Resurgence

So I sincerely apologize for taking a long ass time to write a new entry, but alas I felt that time had finally come. So this entry is kind of a personal one for me, not necessarily emotional but personal nonetheless. Sort of a synopsis from the last post to now. Sorry again.

For those that know me pretty well, these past 4-5 months have been dreadful from an activity standpoint. With this bum hamstring and all my lack of motivation to do other various weight lifting activities and exercises left me with quite the limited palette of options. However I took some time off and put my ego aside and took it easy, although I was working during this whole time, and tried to take it easy outside of work. Lack of energy, effort, whatever you want to call it occurred because of the loss of running for me and I started to find other avenues to occupy my time with and unfortunately boredom set in and when that did bored eating crept in. I've been a food lover for as long as I've been alive and without the running, I wasn't able to counteract my usually terrible eating habits and so weight gain soon happened and with that came a loss of confidence. There was also the end of a relationship that probably factored in more than I'd like to admit. So there was all that happening.

Man was I missing the hell out of running, I didn't have that one thing that really kept me balanced so to speak and it was tough on me. Fortunately my landlord lady, had a really nice road bike she would let me ride and that really helped out a lot. I kinda rediscovered the joy of riding a bike like I did as a child, and it was great to be outside again with the wind in my hair (since I haven't shaved or gotten a haircut in some time) which was a wonderful feeling. Thankfully my leg stood up to that, because I was and am still being extremely cautious because I know that I'm not at 100% and won't be for some time. However the leg started feeling better and better and I started thinking well maybe it's time to test it out and see where it's at. I'll be honest it scared the shit out of me to think about trying it out because I just didn't know how bad it was or wasn't but I figured it was worth a shot of trying.

Saturday rolls around and I'm like yeah this is the day to do it, it's cold as hell outside but I was champing at the bit to hit up Silver Comet Trail. I wrapped my leg I had been doing for work and set forth on my adventure. Definitely wanted to make sure to avoid the hilly part of the trail, so I drove a bit further up to one of the more even and flat parts to set up shop. Stretching made me nervous because with the cold weather and a bad muscle you just don't want any type of tears or strains, and was wanting to make the effort to avoid that.

The hammy felt a bit tight, but that was to be expected and I did some hip stretches like an article had suggested. After that, it was time.

Started out a bit slow obviously and felt okay, little soreness but that was expected. Suddenly I kinda back into the old flow and was running again, albeit much slower, but that's what 5 months off can do. Needless to say I was happy that I was able to pull of 2 miles at around 10:30 a clip in cold weather. Either way I knew the real test was the day after and when the next day rolled around let's just say I was pleasantly surprised.

Some soreness and a little stiffness, but that's pretty normal. Man that was a great feeling, and I fully understand I'm about 50-60% and a ways off to really start doing 6-10 mile runs but it's a start and damn it felt good.

So I'll definitely be very cautious and will add miles and tempo as my leg starts to improve and will take the necessary time off to let it heal up a bit more but it's just great to be out there again, even if it is on a limited basis. In the meantime, I plan to use that bad ass road bike some more to help me regain my stamina and some leg strength.

Either way these last few months have been trying at times, but it's just great to be able to be outside and active again. Lastly I would also like to thank the people that kept encouraging me through this time and hopefully continue to do so. Can't say how great it is to have a phenomenal support base.

Thanks for reading.

So...It's Been Awhile

Well first off I would like to apologize for taking a long ass time for typing up this latest post.

Well things have really slowed down a bit, but I was able to run in the Peachtree Road Race for the second time running this year. It was a miracle that I was able to finish relatively pain free (as most that graciously read this blog know, I've been hampered by a nagging hamstring injury for the last few months...mainly due to my stubbornness) but I was disappointed in my time, but that's what happens when you don't train accordingly.

Either way the Peachtree Road Race was a much much better experience than last year. It's very difficult to run a PR because there are too many gat dayum people but I suppose if you start sooner, that shouldn't be as much of an issue.

So anyhow I was pretty pleased with my performance, and mainly because I didn't stop (although my damn legs were killing me due to the hills) and the weather was FANTASTIC. I mean holy shit, you couldn't ask for better weather, something like high 60's. I mean wow, what a blessing that was.

