Progress

I weighed myself this morning, with my eating being completely out of whack lately. To my surprise, my scale said I was down 2.2 pounds. Even though the quality of food has been poor overall, the quantity has been down a lot. So, as usual, it always goes back to calories in versus calories out. 

However, as one would expect, I have been extra sluggish and despite my lack of sleep, I have been more tired during the day than I usually would with more nutritious foods.

Either way, I am trying to make sure I am logging my food. I need to go back and update some meals, as laziness and being tired from the day has caused me to have to alter some of my dinners that I had pre-entered.

I really want to get some sort of basic workout in tonight, even if it’s just some push-ups, pull-ups, wall sits, and lunges. To try and avoid my usual excuses of “lack of time”, “tired” and “busy”, I plan on doing some of the workout while the mushroom and goat cheese calzones cook. And once dinner is completed, I will finish up my workout and then eat dinner. I got this!

The Road Ahead

Life is full of twists and turns. You never know what is going to come your way and derail you from everything; not just health and fitness. However, success comes from picking yourself up from these challenges and moving forward. True success comes from turning these challenges into opportunities and executing on them.

I cannot say I have done this too well. I typically get going, fall, dust myself off, walk it off, and try to get going again. The last 2 years have been one fall after another and I have spiraled further and further down the rabbit hole. Realization is only part of the path to move forward; acceptance and moving passed this is the other piece. I have made one excuse after another, and never fully accepted everything. I have now and cannot wait to move forward.

So what does all of this mean? Well, I am not going to go cold turkey and set myself up for failure, that’s for sure. Right now it’s all about incremental change and improvements. I’ll be starting with getting myself healthy again. This means getting more sleep, a better eating routine, logging my meals consistently, and getting in some workouts each week.

As I have in the past, I will be keeping track of my progress through blog posts to help keep myself accountable and hopefully, if anyone out there is struggling through hardships, you might find something useful from what I am learning or doing. This is going to be a great year!

Focus, Discipline, Motivation

One of these things I cannot say I lack, because I truly just don't have it; discipline. But, I do all of these crazy races, and tons of them, and my times are not horrible. I appear to be training for my events. So how do I not have discipline? Well, let me explain.

I will start off with focus, since that is easiest. When I am working out or racing, I have complete focus on the task at hand. All of my worries and troubles and the rest of the world vanish. I have no problems here. Getting here is the tough part, since I lack the discipline to force myself here when I need to be.

Secondly, motivation. If you know me or you have read my blog or see the races I do, you will know I am not lacking in the motivation department. My motivation drives me enough to get just enough training in so I don't die at my races and can hopefully be alright enough to drive home or back to my hotel afterwards.

But discipline; this I have none of. I cannot force myself to stick to a schedule, I lack any consistency in my life, when times are tough I cave in from the pressure and skip workouts, eat poorly, slack off, or all of the above. When I look back at my life to this point, I realize that I have never had discipline; something I am always jealous of my younger brother, as he controls the very essence of discipline. 

This is not a sob story, just me getting out reality so that I can be held accountable by others and not just myself. It's also a reminder to myself that I have a lot of self-improvement to do.

Although I cannot magically get discipline over night, I will be working very hard towards this. You all know my goals; Boston and Kona. Without discipline, I will never get to either. Therefore, expect to see lots of blog posts, status updates, healthier lifestyle, more sleep, and a proper fitness plan that will help me achieve my goals.

To anyone out there struggling, the first step is to identify your flaws, be humble, and then make an effort to correct those flaws. It's a hard road, but if you make it to the end, you will be a changed and better person for it. Happy hunting! 

I am a long distance runner, but those middle distance runs are so tough

I was asked recently by a few runners on my thoughts on why middle distances for long distance runners seem so tough compared to the short and long distance runs. So, I thought about this for a while, checked my personal running logs, and checked out running forums to see what other people were saying.

For the sake of this article, long distance is classified as half marathon (13.1 miles) distance or greater, mid distance is 5 miles to 10 miles, and short is anything under 5 miles. Personally, I lump 5 miles and under as short distance, and anything over 5 miles to 10 miles as mid, and anything over 10 as long. I found that many distance runners lump 10 miles and up as long distance.

There are two factors to analyze here; mental and physical. I will summarize each in the sections below from my personal logs and my research.

