Running through my mind all day...

Return to Blogging...

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 20:33:00 +0000

So I'm considering returning to blogging. Not really set on it yet, but it does provide an outlet that I feel I need, one that I can't find a substitute for anywhere else. I'm going to take the weekend to think it over...

Catching Up, Part 1 - May

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:08:00 +0000

So did you miss me? Of course you did. A good looking, witty, charming guy who is an expert at practically everything suddenly goes silent for 3 months, probably pretty upsetting. I bet you even cried a little.

What have I been up to in my absence? Oh, you know, stuff. Runner stuff. Engineer stuff.

May started with a bang, and ended with a fizzle.

My training was going really well leading up to a local 15k race (9.3 miles), I started into shorter intervals to prep for a summer of 5k racing, I had a long weekend trip to the beach planned for Labor Day...in short, a very optimistic beginning for what became a pretty dull month.

The race was early in the month, while the morning weather was still chilly and comfortable for doing long runs. I dislike running in warmer weather, I sweat enough, so if an additional layer of clothing is the price to pay for not needing a hydration plan, I'll make that trade gladly. Race morning was just warm enough that I couldn't see my breath - perfect. I went alone, my wife stayed home to make breakfast while I was gone and prep for a trip to Blacksburg for a friend's graduation party. I still haven't fully formed an opinion as to whether or not I prefer having her at races - it's nice to have her there supporting me, but that breakfast was pretty darn good too...

I trained pretty well in April but March was hit or miss, so I was just looking to set a nice even pace and turn in miles under 8 minutes. I managed that and then some, starting off around a 7:40 pace and gradually improving to finish with an average pace of 7:32, considerably faster than I thought I was capable of.

It was one of my best races ever from perspectives of execution, effort, and enjoyment (3 E's, perhaps I'll start referring to this in the future, seems like a useful term when talking about race goals). I set the pace I wanted early on and ran negative splits, gradually tracking down a handful of runners who were ahead of me one at a time. In the final mile or so, I picked things up to take one more spot - an older guy (not really old, early 60s maybe, just old when compared to the kind of pace he was running) who could see in the distance from way back, running with a short, peculiar stride that didn't look capable of producing a pace that would put him so far ahead of me.. It took a long time to catch up to him, and a hard push in the final quarter to get away. Old guys can be deceptively fast. And I really enjoyed the race, the whole thing from start to finish. The scenery was nice, the weather was perfect, the course had rolling hills but nothing ridiculous, and my results left me feeling good about the races I had planned for the rest of the summer. The only real downside was that I didn't know many of the runners there, I haven't raced in quite a while, and the group at this race kind of have their own thing going on, they are local and know one another, I'm an outsider.

I went home to an excellent breakfast, and headed to Blacksburg for an evening of celebration, delicious food, and beer with friends. A really good day, the kind that only come around a few times each year. The kind of day that lets you know you're on the right track with things. Then came the rest of May.

I had to attend a 2 week class to be certified as a Team Leader for bridge inspections. 2, 40 hour weeks of sitting in uncomfortable wooden chairs in a conference room at a local park, fighting to stay focused, learn anything new that I needed (my engineering education and experience covered a lot of it, making it that much harder to avoid zoning out), and hopefully pass the assessment at the end. After several attempts here, I've given up on fully describing it - I don't have the words, don't have any kind of funny or clever analogy, no poignant picture stashed away on my hard drive, that can accurately express how boring this class was.

Week 1 crept by. As Week 2 began to ease along, I felt a familiar ache in my left jaw, one I had felt another time in my right...a tooth dying. One of my teeth was heading for an abscess. Perfect timing, since 100% attendance was required to pass the class. Since I'd be taking the assessment exams on the coming Friday. Since I'd then be driving 10 hours to the Outer Banks right after the test, where there is only 1 hospital, nearly an hour from our house. Of course my tooth would act up now. I struggled through the week, using Ibuprofen only when I needed it most, sipping cold drinks to numb and soothe the tooth when I could (the little cans of V8 fruit juice blends are AWESOME, by the way), and made it to Friday.

Test 1 before lunch, breeze through, take a big dose of medicine, check. Head to lunch, eat a huge meatloaf sandwich and have a beer, check. Afternoon, Test 2, challenging but nothing too tough, check. Pass the course with the highest score in the class, CHECK! Don't get done with the course until 4, then drive 10 hours to the beach...check.

The beach was nice, my tooth progressed as slowly as the class I'd just finished. It ached to bite down, it hurt at random times at day and night, and was a general nuisance. It didn't swell up like the last one (golf ball sized), but it did swell enough to feel tight by the time I got home on Monday evening. Tuesday, head to the dentist, get antibiotics, schedule root canal, no big deal. Root canals aren't that bad, I've now had 2, and as long as the tooth has died, you don't feel anything. The anesthetic needle and holding your mouth open for a half hour are the worst parts - my jaw muscles hurt for a week afterward.

So after such an awesome racing experience to start the month out, how much running do you think I managed to do? I ran a couple of times the week after the race, then didn't get back out on the road until early June...

Coming Back

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:19:00 +0000

I'm coming back to blogging! Don't expect too much too soon though. I plan to slowly get back to this over the next month, eventually doing a once-per-week post, hopefully on the same day each week.

So see you soon!

