Day 20 - Damn the Dessert! and Dallas Morning News

Well, I tried eating good last night. I even ordered fish, which I rarely do, and was feeling very proud of myself for having had a reasonable lunch and dinner, making wise choices, and most likely not gaining any weight even though I was at restaurants for all three meals. Then the giant chocolate mousse cake showed up. Probably 800 calories worth, at least, and the plate was pretty clean when I finally came out of my chocolate transcendence and realized what I had done.

I woke up stiff, sore, and too hot this morning. It is Leap Day, and 70 degrees and oppressively humid at 5:45am. The hotel air conditioner has kicked in, but it is still too warm and sticky. The treadmill entertainment returned to local "Dallas Morning News" during my tough 3.2 miles, including how the "more liberal" Mitt Romney held on to Michigan; the down side of electric cars; endless Lysol and laundry detergent commercials; and not-so-subtly sandwiched between two short updates on teachers in Dallas being arrested for improper conduct or relationships with students, the surprising fact that Dallas teachers, who have good jobs in a tough economy, are protesting Dallas ISD asking them to work an extra 45 minutes/day without a pay increase. I finished and cooled down to a 10 minute in-depth look at tryouts for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, where the hopes and dreams of young, blond, southern girls from all over the world are made or shattered.

Really getting anxious to get back home.

Day 19

Tightly time constrained, I just cranked out a quick 3.2 miles on the treadmill at about an 8:30 pace. I am beginning to feel a little stronger and faster again. Eating way too much the last couple of days here in Dallas though...

Day 18 - Clock Error, or Two Beers and a Treadmill

Woke up this morning, put on my running gear, and was about to head to the treadmill in the hotel fitness center when I realized my watch did not match the alarm clock in my room. After checking my phone, it became clear that the hotel alarm clock was 25 minutes slow. Aaargh!! I figured I had just barely enough time still to get in a short, fast, 3 miles and not be late for work. I got to the fitness center, where I found one treadmill occupied, and the other broken. So much for that plan. Off to work...

Fifteen hours and eleven meetings and conferences later I returned to the hotel at about 9pm, after a big Italian dinner and a couple of beers. Oddly, I had no hesitation about getting my running gear back on and heading straight for the empty fitness center. Having not run in 36 hours feels weird already, and I am surprisingly not sore after my almost-eleven-miles yesterday. I expected much worse. Seems like I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, despite being slow and a bit heavy. After my day of work, the treadmill is actually an improvement. I discovered that it is not nearly as boring after a couple of beers. True to form, the hotel TV was showing the "Oprah Winfrey Network", but the sound was off, and the radio was tuned to a decent classic rock station.

The first mile was a plodding battle against side cramps from a stomach full of pasta, garlic bread, beer and steak. But once dinner settled and Bon Jovi started playing (which also sounds better after beer), I sweated out another 3 miles at an increasingly respectable pace, finishing four miles in 34:50. I even did a little core work before heading back to my room. Making progress...

Day 17 – Nice Run, Frozen Face

It is Sunday. I have no plans today other than flying to Dallas in the afternoon. Now that I have my tights, I decided to brave the 28 degree temperature and 20mph wind, and leisurely explore the off-street trail network around Fort Collins. I enjoyed the first miles, comfortably cruising around CSU and downtown. My gear adequately insulated me as I started out, except for  the occasional icy gust that would chill my face and fingers. I headed north on the “Mason Trail” along the railroad, then east on the really pretty “Spring Creek Trail”.

I found the signs at various points instructing dog owners to clean up after their animals ironic, as I found very little dog litter, but here and there in the middle of a concrete trail I would jog around a great big pile of horse manure.

As I headed east, I felt the wind picking up even more at my back, which didn’t bother me at that moment as it pushed me along at about a 7:50 pace without me trying very hard. But I didn’t like the thought of coming back. When I turned south on the “Poudre River Trail”, the crosswind gusts nearly knocked me off the trail a couple of times. I was hoping it would warm up by the time I turned into the wind for the last leg home, but it didn’t, and the wind was most definitely increasing.

When I came around to the west, a gust hit me full force, nearly bringing me to a dead stop. Within a minute, though my legs were fine, my face and hands were numb with the icy cold, and I was pumping my arms and legs hard just to keep up an 11:00 pace. I also had to go uphill. With nothing but open field between the wind and me, my gear proved insufficient. It felt like swimming upstream in a snow-fed river. Within a half mile, my face was so cold my teeth hurt.