After consulting my logs, I noticed that I actually had a much better time with either short or long distances, and had more trouble with the mid distances. This was surprising because I thought my long distance runs were generally a lot tougher. Surprisingly, I found this to be a pretty consistent scenario for a lot of distance runners.

Short Distance Runs
The physical factor is very interesting topic to tackle. With the conditioning, my body barely gets fully warmed up on short runs. This means my heart rate stays a bit lower, even when I am going at a good pace (for myself). Even with my PR races for short distances, my heart rate never really climbed above the lower end of my average heart rate. For most people however, I found that race heart rate for their short distance races were much more elevated than their average heart rate. But across the board, everyone felt the same after the short distance race...not very tired and their bodies were saying "Hey, when does the race start?"

The mental factor is fun to analyze, because a person's training has a lot to do with this piece. For me, the distance is so short that it doesn't seem daunting to me in any way, and mentally seems more like an easy day run, so I have no issue focusing on the run and before I know it, the race is over. This is completely due to my training. I don't listen to music on short runs, and focus on my form and obstructions in the road. For other runners, I found a similar feeling with the short distances; it was over so quickly, there wasn't really enough time for the runner to get psyched out in any way.

Middle Distance Runs
The physical factor here depends a lot on how a person trains and conditions. If you are a seasoned distance runner, then middle distances are typically a little more taxing on your body, but not enough to really cause any real fatigue. For me, I find that I run my fastest times in my mid distances races. I am sure this is due to some flaw in my training...or maybe I am doing the wrong training. But when I finish a mid distance race, or even training run, I find myself tired but I still feel fine physically. This was the same feeling from most distance runners as well.

The mental factor is the key here. For some odd reason, I found from my logs that I had trouble focusing on my mid distance runs, mainly training runs. Basically, my mind was in the "short distance" mode and I was running without music, but when my mind thought I was supposed to be done, I still had a way to go. This kind of psyched me out and my performance at that point saw a huge slide in pace, as well as somewhat large fluctuations for my heart rate. I wouldn't regain my calm until about 85-90% of the run was completed. In researching this, I found that many runners have the same results I encounter, although it appears most of the runners are able to mentally recover a lot quicker than me.

Long Distance Runs
Physically, long distance runs are rough. You train your body to handle the beating it takes both from the impact of running, as well as the depletion of your energy stores. Therefore, a longer run should feel a lot tougher physically. What's interesting from my logs, is that I found that aside from days where I ran in the heat of the day in hottest part of the summer (oops), my body felt pretty good as long as I was staying hydrated and had proper nutrition before, during, and after my race or my run. I had expected that, even on the nicer weather days, my logs would show the runs were extremely tough; this was not the case. In my research, I found that this was pretty consistent for seasoned distance runners as well.

Mentally, this is a different beast. For me, I go into a distance run (not race) knowing I will be running a long time. I usually try and listen to music, or depending on where I am running, I'll take in the scenery and do lots of thinking about things non-related to running, food, or fitness. For races, I go in with a specific goal and focus on that goal the whole race (I also have a plan B in case something unexpectedly bad happens). Therefore, aside from making sure I keep properly hydrated and energized nutritionally, I don't mentally have any issues with long distances. However, my findings for seasoned distance runners was a little more split than I expected. I honestly expected the results to be similar to mine. Although the majority was similar to my experience, there was an overwhelming amount of people who said that the "middle miles" of their long runs or races they fell into a similar mental trap that they did for the mid distance runs. This would result in a lot of mental fatigue and a lot of people said it would take a long time to mentally recover from it.

Conclusion & Suggestions
So, it appears that most seasoned distance runners don't have any mental or physical issues with short distances. For mid distances, no physical issues, but mental issues are pretty common, but most people recover quickly from them. For long distances, there are always physical issues just because it's a high impact activity for a long period of time, and the mental issues are somewhat split between no problem at all and similar issues with the mid distance runs.

There were tons of comments on how people dealt with the mental aspects of mid and long distances runs and races. However, I will just list the top ones.