All Things Considered

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:48:00 +0000

So I haven't posted in a month. Blah blah didn't feel like it blah. I'm posting now.

I ran sparingly throughout the month of March and the beginning of April. I'm back on track with consistent running again, trying to build a good base in preparation for long races this fall. I'm also looking at a 15k on the 12th of May, so I'm trying to get ready for that as quickly as I can.

I had a nice 8 mile run on Sunday, with 7 miles just a little slower than what I thought would be my 15k race pace. Afterward, I thought about how well that turned out, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Then I was reading someone's blog (I don't remember who's), and they had a so-so performance, and said they were happy with it, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

Then came this morning, 2x2 miles at around a 5k pace. I decided based on my previous tempo work that if I could put both reps under 15 minutes it would be a good run. 14:49, 14:53, check and check. At the end of the second interval I should have been wasted - completely blasted with nothing left. I wasn't. I think I could have put a 3rd interval in the 15 minute range if there had been time for 2 more miles. My heart rate came down fairly quickly, my conditioning is much better than expected right now.

All things considered, I think the expression is an excuse. Saying it is like giving ourselves permission to just be adequate. There is far too much "meets expectations" in our lives right now. Running is one of the things that a person has absolute control over - we're not running on teams, we're only accountable to ourselves. If we want to take it easy, we can, if not, it is entirely up to us to stick with a hard workout and see it through. When given the choice, I'd really like to be the kind of person who busts his ass working hard, regardless of the task.

All things considered, I need to quit being so wimpy and run hard when the schedule calls for it.

Beautiful Spring Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:51:00 +0000

... wasted. Crunch time at work on a project, which means no spare time in the evenings. It means fitting in a run in the morning, taking my work laptop home in the evening, and working 2-3 hours every night.

If I can get past Easter weekend, I can hopefully enjoy some of this great weather.

Until then,

Running is going well. I'm hovering in the low 20's for my weekly mileage since really getting back to running after all of my down time. Typically right now, I'd start making wild plans for mileage increases and ramping things up as the weather gets nicer. Not this time. This time, I practice what I preach, and this sermon is about consistency. Smaller, more manageable mileage (say that 3 times fast), which will keep me from taking extra days off, and very specific hard work aimed at giving me maximum benefit with minimum soreness and unscheduled breaks. I'm always telling people to work smart, it's about time I wised up.

Um, February?

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:14:00 +0000

*Whistles inconspicuously, as if I've been here posting the whole time...

So it's been a while since I last posted. And you know what? It felt f-ing great! This blog served its purpose last year, it kept me accountable, gave me an outlet, helped keep me focused. But it also got heavy. It weighed me down. Instead of feeling like a place to unload burdens, it became one - I suddenly felt obliged to write something 2 or 3 times a week, and felt guilty when I didn't.

That guilt went away after the first couple of weeks. It was a slow realization, that I wasn't REQUIRED to write anything. There were even times when I forgot the blog was here, times when I didn't care. I'm a grown ass man, I don't have to do anything I don't want to.

But I do want to write, I do want to get back to this blog. I think I needed time to adjust my point of view a bit, and also needed time to decide how to come back, how to begin again. Like an old friend that I've fallen out of touch with, how do you reach out and relight that fire?

It turns out my toe was broken, but still not a big deal. My consistency was shot to hell, I had a horrible sinus infection followed by being stuck in the field for a bridge inspection, so I had a stretch of a month where I only ran 5 or 6 times. I'm back on it now, but I've lost a lot of conditioning and my time has run out - no early half marathon this year, no big finishes in local races. Just a reduced schedule and a scramble to get in shape for it.

So business as usual...

A Gentle Guiding Push, or Backhand Upside The Head

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Back for another hastily written post while taking a break from work. Amid all of the folders and sketches and calculations flying around my office, I have managed to come up with something to post about to close out a very boring January.

In addition to talking about running here in my blog, which is meant more as a rambling personal journal and means to keep me focused, I often contribute (waste time on) to the running section of Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo's question and answer forum. Typically, it is a regurgitation of the same handful of questions, which at first seem helpful, but after you've done it over and over again, you start to wonder how anyone could be this dumb (you don't "loose" weight, there phrase "workout regiment" has no meaning). It is also a good opportunity to fight back against many of the prevailing myths about running and training that have persisted for years because so often people will blindly do as they are told without thinking for themselves - breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth...

Now that we're into the new year, we're at one of two critical times for young runners - preparing for high school track (the other is preparing for high school cross country). This means the same handful of questions asked over and over again with poor (or nonexistent) punctuation and grammar, getting more frantic and anxious the closer they get to the first day of practice.

The point? Oh yea, I'll get there eventually. Did I mention rambling in this blog? I often wish I had gone into teaching. If not for the lousy pay, I would have. I enjoy mentoring, and tutoring, and any opportunity I get to pass on things that I know to others (especially topics where I really know what I'm talking about). I am certain that if I ever change directions and go into teaching, I'll probably try to coach running as well. And based on the endless stream of questions and pleas for advice that I've seen on Yahoo, I think my philosophy for both will probably be similar.

