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Resolution
Written by Nathan on January 31, 2009 at 10:57 am from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 31, 2009 at 10:57 am from A Month of Resolve.
After 3.1 miles in 30° weather, my first month project is over. There are a lot of things that surprised me about both this month and my culminating effort. I ran under the timer at 28:20 today, which is frankly a terrible time in light of how fast I’ve run the rest of the month. But according to my timer, there’s another story which is sadly only slightly less depressing.
This being my first 5k, I didn’t fully grasp how the race worked. I was in the middle of the pack waiting to start running with my friend, John-Erik whose run most of the month with me. The announcer said “ready, set, go!” And I stood there. For many second. The I ambled forward in a slow walk towards the start line which took even more time. I finally got 100 meters into the first mile after more than a minute, compared to my usual first 100 meters of 20 seconds.
Throughout this month I’ve tried to start fast so I tried to compensate for that lost time and still end my first mile in the 7-minute territory. Sure enough, I ran past the “one mile” sign around 7:20 but that meant that I ran most of the mile in 6:30. I couldn’t keep up my pace and never managed to get a good rhythm. On my timer I finished the last three miles (ignoring the first tenth) in about 27 minutes give or take 5 seconds.
I would’ve liked to have run faster, harder or better. But 31 days after I’ve started, my month of resolve is completed. I don’t think I beat Bush (despite my efforts I can’t find any recorded times from his tenure as president) but despite the steep goal, I stayed at it throughout the month. I plan to continue running - I don’t want to waste this $100 pair of shoes. Besides, in August I’m heading to Brazil to play soccer with kids for a week or two and if I’m not consistent in training there’s no way I’ll survive.
Here’s to a good January, and hopefully an even better February.
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Ending this month with a exercise in extremes
Written by Nathan on January 30, 2009 at 10:23 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 30, 2009 at 10:23 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Today marked my first easy workout. Tomorrow will mark my hardest workout. An exercise in extremes, and hopefully one that leads to a successful end to this first project with the running of my first 5k.
I’m not sure what time I’ll post - owing to an overplanned day, I never managed to pick up my race packet which means that I’ll have to arrive at the race even earlier than I would otherwise. So I’ll be heading from my home around 5:30 which is more frequently a time that I go to sleep than a time I wake up. Couple that with an expected cold morning, and I don’t expect my body to be particularly cooperative.
But whatever drawbacks I’ll have pride, shame and adrenaline pushing me to do well. We’ll find out which circumstances win tomorrow—around the same time you’ll find out what my next month’s project will be. Should be a good day!
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Final preparations for a month of resolve
Written by Nathan on January 29, 2009 at 8:53 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 29, 2009 at 8:53 pm from A Month of Resolve.
For the past months we’ve had very little rain in Central Florida. As my lawn had graduated from green to yellow I’ve cast my eyes skywards increasingly often, hoping for a glimmer of grey and the rains that would hopefully follow. Today we finally enjoyed a healthy rain for most of the day and I tried to make the most of it. During lunch my kids and I ran around in the rain as my family had a picnic lunch under an outdoor covering. The weather was perfect for playing in the rain and my lawn’s probably thankful. But with the rain still falling, my plans at an outdoor run were thwarted.
So instead I executed my workout intended for tomorrow: I went to the YMCA, biked hard for half an hour (12.5 miles with high resistance), then moved straight to the treadmill. I wanted to get a feel for how far I could run fast when I get near the end of the 5k on Saturday. Having seen videos like this, of triatheletes running out of energy mere feet from the finish line, I thought a little internal test was in order.
The biking was good, though still not as physically demanding as I’d like. But I had two problems when I ran. The first treadmill had a loose track, so within 20 strides the whole tread slipped. If this has ever happened to you, you probably know it’s a terrible experience. It’s like stepping on the proverbial banana. So I jumped on another treadmill and starting off. My body felt great at the 6-minute-mile pace, but no more than 30 seconds in and my calves started burning and cramping. The pain was bearable, but with two more runs in the next two days, I decided to stop two minutes and 1/3 mile in.
