Non-Working Sundays

I've gotten into a terrible habit of working over the weekend during the last few months and I'm trying to break myself of it.  Originally I was just trying to get a jump on the week but unfortunately I started to add work into that time-slot and as time went on it just ended up being a way that I could increase the time I had available to work.  Well, no more.

The only problem is that since I decided to stop working during the weekends I feel guilty Sunday nights, when I feel like I should be panicking.  So I've decided that instead I'm going to try to get into the habit of updating the blog and keeping in touch with my friends & family.

In terms of running I'm trying something a little different now.  My friend Adam let me borrow a book called Daniels' Running Formula.  Prior to this I'd been doing training off of Hal Higdon's website, but I'd like to increase my speed and I wasn't finding that simply jumping up from Novice programs to intermediate programs was really doing anything for me.  What I really hated was the speedwork in the Higdon program.

The great thing about the Daniels book is that he talks a lot about the physiological aspects of running, such as how the body systems respond to different training and why runners do different kinds of training.  He explains some running concepts that someone like me, who came to running as an adult, wouldn't have had an opportunity to learn.

With the help of the book I've identified that the purpose of my training now should be to be to build a base of weekly mileage that will help me get my cardiovascular systems improved and avoid injury later down the line when I start doing more challenging workouts.  At the moment I'm running about 16 miles per week.  I run 5 times a week, with a long run of 4 miles on Sunday and 3 mile runs Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Sat.  I'll be doing this for the next two weeks, after which I'll increase my mileage.  I've started to suss out my plan here if you're interested.

As far as Halloween goes the kids were both with their other parents this weekend so yesterday Jen and I headed down to the beach to have a date night.  We brought our new/old little dog Jack along with us and he was absolutely adorable on the beach - so cute.

We decided to spoil the dogs and picked up a bounty for them at Petco on the way home.  I am now officially the kind of person who has a dog that needs a coat.  And I don't care at all.

Random Updates

Work

Work has been on the very busy side since changing jobs last December.  I've joined a new project at the electric company (same place I've been) that's installing all of those automated meters you may have been hearing about from Barack Obama and others.  The ones we're installing will communicate two ways (the meter giving us readings and us sending the meters info) and a good portion will support remote disconnection/reconnection.  It's a huge project, much bigger dollar-wise than the web projects I'd been working on for the last few years.  It also has a lot of implications for how different facets of the company's core business run.

The project had been going for more than a year so quite a few things are already kicked off and some phases have completed.  I've been put in charge of Software Requirements, IT Quality Assurance, and Release Management.  This all falls in with the work we've been doing and I've been advocating to transition from a waterfall style of software development to a more agile method. 

What this means for me right now is that we're implementing new processes and while I have a broad responsibility. I didn't join the project with a team to support me in these roles, but it's more of an initiative and change that I'm advocating and leading.  For the last few months I've been a part-time Business Analyst, a part-time program-level planner, and a part-time politician and cheerleader for the changes we're implementing. 

Slowly the team is taking shape.  I now have two Business Analysts (BA) on board, as well as a QA lead.  I probably still need at least one more BA and perhaps another QA person.  The folks I've brought on are transitioning out of their current roles which creates some bandwidth for me so that I don't have to on-board everyone at once.  The time commitment should start to let up over the next few months and then things will settle back down to a more normal pace.

What this has meant in practicality is running very close to maximum capacity work-wise.  Working every weekend going back since December, long days during the week, and a whole lot of understanding required from my family.  They've been great, but the situation is untenable over the long-run and I very much need to focus on transitioning some responsibilities.  I've already exhausted all of the "work smarter not harder" and time-management techniques - right now I just need more bodies - capable, smart, self-motivated bodies - who can lend a hand.

Wedding

Wedding planning is ongoing.  We're taking a new tact, doing the kind of planning I might do for a project.  Jen and I have identified the logistics (mostly stuff we need), roles, clothes, and script for the ceremony itself.  We've also identified reception information including food , decorations, logistics (again "stuff"), and setting items (mostly stuff to do to the yard).  Next we need to tackle the Honeymoon and activities around the time we're spending with my brother Dan's family.

After we've finished identifying all of the different stuff that we need we'll need to come up with a list of what we have to do in order to get every item done and then create a schedule for how to fit all of the items in so that we're not trying to do everything at once.  We'll also create estimates for how much everything will cost and begin procuring items.

