A Passion for Running

Jon did this a few weeks ago and I thought it was so neat, I thought I’d take a crack at it so here are 100 things you probably don’t know about me. I hope it’s fun to read cuz it was sure fun to write!

1 I was mostly bald by the time I turned 21.
2 I got over it by the time I was 25.
3 I have deja vu ALL the time.
4 I can do the BEST Scottish accent.
5 My family once had the largest dairy goat farm in north & central Alberta.
6 Goats once played “king of the castle” on my car and wrecked the paint job.
7 I chased them off in my underwear.
8 My dad thought it was funny.
9 The next day they played on HIS car.
10 He didn’t think it was so funny any more.
11 We built a new fence the next day.
12 I’ve lost a cousin to AIDS.
13 It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.
14 I’ve got great legs.
15 Ask my wife.
16 My parents divorced in 2006.
17 I’m thinking that’s a good thing.
18 When Christopher was one, he fell off a ledge. I thought he was a gonner.
19 The memory of that experience haunts me.
20 I’m a compulsive spender.
21 I’ve learned how to control it.
22 I have frequently been complimented on the amount of patience I have.
23 When I do get mad, it usually comes out in an ugly explosion. Kaboom! (damn Italian blood)
24 My car is usually very messy.
25 I have a long “roman” nose.
26 But virtually no sense of smell.
27 I was once in a truck roll.
28 As we rolled, I spread the jam sandwich I was eating all over the dash of the truck. People thought it was my blood.
29 The roll was the beginning of my back troubles.
30 I believe in reincarnation.
31 I was once married to a lesbian.
32 It didn’t sound cool to say that until after I re-married!
33 That “situation” is what led me toward running my first marathon.
34 I don’t care what kind of car I drive.
35 Once upon a time I owed close to $20,000 in student loans and credit card debt.
36 I have two brothers.
37 And no sisters.
38 My favorite word in the whole world is “daddy”.
39 I believe chocolate is a food group.
40 So are Martinis
41 My ultimate dream is to go into space.
42 I want to live to 150.
43 I have 20 framed pictures of my family and friends spread around my workspace.
44 Co-workers call it “Mark’s gallery”.
45 I’ve never broken a bone.
46 My first job after high-school was as a car jockey for Budget-Rent-A-Car
47 We once piled five people into a Pontiac Fiero and drove it from the airport to Edmonton.
48 I absolutely can’t STAND doing yardwork.
49 The most important things in my life are health, family and friends.
50 I’ve never had a one night stand.
51 The first time I flew in a plane, I was two.
52 The second time I flew in a plane, I jumped out of it.
53 The third time I flew in a plane, I was 35.
54 My mom can speak french, my dad is fluent in Italian and I can barely manage English.
55 People say I look like Monty Burns off the Simpsons.
56 I can do a great Scooby-Doo impression.
57 I used to love to sing and act until grade 7 when some boys made fun of me.
58 Now I’m a terrible singer and only do so in the shower even though I prefer to whistle.
59 I once met Eddie Van Halen.
60 I have a condition called cold-induced Urticaria which basically means I’m allergic to the cold.
61 But I live in a climate that gets very cold for much of the year.
62 Once upon a time, I counselled inmates on how to make use of their free time doing non-criminal recreational activities.
63 I used to teach children’s swimming lessons.
64 I’m a terrible swimmer.
65 Once, when I was being taught how to teach swimming, the instructor used me to show the others that “everyone can float”.
66 She was wrong.
67 I once scored 38 points in a high school basketball game.
68
69
70
71 My proudest accomplishment was teaching myself photography and creating a full time business in under three years.
72 My biggest regret was letting my back get so bad it destroyed the business I worked so hard to create.
73 I suck really bad at all raquet sports.
74 I’m not very good at pool.
75 Beer helps me play better.
76 I once ate two tequila worms.
77 That’s the only night in my life where I can’t remember several hours of my evening.
78 I once went on a University bus ski trip to Big Mountain Montana.
79 A girl attacked me on the bus ride down.
80 Everything was great until she yelled a name out and it wasn’t mine.
81 About 10 seconds later, she threw up.
82 My “friends” took pictures.
83 I love pretty much any kind of seafood especially if it’s slathered in butter.
84 The end of Field of Dreams makes me cry.
85 So do the last few scenes of Godfather III
86 And the scene where Mickey dies in Rocky III
87 Lori and I met on an on-line dating service.
88 Longevity runs in the family. The oldest was my Great Gramma. She passed at 102.
89 I love researching my families genealogy.
90 I got into it because my dad’s dad was an orphan and our last name is 100% unique in the world.
91 I still don’t know anything about where my Nono (grandpa) came from but I know a LOT about the rest of our family history!
92 The two celebrities I have the hots for are Ashley Judd & Charlize Theron.
93 My best quality is that I’m eternally optimistic.
94 My worst quality is that I sometimes don’t pay attention.
95 I’m a true on-the-cusp Cancerian
96 I love most kinds of music except rap.
97 I’m especially fond of movie score and 60’s Jazz music.
98 The celebrity I admire most is Wayne Gretzky because he IS great but also hard working, very modest and unbelievably generous.
99 I’ve had tears at the end of at least two marathons (I guess I cry a lot huh?).
100 I still love running them.