Even so, it’s good to know that when I get near the finish line I should have some kick in me. It may not be 1/3’s worth after running so far, but if I can wrap up my first two miles in 15 minutes I should be able to post a respectable time.
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The promise of tomorrow
Written by Nathan on January 28, 2009 at 9:49 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 28, 2009 at 9:49 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Perhaps the greatest allure of an ongoing project is that regardless of today’s failures, there’s always tomorrow. In fact, that’s one of the joy-givers of life as well. The reverse is also true—that regardless of today’s successes, tomorrow’s challenges loom near. But on the whole the perpetual promise of tomorrow has always overshadowed the fear of coming challenges.
Despite my slow progress, many aches and frequently disappointing times I’ve taken frequent solace in tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll speed up. Tomorrow I’ll feel better. Tomorrow’s I’ll finally achieve what I want. But all of those tomorrows obscure the good work of today. For 4 weeks, I’ve pushed my body hard on a daily basis. For most of those days I’ve run 3 miles and for the remainder I exercised as hard as I thought I could (and often harder). I’ve reduced my time by almost 20% and if things work out, I may even edge that up to 25% when this project ends.
Certainly by some metrics this could be a month of failure. But I set out to chase Bush this month - to honor a resolution I (recklessly) made more than eight years earlier. And I’ve honored that resolution every day along the way. Sometimes all the talk of tomorrow and the promise of improvement has caused me to miss the value in the present. This isn’t just true of my month of resolve.
In a week or two (or three or four) my wife will give birth to our third child. As exciting as the building anticipation has been, balanced the building of tomorrow against the joy of today has been hard. I have two delightful children whom I adore right here, today. Two kids that are wonderful and engaging and kind and truly a pleasure to be with. And no matter what tomorrow holds, I don’t want to let a moment of today slip away for a lack of proper focus.
Often I hear short-term vision used as a derision toward a supposedly small-minded person. But a wrong emphasis on the long-view can be just as destructive. I could miss the months with my kids in my eagerness to perfectly prepare for the next child. I could ignore my investment in a full workout (a hard bike workout) today in my desire to get through to tomorrow.
Or I could pursue the potential I saw yesterday and seek to make today truly great. Perhaps I’ll fail—in fact often I will. But the cost of constantly ignoring today will surely prevent my tomorrow’s from ever being more than empty promise.
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Better than any words
Written by Nathan on January 27, 2009 at 11:57 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 27, 2009 at 11:57 pm from A Month of Resolve.
11:56 on 1.5. My legs and feet are unhappy about this.
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This is how I feel
Written by Nathan on January 27, 2009 at 10:51 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 27, 2009 at 10:51 pm from A Month of Resolve.
But it’s time to run, so here I go.
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Midday workout crowd
Written by Nathan on January 26, 2009 at 10:42 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 26, 2009 at 10:42 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Today I set out for the Y during my lunch break. Even in the parking I was struck by the different clientele working out midday. The locker room was filled with pressed shirts and suits, instead of the normal mix of everyman that usually fills the gym after the work day is complete. There was also a healthy mix of seniors on the weight machines, but gone were the noisy, awkward classes and mostly absent were the families taking advantage of the YMCA’s excellent child care.
I took it easy on the bike today, limiting myself to a slightly slower pace than normal. By the end of the my workout my right foot which had hurt all day, felt looser and my back had finally relaxed. Unfortunately the good from that workout was mostly undone from the subsequent afternoon in my office.
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The gradual return to normalcy
Written by Nathan on January 24, 2009 at 11:23 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 24, 2009 at 11:23 pm from A Month of Resolve.
For most of my life running has been a pleasure. Of course, I’ve always had a limit and when I approached that limit the joy of running would quickly evaporate. But never have I associated running with pain until this project. So when I ran today, and managed to log two miles without complication or issue, I was especially happy.
Even better, I ran my two miles in 15:28 minutes, with my first 1.5 in 10:50. Those are bests for me so far, and I managed to do the run without really pushing myself. When I was done, there was no leg pain and the entire experience felt normal. Given how elusive normal has been the last 10 days, I have renewed hopes for finishing this month well. My only real weak spot came during a specific song on my playlist where I lost focus and walked for nearly two minutes. The moment I realized what I was doing, I started running again (and kept running, fast, until I finished), but the damage was done.
