I took Gavin to gymnastics a few nights ago. As we were walking out, one of the other kids in his class was having a major meltdown over candy from the vending machine. Gavin rolled his eyes at me and we continued out to the car.
As I was strapping him in I said "well that was a whiney little boy, I'm glad you don't do that". Gavin looked at me and said "daddy, he is wearing the chains he forged in life".
Trying not to laugh I asked "are you quoting Dickens at me"?
Without missing a beat he replied "I am but a shadow of things that once were. That I say what I say do not blame me".
Oh Good God.
For the whole of the trip home he was "Gavin Marley", berating "Daddy Scrooge" for his wicked ways.
"Your chains were as long as mine five Christmases ago daddy" he said sternly (amidst much ghostly wailing).
By the time we got home I was ready to repent.
I don't know what I was repenting for, but I was ready to repent.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Tooth Fairies and Bed Hops
I didn't get up to run this morning. Dylan woke up crying in the middle of the night, so I picked him up and put him in bed with us. He cuddled himself up against me and went straight back to sleep. He hasn't slept in our bed since he was about a month old, so I put my arms around him and that's how we stayed until he woke up.
No run in the world can hold a candle to being snuggled up with your 16-month old.
And we had another momentous occasion last night as Gavin lost the first of his baby teeth. He ran into our room this morning complaining that he'd been robbed by the tooth fairy. I went back to his room with him, and he soon found the envelope of cash hidden beneath his pillow.
He spent breakfast happily ruminating on how much money he'd gotten for "one little tooth".
I just hope he doesn't get any ideas!!!
No run in the world can hold a candle to being snuggled up with your 16-month old.
And we had another momentous occasion last night as Gavin lost the first of his baby teeth. He ran into our room this morning complaining that he'd been robbed by the tooth fairy. I went back to his room with him, and he soon found the envelope of cash hidden beneath his pillow.
He spent breakfast happily ruminating on how much money he'd gotten for "one little tooth".
I just hope he doesn't get any ideas!!!
 |
| Gavin - mischief personified |
 |
| Dylan the Villain - don't be fooled by the innocent face |
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Running for Boston at White Rock
"It is mile 5 of the White Rock marathon and my Garmin has just clicked over my fifth consecutive sub-7 mile. It occurs to me that I'm either going to have a breakout day, or I've made a huge mistake. But I've played my hand quite deliberately and I'll live with whatever it brings"
I've thought about today ever since I signed up after Frankenthon. The White Rock marathon became a big deal to me, and I earmarked it as a major goal race. I put in the hard fast miles, prayed for good (ie cold) weather, and hoped it would be my day.
And the weather cooperated, with temperatures in the 30s. It was a little windy, but I'll take that. My goal for the day was to beat my previous marathon PR of 3:34, try to run a sub-8 minute mile marathon, and if possible run 7:50s and grab a 3:25 finish.
I'd worked hard to carefully build my mental defenses, and I was feeling good though slightly nervous. After all, it doesn't matter how well you run in training if you don't transfer that to race day.
And I really wanted it.
And I was prepared to suffer to get it.
Now I always start out fast, but I've never run the first 5 miles of a marathon at sub-7 pace before. And to be honest, it didn't feel like I was running all that hard. But I still asked myself why I was pushing that much when my goal was 7:50s.
Until the little voice in my head answered straight back "we're not going for 7:50s, we're going for 7:20s".
And then everything clicked. You see, 7:20s equates to a 3:15 marathon, which is my Boston qualifying time. I know, because I looked it up and worked it out several weeks ago.
But why did I even look it up? It's way out of my league.
But have you wondered why I've been so excited about pushing my midweek runs under 7:20 pace? About running a sub-7 12 miler last week? Could it be that subconsciously I've been training myself to take a shot at a goal I believed was unreachable?
And just like that I realized that it wasn't out of reach, and that the only thing holding me back was myself. My race goals changed, and 5 miles into the marathon a 3:15 finish was the new target. After all, I'm in the best shape of my life, I've trained at the required pace, the weather was on my side, and my mental game was locked in.