1. If you listen to music, have your music playlist have really upbeat, fun, or "whatever really motivates you" songs play during the period you usually would get psyched out
2. If you don't listen to music, keep your mind occupied with anything other than the race or the run
3. DO NOT set notifications, timers, or anything similar before you would usually hit that mental wall, as it will usually trigger that mental wall sooner and cause it to take longer to overcome
4. A good one, and one that I like using, is to take a race in blocks
1. This means 1 mile at a time, or for really long distances, maybe a few miles at a time
2. For each "block", mentally set goals and work to achieve them
5. The best method, however, is to improve the quality of your training runs
1. This could mean training you mind to look at mid distance runs like short distance runs
2. Or you could focus more on timed runs, where you are more focused on running for a certain period of time and not the worrying about the total distance (of course you will want to make sure you are getting certain distances, but that should not be the focus)

I do want to note that there are more technical aspects in regards to changes in the body during the course of longer durations of running, but without being able to interview the hundreds of people I read posts from, I figured trying to bring that in to this would not be very accurate.

Runner's World Half & Festival 2013 Review

The Runner's World Half & Festival for 2013 was held in Bethlehem, PA, October 18th-20th. What a beautiful venue; the town has been going through constant revitalization, but you still get to soak in all of the history. Based on the location of race events, I found the Sands Casino Resort and Hotel to be the most convenient place to stay. It was definitely not the cheapest, but staying there you could basically walk to everything, plus the starting line for the half was there.

As a recommendation for new and seasoned runners, don't make the noob mistake I did. I figured the hills wouldn't be any worse than what I trained on near my house, and I didn't really study the course or the grading. That hurt me big time, as I trained on hills a lot less steep than what I ran on, and the super hill in the Half killed me.

Shake Out 3 Mile Run

The Shake Out 3 Mile Run was free to anyone...you just had to show up and sign a waiver. It was held on Friday by the Runner's World staff. It was really fun and we did just over a 3 mile trail run. If I had realized it was so close, I would have ran over instead of driving. However, I knew I would be doing enough walking with the expo and for the non-racing stuff, so it was probably smart I drove over...plus parking was free for this.

5k Race

The 5k race started out right on schedule, 8am. The National Anthem is my absolute favorite pre-race "thing" that really gets me going. Sorry if that seems cheesy, but it motivates me like crazy. And then followed by some older dance music right before the gun. The course itself was fun. There was 1 decent uphill, with an equally steep downhill. The bridge was a very gradual uphill / downhill, so I don't count it.

Personally, I had set a goal of coming in under 23 minutes. I got 23:20, which was still a PR for me, but not what I was aiming for. The uphill was a little more challenging than I had originally thought it would be, which based on my TomTom info, is where I lost the 20+ seconds.

10k Race

The 10k race also started on time, 9:30am. Since the National Anthem had already been done for the 5k, they didn't do it again. I am embarrassed to say I wasn't paying much attention and I forget what song they did; I think it was God Bless America. Anyway, the course included the same starting leg and finishing leg of the 5k. This was really nice, as I visually knew when to kick at the last mile. The course had 1 extra uphill and downhill, both of which were fairly steep, but nothing too crazy. The first uphill started at 0.3 miles in and was 2/3 of a mile long, but 100 ft. elevation gain. The second uphill was around 1.8 miles in and was about 0.9 miles long, but had a slight downhill half way through, with a total elevation gain of 134 ft.

I was prepared for the first hill, however, and the second wasn't too bad since I expected it after dealing with the 1st hill and knowing there were 2 uphills. My goal was 9:30 min/mile since I figured I would be dead from the 5k and wanted to make sure I would be good for the half the following day. I was energized like crazy and I ended up getting a 50:54, or an 8:11 min/mile pace and destroying my previous best. So, 2/2 on PR's for Saturday.

Half Marathon Race

The Half Marathon started at the entrance to the Sands Casino. This was nice because I literally rolled out of bed less than an hour before start, got my free continental breakfast, and walked through the heated casino and was at the starting line. This was nice because Sunday morning was a good 8 degrees colder than Saturday.

There were 4 uphills for the half. The first one was around mile 1 and was about 0.5 miles long with an elevation gain of 74 ft; not too bad. The next uphill was around mile 2.2, and was even shorter. The next 2 uphills were technically part of 1 super long gradual uphill, with a few mini and short downhills before continuing the climb. This started around mile 3.8 and went until about mile 7.7, with a total elevation gain of about 172 ft. After that is was basically downhill until the end.