After the longest mile I’ve run in a long time, I finally reached a turn south onto the “Power Trail”, a slightly more sheltered trail with the wind at my side and a little behind me, instead of in my face. I had ¾ of a mile to warm back up a little, then I turned west again for the last 1.25 miles to the hotel. I made my final turn into the wind preparing for the worst, but fortunately I was now in a residential area rather than open fields, and was now going slightly downhill. Though not as bad as the first westward mile, I battled for another 14 or 15 minutes to get back, and have rarely been so happy to walk into a hotel lobby.

I covered 10.7 miles total, probably my longest run in five or six years. With the exception of the couple of frozen miles near the end, I had a pretty good morning on some scenic trails. My body is holding up well, and other than the usual little aches and pains that come and go and a little soreness near the end, I didn’t have trouble with the distance. Feeling good!

After landing in Dallas this evening, however, I found that my new hotel is in the middle of an industrial/commercial area near the Dallas airport, with no sidewalks or bike lanes, so I might be back on treadmills again for a few days. Bummer.

Day 16 - Bears, Boots, and Rocky Mountain Snowshoeing

I woke up this morning at 5am to get in my requisite daily run, on the hotel treadmill since it was 18 degrees outside, before getting picked up for my snowshoeing adventure. Some might argue that snowshoeing should count as running, but what if it doesn't? I'm not going to blow my goal over that! I did my 3.2 miles, and fortunately it was too early for local news today. Instead the hotel TV was showing "Viking Wilderness" where I got to crank out my miles while watching bears in Denmark... hugging.

Though I borrowed most of the gear I needed, I could not get a good set of loaner boots on short notice. I dropped into REI yesterday to check out the clearance rack. Unfortunately, like my colleagues at the office, the clearance rack did not have a single pair of waterproof hiking boots in a size 13-narrow. Go figure. So consequently I now have a brand new pair of totally awesome boots that I hope I will use for hiking and snow play for years to come, because otherwise this was an expensive day. REI is a dangerous place for me. (Catching up with you in number of pairs of shoes, Jennifer, better go shopping!) I also bought a pair of running tights, partly for snowshoeing, and partly because even if it is 18 degrees again I am not running on the hotel treadmill tomorrow.

By sunrise we were on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park. We started at 8400 feet elevation in Wild Basin, and shoed up to just above Ouzel Falls at 9600 feet, a hike of about 4.49 miles according to the GPS. The morning warmed up quickly, and none of us needed all the layers we brought even at the top, which was here right under these peaks of the Continental Divide, and in the shadow of Longs Peak, the tallest in the park. I took this with my phone.

And here are the three of us.

Mostly we climbed on packed trails, but I got to "break trail" for the last 3/8 of a mile on the final 200 foot climb from the bottom of the falls to the top.

The entire trip we were climbing past awesome scenery like this frozen creek.

We returned to car at about 2pm, completing the nine-mile trek in about 5 hours including stops. By the time we returned to Fort Collins, the temperature was a stunning 61 degrees. Could not have asked for a better day, or a better way to spend a Saturday in the middle of a business trip. I'll remember this for a long time! And I have souvenir boots.

P.S. Way to go, Rose!!!!!

Day 15 - 20 Degrees with a chance of Treadmills

Woke up and checked the outside temperature, which is 20 degrees. I don't have gear for those temperatures, so I grudgingly hit the hotel fitness center treadmill this morning. Suffered through 45 minutes of local news on the TV in the fitness center, such as listening to every GOP presidential candidate comment on how wrongheaded and destructive the President's comments were on events in the Middle East in the last two days. I have no idea what the President actually said, or what the events were that he was responding to, or even what country or countries they were talking about, because apparently that is not newsworthy. But I got to hear all of what Newt Gingrich thinks about Obama's handling of whatever situation it was that he handled. And I got to hear 15 minutes of coverage of the backstage preparations for the Academy Awards. And that's a big part of why I hate treadmills.

But with the encouragement of Newt, Mitt, Billy Crystal, and big-haired local newspeople I sweated out five indoor miles in 45 minutes, including pushing myself through five half-mile "hard" intervals at about a 7:40/mile pace.