Health

With everything going on at work I've had a really hard time fitting in both riding my bike to work (which I love doing) as well as runs.  Late last week I came to the conclusion (highly related to the "work" section above) that I needed to get back into the running habit.  I've been feeling funky and grumpy and kind of put-upon and a lot of it has to do with not getting out there and sweating.  There's a huge amount of calm I get from running that I just don't get out of biking.  The relationship for me between running and biking is like eating a great satisfying meal versus eating desert.  Desert is fun, but the great meal keeps me going.  I started running again on Friday and ran 8 miles today.

I've also started the two hundred situps program.  I've always sucked at sit-ups so that would be a good next thing to tackle I think.  My first exhaustion test had me doing eighty crunches, which was a lot more that I thought I could do, but still paltry compared to Jen's 135.  She's a mah-cheen.

A canceled Marathon and the plan for moving forward

I can't believe I haven't updated the blog in all this time, but I think it's probably related a bit to the fact that the Marathon I'd been getting ready for during most of last year was canceled and Jen and I couldn't run it.  We had a freak set of snow storms right around Christmas here in the northwest.  The Marathon that we had signed up for was the Olympia Christmas Marathon, which was scheduled for just a couple of days before Christmas.

Once we got a foot and a half or so of snow here in Portland Jen and I started to feel worried.  We would check the Marathon website incessantly, waiting for the bad news that finally appeared on the Friday before the Marathon.  The Marathon had been postponed for a week.

Even without the snow storm I was worried about the Marathon, since the whole experience was so new for me.  The training is kind of weird because you do these super long runs getting ready for the race, including a 20 mile run that I completed a couple of weeks before the race.  Then the schedule tells you to do a taper, where you drastically reduce the miles you're running leading up to the race.  At the time I finished the twenty miler I was feeling relatively confident, but as the miles eased up and I was having some trouble with my hip I was feeling less and less sure of my ability to do the race.

I tried to take the extra week of training in stride, but since this was my first marathon I began to feel more and more nervous.  Unfortunately, it was all for naught because the snow kept coming, and not melting, so much so that the Marathon was eventually canceled.  Jen and I ended up going to the bed and breakfast we had reserved anyhow, and it was a nice mini-vacation, but definitely a let down.

On the bright side, because I wasn't putting so many miles in I was able to start riding my bike to work again, which is a really great thing for my mental health.  Jen and I decided that we'll run the 15k Shamrock run in March, which we began training for.  As part of this training I'm incorporating some speed work, which is super hard, but I am starting to notice an improvement in my time already. 

During the marathon training I started using a tool called mapmyrun.com to track my mileage and training.  One of the features of mapmyrun is the ability to update my twitter feed with workout information. Since my twitter is set to update my facebook page, the workout information would show up there as well.  Since the marathon training was over I went ahead and turned this feature off, figuring that it this point it felt pretty narcissistic to let everyone know every time I went for a run. 

Narcissistic or not, though, I noticed that I was a lot less motivated to do the runs & etc without the updates on.  After a brief hiatus I went ahead and turned the updates back on.  Hopefully my followers on twitter & friends on facebook don't find this too annoying.  Think of it as your way of supporting me, because I do get a lot of motivation and support from the great comments I receive. 

And yes, we will be running a marathon... it looks like instead of being in Olympia during December, my first marathon will be on Sauvie Island on July 4th.  If all goes according to plan, our second marathon will be the Portland Marathon in September.

Lessons in Running II: The ego filter

One of the amazing things about running for a long ways, or probably doing anything kind of extraordinary, is the reaction you get when you tell other people what you are doing or planning to do.  It's truly amazing how human minds are put together to filter every piece of new information that we receive through our own filter.  Our brains are put together to respond to new information by parsing what that information means to us personally. 

When you're running a marathon you get to experience this all the time.  Here's how the conversation goes:

me: I'm getting ready to run a marathon later in the month.
them: Really? Where at?
me: In Olympia, it's just a little marathon on the Sunday before Christmas.
them: I can't run, I have bad knees.
me: ok.

A good percentage of people, upon learning about something another human is doing, have the involuntary reflex to either join them in that activity or to reject the possibility of joining them based on past accomplishment or personal obstacles.  The funny thing is that I never asked anybody else to run.  I just said that that's what I'm doing. 

I know a number of people reading this are probably recognizing that they've participated in this conversation with me.  I really don't intend any harm or shame in pointing this out, it's just an interesting aspect of how our human brains are put together.  It's almost an involuntary reflex.

So to address the issue directly, I must admit that I do feel in the dark recesses of my mind like many people *think* that they have bad knees or some other personal situation that keep them from running, but just have never really had a good first-hand experience of running. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I thought *I* couldn't run because of my knees before this year.

