It's Labor Day weekend, time to get moving

Day 26 -- Sept. 2, 2012

Today I'm 192 pounds of rolling thunder.

Which being 192 pounds of rolling thunder isn't that great, but I'll take what I can get.

Yesterday's run was one of those sandwich jobs that life throws you way. I had to sandwich getting out on the road between work, family needs and dawdling.

In the end, it was only 30 minutes, but it was a solid 30 minutes of non-stop running. No walking. No pausing (except briefly for stop lights). And no whining.

Sometimes these shorter run days are OK though. They get your legs moving but help refresh them at the same time, so I feel better when I do go back to my normal hour or hour and a half runs.

They are also good for your mind. By taking loops you don't normally do, it helps cleanse your runner's palette. It's a break from the same hills and flats and stop lights

Like I said, it wasn't a great run, but you can't run in a hurricane's rain every day. But I got out and moved, and that in and of itself is a blessing.

So it's Labor Day weekend, and if the world's slowest human can get out on the streets, so can you. Whether it's walk or run, I'm giving everyone I see out on the streets this weekend a big wave. Please return the favor.

Isaac Provides A Good Soaking

Day 25 -- Sept. 1, 2012

Today I'm 191.6 pounds of rolling thunder.

At least I was at 6 a.m. when I got up to take the boys to their first cross country meet of the season.

Note to self, cross country coach always sends emails late. 

So it's 6:30 and I'm checking the emails as what's left of Hurricane Isaac continues to dump rain on our neighborhood. What started as bands of drizzle about midday on Friday slowly became a steady, calm rain by late in the afternoon, and it stuck around all night.

It appears to be a real drought-breaker, but it's been so long since we've had this much rain I can't tell.

Yesterday I laced up my running shoes and took on Isaac. Well, I took on the drizzle of what was left of Isaac when it came into town.

There are certain things that are great in athletics. Football practice in the mud. The sun shining down on you on a cool morning out on a bike. And call me a fool, but a good run in a warm rain is always enjoyable to me.

 

So even though my running window was limited by work and a desire to go watch my children in the Lancer Day parade, I chose to embrace Isaac and take the long way home.

Friday was my long day so I felt obligated to run my 6.5-mile route. The start of the day was much like the day before. I slogged up the first hill in my run/walk/run manner. And I even made a decent charge to the midway mark of the second.

Maybe it was the magic of Isaac or some unknown fitness kicking in, but my only stops the rest of the way were to wait out stoplights. I climbed the last two long hills and all the rollers without a walk.

When I got home, I was soaking wet. My running shoes had turned my socks a particularly nice shade of burgundy. But the warmth of the day and the refreshing drops of a long-awaited rain made the soaking all worthwhile -- plus, my running shoes really needed a washing. The summer sweat had granted them a personality all their own.

So we carbo-loaded on pizza and got the boys down early -- early for teenagers. 

When the alarm rang at 6:30 a.m. it felt like just minutes had gone by since I shut my eyes. I thought to myself, there's no way they'd cancel a cross country meet if there wasn't lightning.

How wrong a dad can be? After checking emails for 20 minutes, I gave up and started getting ready only to hear from the other room that the cancellation email had arrived.

So much for planning, but thanks so much to Isaac for a good soaking.

Looks like Isaac is sticking around for another day, so if you see the world's slowest human getting a good soaking today, give me a wave.

Today it's steak knives and Lancer Day

Day 24 -- Aug. 31, 2012

Today I'm 193.4 pounds of rolling thunder. 

I've got to give a tip of the hat to the Runner's World butt kick of the day. 

"With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable." 

-- Sir Thomas Foxwell Buxton, British philanthropist and politician

I'm not sure about all things, but many, many, many things are attainable if you have the ability to just keep your focus. Sometimes it's just a matter of outlasting and out-wanting your opponent.

Today is Lancer Day for the boys' school. On one level it's an excuse to escape the bonds of school an hour early on the Friday before Labor Day, and on another it's a great way to build camaraderie in the ranks as the teams and clubs join in a big parade.

Sometimes, it's all about the try. Tomorrow we'll find out how far our two intrepid runners have come in their careers. It's the first meet of the year and often times a scorcher. This year, however, Isaac promises to drop some much-needed rain in the area and hopefully keep the temperatures mild.

Last year, our older son ran 21:33.6 for the 5K on a fairly warm day on a mostly flat track. This is a 5-minute improvement over his time as a freshman two years earlier. Our younger son got his first taste of running competition and finished in more than 30 minutes. 

A year ago, the fastest junior varsity runner on the team finished the course in 19:31. While that's a lot of our older son to chop off from his 20:01 in last week's time trial, it's a within that attainable window. At least it's within the range of setting as a reasonable goal.

As parents we're glad that they're out there moving and having fun with their friends. Knocking down times is fun, but learning the passion for a life-long sport that will keep them fit, healthy and help relieve stress is the most important thing.

Our older son is definitely wired to set goals and obtain them. Although he may never admit it, earning his way into the top 20 on the team is a big deal. Beating down his times will be icing on the cake.

