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Random thoughts about running, and taking a week off

It has been hard to keep positive about my running lately with all my physical issues.  One way I do is thinking about the feature length movie that will chronicle my journey from obesity to Boston. 🙂  Hmmm, that might be a good name for it to, “From Obesity to Boston – one man’s journey through massive suffering and how he overcame!”

Alright, seriously.  I must confess that as I run and my hip hurts and I just want to be done with this running thing, I do think about what it would feel like to reach my goal.  That keeps me going.

That said, I’m taking a week off of most exercise just to get past this.  I may take longer, but I do feel close to being over this “pain in the hip”.

Maybe while I take this week off I’ll start my screenplay.  Maybe I’ll start my book.  Maybe I’ll just sit and watch reality shows.  Maybe my life is a reality show that I don’t even know is being filmed.  Maybe all life it just the matrix and we are in the middle of a computer simulation.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/universe-hologram-physicists_n_4428359.html.

Ultimately we all try to find significance in life because sometimes the world feels like it just randomly spins.  I’m glad I have my faith and it was given to me in a way that cannot be taken.  Running, walking, doing nothing, I know in whom I believe and if it weren’t for that, I’d be gone long before now.

LIFE is Good.

See you in a week.

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A surprisingly painless run

I was surprised.  I ran yesterday and it didn’t hurt… much.

I left the house figuring I would walk 3 miles.  I got outside and it was cold.  Okay, it was only 48 degrees, but in Alabama the humidity makes the cold a lot colder.  So I decided to just run slowly to warm up a bit and stop if I felt too much pain in my hip.  Well I never had to stop.  After 3 miles I was done, but feeling pretty well.

Honestly at this point, I really want to get back into the mode of running each day; even if that is only 3 miles.  I have a half marathon in February that I would like to run and then a marathon in March that doesn’t look likely at the moment.

On top of all of that, I will need to take the week off beginning Friday, so that will give me some more time to heal.

Ahhh the fun of the sport.  I saw someone yesterday that I hadn’t seen in 9 years and he mentioned several times how good I looked.  That made me feel pretty good, especially since I still have on the extra 10 lbs since my injury.

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3 mile run – still not fully back yet

I ran yesterday for the first time since December 1.  It was a good run, but sadly not pain free.

I know I probably shouldn’t have run, but I was feeling well all day and so I just went for it.  Really the run wasn’t too bad.  I didn’t run fast and I stopped to walk a little when I needed to.

3 miles in 28:31.  Not bad.

I will probably walk today and see how I am doing tomorrow for a run.

It is killing me to miss running in the winter.  I really enjoy the cool weather and since we have avoided all ice and snow, it has been a good season so far for running.

Life is good and I’m not complaining.  Getting in 3 miles is awesome for me at this point.

Have a great day!

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The power of Twitter

Running wise it was a quite weekend.  I really think my hip is back to running health and I will test it out today.  I took the weekend off to rest it and because it was cold and rainy and I didn’t feel like running (just to be blunt).

I did have a cool thing that happened to me this weekend.  Not to do with running, but does deal with social media.

I have a Frigidaire refrigerator/freezer.  It has worked perfectly since we purchased it 5 years ago.  The frustrating part was that on the refrigerator side, all the shelves began breaking.  First the side door shelves and then the main section.  Even a nob built into the side of the fridge to hold a shelf broke off.  It has gotten to the point where we have 2 shelves in the main part of the fridge and 1 on the door and that is all that is left.  I thought about trashing it and getting a new unit, but it works flawlessly and the freezer side has no issues.

I checked on prices of the shelves and they range on the low side of $50 EACH.  That is crazy for shelves that have all broken.

So Saturday, in frustration I tweeted this:

@Frigidaire Great working fridge. Inside shelves all broke though and even pegs on wall to hold shelves.

Within minutes I got a tweet back and they asked for my email.  Long story short, after a few exchanges of emails and tweets, they sent me this:

Thanks for responding so quickly, Tom. I have provided you a parts reference guide for your refrigerator model. Please review it and provide me the part numbers you believe you are in need of. On behalf of Frigidaire, I would like to provide those to you at no cost as a way of saying thank you for being a part of our family.

Wow, now that is customer service.  I’ll be buying Frigidaire from now on and will recommend it to my friends.

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A great day – and a slow run!!!

Yesterday was a good day.

