Running and Goals

I’m not sure what happened to me.

I’ve been a runner ever since cross country in high school, but ever since high school I’ve been running sporadically. Maybe once a week during the summer, and not at all during the winter.

I figured I had enough running with the long hours I used to spend at the IMA playing basketball. And I was fit. So it’s not like I needed the extra workout. But then alcohol came along. And Dick’s at 3 in the morning, or maybe A pizza mart. Extravagant (not really) trips to whistler that included eating out every 4 hours on top of a drink with every meal. Work. Work happened.

And somewhere along the line, I went from being a “skinny” 190 lb kid to a “beer bellied” 205 lb guy. And I know. I know it’s not that big of a difference. I know that people would look at that and say, “Well I know X guy who’s gained 100 lbs since high school”. But I’m not that guy.

So I set a few goals for myself. By 2008 I will be dunking with at least 1 hand. I’m working on my vertical leap (I only need to add about 3 inches – sounds a lot easier than it actually is) and I want to run the Seattle Marathon. What the fuck, this will be my “quarter life crisis” since I’ll be turning 25 in April anyway. Run 26 miles to bring on the 26^th year in my life? Sure. Sounds like a good idea.

What started it all: I’m back in the gym. Sports is the reason why I work out. Some people work out to look good. Others just do it just because it’s “something to do”. Some people set resolutions for themselves to “lose weight this year” but I wonder the percentage of people still sticking to their resolution by March 15^th? This is partly the reason I stayed away from the gym for most of January…to avoid the “non-regulars” the “seasonals” as I like to call them.

With Michelle introducing back in to organized basketball in the Boeing league, I’ve got a reason to be in shape. I don’t want to be the guy getting left when someone charges hard from 25 feet out to the key. I don’t want to be the guy, during playoffs that’s bent over on the bench, almost about to puke from running so hard. I’ll admit, our team isn’t in the top division, but even in the lower divisions over the past 2 seasons (past 2 quarters) we’ve barely been about .500. I’ve wanted that to change. I’ve wanted our team to run hard, play tough D and win. I don’t claim to be the reason we’ve done so well this season, but I’ve felt much better during our games and we’re off to our best start ever, 4-0.

Running is an interesting thing for me. It’s like “optional work”. I don’t know if anyone feels like I do almost every morning, but every morning I wake up, I say to myself, “I don’t really want to go to work, but I have to.” So I do. With running, it’s completely my choice. Maybe I should say it’s more like a college class. I don’t really have to go if I don’t want to, but wouldn’t I feel better about spending my time learning in the class room setting taking advantage of the money that was spent to pay for that tuition?

Just getting started is the hardest part. Gathering up my running clothes, getting changed, setting up my nike+ (my new favorite toy!)…and mainly just having so many different excuses to not go running is the hardest part about running. Getting out and going there. And when my schedule isn’t the same every week, that makes it tough too. The schedule is this: Lift at least twice a week. Run at least twice a week. Basketball once a week.

The problem with the schedule? There’s no set time or dates for any of it. It’s all very “free form” because it is my “free time”. I just wish I could have that feeling every time I finished. I wished I could know that feeling immediately as I began running. That feeling of accomplishment. The feeling that I pushed myself.

And it’s weird, because I know that feeling. I’ve felt it many times. It’s just having that desire to get to that point that holds me up.

But once I get started (when I do get started) that 30 minutes of running that I do is great. The first 10 minutes I usually spend clearing my head. I’ve constantly got about 3-4 things on my mind. Bills I’ve got to pay. Jobs I’ve got to apply for. Something mean that someone emailed to me and why it affected me emotionally…But once I hit that 5-10 minute mark, it’s clear. My mind is “clean” for lack of a better way to describe it. My focus suddenly shifts.

It shifts to my breathing. The rhythmic in and out of my breath. My foot strikes. Am I using too much toe? Am I rolling my left foot from in to out too much? What’s my speed like right now?

By the end of my run, my focus turns to muscles burning. Which muscles are hurting me right now? My calves, my thighs…can’t stop now…more than halfway finished…here comes the hill, push hard until the top and then you can coast down the back end. This is me hustling to the ball faster than them. This is me out lasting them. What was that sound? Imagine that dog barking is chasing you…run faster…

It’s all very weird self-talk shit that I put myself through. You get a lot of silence (I don’t listen to music when running) when you’re out there on the road in 30 degree weather by yourself for 30 minutes. My neighbors probably think I’m crazy because I typically end my runs with a half-sprint where I come in to our cul-de-sac looking half dead and stripping off my clothes while stretching out.

But I love it. And the fact that it’s good for my body makes it all the better. If I could just help other people with my running, people in need, it would be the perfect act. Wait, I can run marathons and have people sponsor me per mile to donate to good causes right? My life is over…

The idea of running a marathon – and doing well, not having the ambulance drive me across the line as many have proposed – seems like a very daunting task. I was reading up about training for it and some of the web sites suggested running 10 miles in the morning, 10 miles at night. TEN MILES. My normal run right now is 3.2 miles, and that’s still a bit tough for me. My hope was to build up to 10 miles by this summer, have the ability to run 10 miles and just GO, and then do that every other day during the week. After running those every other day, I want to run the full marathon amount (~27 miles) over the weekend.

But just thinking about that makes me kind of freak out. 27 miles? Seriously? I don't think I've ever run that far over 10 miles...and that was in High School...

And I was thinking today about caloric intake. 27 miles would be more than 4 hours straight of running. Right now I run 3.2 miles in 30 minutes and burn 500 calories. Multiply that by 8 and you've got a burn of 4000 calories. A dieter's dream...so I was asking my doctor today (I got a physical) and she said that my "body would adjust" and would try to balance out everything I was burning.

Just for that fact alone, I am interested to see how I do at running 27 miles. And I've got 9 months and counting to properly train. Everyone's been telling me that I need at least a year to train properly. I think that I can usually accomplish tasks (when I dedicate myself to them) at a much faster rate than the average person...

I hope I don't get hurt/injured...