Running well

I seem to be rounding into shape as my lunch runs are becoming less laborious. It's probably conditioning and the close to perfect weather. I may weigh in this weekend to see where I am, but will likely wait until next week. I plan on a run around Hains point tomorrow, reflect on what we have lost and learned the last couple of years.

Philadelphia

The stars aligned and I pulled the trigger today and signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon. Several important factors led to this seemingly nutcase idea. (1) The race is on November 23, 2008, a comfortable 12 weeks away. (2) It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving; man is that turkey going to taste good. (3) There happens to be a professional conference in Philly for me the Thursday through Saturday before the race. (4) My last two long runs, 16 and 18 miles, though not easy, were not complete disasters. (5) Ian's sleep patterns have improved tremendously. And finally, (6) Kelly realized running Steve is more interesting than sedentary (relatively) Steve, thus, Saturday mornings can be reserved for long runs. I have not decided on a goal pace, more than likely it'll be in the "just finish" neighborhood.

By the way, that weight thing played a role too. After the 16 miler I weighed in at 177.5 after fully hydrating. So, I have some work cut out for me. Ideally, I can get down to 170 or which is about 2 pounds a month. With higher mileage and fewer adult beverages, I should get there.

Graeme wants to type a GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG....

Until next time (hopefully sooner rather than later).

179.5 and sick

Almost without fail, I get sick every two weeks. Typically it is some sort of head cold or cough that is more irritating than debillitating. Running is not fun because I have to run more slowly than desired and I can't breathe. This week has been particularly frustrating because the noon-time weather has been perfect for running. I slogged through my routine run today and the pace was OK. But, I had new shoes and the weather was perfect. Should have been a tempo run. I keep telling myself that I would rather run relatively slow and spend time with my boys, but I really do want to train seriously for a race before I'm 50. The whole weight thing will solve itself if I had a goal race to train for....

Whatever, I run enough to still identify myself as a runner, that's good enough.

Bridges Run

Yesterday, I identified one of my lunch runs as the "bridges run." I work on Capitol Hill in DC and this run starts at the top of said hill. After a nice little warm up trotting down the hill, I run along the mall in a westerly direction, dodging leagues of school kids acting like, well, school kids. The construction that is the Folklife Festival preparation has added additional impediments, but on the whole, the mall is a great place to run. The WWII memorial is a choke point, which is a good thing. About once a week, a group of elderly veterans, many in wheel chairs, will cluster around the memorial. I cannot imagine the memories that well up in those guys; I'm glad they now have their spot on the mall.

The run continues over the memorial bridge, with the Arlington House in clear view. I loop down to the Mt. Vernon Trail and run south (more or less) to the 14th st. bridge. This part is unpleasant, unless you have run the Marine Corps Marathon. Running next to the interstate is better than running on the interstate as one does in the MCM. At least on my run, you can look down at the water and imagine how good it would feel to be in the water. In the MCM, there's no view from the HOV lanes. A run through the grass field adjacent to the Jefferson Memorial and over a wee little bridge separating the tidal basin from the washington channel, leaves me at the best spot to watch the MCM (Mike will attest to that). A short run north on 15th st. gets me back to the mall where I head east and back to work. Blech. Anyway, after that run I can scratch 7.3 miles in my log and I have run through two states (well, a District and a Commomwealth) and three bridges. I will have run past the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, WWII and Korean War Memorials, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and run past Arlington Cemetary. Not bad for under an hour.

Well, who's counting anyway?

I have still been running and weighing in every morning. Exactly one week after day one, I was at 180, so I lost one pound in a week. That's actually pretty good considering I did not get in a long run last week and only logged 28 or so miles. This week was pretty grueling with the heat index up over 100 Monday and Tuesday. Each run, however, was better than the last. I capped off the workday runs today with a run of the bridges, roughly 7.3 miles, so I am already up to 24.1 miles for the week. The pace today was down around 7:30/mi, a little slow for a 7 miler, but I am still "heavy." I am hoping to get two runs in this weekend, so I sould be up into the low thirties for the week. Once I get back to long runs, I should be able to hit 40/week without too much additional effort.

What does this picture hve to do with anything? Well, about a month ago I said I would post a picture of my gardening project. So I am a little behind, what of it? I have actually done a little more since this picture, stay tuned.

179?

Well, who knows? Yesterday's run went well, 38:52 for the same 5.6 mile loop, but apparently I gained weight, 2.5 lbs. My guess is that (1) I was dehydrated yesterday morning when I weighed and (2) I had not eaten breakfast. Neverthelss, this leads me to believe that yesterday was the abnormal reading and that the 181 on day one may have been accurate. Who knows. I can see now why they say weighing once a week is a better strategy, but then what would I bore you with?

