July was a fast and furious month for me. Apart from starting a new job, there are birthdays, parties, friends, family, and the like. Add to that some oppressive heat and humidity that kept me more indoors than outdoors. Excuses, excuses….

I was trying to get my long runs in on Sundays, since Saturdays were largely booked. Still, I fell short of either my mileage or the full run many of the weeks. Last week I determined that if I wasn’t able to get out on July 30th then there was no point in training up for my marathon in October. So determined…I awoke and readied myself for a long run. The group was going 16 miles (where I should be) and I was targeting 14 in hopes of capitalizing on my later than scheduled marathon.

I was able to get 13.1 miles in on Saturday morning thanks to some friends in the running group. When I split off from them to complete my shorter run my energy levels sunk. It was hot, humid, and I’d already had signs of heat exhaustion. Still, I was able to recover and finish my long run thus getting myself back on track.

It isn’t enough to want the marathon. I need to want the training too. One doesn’t happen without the other in my head but I seemed to have foolishly separate the two. I’d rationalized that not getting my short runs was okay as long as I got out once a week. But, I wasn’t even doing that. No more. I want the training, I want the marathon, I want the healthiness that I’m building toward.

It is time to get serious and now I am.

I need some nonsense to fill my Friday and this video does the trick. It’s time for some Epic Meal Time. These guys are nuts and the gastrointestinal fortitude they display is incredible. I chose this video because it most has to do with fitness training but you should spend some time cruising around their website and getting a real feel for how much fun they are when it comes to food.

Warning: This video can contain some crassness, crudeness, and lightly edited profanity.

Smart!

Hey, I don’t win contests very often. I consider myself lucky in life but prizes, contests, and multi-million dollar lotto payouts seem to not be part of my luck. Every once in a while I win something and yesterday I won something fantastic, a KT Tape Father’s Day Giveaway.

The contest was to tell a story about how KT Tape makes you a better Dad. The winner gets a free roll of KT Tape. You know that my running makes me a better person, Dad, and husband. Well, KT Tape makes my running more possible.

Like a lot of runners I suffer from an IT Band friction problem. I worried, early on, that it might dead end my running aspirations and tried a lot of different remedies for it combined with the right stretching and conditioning. Alas, nothing worked…that is until the KT Tape application for lateral knee pain.

This little application supports my knees when I run and post-run during recovery. I’m such a fan that I recommend to everyone experiencing about any kind of pain during exercise to check it out (you should too). I also buy the big roll to get me through the training seasons without having to buy lots of little roles. Smart!

I’m honored to win the KT Tape contest and thrilled to be getting a roll of purple KT Tape to wear for races just for my little girl. After all, without her I wouldn’t be a Dad and without KT Tape, I wouldn’t be running which makes me a better Dad.

Even better, they’re going to feature my story on the KT Tape blog. I’ll be reposting it here for you.

A big thank you to KT Tape. In a world where professional athletes get a lot of attention from sports and sports allied companies, KT Tape is taking it to the streets for the everyman. I’ll wear my tape with pride and be pushing it even more to folks now.

Image #1 Source: Justin.li, thanks.
Video Source: Lumos Inc/KT Tape, via YouTube, thanks.
Image #2 Source: KT Tape, thanks.

Health impacts of negative stress is widely studied and the research shows just how bad your body reacts to continual trauma. Sadly, we ignore this and, worse, we don’t talk about it enough to stop it from being so prevalent in our lives.

For me, stress has played a recurring role in significant health problems. In 2000, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Papillary Thyroid Cancer, left my job, and entered treatment around that health issue. In 2009, I gained a tremendous amount of weight, ran up my blood pressure, and was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. In 2010-2011 the toxic stress of work wore me down again and I could sense the health issues arising.

The last 7 months or so of my work life have been filled with an inordinate amount of frustration. Continual re-organizations, complete loss of clarity, circular logic that passes for direction, ethical concerns, Peter-principled leaders, and being regularly belittled/berated by my boss was wearing me down. I’m under no delusions that the environment became toxic and that toxicity was causing me undue stress. I noticed a parallel with a similar poisonous work environment that occurred in 2009. This time, though, I did something about it…I left.

The outright/intentional toxicity and blatant workplace bullying put me into a highly volatile and negative position. That stress negatively impacted my health both physically and mentally. I’ve added a few pounds which I rationalize as building muscle but know is  just fat. I’ve slowed my running down both in frequency and pace. Lastly, I stopped my strength workouts all together as a result of the stress.