I was invited to go showshoeing tomorrow, which I have never done, in Rocky Mountain National Park, where I have never been. Also, I learned from the local news this morning that tomorrow is supposed to be a really nice day. It sounds awesome. So I will keep my run very easy and short tomorrow to save energy for that. I am being picked up at 6:45am, so I will need to get up way too darn early even to get in a short run. But I guess it's good preparation for the time zone I'll be moving to next week.

Day 14 - Hard to Typppe, Fingerrrs Still Numb

This is more like the Fort Collins I expect in February. 31 degrees, and a fresh dusting of snow on the lawn and roofs but the pavement is mostly just wet. Big storm last night, lots of wind, but it rained mostly, only turning to snow late. The pavement looked clear, so I decided to bundle up and head out again on the same course as yesterday. I was fine for a while, other than dodging a few icy patches, until the wind kicked up again. It sliced through my gloves and fleece like I wasn't wearing any. Within minutes I was a human popsicle. But I made it back to the hotel, and it didn't take too long for my hands to warm up enough to be able to unzip my pocket and get my key. Ran about an 8:50 pace over the 5.3 mile course today. Completed another week of running, and all the joints felt fine today!

Miles run: this week - 29.3   total - 67.1
Average miles per day: this week - 4.3  overall - 4.8
Time running: this week - 4 hours 24 minutes, total - 10 hours 29 minutes
Average pace this week: about 9:00/mile
Weight lost - still none

Day 13 - Morning in Fort Collins

I wasn't sure if I would get out of the hotel this week. Usually when I am in Fort Collins, Colorado in February, the morning temperatures are somewhere between freezing and "Oh my God." However, when I woke up this morning at 6am (that's way too early California time) the weather indicated 48 degrees - warmer than last night when I got here - and even with the wind chill from the gusts coming over the mountains, it's warmer than yesterday back home. Still, with all the snow on the ground, I dressed warm. That was good because I got to find out that bicycling leg warmers won't stay on. It was good in that I didn't really need them. I managed two laps around the small lake across from the hotel, 5.5miles, in 50 minutes. Even being in town I enjoyed the view, as the snow-covered mountains towered over everything in the clear morning air, at certain points reflecting a neon sunrise. Wish I had a camera! Knees felt almost 100%, and I wasn't too disappointed with the pace given the altitude, hour of the morning, and 30mph wind. Back to work now...

Day 12 - and repeat...

Thought about adding mileage today, but knees are still sore enough that I figure I'd rather keep working on getting them healthy than push it and make them worse again. Also, it is 38 degrees outside and I want to get back inside. Not as tough as I used to be. Getting really bored with the 3.2 mile loop, but since I'll be in other cities for the next 10 days, that problem should solve itself.

Day 11 - Recovering

Good news today. One knee feels back to normal, the other is still sore but much better than yesterday. Keeping the distance short for now until I am fully recovered, but managed my 3.2 mile loop again 4 minutes faster than yesterday, just over an 8-minute/mile pace. Tomorrow I leave on a business trip, so I'm hoping to get in a good run tomorrow morning before I have to do this on hotel treadmills at odd hours for a few days.

Day 10 - Knees Not Keeping up with the Program

36 degrees and overcast when I went out today. Fingers are still numb. My knees are still very sore, so I waddled through a repeat of yesterday's 3-mile "run". My muscles are finally starting to feel like they want to work again, but the joints are not keeping up. Will have to keep it short and slow until they get better. Found my big bottle of glucosamine-chondriotin supplements recommended by my phsical therapist last time I had knee problems. I don't know if they actually work or not, but since I already have them, I'll start taking them and see if it helps.

Day 9 - National Ice Pack Day

Woke up this morning with really sore knees. Was hard to walk down the stairs. I guess I'm lucky I made it 8 days before needing to break out the ice packs. Slogged through my 3.2 mile loop in 30 minutes flat. Every step hurt, but the first half-mile was the worst. After that, at least things loosened up a little. Hit a yoga class afterwards to try to stretch things out, and that also seemed to help, along with Advil.

Day 8

I knew this was going to get harder before it got easier. Slogged through 5.5 miles in 50 minutes on my lunch break with aching knees and hips, and various other pains. Still, a bit faster than yesterday. Sunny and 65 outside again, so that was also nice. My body is telling me it needs a day off, but I know from past experience that if I take one day off, it will turn into more. And I'll have to start my blog over.

