Some thoughts on training

I've been analyzing my finish time in Sunday's marathon and (for once), trying to nail down what I did RIGHT! I've already talked about the fact that I followed Hal Gigdon's training program more carefully and did ALMOST all my speed work and didn't simply run slower to avoid injury. However, there was something else that was different this time around. I didn't overtrain! I did follow Hal Higdon's advanced marathon training plan, but I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the plan I was following lacked an 8-10 mile run midweek, like the plan I had followed before had. There were no mid week runs over 5 miles.  I'm certainly ok with doing higher mileage, but I'm thinking that this allowed me to do my speed work more effectively. I also refrained from doing a bunch of extra cycling. I did weight train, but I really did try and save my energy and focus for my MAIN goal which was a sub 4 marathon. 

Now, armed with this feedback, I am looking forward to my next goal and FOCUSING on achieving it. One thing I will say though, my legs are still very sore and I have only run one mile since the race. The lower inside of my right shin STILL hurts, so,  I do see the potential for injury.  I will have to keep that in mind as I shoot for faster times. In any event, I am excited! 

I think I will be doing The OC half Marathon on May 6th, where I would like to do around 1:45. My PR is 1:48:17. I think that is doable, given my splits in the full where I was definitely holding back because it was a full marathon. The half is and has always been my favorite distance so I am looking forward to really nailing it. My Niece Stephanie and her Husband Jake will be doing the 5k as their first race (which I am very excited about, and hope to be the first of many for them) along with Brittany doing the half. Then, most likely the Long Beach Marathon on October 7th, where I will try and take everything I learned from Surf City and try and better my time. These three races make up the Beach City Challenge and earns you a cool medal, so why not? I love these races anyway! Brittany has committed to all three and I am looking very forward to doing them with her. It is great to be excited about doing races agin. I realize how much I really miss it! 

I am also registered for the Malibu Creek 50k on March 3rd. When I registered, I had thought I would be working until mid March, then have a little time off. The plan was to do my tour (whether running or cycling) from Blaine, Washington to San Diego, CA as soon as I was done with this job. If I was to run it, I figured it would take about two months. I have been also giving serious consideration to cycling it and making it more of a laid back trip where I could have the flexibility to see all the great breweries along that route and see more things and meet more people along the way. I got a call a couple weeks back and got offered to shoot Motocross starting in May, with a couple shoots at the end of April. I shot Supercross for three seasons and love the gig, the people and of course the travel, so I took it. This changes my plans a little for a Canada to Mexico trip. Hmm... what to do? I could fit a cycling trip into that window, but I would have to back out of the 50k since I would need to leave in a couple of weeks. I will be done with the job I am working on, BUT, I started thinking about my training for the upcoming races. Yes, I would be riding the whole time, but it is certainly not the same thing. I don't want to just run these races, I want to better my times and really focus. I've also been getting more dedicated to strength training and muscle building and riding a bike from brewery to brewery WILL be a bit of a setback in that area as well. SO... I have a lot to think about. Right now, it is just trying to prioritize and decide what appeals to me the most. I would also be doing the ride (running it does seem out of the question at this point, given the time constraint) in the rainiest season. I haven't decided yet, I will just keep an open mind and let circumstances point me in the right direction. Either way, I have great things to look forward to and that in itself is a nice change.

Paul

Good training

My training for the Surf City marathon has been going fantastic! It feels so good to have all of my runs in my calendar and have a specific goal that I am working towards. It makes me a little disappointed in myself that I sputtered along for so many months. But, I am back at it now and I must say, I have never felt this prepared for a race since I started racing. My paces are all on track for my goal time. Looking back through my stats leading up to all of my other races, I am consistently close to a minute per mile faster. That's a good thing. When I first started running, I was plagued (like most people) with some injuries that threatened to sideline me for awhile. That really bummed me out and I discovered low heart rate training. Which basically gets you to slow down a bit, which in turn, tends to mitigate future injury.

I believe in low heart rate training, but like anything, TOO MUCH of a good thing is bad. You HAVE to mix in speed work or else you become, well... slow! It worked out ok for me because I needed that huge aerobic base for my cross country run, but, it wasn't that great for races. Now, I am mixing in speed work, tempo runs, hill training, Lasso 800's etc. and everything is working beautifully. I did my last 20 miler at a 10:01 avg. which is much better than my previous long runs leading up to my marathons. My tempo runs have been very comfortable at around 8:30's and it was effortless to do a sub 9 the last mile of my 12 on Sunday. All very good signs to shoot for a sub 4:00 marathon. Boy wouldn't that be great? But, I will be happy with a PR of 4:07 or less.