My goal was to beat my Philly Half Marathon time, which meant doing better than an 8:30 min/mile pace. I was kind of on track until mile 6, which was the start of the worst part of the super long hill. I was able to regain my pace a little miles 7-9, but my legs were completely shot and my mile times exponentially jumped up after mile 9, causing me to finish with a time of 1:53:12, or an 8:38 min/mile pace. Still not bad mind you, but I wanted to not only complete the Runner's World Hat Trick, but I wanted to get a Hat Trick with PR's. Nice dice; so 2 out of 3 PR's for the weekend.

Expo

The expo was pretty good. I am used to the gigantic expos for the largely publicized races, like the Rock 'n' Roll series races for example. So the expo was mini comparatively. However, for a smaller venue expo it was really good. The best part was really the seminars. Having the runner's world staff and other pro's giving advice was priceless. To add insult to injury (for my half race), I had gone to a seminar on proper fueling, and what did I NOT do for my half race...properly fuel of course. Hah! Oh well, lesson learned and kind of funny looking back. The pictures are of the ArtsQuest building where the expo was held and the 3 story spiral stair climb for swag pick-up (the blown glass sculpture was AMAZING!). The start and finish lines (except for the half start), were here as well.

Other Info

There was also a kids fun run and the Eukanuba Dog Run. Both were great and entertaining. The beer tent was awesome...nothing like some free beer after a race. Overall an awesome event, a great time, and I am hoping to do this again. 

Distance Races: Tips and Tricks for the First Timers

Are you about to run your first 10k, 10 miler, half marathon, or even marathon? I want to share some tips and tricks for training, taper week, race day, and post race. I have done a bunch of distance races, plus I grew up with my dad always running distance races, and I have a lot of his experience to rely on as well. I selected 10k as the shortest "long" distance. Technically anything under 10 miles is mid or short distance, but I decided to focus on any races that for the average runner would be close to an hour long or more. Yes, there are plenty of beginners running 5-6 min miles, but you can still hopefully benefit from some tips.

Training

The easy part is gear. Make sure you get fitted by a professional at a running store or by an orthopedist for your shoes. In regards to other clothing, the only major thing is to make sure whatever you wear allows for full range of movement for your running form or any exercise you will perform, and that your socks you use are not too tight or too loose. I recommend sweat-wicking running gear, as it will help you from dehydrating quicker, and is generally a lot more comfortable.

For you training plan, I recommend sticking with a simple beginner plan. They usually have at least 2 rest during the week so your body can get used to the mileage and physical abuse you are going to give yourself...remember, running is a high impact activity. Most importantly for your plan; stick with the plan! For your first races or races, unless you are naturally the world's fastest runner, you are probably more focused on completing than competing. I will cover competitor tips in another blog article at a later time. So, follow your plan. If you want more activity, cross-train. Your body will thank you for it. Leg strength training is huge for runners, as your legs, joints and lower back get pounded the less leg strength you have in your legs. Or you can add some other workouts like HIIT, swimming, cycling, P90X/Insanity-type workouts, or whatever you like. The other workouts will not only improve your overall fitness and stamina, but will also aid in faster recovery.

Other things to keep in mind is anything you want to try new for the race, such as water bottle holsters, running with or without music, taking GU or other energy replenishing items, then you really want to train with them. For the beginner, changing up more than 1 or 2 things on race day from your training could cause a lot of unwanted issues. Once you get more experience under your belt, then you will find that the only way to know if something is going to be useful is to try it on race day. But make sure to NEVER change shoes on race day or the week before. You are asking for injury otherwise.

Taper Week

Tapering is basically lowering the volume of your training while still keeping the intensity of your training. This is usually done the week before the race. For beginners and if you are going from something like a couch to 10k, you may want 2 weeks of tapering, but typically 1 week is more than enough. The idea here is to keep active and keep your body used to the faster training speeds so you will perform well at your race. This still applies even if you don't really care about speed. Regardless of your goals, the taper week is designed to keep you active and ready for the race, but not push your body to the levels of your normal training...you don't want to be exhausted and in pain on the day of your race.

For those of you who slack off, I recommend tapering at least 3 days before the race. This usually isn't enough time if you do a really long run right before the race, but for many beginners, this will be the bare minimum time to recover enough to complete the race.