Day 7 - One Week Down, 93 Days To Go

Today was almost 70 degrees, sunny, muscle soreness fading, and I had a nice break in my work schedule between 2pm and 4pm. A perfect day for a good, hard workout, since yesterday was pathetic. I planned to hit 8 miles at the best pace I could manage... turns out 9:25/mile was the best pace I could manage.

I was not even out of the parking lot yet when my legs reminded me of the concept of "cumulative fatigue" from the last six days. I decided to still try to cover the miles I had planned, but at an easy pace, just enjoying the sunshine. That mostly worked, but I felt like I was getting passed by mothers pushing strollers.

My body also reminded me that muscles are not the only things that need to re-adapt to regular running. The joints are a little sore, and certain sensitive skin areas are noticing the chafing. I had forgotten about that part.

Also I killed the diet part of this plan by feasting on pizza, sugar cookies, and beer when I got home. But I had a glass of orange juice to be healthy. Does that count? If so, I've included a healthy fruit-like substance for two days in a row. Slow, steady progress...

Anyway, one week down! Stats for the first week are
Miles run: 37.8
Total time running: 6 hours and 5 minutes
Average miles per day: 5.4
Average pace: 9:40/mile
Weight lost: -0.2 pounds. Right. Heavier than when I started, and that's not even considering what the scale will say tomorrow after my pizza and healthy-orange-juice fest. I can only assume I am adding muscle at an alarming rate.

Day 6 - Enough Fruit for This Week

Day 6: Well I almost fell off the wagon again already. Busy day at work, and booked with kid school stuff all evening. And I am not at all motivated because moving my legs is hard. I was minimizing trips from my desk to the bathroom all day to avoid having to stand up from my chair. But hey, if I don't run, I can't blog.

So I skipped a relatively unimportant meeting at two o'clock and sneaked over to the gym to try to get in my three miles on the treadmill before a more important meeting at three. But at least I had new running shorts that covered my huge ass! Also, I remembered my iPOD. Still took a half hour on the treadmill to get through 3 miles. At this rate, it will be a month before I can hit that 8 minute pace again.

Set on random shuffle, my "cross-fade of the day" was when Lucretia McEvil from Blood Sweat and Tears faded into the Blackeyed Peas' Boom Boom Pow. 7 solid minutes of surprisingly motivating beat despite the anachronism.

Went back to my desk, ate an apple, and was ready for my next meeting. Yes, that is correct, I actually ate a piece of fruit. Probably my first one since I started this program. See, getting healthier already! Washed it down with what was left of my extra large Diet Pepsi from my lunch at Taco Bell.

Day 5 - Going nowhere

Day 5: Ambitious again, but it is raining. I decided to try my old treadmill hill interval workout at the gym. The principle is constant speed, with several .5 and 1.0 mile hills at an 8% grade, and five .2 mile hills at a 10% grade in the middle. I used to cover this 8.2 mile routine at 6.2mph when I was in really good shape. Still very sore, I cautiously set the treadmill speed at 5.0 mph.

Just as I was stretching and getting ready to run, I realized I fogot my iPOD. I generally don't listen to music when I run, because in my neighborhood running with headphones is like asking to get run over by a teenage driver who is texting instead of watching the crosswalk. I want to hear the traffic before it hits me. But on a treadmill, the boredom is stupefying, and the odds of getting run over are somewhat less. Now I would have to fight still-sore muscles AND stupefying boredom. I survived to the last hill interval, a 1.0 mile 8% climb, and then I had to drop the speed further to 4.0mph - more like waddling than running. Still, I managed the entire 1 hour and 40 music-free minutes it took to cover the 8.2 miles. Actually I covered no distance, because it was a stupid treadmill. But the work got done. Pretty proud of myself. But I will really feel it tomorrow (again).

Day 4 - Nothing but Pain and Humiliation

Day 4: Ouch! OK, I need to crank out three miles again. I am in pain and not motivated, but here we go...

