Biding my time (and why I've been quiet for so long)

I felt a need to share some of what's bee going on in the 9 months (seriously?) since my last post.

Here go a few:

I am helping plant a church.

Helped to build a church.

Struggled through learning to run again.

Re-inspired to do stuff around the house.

Huh... seemed like more.

Oh wait... gained like 50 pounds.  That's gonna make running easier I'm sure.

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Planting the church has been amazing.  Watching and helping the Church at Southside begin and grow has opened my eyes to God more than probably anything yet.  I will say this to anyone at TCAS, but there's no doubt in me that man is not responsible for Christianity making it this far across this much of the globe.  We're still small and our individual desires still occasionally clash, I can't imagine trying to wield a large church to do His will.  Only God could pull that off. 

Kinda like building one.  My wife started going with the Mobile Baptist Builders about ten years ago.  When we met and began our future together she talked, a lot, about them.  Because of planning for our marriage and then job requirements, she wasn't able to go in '11 or '12, but we both wanted to go this year.  So last month she and I drove up to Tennessee to the little town known as Speedwell.  I think I heard right that the team that went up to work was between 2 and 3 times the size of the church.  We walked onto an empty concrete slab on the first day, and 5 work days later left with a two story building, 80% of the roof decked, virtually all the roof trusses up; I can't even fathom how many nails we put in that place!  Oh! and a 40+ foot bell tower above the second story!  When we started the first day, we were all circled around each other and I just had this definite thought run through my head: 

• Nehemiah 4:2 (ESV)

  And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?"
  

At TCAS, we had just finished a series reading through Nehemiah; the thought of what "these feeble Jews" were able to accomplish with the power of God staggered me.  Having been a part of an MBB build, I can tell you it still happens today.  There were 4-5 real contractors out there, a few more who "knew" what they were doing, and lots and lots of people just wanting to be there and be helpful.  I think we witnessed a pretty amazing thing.

We began on Saturday

We ended with this on Thursday

Learning to run again has been tough.  I think more than anything the hardest part is I'm out of the habit.  Waking up early to run just isn't as easy as I seem to remember it being.  Forcing myself to skip lunch (don't worry, I still eat) so I have time to run after work feels ludicrous these days.  Maybe that's like everything else... the less you use it, the faster it slips away?  But I have to add, I think I'm getting old.  My body feels ragged for some reason.  I have to stretch and pop and unfold anytime I've been sitting for more than a few minutes.  I strained my back a couple of weeks ago in the bedroom (moving furniture!!).  This getting old thing is for the birds... 

Man... I need a nap.

So kinda of recounting just those few things seems pretty tiring.  No wonder I'm beat all the time! 

I'll say this about the MBB trip.  It was amazing, I can't wait to go again, and man I don't know how people do that for a living!  I couldn't get feeling back in my hands for weeks!  Doing stuff around my house is just going to have to wait...

Thanks for reading and all the encouragement in my silence for the last few months. 

November, 2015

November, 2015.  That's my goal now.

Let me start at the beginning. 

If you've seen any of this rather short blog before, you'll know I'm a fat 30-something that wants to run 100 miles, all at once.  I've got friends who run 100+ miles per week and somewhere buried in my closet is a jacket proving that one year I ran 100+ miles a month for a whole year.

Now I want to cut out all the lazy days in that month and push all those miles together.

I first tried this in 2012.  I had intended to in '11, but got married and decided I'd rather not miss the first year of marriage while out training.  I made it to about a month away when one night after a rather lazy day I was stretching and managed to damage some tendons and that was that.  8 or 900 miles of training gone as quickly as I could sit down.  

I dunno if anyone has been sad to not see a blog post since then.  I've been sad, but I've been really mad and haven't really wanted to share it.  My wife has gotten to hear about it some, we're both sad and frustrated that my injury has taken such a toll. 

For the last couple of months I have SLOWLY begun to run again.  Both slowly in the sense of fewer days a week with less mileage than it feels like I could, but also slower in my pace.  Any recovering runner will tell you, that's the hardest part to getting over an injury.  What?!  I can't run as fast as ____ can now?  WTH?!?  I used to have to slow down for them!!! 

I was bored the other day, so I pulled out my spreadsheet and started dreaming.  Not too big, I don't think, but dreaming none-the-less. 

There is a run I like to do every year, The Flying Monkey Marathon.  The race is harsh, the course is beautiful and the people in it are amazing!  I was probably more sad that I had to miss last year than I was about missing the 100.  So I started with that marathon as my goal for 2013.  I laid out my training plan, trying to be as easy on myself as possible.