Now, all this running has got me thinking about another adventure. Of course running across Europe holds a great appeal for me. But, realistically, that may be a few years off due to logistics. So, maybe something a little more close to home. Possibly the southbound route from Canada to Mexico, or maybe Maine to Key West. An east coast run sounds like so much fun! I have become so fascinated with history that my own little tour of the 13 colonies would be amazing. We'll see, but it is very much on my mind and when I do a big run this time, it will be coming from a happy place. Not running away from anything, but towards something. Meeting great people and seeing beautiful places. That sounds like something to look forward to!

Facebook and old friends

I bought my first computer in 1995. One of the first things I did on that computer was sign up for AOL. Chat rooms were popular and It was cool to be able to talk to people you didn't know about subjects you were mutually interested in. It was obvious how the personal computer would change the way people socialized and how it could be used as a tool to meet new people. But what I had no idea of then, was how the computer would be used to reconnect with "old" people, people from your past.

On February 2nd I had a reunion with the classmates that I went to school with from 4th- 8th grade. It sounds odd that anyone would care about those years (and I have had to explain it to more than a few people) but perhaps a bit of history may help. I was in the MGM program. It is now called GATE but then it was MGM which was an acronym for Mentally Gifted Minors. I remember being tested in the 3rd grade and deemed "gifted". There were 2 MGM schools in our district. Robinwood was 4th-6th and Circle View, 7th and 8th. Instead of some programs where you might have an advanced class for 1 or 2 periods at your normal school, all of the kids were bussed to a different school and all of our classes were "MGM" classes.

It is interesting to look back now and try to analyze how this affected me. I can tell you that when my oldest daughter, Brittany, was tested and accepted into GATE, her mother and I decided not to put her in the program because I wanted her to grow up "normal". This was a good 15 years ago, so perhaps my memories were fresher in my mind and I could tell you why I thought the cons out weighed the pros. But I do remember that it wasn't easy being segregated, even if it was for positive reasons.

There were plenty of positive things about the program, however. We went on amazing field trips to Catalina, Death Valley and Yosemite. We had great teachers. A few in particular that really stood out as creative and nurturing, and from talking to my former classmates, made real lasting impressions on us and shaped who we have become.

"Who we have become" I guess that is really what has been so interesting to me. Since we were all bussed to that school, once we graduated 8th grade we largely went separate ways. There were 4 or 5 different high schools in our district and we all scattered to them. We had BIG high schools with mine having close to 4,000 students. So unless you stayed friends with someone, there is a good chance you would rarely see them again. I didn't keep in contact with anyone from my MGM years except for one person, Alison, and that was because she was dating a buddy of mine from my new group of high school friends. The funny thing about high school and those friends is that we have stayed in contact and a lot of them are still my friends. But my MGM friends stayed locked in a sort of time capsule. I would only think of them in a fleeting moment when I would hear a certain song or, you know, when you smell something that triggers a memory. Yet I spent so much time with them and at such pivotal time in my life. Junior high, that awkward time when everyone is insecure and feels like an alien and everyone gets made fun of. There were other times when I would think of them and it would go something like.... "If they could see me now" or "I'll show that girl who laughed at me". Well, as you grow up and have kids of your own you understand how hard of a time junior high can be, and now, thanks to the internet, you can go back and see all of those people that helped shape who you are.

About a year ago, my friend Alison emailed me and said that she had found a couple of people on Classmates and was wondering if I thought anyone would be interested in having a little "MGM" get together. Her best friend, Jeanette, who was our classmate as well, has been coming out to run in the Surf City marathon the last couple of years and she was planning on coming out this year. Alison thought that it might be fun to see if we could get a few people together since she would be here. I said that that sounded like fun and I would see if I could get in touch with anyone as I had a Classmates account as well.

Wow! I had no idea what was about to happen, but I have one word for you, Facebook!