Coaching, like teaching, is an exercise in psychology. You can't coach someone you don't really know. Some athletes respond well to being pushed hard, negatively reinforced, motivated by being reminded of their own failures. Others don't, and negatively reinforcing those athletes is a fast way to drain the life out of their running career. You can kill a person's love of running if you handle them improperly when they come to you, whether it be for coaching, simple advice, or even to have a single question answered. It takes time working with someone to determine if they need to be coached with a firm hand to get their best, or gently guided to keep their head and heart in the proper place so they flourish. It's hard to coach someone you don't know. You can get in the face of a professional football player and scream at them if they screw up. You can't do that to a 13 year old girl. Too many people try to do too much when answering these young runner's questions. I was guilty of this for a while. I've since learned that this is a "less is more" situation, and to save the hard blunt responses for adult runners who think they know it all (like me!).

A little update on my training. I took 5 days off. Why would I do this, when things were going well? Because I'm not as agile and graceful as I like to think I am. Thursday evening, the teapot began to whistle. I bounded through the house like a little kid (as I often do), and as I hopped up the step into the kitchen I slipped. My trailing foot caught the step right on the knuckle of my middle toe - it felt broken. I've broken pinky toes before (note the plural), you yank hard once to set the bone (TWSS), then tape it to its neighbor for a while. So I did the same for this one. It didn't hurt nearly as much as I expected, so it probably isn't broken, just deeply bruised. I tested it out each morning afterwards, and today was the first time it felt like I could push off of my right foot enough to run. So aside from my own clumsiness, training is going well, I'm still pretty consistent, I just need to get a lot faster.

Weekend Adventure!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:56:00 +0000

Don't let the exclamation mark fool you, it isn't as exciting as it sounds. And it wasn't this weekend, it was a couple of weekends ago when the weather was nice.

Weekend adventure

While randomly searching for something completely unrelated on the internet, I came across Wine Cellar Park in a nearby town. It is a little park with trails and a stocked fishing pond, with a pre-Civil War stone wine cellar. It is no longer in use (sadly), but acts as a tourist attraction.


The Wine Cellar, Very Old, Kind of Spooky

There are a good number of trails, a few paved with asphalt leading to the pond, but many many more unpaved and randomly running through the woods. I took the time to walk a bit farther than Kim to check a few out, and get a few pictures of the pond. I doubt they would be much use for running (I'm not going to drive 25 minutes for a training run), but maybe we'll go fishing at the pond later this year.

Kim Being Cute on One of The Trails

The Pond, Seen from The Hill Top

And before we left, we found a purple travel coffee cup. I always find the weirdest things. When I was in Mississippi on inspections, I found a pair of hunting pants in the middle of the road, folded, that were randomly my size.

So what have my running shoes been up to the past few weeks while giving you the silent treatment? The name of the game right now is consistency. Rather than going too big too soon, as I am often wont to do (I don't think people use the word "wont" enough these days), I scaled back to mileage which is manageable to be done 5 or 6 days per week, and am slowly pushing it back up as my body is ready. I just knocked out a 26 mile week, and my legs feel great. My only hard workouts are twice weekly fartlek runs where I pick up the pace for about 20-25 seconds. During this morning's run I finally felt the early parts of my conditioning coming together, the solid form that the fartlek gives, the added speed and power from the gym, and my aerobic conditioning helping me recover between bursts.

Eventually, when that site redesign that I've been talking about for... cough...a year... finally gets taken care of, I'm going to include something for weekly mileage. I'm also working on my racing schedule for the year, I don't have it all figured out yet, but I am planning to try to start the year with a half marathon in late April. I'll have more about that next time though.

A closing thought: Experts don't know shit. An expert is someone who knows enough to speak from authority to those who don't, and that authority is derived from their confidence. Never let someone tell you that you should do something if they personally don't do it or haven't done it themselves, which is really the only way to know what works. How do I know this? I'm an expert, stop asking questions and do what I say.

Too Long Between Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:08:00 +0000

I know I'm taking too long between posts. Things have picked up at work, so I'm juggling work and training and other stuff I want to do, and the blog has suffered. I'll try to write more, really...

This is just a short little check in to say hi, and tell you that my running has gone well so far. I haven't skipped any workouts, I'm on track to build my mileage back up slowly after a long December of very little running. I'm pretty out of shape.

I'll post again later in the week with pictures from my weekend adventures...

2011, Then 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:53:00 +0000

Seems like a good time to reflect on the year that has passed, see how I've done with all I wanted to accomplish, and in general find a creative outlet for some of my nostalgia (which lately has been pretty prevalent in my mind).

What were my personal goals outside of running this year?

That's easy. Pass the PE Exam. Get ahead of the housework and stay ahead. Do some maintenance on the house that is overdo. Learn sign language.

I passed the PE (found out last week!). That's a huge career milestone that I fear I haven't put enough emphasis on here, because it isn't really related to my running (unless you count the runs I skipped while studying for it).

The housework is mostly caught up after cleaning for the holidays. It probably won't stay that way. This goal will likely continue into next year, and the year after...

I didn't do most of the maintenance stuff I wanted. I was busy with other stuff (read: goofing off).

Learn sign language. This is not a pipe dream. It will happen. Someday...

What did I want to do this year as a runner?

Every year starts out great (just like every day). Full of possibilities, ideas, schemes, goals that you think, "Yea, I'll do that. Piece of cake." And sometimes it is. But more often than not, there are a lot of failures, and the grander the plan, the more spectacular the failure. And I tend to plan big.

