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Running from obesity

Are you as amazed at the human body as I am?

How is it that a person can go from 160 lbs to 278 lbs and survive.  The amount of adjustment to the structure of the body during that time must be amazing.  I’ve been told, it takes one mile of arteries and vessels to handle one lb of fat.  Think of that infrastructure that God put into place to help us when we become obese.  Not that obesity is  a good thing, but even though I had gained over 100 lbs after college, I was still able to work, walk, sleep, eat and do everyday tasks.  Crazy.

Now, I am just as amazed about how the human body can go from 278 lbs to 178 lbs and totally adjust.  Where did all that fat go?  Where did that infrastructure go?  Where did the extra arteries and veins and… everything that had be be made to contain all that weight go?  I’m sure scientists know and I am sure many of you smart runners know.  I don’t know, but I am thankful that my body was created to adapt.

Another question.  How can a human body go from 278 lbs to running a marathon in just over 2 years.  I am not writing this post to get positive feedback.  I was just thinking of these things yesterday as I was running my 5 mile route.  I have not been running even 2 years yet and have already run almost 2,500 miles.  My weight is up a little from the 178 which was my lowest.  I now am in the upper 180’s, but I’ll get back down there one day.

I guess I am a bit philosophical today.

I am amazed that I have been given the gift of a second chance.  I remember praying years ago that if I could just get my weight under control and get a good job, I would have accomplished more than I ever thought I could.  Now I am a vice president of an awesome non-profit, my weight is in a good place and I am back to running 30+ miles a week.  In fact yesterday my hip had no pain until that last 1.5 miles of my run.  That was HUGE for me.  Running without pain.  Is it possible?

I replied to a comment from Pandora Viltis from my post on Friday when she asked how I could keep running without experiencing much of a “runner’s high”.  My reply was an eye opener to me.  I said, “I run to keep ahead of obesity”.  That is true for me.  That motivates me.  That keeps me going when I hurt and when I am in such pain I have to walk rather than run.  That gets me out 6 days a week, by myself, alone and sometimes wanting to do anything else other than run.  I never want to get back to where I was.  I have been given a gift, an answered prayer, and I do not ever want to lose what I have been given.  It means too much to me.

So I run.  If it rains, I run.  If it snows, I run.  If it is 100+ outside I run.  If it is 10+ outside I run.

Maybe running from obesity isn’t everyones reason for running.  Maybe I should have a better reason.  But for me, that is my reason.

I never want to go back. I cannot go back.  By the grace of God, I will never go back.

Tom

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33 miles of running last week

It was a good weekend for me.  It was bittersweet as I missed running the Mercedes half marathon this year.  It happened yesterday, but because of my hip injury, I wasn’t able to get my training started soon enough to participate.  I did think of all those runners as I was running up my mountain yesterday morning.  Funny, I didn’t see one runner in the entire State park.  Not one.  I guess they were all in Birmingham. I wish I was.

My run yesterday consisted of running up the mountain that I now call “my mountain”.  I figure since I conquered it 3 times now, I can call it mine.  I went by myself yesterday as TJ was wanting to run a long run and RS was sick.  RS did come with me to walk and take some pictures though.

The run itself was uneventful.  It is about 1.5 miles to the road that leads up the mountain.  Then a 2 mile climb (800 ft) and then I continued about a half mile so that I’d have 8 miles in by the time I got back to my car.

I really think this run is one of the best runs for getting me into shape.  It is like a hill run and speed workout all in one.  Also, once you run up and down and still have to run smaller hills for 1.5 miles, it really takes it out of you.

All in all I can feel the strength growing in my legs after each run.  I feel less sore today than I did the first two times and my hip has almost no pain.  I think I will keep this mountain run in my weekly runs for a bit.  Just to get some real endurance and strength built up.

As to the rest of my weekend…  Nothing much happened.  I had a good time with my family.  It was a beautiful afternoon yesterday so we cooked out at TJ’s and then called it a day.  Back to work now and back to my 5 mile runs (or 5.5 mile runs if I decided to add 10% again this week). Last week was a record week mileage wise for me since my marathon.  I managed 33 miles.  Not bad, but far off the 50 miles I used to run.  Time will allow me to get back there.

Have an awesome week.

Tom

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My first runner’s high?

I’ve had four 5 mile days running in a row, and is my body feeling it!

It is interesting that adding a half mile to my run each day has made me feel this way.

