Under the knife!

The other day my friend asked me why I had written so much about my reunion in my blog, when mine was a "Running blog?" I guess that is a valid question and I do write a lot about running, triathlon and racing. But looking back, I have written on other topics, and like in life, I am trying to be more balanced. As much as I would love to train all day, everyday, that is not possible due to things like bills, family and all of life's other commitments. Not to mention the body breaking down from continuous stress. Heck, I can hardly run 20 miles a week right now without getting severely ...... wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

Let's talk about running, or in my case, lack of running, due to a pesky little hernia that I chose to have repaired about 4 weeks ago. It's funny, everyone knows what a hernia is, or I should say, has heard of a hernia. But a lot of people, me included, don't really know what a hernia IS or looks like. I found out one morning about a year ago. I was lying in bed and I looked down and saw a bulge on the lower left side of my abdomen, above my groin. It kinda scared me. I'm a bit of a wuss and when anything is abnormal on me, my first thought is "I'm dying". Well, I felt it to see if it was a life threatening tumor of some sort, but it wasn't hard or anything and it didn't hurt. In fact I was able to kind of push it back into place..... Hmmmmm, I thought, that's weird. We learn lots of new things about our bodies as we age. We start feeling all sort of parts we didn't know existed. I mean how do you know you have an appendix if it never hurt before. Anyway, I got to work and asked my buddy Chris, if he knew what it could be. And, as luck would have it, I asked the right guy because Chris had the same thing and lived with it for 4 or 5 years before having it repaired about a year prior. It wan an inguinal hernia. Not life threatening just annoying and if you think about it, kinda disgusting. The muscle in my stomach had weakened and torn enough to allow some of my innards (intestines) to bulge out.

How does this happen? I guess it can be genetic, my Mother had a hernia and that could explain it. That, along with my allergic episodes, where I can rattle off a good 50 sneezes in less than five minutes. I am sure it was only a matter of time before I would get a hernia and find myself stuffing my guts back in to my abdominal cavity every half hour or so. Sure, it usually popped right back out, in which case I could immediately push it back in, but how would you explain what you are doing to people? So every 30 minutes seemed like a good compromise. It wasn't really that bad. It rarely hurt, I was more concerned that it would get worse in which case it could strangulate. With all of the training that I do, I knew that I needed to get it taken care of, it was just a matter of when. And, of course I would be scheduling around races.

I discovered it a couple of months before IMAZ. Obviously it would have to wait till after the Ironman. I did some research and from what I could gather, recovery could take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. But when they talk recovery, they're most likely talking about returning to normal activities. I'm talking about running.... WHEN CAN I START RUNNING AGAIN? Or more precisely, how long do I have to STOP running?

One month of no training? I had to find a spot in the calendar, between races, where not only could I stop training for a month but have the time to ramp back up for whatever race I had next. After IMAZ I did an Ultra almost right on top of it and after that I was training for the Long Beach Marathon in October. The Surf City Marathon is becoming a tradition, so that training would come on the heals of LB. All races after that were up in the air and I had not actually registered for anything, so the beginning of February looked like the perfect time.

I went in for surgery Feb. 9th. It was an outpatient surgery and the Doctor put a mesh over the tear. The procedure took about an hour and a half. That was the easy part. The last month, however, has been a bit more of a challenge.

Oops! I just realized I blew right past the Surf City Marathon! I guess I should talk about it. After all, this is a running blog.

I did run Surf City. But like last year, I ran the half. Mainly because it was the same day as the reunion and I didn't want to be too tired. I went into the race hoping to do under 1:50. My PR is 1:48:19 which I ran last year on Memorial Day in Laguna Beach. I have always felt like it was a fluke and that the course was a net downhill. That along with me being in the best possible shape coming off of IMAZ. According to the McMillan running calculator, with a 1:48:19 half marathon time, I should be able to run a 3:48:26. My Marathon PR is 4:07:02. So, you can see where I would be happy with a 1:50. I ran the race in 1:49:53! Very cool, it was the perfect start to a perfect day.