Anyhow this definitely isn't my most attractive blog entry as of yet, but I had to post something because I've been taking a long ass time. Also, speaking of time, I decided it was time that I had to take off a few months to really let myself heal because this hamstring will get worse before it gets better. So I'll be working on strengthening up other areas, namely my ass, and right leg (which I believe is what caused my injury to begin with because of overuse due to my right leg being weaker)

So hopefully I'll be training soon, and with my recent move I have some major trails in the Atlanta metro area at my disposal. Anyhow appreciate the readers, thanks again.

(My homeboy and I after the race)


(What 60K+ people look like at Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta)

Quick Update 5-29-14

Well I apologize for being very tardy on this post, but I've been preoccupied with another passion of mine (comics) as well as a recent trip back to Texas (I apologize to those I missed on that trip btw)

So there have been a few shakeups since my last post. For one, the same hamstring has been bothering me, but I think that it's quite manageable this time and hopefully when I go run this weekend, it'll make it out okay. The second is that with an anniversary trip planned (tentatively) at some point this year with my wonderful girlfriend, and the imminent move to my own place, it now appears that the Las Vegas Marathon will have to wait...perhaps. However, there happens to be a race the next month in San Antonio (which also happens to be a part of the Rock n' Roll series) and this looks to be a much more possible destination. It's kinda disappointing, but I'm still holding out hope that Las Vegas still happens, but those chances appear quite bleak, unless of course things just happen to break the right way. With that said, San Antonio is a fine destination...buuuut it doesn't offer the glitz and glam of being in Vegas and well it looks like that may have to wait another year.

Perhaps next year we all decide to change our destination race, there are lots of races that offer different things, so hopefully we can all make that trip to our destination race.

So as I write this post, somewhat disappointed but slightly optimistic, I bid you happy running and until next time.

Time to Get Nasty

So very sorry for being late with my posts as of late, but I've been preparing for a much needed road trip to visit family and friends back in Texas. Either way I appreciate everyone that's read my blog, with that said on we go.

So you may be a bit perplexed by the title of this post. No I'm not talking about any sexual innuendos of any nature, this is more a long the line that Tom Berenger's character Jake Taylor says to himself during the last at bat in the classic movie "Major League"

For those that have been paying attention, you may remember that I had been nursing a nagging hamstring injury and while it may not be completely 100% healed, I'd say it's well enough to start training again. So with less than 6 months away, I have to regain the form I had prior to taking off 3 weeks from running. Missing that time has been a b**ch to be honest. I've started to lose my mojo a bit and now that I'm able to train once again hopefully I regain that soon.

So with that said, it's time to get nasty.

Small Inconvenience

Well first off thanks for reading again and secondly I apologize for not having finished part 2 of the Pushing the Absolute Limits post, but I've been having some issues with that one however I can assure you (fine readers of my blog) that I will finish ASAP.

With that out of the way, I wanted to give a small update on my training as of now...well there is no training. Not because I said f*** running, but that hamstring issue of mine has gotten to the point that I would possibly risk further injury and possible surgery. So I've decided that I would rather take the time to heal instead of being a stewhead and trying to run through the pain. So I've been icing my hamstring for several hours throughout the day and (fingers crossed) it seems to be working okay so far. The swelling has subsided a tad and the pain isn't as annoying and sore as it had been. Still not exactly sure what caused it to begin with, but I'm leaning towards a certain pair of shoes that were not like the other 3 pairs. Either way I should hopefully be back on road again within a few weeks (hopefully) and back to training.

I'll be completely honest I was pretty fearful that I may have to take off several weeks if not months in order to rehab and heal completely but with the intense icing I've been doing hopefully that will be cut down to a matter of weeks. Because I originally thought I may not be on route to train for a marathon in November because of the time missed and after 2 weeks usually you're running form and fitness begin to decrease (well I know I read that shit somewhere). So I hope I'll be in top form by the time the Peachtree Road Race rolls around in July.

Anyhow thanks again for reading and hopefully get back to running soon...very soon

Quick Update 4-7-2014

So anyhow, sorry for the delay on part 2 of the pushing the absolute limits post but I can assure it will be done within the week. Either way just a quick update, so my hammy's still giving me small fits, but it hasn't been bad enough to keep me away from getting miles in for the time being. With that said already signed up for a 10k next weekend, so training continues.

