretty fun place to visit everyone is friendly and waves and the dogs, though unleashed, are friendly and don't pester you.

My wife so kindly asked why I didn't just go to the gym and run on the treadmill...honestly by the time I realized that I couldn't run I also didn't want to venture out and drive back across town through roads that often flood, so improvisation came into play.

I wouldn't recommend Wii Fit as an all the time alternative, if only because it will leave a bald spot in my carpet, but as a last resort to keep the momentum going it's the perfect solution. Some kind of movement is better than none at all.

Marine Corps Marathon 2015 Training Begins

Another marathon training season has begun. I always feel that I start out the training season gung ho and filled with passion, only to fizzle out mid way through. The fizzle more often than not is the result of outside factors: my thyroid, unseasonably strange weather of one end of the spectrum or the other, major life event. This year I plan to stay the course. My intention is to follow the Hal Higdon plan to a t. After thinking about my disastrous marathon from last year I have found a few key areas that I plan to focus on that will make this year’s race more successful.

 

This training season I plan to:

 

• Work on strength training
  • Specifically glute and upper body strength to improve posture
• Increase core strength
  • This could go with strength training but it’s a key component that needs its own focus
• Increase flexibility
  • I need much better overall flexibility but, my hip flexors are notoriously horrible; working at a desk job makes them worse. Working them is incredibly painful but necessary to be successful
• Strengthen my knowledge about running and training techniques.
  • Basically just read everything I can. Watch documentaries. Just learn my craft as much as possible.
• Have fun         
  • This I think will be the most challenging component of my plan, but I need to remember to have fun. Remember why I started to run. Remember that I am accomplishing that something only about 1% of the world’s population has ever accomplished.

SURPRISE!!! The Weekend Does Contain Calories

I am forever baffled by those that spout stories of great unhealthy weekend excesses, and then finish by saying “but I ran/exercised on Saturday morning”. A statement that sounds as if it’s their attempt to justify their behavior; or perhaps their assumption is that by saying it out loud it will have a magical impact and negate the bodily damage that was done by too much of whatever they partook in.

 

I am not a prude or a teetotaler; I have a multitude of stories of my weekend (sometimes not limited to the weekend) excesses. However as someone that now prides myself on my fitness and my focus on health not my consumption of alcohol beverages, I am frustrated and baffled by those that feel that they can out exercise a bad diet.

 

Why spend the week in the gym, putting in the work and the sweat and at times tears, only to undo those efforts in a few short hours? Those few drinks, that rich food from the restaurant, that decadent behavior more often than not totals more calories than burned during your combined workout effort during the week.

 

Personally, a weekly splurge or treat isn’t out of question…I’m pretty steadfast on some things but even I need my occasional froyo splurge or pizza treat. Moderation is the key to success when it comes to your food plan and exercising. Reward yourself in a manner that reflects your hard work not in a way that will completely undo your hard work.

 

If you’re not progressing, if you seemed to have stalled and are stuck stagnate in your journey take a few minutes to look at what your weekend activities look like. Contrary to popular belief, the weekend counts just as much as the other five days in the week….especially when calories are involved.

Why me? A pep talk to myself.

Why me?

 

It’s an understandable question; one that I took a few minutes to ponder while sitting in an all too familiar waiting room. The lab request form in my hand and my sleeve rolled up, waiting for the all too familiar battery of tests. Nearly two decades later, two decades, and the feelings of frustration, fear and anger seem to surface pretty easily.

 

I was beginning to think that finally my body, the organism that had been attacking me for a majority of my life, had finally given up its struggle and allowed me to declare victory. I run for fun, I roll through mud for fun, granted it’s under barbed wire with people yelling at me to go faster, I scale walls for fun. I’m a four time marathon finisher, five time half marathon finisher. I’m a Spartan!

 

December 30, 2013 found me sitting in an all too familiar waiting room, of an all too familiar lab. The décor may have changed but not really. It’s still sterile. Cold. Uncomfortable. The following day found me ringing in the New Year with a new diagnosis.

 

Hypothyroidism.

 

Seriously?! I’m a marathoner and a Spartan! Who currently is not allowed to marathon or Spartan.

 

My lab results revealed levels that were out of range by over 400%. A figure that didn't get there overnight, but the symptoms, looking back, that started about a year ago always had a logical reason; they seemed to fall in line with my training schedule. I merely chalked the fatigue up to training harder for my races combined with the fatigue that has plagued me since my bout of hyperthyroidism as a teen.  While I was "thrilled" (so to speak) to finally have a diagnosis and a name to put on what had becoming overwhelming fatigue (a phrase that doesn't properly explain the depth of my exhaustion), along with a host of other symptoms….I was disheartened when I realized that for the time being I am unable to train.

 

For the last few weeks I have been silently, longingly, looking at my social media feeds, watching everyone’s gym stories, their below freezing runs and their various accomplishments scroll by me. I don’t begrudge my fellow Spartans and other racers their gym time, I just wish I was able to take part.

 

It’s hard. It’s frustrating.

 

Why me? A question that has been rambling around for awhile. Until I get a response, somewhere deep in the back of my brain.

 

Why not me?

 

I am after all a marathoning Spartan. It’s not as if I haven’t been there, done this before. The symptoms and name might be different but the impact is the same. Besides, a quick Google search of athletes and hypothyroidism yields a list of Olympic athletes that I feel honored to be among. Perhaps this just means I have become such a beast at the gym that my body can’t handle ME.

 

I will admit that it’s not all sunshine and sprinkles’ raining down on a herd of unicorns, but it’s something that I can do. Do I want to do it, not especially. But I will.

 

Why me?

 

Because. I am a marathoner. I am a Spartan. I can do anything. And I will…..after I take a nap and my pill. Until then, I will continue to stare longingly at my friends who are training and preparing for races and competitions and remind myself, that I can do this, again.