I also had a lot of friends there as well. Some where running, some (due to injuries and other circumstances) where not. Julie has been training for her first 5K for the last 3 months. She has been doing the Couch to 5K program and doing very well. Based on her training paces I estimated a 31-32 minute finish time for her.

She finished in 31:37! It was a GREAT first 5K and she is training now for another 5K and a 10K in the next few months. She plans to do The Long Beach Half in October and if all goes well, do her first full marathon at Surf City next year. There is nothing better than watching someone find the joy of running. And even better to be a part of it.

My friends Lori, Marisol and Paul also came out to the race. Unfortunately none of them were able to run this year. Lori had a sprained ankle, Paul broke something and Marisol is 6 months pregnant. They were there to cheer everyone on and after the race Julie, Lori, Mari and I went and had a great breakfast.

Ok, so where was I? The pain from the surgery wasn't too bad. It was what I expected. It was hard to stand all the way up and if I was laying down, it was uncomfortable to roll over or sit up. Pretty much what you would expect. I had the surgery on Friday and on Sunday I went to the mall and walked around the entire thing without too much pain.

I went back to work on Tuesday, and Wednesday I went to the gym for the first time and (very carefully) did about 30 minutes on the bike. I figured the bike would be easy and that running would be the thing that would hurt the most. I was actually afraid to start running. What if it hurt really bad and I realized I would not be able to run for an extended period of time? I am not sure I could handle that. It was the following week before I planned a running day. It was surprisingly easy. I felt no pain in the area of my hernia. What a relief! Physically this was going to be a piece of cake. And it has been except for one problem. I keep getting sick. My resting heart rate has been running about 20 bpm higher than normal. That is usually a really good indication that you are fighting something. I went to the Doctor and he said that everything looks fine with the affected area and that I am most likely battling a cold, flu or whatever is going around right now. And I imagine that de conditioning is also partly responsible. This last week has been better. I have been able to run more consistently and have kept a better balance between training and rest. Ahh, rest, man that is hard to do sometimes. Looking at the big picture and realizing that the best training that you can that day is NO training. In any event, regardless of having a valid reason, looking at my numbers for the month of February is really depressing. I feel fatigued, fat and cranky and it is because I don't have my drug of choice.... endorphins!

What would I do if I had to live a sedentary life? What did I do for all those years before I trained? Sometimes I think, no wonder we have all the disease and illness that we have in our society. I can't imagine feeling half as bad as I have this last month, on any sort of regular basis. And I remember feeling like that all the time. And, I know that is how a lot of people feel these days, with the lack of physical activity that comes with a desk job, commuting by car and then sitting on a couch. Thank God I have found the life that I have and I hope that I will be blessed with the ability and desire to do it as long as I am alive. Because this last month, I have gotten a glimpse of the alternative and it wasn't pretty.

Paul

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

Santa Monica Mountains 50K

It's amazing what a difference 25 degrees and proper nutrition will make in a race! I went into last Sundays 50K a little nervous due to my first experience in an Ultra Marathon. Last Mays race pretty much wrecked me so I went into this race with the goal of finishing without bonking. My theory was that nutrition, mainly not taking in enough calories, had a significant part in my troubles. And then obviously the heat (in the 90's) was the largest reason that I and everyone else had such a rough day. The theory sounds obvious, but it was possible that the distance of 31 miles was just too much for me or maybe the 5,000' + elevation change. So, not knowing precisely why I felt like dying last May and having to do it all again, was both intriguing and a little intimidating.

Unfortunately the weather is something we have no control of. Fortunately, the weather was perfect. Well, perfect for the race that is. We camped Saturday night and it was FREEZING!

