Day 118: The short long run

This morning I went to work early to do my last long run before a half marathon in 10 days. It is the Valley Crest half marathon that takes place on a trail somewhere out in the valley. Last year, I finished 3rd in my age group in a time of 100 minutes at a 7:42 mile pace. The run is exceptionally difficult as there is a total elevation change of about 1700 feet throughout the hilly race. I look to best my time this year. Click here for the results, if you like.

Last year's training was ad hoc. Two weeks before the race I had to stop running because I had given myself shin splints because of the amount of running I was doing without rest. I am proud to say I've run 70 miles in a week and over 250 in a month last year. However, I also am now in awe of the principal of over training. There is a fine line for me that running every day keeps me under that threshold. I think the most I've run in any given week this year is 42 miles. These weeks I try for a long run, a mid-range fast run, a mid-range tempo run, 3 days of short distance, and one day to do as I choose.

Today was supposed to be my last long run before next weeks race. I decided on a slow 9.55 miles that heads from my office down to the beach to the end of the bike path. Its a beautiful run that I've done for a number of years now. In fact, it is probably what I'm going to miss most about southern California when I leave.

In my head I'm always much more practical then when I start running. The first 5 k was slow and easy. Then, amidst all of my congratulatory thinking about how I was doing such a wonderful job with my pacing, I saw a couple runners my age about a half mile up the bike path. I had been gaining on them for about a mile and it was clear they were running slower than I.

I took off to catch them. There were no second thoughts of my training schedule or "slow and easy" or anything. And by the time I hit the end of the bike path, I had caught them. Both tried to pace with me when I passed them, but that just fostered my desire to beat them. Within a mile or two after I passed them, they were way behind and I was dogging it. My head was berating me for my running bravado. My body was aching. My pride was keeping me moving lest they caught me further on down the path. I ended up staying ahead until I turned off the bike path and finished the run back to work.

Let this be a lesson to all you show boaters out there! You win races by running your own, not trying to step into someone else's.

By the way, the secret to running is this: its 95 percent physiological and 5 percent psychological. Why didn't Mr Cyr ever tell me that?

Day 117: Why I am doing this

It took about a month of running everyday before I began to understand the philosophical ramifications of attempting to run every day for the rest of my life. From a goal setting perspective, it is perfect for me. It rewards stupidity over talent. Also, I'm confident that no matter how I try, my 175 pound frame will never be the absolute best at running. This is a whole other entry about being the best at anything because there will always be someone better than you. I will remain the tail ends of the bell curve in my life, but until a weight class is introduced into running, I'm never going to bust into the professional circuit. In theory, running every day is a simple way that I, or anyone else, can leave their mark on running as long as I have the motivation to do it.

Simple enough. Right? The definition of a running streak as defined by the United States Running Streak Association, Inc. (USRSA) is running at least one continuous mile within each calendar day under one's own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices). Running under one's own power can occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. Running cannot occur through the use of canes, crutches or banisters, or reliance on pools or aquatic devices to create artificial buoyancy.

All it takes is a bit of planning. Oh yeah, and the desire to never give up. Ever. No matter what. Can I, like Sysiphus, push my own rock up a hill daily, just to watch it roll to the other side and do it all over again? On average, I have to run every 24 hours. If I run late in the day Sunday, then the run on Monday is going to be harder than if I ran early Monday. I am rewarded for not breaking routine, yet I'm also condemned by it.

Its intriguing and a puzzle to me that I'm trying to solve. Is there anything to learn? I do know that I've become very easy on myself in a fashion I have never been before in my life. Knowing that I am running tomorrow means I don't have to kill myself today. As long as I keep the long term context of the situation, things will be okay.

To prove my commitment to it so far:

On day 20 I woke up at 3:45 AM and ran 1.6 miles in the bitter cold and rain because I was leaving for a trip to Yosemite at 430.

On day 21, I ran 1.8 miles in snowshoes and 5 feet of snow. Try walking in snowshoes. Then imagine trying to run in them.

Those are the 2 most notable days. I am often up at 445 before a trip running, like this last weekend when I ran before I left for Oakland at 530.

Day 115: The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent...

Just got back from the Bay Area where Traci (my wife) and I secured an apartment in Oakland, 2 blocks away from her sister. It is an old Victorian house that was split into a duplex. We ended taking the upstairs. It is just finished in its renovations and we will be the first tenants in the new place.

I'm very excited to move! The bay area seems to fit us both very well. We met up with a couple friends while there and walked through Golden Gate park. We also spent sometime in our home city of Oakland. I'm going to buy a bike and I'm definitely going to sell my car. I'm tired of driving and ready for graduate school.


If you didn't know, or I didn't say, I'll be going to UC Berkeley in the fall to work on my Master of Public Policy through the Goldman School of Public Policy.

Here are some pictures of the apartment. Time to get back to work!

Day 110: I read, too

I've committed my life to just a couple thing:
1. paying taxes,
2. trying to be generally pleasant,
3. taking care of my wife,
4. running every day of my life until I die, and
5. leaving the world better than I found it (or at least no worse).

In case you thought you misread this, I plan on running every day for the rest of my life. I was going to wait a full year of running every day before publicly announcing this. But, I'm starting (YET ANOTHER) blog because I'm moving to Oakland and going to graduate school in just under 5 weeks. I needed to throw in item #4 as part of my mission statement because it is true today and will be true for hopefully the rest of my life.

I'd like to keep my friends and family in touch with my life and who I am. So here it is.

Oh yeah, the title will always have the number of days in a row that I've run.