Running

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My guest post on a great blog!

I have been blogging for over a year now.

I have had a few posts that people have really liked and have a lot of great followers who I really appreciate.

About 6 weeks ago I wrote a post about the freedom that running gives me and, for me, went viral.  I got about 10 times the number of views on that one post compared to my average.

One person whom I follow and who follows me, wrote and asked if he could post that post on his blog.  His name is Bruce Matson and he recently published an awesome book about health, running and his journey to Christianity.  The way I found out about Bruce was my running buddy @BigBigGeek bought me an audio copy of his book to listen to as TJ and I drove up to Pennsylvania to run our first (and so far, only) marathon.

Bruce asked that I add a few references on the spiritual side for the post which I was glad to do.  I honestly don’t post much about spiritual things on my blog, not because I am afraid to post about them (see my Faith tab above), but I set out to write a running blog and though I give God all the credit for all that I have accomplished, I’m sure He understands this is a running blog and is not offended. 🙂

Okay… First I want to say thank you to Bruce for posting my edited post on his blog…

Go here: http://bhmatson.com/2014/03/14/faith-running-freedom/

Second I encourage you to read his blog and look into purchasing his book.  It is very well written and is close to paralleling my journey from 278 to … soon Boston… maybe.  It is almost uncanny how closely our journeys have paralleled each other.

Lastly, thank you @BigBigGeek for introducing me to Bruce.

You know, it is really cool that I started this blog with just a few people following me and now I have hundreds and I have a post on Bruce’ blog – an author.

I am grateful to Bruce for the post and all of you who read my blog… even when I have to only write about walking. 🙂

Tom

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I’m being taunted by RunKeeper

I use 3 running apps to track my progress.  I like both Nike (with whom I share workouts with @bigBigGeek and @David_Topping) and RunKeeper.  I really like features about both and so I track my runs in both.  The way I track my runs in 2 apps is by using a 3rd; iSmoothRun.

The iSmoothRun app lets me use it to track my run and then upload to both Nike and RunKeeper. On top of that, I send a backup to my DropBox just in case it is needed (which I have needed once in the past).

So how is RunKeeper taunting me?  I got this nice reminder on my phone a few minutes ago:

Exactly 7 days go, you were working out. Lets make that happen again!

Seriously RunKeeper?!?  I have a hard enough time NOT running while trying to recover from falling UP the stairs.  Now you taunt me with this?

Okay, I am just kidding… sort of.   However, for me, that reminder was honestly not appreciated. 🙂

Tomorrow is a new beginning.  Nashville, here I come!

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2 days until I can run again…

Need I say more? 🙂

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Good weekend, but miss my running

It was a nice weekend.

I didn’t run.  I did get to do some walking.  My hip was feeling better, but I got a strange pain between my two hips above my tailbone, so I figure I need to take it easy and see if this is something to be worried about or just “fallout” from my fall up the stairs.

I guess I am in the, “two steps forward and one back” phase of my running.

I can’t wait to get back to my mountain and regular running.  I can feel the endorphins leaving my body as I write this.

Oh well.  It is all part of the fun of running.  The ups and the downs.

I did get me a new pair of my shoes ordered so they will be waiting for me.

Have a great week.

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Those stupid steps!

It was a good run.

I got 5 miles in.  The first 5 mile since I got sick 2 weeks ago.  It was cold, raining, and I felt great!

Then it happened.  No not on the run.  I was home.  I made my Lovely Wife some eggs and was taking them to her.

I walked ran up the stairs and my foot slipped.  I fell on my knee and… yes… jammed my bad hip.  Seriously?  I was so angry with myself and in so much pain!

My run was almost perfect.  Even though it was close to freezing and raining, I ran great.  I ran steady.  Outside of my first mile, I kept the same pace the whole time.  That is a big deal to me.  I tend to vary my pace quite a bit, but this was just steady.  It felt good.  I felt good.  My hip felt good.

Now I’m hurt.

I woke up this morning and didn’t feel as bad as I thought I would.  But as the morning has gone on, my hip is getting stiff and sore.  I am walking and icing and doing anything I can to keep it mobile which helps.

