Random and occasional thoughts on

It is often funny how you will hear a snippet of a conversation that makes you wish you had heard the whole conversation.  Sometimes I will fill in the blanks and write a story about, as Paul Harvey used to say "the rest of the story". I am leaving the rest of the story up to you.  Please help me fill in the blanks here using the comments: "..fast my little legs will go..."

One of my favorite podcasts is Daily Boost. A recent episode was titled Stop Being Comfortably Miserable .  I loved the phrase comfortably miserable because it fits so many people that I see. I know people that hate their job or their career and they don't do anything about it.  Maybe they don't hate it, but they do not enjoy it or feel fulfilled doing what they spend 40 hours a week or more. If someone is not happy, why do they keep doing it? For some, it is simply inertia. They have been a plumber or engineer or sale rep so long they don't know anything else. For others it is a fear of the unknown and they see their current job as "safe".  They will often use phrases like "better the devil you know" implying that as much as they may dislike their current job, it could be worse somewhere else.  Previous generations had more job security as the common practice was "job for life" and as long as someone kept working they were reasonably certa...

Ten years ago, after a 3 year stretch, I crossed the finish line of my first Ironman race.  Those 3 years saw me go from couch potato to Ironman.  I lost about 100 pounds and rarely took more than a day off per week.  How did I do that?  What was my motivation?  A common phrase lately is "What is your WHY?" where people are encouraged to find their motivation to help them overcome obstacles.  When I started running, my WHY was to spend time with one of my kids and get healthier.  When we crossed the finish line of our first half-marathon, he decided to "retire" from running at the ripe age of 13.  I was hooked and realized that I could achieve a long-time dream that I thought was out of my reach because I thought I was not a runner , completing an Ironman (which includes a 26.2 mile running marathon).  Finishing an Ironman race became my WHY.  That worked great until I crossed the finish line of the race.  Having accomplished ...

Seems odd now that I've done 2 Ironman races, about a dozen marathons as well as many other shorter running races, but "I'm not a runner" was my belief for most of my life.  Why did I think that? Let me tell you a story. I was about 16 years old and was a competitive swimmer.  Not just a little competitive, but I swam with people that qualified for the Olympics and on a good day I could beat them.  One day after swim practice, the coach called us over and announced that the pool would be closed for maintenance for 2 weeks so there would be no practice.  Even though I loved swimming and the training we went through, I cheered with the rest of my teammates until... Coach called about 10 of us out and said that we should meet him by the new coliseum that was being built nearby.  I was confused. I hadn't heard anything about a pool there, but coach said to just wear shorts and comfortable shoes. I showed up and waited for instructions.  Coach said "run...

Year number 5 in a row for me.  I wasn't expecting to race this too hard since Ironman was just 2 weeks ago, but I figured it waI s worth it just to keep my streak alive at this event and with a marathon coming up in Jan, I should really be bouncing back fairly quickly. The expo was a fair size, given that it is not a marathon or Ironman.  I went on my lunch break, shortly after they opened.  I picked up my bib and then my 5-year schwag.  The 5-year stuff included a knit hat, a 5-year pin and an extra medal.  There was also an extra race bib highlighting my 5 year "Legacy status".  I didn't wear that one, but I did see a few people that had pinned that one to their back.  Maybe I'll do that next time. I was disappointed when I walked over to the table to get my jacket and they said they were out of my size.  Turns out the truck that had my size jackets was late in making the delivery.  I had to go to the information table where they too...

Warning This is a long read, but hey, it was a long race. Preparation I signed up for this race after a lot of thought and discussion with my wife.  Christine has never seen first hand the schedule and effort that goes into preparing for an Ironman so I tried hard to tell her what my time commitment would be if I signed up for this race.   I did my first, and only other Ironman the year I turned 40 so this would be a decade later and the year I turned 50.  My job had a somewhat flexible schedule and no other significant commitments, so it seemed like the stars were in alignment and I decided to go for it. I had already been running a lot and did a trail marathon in February so I thought my running was on track.  I did a couple of open water swims, but never managed to get in the water as regularly as I had planned.  I wasn't too worried about that since my swimming background is pretty strong.  I tried to get 3 bike rides in a week when I was...