Time to roll the dice.
I went through 10k in a new PR of 43:52 and the half marathon distance in a new PR of 1:33:40. I knew we were going to be exposed to the wind around the lake, and that there were hills in the latter miles, so I made sure to take advantage of any downhills or flats we found to bank time.
The course was pretty - there are some beautiful houses, and the crowd support along the way was wonderful. There were also some funny signs - "your foot is hurting because you're kicking butt" was one of my favorites.
But as we made the turn down to the lake, I saw one that really hit me. It said "There is no try. You either do it or you don't".
And the little voice in my head agreed. And I knew with utter certainty - about 12 miles into the race - that I was going to qualify for Boston.
The second half was just a blur. My focus narrowed, my concentration intensified, and the only things that mattered were the road in front of me and the pace display on my garmin.
Whenever I slowed down, I made myself speed up again. Whenever a hint of doubt entered my head it was instantly silenced. If I started to feel tired, I just kicked it up a bit until I learned to ignore it.
I systematically ground away everything that would stop me reaching my goal until the only thing left for me to do was run.
We hit the famous hills known as the "Dolly Partons" between miles 20 and 23. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly where we passed them. I train on hills a lot, and these were nothing special.
I distracted myself by imagining how I was going to break the news to Nancy.
With 3 miles to go, I knew that barring disaster I had it in the bag. The rest of the course was downhill, and I could run 8 minute miles and still make it with something to spare.
But I couldn't let myself coast, I wanted to get everything I could out of this run. So I started talking to myself - saying anything I could think of to motivate myself. "Don't give it away" and "finish the f***ing thing" were my favorites.
We joined up with the half marathoners for the last mile, which I hadn't anticipated, and I'm sure they must have thought I was crazy as I sped past chattering away to myself.
It was an unbelievable feeling to cross that finish line in 3:12:46 (7:21 pace), knowing I'd just qualified for Boston when I hadn't even considered it a possibility at the start of the race.
I was so buzzed. I couldn't wait to get my medal and shirt and get back to the car. I called Nancy and my first words were "so do you want to plan a trip to Boston in 2012"?
She was silent until it sunk in and then she screamed down the phone. I think she was more excited than I was.
According to the unofficial results, I finished 165th out of 4578 finishers. Their stats also tell me I passed 37 runners in the last quarter of the race (hooray) and was in turn eclipsed by 8 speedier souls (if I had but known I would've tripped 'em!!!).
I enjoyed this race - I've heard great things about it from a lot of people and they were all well deserved. But of course, I would say that when I've just smashed my marathon PR by 22 minutes and qualified for Boston!!
There's a lot to take in from this race, and a lot of questions I need to ponder. I'm going to have to take a few days to process it all before I come up with answers.
But for now I'm off to enjoy some Gavin time.
I've thought about today ever since I signed up after Frankenthon. The White Rock marathon became a big deal to me, and I earmarked it as a major goal race. I put in the hard fast miles, prayed for good (ie cold) weather, and hoped it would be my day.
And the weather cooperated, with temperatures in the 30s. It was a little windy, but I'll take that. My goal for the day was to beat my previous marathon PR of 3:34, try to run a sub-8 minute mile marathon, and if possible run 7:50s and grab a 3:25 finish.
I'd worked hard to carefully build my mental defenses, and I was feeling good though slightly nervous. After all, it doesn't matter how well you run in training if you don't transfer that to race day.
And I really wanted it.
And I was prepared to suffer to get it.
Now I always start out fast, but I've never run the first 5 miles of a marathon at sub-7 pace before. And to be honest, it didn't feel like I was running all that hard. But I still asked myself why I was pushing that much when my goal was 7:50s.
Until the little voice in my head answered straight back "we're not going for 7:50s, we're going for 7:20s".
And then everything clicked. You see, 7:20s equates to a 3:15 marathon, which is my Boston qualifying time. I know, because I looked it up and worked it out several weeks ago.
