success in multiples

Sometimes, when I run, or better said, when I am training to run in a race, I get into a rhythm and lose myself in thought and day dreams. Those are the best runs, when I don't worry about the way I'm breathing, the way my foot is hitting the ground, the pace I am running.


Yesterday was one of those days. I planned (and was scheduled) to run an easy six miles at a pace slightly above last week's easy six mile pace. Before I got to the gym, I put in a successful day at the work, taking care of many different and new tasks with enthusiasm, accuracy and professionalism.


By the time I was ready to go to the gym, it was dinner time and I knew I would need something before the six miles. I had my trusty PBJ left over from lunch and decided to use that as long distance fuel. After the sandwich and the drive to the gym, I got onto the treadmill at the gym with mixed expectations. I was a bit tired from longish day at the office, the last workout I had a couple of days earlier hadn't felt like it was productive and I worried that eating a PBJ so close to a workout might weigh me down.


My first few laps were a bit tentative, worrying that I might feel really tired or bloated. Nothing. So, I kept going, steadily, smoothly putting miles under my feet. By the halfway point, I knew that I would be fine and that I had energy in reserves. With that thought, I upped the pace for the second half of the run and gave it a bit more energy and spirit. I ended the run with six miles logged at a better pace than projected and the wonderful karma of a job well done.


Today, the workout was intervals at increasing speeds. I came home first and instead of having another PBJ (why go with a successful combination?) I made some bacon and eggs for dinner. After the meal, I waited a little over an hour and went to the gym. Interestingly, the taste and feeling of the bacon and eggs lasted a lot longer than the previous day's PBJ and not in a great way.




Still, I plunged ahead with 6 1/4 mile intervals with 1/4 rests in between. The first one felt okay. The second and third ones got really aerobically uncomfortable but I could tell that part of that was warming up a bit. The last three intervals at a good pace (which can still move up, cool for me) pushed me to work hard and in the last half of the interval focus on good form and steady effort. In the end, I did all six at the pace I had wanted, increasing the pace on the final 1/4 mile to more than I had planned, with just a fraction more of an aerobic struggle to get there.



So, two days and two good workouts. I feel like I am getting ready in a good, steady and progressing mode for the races I want to run this summer. And, as a side bonus, I should be in pretty good shape for walking the course in league.



Have a good one. KipK

chin up champion of the third grade

When I was in the third grade, living in England, on Lakenheath Air Force Base, I went to school in a Quonset hut. A Quonset hut looks like a large, corrugated aluminum can cut in half and laid on its side. My third grade teacher was a man, the first time in my entire 4 years of education up to that point (counting kindergarten) I had even seen a man teacher, let alone be taught by one (sadly, I don't remember his name - so he shall be called Mr. Johnson). I liked Mr. Johnson and learned a lot in the third grade. The class I was in was the accelerated class, something they did regularly in the Air Force, which I thought was a good thing. So, the students in the class were all the go getters from the third grade.

Our first day of class, we all came in and saw the classroom. It was very cool from my point of view. We had an aquarium. The bottom of the aquarium was covered with hundreds (maybe thousands) of marbles. I came to know later that our teacher Mr. Johnson, took wayward marbles from students who could not keep them in their pockets or lunch boxes and dropped them with great drama and ceremony into the aquarium. I think I lost one marble to the watery depths but no more.

There were maps and charts and other large poster pictures on all the walls. In one of the door ways, connecting our classroom with another on the other side of the Quonset hut, above the standing reach of any of the students, was a sturdy bar, fixed in place with rubber stops at each end. This was the chin up bar. Over the course of the school year, we had multiple competitions involving the chin up bar, seeing who could do the most at one time. My chief and closest rival, pushing me to do better in each battle was my next door neighbor, Susan. I remember one particular battle, when she went first. She did an unbelievable number of chin ups for a third grade girl (or boy). As I got on the chair to grab the bar, I had only one thought, "I have to beat her." I started off fast and furious, knocking out chin up after chin up. As I got about 2/3's of the way there, I started to get a little tired and felt a little tightening up. In the competitions, the only way you could rest was to be in the up position. I pulled myself up, gathered myself and finished up with several more chin ups, passing her by one. I dropped to the ground as the class cheered, gave a tired but happy smile to Susan and went back to my desk, the class champion.

running, running, running

I read several quotes about running that were all good (and mostly true). Here are a few of them:

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

Frank Shorter

"I'm never going to run this again."

Grete Waitz after winning her first of nine New York City marathons

"Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'."