By the way, I  forgot to mention that my last post was #300 for me.  Pretty cool.  Next month will be one year of blogging.  I never thought I’d do that – and never thought I’d run a marathon.  Pretty big year.

Back to yesterday.

To begin with, I ran… a little.  I went out for my walk and decided to mix in some slow running to see how my hip was doing.  It did pretty well.  I didn’t time myself, but that old man with the walker passed me on my run so I know I wasn’t setting a PR. 🙂  Anyway, I walked a little and ran a little and then repeated that about 5 times.  3 miles.  So, I am beginning to feel confident that my time off of running after my 5K injury has helped and now I can begin to slowly get back into a routine.  (@BigBigGeek, I think we can do a slow run tomorrow at the park.  I’m not sure I can run the whole time though, so you may have to go on and meet me on your way back).

So running will begin again.  TJ still wants me to run the Shamrock marathon in Va. Beach in March.   Hmmm.  I’ve been thinking that might not happen, but I’m open.  I’ll see how December goes and how our half goes in February and decide from there.  Frankly that was not an option to me until he brought it up.  Although I never thought of running Boston until he brought it up.  What would I do without him!

Finally two great things happened at work yesterday.  First, my work has agreed to purchase my Google Glass option for the company.  I love that I am in IT and at a company who lets me be on the cutting edge.  Thanks Work!  Second, I was notified that our organization and the program I’ve created will be featured in major media markets in an advertising type of campaign.  The software company is impressed with our organization’s story and how I’ve programmed their software.

All in all it was a good day.

Today will be even better!

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Google Glass… My chance… Just out of reach

Still no running.  Yesterday was not a good SI day as it was raining and my hip was not well.  It was hard to walk my 3 miles, so I took it slow and just tried to enjoy the rain.  At least I was able to do that much.  At this point I am thankful for what I can do.  I keep reminding myself that this setback was due to running the Magic City 5K a week ago Sunday.  It was awesome, so I can’t complain.  To be honest,  it was worth the pain.

I got a surprise this morning in my email.  I got accepted to purchase Google Glass.

My chance at Google Glass

My chance at Google Glass

It is on a very limited distribution and won’t be out to the general public for a while.  For a geek like me this is AMAZING.  For those of you who aren’t geeks, it is essentially your phone apps projected in front of you via the glasses.  Could you imagine as a runner having your pace projected right in front of your eyes!  So cool!

Here is a link: http://www.google.com/glass/start/

Here is a video of what it is like to wear one:

The bad news is that they cost $1,500.  My heart broke.  I have a week to accept the offer, but I think that right now with Christmas so close that I won’t be able to afford one.  Oh well, I guess my Pebble watch will do for now.  Maybe I can save some money for when it is out for general distribution.

Off to work.  Everyone have an awesome day.

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Run/walk/Boston/Hip/Mercedes post

Well this is the longest pause I’ve taken from my blog since last January.  I guess since the running hasn’t been happening and the holiday weekend was very busy and I only walked once…  I just had little to say.

About running.  I tried yesterday and my hip didn’t cooperate.  I got about 3/4 of a mile in before I had to walk.  As I ran I knew I felt stiff and pushing it wouldn’t be good, especially since it didn’t loosen up as I ran.  I blame myself for this.  I was just too busy to stretch and do the things I needed to do to recover from the 5K I ran a week ago.  I really wasn’t at 100% to run the 5K, but I wouldn’t have done it any different.  It was so much fun to see TJ win and me do well also.  Now I’m still paying for it.  That is fine though.  I am not complaining.  I’m thankful I can do what I can at this point.

It seems the Boston dream drifts further and further away.  I guess that is why I put that in my blog’s title, so that I would keep that as a goal.  I have to keep reminding myself that I have only been running for 20 months and have come a long way.  It is amazing what the human body can do when it is pushed.

Anyway, sorry to ramble.  I have started taking my meds for my hip again and doing my exercises.  Hopefully I’ll be back running my 3 -4 mile route soon.  I really want to run the Mercedes 1/2 marathon in February.  I ran it with TJ and RS last year and it was my favorite race of any I have run.  Lots of fun and finishing at 1:44 was a thrill.  I want to get better soon so that I can make it again this year.

I do know I’ll get better in time.  I learned a lot from my last time out for injury.  I just need to be patient and not push myself and hurt myself more.  That is hard, but easier this time than last.  I guess we learn wisdom with our experiences sometimes!