To be honest, I don’t think I could run today, even if I tried.

Doctors orders will be a week off.  I’ll be walking and keeping it moving.  I’ll be resting.  I’ll be taking anti-inflammatories.

Just to kick my mood up, I purchased a new pair of my running shoes.  I love my Brooks Pure Flow 2 shoes and got them for $50 with free 2 day shipping at RunningWarehouse.  They will be waiting for me next week as I start my umpteenth comeback from injury.  This one was stupid, but an injury is an injury.

Have an awesome weekend.  Run, walk, have fun.  Life is short.

Tom

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My dream, my hope, my life – Thoughts from yesterday’s run

As I ran yesterday, I thought about dreams.

Not dreams as in sleep, but dreams as in aspirations, desires, goals that seem beyond reach, but something you want to attain with a desire that is beyond normal desire or hope.

Dreams are an important part of life.  Some dreams never come to pass.  They sit in front of us an become a frustration, depression or just make us angry.

I realized yesterday that I have had many dreams I wanted to attain in life and many of them I have actually achieved.  Most were within my ability to achieve if I persevered beyond normal effort.  As I ran, realized that each major phase of my life has had a dream just outside my reach that I had to really work for in order to see it come to fruition.  Many times those dreams took perseverance beyond my own ability to achieve.

I am being purposefully vague here as I don’t need to go into all those dreams.  But my thoughts went on to the fact that so many people deal with anger and depression because they don’t get to fulfill their dreams, at least in the timing that they have chosen to see them fulfilled.  Without a dream, or as the Bible says, a vision, we will perish.  Hope is essential in life.  The American Dream has kept people pursuing their lives vocation for generations.  A hope for a good life and an even better life for their children.  I think a lot of Americans have given up on achieving their Dream.

My current dream or hope or goal is to qualify and maybe one day run in the Boston Marathon.  Back before last year’s race (and tragedy) TJ would talk to me about us qualifying together.  Then, last March I made that my goal.  I hadn’t even run my first marathon yet, but my new goal would be to qualify for Boston… Then I ran my first marathon in September and that dream seemed to be pushed beyond achievement.  I ended up hurting myself after the marathon and it took months to get back to a semi normal running routine.

I still have that as my goal, my dream.  It keeps me going home each day and heading out to run in good or bad weather.  It helps me get past heel spurs and hip pain.  It makes me run up mountains in order to build my endurance and run down mountains to build my strength.  

It is my dream.  

I could give up on my dream.  It is going on 2 years since I began running and a year since I made that decision to qualify for Boston.  That is a long time.  I am getting close to 2,500 miles run, mostly in my neighborhood.  It seems like a dream that is out of reach.  But that is exactly what makes it a dream.  That is what gives me hope.  The thought of the day I achieve another dream and overcome almost impossible odds to do just that…  That is what makes life fun.

So my run ended yesterday much quicker than most.  Not because I ended it early, but because I had so distracted myself from running by dreaming about dreaming.

Keep dreaming.  If it were easy, it wouldn’t be a dream.

Tom

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Running in the cold and feeling my hip again

I felt my hip yesterday.

I ran 4.5 miles and it was cold.  In fact just one day before TJ and I were talking about how hot it was as we ran.  But yesterday, windchill was below freezing and I had all my winter garb on.

My hip hurts when I am not running relaxed.  I can feel pain, tell myself to relax, and within seconds the pain has subsided.  I also think it is worse in the cold.  Holding my body stiff as I run into wind and cold that I thought had passed for another year.

All in all it was a good run.  By the time it was over, I felt as if I had settled into it and could run more, but decided I didn’t want to take a chance of hurting myself so I stopped.  This was the second run after my sickness.  I can still feel it in my chest some, but I am definitely on the mend.

3 more runs before I take another week off.  Just some personal stuff I need to do.  Then on with training for my April half marathon.

Life is good.