Paul Tergat

Running is like mouthwash; if you can feel the burn, it's working.

Brian Tackett

Life is short... running makes it seem longer.

Baron Hansen

Bill Bowerman was, and is, and ever shall be a generous, ornery, profane, beatific, unyielding, antic, impenetrably complex Oregon original. As a freshman, I found him deeply disturbing. Once he bet me a case of Nutrament that I couldn't break 2.00 for the 880 on a freezing Saturday morning. I ran with control, hitting the 440 in 60. I could feel myself accelerating in the last lap. Near the finish I knew I'd done it. I slowed and turned, gasping to hear the time. "2.00,3" he said. "Good try." I leaped on him, screaming made insane with outrage. He allowed me to wrestle the watch away from him. It read 1.56,6.

Kenny Moore

Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed.

Charles Schulz, Peanuts

That Which Does Not Kill You.. Makes You Stronger..

Nietzche

"Some running is good, more is better, and too much is just enough." -

Anonymous

these days - various and sundry

I worked out pretty well all this past week, going to the gym every day but Friday. On Friday, I played basketball with the ward team. After playing the game, I refereed the following game and put in a little more running there as well. The workouts were alternatively great, filled with energy or hard, filled with work and a lot of effort. Both kinds of workouts were useful though in telling me where I stood physically.

In the coming week, I plan on putting a little more time into running, building on last week's. I will have 2-3 easy runs of 3-4 miles, 1 interval day (1/4 miles with 1/4 rests), a tempo run and a longer distance run on Saturday. I hope to play a little basketball with the ward on Friday.

Good news for me with respect to one of my goals; I stepped on the scale during the week and was down 2 pounds. Some of that could be fluid loss right after the run that day (I was pretty sweatty) but I'm going to claim it as progress. That would mean that I have 10 pounds to go and 10 and 1/2 months to get there (very do-able). I think part of the progress in the first month and week of the year is also due to not eating as many sweet things when I see them. The other part is the exercise starting to kick in (metabolism making a slow change)

I finished a book I had checked out at Christmas, Invisible Armies. The tense in which it was written was unusual (present and inconsistent) but the story moved well and there were many twists and turns to keep me interested to the very end (really, the last page). It is written by Jon Evans. When I originally checked it out, my oldest daughter read it, liked it and recommended that I read it. I'm glad I did. I'm now reading Act of Treason by Vince Flynn. I read another book by Flynn, Consent to Kill and really liked it. I recommend it to anyone who likes relatively fast paced, spy/international thriller kinds of books.

On Saturday, I also had the chance to work on a writing project and made some really good progress, getting closer to my goal there.

Over the past week and one half I have also gone through a large challenge and change in my work life that was almost a complete surprise. It was a shock to my system (and unfortunately added to the stress that my lovely wife had to deal with) and there were several moments of self doubt, worry and plenty of prayer. Over the last few days, however, I have had several successes in the new situation and I can see where I can find many, many more similar successes. I have had more than one colleague whom I respect tell me privately that they thought I should have made the change a long time ago (they thought I had a lot more talent than I was able to offer in the previous role). Through it all, my lovely wife has been 100% supportive as have my daughters and my relatives who knew about the change. My thanks to them and to my Heavenly Father for knowing who I am, what I can do, where I need to improve (everywhere; okay, maybe not in playing marbles).

Interestingly, and in a slightly parallel universe, a few months ago, I was called and accepted a Stake Music calling. Before that I was the Ward choir director and music chair. I loved choir practice and putting together songs to sing; at Christmas, Easter, July 4th. After receiving the Stake calling, I kind of forgot about being released from the ward role and then it happened (~November). It was a hard thing to give up seeing the choir's smiling faces each Sunday and putting together musical numbers for Sacrament meeting. It was heartwarming that several members of the ward and members of the choir stopped me in the hall and told me how much they appreciated what I had done.

The two events above are examples of change in my life (one small and one a little bigger and immediately impactful). But, in both cases, with the change, I will be able to look at things from a different perspective and use talents that I haven't used for a while or develop new ones. Further, relating them back to progress made in any field but particularly in physical development, if you continue to do the exercises over and over, you will get the same results over and over (see definition of crazy - Albert Einstein). It is only when we change our focus and efforts that we can make a change of direction, to new strengths, new abilities and new levels of endurance.

I am a lucky man to have the opportunities I have had in the past and the opportunities I have now.

May you and yours have a good change in your life, and have a good one. KipK