Today will more than likely be another walk as my hip hurts even as I write this.  Hopefully I’ll be better by the end of the week.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving / weekend / life!

Tom

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Post 5K scare

So after our extremely successful 5K on Sunday, I had a bit of a scare.

My hip was doing fine and my SI joint was a little sore as expected after running as hard as I did.

In the afternoon during the football game I went outside to give to dog some exercise.  I really didn’t run, but trotted along to get him going.  After a couple of steps my left leg collapsed beneath me.  Literally I fell to the ground as if my leg wasn’t there.  Hmm… that can’t be a good sign.

Since then my leg has improved greatly.  I used the heating pad all day Monday and took anti-inflamitories.  I also rested and haven’t run or walked (for exersise) since Sunday’s race.  Yesterday I almost couldn’t drive to work because I use a stick shift and pushing in the clutch was painful.  Also at work as I got up from sitting, I would be in a lot of pain for about 15 seconds and then it went away slowly.

Today I feel about 80% better.  No problem using the clutch and getting up doesn’t hurt.  So, I think for the most part running that race didn’t set me back too much which is good.  I am still doing my stretches and using anti-inflamatoires to keep things settled down.

Don’t worry.  I am not running.  I will not run today and I’ll see how I do over the holiday weekend.

One thing I learned from my last 6 week pause from running because of my hip is… Doing too much too soon, is not a good idea.

To be brutally honest, as I was in the middle of my 5K, I thought to myself…  I am running this race to the best of my ability.  I am not going to be stupid, but as long as my body cooperates, I will finish the race and run as hard as I can!!!

Once I get back to normal, I will begin building a base for our half in February.

It is cold in the South today (37 as a high) and very windy.  Today might be a good day to take off and rest… I’m glad it isn’t 70 and sunny!

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It was an excellent race

The Magic City 5K will be memorable a memorable race for me!

The temperature was 30 degrees at race time with 10 – 20 mile an hour winds.  My app said the windchill was 17 degrees.  We froze.

TJ and me running warmup laps - reflection of us in the window of a building.

TJ and me running warmup laps – reflection of us in the window of a building.

TJ and I ran some warmup laps and then waited at the starting line.  The race started and he was gone.  After the first turn I never saw him again until the end.

For me, I enjoyed it a lot.  The first mile went great.  I managed a 7:05 pace which is good for me when I am training, let alone recovering from an injury.  After that mile I slowed down a bit.  My hip started hurting again right around the beginning of mile two (I know – I started to quickly).  It never got bad enough to make me stop, but I was wondering at one point if I might have to get a ride back to the finish.  Luckily that never happened.

As I entered my final mile, I could see only two people in front of me.  One was a 10 year old boy and one an older man.  We stayed about 30 yards a part the whole mile.  As we were on the last leg, the kid took off and passed the man.  I just watched from a distance.  I thought I might have a good chance of winning my age group since I didn’t see too many people in front of me and didn’t hear anyone behind me.

As I came up to the finish, I misread the clock.  My PR is 21:48 and the clock read 23:15.  I got confused and thought my PR was 23:48, so I pushed really hard the last tenth of a mile (I paid for that decision).  I finished at 23:53, which is a 7:41 pace.  I was thrilled to learn I finished 11th out of 379 which, even if it isn’t a PR, I’ll take it!

As I finished TJ met me with the news that he won the race!!!  Wow, he has come in second in a couple of races, but never won.  In fact he had to run behind the lead cop car for most of the race which meant he couldn’t run tangents.  Still he came in 1st out of 379 people – very cool.

We hung around for the awards ceremony which had already started.  TJ went up to get his metal – I was so proud of him.  When they got to the age group awards, I didn’t get one.  I did notice that we must have missed the mens masters.  Could I have placed in the masters?  When the awards were all given out I went to the guy with the results.  I asked about the masters and he look on his paper.  There I was, 2nd in the masters category.  Not bad for a gimpy old man.

All in all it was an awesome day.  We got to meet Ruben Studdard since this is a race he put on for his charity.

We finally got to head home and enjoy our memories.

Tom

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Race results

TJ won first place overall and I came in 11th out of 379. Can’t complain. 🙂

Heading to the awards ceremony. Proud of my son!!!

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Heading out to the race

The coldest morning all year (35 degrees at race time) and my first 5K since August. We are about to head out. Should be cold fun!!!