A Passion for Running

Below is a photo of the view outside my window at work. It was taken late last fall after most of the leaves had fallen so it looks a little bleak but, if you use a bit of imagination, you can probably get an idea of how stunning a view it is.

I’m telling ya, even in the winter when sunshine glows off a fresh blanket of snow, I just take one look out this window and am always inspired to get out and run. We are going through a re-org at work and it looks like I will soon be moved to the north side of the building. Once that happens, my view will be of a busy street and some boring old buildings – blah.

So boo-hoo…no more beautiful river valley view. I guess I have to be grateful and enjoy it while I’m here.

Yesterday morning I woke up to a cool, overcast day and met Aaron and Tom for some 1 mile interval work. The plan was to do a couple and then decide on another.

It was an awesome morning for running intervals – not hot and no wind and I had a great time out there especially with all the usual banter that goes on between the three of us.

Aaron and Tom usually like to push the pace to go faster than we plan and yesterday was no exception. The plan was to run 6:45 minute-miles. We headed out and I immediately dropped back because I knew the pace was faster than the plan and whenever that happens I worry about draining the tank for the second, third etc. intervals.

The fellas ran their first interval in 6:30 – in Aaron’s words “the fastest we’ve ever run them”. I ran mine 10 seconds slower which also was a best for me.

The second interval was a bit slower and was run by Aaron and Tom in 6:40 and by me in 6:50.

Tom was on fire yesterday and really wanted to do at least one more interval. Aaron on the other hand is doing the wise thing and healing his knee so he said he was done intervals for the day so he could “live to fight another day” – very wise!

I met Tom in the middle and offered to run one more 800 meter (1/2 mile) interval which we ran exceedingly fast – especially Tom.

Anyway, it was a great morning that made me feel pretty good about my fitness level considering our next marathon is in Edmonton on August 23rd – leaving me with some good training time ahead.

I just counted the running blog links I’ve been collecting – there are 43 including my own!

We have quite the community here don’t we? I wonder how much it will grow?

This post was inspired by a conversation on Richard’s blog where we briefly discussed striving for goals and realizing one’s potential. Here’s the comment from Richard that got me thinking:

“After talking with some coaches and more experienced runners, I believe that most people have a lot more potential than they give themselves credit for.”

The quote got me asking a lot of questions of myself (I have way more questions than answers on this subject):

What is my potential as a runner? Am I at or somewhere near my potential? Assuming I haven’t reached my potential, what will it take to get there?

The first question is, of course, the most difficult one to answer. I’ve been training hard for marathons for about four years now and I think I’ve trained harder and smarter with each successive marathon. Evidence of this is that my personal record was achieved in my last marathon where I had a finishing time of 3:42 – roughly an 8:30 minute per mile pace over 26.2 miles.

I am convinced (maybe arrogantly) that on the day of my PR I ran what was, at that point in time, a perfect race under perfect conditions. The weather was perfect – perfect temperature for running with no wind or rain to contend with. I “left it all out on the course” and was completely spent by the end of the marathon. In other words, I don’t THINK I could have run faster for that distance. My mind conquered the pain and successfully pushed through the wall right to the end of the marathon.

But knowing these things doesn’t really answer any of my questions – in fact it just leaves me with more:

Through training and diet, could I further improve my fitness and conditioning and become a better runner and, if so, how much harder and smarter would I have to train and how much time would be taken off my PR by doing so?

Another question; Are limitations I’ve created in my own mind preventing me from reaching a higher potential? Today, I have the belief that with proper training and perfect running conditions I have the potential to run a 3:30 marathon but I have to admit this belief is just a hunch based only on experiences I’ve had until now. Is this hunch cheating me from doing better? Is it possible I have the potential to run a 3:15 Boston Marathon qualifying time? Are my past experiences unduly influencing the chances of achieving my real potential?

To be sure, my experience with marathons is that improving one’s PR by even 5 or 10 minutes is a very very difficult thing to do but maybe I’m just under-confident or maybe there are other factors…uh-oh looks like it’s time for still more questions…

Throughout most of my training I’ve had small children at home which has meant I rarely get a good nights sleep. Christopher is now at the age where he should start sleeping through the night so I wonder if getting good amounts of rest will help?

Although I am very slim and don’t have a gut hangin’ over my belt, I have very weak core muscles. I recently spent an hour in the gym with Aaron learning some leg exercises where I found out that I have very little strength in that area as well. Okay okay – the total admission is that I’m in some serious need of total body strength training. Aaron has even said I might be a force to be reckoned with if I spent some time in the gym. I wonder…if I spent a few hours a week in the gym how much I might improve?

I’m not sure exactly what I’ve learned about myself from asking these questions. Perhaps it’s simply that I need to keep working on improving myself as Sean would say – “one step at a time” and that as I do so, my potential will reveal itself. I guess asking these questions has also shed light on some places to start the journey…

…running is so much like life don’t you think?

My little guy Christopher – aka “Monkey Boy” is two years old today. Here are a couple pics for your viewing pleasure. The first was taken at about a month old and is one of my favorite pictures in the whole world. The second was taken this past Christmas at about 18 months old and the last one was taken last fall clearly showing he will be (is?!) a much faster runner than his Dad.

I know this sounds cliche’d but it’s so hard to believe he’s already two!

Okay, just so you are prepared, I am about to get dramatic…

Today at lunch, Corinne and I set out for a run. I wasn’t feeling great (I imagine from lack of sleep) and was unsure if I’d be able to hang in there for our planned four hill run route. We met up and Corinne promptly told me she’d only be able to go about half the distance due to a meeting after lunch. We headed down Bellamy Hill and made our way toward the Walterdale Bridge but were stopped by a very disturbing sight at Telus Baseball Field (only a hundred yards or so from the bridge).