If you've never set up a training plan for something like a marathon, it's a scary experience.

Let me explain... a marathon is a long race, granted.  Not many people on this planet would call 26.2 miles easy.  But when you're training for it, you have to run lots and lots of long distance training runs.  I'm claiming anything over about 15 miles as long.  On my plan I've got 9 Saturdays that are 15 or over; 7 in a row.  That makes a body strong [and a mind weak].  Seeing it on paper is scary, knowing how tired and sore the days after will be.  When I first trained for one of these, I didn't really know what was going to happen, so I just did it and survived.  Now I see it and I get a little squeamish at the thought.  But oh well, I survived it once, right!?

When I finished planning out to this November I decided to think a little ahead.  See, once you're trained up enough to run 26 miles, it seems silly, to me at least, to stop.  It takes lots of miles to get ready for that many miles, so if I'm going to try to run something after, might as well be pretty close so I don't lose momentum!  [insert weak mind joke here]

Alabama has several 50k's.  There are a few that are just classic and have been around for a while.  Mountain Mist, Black Warrior, Oak Mountain, Cheaha, Dizzy 50 and Recover From the Holidays to name a few of them.  Those are my next goal.  So over 2014, I figure, I'm going to tackle 300k (somewhere around 190 miles).  Graciously, there aren't many long races in the warm months here in Alabama, so I'm hoping to hit a couple in early 2014, then the rest late '14-early '15.  Which meant I extended the spreadsheet all the way through March 2015.

Then it occurred to me.  November, 2015.  Lord willing and the creek don't rise, there will be another Pinhoti 100 in November.  So I kept tallying up miles until I built a plan straight through to then.

I have a roadmap that has stops along my favorite races right up till the end of 2015.  Now if I can just keep healthy long enough to get there!

Well that settles that.

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a while.  I hadn't actually realized how long until the other day when I'd hit almost two months.  Wow! 

My training has been much the same.  I've been running a lot, but just not very long distances.  I'm told that's the key to long races, long training runs.  But this has been quite the summer/fall...

Some things you may have missed:

We got a new roof. 

If you've never gone through that process, you're missing out!  It's awesome to live underneath Beirut while they're hammering and nail-gunning your house!  In our case, we decided to make it extra special, and not only were they supposed to take off the three layers of roof that had been there, but they found there was no decking there either.  Oh Boy!  So we got to (re)place decking for the entire roof.  Now they're working on the inside to clear out mold and look for anything rotten.  Cute fact about plaster... when you tear down a plaster wall, plaster dust gets EVERYWHERE!  We're one day through that process, not sure how much longer that'll take but you can tell I'm on pins and needles with excitement over it...

I've been sick.

Not sure why/what with, I hope to find out Thursday, but for the last two months or so I've been just feeling sick.  Slight sick-headache feeling, little tightness of breath like when you have a chest cold or something.  The doc-in-the-box told me I had walking pneumonia and the flu.  Both tests came back negative (what do those dumb tests know anyways!) but they loaded me up with roids, vitamins and God knows whatelse to see if anything worked.  Nothing has yet. 

Last, but certainly not least...

If you're wondering, those are my feet.

That is a boot.

Quick anatomy lesson... "You're head-bone's connected to your... Neck bone... your..."  Your calf muscles are connected to your foot via your Achilles' Tendon.  In my case, I have a hole in my tendon.  To spare my wife who may read this one day I won't go into detail, but yeah... in a boot for the next two weeks, and then back to the doctor to see. 

So I sent in my withdrawal from Pinhoti yesterday. 

When I called my wife, she asked if I was disappointed or relieved.  I'm a bit of both.  I really want to run that race one day.  But I knew I wasn't ready this year and was going to start anyways, part of being an ultra runner is the willingness to run even when you know you probably shouldn't.  So now I at least have a slight reprieve before I start in Pinhoti 2013! 

I plan to keep this blog going, because there's lots and lots of stuff I want to do between now and then.  From learning what foods I can tolerate on long runs, to an idea of running a 100 here in Birmingham to support the houseless community with a good friend's program Avail.

Check back often!!

Long time no see...

Yes.  I know.  I'm sorry... it's been a while since I've spilled my guts about this insane run I'm hoping to do.

I've been very worried.  I am pretty certain this is completely beyond me.  I have absolutely no doubt this is beyond me.  I confessed to my wife the other day that I feel certain I'm going to let everyone down, and in some way everyone will be disappointed, either in me or what I'm not sure.