What is your strategy for tapering before a race? There are many thoughts out there on the art of tapering before a marathon – or other distance races for that matter.

My taper? Every two days for the next several I will run very short distances – 15 to 20 minutes tops. Those runs will be done at marathon pace. Call it “fine tuning”.

I’ll do that till next Wednesday and won’t run at all Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Besides the running aspect of tapering, I’ll also be getting lots of sleep and will carbo-load like there’s no tomorrow all next week – especially Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

How about you?

I kicked the ever-lovin’ crap outta my “four sisters” hill route today (Nick and I named the course a couple of weeks ago)! Yup. I spanked those sista’s GOOOOOOD!

9.3 kilometers/5.8 miles in 47:45. Pace was 5:08 per kilometer/8:15 per mile. That’s another record for me on this course and a kick-ass run if I do say so!

And here’s the best news. My average heart rate was 159…159!! That’s really low for me on such a grueling, hilly route. During the run, I watched my heart rate rise as I climbed the hills but also watched it drop through the floor after the hills. That’s one of the things we train so hard for folks – fast recovery.

So, I’m officially tapering and let me tell ya, that is the way to start a taper. I had planned on beginning the taper after a tempo run I’d scheduled for tomorrow, but I’m cancelling that run because my math teacher friend kindly pointed out if I ran tomorrow, it would not be a ten-day taper (what I want) – it would only be nine. Thank god I have a friend who can count!

So, like Dianna, I’m beginning my taper on a high note.

Spank you very much!

So, my latest bit of paranoia is that I might be over trained…

You see, I’ve been really achy lately and my legs are feeling very heavy. I’ve also been paying attention to my resting heart rate which has been a bit high. Seems like lately I can’t get it under 50 bpm. That’s compared to when it was around 45 prior to my last marathon.

There are many things that can affect heart rate. One of them is being over trained. So, I started to worry about that particular possibility before eliminating the others.

This morning I found my brain and started thinking about the other factors and realized one of them stuck out. Hydration level. I started thinking about my drinking habits and decided they have not been great as of late.

So, I did a little test. First, I took my resting heart rate shortly after my morning cup of coffee. It was 50. Then, I started drinking water. I drank a liter of water. Two hours later, I checked it again and guess what? It went down all the way to 42 bpm and the bonus was that my leg soreness was gone too!

It’s obvious I’m not over trained and even more obvious I need to hydrate better.

Duh Mark! Drink water ya’ big dummy!

Today’s Run
I did 30 minutes of drills today and wore my heart rate monitor while doing them. I did 10 sets of high-knees and 10 sets of leaping/bounding. Each set consisted of 30 steps – 15 on each leg and I took a couple minutes of jogging rest between each set. I was amazed at how quick and high my heart rate shot up doing those. By the end of each set, it was between 80 and 85% of max.

Yup! SEVEN more additions to the RBF directory. Just when you thought you were over your run-blog addiction huh?

Colin from run a marthon, write a novel
Cindy from Cindy Wolff’s Running Blog
Taco John
Ed & Jeff from Two Fools Running.
Deva from Deva Runs
and Scott from Evolution Echo

Welcome to you all!

