A little background: 11 months ago (almost exactly) I decided that it’d be neat to start running a little. My regular cardiovascular sport at that time was inline skating, which I did with gusto… yet unfortunately skates don’t do too well in wet or snowy conditions. So rather than shift over to a weight training program like I usually do during the winter months I decided to “pick up” running. At that point in time the idea that I would one day run a Marathon was still somewhere between WTF and Crazy Talk, but a quick 5K seemed like a good goal to achieve.

What a ride (err… run) it has been! Through injuries, lost faith and motivation, accidental beer binges (long story) and seeming setbacks, I finally made it through to complete my first Marathon today. I had to learn a lot of things about what my body would put up with (less than I thought), had to explore much my body can take (more than I thought), and had to laugh about a lot of things I couldn’t change (which somehow increased the hilarity).

Now let me reiterate what others have told me: This approach to marathon running is not recommended, and you should always consult a medical professional before you do something of this magnitutde. I think I only got away with it because I’d already done a lot of regular cardio and as a result was pretty healthy. That, and I’m colossally stubborn and am a firm believer in Mind over Body.

Having said that, if anyone wants to follow in my footsteps (remember: bad idea), here’s the training plans I used:

1. Couch-to-5K Running Plan
   This plan is unlike others because it doesn’t slowly build up distance, it instead assumes that any human being can walk 30 minutes. It then starts injecting short periods of running into that 30 minutes, and after a few iterations of increasing the duration stitches them all together into one continuous effort… which happens to be 30 minutes of continuous running. If you’re running a 10 minute mile (a respectable pace) this’ll get you your 5K.

2. Mileage Buildup Plan
   At this point, you can easily run 3 miles on a regular basis, and you’ll quickly realize that extending it by another mile is a lot less effort than you might think (This is why many long-distance runners are fairly blase about anything less than 18). The reason I took on this plan was because I liked running enough to make it a regular thing, but not enough to really start training for a major race. With a 10-mile regular run as the final goal, I figured I’d be set to try something if the mood struck me.

3. Half Marathon Training Plan
   Peer pressure finally won over and I decided to do a race. This particular plan came up on Google, so I switched to it in the middle of the previous plan because I thought it’d be a neat thing to do. Fact is I was kinda sick of running without a concrete goal or race (the 5K actually had me run two races) so it came at just the right time.

4. Marathon Training Plan
   Unfortunately, I got injured during the Half training, so I ended up volunteering instead (For details, see the “Stupid Shit I Did” section below). After going through a few weeks of recovery (and let me tell you, endorphin withdrawal really, really sucks), my colleague Hanna mentioned that she was thinking of training for the USAF Marathon, and… well, by this time I’d caught the bug. So off I go to look for a marathon training plan, and wouldn’t you know it: This one actually started one week from the day I started searching.

Things to think about

First of all, remember that you need to be very candid with yourself about both your time availability and your commitment to running. Yes, a Marathon is the most fantastifrabulous goals of all of them (so much that I think we should replace the electoral college with a cross-country relay), but if your actual goal is just getting healthier and working on your endurance and cardiovascular system, a regular running regime will do you just fine.

Secondly, once you get up to the longer distances you will realize that running is painful… at least for the beginner. Mostly this is because you and your body haven’t quite come to terms yet on the equipment, the schedule, the distance or the fact that you’re doing this in the first place, but remember that long-distance-running is an endurance sport, which means enduring exhaustion, pain, injury and all kinds of other nastiness to get to your goal. Alternatively, you can just keep in mind that the first guy who ran one… died. How’s that for a reality check.

But most of all, and this is absolutely critical: Be resilient and proactive about bad stuff that happens- the worst thing you can do is ignore something that’s not going well, because it’ll derail you quickly. There’s no point in being a martyr when a little education and a little trip to the pharmacy will set you straight.