The physical aspects of stress manifest as a result of my behavioral response to such negativity and stress. Behaviorally, I stress-eat and intake foods not on plan, not in moderation, and that don’t promote healthy energies. Worse, I withdraw to the point of implosion. While I’m sure the people at work knew I was feeling angry at being treated unprofessionally and poorly, the worst (I’m sad to admit) was saved for my family. This is amplified by my embarrassment and animosity about the stress being misplaced on a loving and supportive family who did not deserve the lashing out, yelling, cursing, or anger; for that I am truly sorry and making amends.

The funny thing about the behavioral stuff is that it becomes a downward spiral feeding on itself all the way down. The poor behavioral response begets the poor physical response which in turn drives more negative behaviors and so on. It sucks. I accept my role in the spiral and my response to the stress.

I can’t help but be accountable for my own behaviors and reactions. I think that acceptance is part of the healing and recovery of the toxicity and workplace bullying that was the source of the last round of life stress.

I think this is an important aspect of blogging about my marathon training. I think we all have stressful times that knock us back. We feel as though we aren’t allowed to speak about it or are embarrassed about the reactions we have to it. That nonsensical and self-imposed barrier needs to be knocked down.

The stress can be channeled into a fuel, of sorts, for moving in a positive direction. For me, it just took a little while until I could get it channeled. Here’s what I’ve done to channel the negative into some positivity in my life, my training, and my family.

• I left the workplace bullying and toxicity behind
• I apologized to my family for every moment of anger caused by a bad work situation
• I’ve spent more time being Mike – the husband, the father, the friend, and the good person I know I am
• I started back with the marathon training group on Saturdays and get out more during the week.
• I am doing a 100 pushups a day challenge in July (more on this later).
• I bought a commuter bike to run around town and get some cross training, save time, and save money.
• We, the family, celebrate our freedom from a bad place with bad people often.
• I am cleaning up the office in my home and ridding our happy home of the shit from my last job.
• We’re reclaiming that office for a play/homeschool room for our daughter and filling it with positive energy and toys

Stress, when dished out by others, is a difficult thing to manage. It hurts to be on the receiving end of things and know the way out is shrouded in darkness and mystery. It was hard to make the step but when the opportunity arose, I saw it and took it. It gave me a way clear of bad bosses, bad decisions, bad ethics, and road to happiness in my life.

My health is too important (and so is yours) to let awful people steal it from me (you). It is the fuel, now, that drives the engine that takes me to a happier, healthier life filled with more accomplishment and success.

Thanks for reading this long post.

Image source: bottled_void, thanks.

My wife begin with a Fleet Feet – Buffalo No Boundaries 5K training group this last Spring and finished her first ever 5K race at about 42 minutes just a few weeks ago. She was eager each Monday to hit the park and get out for her training runs. There were lousy weeks and great weeks but it all culminates in a feeling of triumph when you cross the finish line of that first race. I remember mine and remember being awfully alone in my training.

Maggie talks about the mentors and coaches as if they were friends and to some degree they are friends. These mentors push and nudge the running group further, answer questions, and cheer on the group. It was awesome to her Maggie’s stories each week.

As I cheered Maggie on at the finish line I noticed the mentors peeling off the race course and going back to get more new runners to push through to the end. It was neat to see them run that race over and over again, essentially, to help the new folks finish stronger than they had thought they could. As I stood there, I thought, being a mentor probably is very rewarding.

There was an article in Runner’s World a few months ago about how mentoring new runners and just being a friend changed the mentors’ views on running and abilities. I wondered, then, if it was something I might like to try. I know one thing, my wife and I have an agreement – we don’t play sports together and that might push into the mentoring running thing.

A lot of things are in motion right now with my work situation and picking up the Marathon-Rookie Training Group, this aside from the sheer novice status of my running. Perhaps next year I will give being a mentor a try given that I will have been running longer and stronger for a longer period of time. Mentoring might be one way to get out more, learn more, and be more of a runner for others.

Image Source: Me, that’s my Maggie and Olivia running for the finish.

When I started running back in July 2010, I was advised to read Dean Karnazes’ Ultramarathon Man to get myself motivated and see an extreme of the sport I was entering. Dean is EXTREME and while I marvel at his athleticism and endurance I know he is working at the limits of his ability and that is what makes it amazing. I don’t desire to run that far or that often but I do want to run to the limits of my ability and stretch myself.

As I read through the book I noticed that his running motivation switched from a personal endeavor to a charitable one. Karnazes was taking his love for the game and adding it to folks that needed that love and support. He wasn’t running merely for himself, at some point, but for others. That planted a seed to give my running some external focus.