The time you spend can never be regained. No matter how fast I run afterwards, every few seconds of walking causes irrevocable damage to my time and there’s really no excuse. If I’d stayed focuses, perhaps I’d be reflected on a 14-minute 2-mile run. Or a first mile and a half in less than 10 minutes (I briefly walked around the 1.25 mark). But instead I let too much time seep away.
Granted, I need to pause occasionally else I’d probably keel over. But 2 full minutes of walking, so close to the end, just because the song wasn’t motivating is a supremely lame reason to underperform in what could’ve been a genuinely respectable time.
On the upside, this beat my best-ever timed 2 mile run. The previous best took place in high school when I was trying out for soccer. The coach had a rule that no one could try out for the team unless he could run two miles in less than 16 minutes. I spent the winter fattening up, and when the spring came I was completely unprepared. I slowly lapped the track until with 100 meters to go heard the coach shout that I only had 15 seconds left. I really wanted to play soccer, so I sprinted with everything I had and finished with 15:59. I was 14, and was in the last group cut from the team 2 weeks later.
After getting cut from soccer, I started running with the track team and that 15:59 was probably the slowest time I would’ve posted in high school if I’d ever timed myself again. But I never did, so I can take additional encouragement that so many years later my absolute fastest run is just barely faster than the slowest (but only timed) run I did in my youth. If I can recapture a little more of that decade-old form, maybe I’ll have a decent shot at W.
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Working out in stereo
Written by Nathan on January 23, 2009 at 11:35 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 23, 2009 at 11:35 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Tonight at the Y I had the good fortune of running into my friend and co-work, Gus Davies. Gus is one of the most pleasant people that I know and for 20 minutes we biked next to one another, until he split for some weightlifting. In the 23 days I’ve been pursuing Bush’s best 3-mile time, this is the first time I’ve worked out with another person.
The experience was jarring for it’s utter lack of familiarity. After weeks of workout solitude, having a friend seated so close recontextualized my entire experience. Gone was the freedom of pace, here instead was the awareness that someone would know if I was taking it easy. Gone was the ability to purely focus on my mechanics and effort, replaced with easy conversation.
The net result of my workout was similar to previous solo bikings: 7:30 for the first three miles with a fair steady 2:50/mile pace for the half an hour. But the whole time I just felt off in this new workout environment.
All of this has me wondering how I’ll do on January 31. I’ve signed up for a 5k, and there are so many strange variables. Instead of running alone, I’ll have more than a thousand people with me. Instead of running at night, the race starts at 7:30. Instead of running through my neighborhood, I’ll run through Universal Studios. Throw into the mix that this is my first 5k and this could all be a recipe for disaster.
So it’s likely that these huge changes will also result in a huge change in my time. But I’m worried that my new numbers would be for the worse and not for the better. At least with an early morning start time, I’ll have day to recover and stage an end-of-day run if I need to.
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The cruel joke of aerobic workout classes
Written by Nathan on January 22, 2009 at 11:33 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 22, 2009 at 11:33 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Every day at the YMCA I walk in past a large classroom that hosts all sorts of workout classes. Sometimes it’s yoga or pilates, but often it’s some strange aerobic class involving loud dance-friendly pop. The way this particular Y is setup, every man heading to the locker room must walk past this classroom, which is lined with mirrors. There are no doors, so there is no practical way to avoid at least seeing the classes in progress.
After years of on-and-off membership I’ve decided that a majority of those classes were designed just to embarrass the participants. I cannot fathom any normal reason such a volume of grunting and groaning such ever be publicly encouraged, least of all from people in form-fitting cloths, surrounding by mirrors, over-lit by the hard glare of fluorescent lights. Why these people sign up for the classes, I’m not sure. But having witnesses mere moments of a uniquely awkward class this afternoon, I’m resolved to keep my eyes out for hidden cameras.
Oh yeah - I biked again today. I wanted to run, but my left calf has taken to continually aching and with freezing temperatures I don’t want to spoil what few remaining chances I have to run a fast 3 miles.