What is even more interesting is yesterday I decided to go out slow and just run an easy run.  It went as planned.  I was in shorts and a T-shirt compared to the last two days where it was below freezing with the wind chill.

Anyway, as the run progressed, I started really feeling well.  I felt loose and was enjoying myself overall.  Suddenly at the 3.75 mile mark, I kicked into a faster gear.  Not sure why, but I just felt really good and felt I had the strength to push it a bit.

As I ran, I just kept going faster.  My legs felt strong and my body felt well.  I guess it was the closest I have ever felt to a runner’s high.  About the 5 mile mark I was ready to call it a day, but it was a cool feeling.

I wonder if running up that mountain a couple times has begun to help my legs and cardio.  A 2 mile uphill 800 ft run can do a lot for leg muscles and the 2 mile down hill run can be even harder.

So another week is coming to an end.  Either tomorrow or Sunday I’ll be running the mountain again.  If I get in my 5 miles today, I’ll end up with about 33 miles for the week, which will be a record since my marathon training.

Have an awesome weekend and enjoy your runs!

Tom

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Guess what?

I love running!

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City Hunter Runner

I’ve been successfully upping my mileage over the past few weeks.

After running my marathon in September, my mileage went from near 200 miles a month down to about 40.  Mixed in there were various injuries, specifically my hip.  So I would take time off and then try running again, get hurt, take time off and then try running again (you get the picture).

Finally I settled on a 3 mile route in my neighborhood.  I ran that route and only that route for a month or so.  It was getting really frustrating to be doing so little, but my theory and experience was that I needed to rebuild a base and allow my body to adjust to running again.  Here was a guy who just ran 26.2 miles and was having trouble with 3 miles.

Anyway, I finally added about .8 miles to my run by running a little different route.  This became my route for another few weeks (with a couple long runs built in).  So 3.8 miles became my base.

A couple weeks ago I added another half mile to my route.  That got me up to 4.3 miles a day.  Then this week I added another half mile.  So now I am close to 5 miles a day.  So now I am up to an amount of miles that I feel is acceptable for a while.

Generally I try to not add more than 10% to my mileage a week.  This will vary if I run a long run with TJ, but I am trying to keep my daily milage to a figure that isn’t more than a 10% increase.

The past two days of 4.8 miles have been good runs.  Monday was awesome.  I went slow and felt I could have run another 5 miles if I wanted to.  Yesterday went well.  I went a little faster, but it was coooold outside (for Bama).  It was 34 degrees with a 10 mph wind.  Fortunately I bought a face/neck wrap at Dicks Sporting Goods on Sunday and broke it out.  I was warm/really warm for most of my run and all I had on was a light jacket and shorts (along with the wrap).

Here is a picture I took after my 5 miler yesterday.  My Lovely Wife is enjoying Korean dramas at the moment and so this picture I call my “City Hunter” look!

City Hunter

City Hunter

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Before you kick the bucket, Runner’s World suggests you run on Oak Mountain’s Peavine Falls Road @aldotcom

It was so cool.

Yesterday a coworker sent me a link to an article on al.com that references a Runners World article called, “27 GORGEOUS running locations to add to your bucket list.”

RW1112RAVE_01_500x310

#17 is the mountain road run that TJ and I ran on Saturday.  Wow, I only have 26 more to go before I give up running.  How can I get all those in in only 50 years?  I’ll figure out a way.

Here is the al.com link:
Before you kick the bucket, Runner’s World suggests you run on Oak Mountain’s Peavine Falls Road

Here is the Runners World original article:
Rave Run: Pelham, Alabama

Not far from downtown Birmingham, Peavine Falls Road provides a hilly, serpentine three-mile route through Oak Mountain State Park.

So we have run the run.  There is a race that will be run on the 4th of July this year up to the top and back down.  I think I’m in!

32nd Annual Rick Melanson Peavine Falls Run

Anyway, just thought I’d share that little bit of news. It is exciting to think that I ran this before I even knew it was a Runners World run.

Tom

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A strange, dog rolling, race runners, mountain run day

It was quite an adventure.

TJ and I went to the state park to run up the mountain that we ran up a few weeks ago.  

As we started running the road that leads to the mountain road, suddenly 200 runners were coming at us.  A race started the same time we started.  Being understanding of not getting in anyone’s way, we had to run off the road and down an embankment.  Finally we got to the end of the runners and continued on the road to get to the mountain.