In my own journey, I began running for myself, my health, my peace of mind. I was grossly obese, grossly unhealthy, and grossly GROSS. I was in no position to run for anyone but myself. I needed to be a better version of ME for myself and my family. A mentor of mine once told me you can’t help others when you’re in such a position that you need help yourself. Not that I exclusively subscribe to that theory but it makes sense to some degree; I couldn’t run for anyone else because I needed help running myself. Short of paying for races that benefit a cause, I’m not all in on the charitable running front. As my running improves and I feel more self-confident in my ability, I am looking more seriously at the running for others notion.

A friend of mine, Tracey, recently set a fitness goal for herself to swim 600 meters in open water. Firstly, I am proud of her for setting a fitness goal – it is awesome and inspiring. Secondly, she is swimming and raising funds in support of another friend’s daughter who contracted a form of childhood Cancer. Now, Tracey is charity-minded; she supports numerous causes, initiatives, and needs throughout the Western New York community and it something I’ve always admired of her. It made sense then, that she would combine her doing for others mindset with a fitness goal/need she perceived for herself. Admirable.

Tracey’s story isn’t unusual at all but it is personal. I gave me further motivation to look at running for others and sizing up a worthy cause to support through my running. Over the last year I thought about causes that spoke to me:

• Active and healthy children
• Diabetes; I was diagnosed on December 23, 2009
• Thyroid Cancer Research; I’m a survivor

There are a lot of charities that host runs, lots of causes to support but I think it is important to find one that speaks to you. I suppose I need to make a decision about it if I’m serious about it. Who do you run for?

Image Source: Daniele Satori, thanks

I recently picked up a bike to commute around town with. It isn’t anything fancy but I tricked it out with the commuter rack, saddlebag, mirror, and lock. I took it out for a 6-mile round trip the other day and noticed how different it is from running. Granted, I’m going in the same direction (forward) but the pushing is coming more from my quads on the bike. I feel like this is complimentary to the running; which is probably why so many runners also bike or tri.

Additionally, I noticed during the Buffalo Half Marathon and earlier long runs that my upper body was tight, sore, and weak. ow, I had been going to the gym three times a week most of the Winter but an unfortunate work stress load and situation prevented that from happening in the Spring. Still, I think the marathon training this Summer/Fall will demand some cross training in this area. My job situation is changing and getting out to the gym during the day might prove difficult. Leaving evenings or early mornings as my choices. My training pal, Amy, has a nice group of exercises for upper and lower body activity. Now I need to get the time to commit to them again.

Finally, the whole idea of a Monthly Mission can figure into the cross-training program. If you remember

Here are some of my own questions that could turn into a monthly mission:

• What would my body feel like if I did 50 push-ups, planks, sit-ups, crunches, etc a day?
• How many books could I get through if I read 1-hour a day?
• Do I really need Facebook?
• Can I eat an exclusively vegetarian diet?
• How much quicker can I get my distance pace for running? (Running about a 12-minute mile now)
• What would happen if I didn’t yell at anyone or anything?
• How would my house look if it was worked on everyday?
• Can I make a cool iPad/iPhone app without any existing programming knowledge?
• Could I knit a blanket large enough for my whole family to sit under on the couch?

A former co-worker of mine had a 100 pushups a day plan and it worked pretty well. The idea wasn’t to do 100 pushups at once but to fit in at least 100 pushups during the day. The trick, as my co-worker explained, was to find 5-10 minutes and some non-trafficked areas to get down and give me 10. This might be a nice July monthly mission, fit in 100 pushups a day for the month. It might also be a good idea to combine some crunches in the mix. Perhaps I could split the middle and go 50 pushups/50 crunches or situps each day.

In any case, I realize that this 18-week push to my first marathon will require a dialed up degree of focus. What do you do to cross-train? What are some good ideas for a novice marathoner?

Image Source: Sanchom; thanks

I’ve been slacking for 2 weeks on my running and exercise. I’ve also been under a lot of stress for the last few months at work (more on this in a follow-up post on stress and my health). Combine these two things with a habit of eating like I was running 20+ miles a week and it makes for an easy slide up the scale.

Stepping on the scale this morning I noticed a number beyond my acceptable window of healthiness. I’ve also notice that in the last few weeks I’ve been sleeping less, snoring more, and being sloth-like during the day. Last night I wonder why my left leg was hurting and realized it was probably a nerve pinch from sitting on my ass a little too much lately.

The real deal with massive weight loss, maintenance, and healthiness is to be on plan 100% of the time but willing to not beat yourself up about getting off track from time to time on accident. I didn’t make a conscious choice to add some pounds, become too sloth-like, or feel lethargic. However, it happened and I need to accept that, make a plan to be on plan, and get back after it. I feel a little angry at myself but not so much that I am paralyzed by that anger or frustration.

