Monday, November 23, 2009

Stop Thief! Come back with my dedication!

This is the 3rd time I have started writing this posting in over a month. I have a hard time writing about my running when I am not happy with my commitment level of running. I obviously need a running partner. I am having a difficult time holding myself accountable to get my ass out of bed and go running. I have been averaging three runs per week for the last two weeks. I went two weeks without running at all, before that. My upcoming trip to the Walt Disney World Marathon is going to be hard for me.



Very Hard...

My goal for this blog is to accomplish three things:
1. Entertain you, the reader.
2. Motivate you, the reader, to get out and run.
3. Motivate me to get out and run.

I apologize about this one in advance. This one is all about number three. I am in need of some motivation.



11/13/09 I grew up in Seattle. Of the 40 years I lived there, the year I lived in a warehouse loft downtown next to the Kingdome was my favorite. I now live in downtown Phoenix. What can I say... I like the night life baby... so the song says.

When I got the chance to watch the world series a few weeks ago in a bar in the upper east side of Manhattan, I took it. When it was over, and the bastard Yankees had won the final game, I went to Times Square and celebrated like I was one of them. What do you care about this? Not much, except I was supposed to get up the next morning and go running in Central Park.

It didn't happen.

If you would have asked me before hand, If I had to choose between running in Central Park or whooping it up in Time Square, I don't know which one I would have chosen. But, as they say, hind site is 20/20.

A few nights later, when I got the chance to check out the Irish Pubs of Downtown Boston- have you ever been to Boston?- again, not much of a contest. The next morning when my wake up call came and I was supposed to go running along the beautiful waterfront (think Boston Tea Party), I instead called the front desk and asked them to give me another call in an hour.



The same story played out the night I had the chance to go to Newport, Staten island, and Philadelphia. Long story short, I was on the road for 12 days... and I didn't run once. Not to mention i have put on about 10 pounds in about 30 days...

If you are the type of person where sticking to an exercise program is difficult, like I am, well, every day you put off starting up again, you are one day closer to never doing it again. This is the stuff that was going through my head on the flight back to Phoenix. I had eight ours of travel time to stress about what I had just done to my marathon training. I have been training for the Walt Disney World Marathon for 6 months. Could I have ruined my chances in just two weeks?

When I landed in Phoenix, I had a 2 1/2 hour drive up to Prescott where my wife was working for a couple of weeks. Just what I need. Two more hours to do nothing but stress out about my long run the next morning. I haven't run in two weeks, and I am supposed to do 14 miles the next morning. 14 miles. That is longer than I have ever run. I am in panic mode. What does missing that much of your training do to your abilities? This is all new to me. I have no idea...

As I started to get close to Prescott, I realized a couple things. One is that it is well over 3000 feet in elevation. And the other is that there is not one single block that is flat. There is no way I am going to find somewhere that I can run 14 miles up here that isn't constantly up and down hills.

12/3/09 That was two weeks ago. The next morning I ran laps around the Mall in Prescott, the only flat area I could find. Sears, Pennies, Dillard's, Barnes and Noble, Michael's, Bed Bath and Beyond. Sears, Pennies, Dillard's, Barnes and Noble, Michael's, Bed Bath and Beyond.

Lap after lap after lap.

Every single time I got to Pennies, I would look off to my left across the parking lot at my car. It was everything I could do to keep going instead of turning to my car and giving up. After about 13 laps, I did just that. I gave up. I had run just over 6 miles.

I ran 4 miles the following Wednesday. Three days later, I got up and went to my Saturday Morning Running Group for my weekly long run. We were scheduled to go 16 miles. I had run a total of 10 miles in three weeks, and was about to try and run 16 miles.

I usually run alone on these runs. I know that the whole point of running with a group is so that you don't have to run alone. I don't know, there just isn't anyone there that runs my pace, and I always want to try to run at my goal marathon pace during my long runs. My pace is not fast, it is just my pace. But that morning I asked a few of the people that I knew ran together as a group, if i could run with them.

It was a long 16 miles, but thanks the Harvey and Chelsea, I finished. It was good to run with a group. The next weekend my long run was supposed to be 12 miles. I did not run with the group. I ran on my own. I ran 9 1/2.

Day after tomorrow, I am supposed to run 18 miles. There are two things I know. Number one, I need to run with people. I can't depend on myself to get out there without motivation. Number two, my race in January is going to be hard. Very hard.

Again, I apologize for this one. I apologize for being a slacker with both my running, and my writing. I will try to be funnier with the next one. Wish me luck.