A runner had collapsed on the road and it was someone I knew. I didn’t know his name but he runs every day out of the same gym as I and we often say “hi” in the locker room or exchange a nod while running.

Corinne and I approached and saw that he was laying unconscious on the ground nearby a car that had struck him. I could also see that he had a very badly scraped and bruised hip. We stopped long enough to hear the gal who hit him crying into her cell phone saying, “all I heard was a thump…” and then continued on since there were 5 or 6 witnesses and we felt we’d just add to the chaos if we stayed.

I was bothered after leaving since I thought I was likely the only person who’d have known where he worked and, if he wasn’t carrying ID, (very likely) that his co-workers and loved ones might have no idea what had happened. However, we continued on past Telus Field, across the bridge and up Walterdale Hill and the runner never left my mind the whole way. At the top of the hill, Corinne went her own way and I continued on. I spent the rest of the run saying a prayer for the fallen runner and being thankful for being able to run since it was likely this unfortunate soul might not be running for a while.

I got myself onto Saskatchewan Drive replaying what I’d seen in my head over and over until a break from seriousness came in an exchange with another runner. I was trucking along pretty good and, over the course of a few minutes, had been gaining on her until I got about 20 feet behind. For a few moments I was unaware that the 20 foot gap was taking a LOT longer to eliminate than the previous couple hundred feet had. Finally it occurred to me that she was resisting being passed so when I got beside her, I decided to take a chance at being friendly and playfully asked, “did you speed up when you heard me behind you?”.

She laughingly replied, “ya” paused and then said, “at least I’m being honest – I just thought if you were going to pass me, I’d make you work for it!”.

Too funny – I laughed back and thanked her for the challenge and moment of levity and continued on my way with thoughts of the fallen runner once again returning to my mind.

When I got back to the gym, I immediately sought out Gina – the manager of the fitness center and asked if she knew about the incident. She instantly pointed me to the medical room where I saw him awake, sitting up on a bed with his back leaned up against the wall. What a relief – he was ok! The ambulance personnel had checked him out and given him a clean bill of health. We chatted for a few minutes and I found out his name is Micheal. He showed me his mangled shoe and a very bruised and cut up foot while he described the accident.

Apparently, he was running across the street when a car approached. He and the driver had made eye contact and he was convinced she was stopping but, at the last minute she sped up and tried to beat him across the intersection! He tried to stop and managed to avoid the front of her car but ran into the side where she ran over his foot forcing him to slam into the side of her car where he collapsed and stayed until the ambulance came and the police had charged her.

I was so happy to see him there even if he did shake like a leaf the whole time we talked.

It just goes to show you how careful we runners (that goes for bikers, motorcyclists too) have to be and how quickly things can go badly when we aren’t.

As the head sergeant from Hill Street Blues used to say, “let’s be careful out there”…

I’m curious if any of you feel differently when barometric pressure drops. I think I’m gonna start recording how my body and mind reacts to drops and rises in barometric pressure because my hunch is that it has a huge impact.

Most of the reading (perhaps I’ll find some links to share) I’ve done is inconclusive on the subject. The last couple of times it has dropped, I have felt sluggish and achy so I think it’s time to begin writing things down and make my own conclusions.

hmmm…might just be that I’m getting OLD – dammit!

Got an email from Aaron that he couldn’t do our regular Tuesday after work run so Corinne and I hooked up at the last minute for a lunch run.

We went very slow for about 50 minutes but the lack of sleep from the weekend made it seem like we were doing intervals for me and I had to hint to Corinne to slow down a couple of times! Things got better around the half-way point which was also when I found out it was her birthday so I was glad to have been able to connect to wish her a happy birthday.

I’m gonna try a harder run today and am hoping my achilles is up to the challenge.

Running wise, it was a pretty quiet weekend. Saturday morning Aaron and I went to the Kinsmen Sport Center for 15 minutes around the track. Afterward, he took me into the gym and showed me some terrific leg exercises which I hope to do at least once a week – just gotta figure out which day will work best.

On the home front, Friday night Lori and I noticed Christopher coughing. I know we both thought “uh-oh, here we go again” because he’s been sick a lot lately. To make a long story short, he got progressively worse, none of us got a lick of sleep all weekend which ended last night with him and I spending five hours in the Misercordia Hospital emergency room. Even though we were there for a long time, the doctors and nurses were great and Christopher was 100% better when we left for home. It turns out he has a touch of pneumonia and may be asthmatic. The Doc advised we should follow-up with our family doctor to see if he is asthmatic or if it is just something that occurs when he’s sick. Of course, I’m hoping for the latter.

On the positive side of things, it looks like my achilles tendonitis is gone. I’ll take it easy for a couple more days but it feels really good!

Aaron and Lori are going to laugh at this…

I’m a passionate guy. First and foremost I’m a proud Canadian but under my cold Canuck skin boils some hot European blood – 50% Italian (Dad’s contribution) + 50% French (Mom’s) to be exact. As people around me will attest, I can be passionate and (okay, I admit it) even over-dramatic. People often make fun of the way I emphasize words and phrases when I talk (they often think I’m yelling!) and how I capitalize, bold, and underline all kinds of stuff when I write.

So what’s the point of this post? Just to say what you’ve probably already noticed – I’ve changed the name of my blog to “Mark’s Passion for Running Blog”.