Having said that, most of the other advice I have to give I’m not really qualified for, so go forth and Google. The only things I am perfectly happy sharing with you is the blooper reel, which shall be titled:

Stupid Shit I Did Which You Shouldn’t

1. I bought my first pair of shoes online, without fitting them. As a web geek, it’s really easy to trust the sizes provided to you by a retailer, but nothing… I mean NOTHING will screw your feet up faster than a pair of shoes that’s not right for you. A running shoe has a very different fit from something you’ll wear to the office.
2. I thought I’d be all kinds of awesome and, rather than take rest days, repeat the previous day’s training regimen so that I’d be running every day and thus get fitter, faster. This, combined with the shoe issue and my own naivite, lead to…
3. …the fact that I didn’t realize I was getting shin splints, and thus ignored them, resulting in the injury mentioned above. Splints are actually a fairly common problem with me, and is usually the sign to get a new set of shoes or switch to the other pair, but in this case was just a matter of me having absolutely no clue about all the pitfalls that could befall runners. Verdict? Stress fracture in my left shin, and I was out for the count.
4. I thought it’d be an incredibly bright idea to explore a new running trail for one of my important major long runs (the 18 miler, second to last). Most of my running up until that point was in fairly easy suburban trails, so heading out to a brand new place to explore a new exciting trail… which turned out to be incredibly hilly and a royal pain in the posterior… was maybe not the best thing to do.
5. And lastly, I forgot vaseline for the Marathon itself. No, I’m not finishing that story.

This is where things get a little… uh… odd. See, I forgot to restart my Garmin at an intersection, so I never had a good idea of how far I was going. Instead I was simply listening to my body and how it felt about going that next mile, and before I knew it I’d not only passed the 670/Alum Creek intersection, I’d reached 3 Rivers Park.

My first thought? I didn’t know the Park was so close!

My second? Wait a sec, wasn’t that supposed to be 22 miles?

Urban Americans seem to have a mental barrier that prevents us from really understanding distance. Lets use flying as an example: Traveling from New York to Washington DC is perceptually no different than traveling from New York to Seattle. It might take a bit longer, but at no point do we ever have a full understanding of how fast or how far we’re going- we simply get into a large metal tube with small windows and in an hour or four we’re there.

This holds true for cars as well (though to a slightly lesser extent). Traveling in comfort, the only real difference between a day long roadtrip and a trip to the office is time and what we do at the destination. Distance is no longer an obstacle, and thus it has lost most of its meaning. Add to that such complex applications as Google Earth and Yahoo Maps and the concept of location is starting to blur within the digital space, creating no perceivable difference between here and anywhere.

This goes both ways: While we are no longer intimidated by long distances, short distances have gotten grouped into the mix. Even if the grocery store is only a mile away, we don’t think twice about getting in the car and driving because our sense of distance has become so compartmentalized. It’s almost like we live our lives in specific locations, with intermittent periods spent in travel capsules.

This is why I was so surprised at my biking experience, even though the insight had been knocking in my brain for a while now- Once you pursue traveling sports, your perception of distance rapidly aligns itself to reality, and surprise: The world is a lot smaller and more accessible than you thought. This builds on itself: After running 5 miles, 1 doesn’t seem that impressive anymore. After 20, 10 becomes a refreshing morning. Do that on a Bike and the world is your oyster. 30 miles? 40 miles? Whatever, that’s at best an hour and a half.

Or, in short: The world is small, and right there for the taking! Go out and Explore!

Two things make this Forerunner so special. First of all, it looks like a watch, and not like a portable computing device strapped to your wrist. Secondly, it doesn’t require a cradle, and uploads all of its data wirelessly with no fuss at all. In addition to that it does all the other neat things that a Forerunner does: Heart monitor connection, optional foot pod and cycling cadence meters, in essence anything that an endorphin junkie type-A obsessive personality (like myself) needs to satisfy both their compulsion and their high. Add to that the former two options and this geek was sold before it even came out.

I am now the proud owner of a Forerunner 405, and I have to say that for a first release attempt at massive feature expansion and miniaturization it’s an impressive piece of technology. The majority of the interface is no longer handled via a set of buttons, but is instead done via an iPod-like scroll wheel and tap interface. Furthermore it syncs seamlessly and painlessly with my computer- so seamlessly that it stealth-synced on me one night and confused me mightily when the notification popped up.

Yet even with this technological awesomeness, it’s somewhat obvious that this is a first generation piece of technology. The Bleeding Edge (TM) is not without its pitfalls, and there are a couple of things that annoy the living daylights of of me. The first one is that the 405 isn’t supported on the Mac version of Training Center yet. I tried, I failed. Thankfully my computer dual boots so that wasn’t a huge hurdle, and the on-board memory of the watch is large enough that I don’t have to approach the dreaded Windows more than once a week. I just hope the data files will transfer easily once support becomes available.