Today's run may be the 7.2 miler, if I am motivated to run over the bridge when I get to the lincoln memorial. The extra 2 miles or so will not add much to my overall fitness, but there is something about running for 52 minutes versus 40 minutes. Seems much more like running for a purpose and less like simple maintenance exercise. We'll see.

176.5

No, I don't think I really lost 4.5 lbs in 24 hours. Nevertheless, that's what the scale said two of the four times I stepped on it this morning. I suppose I could have stepped on the thing 30 times to ensure large enough sample for a mean, but decided the median after four tries was good enough. Yesterday's reading was probably high, but it is common for me to pop up and down as I am one of those guys that loses (and adds) water weight rapidly. The 181 was also surprising given my clothes still fit, though they are not "loose" like they are around marathon time. My "true" wieght yesterday was probably around 179. The good news in all of this is that I am much farther from the "overwieght" BMI level (184) than I orginally feared.

My run yesterday was good. 40:04 for 5.6 miles. Anything at or under 40 is a good run for me at that distance. I'll do the same thing today, see how it feels now that I am 4.5 pounds lighter...

181

That's what the scale said this morning. I have not stepped on the scale since my last marathon because I was afraid of what it might say. Though I am disappointed that I am about 10 lbs heavier than I would like to be, I am not "overweight" by BMI standards, barely. The wieght gain has a couple of causes. One, I have not been doing any long runs as our new son Ian, born, as it happens, on the same day as my last marathon, is a higher priority than getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and running for a couple of hours. And two, I have helped myself to more than the occasional beer as I have no marathon or long run looming in the near future. My eating has been about the same as pre-Ian, but if I am running 60% to 70% of the mileage I was before Ian, I should probably cut back more than I have. There are some other excuses such as being sick every other week, a general lack of sleep reducing motivation, and poor weather, but I can't control those things.

So today I start the official back to fitness campaign. I will run my standard 5.6 mile loop at lunch today, which I will repeat a couple of times during the week. And, I will chug through a 7.2 miler later in the week. And, more importantly, I'll limit adult drinks to Fridays and Saturdays (and baseball games). Each day I'll report my weight on the blog. I'll write it in my running journal too, but that doesn't have the same impact as publishing it here. As for the long runs, we'll see. That imposes strains on the family that will have to be negotiated before making a public commitment. Ian is likely getting the dreaded ear tubes sometime soon. We are hoping that will help with sleep and increase general family happiness. The long runs will start after that on a limited basis (maybe).

New Flowers

Kelly, Graeme, Ian, and I all went to Home Depot to get some plants/flowers. We also bought dirt, which sort of irks me. Buying dirt, sort of like buying water, seems conspicuous. Anyway, our back patio is really starting to look tended to, which is good as we intend to spend more time out there. I guess buying dirt is OK.

We have also decided to let Madison, our cat, wander around outside within the confines of our patio. She seems content with the limit, but the squirrel fight challenged her obedience. She seemed unusually interested in the squirrel throwdown going on in the trees. Her twin brother Knox, who died last year, would have been less content. He always wanted to run away, but, paradoxically, never wanted to be too far away. I'll take some pictures, but don't hold your breath.

Fishing

I went drinking, er, fishing with my brother-in-law today.  The hardest part for me was pushing the hook through the live shrimp.  Before today, I did not know how to fish let alone put bait on the hook.  The key is to keep the hook out of the brain.  I did catch a pretty good sized speckled trout, but it was sort of luck more than anything.  I thought I had goofed up the line, again, but the fishing gods were on my side.  I'll post a picture when I can get it off of Chris's phone.

Heath Spencer Asmar

I am visiting my sister in Pensacola Beach, Florida.  They have a beautiful home on the beach and they have an even more stunning new baby boy.  Heath is a little over 5 weeks old and he is still sorting out the whole eating and sleeping routine; something we adults slavishly follow.  You know, sleep when it's dark, eat when it's daylight.  Heather is managing well, but is pining to start running again.  Soon enough.  In fact, we may do short run tomorrow just for old times sake.

I think I have figured out the picture thing, here are a couple.

Rain

I am happy that the rain is coming down in buckets. My project this spring has been to "fix" the greenspace behind our back patio fence. My neglect and outside "forces" conspired over the winter to create a wasteland populated by sad Hydrangea, spotty crabgrass, mud, rocks, and butchered junipers. The tweenage boys across the way leaving their tweenage boy flotsam did not help the aesthetic appeal either.