I know that in the past I've started running and made some bad assumptions that ended up causing me to give up on the whole thing before I really got out of the starting blocks, so to speak.  I would become inspired to run and put forth great energy to do so, but without prior knowledge on how to best get started I was doomed before I ever started. 

I would figure I would try to run a mile at 10 miles per hour, which seemed to be a pretty low baseline to start running.  I would start these self-directed programs without a good pair of running shoes, figuring my gym shoes would probably work until I met some kind of criteria for commitment that would make the trip to the fancy running store worth it.  I wouldn't have much more direction or much more of a plan than to run as far as I could until I felt tired and then walk until I felt like I could begin running again.

The problem with my approach was that I was trying to do far too much too soon.  Since I was out of shape I would get out of breath easily, and then I felt like I would need to stop. I felt terrible for not being able to run for farther and the whole enterprise would be kicked off in a state of failure and shame.  Not an inspiring place to begin a new routine.

So what did I do differently this time around?  Really I kind of lucked into figuring out a better way. 

I've tried off and on over the last few years to start running, usually linked to an attempt to quit smoking.  This time around was no different.  I quit smoking in July of 2007 and with that event came the same jittery nervous energy that always accompanied quitting smoking.  I was looking for an outlet for all that bottled-up crazy when I ran across a blog post on lifehacker about the Couch to 5K program.

I bought a nice pair of expensive shoes from the fancy running store and I've been jogging since. After the 5K program I moved on to a 10K program which had me running 3 days a week and now I'm nearly done training for a marathon. 

It's funny because this is not something that would probably have been possible for me if not for the internet.  It is this particular delivery method for the message that would get me active. More to the point, I can't think of any other way I would ever be able to successfully start running.  I'm that kind of self-directed, personal research biased, own-counsel-holding person who needed to read all of the information and educate myself before I was willing to give it a true go.

I do think that at least 80% of the people out there have the capability to run at some level.  It just takes knowing how to get started and how to manage the program so that we're not overdoing it right out of the box.  If you don't choose to run, that's fine too.  Just because I like broccoli doesn't mean the whole world has to eat broccoli, but let's recognize it as a choice.  The biggest lesson for me is to remember to congratulate others on their successes before I put my ego-filter on and go through the list of why I can't do the same thing.

Lessons in Running

Today I completed the longest run I'll have before the marathon - a 20 mile run that took me around my neighborhood in northeast Portland and then down to my work in downtown Portland and back. The route looks like this:




As I was running today I felt great. These long runs are
always a good time to think through what's been going on in my life and how I feel about different things. It's a weird Zen state that one enters into, very peaceful and objective. The Zen of the iPod.

As far as the run today went I made it in just over 4 hours, which is about on target for what I thought it would be. I anticipate finishing the marathon on 12/21 in just over 5 hours. Today at around mile 18 I got this great feeling like I could do anything, and for the first time I realized I would complete the marathon. I know it'll be fine now, and a euphoria came over my whole body.

Of course, when I got home I stretched and took a shower and then laid on the bed, at which point every muscle and tendon below my waist decided to form into tight little angry balls that are still hurting me now. But I'll be fine by tomorrow or the day after.

During my run I was inspired to post about the different strategies and life lessons that the marathon training has taught me. I want to get this down before I move on with my life and the insights I've had float off into the ether.

The thought I'd like to share with you now is this: no matter how bad you feel when you're running very long distances, don't stop or give up. Walk. It's amazing what walking can do for you.

Firstly, sore and cramped muscles that are rebelling are placated. Panic is avoided and rational thought is given the opportunity to return. Running creates a sense of other-worldliness in which
you are simultaneously both very aware and very separate from your body. By walking, you can focus on what you are feeling and what might be causing your problems.

Luckily, I've had a pretty healthy time of it as I trained for the
marathon, but I did have at least one occasion where I felt seriously ill during a run. (Never mind the time last May when I fell and broke my elbow - then got up and completed my run before going to urgent care.) Walking for a little while gave me the time and presence of mind to make a good choice (to call Jen to consult) and ultimately to end that run early. Likewise, during my 18 mile run I would have given up at mile 15 or so if I hadn't taken the time to walk about a mile or so until my muscles loosened up and the pain in my joints subsided, after which I easily completed the run.

I've always been pretty patient, but I think this lesson is also
helping me in my daily life. It's a good lesson that when
things aren't feeling right or a situation is calling for drastic
change, sometimes the best thing is to ease up on what's
occurring at the moment. Maybe not halt completely, but slow down and think through the inputs that I can observe and what hidden message might be escaping me in my haste to finish a task. I might indeed decide to bag my current course of action and take a completely different tact, or it might just be that I need a new emphasis in what I'm doing now. Either way, letting up can give me the breathing space to validate what I should do next.