See... it happened like this: Back a few weeks ago (like... 6 I think?) we were with our church small group up at Smith Lake.  I got up early that morning for what I thought was going to be a fairly easy 25 mile run.  Easy in the sense I was going to take it easy and felt no fear that I couldn't/wouldn't finish it.  At mile 8 I turned around, realizing that I didn't want to spend all day out running when I had friends and a wife sitting at the lake having fun and just generally not breaking their bodies down. 

I knew something was wrong around 15 when I couldn't run but for a few feet at a time without just completely feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. 

At 18 I was finally back at the house and feeling so completely dejected that I just kind of sat on the dock and stared at the water for a while.  I'm sure I was talking with everyone there and laughing and carrying on, but I was really just inside my head staring at the water thinking it'd be easier for me to run 100 miles on it than on a road or worse a trail.  That's about when I stopped posting.

I also stopped running.  I'd run a few miles, maybe 3-4 on a day I had 12-15 scheduled.  I slept in on Saturdays and Sundays, with 0 miles total run.  I realized how much I missed having Saturday to do stuff, even house stuff or chores. 

It doesn't help somewhere in there I got a slight cold, and for whatever reason I haven't really shaken it - maybe cause the Doctor hasn't figured it out - maybe cause I haven't gone to a doctor... who knows why this stuff happens?!?  But that gave me an excuse.  I sorta feel sick - cough cough - I'd better not run today either.

So I broke the news to my wife.  I said, I don't think I can do this.  I really don't think that I will be able to finish this.  I even went as far as to say that I wasn't sure God was helping me with this...

And she surprised me, she said I needed to keep going.  Now, don't misunderstand, I'm not saying I expected her to tell me to quit or that I think she's a quitter, as she unequivocally is not.  But I guess I was expecting that nurturing answer of "ok dear, if you think you need to, do it..."  She suggested I just keep going, training as if I'm going to attempt it, right up until the day.  Then wake up that day, go as far as I can, and see how far that is.  I started the but... but... but... if I don't finish it'll feel like I've wasted the money... and she reminded me that if I quit without starting I've still wasted the money.  Then I think it was she who said, I wasn't going to disappoint anyone if I don't finish. 

That hit hard. 

I hadn't really put it in those terms before. 

I admitted to my pastor a while back that I know, in my heart, I'm doing this to give glory to the Lord.  He is the only reason my legs work; that I have air to breath in while I attempt this craziness.  But I get really uncomfortable when someone mentions it or if my wife brings it up with anyone else.  Whoever they are get this weird smile of what I assume is amazement and surprise (that whole, yes, I know I don't look like a runner...).  I then stumble a little and let the praise fall on me for a second before I realize it's not me, and typically I've missed the opportunity to bring up Who it's for actually.  I did realize that on that terrible 18/25 miler up near the lake, I start out thinking it's me that's doing this, and when my body is finally broken enough that I'm ready to give up, I give it over to Jesus and it's as if it gets easier and I'm still moving way past where I should have stopped.  So since then I've found it easier, much easier, to talk about why I'm doing this.  But there still must be some of me in it if I'm worried I'm going to let y'all down. 

I sit here writing this and I think about all of it and this is what comes to mind.  My crossing the finish line doesn't bring any more glory to the Lord than my being able to start it.  Assuming I'm still breathing on November 3rd, it's just God's will that it be so, and if on the next day I crawl across a line 100 miles away, again, that is His will. 

There are a few things I've learned over the last several years running on roads and trails.  Pick your feet up, for one.  You'd be surprised how often the trail reaches out and tries to trip you if you don't pick your feet up!  (Also beneficial for avoiding trail Tourette's, that undeniable curse word that flies out immediately after tripping on a rock or root)  Walk the uphills... seems pretty simple until you think you're running too slow and walking is even worse!  But most of all, don't quit on the uphills.  I've only dropped out of one race in my running career.  It wasn't on an uphill.  The thought of quitting is so much easier when you're struggling to get up this current hill.  The trick is to tell yourself that you'll let yourself quit at the top of the hill.  The reason this is a trick is cause by the time you're at the top of the hill you're so happy you overcame it that usually you keep going and before long the thought of quitting is in the past just like that hill.

My amazing wife reminded me, don't quit on the uphill.

A Thursday Bonus!

Ever click random ads on the sides of blogs?  Somehow I discovered the coolest running shirt EVER!!!

So gonna run Pinhoti in this!!

Three 5k's

Yesterday was kind of warm here in Birmingham.  I think I was told it was around 90 when I left work yesterday afternoon to go for my run.  My middle of the week runs rarely get above 5-6, even though I have high mileage on my schedule, it's usually chopped up to two or three runs.  But yesterday I decided to go out and run my 10 miles all at once.  At 4pm.  In 90 degrees. 