Also out back is a tree/bush like juniper that was planted outside our fence. It has grown to the point of blocking the back gate. We told the groundskeeper for our assoication, he told us that they don't plant things outside of the gates. After a pause, I told that we did not either, but everything outside the fence is the association's responsibility, could he do something about it (the veiled threat was "or I will"). His solution was to give the plant a "high and tight." Those are fine for troops, but not bushes. It looks ridiculous.

Last year, Dominion Power decided that the juniper (different variety than the gate blocker) that hid the big power box/transformer interefered with the proper functioning of said unit. (What happens in those boxes? The low hum is, at times, disconcerting.) The mulch spread biannually by the association's groundscrew explicitly for the juniper had begun to accumulate around the box, restricting access. The juniper and the dirt needed to be modified. Amazingly, the Dominion Power "landscapers" were able to complete their job with only a back hoe and a chainsaw!!!

Earlier this spring, our homeowner's association contracted to have all of the fences replaced behind the townhomes. Great. The team from Long Fence worked like their hair was on fire (or it was a fixed price contract). Part of the process involved digging up the cable and phone lines and installing new anchor posts for the fences. All of this activity chewed up what was an already scarred landscape.

The prominent feature behind the back fence are the two hydrangea we planted four years ago. We planted them to commemorate the loss of what would have been our first two children, twins. Sometime around the 9th week of gestation, their hearts quit beating. About the same time, I started running, alot. One of my first long runs was with Mike. I shared with Mike my loss on this run and on many future runs we talked about how hard it is to want kids and not be able to have them. Pain is easier to talk about when something else is hurting too, sort of a necessary distraction.

Our first son, Graeme (the little guy in the profile picture), was born a little over a year after planting the hydrangea and after I had run two marathons, the first in DC and the next in Boston. I ran in Boston with my friend Mike, my sister Heather, and Dave. Well, we "ran" together for about a minute somehwere in the middle of Heartbreak Hill. Shared suffering is somehow life affirming.

Our hydrangea have had their ups and downs and we almost lost hope as each spring they seemed less healthy than the previous. So, this spring, I decided to spend more time tending to our hydrangea and their friends. I planted some flowers and worked in some top soil. Graeme and I pruned the ugly juniper and spread grass seed. Parenting note: little boys like dirt and water; they are naturals for gardening. I have learned that new grass requires lots of watering and the weather has certainly cooperated this spring. The grass is coming in thick and healthy, the hydrangea has bounced back, and the juniper, well, its more green. And all of this just in time for mother's day.

All this new life is also a reminder to me of Mike's kids, Ella and Will. Ella is two and Will would be two today if not for the misfortune of having a heart that was different. I am happy that I got to spend some time with Will, running our own race. It was only a minute or so, but I think we helped each other finish our shared struggle. Happy Birthday Will and Ella.

Once I figure out how to add pictures, I'll post one of our new growth behind the fence.

Are you kidding me?

OK, so I have 2.75 year-old son that can get a little tempestuous. How should we deal with his antics? There is a world of advice floating around the Internet. Below is a strategy my wife sent to me that is designed to address the misdeed of a 2-year old. He hummed a shovel at a playmate in the sand box (and did not make contact). This how the "ideal" mother would react:

Relaxed, she vividly recalls some "peak
experiences" in which she felt profoundly connected and empowered from
within. "That Power is right here, right now, in me, and all around me, in
abundance," she affirms.

She imagines Life Energy visibly
radiating from everything
in her environment: the trees, the ground,the
birds, her son, herself. "It's all
Energy...Everything and everyone is
connected," she thinks.

Soon her son stops nursing and gets up
to explore thearea around the tree. Still
sitting, she leans against the
tree and begins thinking of things she's
gratefulfor and things she
appreciates about her son.

Less than five minutes have passed
and her heart is overflowing with love!

After all of the other parents have left, telling their children to stay away from moonbeam and her kid, I honestly wonder what good all of this does for the child? How would this response differ from the response to a child doing something right or respectful? A hit off of whatever mommy has been smoking all afternoon? Perhaps Manny Acta could employ this strategy (except forthe breastfeeding part) when his kid, Lastings Milledge, drops another flyball.

Thanks Mike

Day one of my blog and I am at work, so it will be quick. I decided at age 40 to NOT fall behind the technological and *hipness* curve and start a blog. A year and a half later, it's done. In this spot I'll ramble about the Nats, running, economics, and other stuff that interests me including my recurring flirtations with golf and muskrat hides. I thank Mike for encouraging this venture long ago and my wife for doing it first showing me it's actually a good way to vent without writing crank letters to the editor.