But why did I even look it up? It's way out of my league.
But have you wondered why I've been so excited about pushing my midweek runs under 7:20 pace? About running a sub-7 12 miler last week? Could it be that subconsciously I've been training myself to take a shot at a goal I believed was unreachable?
And just like that I realized that it wasn't out of reach, and that the only thing holding me back was myself. My race goals changed, and 5 miles into the marathon a 3:15 finish was the new target. After all, I'm in the best shape of my life, I've trained at the required pace, the weather was on my side, and my mental game was locked in.
Time to roll the dice.
I went through 10k in a new PR of 43:52 and the half marathon distance in a new PR of 1:33:40. I knew we were going to be exposed to the wind around the lake, and that there were hills in the latter miles, so I made sure to take advantage of any downhills or flats we found to bank time.
The course was pretty - there are some beautiful houses, and the crowd support along the way was wonderful. There were also some funny signs - "your foot is hurting because you're kicking butt" was one of my favorites.
But as we made the turn down to the lake, I saw one that really hit me. It said "There is no try. You either do it or you don't".
And the little voice in my head agreed. And I knew with utter certainty - about 12 miles into the race - that I was going to qualify for Boston.
The second half was just a blur. My focus narrowed, my concentration intensified, and the only things that mattered were the road in front of me and the pace display on my garmin.
Whenever I slowed down, I made myself speed up again. Whenever a hint of doubt entered my head it was instantly silenced. If I started to feel tired, I just kicked it up a bit until I learned to ignore it.
I systematically ground away everything that would stop me reaching my goal until the only thing left for me to do was run.
We hit the famous hills known as the "Dolly Partons" between miles 20 and 23. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly where we passed them. I train on hills a lot, and these were nothing special.
I distracted myself by imagining how I was going to break the news to Nancy.
With 3 miles to go, I knew that barring disaster I had it in the bag. The rest of the course was downhill, and I could run 8 minute miles and still make it with something to spare.
But I couldn't let myself coast, I wanted to get everything I could out of this run. So I started talking to myself - saying anything I could think of to motivate myself. "Don't give it away" and "finish the f***ing thing" were my favorites.
We joined up with the half marathoners for the last mile, which I hadn't anticipated, and I'm sure they must have thought I was crazy as I sped past chattering away to myself.
It was an unbelievable feeling to cross that finish line in 3:12:46 (7:21 pace), knowing I'd just qualified for Boston when I hadn't even considered it a possibility at the start of the race.
I was so buzzed. I couldn't wait to get my medal and shirt and get back to the car. I called Nancy and my first words were "so do you want to plan a trip to Boston in 2012"?
She was silent until it sunk in and then she screamed down the phone. I think she was more excited than I was.
According to the unofficial results, I finished 165th out of 4578 finishers. Their stats also tell me I passed 37 runners in the last quarter of the race (hooray) and was in turn eclipsed by 8 speedier souls (if I had but known I would've tripped 'em!!!).
I enjoyed this race - I've heard great things about it from a lot of people and they were all well deserved. But of course, I would say that when I've just smashed my marathon PR by 22 minutes and qualified for Boston!!
There's a lot to take in from this race, and a lot of questions I need to ponder. I'm going to have to take a few days to process it all before I come up with answers.
But for now I'm off to enjoy some Gavin time.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Guns, Bikinis and Posh Pasta
I had a relaxing and interesting drive to Dallas this afternoon. Amongst the highlights was an advertisement for "holiday deals on AK-47 assault rifles", and another for a "bikini stop" which appeared to point to some dilapidated old farmhouse straight out of Texas Chainsaw massacre.
And they say Austin is weird!!!
As I drove I sang along to Christmas music for the first hour or so, and then chanced upon a station that was playing a string of Vivaldi, which is my favorite classical music.
It put me in a mellow mood and helped me keep my head once I hit the zoo that was packet pickup. It also made me realize that I really miss Gavin. We've spent a lot of fun time together recently, and he was upset that daddy was going to be away today. I talked to him on the phone tonight and I'm looking forward to getting back home and seeing him again tomorrow.