The real kahuna though is that the Forerunner 405 has a tendency to crash. I don’t know why- it happens randomly, and without any user input. I’ll just be happily running along in that comforting stupor achieved when you’ve firmly told the rest of your body to kindly stop its bitching, and when I glance down at the watch in the vain hope of a psychological pick-me-up I am greeted with a blank screen that no amount of fiddling (short of a hard reset of the watch with full data loss) will fix. I’ve read through the manual (hoping that this behavior was user error) and received no help there, and the product’s young enough that the community hasn’t figured out the cause yet.

Thus I say buyer beware on the Forerunner 405. Wait a generation for them to iron out the bugs, wait for a firmware update or three, and then buy one. They’re sexy, very sexy. But until this crash bug is figured out you really don’t want to get intimate with it.

But for now, a sorely needed update. My life’s been busy, but there haven’t been enough spectacular highlights to really fill an entire blog post. I think I’ve got enough material now, so here goes:

Two weeks ago my mom came to visit, and from what I was told she enjoyed herself immensely, even though I myself was under a bit of stress due to our impending launch and the Flex 3/Air presentation I gave. Much like any good mom she came, she cooked, she filled my fridge with food, and she left me a few surprises around the house that were sometimes pleasant, sometimes less so. All in all, good thing, if a little stressy.

Then there was the Flex3/Air launch, and since then I’ve been rooting around the new features like a truffle pig in a compost pile. The event went off well, though I’m still waiting on the reimbursement check. Further developments in the AUG have been pretty good, though I still have one of our members’ ladles and there was a little drama on the list a few days ago. On a related note, my involvement with the AUG has … well, I’m starting to become embedded in the community, and I’m having a hard time figuring out whether this is a good or a bad thing. I suppose only time will tell.

Last week, Jameel came to visit, and between myself and Nikki we showed him a pretty good time. The theme for the entire weekend was: “And this, Michael, is why people think you’re gay.” To explain, Nikki (who’s in theater) was remarkably good at seeding the conversations with lines which elicited from me some incredibly stereotypical responses. The end result was that the conversation was littered with all of us laughing frequently and me being embarrassed over and over again. Go figure .

I also had the opportunity to go snowboarding for the first time ever last week, and though I was restricted to the bunny slope I enjoyed myself so much that I’ll be repeating the experience tomorrow. It’s a far cry from the alpine skiing I’m used to, and much less of a workout.

Then wednesday, Kevin was in town and we went to grab dinner and regress to our arcade loving days. Conversation was… the exact opposite of the previous weekend, we discussed business, commoditization, value driven economies and had a fun time playing Client Brand Bingo in Easton ( His company does Retail POS displays). Beer was had, good times were had.

On running: The splints are pretty much gone, at the cost of my regular running schedule. I actually went to speak to some professionals, and according to their careful and detailed analysis (they looked at my walking shoes fora about 5 seconds) they told me I was running wrong. A couple of inserts later, and it feels like I’m just learning how to run again- there are muscles which are sore after only a mile, and in agonizing pain after 1.5, and as a result I’ve also been slacking on getting in to the gym itself. Part of that is not having an active training program right now, since my attempts to get to the half marathon marker were cut short. Ahh well, life goes on, and I’ll find a new race to train for.

Apartment & Junk

I always thought that getting a bigger apartment would give me more freedom, however as it turns out it’s greatly reduced what I do with it. There are small, predefined areas where I spend most of my time- my desk, the couch in front of the TV, the kitchen and the bedroom, and everything else is just… unused space. I’ve done a little experimenting, and realized I could very happily live on the second floor, barring showers and kitchen use. It really is too big for one person, meaning I should seriously look into getting a roommate or find a smaller place when the lease is up, assuming I can find one that can accommodate Couchzilla. Even so, I have a lot of junk I need to get rid of, which will only add more Empty.

This echoes back to a project I did back in 2nd Year Architecture Studio: My dream house. The project for me was an exploration of minimalism, the absolute minimum amount of space that I myself would need to live comfortably. It came out to about 600 ft^2, laid out in a 20′x20′ cabin with a half-balcony floor. Now I wonder… does my goal of buying a house in the next 2 years make any kind of sense? My idle inquiries so far haven’t found anything with less than 1200 ft^2, and as I now know that is far too much room for me. True- should I ever want to share a house with someone I know my minimalist shack would quickly get claustrophobic, but even that’s an argument to stay as a renter and keep my flexibility. Then of course there’s the crazy idea of building my own house, and design it to be expanded upon. Or I could live in a trailer.