OK, camping is really cool, but camping the night before an Ultra Marathon isn't the best time to enjoy the great outdoors. You're supposed to get a good nights rest, not sleep with a rock jammed into your femur and be so cold that you lay there weighing the cost/benefit of the temporary warmth you might gain by peeing in your jammies vs. leaving your tent to relieve yourself the more civilized way. Due to my stellar pre race hydration plan, I was able to ponder that decision multiple times (I chose the 2nd option). In any event, it was nice to be 2 miles away from the start of the race.

So, it looked like the weather was shaping up to be perfect. I am gonna guess that it was in the low to mid 50's by the time we got to the race start at around 8:00 am. With about 30 minutes till the start of the race, I made one last check of my nutrition for the day. I would do a Power Gel every 30 minutes along with Nuun tablets added to my water. This part of my nutrition would be carried in my Nathan hydration pack and would be supplemented by aid station food approximately every 6 miles.

Besides nutrition and weather, I also planned to keep my heart rate at a level that I felt I could sustain for 7-8 hours. I picked a number that was, perhaps, a bit on the conservative side, I went with 170-175 bpm. That may seem high, but my max heart rate is 210 and 170-75 is my usual marathon range, so it would seem logical. But, when going up steep inclines, it is really hard to not let the old heart rate creep up. So to keep it in check will mean walking a good portion of the uphills and running the flat and downhill portions of the course.

With all of these details on my mind, I didn't get to enjoy the start as much as I would have liked to. I gave a quick wave to Wendell and Sarah (the most AWESOME race directors AND insane ultra runners). I talked briefly to my running buddy Lori

who I met at the race back in May and Phil, with whom I did the MT. Disappointment training run for the race that never happened.

Off we went! It's funny, I have built this story up so much, I feel like there should be more of a payoff. The truth is, the race was pretty uneventful. I felt really good the majority of the time. Maybe too good. Lori and Phil did the 30K and they waited for me when I came in to the aid station and said I looked like I just got home from work (yeah right, haha) I think I could have gone a little harder on the uphills. By the way, Lori and Phil are FAST! Lori got 3rd place in her age group and 1st in her AG for the series. Maybe trying to keep up with her in May is what did me in haha. Anyway, I kept to my plan, according to my Garmin I had an avg. heart rate of 170 and finished in 8:03. thats an hour and half faster than the last one. But most importantly I felt really good and am no longer intimidated by the distance. Next time I will race it and try to knock a whole lot more minutes off my finish time. Then I will most likely start this whole process over again with the 50 mile distance.

Here are some pictures from the trail. Notice the real technical parts of the trail where "running" is next to impossible. I think I could have shaved a good 10 minutes off my time had I not snapped so many pictures. But, it was a beautiful day on a stellar course with amazing people. What more could you ask for?

This is where I had problems last race.



This is the view from the place I sat for an hour. Notice that the only potential shade seems to be around that mountain.





This was the view for the last 2 miles. It's amazing how GREAT you can feel at the end of 31 miles when this is the scenery!

Paul

Again...... With the 50K

I have been meaning to sit down and write about my next race in the Santa Monica Mountains. I like to fill my blogs with as many links and pictures as possible, but that requires writing it on my laptop, which also means setting aside a block of time dedicicated to ONE thing. In a perfect world, I would NEVER multitask. We do not live in a perfect world, so I am tapping this into my iPhone while getting my miles in on the stationary bike.

I will be running the "Santa Monica Mountains 50K" next Sunday, Nov. 23rd. It will be an important race in terms of dialing in my nutrition and pacing, but at the same time, I will be running it with the top priority being "to have fun". The course is run on the same trails as my first 50k last May. The Sycamore Canyon 50k was a VERY challenging race for me and I go back with the goal of finishing in better shape than I did the first time. Brittany and I will be camping on Saturday night so I don't have to make the long drive Sunday morning.

Camping and running, sounds like a perfect weekend!

Paul

Long Beach Marathon

My dreams of a sub 4 hour marathon were smashed again. But, I came a lot closer on what was an amazing day in downtown Long Beach. The weather was perfect! Clear, with a nice cool breeze. The course is spectacular with over half of the race routed along the coastline. The course goes inland for about 8 miles or so and goes through CSULB's campus, where there are plenty of college students to cheer you on through some increasingly rough miles.