I'll add that to my growing stockpile of motivation to go run a fast race.
I'm now sitting in my hotel room in Mesquite barely able to move. I've just gotten back from Spaghetti Warehouse where I demolished a huge platter of spaghetti, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, a bowl of soup and some cheesecake. A large portion of the spaghetti (and a slice of cheesecake) is now sitting in an equally large doggy bag taunting me.
It does not yet realize I intend to eat it before bed.
Dallas is truly a strange place. You would expect the Spaghetti Warehouse to be a pretty casual eatery, but it was filled with a plethora of dapper dandies - all plucked, pruned, painted and pimped up.
And that was just the blokes!!!
There was a couple that sat behind me having a heated discussion about whether or not she should order the cheesecake, because "you know it goes straight to your thighs" (I tried not to listen - I really did).
And then there was me - haven't shaved for a few days, wearing an old shirt from some long forgotten race, retired running shoes with holes in them and a pair of cargo pants that I've used for climbing in the woods with Gavin (one of my superstitious quirks - it's the same outfit I wore to packet pickup at Little Rock. I ran really well the next day).
Yeah, I enjoyed that.
And they say Austin is weird!!!
As I drove I sang along to Christmas music for the first hour or so, and then chanced upon a station that was playing a string of Vivaldi, which is my favorite classical music.
It put me in a mellow mood and helped me keep my head once I hit the zoo that was packet pickup. It also made me realize that I really miss Gavin. We've spent a lot of fun time together recently, and he was upset that daddy was going to be away today. I talked to him on the phone tonight and I'm looking forward to getting back home and seeing him again tomorrow.
I'll add that to my growing stockpile of motivation to go run a fast race.
I'm now sitting in my hotel room in Mesquite barely able to move. I've just gotten back from Spaghetti Warehouse where I demolished a huge platter of spaghetti, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, a bowl of soup and some cheesecake. A large portion of the spaghetti (and a slice of cheesecake) is now sitting in an equally large doggy bag taunting me.
It does not yet realize I intend to eat it before bed.
Dallas is truly a strange place. You would expect the Spaghetti Warehouse to be a pretty casual eatery, but it was filled with a plethora of dapper dandies - all plucked, pruned, painted and pimped up.
And that was just the blokes!!!
There was a couple that sat behind me having a heated discussion about whether or not she should order the cheesecake, because "you know it goes straight to your thighs" (I tried not to listen - I really did).
And then there was me - haven't shaved for a few days, wearing an old shirt from some long forgotten race, retired running shoes with holes in them and a pair of cargo pants that I've used for climbing in the woods with Gavin (one of my superstitious quirks - it's the same outfit I wore to packet pickup at Little Rock. I ran really well the next day).
Yeah, I enjoyed that.
The Road to Rocky (week 1 of 10)
Yes, I know. I haven't even run White Rock yet. So why am I posting week one of my Rocky Raccoon training schedule? Well, the fact is that my White Rock plan transitions smoothly into the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler. And I was surprised to see there's only 10 weeks before the race. And I've already planned out all of December.
So there!!!
I'm off to pig out on pancakes before the drive to Dallas.
So there!!!
I'm off to pig out on pancakes before the drive to Dallas.