Note to self: Mortgage assistance is a good benefit to provide to employees in a field with high turnover and frequent relocation: Owning property is a significant barrier to moving elsewhere.

Running

I have shin splints in my left leg… in fact I’ve had it for a few weeks now and it’s been steadily getting worse. Between dance and running I’ve certainly not given my legs any time to rest, so the slightest injury (I think it may have been a blister I had a few weeks ago) would have led to a noticeable favoring of one leg over the other, meaning an irregular foot strike and presto: I’m on my way to a stress fracture.

This is annoying in that I just started a fairly aggressive training program to culminate in April with the Cap City Half Marathon, and while I don’t think this’ll derail me (I’m hoping 4-5 days of rest will let my body repair itself) picking the program back up will be quite challenging.

In other news, while I didn’t qualify for this last round of bonuses, I did get a nice little gift card, which I might be dropping into a Garmin 405.

Dancing

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching regarding all my dancing recently. I do enjoy it, but the fulfillment I used to receive from it has been… well, somewhat diminished recently. I attribute this to a large extent to my entering the Ballroom scene: As my previous post mentions I’m not at all a fan of places that pretend to be one thing and really are another, and when’s all said and done they cater to the instructors and the studio owners, not to the students. I love to dance: It shouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

Even so I’m going to see this out: I’ve got lessons through July, and I might even compete in August. But after that I’m going to dance for fun, for passion, and because I love the attention .

Random Social Groups

There’s a German-speaking meetup here in Columbus at least once a month, and frankly I’d like to talk my mother tongue again. The next get-together’s tomorrow night, and I’m… mostly looking forward to it. We’ll see if anything major comes of it, but I’m hoping I don’t have to do anything more than show up, drink beer and speak German. In a similar vein I’m going to let my Mensa membership expire, because I’ve never done anything with it and most everyone I’ve met there has been insufferably arrogant. Yes, let’s sit around a table and talk about how big our brains are, that sounds like FUN%.

I’ve noticed that I’m starting to build a circle of friends outside of work. This has been… kind of awesome, actually, because I’m not actively trying to do it- it’s just happening. Give me three, four years and I’ll be just as attached to Columbus as I was to Pittsburgh.

Of course there are some caveats- I scaled my speed down to a 10 minute mile with ten second negative splits on the mile, so other than the distance increase I wasn’t really pushing myself. Even so it feels like a significant accomplishment not only because it’s the longest I’ve ever run in my entire life, but because I’ve also managed to break past the 3.1 mile mental barrier that comes with training for a much shorter race.

What really struck me about the whole experience is how easy it was to go the extra mile(s). Once I’d gotten up to speed and convinced my body it wasn’t stopping anytime soon, it was just a matter of keeping my mind occupied while my feet did all the work. My iPod really helped with that, but I’m told the bigger races don’t allow headphones. I can already imagining myself stopping after the 3rd mile because I got bored and saw something shiny lying in the road.

Also, pacing is a challenge. It’s easy enough on a treadmill, but when I run outdoors it’s hard for me to throttle back right at the start because I have no real way yet of judging how fast I’m going. This will probably come with time- after all, I started running when it was cold out and I’m a huge wuss about running in subzero weather. Once the weather gets nicer and I can actually run to work I’ll hopefully get better at this.

I find it odd that so many people who train for marathons treat them as single-shot goals. If I’m going to train for something of that magnitude I’d rather build up to it gradually so it’s something I can do on a regular basis, rather than give my all for one big herculean effort and then go back to life as usual.

So where to go next? Well, the mileage buildup program I’m on right now is having me do 6 miles (~10K) next weekend, so I’m within spitting distance of one of my goals. Additionally there’s a half marathon in April that I might accelerate my training for, but part of me isn’t quite ready to make the commitment yet: I want to make sure I’m comfortable at longer distances first (see above), and I still haven’t decided if running is going to supplant dance as my primary personal time suck.

Speaking of dance, on a whim I went to a Swing dance workshop in Dayton last Saturday (whose web page seems to have disappeared), and I had an awesome time (though they ran late and thus I had to miss the last lesson). Reading the description of the event you might have thought that it was a standard series of classes with fancy names- starting with the basics and then building on the same. In reality, the classes assumed that you had some Lindy background already, and rather than boring everyone with relearning the basic, really dug into the nuances and details of good technique. In short, it was Basic Lindy for Advanced Dancers. A day extremely well spent.

