Interview with Myself

The title sounds pretentious, I know. Actually, I have to give credit to another blog for this idea; fellow DailyMiler Erin did this exact same thing on her blog and I'm stealing the questions. I think she stole it from someone else anyway so it's cool, right? Feel free to steal it for your blog if you want. I had some fun with it and it was an easy blog post to make.

1.  How did you get into running?

Hmm. It’s tough to say how I started - my dad ran triathlons when my brother, sister and I were young so we always had him as an example (and a running partner early on). I think when I was in 6^th grade or so I started running - I joined the middle-school track & cross-country teams and ran with them for a couple of years. The cross-country races were never that long and I have no idea what my times were, I honestly don’t remember. I stopped running towards the end of middle-school/early high-school because I got more involved in other things. I briefly picked up running again in college, just more as a workout activity more than anything. Then again, after college, I started working out at lunch regularly and running off and on.

Things didn’t really get serious in the running department until the fall of 2010 - I was playing softball on a rec-league team and managed to break my arm. After surgery to fix the damage I was pretty much without the use of my left arm for 6 weeks and that’s when I started running regularly again. I entered a 5K the following spring it has sort of progressed from there. At first I said I would never run a marathon and had no interest in running one and then I went and did the Chicago Marathon last fall. Running has really become a big part of my life in the past 2+ years.

2.  Do you have a bucket list? If so, what’s #1 on it?

I would love a) go on a European tour and b) go see Machu Picchu in Chile. Running-wise, I don’t really have anything that I would consider to be “bucket list”. I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things with running already. I would love to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but I’m not gonna kill myself to do it. More than anything, I would like to continue to be able to keep running as a part of my lifestyle…both now and well into the future. I always admire those 50, 60, 70 and 80-year-olds I see out there, still running and enjoying the sport. I wanna be like that.

3.  What has been your favorite race?

I loved running the NYC Half Marathon last year. The ironic thing was that prior to the week of the race, I didn’t think I was going to be able to run it. I had a nasty bout of IT-Band Syndrome in the two months leading up to the race and then miraculously it cleared up the week of the race and I was able to run it. My time wasn’t all that good, but it was such a cool experience to run through Central Park and Times Square, I’ll never forget it. Unfortunately, I’ll also never forget the guy who took a shit, with his butt facing us runners, up on a hill around mile 4 or so. Everyone was groaning and yelling at the guy. I also remember crossing the finish line and being so grateful for being able to run the race, for being able to complete it - it was an awesome feeling. It was also my first half-marathon.

4.  What motivates you to keep going?

Always wanting to get better. I know there will come a day, because of age or whatever, where I simply won’t be able to improve on my PRs. Fortunately, that time is not now and so I’m hell-bent on taking advantage of my prime years to set lofty goals and achieve them. I’m so grateful to have this body that God gave me; a body that works well and seems to be able to perform at a higher level than most people. Using my talents in running is one way that I worship the God that created me.

5.  What is one habit you have that you wish you could break?

I’m a nail-biter and I hate it.

6. If you could have ANY job in the world—what would you do?

Probably detective - hope to do it someday.

7. What’s your favorite piece of gear?

It’s probably a tie between my Garmin 305 and my Saucony shoes.

8. What is your go-to pre-race meal?

On race morning I usually keep it really simple. A cup of coffee, a banana and maybe a PB&J or Clif Bar. The night-before meal could be anything.

9. Do you take supplements? If so, what?

No.

10. What do you love about running?

I don’t get to do it very often, but I love running with other people. There’s something about going on a run with someone else that’s special. I also love the sense of accomplishment after a great workout or race. Secretly, I love being in the gym, seeing all the muscle-heads flexing and thinking to myself, “I could waste you in a 5K.”

11. What is your next BIG race?

Next big race is the Chitown Half on March 24^th. Training hasn’t gone exactly as I had hoped, but it’s been solid and I’m feeling confident. My goal is to break 1:30:00. This will be my third half-marathon and I think if the weather conditions cooperate, I can do it. Training has been going well and according to my other recent race times, McMillans says that I should be able to do it.

New Week, New Soapbox

The catalyst for this week's soapbox is this article (http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/01/wiretap-backdoors/) that I saw on Wired.com. If you don't feel like reading it, it is an opinion piece suggesting that the FBI, instead of mandating that all new software applications be out-fitted with "wire-tap" capabilities, they should be hiring forensic computer hackers. It's a 'fight fire with fire' argument that makes sense when you consider it. That said - it was a couple of sentences in this article that got me thinking:

"Whether we like them or not, wiretaps — legally authorized ones only, of course — are an important law enforcement tool. But mandatory wiretap backdoors in internet services would invite at least as much new crime as it could help solve."