I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out.  Not far from my office is a public park that has a 5k course on it.  It's setup for cross-country race meets, so it's a bit mixed terrain that is accurately marked out.  I decided to see if I could run pretty even splits, which is something I struggle with.  I tend to start out at a good pace, but then die at the end.  Doesn't matter how slow I start, I always wind up dying.  But I tried to push some yesterday, and my 5k splits were 33, 33 and 36.  I can live with that! 

I think the credit though belongs to my wife.  She called me early in the first lap to say that she just got a new job!!!!   Somehow that seemed to help my pace a lot!  God and I had about an hour and a half yesterday on the trail for me to thank Him and to discuss how to use this blessing in the most responsible way.  I'm so excited at the thoughts!!!

You'd think though that this stuff would get easier.  I've run just short of 500 miles so far this year, and I'm exhausted today.  I'm not sore (which is great!) but every move seems to take twice the energy it should.

Much thanks to my running wife (Judy) for being game to walk this morning so I could rest up some!

It's official...

I've gone and done it now.  I signed up.  For Pinhoti.  In 5 months I'll either be be starting (and with God's grace and strength finishing) a 100 mile footrace; or, I just bought two VERY expensive t-shirts, that I can't wear.

Over the weekend I made my wife watch a movie.  You could call it inspiring but that would be somehow not enough of a word.  It's called Unbreakable: the Western States 100.  It is the story of the first ever 100 mile endurance race, the man who first ran it, and a journey of four elite runners who faced off for the 2010 Western States race.

It was so inspiring that it even made my wife want to go out and run after we got done!  I promised I wouldn't ever tell her secret, but she even said she could see herself running a...

Ha!  You thought I was gonna say a certain distance race, didn't you?  Nope... newly married, not dumb.

Where was I?  Oh yeah... WS100.  Ok... so quick run down, in the 50's a trail race on horses was started out in California.  In 1971 and 72 a man named Gordy Ainsleigh finished the trail on his horse.  In '73 he went back again, only this time on a different horse.  But unfortunately his horse came up lame and he was pulled from the race.  

Ever have that problem?  Think you're betting on a winning horse and all of the sudden the rug gets pulled out from under you?

In 1974 Mr. Ainsleigh decided to try it on foot.  His own two feet, to be precise.  He finished in 23 hours 42 minutes.  He even beat some of the horses on the course that day!   


For more of the story, go to the WS100 page.


I just wanted to share some about the race that started all of this.


By started all of this, I mean both ultra-running and my love of running.  The WS100 became an official race in 1977 with like 19 entrants.  Now, more than 1,000 people who meet the qualifications sign up for the 400 lottery slots each year.  There are literally hundreds of ultra-marathons (greater than 26.2miles) in the US each year with several thousand runners attempting a new and longer distance they've never tried before.  All because a man ran faster than a few horses.


But I also mean my push to run 100.  Honestly, I'm not sure it's possible.  I'm not 100% sure it's possible that any human, let alone me, can do that.  I've seen it done, yet I still doubt.


I was sitting in my dorm room in Korea in 2002 reading a Runner's World magazine.  I had a lot of time on my hands back then, life was just going from the dining facility to work to the gym and back to my dorm.  Back in my dorm I was reading the RW trying to pick up tips to run better.  I wasn't in love with running at the timec I just wanted to figure out how to make it easier so I could keep doing it to stay fit for the Air Force.  That's when I found a story about the WS100 and thought, there's no way anyone could run 100 miles!  No way!  But it intrigued me to no end.  I made up my mind, I was going to do it!  That day I went for a run, made it to 6 miles for the first time in my life, and promptly felt like I was going to die!  My legs were so shaky that night I couldn't stand for more than a few minutes at a time.  


The next month I saw an article about an 81 year old man running IronMan Hawaii... but I'll share that story another time.


The movie showed 4 guys who were trying to win the race that day.  It showed the struggle, the motivations, the pain and the triumph as Goeff Roes eventually--in relative terms--won the race, setting a new course record of 15 hours 7 minutes.  He'd beaten the previous course record by almost 30 minutes!  If you pull out your calculators, that's an average pace of 9:04/mile!  That's barely a 4 hour marathon!!!!


One requirement to race the WS is to have completed one of the listed 100-milers.  Of which the Pinhoti is one.  I guess if I survive this November, I'll have that requirement taken care of; if not then I guess it won't matter ;-)