2/26 and 2/27

Sunday, 2/26
25 min easy run

I started out with the idea of about a 45-50 minute run, but about 10 minutes in, I felt the calf/knee discomfort, so I called off the run about 13 minutes in. I stopped, stretched as best as I could, and then headed back to my car. I did some stretching and upper body work.

Monday, 2/27
40 minutes in Gym

I started out with a 20 minute stationary bike ride. Felt good, and hopefully helpful, as I was off my feet, no impact, etc.

After that, I did a 20-minute circuit of pushups, crunches, pull-ups, one-legged squats and 'step-ups' on a work out bench with 25 lbs of weight. Nothing too major, but going between those felt good and was helpful. Again, no impact, and definitely worked different muscles than running.

Tomorrow may see me hit the road for about 30 minutes running followed by more work in the weight room. We'll see.

2/25/12 "Long" Run

6 miles on 2/22
5 miles on 2/24

9-ish Miles
1:07:30

I'm pretty darn excited about the fact that I ran for over an hour today. Was not a 100% comfortable run, but overall a good result.

Went easy to begin, but felt slow and sluggish.
About 10 minutes in until 30 minutes in, I felt some slight knee twinges. What's weird about it is that I could feel the presence while running, but only became discomfort when I was stopped and stretching while getting water or waiting for traffic. It's clear that the feeling in the knee was tied to my calf tightness, as when I stretched my calf, the discomfort in the knee area magnified.
By the 2nd half of the run, the feeling was gone. When I stopped for water with 2 miles left to run, I felt zero discomfort, and had no issues finishing the run, or in post-run stretching.

The added weight and lack of fitness is getting a little frustrating. I can't describe the feeling as anything other than sluggish...not like tired/sluggish. It's more like slow/sluggish. I'm feeling ridiculously average as I run. I just have to keep reminding myself of the amount of time I took off and how much weight I allowed myself to gain.

And more importantly, that all things will take time.

That's all for today!

2/20/12 Easy Run

6-7 Miles
48:50
25:00 out
23:50 back (6:22 hard mile in middle)

So, I just ran today on a straight, flat out and back course. Nothing too exciting. Although, on the way back, I hit a spot where I know the mile marker, so I ran a hard mile...I gotta tell ya...running a 6:22 mile was NOT easy. All I could think when I was done was "Man, that is the time of one of my slowest miles from my 2:40 marathon..."

Good run though, and glad I took some time to try to drop in a fast mile.

2/19/12 Easy Run

6.8 Miles
1:15

Took a VERY easy run today w/my brother in Arlington. He's training for a half marathon in March out in Dallas, so it was good to get out and run together, talk and just catch up. I don't get to run w/my brother very much...or rather, ever. So, it was good to hang out like that. Being the younger brother, it's unusual to be doing something where I'm in my element, I'm the more "knowledgeable", and being the one to "educate" my brother on something, so to speak. Kinda of a cool feeling.

Anyway, the run was good, and pretty much a good level of effort. Not what I was planning on for running out there, but was a good run. Legs were not worn at all, did just about 7 miles, and was on the road for more than an hour. I'll take it.

Tomorrow, I'll go for a little longer run and take it easy out. I've got my plan in place for working in some speed work and workouts. Should do that in about a week or two. We'll see how it goes as this week and next progress.

2/15/12 Easy Run

6 Miles
46:20

I took it way easy tonight...as my body and legs were just feeling a little tired. Not sure what was up with that, but I think I just needed something easy anyway. Felt mostly good, although my calves never totally loosened up. They weren't tight enough, though, to be of any concern. Ran the whole time without having to stop and stretch any.

Just finished a good dinner, and doing a little work, now it's time to get some rest. Later folk!...or "folks"! Depending on if I have one reader or two (other than myself). :-)

2/13/12 Easy Run

6.4 Miles
48:16

Good run this evening through Meyerland area. Some road running, some running along the bayou...all in all a great feeling run. At 16:30, I stopped and stretched, got off my feet. After a few minutes, I got back on my feet and got running. All in all, a great feeling run, and didn't really have any issues to speak of.