Legislation is expected to be authored later this year that will require all new internet applications and software programs be out-fitted with a "backdoor" so that if the need arises, the FBI can tap into it. This is not new news - all of that is covered in greater detail by the article. What got me thinking was this notion of government regulation as a means of ENSURING that crime continues -- and thus validating a NEED for government oversight. Lest I be thought a conspiracy theorist (which I am not), let me further explain.

What's another hot-button topic these days? Gun Control. Understandably so right? The knee-jerk reaction of our country to the numerous school-shootings over the past 10 years has been to demand more gun control. What will gun control do? Will it stop criminals from possessing or using weapons? No. Will it stop crazy people from accessing guns and committing crimes? No. In-short, will it stop school shootings? I feel that if you're being intellectually honest with yourself, the answer is no. So, what then, will more gun laws do? One thing it is sure to do is extend the reach of government. More regulation means more surveillance on the part of the State into your affairs. More regulation means more justification for the Government to spend your tax dollars -- and not only that, but also to ask for, and justify, ADDITIONAL tax revenue.

If that example isn't good enough for you - how about the "War of Drugs." Have drug laws stopped the manufacture and distribution of drugs in this country? No, they are still available in every city in America. Has it curbed drug-use in this country by limiting the availability of drugs? Maybe a tiny little bit? Maybe? Has the U.S. Government been successful on ANY front of the "War on Drugs"? If you read/watch the news and read anything about it, the unequivocal answer is "No". What has the war on drugs done? One thing it has done is justify an entire sub-branch of the U.S. Government (namely the DEA, and to an extent the ATF) and thus has justified the expenditure of LIMITLESS U.S. tax dollars. Put another way, it has justified the waste of countless tax dollars without any accountability for results. Let me be clear, a drug bust here and there or the break-up of a drug-ring here and there are not results...results consist of the actual accomplishment of your objectives which, in the "War on Drugs" would be the curtailing of manufacture and sale of drugs in this country. Am I suggesting that we legalize everything? No. But what I am suggesting is that we start being honest with ourselves and the failure of this war -- afterall, our government is ACCOUNTABLE to WE THE PEOPLE.

As a corollary - the War on Drugs has also allowed the government to justify a number of other things. Because drugs are illegal they are bought and sold on a black-market...mostly by gangs. Fights over "turf" explode into violence on our streets (22 murders so far in Chicago in 2013) and then justify the need to more law enforcement in the form of police officers and over government enforcement (FBI, DEA, ATF, etc). This ultimately costs more tax money...but the government can turn around and say, "hey, we have a huge problem here and the citizens NEED us." States have begun to decriminalize marijuana and shockingly (sarcasm) there haven't been vast increases in crime. Not only that, these states are going to start bringing in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana and will actually being making a profit on the industry, rather than spending vast amounts of tax dollars to curb marijuana use.


This might as well be a short dissertation on why I am a Conservative...a Conservative bordering on being a Libertarian. I will never feel like the Government does a better job at regulating my day-to-day life and choices better than I do. I believe that you and me do an astronomically better job at over-seeing our day-to-day lives than the Government ever has or will. The Government has a place, of this there is no-doubt, but that place is not in creating a need for itself. By making laws that extend the reach of government for the sake of "catching criminals" - the government is pulling the wool over the proverbial eyes of Americans as to what it's true objectives are.

Soapbox Post: We Know Next to Nothing

Just an up-front warning: this post has nothing to do with running. Well, not much anyway. The catalyst for this post is a book I've recently been reading in conjunction with several articles I've come across lately. The book is "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" written by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It's a long book, but it's very well written and it takes you through the evolution of medical thought with regard to cancer itself as well as the evolution of cancer treatment. Among the many fascinating parts of the book is this sense of just how far our understanding of cancer has come in the past 50-60 years...AND how much there still is that we don't know.

In the 1940s the treatment for cancer, if there even was one for the particular type that you had, basically consisted of a surgeon trying cut it out of you. For breast cancer, the treatment ideas at the time were particularly horrendous and involved major surgery that a fair amount of patients didn't even survive. A new invention around that time was chemotherapy which, in it's infancy, was a terrible ordeal to have to go through and involved months of retching, weight/hair loss and extreme fatigue...for only possibly a few months of "remission." Most of these treatments back then only retarded the advance of cancer and for most patients, the cancer would return and eventually cause death. Today the treatment methods are quite a bit more nuanced and effective, but cancer is still a serious disease and some forms of it, like pancreatic cancer, have extremely high mortality rates.