I'll keep you guys posted, thanks again for reading.

Pushing the Absolute Limits Part 1

Like to start off once again, by thanking everyone that reads my blog and I also want to reiterate that I would love to hear any comments or concerns regarding anything I've mentioned here or just ask me any questions. Onto the next post. (P.S. I hit a 1k views, so I thank everyone that reads this from the bottom of my cold heart :)

So as you can tell by the headline of this post, that I'll be touching base on somewhat of a philosophy of mine, and that is pushing myself as far as I'm willing to go. Now it's just me, but I feel that maybe most people that don't share the same philosophy are either A: Don't really give enough of a shit to try it or B:They're too scared to. Now I won't really divulge much further into A, but it's a person's God given right to do as they choose and not everyone is going to enjoy doing the same things, so with that said I'll move onto to group B, the scared group, now I'm not scientist (in fact far from it, although I do have a college degree...) but I like to observe a lot thing around me, be it from personal interaction, social media, etc.; and so it sort of gives me a hypothesis, if you will (or an educated guess for those that don't know the definition...ok I'm done sounding douchey) that I see lots of people that are willing to try something, but aren't willing to push themselves to see how far they can go.

For example, I've seen lots of Facebook friends start running races (and that is fanf****ntastic), different races from a half marathon, to a color run, etc. On one hand someone, whom I assume never ran a race beforehand because I'd never seen any other running type updates on my feed, but obviously this person went for broke and said dammit, I'm going to go all out. Now, not to brag, but I feel like that's the type of enthusiasm or philosophy that I have, maybe a little bit of pride sprinkled in to some extent, but the same nonetheless. Now running a race puts you in a pretty exclusive category in terms of percentage amongst those that haven't, but I feel like millions of people have "run" some type of race at least once in their lifetime (honestly I've done no research, but it's more of an assumption than anything), be it a mile walk, a charity race, etc. Now I'm not sure the exact number, but I think you get the message in that it is a large number amongst active people.  Now when you start adding miles to that, the challenge becomes a little more daunting, and some people either step up and face those challenges and some do not.

For whatever reason, I want to push myself as far as I can go without hurting myself. I think that's a bit of a misconception or a foolish philosophy in some people. That pushing yourself to the point of injury or close to death is the norm, it is not. I've heard about people that are addicted to runner's high (I remember seeing a story on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel about that) which is fine and dandy but is dangerous as hell if you're willing to kill yourself to run. Now that's not what I'm referring to when I say pushing the limits. There's a way to push the limits and be smart and safe about it at the same time.

Well I'm starting to realize how long this post is becoming, so I think it'd be a great idea to cut it in half.

To be continued...

Gearing Up For a Long 2014

Once again I'll start this off by saying thanks to everyone that has taken the time to read this blog, onward we go. So I'm writing this as I'm nursing a slight hamstring strain, which sucks because it sort of sets me back a little in my training. Now it looks like the Georgia Half Marathon may not be an option at this point, depending on how my leg heals. I definitely don't want to really set myself back by trying to be a bad ass and injure myself further by trying to push through this. I had something similar to this happen back in August, but after about 2 weeks or resting it and icing it, it wasn't too bad.

Well since I began to write this post a few weeks ago, my hamstring felt good enough for me to go run on, which felt great, to run again that is. So I'm just really trying to ease back into things, and not re-injure myself or make things worse. With that said, I can definitely tell that the time I missed really didn't help out, but I would rather miss time now than in August and September when it's really down to the nitty gritty in terms of marathon training.

So being that it's only the beginning of the month of March, means that this is going to be a long and arduous journey to prepare for Las Vegas and my first crack at 26.2 miles. I'd like to apologize for taking so long with this post, but I can assure those that read this, that I will do a much better job in the future. With that said, I'll be updating on training as well as upcoming races, the biggest of which is the 2014 Peachtree Road Race on July 4th this summer. I was initially unsure as to whether I would actually sign up again this year, but after reading a book about the race and its illustrious history, I began to think what an honor it is to run in a race that featured running legends such as Finnish icon, Lasse Viren, American marathon legend Frank Shorter, and Don Kardong. I don't plan to take this run as seriously, to me it's more of a fun run, rather than a race to set a PR. The reason being, is that with 60k people, it's really really tough to run and maneuver amongst the hoards of people and not get worn out quickly.