Race Day

Everyone loves carb loading the night before or a couple nights before the race. This is usually pointless unless you are always on a low carb / low sugar eating lifestyle. Usually carb loading is only good for making your bloated or cramped for race day. On race day, try to stick to your usual breakfast you would have on any other long run day. If you are nervous or anxious, which most are, then make sure to have avoid any foods or drinks that are acidic and any foods that would be too heavy or salty. So, OJ is a great example of a drink to avoid. Most dairy will sit pretty heavy for most people, and eating pre-packaged freezer meals (sorry Jimmy Dean) is probably not the best idea because of the insane sodium levels. You don't want to get to your race and have a stomach ache or be dehydrated before you even start.

If you are opting to stay at a hotel, then I recommend picking a hotel either in middle of the start and finish, or closer to the start. Even though you may be exhausted when you finish, the last thing you need before the race is to have to rush to get to the race and get stuck in traffic. If you are staying with someone or going from your house, then make sure you get to the race at least 1-1.5 hours before the races starts. I usually recommend 2 hours before race start. This will allow you to take your time finding a parking spot and getting acclimated to the race environment. If you are nervous, the last thing you need to worry about is parking and finding your way to the race starting line.

Finally, lay out your race gear the night before the race. Usually you will be excited or nervous and not always thinking clearly. You don't want to get to the race only to realize you are missing something vital...like your shoes or your race bib.

Post Race

Usually when you finish the race, you will be hot and sweaty. This means that unless it's an extremely hot day, you will get cold quickly after the race. If you have spectators with you, get one of them to hold at least a dry shirt for you to put on after the race. You probably should have a basic change of clothes though, or a warm-up outfit to put on over your race attire. If you don't have anyone with you, hopefully there is a gear check at the beginning of the race. If all else fails, train with a backpack and just run with your gear. It's not ideal in any way, but at least you will feel "comfortable" after the race.

One important thing after the race is to get some carbs and sugars back in you, as well as making sure you are rehydrated properly. So, eating a banana, bagel, energy bar, having some Gatorade, or similar is always a good option. For longer races, you will want to also get more sustenance. I have found that that chocolate almond milk is a miracle recovery tool. There is no other food or drink I have tried that compares. But, you usually won't have that with you or available, so look for items with a higher carb amount. Ideally, a recovery food or drink item will give you a 4 to 1, carb to protein ratio. 

Lastly, stretch! Get some static stretches in after you finish. It will help avoid extreme muscle tightening later and can also aid in faster recovery after the race.

Most importantly, have fun! The race is the reward for the hard training you just did!

2013 Four Seasons Parkway Run & Walk for CHOP

My company is one of the major sponsors of this race. The race is to benefit the cancer center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. They do some pretty amazing work, so my wife and decided to run in the race. On a side note, my team at my company raised over $3k for CHOP. I was extremely excited about this; we rocked.

Anyway, my wife and I signed up for the 5k run. They also had a 2k fun walk as well. The weather was perfect; mid-50's pre-race and in the upper 50's at race start. However, I was dumb and was wearing a long sleeve tech shirt and was sweating horribly during the run, even though it was only 5k. The event allowed people to sign up on race day, which is always good for big charity races...the more the merrier. The goal was to have 10,000 participants, and they got 9262. It seemed like twice that number there because of how many spectators showed up as well. They raised $976,786.01 at the race, but the final amount raised of $1,031,951.01 beat their goal!

I have to say that the Four Seasons Hotel was awesome for foregoing the port-a-potties and letting everyone use the hotel facilities...which were extremely nice. There was free coffee and water for everyone pre-race. In addition, if your team or company had a tent, they all had Dunkin Donuts. My only complaint for the race was that it started almost 15 minutes late and there was no National Anthem. I would have expected such an overall well organized to event to have started on time; but who cares, it was a for a great cause and it was fun time. The lack of National Anthem was sad...even all of the small local races I do have that...it always gets me amped up for the run.

The run itself was great. You start at Logan Circle by the Four Seasons Hotel, and proceed towards the Museum of Art and onto West River Drive. You turn around a little ways into West River and head back to where you started. Aside from West River Drive, there was a ton of spectators everywhere cheering everyone on.

At the finish, all participants received a free breakfast; which basically was a combination of continental and hot breakfast! Definitely the first time I got eggs, tots and sausage for free after a race!

There supposedly was an APP for your phone to get race results, but I couldn't find it anywhere in the iTunes store; maybe it was Android only? The results are posted now on the website. You can sign up next year if you are in the area; it's September 28, 2014.