-Run some "fast" 5k races. The plan was to get under 20 minutes first (which I haven't done since high school), then work towards something in the 18 minute range. I didn't even get close to cracking 20 minutes.
-Run more events. I don't have anyone nearby that I run with. I don't know many of the local runners, because I just don't run enough races to meet that many people. I wanted to run several 5k races, a few longer ones, and a half marathon. I ran the half, and 2 5k's. Not even close.
-Run my first half marathon. Here I succeeded, and it was one of my favorite races that I've ever been a part of. I'm really hoping that it works out for me to run it again next year. Big plans sometimes equal big successes.
-Kick butt at the Thanksgiving Day 8k in my hometown. You can't have a good race if you don't train consistently, don't eat healthy, and don't even show up.
-Run over 1,200 miles this calendar year. I'm at 896 miles as of December 30th, I don't think I'll be making this one, but I am going to make 900. Close enough?

In terms of planning and goals, it was a pretty modest year for me, and I still managed to fail almost completely. The half marathon was really the only success I had for the year as a runner, but I always see these things in context. Everyone has failures, and you can't realistically expect to hit a home run every time I swing the bat. Maybe if I showed up to the batting cages a bit more often between games...

And my one big success really was big. It was the only race distance I'd never raced, and I went out and did exactly what I wanted to do. Everyone wants that perfect race, that moment in the sun, and for one hour, forty seven minutes, and thirty six seconds, I experienced something that a large number of athletes spend their whole lives longing for. I was who I hoped to be, and did what I set out to do - what more can a person ask for in their entire life?

I took a moment this morning to go back and read an article on ESPN that was one of my favorites of the year. Author Jeff MacGregor, one of my favorites, wrote a piece about his disillusion with professional basketball and how watching a young man named Lukas Verzbicas run a 4 minute mile (only the 5th American high school runner to do so, ever) brought him to a place where he could remember what sports should be. It is one of the best written sports articles I've ever read (read it yourself here, and I think it underscores what I would like my life to be. For a brief, magical period, this young man was exactly the way he dreamed himself to be.

I don't do New Years resolutions. I typically set a list of goals for myself for the coming year, but of the 10 or 12 I set, I usually only accomplish a couple, and this method isn't serving me very well. There are goals, and there are dreams, and the dreams are usually much bigger and farther away than the goals. I'm going to spend the year making my dreams and my goals the same, and in every endeavor in 2012, I'm going to attempt to be the person that I am in my own fantasies. No more goals set months in advance, to be brushed aside when they get hard or something else comes up. Just dealing with what is out in front of me, and doing it in a way that leaves me feeling the same way I felt in the middle of the Virginia Beach Half Marathon - real, genuine, exactly who I wanted to be doing exactly what I intended to do.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, See you January 3rd!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:05:00 +0000

In case you haven't noticed, I've kind of been on hiatus lately. Very little running, practically no blogging.

I've been sick, and then there was Christmas, and now I've got year-end stuff going on and a house guest for the week. So I'm punting, I'm just going to sit idle until the beginning of next week, and enjoy a little rest.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.

The Deep South

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:05:00 +0000

So what has been keeping me away from my beloved blog for weeks on end, depriving you of the joy and fulfillment that comes from reading the tales of my heroic misadventures as a runner (and various other "professions" which I claim)?

In a word, barbeque.

Since my training was inconsistent this fall (read: I was lazy and used my PE Exam as an excuse), I opted not to run the Thanksgiving day race. It was colder than I was counting on, and I didn't see anything to be gained by spending $20 on a race which I wasn't prepared for after spending a week out in the woods in the rain looking for deer.

So Thanksgiving came and went, I ate too much (like everyone else), and then it was time to head south for work. I spent the last 2 weeks in Mississippi doing bridge inspections. I liked Mississippi - the people are nice, the weather was warmer than here, and the food was really good. There is barbeque everywhere - you step out the door in the morning, and immediately smell the smokers from the various barbeque places that have been going since 6 am.

And why didn't I blog about this while I was there? Well, for one thing, there was no running. I had scheduled a full 2 weeks off after Thanksgiving - the 2 weeks in Mississippi. For another, I was just tired. Inspecting all day, day after day, with no days off until we came home. Usually I was ready to hop in bed as soon as possible.

Now that I'm back, I've started my winter schedule. The weeks off, combined with eating too much, have really taken a toll on my conditioning. I feel almost like I'm starting over. I've done 12 ugly, slow miles this week, all of it "easy", with little quality. The only consolation is that I have ran 4 days - consistency seems more important right now than mileage.

Back to the endless inspection reports that I now have to write...

I Think I Can, I Think I Can...Maybe Later Though (Finishing the series on motivation)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:21:00 +0000

Have you ever tried to quit something cold turkey? People do this with smoking, and it almost never works. We have no willpower. Or more correctly, we have a limited amount of willpower. It is physically draining to fight a major urge, like an addiction. At some point, we've got no fight left. You see it all the time in dieting - a person eats smart and healthy, denying themselves the foods they love and fighting their urges as long as they can, then I - I mean, er, they, find themselves in the bakery at the grocery store...

Willpower is a limited resource, just like energy during a run. Nobody has the resources to do everything they should AND prevent themselves from doing all of the things they shouldn't. If we did, well by now you get the idea - rich, thin, setting a PR every weekend, etc.