Of course, the event also came with a bit of a somber note; on the drive back my mind went into self analysis mode and came to the rather alarming realization that I am once again falling into my old Pittsburgh social patterns: I end up a part of so many social groups that I never seem to be able to really belong to any single one. How I personally define this problem is fairly moot, because I already know what the solution is: I have to give something up. Be it running, be it dance, be it blogging or cooking or my geeky gaming habits, something has to go so I can refocus on the remainder and really commit to them.

Is this anything new? Are you kidding? I’ve known this for years.

Mile 1: 7:55
Mile 2: 7:34
Mile 3: 8:12
Total Time: 24:30

The last bit was uphill (Enough for me to make an excuse of it, but not enough to account for 45 seconds). I really need to learn to pace myself- I was consciously pulling back during the first mile, but clearly not enough. Plus, whoever was sending me happy fast thoughts this morning right around 9:10 or so, thanks- I got a boost of… something right about then. Maybe it was second wind. Maybe it was wind. Who knows!

I was actually pretty lucky during this race because right at the outset I attached myself to a guy who seemed to be good at pacing himself. Turns out he was running a 8 minute mile- I left him behind a mile later and attached myself to a guy who’d just passed me. He then sluffed off and started walking, but that’s when my high-energy race music kicked in (the zomg motivational you’re in pain but still can do it tracks), so I was all good. There’s another 5K next week out in Hilliard. I’m this close to registering for it, too, but there’s an uphill grade on the last half mile. That could potentially suck. Plus, it’s at 5PM, which from past experience isn’t my best running time. Still…. tempting. Very tempting.

Weather report: 38 degrees, overcast, high chance of rain. Goals:

1. Run the entire way.
2. Start slow.
3. Do worse than the previous 26:29.

I think that’ll work for me tomorrow. I’ve mananged to sustain 20 minutes at 8 min/mile on the treadmill, and while I certainly felt it, I know I could have kept it for another 4, so that’s all good. The goal with this race first and foremost is to go all the way through, no stopping. Everything else is secondary, but if I can manage this thing called “reverse splits” (running each mile faster than the previous one) then I’d be super stoked. In other news, I’ve added 15-20 minutes of ellipticals after my normal half hour run every day. This is to get my heart and metabolism slowly used to the idea of keeping it up for more than 30 minutes, in preparation for starting 10K training. Also, having an XBox is really really bad for my exercise schedule. I’m like: Well, it’s 530AM, I don’t have to be at the gym for another hour, why don’t I play a little! (Two hours later) Well then, I guess I’m running at lunch. (lunchtime) ZOMGEMERGENCY have to eat at my desk. (after work) I’m bushed. Have to go run. Doh.

I should probably talk a little more here about my running adventures. So, this morning has me back on the treadmill, which I’m gradually moving up to the recommended 1.5 degree incline to simulate outdoor running (windresistance, etc etc). Because of work I actually took yesterday off from my exercise schedule, which my body thanked me for this morning by being extra happy. The training program’s got me at a 5m warm up, then a 5/3/5/3/5 run/walk interval. And man, I was smoking it, to the point of forgetting to keep track of the time and realizing I accidentally overran one interval. This is likely to change, mind you, because wednesday it’s got me doing 8/3/8 followed by 20 on Friday. But the way I figure, if I can pull off 20 straight at 8mm, I should be able to match my 8.5 from last weekend on Sunday with a sustained run. \mm/

Lessons learned:

1. Checking a stopwatch while running doesn’t really work. Just run, and slow down when you need to.
2. The cold air didn’t bother me.
3. After the second mile I didn’t need my fleece anymore, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
4. Don’t accidentally inhale and drink water at the same time (did this right after finishing. DOH).
5. Music is an excellent pacer. Hey, this song is over! That means I’ve run my first 5 minutes!
6. Don’t get caught towards the back at the start unless you like running over grannies.
7. 5K doesn’t sound like a lot, and you feel awesome after finishing it, but…

All in all, not bad for a month of training/first race.

The clock read 26.29 as I came across the finish line. I know I crossed the two mile marker at 16.26, so I’m guessing the 8.5 average was more like a 7/8.5/10 or something along those lines. I crossed lines after finishing though (The water lady was over there), so I don’t know if my billet number will match the clock.