Then something happened that I have never witnessed before…

We were running on the left side of the road facing traffic.  A car went past us on the right.  It wasn’t going too fast as the speed limit was only 25.  The back window was down and a small dog was looking out it.  Suddenly the dog jumped out the window.  I couldn’t believe it.  It landed on its legs and tumbled about 3 times, got up and walked to the side of the road to relieve itself.  I was in shock.  The car stopped and I went over to make sure it didn’t run away and the owner came over to get it.  He said, “she’s never done that before…”  The dog was fine, they got back in the car and kept going.  Very strange.

Finally, TJ and I got to the narrow road that goes up the mountain.  We did this once before so I knew what to expect.  It is a 2 mile, 800 foot climb that takes you to the top of the mountain.  Beautiful view, but hard to get there.  The nice thing about this run is that I don’t normally run hard enough to get my heart racing.  I mean, I was breathing as hard as I could.  We got near the top and I checked my pulse.  95.  Wow, I am pushing as hard as I possibly can and my pulse isn’t even over a 100.

So we got to the top and started back down.  On our way I asked TJ if he thought it would be harder to run up the mountain or to ride a bike up.  As we were starting to head back down we passed two guys pushing their bikes up and a runner passing them by.  I guess it is easier to run up the mountain.

All in all, it was an 8 mile run and we finished 3 minutes faster than last time.  We ran this run Saturday morning and I am still sore.  It is a good sore though.  I used muscles that I haven’t used in a long time.  Our finishing pace was 8:50 which is really good for me.

So it was a satisfying day and a strange, dog rolling, race runner day.

It was a good weekend overall.

Back to work.

Tom

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The Dog in the snow

A pic from a few weeks ago. I love The Dog and she loves her sticks!!!

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My life, my running, and stuff you never knew about me

I write a running blog.

Most of the time, all I write about is something to do with running.  Something related to running.  Something/anything I can relate to and want others to relate to.  I write about a tiny slice of my day.  I have written a post for this blog about 90% of the days since I started… Just about running.

Ideas can be difficult to come up with. Sometimes when I run I think of what I will write the next morning.  Hmmm, there is a pain in my left foot… A blog post was born!

One of the consequences of magnifying a single part of my life is that people get the impression that this is all of my life.  If I am hurt and writing about my depression of not running, then people get the impression that all I am all day is depressed and hurt.

There are 23.5 hours of the day that I never write about.  Sometimes I’ll include some personal stuff in my blog, but that is rare and when I do it is usually related to my running.

So I decided to write some random personal things about myself that I don’t think I have written about before, or that people who are new to my blog don’t really know unless they have gone over the 300+ posts from the past year (and I don’t think they have).  Also this is in part accepting the Sunshine award that runningtoherdreams gave me last weekend.  Thank you.  It means so much.  It made me think of putting just a little about myself “out there” and I hope people read her blog.  It was one of the inspirations that got me to my marathon last August.

Here we go:

I was born the youngest of 4 children.

I am now the youngest of 3 living children as my sister passed away in a cave diving accident.

My mom went into labor with me at a Penn State football game.

I was born with hips that turned in so severely that I spent a long time with corrective shoes and a bar between my feet.

I could hear when I was born, but soon lost my hearing. My adenoids grew and blocked my hearing.  Since I could hear for some time, I learned to read lips, so no one caught on that I couldn’t hear.  One day when I was 4 years old my mom put me on her lap, facing away from her and asked me if I wanted ice cream.  I didn’t make a move (I’ve always loved ice cream).  My speaking was so poor that my late sister was the only one who could understand me.  So after lots of tests and a surgery, I woke up from the anesthetics and the first thing I said was, “I can hear”.

I lived in a small town in Pennsylvania.  We left our doors unlocked and open when we left the house.  Us kids would all play at the other kids house and vice versa.  It was a good childhood.

We moved to Northern Va. (Mt. Vernon area) when I was in high school.  George Washington used to fox hunt in the backyard of the home my parents bought (long before I was born ). 🙂

I used to race sailboats with my mom and dad on the Potomac.  We won many trophies over those few years.

I was a messed up kid from the time we moved to DC (age 15) until after my freshman year of college.  During that summer after my freshman year I became a Christian (that story is under my “Faith” tab) and my life has never been the same.

I am married with lots of kids.  They are almost all grown (no more child tax credits), and have all turned out to be honorable, good children.

