Yet another entry from my old blog... It's interesting to look back on this entry and see the transformation I was going through over Christmas break... I reflect now on how brutal those first few long runs were, the celebrations that came after finishing them, and the pain and hurt that stuck with me most, if not all of the way through them... The fact is, is that I was completely breaking my body down, then rebuilding it in a healthier way-I was changing my physiology and reprogramming my body to handle the demands of endurance running...
"LSD" training stands for "Long Slow Distances", which for me, there's no other way to train... Well, mainly the slow part... I'm not a runner; I've said this before... but the fact is, is that I got out there and did it... I quit letting my size hold me back to try new things...
The following are my thoughts on being home over Christmas break...
Enjoy...
"I spent most (ok, all) of my time at home training for the big race, which was awesome... I hit new PR's in both distance and time while at home, and will do the same on tomorrow morning's run (88 minutes/8 miles)... I have wrestled back and forth about if this is too much for me right now, physically, mentally, emotionally, etc... There were some pretty tough runs while at home, some where my shin splints were brutal to the point of walking, and my knees took a lot of abuse through the process of conditioning them to go longer and longer distances...
But then I had a breakthough...
It was probably on my first long run while at home, a 66 min/6 mile run, when I was fighting some pretty intense shin splints, that I had my first "spiritual" experience while running... This half marathon, as I think I mentioned in a previous post, is a big thing for me: never EVER would I have thought that I'd be running this much (frequency, duration, and distance)... and I have come to realize that the human body is an amazing machine, that can be conditioned to do pretty much anything... Hell, I'm weighing in at 270'ish and am running 7 miles at a time? WTF?
So this spiritual experienced happened on my long run, which are on Sundays, and which I try to do early in the mornings so I can have the rest of the day to lay around, sigh, and hobble when I have to walk anywhere... It usually takes me a good 20 or so minutes to get fully warmed up and loose... When I get that feeling in my legs, and my breathing is on point, and all the neurons are firing and endorphins are pumping... That's when I know it's going to be a good run....
During the first 20-25 minutes of my first long run, I battled severe shin splints and couldn't get my breathing to match up to my effort, which was causing some annoying side stitches... It got to the point where I had to stop to fiddle with my shoes (or, yeah, my right forefoot was getting numb too), so I stretched a little and resolved to just hobble the rest of the way, but by damn, I was going to do it.... and then something happened... it was at about mile 3, maybe 3.5, on Old Spanish Trail road in Scott, LA, that something happened... All at once, and after some negotiations with the Lord, my legs loosened up, the endorphins gushed and I just "knew"... So I've got this amazing thing going on in my body and legs, and all the while, to my right across the fields, the sun breaks the horizon....
It was at that point, that I knew... I will do this... This race... It's mine for the taking...
It was like the Lord was telling me that he was proud of me for making sacrifices and keeping up with training... I remarked to my Dad later that day that "I may complain about hurting, not having great runs, or having to get up early... but there's something comforting and majestic about seeing the sun rise while you're all by yourself, running, on a back country road in Louisiana... there's really nothing like it"
My Dad's only comment: "Yeah, it's like the Lord saying "Good Morning" to you... There's something spiritual about it"
I couldn't agree more...
So aside from the spiritual aspect of running, which I'm just now starting to tap into, I'm starting to see the results of my training, physically... so much so, that I'm starting to not recognize the person I see in the mirror... and I like it... Since October, I'm down about 12 pounds AND a pant size (finally)... I'm hoping to shed another 1o before the race, and perhaps a total of 50 for the year, which would make it close to 100 pounds lost since March of 2008... It's hard to believe that I might be a success story... and I can't wait to write my story, entitled "Endurance Sports saved my life"... We'll see if I can get it picked up by Men's Health ;)
My running/triatlon coach Kendrick asked me what my resolutions were for this year, and like I mentioned above, I don't feel like I'm wiping any slates clean, so I don't really have any "resolutions" perse'... I prefer to make a list of goals or a "to-do" list for my year, as I feel like it's more reasonable and applicable to my lifestyle, so stay tuned for the "public" list to be posted soon!
Happy New Year... "
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