I stayed on (or a minute or two ahead) of my planned pace through mile 22. I slowed a bit, but not too badly, and finished 4:07:51. I was able to keep my heart rate under control and didn't feel like I bonked. I just couldn't quite stay on pace. I PR'd by over 13 minutes so I feel like my training has been effective. I will just have to wait till the LA Marathon to break 4 hours.

Paul

When 4th becomes 3rd

I received an email from the Race Director of the Run Through The Pines 1/2 marathon today.

“Yes, you did place third.  Someone ran with the wrong bib.  We will be sending the trophies out on Friday.  You should receive by next tuesday.  Congratulations.”

I have been waiting to hear back from them as I was confused by the official results. At the race it was posted that I had placed 4th and the results said 3rd. I’m stoked! This is my first top 3 finish in my age group and although I had a finish time close to 11 minutes slower than my fastest 1/2 marathon time, the race was at a much higher elevation than I am used to running in and there were a lot of hills. I still don’t know how many people were in my age group, but I do know that I did race this and feel like I earned my 3rd place. About mile 11, I was feeling pretty spent and was starting slow a bit. I saw a guy a good 400 meters ahead of me and did my best to not let him pull any further ahead. By mile 12 I started to use some of the mental tricks that I have read about, like imagining a rope pulling you toward the person. I kept my cadence high and thought about anything BUT the discomfort I was feeling. The course turned around and doubled back onto a trail for the last mile. All of the trail running I have been doing helped in this part and I slowly gained of him. I caught up to him and passed him at around 12 1/2 miles. I had a feeling that he may have been in my age group. After I passed him it took everything I had to maintain my lead.



The last 1/4 mile was a nasty uphill section that we had done 4 times already, since it was a 4 loop course. I had to walk up the hill this last time even though I had run up it easily the other 4 times. I was scared that the guy was gonna catch me. I looked back and he was hurtin’ too. Once it leveled out I was back on pace and had a pretty good sprint left for the end.



I ended up finishing 9 seconds ahead of him and sure enough he was in my age group. So, although I don’t know the complete statistics of my age group, I do know that I had a pretty good race with this guy and I was pleased that I had a taste of what is is like to compete, even if it was 47 minutes behind the leader :).

I am now completely focused on Long Beach. The marathon is less than 2 months away. I have a clear goal of finishing under 4 hours this time. According to this with my recent 5k of 23:26 and my recent 1/2 of 1:48:08, I could finish in 3:48. I know that these calculators can’t predict what you can do especially if you don’t have the fitness to a run much longer race and maintain the same relative pace. Besides, anything can happen in a marathon. However, I am training at the recommended paces in all of my training runs and if I handle my nutrition right, which I have a much better handle on in road marathons, I am hopefully on track to break 4 hours.

Along with marathon training, Brittany and I have been hitting the weights hard. It feels great to do strength training again. It’ll really come in handy next year when I start training for Triathlon again. We also did some Yoga this morning. It has been a couple months since I went and I sure felt it. It was Brittany’s first time and she really enjoyed it. We’ll probably try to go 2 or 3 times a week.

I haven’t had much time to ride my bike to work the last few weeks. It seems work is really starting to infringe on my training... ha ha. But seriously, If I could find a way to make money while I was running, cycling or lifting, perhaps I would. Oh, wait..... thats a lot of peoples dream. Dreams, I have plenty and in typical fashion I move too quickly. Therefore I am concentrating on fulfilling (and living) some lifelong dreams of mine that I have already invested a lot of time, energy and yes, money in. I am entering into the “write it down, and make it real” stage. It is really important to be specific in what you want and since I know that I need to be careful what I wish for, I want to be very clear and sure of WHAT I want to do. Once I get more specific, I look forward to talking about it here. I’m sure it will be refreshing to hear about something other than running once in awhile.

Paul