I have been an evangelical Protestant Christian my whole Christian life, and am becoming Catholic on Easter this year.

Although life has thrown in some challenges over the past few years, I am so thankful and grateful for my life, my family and my work.  I couldn’t have created a better life for me if I was the one creating it.

The day Joe Paterno got fired from Penn State, I was going to have wrist surgery, I weighed almost 300 lbs, I couldn’t get my wedding ring off and they threatened to cut it off, so my Lovely Wife “helped” me get it off.  Hmmm. That hurt.

I lost 100 lbs in under a year.

Running is a big deal to me because it has allowed me to do so much more in my life since I stated.  It was almost 2 years ago when  I ran my first 1.5 miles.  I have run many 5K’s a half marathon and a marathon since then.  I enjoy the outdoors for the first time since I was a child.  I am in great shape for the first time ever in my life.  Since the age of 49, my life has been more impacted from running than almost anything else.

Okay, I’m done.  I guess I wanted those who read this to know that running isn’t everything.  It is just a thing God has used to add value to my life and give me experiences that I never thought I would have.  One day when I finish this ultimate race I am running called life, I will look back and be in awe over my “midlife crisis” called running.

Thank you all for being a part of it.

Tom

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Musings on my running

Yesterday was my second run this week.  I got out Tuesday for 4.25 miles and another 4.2 yesterday.

I DID NOT WANT TO RUN WHEN I GOT HOME FROM WORK…

Sorry, did I say that too loud.

Work went well, but I was feeling quite tired.  I honestly think I am still feeling lag from my adventure in the snow last week.  But I knew what I had to do.  I got home, I went upstairs and got into my running clothes.  I put on my jacket.  I went out into the 40 degree cold with 20 mph wind and ran 4 miles.

I was glad that I did when it was over.  Also it was a fast run for me.  I ended at an 8:45 pace for 4.2 miles.  I was in pain somewhat with my hip.  I think when it is cold out, I hold my body tight and that isn’t good for either hip.

Last night I woke up with my good hip hurting.  Hmmm.  Will I ever just feel good running?  Maybe not.  I also wonder sometimes if I will ever get back to my 200 mile months.  I am not going to push it right now, but it has been a long time since I went up that high in my mileage.  If it weren’t for the snow last week I would have broken 100 miles for the first time since August.  Actually last month was double of any month since before my marathon.  So I can’t complain.

HOWEVER…

Thinking of running a marathon again, let alone qualifying for Boston is so far beyond me at this point that it is rather upsetting.

I guess I have to forget what is behind and push forward.  I have to see today, tomorrow and a year from now.  One day I will get back my mileage, I will run a marathon and, Lord willing, I’ll qualify for Boston.

IF NOT….

I am still a 51 year old man who has lost 100 lbs, and can run 6 days a week.

It could be worse.

Tom

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It gets complicated when I can’t run

Relax!

That is what I kept telling myself yesterday as I ran.  Relax and run easy.

I hadn’t run since before the snow last week.  After getting home and realizing I injured my back by my antics at work (sleeping on the floor, walking in the ice, falling on the ice, etc), I had to hold off running.  That is not a good thing for me.

I think because I run  5 – 6 days a week, if I go a few days without running my emotions take a dive.  I don’t know if it is the lack of endorphins or just lack of sleeping well, but I become a monster emotionally.  Just angry with the world and everything in the world.

Sunday was another one of “those” days.  I just had to leave.  I went for a 2 hour walk and ended up in a park and sat for an hour.  Actually that seemed to help get me back a little.  It was a rough day and I could feel it from the moment I woke up.  One week without running makes one weak, if you ask me.

Monday I just didn’t feel like running.  My hip was bothering me.  I decided to take “the dog” out for a walk.  That was nice, but it bothered me that I didn’t want to run.  It isn’t like I love my runs, but I love the aftereffect.  The peace.  The satisfaction of finishing a run.

Finally, yesterday I ran.  I got in 4.25 miles under a 9:00 pace.  I feel better.  I like that feeling after I run of my lungs breathing in full and easy.  I like the peace I feel and the fact that after two years, a run still finishes my day.

So I guess I am back again to my running days.  This crazy weather has been playing havoc with my hip, but I just relax and run easy and that helps (going back to how I started this post).

Relax.  Enjoy.  Run.  Be happy.

Sometimes I make life too complicated.

Tom