Do you travel much? I travel a lot and sometimes people ask me how much I travel.  I'm also a bit of a nerd (or geek depending on your definition) but I'm definitely a very analytical person.  Therefore, when I realized how much travel this job was going to require, I embraced it and get a little excited every time I get an entry stamp in my passport from a country I have not been to before.   For our anniversary last week, my wife gave me this awesome map.  You can scratch off countries you've been to.  I haven't started scratching yet, but am looking forward to getting started. Work 2017 was a little slower on the international travel side of things, but still managed to get to 3 new countries (France, Germany and Switzerland).  This brings me to a total of 25 countries I've been to, but that includes 2 countries I was in for less than a day.  I went to a total of 8 different countries in 2017 and spent a total of 74 days outside t...

Better late than never. I haven't blogged for a while so while this might be the longest I've waited to post a race report, I guess getting restarted with my blogging makes it better late than never. This was the 4th year in a row that I've done this race.  There were a few changes to the race this year, the one that I noticed most, was that the first leg of the race was out and back and I seem to remember that part not being out and back. My running had not been very consistent so I started with the 10:30 mpm pacer and said if I was feeling good I would pick up the pace later in the race.  According to my data we were almost 30 sec fast the first mile, but then settled into about 10:20 miles. I was feeling pretty good so I started picking up the pace at 8 miles (9:58) and a bit more at 9 (8:42) and managed to pick it up a bit more for the last third of a mile (8:21) feeling pretty good.  I guess my training has been better than I thought and I need to start bei...

The Hot Chocolate race is a fun race with some good giveaways.  I'd done this twice before and I like the course (mostly).  My wife decided to walk it with a friend and I have been getting some consistent running so I thought I would actually try to race it as opposed to just running it.  The main difference for me is that when I race, I look at my recent running (ideally racing results) and decide a target pace. Based on my last 10k on Thanksgiving (8:51 mpm according to MapMyFitness), I decided to shoot for a 9:00 minute per mile pace.  I felt this was a bit aggressive but based on my earlier results (I was shooting for at least 9:30 mpm on Thanksgiving), I thought I had a chance. I said Good Bye and Good Luck to Christine and her friend and they went to stand in line for the port-a-john.  I decided to do a little warming up and did a little slow running and then several pickups speeding up to a sprint before backing off.  Once I was feeling loosened ...

When we decided to spend Thanksgiving in Oceanside, I didn't think about doing a race while we were here, but when I saw my friend Rich Cruse post about the Oceanside Turkey Trot and I realized it started less than a mile from where we were staying, I thought it would be a fun way to start Thanksgiving. The start of the 10k was 6:45 so I left the condo at about 6 and walked over.  It was a little chilly but as long as I was moving I was ok.  I had forgotten my water holder belt, so I decided to just go with water available on the course and drank a water bottle on the way and while waiting for the start. It only took a few minutes to get there and find the race bib pick up. The only downside to the process was that even though they had plenty of volunteers, it looked like everyone who had pre-registered had numbers in the same range so there was only 1 volunteer that could help everyone which caused a line.  Not a big problem for me because I was early enough so I g...

This is the second year for this event which consisted last year of a hiking challenge.  The hiking challenge included 4 hills in the area for a total of about 11 miles of hiking.  This year, they added a new option.  Instead of driving to each trailhead, you could sign up for the Elite challenge and follow a route of roads and trails to get to and from the Four Peaks.  This version consisted of about 20 miles of trails and hills.  Yes, if you know me at all, you know I elected the crazy long version. I got there about 6:00 for registration which was handled smoothly and efficiently.  They had pancakes and bacon and oatmeal.  I had some oatmeal and put my race number on and then dropped my stuff in my car.  The nice thing about small races is parking is not a huge nightmare. At 6:20 they had some announcements for those of us doing the long race including some notes on the course.  Then we lined up at the start line for the countdown to 6...