Looks like Aaron and I have converted another of you running bloggers over to the dark side (can’t resist with the whole Star Wars DVD release thing). Reba formerly from here is moving her blog to here with Complete Running.

Muhuwaahahahah!!! Looks like our plans for world domination are coming to light.

My new workstation looked just AWFUL!!!

Pre-move, we were given an opportunity to choose the location of our workstation. Being the veteran of the group, I was given first dibs so I picked the northeast corner because it had north and east facing windows – the latter with a view of the river valley and morning sunlight.

We were told the workstations would be the same size. Well, they are not the same size. They are two feet smaller in both length and width than the old stations. What pissed me off was that it was just the last three stations nearest to the corners that were smaller in size. Apparently, my employer was economizing on space and decided to covert the two workstations located in the corners of the building into three smaller ones.

Argh. It would have been REALLY nice is someone would have provided this bit of info before I chose my station and was moved.

So, I was NOT happy and neither were two of my colleagues. There was a big argument with one of the people who managed the moving project which finally ended in arms being thrown up because it was obvious we would not get satisfaction.

There is a happy ending, however.

I came back to my station, did some meditative breathing, unpacked a few of the boxes and opened the blinds. Everything started to seem a bit bigger and brighter. Then I went for my run and everything got even better. Suddenly, the whole argument seemed rather pointless and silly.

Funny how a run can do that for ya huh?

Nothing spectacular about the run, but the view (as you now know) WAS spectacular. It was really beautiful out there. The leaves are changing rapidly now and are even different than when I took those pictures on Friday. Lots more on the ground now too.

The run consisted of 8km (5 miles) in 44 minutes at a 5:30min/km (8:48min/mile) pace. It felt very difficult today. Not surprising considering the rest I took recovering from my cold, aches and pains – all of which are much better now. Also not surprising since I drank too much beer and wine yesterday with my Dad and Aaron and was dehydrated for my run today.

Side-note: Aaron, my dad and I were making wine yesterday. How much wine you say? About 250 liters or 66 gallons! If you bottled that in those regular sized (750ml/25 ounce) wine bottles, you would have 333 bottles of wine! No, we are not alcoholics and are not going into the wine making business. Being Italian, my dad has been making terrific wine for most of his life. His supply is almost dry so he wanted to make some more. Plus, I wanted to learn how, plus Aaron is getting married in June so we decided it would be neat if we made the wine for his wedding. Lori’s parents also wanted in on it too so we are splitting everthing four or five ways including the wedding. Cool huh?

Back to running. Tomorrow I’ll do some leg drills, Wednesday my four-hill route and Thursday a tempo run. Friday will mark the beginning of a SWEET 10 day taper. I’m looking forward to that!

I’ve also made an appointment for another massage on Friday. I’ve been experiencing a LOT of tightness in my hamstrings. Gotta work that out before the marathon. I’ve had hamstrings cramp up during a marathon and it simply AIN’T ANY FUN!

More precisely, here are some pictures of a bit of the city I call home! They were taken along routes I often run during my lunch breaks and after work.

I hope you enjoy this glimpse into Edmonton.

I didn’t do my scheduled 10-miler today. It would have been my last long run before the marathon but I had a terrible night last night with my cold and went to bed at 8:00 pm!

I woke up feeling quite a lot better but didn’t feel one run was worth the risk of prolonging the cold any longer than necessary so I instead joined Aaron for an hour of easy rollerblading.

You know what? I have ABSOLUTELY no regrets about missing this run. I’ve been running 2+ hour long runs every Saturday for MONTHS. Much longer than is required in any marathon training program. Missing this one did not hurt me.

I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

A dorky first arrived by courier yesterday. The first book I’ve ordered from Amazon.com! I know, I know. Amazon has been around for what, like 10 years and here I am ordering my first book?

It was recommended by a fella I’ve gotten to know from my gym. Not long ago, Clinton was 50 pounds overweight and now he’s clocking sub-19 minute 5k races!

The book is called Explosive Running and was written by PHD Michael Yessis. The book focuses on improving strength and flexibility but probably not in ways most people would expect.

So far, it looks EXCELLENT. I’ll keep you posted and try and share some things as I learn ‘em. One thing I will share right now is that he’s an advocate of BAREFOOT running. Interesting huh?

I’ve also added the link in the menu on the left side of my blog.