So how do we beat a system that is designed such that the harder we fight, the more assured we are to lose? We stop fighting hard, and start fighting smart. We're smart, right? Damn right!

Barriers don't always work against us. They have no motive, they aren't for or against us, they are just there, and we move in one direction or another because of them. We need to build our own barriers, barriers that direct us away from failure. Let's practice, with the examples of smoking and dieting.

An active barrier to smoking would be tough - short of putting a mousetrap in the cigarette package, there aren't many options. Passive options are better, because you think about them less - they become part of your lifestyle more easily. Things like only taking a set number of cigarettes with you to work, telling your coworkers that you're trying to quit and not to give you any more under any circumstances. Removing the cigarette lighter from the car so you can't smoke in there.

Dieting comes with more plentiful ideas, and is a great example because food is omnipresent, whether you are a runner or not. In the first post we talked about the idea of locking up the candy bowl as an active barrier, or not having candy as a passive one. But how do we keep me, er, I mean, our hypothetical person who may or may not have a love of chocolate chip cookies, out of the bakery at Kroger? For starters, I don't go there. I don't buy anything on the cookie isle unless I absolutely have to. And when I feel the urge coming on, I don't hit it head on. I make myself accountable by telling someone (my wife typically), setting a goal, and placing whatever it is I want as the reward for reaching that goal. Shame from failure, or from disappointing others, can be a powerful tool - fear of this shame makes a powerful barrier.

So how can we apply this to what we really want - running success?

We have to use barriers to eliminate barriers. Confusingly simple, right? I know personally, my own reasons for skipping a morning run tend to be getting out of bed, having enough time to both run and get ready for work, and being able to push past those days when I just don't feel like running without any specific explanation as to why. Getting out of bed in the morning is hard. I'm a morning person, once I've escaped from the smotheringly comfortable confines of my blankets, but it is so easy to "just lay here 5 more minutes". So what do I do? Multiple alarms, spaced about a minute apart, in multiple locations around the room. Annoying, buzzing, beeping, dinging, multiple active barriers to me sleeping in and missing a morning run.

Once I get up, I need a little time to get fully awake, time to plan my clothes for running once I've seen the weather (winter running requires me to determine how many layers I'll need on a day-to-day basis), have a little coffee and a little water, and get going. And I'd love to just get going - if I could only find my shoes, or gloves, or that one particular garment that I'm missing. This is a passive barrier that has to be overcome. Typically, I try to do as much as I can just before heading to bed that will grease the wheels for the next morning. This means gathering running gear and placing it by the door, preparing anything I can for work (such as lunch), etc. - any thing that I can do to shorten the amount of time I need to get ready (which lengthens the time I get to spend on running), I try to do. To make sure this happens, I need strategically placed reminders - active barriers to things that I have to do. For example, I put my running watch right by my toothbrush - gotta brush my teeth every night, and the watch sitting there tells me to go get my shoes/clothes organized while I'm brushing.

What about those days where you just don't think you have it in you? This is where guilt and shame find their use. Guilt will drive a person to confess to something even after they've gotten away with it. You can punish a child simply by telling them that you are ashamed of what they did. This should tell you all you need to know about the power of these as motivational tools. A lot of people in a lot of advice arenas (weight loss, quitting smoking, exercise, etc.) will tell you that you should "make yourself accountable" to someone else if you want to reach your goals. This is right, but I say just telling friends and coworkers doesn't quite take it far enough, you need to hit it with everything you've got available. We're not young athletes training for a high school race here, where if we fail, "you tried your best" covers it. We're grown-ass men and women. If we make an honest effort and come up short, so be it, but if we can't set a goal and work towards it, what kind of people are we? Making yourself accountable to others is good - announce intentions on Facebook, tell spouses and coworkers what you're doing, hell, make bets with people about it (let your wallet keep you accountable). That's easy, when we fail it is easy to find people who are willing to be ashamed of us to help motivate us. But we need to be accountable to ourselves as well, shame and guilt have to work together. We need real, tangible, visible reminders of what we're working toward, and what the consequences of failure are. Your previous race times compared to the goal for that race could work (as someone who likes to race, it works for me). How about a picture of you in the best shape of your life, taped to the mirror where your reflection can easily show you that you're not in the best shape of your life? Guilt barriers are pretty personal, so everyone has to come up with their own.

When I started writing this series, I had some really good ideas, but as writing the posts became delayed more and more (why did this take 3 weeks, you might ask? Tune in, my next post will tell you all where I've been lately), the ideas have slipped away. I really need to start jotting down notes as soon as I have a good idea for writing, because a good idea slips away so fast, it goes from something profound to something mediocre in just a few hours of waiting. I had a good ending in mind here when I started this post (weeks ago), now I have nothing more than a recap. And since my page shows the last 5 blog posts, I'm not even going to take the time to write a recap.

Hold Please

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 01:29:00 +0000

The final post of my series is coming, but there have been internet issues - look for the next post to drop Monday or Tuesday.

I hope Thanksgiving was good.

Man, I Don't Feel Like Doing This

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Some days, you shouldn't run. Maybe you turned your ankle and it's still a little suspect. Or you have a bad cold and didn't sleep much the night before. Or there's just no way to squeeze in a run around important events, like a family member's wedding or vacation travel. And that's OK.