| Date | Saturday December 4th |
| Plan | am - Sleep in for once pm - Drive to Dallas |
| Outcome | am - enjoyed a lovely lie in with the Gavster. Thanks to Nancy for getting up with early riser Dylan!!! pm - ready for tomorrow's race |
| Date | Sunday December 5th |
| Plan | am - White Rock marathon pm - Yoga |
| Outcome | am - had a great race. Took 22 minutes off my PR and qualified for Boston. 3:12:46 (7:21 pace) pm - skipped yoga in celebration. Going to lie down with the Gavster instead. |
| Date | Monday December 6th |
| Plan | am - Nothing pm - Yoga |
| Outcome | Had a great yoga session that left me feeling nicely stretched and relaxed |
| Date | Tuesday December 7th |
| Plan | am - 8 miles pm - Bob workout 2 (30 minutes) |
| Outcome | am - yeah, I slacked off. Cuddled up with my 16 month old instead pm - made up for it tonight. My arms feel like rubber right now. |
| Date | Wednesday December 8th |
| Plan | am - 6 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes) |
| Outcome | am - it's just not happening for me this week. Dylan was up screaming the house down most of the night, and we were still trying to get him to go down when my alarm would have been going off this morning. Maybe I should just count this week as the post-marathon break and start afresh next week pm - spent every minute of the 30 I was on the bike trainer wondering how in hell I managed to stay on here for 90 minutes the other week |
| Date | Thursday December 9th |
| Plan | am - Nothing pm - Bob workout 1 (30 minutes) |
| Outcome | pm - another workout missed (I was stuffed full of yummy homemade pizza). I'm calling this my break week. |
| Date | Friday December 10th |
| Plan | am - 7 miles (optional) pm - Nothing |
| Outcome | 4:30am - 45F, foggy and chilly. Did 8 miles with Clea. We kept a nice steady pace and finished in 1:07:40 (8:27 average). |
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Ready to (White) Rock
When I look back on 2010, I will remember November as the month when I finally quit making excuses, got off my lazy butt, and back to running the way I should again. I did 221 miles in November, most of it at a sub-8 pace, some at a sub-7. I really pushed myself with the cross training, regained my edge, and zeroed in on one goal - to smash my marathon PR at White Rock.
Make no mistake - this is no "training run" for Rocky Raccoon - this is a major goal race. The marathon is this Sunday, and I'm ready, focused and determined.
I've checked a few weather forecasts, and the consensus for Dallas is a low of 38 and a high of 60.
I couldn't ask for better weather.
I've been good about tapering this week. Tomorrow morning I'm going to do an easy 6-7 miles to stretch the legs out, and then rest up until Sunday. I've carb loaded well (including the delicious creamy peanut butter chicken and pasta dish I made tonight), so there's no excuses. I'm just going to go for it and leave it all out there.
And if I drive home on Sunday having crashed and burned, that's alright as long as I know I've given it everything.
That's where the mental side of things comes in. I need to recapture that mental toughness to keeping pushing when it hurts. I haven't had that kind of grit (or motivation) since I ran Little Rock back in March.
But I don't think I need to worry too much - I'm 100% into this race. And as this is a solo trip for me, I'm going to have plenty of time the night before to get my head right and make peace with myself.
That's been a key feature of all my best races.
So the only question left is am I going to hold back early on and try to run a smart race, or just throw all caution to the wind and go for it from the start.
There's no question really. When it comes to running goal races, I have the soul of a gambler.
Make no mistake - this is no "training run" for Rocky Raccoon - this is a major goal race. The marathon is this Sunday, and I'm ready, focused and determined.
I've checked a few weather forecasts, and the consensus for Dallas is a low of 38 and a high of 60.
I couldn't ask for better weather.
I've been good about tapering this week. Tomorrow morning I'm going to do an easy 6-7 miles to stretch the legs out, and then rest up until Sunday. I've carb loaded well (including the delicious creamy peanut butter chicken and pasta dish I made tonight), so there's no excuses. I'm just going to go for it and leave it all out there.
And if I drive home on Sunday having crashed and burned, that's alright as long as I know I've given it everything.
That's where the mental side of things comes in. I need to recapture that mental toughness to keeping pushing when it hurts. I haven't had that kind of grit (or motivation) since I ran Little Rock back in March.
But I don't think I need to worry too much - I'm 100% into this race. And as this is a solo trip for me, I'm going to have plenty of time the night before to get my head right and make peace with myself.
That's been a key feature of all my best races.
So the only question left is am I going to hold back early on and try to run a smart race, or just throw all caution to the wind and go for it from the start.
There's no question really. When it comes to running goal races, I have the soul of a gambler.
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