Crap! The only shorts left in my drawer are the shorts I got from the Singapore marathon in 2006, which were too short by any American standards even then. Might as well be running in a Speedo. But I need to get out there. Decide to stay off the roads and stick to off-street bike trails, and managed to crank out 3 miles... really, really slowly. Every step hurts, and I got funny looks again. Maybe it would not have looked quite so disconcerting to folks if I were moving really fast, but I could just imagine Adam Sandler saying, "If I wore clothes like that, I'd have to kick my own ass."

After work, I went to REI and cashed in a couple gift cards I had in a drawer for two new pairs of longer running shorts. Then went to Target and bought one more pair (half the price, if lesser quality). Much more confident now. Decided not to wash the Singapore shorts, just threw them away.

Day 3 - Way Too Short

Day 3: Sunday, February 12th. Feeling lame after yesterday, I ambitiously tried to cover my old 8.5 mile long-interval training route. My long-interval pattern being 10 minutes easy warmup, 20 minutes hard, 5 minutes easy jog, 20 minutes hard, and 10 minutes easy to cool down. Total 65 minutes. I had to shorten the loop due to my slow speed, when I realized that the full 8.5 miles would need to include an additional 20 minutes to finish. My "hard running" interval pace was still slower than the 8-minute-mile pace of the other day, and I still hurt. At the end of the 1:05, I had covered only 6.5 miles, and walked the last half mile home.

Most importantly, I realized that my 6-inch running shorts from 6 years ago are way too short for modern running style. I inferred this from the odd laughs of passers-by, and the local teenagers I passed who said, "Dude, put some pants on!". Also a couple of catcalls from passing cars which included personal remarks about my pasty-white thighs. Definitely need to get some new running shorts. Still, I covered almost 7 miles. Not bad. After some rest (and changing into longer gym shorts) I went with my wife to an exercise class at the gym for some strength training. Ha, ha, ha! Ambition can be a good thing sometimes, but I think I fell asleep on my mat when the group started doing push-ups.

Day 2

Day 2 : A three mile jog today was all I could manage because I hurt. A lot. Every step told me I was an idiot for running my guts out yesterday. Took me a half hour to cover 3.1 miles, and that was working.

Day 1, February 10, 2012

I'm not starting completely from ground zero. I have run 7 times in the last 3 weeks, 3 to 6 miles at a time, but before that I had not run in months. The 6 mile run felt like a marathon, and my pace was safely slower than a 9-minute-mile, a far cry from the 7:25/mile marathon pace of yesteryear. Also, I am 15 pounds heavier than when I used to race, but as I am carrying probably 5-10 pounds less muscle, that means I've got about 20-25 extra pounds of fat to deal with. I don't look fat, though, because I am one of those people who doesn't carry the fat on their stomach very much. I just have a huge ass. I would probably be a great golfer.

Today I managed 5 miles in under 39:56 (39 min, 56 sec), on flat roads in an all out effort to prove I am not as old as I am. Not half bad! Much better than I expected to be able to run. But then I had to walk the rest of the way home because I nearly died trying to beat the 40:00 mark to 5 miles. But an 8 minute pace for 5 miles is much better than I thought I could do at this point.

The Goal

My History: I was an overweight young adult couch potato; a complete and total nerd. I started jogging when I was 29 as part of my attempt to lose weight. It worked. I lost 35 pounds in 18 months, got addicted to running, and finished my first marathon in just under 5 hours at age 31. Within 5 years I was a semi-serious marathon runner, managing a personal best marathon of 3 hours and 12 minutes in 2005, and competing in the Boston and Singapore marathons in 2006. I then became a volunteer track and field coach and started helping others to run, jump, and be healthier. Years passed. As a father of three with a busy day job, I gradually sank back into couch potoatoism again, where I have been since I turned 40. Now, at 42, I want to get back off my butt, and I would love to go back to the Boston Marathon again someday.

Last Friday, I set out to try to run at least 3 miles a day, every day, for 100 straight days to get myself back on the wagon as a serious runner. I directly know (as in not just reading about it) one other person who has done this before, a fellow track and field coach, so it can be done, but he was an animal and actually won marathons (as in first place in the San Francisco marathon at age 36, taking home the big check, etc.). That's not me. I have never taken home any plaques, medals, or cash from running. My best was to crack the top 10 in my age group in a couple of local races. Right now, my short-term goal is to get back to racing a 10k or so in the top quarter or so of recreational runners my age by summer. 100 days is the first step in my comeback...