Seeing Maggie run her first 5K yesterday and hanging out in the running community for a day was a nice kick in the ass. I needed one. I was so proud of Maggie. She’d been training and on a plan for 12 weeks to complete her first 5K.She was dedicated, focused, and deservedly eager to complete her goal.

As she crossed the finishing line crowd, she reached out for Olivia and they ran to the finish together. I was never so proud of her (and Olivia). That pride is my energy, my lever, my catapult into getting back onto my plan of dropping some weight so I’m inside my acceptable window and carrying on with my marathon training.

The first step in the plan is dial back the noshing and snacking. My stress levels for the last few weeks and months has been so high that any trip to the kitchen resulted in grabbing a snack or two.

Second point of the plan it watch what it is I am eating in terms of salt and fat. This is a hard thing to monitor but I know my salt/water weight is always higher after some salty goodness or a fatty delight.

Third point is to watch those carbs. It is a hard thing to do in any home. Quick snacks of carbs are easy to grab and so prevalent in our house. So, monitoring that will be key to dropping weight.

Now, it is not easy to lose weight and train for a marathon, this I know from the Spring and talking with other runners. It is possible and finding the right nutritionally balanced diet will keep energy levels high, give me the fuel to train, and help me lose the weight I want to lose.

So what is my goal? Well, I am setting it higher than I need to get into my window of weight normalcy. In fact, I am trying to find a new window of weight normalcy so my weight loss goal is to lose 30 pounds before the end of the Summer.

Image #1 Source: Wader; thanks
Image #2 Source: Me!

Yesterday was an amazing day. So amazing, in fact, that I’m not even sure I am ready to write about it but I’ll start with some initial thoughts.

My goal in 2011 is to run a full marathon. Well, complete a full marathon. I’m under no delusion that I’ll be running for a full 26.2 miles. Part of that journey was completing a half marathon along the way. For me, I chose my hometown race as the milestone – The Buffalo Marathon (Half). I’d been training since January and steadily increasing my distances up to 12 miles for my long runs.

My runs were generally in cool to bitter cold temperature range so the forecast of a hot Sunday morning was something different to contend with than I’d been training on. None the less, come race time, I was out there waiting to go.

Katie from Breathless Runner and Fleet Feet Buffalo was along side for the first few miles and then somewhere about mile 3 disappeared. We passed each other about mile 5 and then she caught up to me about mile 10 and pushed me to the finish.

The first few miles were scenic and cool. Running through the Buffalo Waterfront area is a unique experience and one with advantages of the cool breeze blowing in off the lake. Crossing mile 6 though and it started to get muggy and warm. As the course continued we run through Buffalo’s industrial and Old First Ward sections and it offered neither scenic views nor relief from the pounding sun. Fans along the way, though, were out to support, clap, and offer a lawn sprinkler or two.

Somewhere along the way I noticed my body doing some unusual and un-experienced things. I’d been fueling at the correct intervals but noticed my hands starting to tingle. I wasn’t sure if this was due to a blood sugar imbalance or due to the high levels of heat. I also feel as though I might have been overhydrated. Granted I didn’t stop for a bio-break but I felt sloshy (if that makes sense). I also found that my calves tightened into softballs forcing me to walk more than I would have wanted. Finally, or along with all this, I notice the base of my foot beginning to hurt as though I had a rock in my shoe (at race’s end the check revealed no such rock).

I was fortunate to have a friend running along at the end with the pushing, the encouragement, and the no one left behind attitude. Crossing the finish line in a run was a phenomenal experience and I remember thinking 13.1 miles is a long way and probably long enough. Some four hours later, I was ready to think about the 26.2 goal for this Fall.

I put in my full effort and in talking with some folks, the effort was more than expected due to the high heat and humidity of the day. I feel confident that the marathon training group will push me further and I’m ready for it.

Image Source: Maggie

…maybe a little too much honestly. I was so stoked about logging long miles and adding strength each week that when the taper came along I was ready for the break. Little did I realize how much more discipline it takes. Wanting to run long and being advised against running long on the training program are hard forces to navigate.

So, it manifests with me as not running very often. That is easier with travel for work, high stress levels, and just wanting to hideout at home after long hours on the job. Not to mention the torrents of rain and wind we’ve been getting and without a break for weeks on end. One week and a few days away from race day and I feel weak.

I trust the training plan but my laziness combined with rain delays might not be on the plan. I’ll get out tomorrow and Saturday for a bit and then again on plan for next week. Race day is coming whether I’m ready or not.

I’ll bounce right back from the half marathon by signing up for the Marathon-Rookie group with my favorite Fleet Feet-Buffalo running group. Fall’s marathon is just months away!