Tom

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Finally… a run

I survived the weekend and came out the other side feeling much better.  My recent bout of sickness culminated Friday with me leaving work early and crashing at home.  I thought some fresh air and a slow walk would help, but… Nope… I started out and then headed home and got rest.

The weekend was not restful however.  Saturday I went with RS to get a new TV for his room, JR got a new bed and HM got tires for his car.  That was just the major parts of the day.  I must say, through I wasn’t feeling great, I was better.

Sunday found me running again.  I don’t think I went too soon.  I felt good, it was a beautiful day and so TJ and I went to the park to run a few miles.  I had hoped to get in about 6 or so, but could only manage 4.  I still have some congestion in my chest which the run helped, but it also impacted my ability to run further.

So I am 90% better.  I don’t want to have a relapse, but I think I am past that.  I must say, this was the first time in my memory of the past few years that a cold knocked me down for a week. It was pretty rough overall.  I looked so bad on Friday that my boss made me go home early from work.  That was a first also.

Today finds me tired, but doing much better.  I really want to get back to my running schedule as I have a half marathon in 7 weeks.

By the way,, the weather today is going to be strange here in the deep South.  It was in the mid 50’s when I got up.  By lunch we will be in the 30’s and by the time I run this afternoon we will be back in the 40’s.  All we need is snow to make this a perfect day. 🙂

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In with a whimper, out with a whimper

I actually had a good month running.  I ran a total of 80.7 miles and that was with a truncated beginning and ending of my month.

My first run of the month wasn’t until the 4th of February.  Reason?  Snow.  I was stuck at work for 3 days and 2 nights and then had to take a day to catch up on sleep.  Also I slightly injured my back in the snow, so I needed to make sure that was healed before I tried running.

I started running on the 4th and my last day running was last Sunday the 23rd of February.  Reason?  I got sick.  So I can’t run until this thing passes.  How frustrating to have one of the best runs of my life last Sunday and then be down and out for a week.  With the way I’m feeling now, I don’t even know if I’ll run this weekend or not… probably not.

Oh well, at least I’m not injured.

Have a great running/racing weekend.

Tom

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The best mountain run ever

I’ve been missing for a few days.  Don’t know if you noticed…

It started Saturday morning when I woke up with a slight feeling in my sinuses.  I decided to walk the dog and jog a few miles with her so as to not over do my workout.  My goal was to get to the mountain Sunday morning.

Sunday morning I awoke with a little more “sick” feeling in my sinuses, but it went away and I went out to run the mountain.  I started out this time with RS.  He doesn’t like running much with other people, but we went about a mile together and he stopped to stretch and I went on.

This run was the best of my 4 mountain runs so far.  It was tough as usual.  800 feet of elevation in 2 miles with only one down hill section on the way up and that is near the beginning.  The wild thing was that I got to the top and was actually surprised that it came so soon.  I had run this 3 times prior, but this time it seemed much easier.  I credit some of that to it being 55 degrees and low humidity, but also the fact that these runs are really beginning to kick in some strength.

At the top and there is about a half mile of a slight gradient, but it is mostly flat.  As I ran, I looked at my watch and I was running between a 7:30 – 8:00 pace.  Shock.  I had just run up a mountain and I was able to run at a pace between my half marathon and 5k pace. Just a few weeks ago I was running about a 10:00 pace in this same place.  I took a moment to take a picture for my “I’m on top of the world” post and went back down the mountain and to the car.  I must say, this was possibly my most fun training run of my short two years.  I am not one to like workouts or to like hill runs, but this is a literal mountain and it is so cool to run it and see such progress.

Later that afternoon I started feeling lousy.  Just achy and tired.  I attributed it to not eating or drinking enough earlier in the day, but Monday I would find out when I woke up that it was not due to that, I was sick.

I spent two days in bed and went to the doctor and finally started feeling a bit better yesterday.

No running since Sunday, but at least I have a fun last run to remember.  I won’t run again until I feel better.  I am still congested and achy a bit. Hopefully I’ll be back in full swing this weekend.

Tom

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Out sick

Back tomorrow (Lord willing)!!!

Tom