Run Like Hell

I ran my second race on October 19th, 2008 at Oregon's Run Like Hell.  For both Jen and I this was our first half marathon.  The race is a really fun deal, it's themed around Halloween and a lot of people dress up in costumes.  You can see some great pics here.  There was a Donald Duck, a Minnie Mouse, a Disco team, and a group of ladies dressed as bees.  Of course, there was a queen bee too!

Jen and I didn't dress up - I was exclusively focused on finishing and Jen was trying to beat an 8:30/mile pace.  Thankfully, we both met our goal.  I finished slow, but finished.  Jen finished at 1:50:41 and came in with a 8:27 pace.

  

Running Update

We've targeted a specific marathon - the Christmas Marathon in Olympia WA on 2/21/08.  Everything is going good so far - I ran a 16 mile run on Sunday, which I must admit was really hard.  I learned that it's really important that I eat a piece of toast w/ peanut butter and a piece of fruit just about an hour before my run, and that gu works a lot better than mini snickers for during the run (even though I heard different advice from friends).  It was a rough run, I got really hungry after about 6 miles and my energy was quite drained by the end.  I had to walk a little bit around mile 14.  As I've learned, though, there are good days and bad days running and the best thing is to just get the miles in at this point.

In terms of speed I'm still really slow.  The idea is to finish the marathon in December and then start working on speed - maybe dropping back down to 5k training plans and then building back up from there.  The shamrock has a 15k  which would be a good run next year.

Back in the Swing

Let's just clear the air and admit what we're both thinking.  It's been a really long time since I've updated. This kind of self referential thought is kind of boring so let's not give it any more thought than that.  I'll start writing more.  You'll start seeing more.  It'll work out, don't worry.

So without much thought a whole month has gone by.  The kids are back in school, Brianna is now in 4th grade and Andrew began 6th grade.  They both have plenty of extracurriculars  to keep themselves entertained.  Andrew is in fencing once a week, is playing the saxophone in band still, is taking piano lessons, and is taking an after-school spanish class.  Winter swimming starts in a couple of weeks for both of our kids.  Brianna is participating in a program at school through SUN where they visit a nursing home once a week to visit their adoptive grandparents.  Brianna is still participating in the I Have a Dream program, which she will continue to do up through her graduation from High School. 

With school starting for Jen this fall I'm now working earlier shifts at work on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Jen and I are also training for the Christmas marathon in Olympia Washington on December 21st.  This means that Wednesday and Thursday nights Brianna accompanies me on my runs - last week she did six miles and three miles.  This week we'll do 7 miles on Wednesday and 3 miles on Thursday.

My longest run so far was on Saturday, when I ran 13 miles.  It took me two hours and fifty minutes.  Definitely this will just be a marathon where I'm trying to finish.  I'll worry about increasing my speed after the beginning of the year.  The biggest thing I've noticed about training for the marathon is the gigantic time commitment.  Between the running and riding my bike to work I'm also hungry all the time, but in a good way.

Anyhow, that's the scatter-shot for now.  I'll be doing more specific updates as they come up.

Running Update

It's been quite a while since I've provided an update on my running situation so I thought I'd bring those interested up to speed.  As you may recall I started doing the cool running Couch to 5k program at the first of the year.  I completed that program and then went on to do the Hal Higdon Spring Training program, which prepares you to run a 10K.

I'm happy to report that I completed the HHST program and decided to go ahead and keep going with the Hal Higdon Novice Supreme program, which continues to the spring training program to a full marathon.  Today I completed week 14, which culminates with a 7 mile run.  The 7 miles went fine and although my thighs are plenty tired and sore tonight I didn't really have any problems energy-wise or with any kind of pain in my body during or after the run.  Again, this is the farthest distance I've ever run in my life, which is pretty neat.  I'm going to be bummed when I have to stop saying that.

I started riding my bike to work a few weeks ago and I think that the bike riding has actually helped me with the running.  Since I started I've cut my three-mile run by about 2 minutes.  It also helps because the ride adds about 550 calories to my daily calorie burn, so I'm hoping it will help me lose my tummy.  Up to this point it seems like my body has had no trouble adapting to the running while holding on to the stomach.

When I started running I worried the most about my ability to keep my breath, but surprisingly that's the last issue I have to worry about now.  I can run just about as far as I want to without worrying to much about my breathing.  The biggest limiting factor to how fast I can go is really my muscles.