Well I appreciate your patience and look forward to keeping everyone updated.

Far Better Result

So after the debacle that was the Hot Chocolate 15K, I was excited to get that bad taste out of my mouth so I was ready to jump into my first Atlanta Track Club race of the year, the Heart and Soles 5k in Decatur. Well needless to say things went much smoother than the last race, so I am happy to say there will be no complaining from me in this entry.

Maybe it had to do with the great marketing done by the ATC lately, but damn there were a lot more people than last year's race. The race, itself was split up into 3 waves which were grouped by predicted times. Group A was for the 25 minutes and under crowd, group B for the 30 and under crowd, and group C for the rest of the field. Talked into it by my homeboy Charley, the guy in the picture with me, we ran in group A. Charley finished in a very respectable 29:57, which is not bad considering the guy doesn't have time to train accordingly and also ran on a bum knee, but Charley is good at inspiring me, so I followed suit.

Feeling pretty good beforehand, I came quick out of the blocks and within a few hundred feet my legs started to get a little heavy. I think for the most part that was my fault for not warming up properly, but after about a mile or so I started feeling pretty good, so I began to pick up my pace as well as I could without burning myself out. I think one thing that some runners can be guilty of is not doing enough hill work, because it seems like a lot of people that I pass are on hills. Now I understand that some runners may want to take easy routes with slight incline, but a great way to building leg strength is to run on hills. Well fortunately this race featured a downhill finish so I hit my kick (perhaps a little sooner than I should have) and finished pretty strong albeit a little out of gas towards the end.

So I finished in 25:02 officially, 17 seconds slower than last year, but I was at least able to enjoy the race and be satisfied with my performance. Well on to the next race, Spring Has Sprung 8k/15k and I'm a little unsure as to which race to run, but I am kind of leaning towards the 15k to get prepared for the Georgia Half Marathon next month. Well happy running and thanks for reading.

Saturday It Begins

So thanks for anyone that read my most wordy entry to date, and those who've read any previous posts. Well this entry is a bit more low key and less wordy, basically detailing the upcoming 2014 Atlanta Track Club calendar. It's also a good time to train and fine tune myself for some bigger races like the Georgia Half Marathon in March, the famous Peachtree Road Race in July and of course my Super Bowl, the Las Vegas Rock N' Roll Marathon in Las Vegas in December. Hopefully I don't end up getting my ass ate up like the Broncos did last Sunday. 

Well Saturday is the first of some of my favorite races, the Grand Prix Series by the Atlanta Track Club, the Heart and Soles 5k in Decatur, Georgia. I enjoyed the hell out of this last year mainly because I set a PR in a 5k. Unfortunately I don't believe this upcoming Saturday will be quite as fruitful, because of the weather, my foot, and a tight hamstring, I haven't been running and training as much as I should. It's an excuse, but ah what the hell I think it's quite valid in this instance. With that said I still expect a very strong race as well as some really fast runners which is good since I can let them pace me and do most of the work haha. I'll be honest I pace a lot in races, I think it's a great way to maintain and be able to keep certain paces, but I think the best and most honest way of pacing is to go by what you're body is telling you. If you've run long enough, you start to pick up on hints on when to kick it into gear and when to bring it down a notch.

Well didn't expect to go into pacing, but there's an extra treat I suppose. Thanks again for reading, happy running.

P.S. For those of you kind enough to read this who would like to sign up for the Atlanta Track Club, here's the site

Atlanta Track Club

Lesson Learned

So hello again to everyone out there reads the blog and I thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, now with that said on to the first race of the new calendar year and my goodness did that shit suck...I mean bad. Now for those of you who know me well enough, you at least know that I don't like to whine a lot about certain things and races being one of them. I'll be honest I just would rather let other people talk about that stuff for me, I guess in my head it makes me seem like a bad ass or something, but gee whiz that was the roughest course I've endured.