But then there are the runs we miss for no reason. The "I don't feel like it" days. The "I'll run extra the rest of the week" days. The days when we talk ourselves out of running (the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow, I've got a bad headache, if I skip this one I could use the time to catch up on things around the house...).

So why don't we run? We know we should, especially if there's a race coming up. But then again, we all know that we should set aside money in savings, eat healthier, watch less TV, floss several times per day, etc. We know the benefits, we know what happens if we don't do certain things. So why aren't we all thing, fast, in perfect health with a bank account that will let us retire at 55?

I closed out the last post promising to talk about what's getting in our way. Well it doesn't take a deep look to see that WE are getting in our way. All of our lives are full of barriers, things that make it harder to do the stuff you want or need to do.

So what is keeping us from running consistently? I think as a runner, active barriers are harder to identify because there are less things physically causing us to take a day off. The weather is an active barrier - cold, rainy, or too hot, or whatever, the weather can push us towards skipping a workout. But what else is there really? It isn't as if someone is physically keeping us from walking out the door - you don't wake up tied to a chair with a sign in front of you that says, "Sorry, no run today".

Passive barriers (or at least the appearance of passive barriers in our minds) are plentiful. It is very easy to come up with a million things that I don't have, but feel I need in order to accomplish certain things. I'd love to write a book, but when I start thinking about it, the passive barriers pop up immediately - I don't have a good idea for a book, I don't have the time to write one, I don't know what to do after writing it. These are things I don't have, but feel I need, to reach a goal. And not one of them is legit. No time to write a book? I've found time to write 2 blog posts a week all year, I find time for certain TV shows every week, and it's not as if I spend all of my spare time keeping up with the housework.

No, most of our passive barriers are the result of lies. We all lie to ourselves, all the time. Sometimes it's not your fault, you're being pushed into it unknowingly (do you eat enough vegetables? Really?) But most of the time, we lie out of convenience. It is almost always easier to NOT do something, and then justify it, than it is to just suck it up and do it.

So what are you lying about? What passive barriers are you letting keep you from your goals as a runner? Here's where the cause and effect comes in. The effect is skipping a run. Think about the last one you skipped. Now play the 5 Whys game:

I didn't run, why?
I was behind schedule that morning, why?
I slept an extra 20 minutes, why?
I stayed up late watching Netflix. Notice, I didn't even need 5 of them this time!

Do this for a few missed runs, and look at the actions that eventually led to skipping the workout. Most of this will seem obvious and easy to fix, right? But then, if it was easy, wouldn't we all be slim, rich, Hollywood good looking and preparing for early retirement?

Next time, I'll talk about willpower (which doesn't exist), and how we can overcome barriers - not by hitting them head on, but by creating our own barriers against failure.

Since my most loyal follower Hugh Jass over at tin can treader is feeling some stress about upcoming events, I'll leave you with the most important link I've ever posted on here, James Altucher's blog. Mr. Altucher is a genius. Not you're run of the mill, lab coat and chalk board genius. Not a Rubik's cube in 10 seconds genius. James Altucher is a Steve Jobs type of genius, the only difference being that he is more concerned with his own personal happiness than changing the world. If you follow even half of his ideas (which often sound half-baked at first glance), you should come away healthier, happier, and more successful than you've ever been. Even if you don't (I'm still getting around to execution, perhaps I need to install some barriers to help out), just a quick read of a few of his posts will leave you feeling empowered, maybe even a little bit invincible.

Let's Do This!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Sometimes, you're invincible. Occasionally, it's a hard workout, and hit or exceed all of your targets. You may feel completely wiped afterward, but damn it, you DID SOMETHING out there today. Sometimes, you're beating the odds, overcoming some unforeseen setback, succeeding in spite of circumstances. More often than not though, it's some random time that you feel inspired. Maybe it happens while you're driving, and you find yourself plotting and planning your upcoming training, proposing a crazy schedule that you'll never keep, but you feel so empowered that you don't recognize the insanity.

And then sometimes you're whipped. It's hard enough to want to cook dinner at the end of the day, let alone run a 5 mile tempo run that you had planned. Or you slept too little, or too much, or you just feel crappy for no explainable reason. The complete antithesis of that insanely motivated, empowered you who believed that they could hop out of the car and run a marathon right then and there.

Motivation is such a fickle concept. So psychological, so easy to understand if you're on the outside looking in, or in the future looking back, but it's like attempting a Rubik's cube blindfolded when you're in the moment and searching for it.

It's easy to be motivated on race day. Even when you're not in the shape you want to be in, racing is fun. It's the payoff, the reward for the training. We've all skipped workouts for various reasons, but how many times have you ever skipped a race you were planning to run just because your motivation is a little off? Not many. Training motivation is the one that counts though, keeping yourself focused and working consistently towards your goal. It sounds so easy, even to me as I sit here typing it. So why do we skip workouts, why do we lose motivation?

I'm going to classify missed workouts in two categories - life, and motivation loss. Life happens, things sometimes truly get in the way of your running, and it can't always be anticipated and dealt with. Things in this category aren't going to be discussed here - I have a pretty strict policy of trying not to let things that I have no control over bother me. This series will focus solely on motivation, digging through the ins and outs of the human mind, discussing ways to tweak thought processes and hack your life so that loss of motivation doesn't result in skipped workouts. Cool, huh?