I'm not really sure how it happened so quickly but it was truly amazing. Everyone just came out of the wood work. I have been on Facebook for over a year but didn't really use it much and certainly had no idea it would become so useful. Each person seemed to know at least one person from our class and they would add them as a friend and then they would suggest them as a friend to you and it just kept replicating like a virus. I sat down one day and scanned in our 8th grade yearbook and a few class pictures and tagged some people. Well, then other people started tagging people and posting pictures and it was crazy. People I haven't thought of for years were right there. I never thought it would be possible to get in touch with these people again. I mean, high school reunion, yeah. But, that would have taken me going to 5 different reunions. I never thought it would happen.

Alison planned the reunion and we invited as many people as we were able to find, which I believe ended up being around 60 people. We had 42 students show up and 4 teachers.... yeah teachers! Someone figured out that we had 60% of our class there. We would have had more if we were able to find everyone. It was incredible. I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. The strangest part was talking to people and having close to 30 years completely melt away. Now, understand that I am a pretty cynical person and actually think reunions and things like that are silly. I have no intention of going to my 30 year high school reunion. But, this was different. I have tried really hard to figure out why, and the best that I can come up with is that, since we spent 5 years together and then went our separate ways, it is more like we are army buddies or something. Almost like we all shared a common experience that bonded us somehow. We all knew what it was like to be "Special" (good or bad) for those 5 years and then go to a normal high school and have to readjust. It was fascinating to see how it affected us. I always assumed that all the smart kids would have ended up being doctors and lawyers. It is interesting how many of us ended up in creative fields, which now that I think about it, makes perfect sense since we were continuously encouraged to explore our creativity. Little things to, like I had forgotten that we played drums in the 4th grade. I only remembered starting in high school and I had completely forgotten about that. And all of the plays we did, it is no wonder why I became interested in music and acting. It is good to be reminded of who you are and where you came from.

It is also good to start new friendships, even if it is with people from your past. I have gotten such a kick out of talking to my new "old" friends. I have hung out with some of them already and it appears that we are going to all stay in contact and get together when we can. Next time, hopefully we will have all of the people that we were not able to find in time for this one.

Facebook is a great site and I have seen a lot of other people now posting elementary school pictures. I am happy for them because they are about to start on a wonderful journey. It does make me wonder though, as I was discussing with Brittany the other day. Now that kids are growing up with this technology, they will never have that same moment that I had, when I saw that first picture of my old friend from 30 years ago.

Paul

Past, Present and Future

It's been a couple of months since my last blog. There has been so much to talk about but very little time. Rather than wait until have I enough time to write about everything in one shot I figured I would give a brief synopsis of the goings on and then divide it up into 3 separate blogs with more detail.... Hence the name. I have also found a way to write one blog and have that update on Blogger, my website and even my facebook page. 

Ahhh yes, facebook. Facebook is a great place to keep in contact with family and friends and as it turns out an amazing way to find people from your PAST! While I spent a large portion of the last 2 months preparing for a gathering with a group of people from my past, I also continued training for my 3rd "Surf City" race in Huntington Beach. This time doing the half marathon as I didn't want to be too tired for the event that would happen later that evening, on, yes, Super Bowl Sunday.  

I love to race and there are very few things I will allow to get in the way of it. But sometimes it is unavoidable. I have had a hernia for the last year or so and have known that I would need to find time to get it taken care of sooner or later. I decided to shoe horn it in, between "Surf City" and the "Sycamore Canyon 50K", coming up on March 29th. As I sit here NOW,  I am one week post-op and still pretty sore. I have been able to walk between a mile and 2 miles for the past few days, but I am a good week away from doing any sort of running.

Having so much time sitting on my butt, has given me the opportunity to really think about the FUTURE. Something about remembering who you were, and where you are, can certainly lead you to ponder where you are going. I have always been a very goal oriented person and am pretty good at setting goals and achieving them. Part of successful goal setting is being precise on what it is that you want. Well, this has been my biggest problem the last few years, deciding on  what I want. I am getting much closer to the answer and am now getting down to defining those goals and getting very specific on how to go about making them a reality. 

Life is great right now. I know so much of our world is uneasy due to tough economic times. But, I hope that things don't get too bad and we are just in for a readjustment and, perhaps, a reassessment of priorities. It's too easy to get caught up in a routine where you start "going through the motions". Pretty soon you are no longer living the life you wanted, but just living. Next thing you know, life has passed you by. I am glad that I have had to slow down these past couple of weeks,  Long enough to look around and make sure I am going down the right road. 

My next post will be about my 8th grade MGM reunion. That's right.... 8th grade..... and it was AMAZING!

Paul