First of all, I had the FitBit Surge before this and I loved it.  However, the band started to wear badly after about 8 or 9 months of hard use so when I fell and the screen got scratched, I decided to use my extra warrantee and trade it in. I went in to Best Buy planning on simply exchanging it for another Surge and I had been happy with it so I had not done any research into the other products on the market at that time.  When I got there, I needed someone to unlock the display to get the new Surge out and they started telling me about the Blaze.  I liked the look (more watch-like, less sport-tracker) and the associate assured me that it also had GPS and I could use it to track my runs without my phone. Turns out that is not true. I don't know if he was mis-informed or just mis-represented the product, but that is the only thing I had been unhappy with and that is not anyone's fault but mine for not looking into the product a bit more. So I've been using the Blaze f...

This race report is overdue.  The rule I try to follow is "1 day per 1 hour of racing" and thus I am a bit late so feel free to drop my score accordingly when grading this assignment. Woke up a few minutes before my alarm after getting a pretty good nights sleep. Coffee and cinnamon raisin toast before leaving. Coffee is a new addition to my pre-race routine thanks to a new coffee-maker in the kitchen.  I figured it couldn't be any worse than the diet coke I usually drink on race mornings, especially since the carbonation has been bothering my stomach when I run lately. Pre-Race Christine and I got some of the last parking spots and walked over to the race "village". One of the first tents I saw was my old  team tent, Team Diabetes.  Got the chance to chat with Coach Dave for a few minutes. Found the gear check (so Christine could drop my gear bag off after the start) and started towards the start line. Last year, my watch didn't find the satellites...

First of all a few definitions to make sure everyone understands the title: Leadville: A city in Colorado that sits at about 10,000 feet above sea level. Trail: A path, generally smaller and less maintained than a road. Sometimes just wide enough for one person to walk. Marathon: 26.2 mile running event. " Trail Marathon ": A marathon run completely or largely on trails. DNF: Did Not Finish. A title awarded to a competitor that fails to finish an event. Generally the biggest stigma associated with this is self-inflicted. DFL: Dead Freakin Last. A title awarded to the last finisher of a race. Again, the biggest stigma associated with this is self-inflicted as there has to be one in every race. DNS: Did Not Start. When a competitor registers for a race and then fails to make it to the starting line. Frequently this is due to an injury before the race and accordingly should not carry any stigma. Starting Line: Parking was easier than almost any other race ...

This is long over due and I'm sure I will not be able to do this race justice, but here are some rambling musings. I had not done a race in over a year when I saw a message from my friend Kim saying she was putting together a team for a 200 mile relay race called Ragnar Relay Del Sol.  It was several months away and I thought it would be a good tool to motivate me to keep up my recently restarted running.  Kim was very clear that this was a run for fun team and that it didn't matter how fast (or slow) we were. The plan to get my running motivation worked and I had several very good months of gradually increasing miles and faster paces. By the time race week was getting close, I decided to run another short race the weekend before Ragnar.  The Lost Dutchman 8k was a fun race and shorter than any of my legs would be for Ragnar so I wasn't worried about this hurting my ability for Ragnar.  I had a great race and was glad to be racing again. The way this event work...

During my run this morning, I was thinking about how much my life has changed over the past year.  In January 2010, I was married, though the marriage was dying and had just finished with probably the worst Christmas season I can ever recall, (with few bright spots).  My fitness had dropped off from my Ironman race in 2008 to a total running mileage for January of barely over 30 miles and I couldn't run for more than a half a mile without taking a walk break.  I only rode my bike once and hadn't been swimming (which I love doing) in several months. So what will 2011 bring? By October of last year, my divorce was finalized and I had started running more consistently.  Now, after a good Christmas season I am in my fourth month of steadily improving running (already have almost as many miles by the 9th as I did all of Jan last year). I am registered for a relay race in Feb and planning several other races during the year.  I would like to get a new marathon PR ...