Psychology is king here, and the main ideas that can help us understand and overcome a loss of focus are psychological barriers and cause and effect relationships.

There are two kinds of barriers, mental road-blocks that can dictate what you do or don't do - active, and passive. Active barriers are things that actually prevent an action - if you lock the candy bowl in a cabinet and put the key in a desk drawer, that is an active barrier to you eating candy, because the process of obtaining it makes the reward of candy worth less than the hassle of getting off the couch, getting a key from one room, opening a cabinet another room, and getting a treat. Passive barriers prevent action through the absence of something - if there is no candy in the house, you cannot eat it. One of my favorite non-running bloggers, Ramit Sethi, frequently discusses barriers in the context of personal finance, and I will link to his blog several times, as he is a freaking genius when it comes to understanding the motives behind actions. Mr. Sethi's blog can be found here.

We can use cause and effect with this to work our way backwards to the source of our motivation loss, and how to prevent it. Starting at the effect (missing a workout), you go backward dissecting the causes and identifying barriers that need to be overcome (as well as places where you can create barriers that help you).

And that's what the next post will be about, why we don't run. What's getting in the way, preventing us from training and performing the way we want to. Look for that post on Sunday or Monday. Until then, stay warm, stay motivated, and when you can, stay invincible.

I've ran 4 of 5 days so far this week, which is pretty good. I need to be consistent, since I don't have much time left before Thanksgiving. Hopefully I'll get out of bed for a 10 mile run tomorrow morning.

Stand By...

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:21:00 +0000

Having some computer issues, should be resolved soon. Until then, please stand by...

I Will Get Up and Run, I Will Get Up and Run...

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:34:00 +0000

So the past couple of weeks I've been pretty short on motivation for both running and blogging (anyone reading my blog has noticed this lately). I sure do seem to have a lot of "good reasons" (read: excuses) for skipping runs and posting single-paragraph "updates".

So over the next 2 weeks (the week after that being Thanksgiving week, meaning I'll be in the woods hunting with no internet), I'm going to do an 3 part series on motivation. The plan as of now is to talk a bit about the psychology of doing stuff (in case you haven't seen my resume lately, I'm also a self-proclaimed amateur psychologist), I'll talk about WHY, spend some time covering WHY NOT, and give some links to sites I find useful for each topic. And along the way, I'm going to start applying the things I'm talking about to my own running to get it back on track (1. I should have been doing this stuff anyway; 2. Back on TRACK, get it?).

I've got 2 weeks to grab whatever conditioning I can before hunting season, the Thanksgiving 5 miler, and 2 weeks off for bridge inspections (official downtime before I start into winter mileage and spring scheduling). I barely ran last week, but had a good tempo run this morning. At least my lifting has been consistent for the past few weeks, and now that daylight savings time has ended I'll have better visibility for morning runs.

Tomorrow or Wednesday, expect the first installment of a series about motivation that will change your life!

OK, too over the top? I haven't even given the series a name yet...

Come Here Often?

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:41:00 +0000

I've been too long since my last post. But I've got good reason - I just didn't know exactly what I wanted to say. I spent so much time and effort in the lead up to my PE Exam, and now that it is over and I've got my life back, I kind of got a little drunk off of the laziness. Being able to relax and do nothing for the past 5 or 6 days has just been too good, and too easy. No post race letdowns this year, but wouldn't you know it, I end up with a post-exam letdown.

I'm healthy again! My cold has finally backed off, and I am ready to face the frigid November mornings of the WV mountains. Somehow we missed the intermediate step, so I've been freezing while running this week. We had a stretch of 50 degree mornings - PERFECT running weather. Now in the morning when I lace up my shoes, it's 35 (or colder). Not so perfect, but it would be a hell of a lot more manageable if I'd gotten a few weeks of 40 degree weather to help me ease into it.

So after a little down time for illness and academics, I'm easing back into mileage and lifting - and my body is not happy about it. I went from a little sore on Monday night, to very sore on Wednesday morning, to walking a little odd today - this is from two runs and two sessions of lifting.

I'll finish off this post with three recent revelations.

1. I've missed out on a lot of good picture opportunities. I'm going to start taking my camera with me more to help remedy this - my phone is the cheapest thing imaginable, it does not have a camera. And now that the camera has fresh batteries, maybe I'll finally take some shots to add to the blog.

2. When your legs are sore, move them often. Stand shoulder width apart, and squat until your butt touches the ground. Do this about every hour or so. It will hurt, but it does prevent you from walking around looking like a goose with arthritis. Be discreet about these squats, however, else you risk a coworker coming by and asking you why you look like you are pooping in the floor.

3. New awesome must read blog! Lauren Fleshman is the best female 5k runner in America right now, and she's prepping to run her first marathon in New York this weekend. Her blog is great - she's witty, has an easy writing style, and is very knowledgeable about the things that go on in a runner's head while training and racing. I highly suggest giving it a read (look at me, I'm a link!).

Also, I'm looking for suggestions for running-related sports-sciency topics to research and learn more about, then possibly turn into a post (or several posts).

Poor Timing

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

The PE Exam is tomorrow!

And I've been sick since last weekend. This is a terrible time to get sick. I'm close to recovering, but I haven't been able to run in a week.