Now for those of you familiar with these "gimmick" races and I use the word loosely, because I can't come up with another term to accurately describe these type of races. This race happened to be like one of those electric runs or those color races and so on and so forth, this was called the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k because of the free chocolate and hot cocoa that they give out before, during and after the race. So I decided to do this on a whim that I'd get to run another race with the lady, but I also wanted to impress her sister and mother by doing the 15k rather than the 5k (also because I'm training for longer distances). Unfortunately they were done well before I finished so I didn't get to spend time with them, but that wasn't the part that really peeved me and I'll admit shame on me for being more prepared for the race itself because this race course was a motherf...well you know.

I normally have a bit of a pregame ritual where I eat before I leave for the race and then I just listen to music and stretch while I get into a mental zone of sorts(yes I know), but this time was a little different. I didn't get to have my normal pre race snacks because I was in a hurry to get there in time to see my girlfriend and her family start their race. That sort of threw things off, but this one of those easy ass "gimmick" races where people show up and eat chocolate and run/walk a 5k/15k. No big deal. Well I go through my usual pre race ritual where I isolate myself and stretch out and listen to music and did that for about 15 minutes before my race started. After all that it's time for me to join my corral and get a good spot for the start, then it hits me, what the hell am I doing in the fastest group? I mean I was a schlub in a sea of fit individuals and I'm sure they too were wondering what the hell I was doing there too. As my 7th grade track coach used to say anytime someone got outrun by someone, "You got doo doo on your legs". That's precisely what happened next and not say I'm a blazing fast runner, I'm not, but I've never been left behind by so many people, which really demoralized me.

So not only was overmatched, but on top of that the course was brutal. I kept thinking about how much I hated the person that designed the course while having to deeper maybe than I've ever had to. (Sighs) yeah shit was terrible, but I managed and survived the ordeal and was pissed off pretty much the rest of the day. Quite the humbling and miserable experience.

With that said it was a humble reminder that you're maybe not as good as you think you are and that you shouldn't underestimate any type of challenge be it great or small. So thanks for listening to my whinefest and happy running.

Destination Race

So it hit me one day (oh yeah thanks for checking my blog out again) that...well let me start over. So I was reading the latest issue of Runner's World  magazine, which was dedicated to half marathons, and in that issue it discussed a series of different races that were kind of placed in a best of category and I began to think to myself...why the hell don't I go run one of these races? That was my starting point.

At first I was unsure about doing another half marathon, because I planned to build everything up to run my first marathon towards the end of the year and then I thought wouldn't it be cool as hell to get some of my homeboys on board too and make this an even greater experience? This is when I began to think of locales that offered a scenic course with a live atmosphere (meaning a fun place with lots of shit to do) and then it hit me. Hell, why not go to Las Vegas again? So on November 16, 2014 I will be in Las Vegas with some of my closest friends challenging myself like I've never done before and as I've told them already that I may make a lot of trip propositions without following through, but I'm sure as hell going to make this happen and hopefully they're on board too. I know it's early, but I'm really excited to do this and I can't f*cking wait.

Happy running to all the schlubs. 2014 is our year.

The Benefits of Races

So this was supposed to originally be a post about my philosophy as a runner, but I kinda figured that it really didn't warrant that much blog space. With that said, my philosophy is pretty simple; push yourself as hard as possible and don't be afraid to try new things. When I say, try new things, I mean if you run 3 miles run 6; if you run a 5k then run a 10k and so forth. It's all about testing yourself and pushing the limits that you can go. Now before I get to sidetracked, I'd like to get back to the original thought at hand.

I've talked a lot in the past about the physical and mental benefits of running and for some that may not be enough of a good reason to start running and that's okay. However, there are lots of other great reasons to start running races and these are probably the two of the biggest in my opinion.

If you're a fan of free gear, then you're in luck, most races will offer free swag, such as: shirts, medals, snacks, etc. My girlfriend usually clowns one me for running races that don't offer any type of free gift, but I'll be honest it does make it worth while by waking up at 5:00 AM for a race if you get a fresh ass tech shirt.

The next reason (and one that I have made a point to do better at) is immerse yourself in the camaraderie of other people that, like you, are looking for the same thing. I'll be honest I struggle with this mainly because, I tend to keep to myself and use running as a time to think about life and other random thoughts, but I do realize that it's always a good idea to have people around you that are passionate about the same things that you are. It become infectious when you meet a person that's equally or more passionate about something that you love. That is my second resolution and one that I look forward to this year.

Thanks for reading again.