Oh, my run yesterday? Nothing special, except I found two steak knives along the side of the road. Who loses steak knives? Who runs with steak knives? Not me.

I just pound the pavement and pray for rain. Or listen to the radio to find out how bad the local teams will be this year.

It's Friday, so if you catch the slowest human out wrestling with Isaac in the rain today, give me a wave.

 

Do We Really Need 'A Kick Butt Thought Of The Day?'

Day 22 -- Aug. 29, 2012

Today I am 194.6 pounds of rolling thunder -- and proud of it.

Late last night while I was pulling in the last of the Hurricane Isaac stories for the television websites in New Orleans and Jackson, Miss., an interesting email popped into my in-box. It was my "kick butt thought of the day" from my friends at Runner's World.

Somewhere in all those little check boxes you go through to find something on a website I must have clicked the one that said, "Yes, send me kick butt thoughts of the day."

So Tuesday's thought was "Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement."

At about 1 a.m., Pop Tarts and Mountain Dew were the fuel in the furnace of personal survival.

Obviously, author Brian Tracy had a little more high test in his tank when he penned that thought then I did as I slogged my way through the final paces of my work day.

Maybe that's what's wrong with my running. I have no goals. I'm not planning on going to race. I've accepted my place as the world's slowest human. 

Or perhaps my goals are just couched in different terms. Yes, I'd love to weigh about 20 pounds less (I can feel that furnace heating even as I type) and running is a means to that end.

And yes, I'd love to be able to run farther and faster, but life will go on if I don't.

For years as a cyclist I'd set my training goals based on making a week-long 500-mile trip in early June. It was the kind of motivation that got you out on the bike in February and March when you were more like a rolling sleeping bag than a bicycle rider.

It also helped you keep mileage logs and back away from desserts as the first day of the trip approached. It helped you to work on defying gravity by losing more weight so the climbs would be easier (but gravity still sucks, no matter how low your weight gets).

So having the date on the horizon served as a much more tangible goal and a primary motivator as opposed to things like weight loss and general fitness which seem to be residual effects of my running.

My run on Tuesday took a little different track than usual. It had been a long time since I ran with weights. A lot of coaches don't approve of running with weights in your hands because it can affect your gait, form and strain your upper body.

I find it a good way to train your upper body at the same time you are working the lower half. I don't carry much weight, maybe a pound or two in each hand. But after an hour that weight can seem like a ton, especially out in the heat.

So I rolled through my workout, a little shorter in distance but a more intense overall body workout. 

I guess one of the things I love about running is the time you can spend solving problems in your mind. In some ways I guess that stokes your internal furnace in a different way.

I just wonder at what age I realized that cynicism is the ash produced when the fuel of hopes and goals have been burned away by the furnace of good intentions? Maybe I'll share this thought with my new friend, author Brian Tracy.

OK, you know the drill. You see the world's slowest human out running/walking, give me a wave.

It's All About Isaac In The Long Run

Day 21

Today I'm 194.4 pounds of rolling thunder.

Of course not as thunderous as the hurricane that is currently taking aim at the Gulf Coast, but a rolling blob with ground-shaking abilities nonetheless.

Yesterday was a long day, both on the road and at the computer screen. 

I foolishly told my bosses that if anyone needed help with hurricane coverage, I was their guy. By morning there was a note, and I was in play. In play until 1 a.m.

Out on the road things were heating up. After a respite from the heat over the weekend, the burner was back on so my run was not as easy as it had been last week.

I walked and ran up the starter hill and then rounded the turn into the first downhill. Usually somewhere around this point I know if it's going to be a strong day or a weak day. If I roll down the hill with relative ease and then take the long, slow rise in the next block without trouble, I'm usually good for the day.

This time I labored through the rise but did not walk. But the big hill that followed involved considerable walking through the steep part.

I found my way fairly well through most of the first 3 miles, until I gave in to my nemesis long hill and walk/ran the rest of the way to the top. 

Usually, the 4.5-mile mark is where my legs start feeling the added distance. This is where I tell myself to push on through. I can cut the route and make a shorter day of it, but it almost always comes with a guilty feeling. 

So I pushed on allowing myself to walk on parts of the final steep hill. With the distance and the heat, I was OK with it.

By the time I logged on to start hurricane coverage the waiting game had begun. My work calls for me to help two TV stations that are directly in the path of the storm. Their editors were nervous and for good reason.

Everyone involved could remember the path of destruction that Katrina brought that way. It was sort of an eerie feeling to think that the giant storm hit the area almost seven years ago to the day that Isaac was expected to make landfall.

The good thing this time was people were taking the storm serious. They were getting their homes ready and making exit plans. Politicians both locally and nationally were focused on making things as safe as possible. 

Round one of my long day stretched well into the night as we prepared people with information about the upcoming storm. With the storm reaching hurricane status today, I'm sure my working long run will take on additional urgency but again stretch into the night.

So today, if you see a rather sleepy looking slowest human making the rounds, give me a wave -- and some caffeine.