For a 4-day period and covered 24 miles, I gotta say I'm feeling pretty good about it. Glad that tomorrow is my rest day. As a matter of fact, glad that the next 3 days include 1 day of running. Woo hoo.

2/12/12 - Easy Run

5.25 Miles
36:50

Nice "recovery" after my "long" run yesterday. :P No issues to speak of today. I was very mindful of how my legs felt and whether I'd need to stop to stretch and get loosened up. Never happened, so I just kept truckin' along.

Nothing else heavy to report here...just that it feels good to run again for a real purpose, and not just trying to keep from getting hurt, or trying to "stay fit", when there is nothing on the horizon. Even though my body has changed little, my fitness is starting to show juuuuuuuuuust a hair, and I like it.

Before running today, made a grocery store trip to try to clean up what I eat. Stuff to get my day started right, to snack on when needed and to keep me from eating out so much. Who knows if it will change the look of my body, but at the very least, it will be healthier and more able to function the way I want and need it to.

Later!

2/11/12 "Long Run"

7.1 Miles

52:16

So I decided to see if I could "stretch" out my running time a little. Last week I ran just around 6 miles, and even threw one of those runs in mid-week as well. So, keeping with the idea of increasing the long run by only a mile a week, I wanted to get 7 miles in.

Unfortunately, the run was a little more "eventful" than I cared for. About 15 minutes into the run, I felt some soleus tightness again...I kept going until about 20 minutes and I had to stop briefly. I got off my feet, sitting on the curb and doing a little rubbing and stretching until the tension had subsided.

I probably sat there for about 4 minutes...once I got going, though, the effort was good and I had no further issues. What I think I'm discovering is that my body is requiring something it never required before for an easy run...real "warmup". Even though it's different, it's an adjustment I need to make, and one I need to keep in mind as I think about doing longer runs and races.

2/10/12 Easy Run

4.9 Miles
35:50

Easy run around the neighborhood...nothing too spectacular. Just nice in the cool night air. Getting ready to run just a little further tomorrow...trying to push it to 7 miles, or at least closer to an hour than last week.

2/8/12 - 6 Mile Run

6 Miles
44:45

I looped the neighborhood and took it easy on a nice, cool, breezy evening. I had to take a 3-4 minute break at 18:30 into the run. Tight soleus, or soleous...whatever it is...the muscle just below your calf. Anyway, my right one was tight, so I stopped, stretched, rubbed and shook it out.

After a couple of minutes, I started back up easy and made the rest of the run without incident. I actually felt better at the end of my run than I did for the 5 minutes before stopping for the tight calf.

Some stretching and a little light upperbody work at the end, and I was good to go. Nice run.

2/6/12 - Short, easy Run

Just an unexpectedly short run last night, as I was asked to take my daughter to her team practice, so I couldn't stay out too long. Did 15 minutes, but something is better than nothing, right? That's my thought, anyway. So, just over 2.25 miles covered last night, but again...something is better than nothing.

No running tonight, as it's daughter study night. Back at it on Wednesday.

New Goal

I've set a new goal for myself for this year...was not on the original radar when the year began, but I think I have been "convinced" now to approach it.

So a new goal has been set, and it's amazing to me how much different it felt the moment I put it out there. Suddenly, running had a purpose again...one beyond "getting in shape", but rather advancing towards something again.

It truly was a beautiful thing.

45 minutes Friday.
35 minutes Saturday.
30 minutes Sunday.

Anxiously anticipating getting up to running an hour a day...but, baby steps...baby steps.

Slooooow Progress

So plodding along on the roads these days, I have plenty of time to think about where I've been as a runner, where I'm going as a runner, where I've been in life, where I'm at, and where I'm going. I tell ya, life can take some interesting turns, if not unexpected. What's the saying? Life is what happens to you while making other plans. That statement carries so much truth, and I'm reminded of that almost daily.

Running right now is way different. It's like, my body and muscles remember how I used to run, and they are trying to run that way now. My mind is working OVERTIME trying to get my body to slow down so I don't hurt myself. I haven't taken the time to map out my routes, so I really don't have any idea how far I'm running, just how long I've been running.