Tomorrow is going to suck. More to follow.

Brief Update

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:16:00 +0000

Not much to say, not because I don't have things to say - give me half a chance, I'll come up with something to talk about! No, I don't have much to say simply because my life is currently dominated by my PE Exam preparations.

My running is still going well, my conditioning is coming back pretty quickly. That little hip issue is feeling much better, I continue to strengthen and stretch it, and I think it is healing. I'm back in the weight room, and I've adjusted my workouts to cut down my lifting volume to avoid soreness and tightness the morning after lifting. I don't want to compromise running form when things are going well.

Hopefully I can put together a longer post sometime soon, maybe I'll take a break from my studying tonight to come up with something training-related to talk about, or at least lay the ground work for some posts for the week after my test. Perhaps even a multiple-post thing...

Fall in West Virginia

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:52:00 +0000

October came along scary quick this year. Time seems to be running out on EVERYTHING - nice weather, studying for my PE Exam, preparing for my last race of the year, EVERYTHING.

As a runner, I have developed a love-hate relationship with the fall.

It's not hard to love the fall here in West Virginia. When you get out away from populated areas (easy to do), the views are always spectacular, but more so than ever in the fall. The leaves are changing now, and they blanket the rolling mountains with reds and oranges and yellows and leftover greens. The weather has cooled a bit, and the humidity is dropping - for a place nestled in the mountains, the humidity in WV is surprising in the summer. Two things we runners hate are heat and humidity, but fall is perfect running weather. That's probably why cross country season is set in the fall. The shortening days leads to more wildlife sitings at dawn as the animals start eating more to prepare for winter. Just an all around great time to be a runner. All of that, AND football and hunting season!

But this season also knows how to stab you in the back, especially as a runner. The days are getting shorter. I run at 6 am, which a month ago was great - greeting the sunrise every morning. Now it's still dark as I'm doing my post-run stretching. All those lovely fall colors, all of the West Virginia wildlife - I see very little of it on my runs. The occasional deer that's close enough to the road for a passing car to illuminate it with headlights. The cooling temperatures are great at first. Then I'm putting on more layers on cold mornings. Dew gives way to frost. The humidity dips low enough to make my nostrils hurt. And then there's fall cross country. My last fall as a cross country runner was 2002 - that's 9 years since I was on a cross country team. I miss having teammates, practices every day, traveling to races every weekend, wearing unreasonably short shorts in 40 degree weather. Scientist-types say that the sense of smell is the most powerful sense for memory recall. Cross country season is what a fall morning smell like, and longing is what it feels like.

October, as much as I love you, I sincerely hate you. I'm ready for May.

My running right now is, well, running. It's so dark in the mornings that I've had to start wearing a blinking light for safety. My wife and I each got one at the Rock'n'Roll Virginia Beach Expo, and it's been a pretty useful little thing. Since I'm cheap and probably will never buy another one, I only turn it on when cars are coming, and turn it off once they're safely past. I plan for the batteries to last a good long time. I had two solid tempo runs this week - 3 miles at an 8 minute pace. This seems good for easing back into hard running, and my body is responding well. I'm hoping to run longer tempos next week, and the week after be at full training mileage.

Enjoy the weekend, try to grab a bit more of that fading warm weather...

Chicago Marathon Was This Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:56:00 +0000

Nothing really new to report for me, had an 8 mile run on Saturday that went very well. Whoo hoo. The excitement.

But I did want to write a quick post to point people towards my pal and loyal follower Alecia's blog.

Alecia just ran a PR at the Chicago marathon. If you read my blog, go check her blog out and show her some love for her performance yesterday in Chicago.

Back to Running

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:37:00 +0000

I'm back to running this week. My hip doesn't really feel much better, but I think the issue is manageable. I've learned that with a warm up routine specifically for the affected area, I can run without it hurting, and if I keep it mobile throughout the day I can avoid pain then too.

This week is just easy mileage to get back into the swing of things. Monday my hip hurt a lot during the run, but felt much better after I stretched out at the end. This morning I warmed up my hip properly, and had no trouble with it while running. I'm pretty sore all over from starting back in the gym yesterday.

That's all for now. Things have been pretty slow, just a lot of studying for my exam. I don't like to post just for the sake of posting, but I also hate to go days and days without some kind of update.

Hopefully something fun and exciting will happen in the near future for me to write about.

Just 5 More Minutes And I'll Get Up...

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Dean@Running Through My Mind All Day) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:07:00 +0000

I really want to be running. I do. Every part of me wants to hop out of bed when the alarm goes off, lace up those shoes, and hit the road.

Every part of me, that is, except for my left hip. I've had a bit of pain in my left hip since early last year. Very manageable. It doesn't seem to get worse while running, but hasn't gotten any better either. So I've started some research to try to figure out what is up. During this process, I'm taking a little time to rest it.

I didn't run last week. There was no way to fit it in with the inspection, and I got a bit sick towards the end of the week. Sunday, my hip hurt the worst it ever has - needless to say, I got a little worried. Then Monday it felt the best it has in a long time - so then I was confused. Now it is back to normal.

I'm taking this week off entirely - no running, no lifting, very little physical exertion. Just some light stretching and strengthening exercises and some research. Hopefully in my next post I will have a solid diagnosis for you, as well as a plan for how to address the problem.