What's this got to do with running?

Well, this has absolutely nothing to do with running. But I still wanted to mention it on my blog.

I was perusing through a bunch of different blogs and happened upon this photography page: http://leelikesphotography.blogspot.com/. Now, I don't know anything about photography or cameras, but I found it interesting because the photographer's descriptions of the photos weren't all artsy-fartsy or technical. It was just a blog written in the language of the common man about why Lee liked or didn't like something or found this or that thing interesting or whatever. Then Lee would take a picture or a series of pictures of something that would seem rather ordinary to everyday passersby and share something that he loves with people he doesn't know, neither for profit nor persuasion, but for the sole purpose of sharing his passion.

And it seems to me that THAT is what it's all about folks. Get excited about something. Do it all the time. Share it with others. That just sounds like a smart plan for life. And not to toot my own horn like I've got life all figured out or something, but that's what I'm aiming to do with my own blog and running. And I kind of smiled when I realized that I was following in the footsteps of this small-time photographer who seems to have it more together than most of the big-business millionaires I meet while I'm bartending at my fancy-pants, Italian restaurant. So, congrats, Lee. Keep up the good work.

And it turns out Lee is just a junior in high school.

Happy running/photographing/fill-in-the-blank-with-something-you-love.

I have a secret.

I love secrets. They remind me of ninjas, because ninjas are basically real life secrets personified. And I think ninjas are cool.

Anyway, back to my secret. You know how Clark Kent had a day job as a journalist, but secretly he lived this super-human life at night? Well, I’m the same way, but in reverse. I’m a bartender by night and a super-human by day. Everybody who comes into my restaurant thinks that I’m just some regular Joe Shmo with a button-up shirt and tie who knows how to make a decent vodka martini up or on the rocks. What they don’t know is that hours before I got to my night job, in my secret life, I RAN more miles than what they’ve DRIVEN for the day. And I take a lot of pride in knowing that. And knowing that they don’t know that. In fact, they barely know that it’s humanly possible to run as many as 10, 15 or 20 miles all at once.

Speaking of humanly possible, let’s just touch on how the marathon figures into that little category. Humans might have been intended to run from the dawn of time, but they were not intended to run 26.2 miles. You know how I know? Because the first guy who did it died – Pheidippides, may you rest in peace. That’s right, the first time someone tried this little stunt that we know today as the marathon, he keeled over and kicked the big bucket minutes after crossing the “finish line.” (Talk about the ultimate finish line.) Of course since then, we’ve improved quite a bit, and it’s become somewhat humanly possible to complete the marathon. But rest assured, as I do, that when you complete a marathon, you are accomplishing a task that was not always humanly possible. Today the most daring individuals find it to be semi-possible. Making them real-life, semi-super-humans.

Happy Running.

If I can do it, anyone can.

I was just reminiscing today about when I first started dabbling in running two and a half years ago. I started with a two-mile loop around the park three times per week, and man, did I think I was fit!! (Sometimes I’d even throw in 20 pushups to boot. Wow, what a beast I was.) If you would have told me that I’d be running TEN times that amount in a week with barely any sweat off my back two years down the road, I would have laughed in your face. People couldn’t possibly run that far. But here I am. Along with 400,000 others. People just like me across the states that finish a marathon every year. So, if you can do a two mile lap three times per week, you can start thinking about finishing your first marathon. Talk about an accomplishment.

While it's really fun to think about how much progress I've seen in my running over the last two years, it's also nice to think about how much running has changed my lifestyle. It's just not possible to stay out drinking till the wee hours of morning and to get in a 10 mile run the next day. So I kicked the drinking habit and little by little developed a healthy lifestyle. Trading in a phenomenally healthy habit for a possibly tragic one. Talk about an accomplishment.

Sometimes less is more.

As a personal trainer, I end up giving a lot of people advice on getting fit and staying fit. As a marathoner, I end up giving a lot of advice on weekly mileage, good form, etc.... And it's funny, even though I end up giving lots of advice to lots of people, I'm pretty reluctant to take it myself! Despite all those times I've counseled people to start out taking very small steps to increase total weekly mileage to avoid overtraining and injury and to listen to their bodies and take a break when they need it, I just couldn't heed it myself - fool that I am...

So let me just re-iterate some points to keep you running injury free. (Should that word be hyphenated?)

1. Increase weekly mileage about 10% per week.

2. Make every third or fourth week a recovery week.

3. Keep a log/journal/diary-with-a-unicorn-on-it to track how your body's holding up - and pay attention to it!

4. Here's one of my favorite quotes, I think from Bob Glover's Competitive Runner's Handbook: "Better to wind up at the start line of your goal race 10% undertrained than even 1% overtrained."

I made the mistake of increasing mileage almost 20% per week for a month, skipped a recovery week to get in an extra race, and constantly wrote in my log that my body "badly needed a rest day." Well, I was forced to give it ten rest days when I hit that 1% overtrained point and injured my left calf.

Sometimes less is more. Happy Running.