The other night, I slowed way down and just enjoyed the run, which can be hard to do when you have a lot on your mind. I ended up staying gone so long, my gf got worried because let's be honest...I've been way out of shape (still am). It's been a while since I've been able to run long enough to worry someone that something happened to me. I'm more used to the 3rd degree about why I was out so long, assuming I was up to something I shouldn't have been. It was nice to only have worry in there.

(By the way, her post below really made me smile. She's an awesome lady, and I hope to be an equally good man for her, as long as she will keep me around. :-) )

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On a side note, I feel like I need to say something about this...there is a fellow blogger here in Houston that has taken it as their personal responsibility to verbally attack me and the woman closest to me and my heart as their method of therapy in dealing with the deterioration of our friendship/relationship. Over the last few years, I've become aware of quite a few things that have been said and spread about me among the local running community...some true, some false, some quite amazingly false, and others, I'm really pretty mystified by. Either way, I feel pretty flattered that there was even enough interest in my life, that it seemed to trump their own in a matter that required discussion and rumor spreading. So, for the superficial "fame", thank you. :P

There's also been a highly unanticipated onslaught of harassment directed towards the last 2 women I've attempted to develop a relationship with. This is where it gets disturbing. While I may be hurt at times when someone says things about me, eventually, I get over it. But when the attack becomes focused on ridiculing and cutting down someone I love, well, that's just over the line.

So, why do I bring this up? I'm not sure really. I used to respond a lot differently to "attacks" and "verbal bashing", etc. But the more it happened, the more I realized that it had little to do with me, and more to do with the person delivering the verbal hits. If someone wants to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to knock me down, it's not about knocking me down as much as it's about trying to cover up something they clearly are uncomfortable with about themselves. And making me seem like the slowest, dumbest, most irresponsible, untruthful, selfish, uncaring, untalented, poorest excuse for a man alive is just a method they probably want to use to help themselves feel better. Let's be clear...I'm no saint. I've done some stupid things, ruined opportunities, messed some stuff up, made bad decisions, etc...but I own every one of those decisions, and I place no blame anywhere other than myself.

Unfortunately, in this case, I also blame myself for making the decision to have allowed someone in my life that has become like a disease...and not the kind that goes away with treatment. There was plenty of opportunity to have taken care of this and been rid of it. Perhaps disease isn't the right word. A drug might be more appropriate. It's something I knew wasn't good for me, wasn't right in my life, and wasn't making the quality of my life any better. In fact, it was making it appear better for an instant or two, followed by days, weeks and months of evidence that it was clearly worse. And doing away with it was like dealing with withdrawals. The withdrawals were not wanting to have the fix again, but more in the sense that more pain was caused and inflicted when it was gone than when it was around.

I'm not sure I'm going to post this... I may keep it in drafts...the thing is that I look back over how I handled certain things and how I wish others would as well. I mean, I have gone through heart-break. I have been lied to, I've been cheated on, and been treated badly myself. And what did I do in those situations? I did the things that most of us do when hurt...angry text, drink heavily, etc., etc., But all of that took place over a finite amount of time, and I was done. When it was done, there was no need to bash each other.

In this current, real-time case, I can only wish that she would take the same approach. Say what you have to say TO ME, or ABOUT ME, b!tch about me to your friends, call me all kinds of names to those closest to you, throw darts at my picture, whatever...but for the love of God, name-calling and trying to ridicule my GF, criticizing my commitment to my daughter based on your own twisted perception? That's over the line...that's too far. It saddens me the measures being taken to try to hurt.

I don't know... maybe I'm wrong on this. Perhaps I'm being too small minded, but self-therapy has crossed the line when it goes beyond simply bad-mouthing me and the involvement we once had.

So, again, why type all of this out? There's a lesson here somewhere. I just don't know how to be clear on it.

The lesson is to listen to your heart when it's telling you that someone or something doesn't belong in your life. I should have.

The lesson is to fight fair with someone...if you're angry with someone, keep your focus on where your anger is actually directed. Don't drag others in. Even now, I know others are participating in the Sam-bashing, but I don't really care, because there is only one person involved that I thought was a true-friend. The others...well...not even close, nor worth worrying about their opinions.

The lesson is....I don't know... fill in the blank with yours...