So, what's my point? My point is this: in today's world, it's easy to think, "wow, look how technologically advanced our society is, I mean, we have smart phones, fighter jets, and starbucks on every corner - what else is there to discover?" The fact is, there is A TON we don't know about. I would even go so far as to say that there is more we don't know, way more, than things we do know about. For example, here is an article I saw today (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/01/10/we-probably-wouldnt-even-see-a-doomsday-asteroid-until-it-was-too-late/). For all of our advancements in telescopic technology and in our understanding of space, it's likely that if there were an asteroid out there that could obliterate earth, we wouldn't even see it coming. As NASA puts it, "“With so many of even the larger NEOs [near Earth objects] remaining undiscovered, the most likely warning today would be zero,” We would see nothing at all until suddenly, just as the impact occurred, we noticed a “flash of light and the shaking of the ground as it hit.”" And yet our society is "so advanced."

Basically I've come to the conclusion that we know and understand next to nothing very little about our world. It seems like we know a lot and no doubt there have been huge strides forward in our knowledge and understanding in a lot of different areas over the past 100 years, but there is a LONG way to go. There are numerous examples throughout science and medicine. There are real-world examples RIGHT NOW. For example - why are there all these school-shootings happening in the U.S.? Is it the availability of guns? Is it the prevalence of violence on television and in video games? Is it our cultural attitudes towards mental illness? Is it a lack of real-parenting on the part of a lot of parents in the U.S.? Is it the decline of personal responsibility and morals in our country? Suffice to say, it's probably more than one of those things and perhaps there are additional factors than those that come into play.

Like I said before, it's easy to think we live in the 'age of enlightenment' and sure, compared to past eras and civilizations, we are "enlightened" I suppose, but there is still a lot of be discovered. I keep going back to the verse in the Bible, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9, NIV) I imagine we are quite amusing to God at times -- the created says, "I've figured this out!!" and God looks down and says, "Ha, just you wait and see." It's an incredible thought really. Another verse that comes to mind is God saying to Job, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand." (Job 38:4, NIV)

Anyway, those are my thoughts today - like I said, not related to running much. I suppose they could be related to running. There have advancements over the past 30 years in shoe technology, compression technology, physiological understanding, training philosophy and the like, but if all other disciplines are any indication there's still a lot more to learn about our bodies and about the sport of running. I'm looking forward to seeing more advancements and gaining further understanding, no matter the field.

Question: Have you become a better runner?

I should probably explain the title of this post a little. I was running with a friend of mine the other day and he asked me two questions. The first one was, "how long have you been running on a serious level?" The answer to that is simple, it's been about 2 years and a couple of months since I really got serious about running again. The second question was, "ok, in that time, have you become a better runner?" In my haste to answer that question I blurted out something about not having gotten substantially faster in the past two years, but I have improved my stamina/endurance, yadda, yadda, yadda. The question stuck in mind though and I've been giving it more thought over the past few days and I think I have a slightly more nuanced answer.

Speed:
With regard to the actual speed of my running - my answer is complicated by my expectations. Simply put, I would love to be running faster than I am right now. I think all runners want that, but I feel like my progress with regard to speed has been particularly slow. My first 5K after my return to running was in May of 2011 and I ran a 21:27. My latest 5K this past October was a PR at 19:06. So I've shaved about :46 per mile off my 5K time in 2+ years...I'm happy with that, but all things considered, I think I still have a lot more room to improve on that. As a side note, I know that I've spent much of the last year training for a marathon and that I haven't done much speed-work at all, much less running towards 5K goals. I think that if I really focused on improving my 5K times, I could make some pretty solid gains pretty quickly.

Endurance:
Without a doubt, this is the area in which I have improved my running the most. A couple of years ago, I thought running a marathon was a super-human feat. I would always say, "I have no interest in running a marathon." Then I ran my first half-marathon earlier this year and thought to myself, "hmm, maybe I should just try it? Maybe?" So I signed up for the Chicago Marathon, trained all summer for it and completed my first marathon in October. Now I want to run another one. Funny how that happens. Anyway, I went from running 20-30 miles/week before marathon training, to regularly completing 40-50+ mile weeks throughout the summer. In terms of things that I'm proud of in my life, completing the Chicago Marathon is up there near the top. A year ago, the longest single run I had ever done in my lifetime was 9 miles. Crazy.

Running Knowledge:
With anything, the more time you put into it, the more you learn about the nitty gritty details. Through books, blogs and talking to other runners, I've learned a TON about running over the past 2 1/2 years. I've read books by Jack Daniels, Danny Dreyer, the Hanson brothers, Lewis Maharam, Ryan Hall and others and spend hours talking about running with other runners. This has increased my awareness of the details of the sport itself. I've learned a lot about things like the importance of hydration, the physiological benefits of long-slow distance running, VO2Max, running form, cadence, injury prevention, footwear and on and on and on. I can't say I've been able to put everything I've learned into practice, but a lot of it I have and it has helped me.

I tend to be more on the pessimistic side of things. I have made a lot of improvements in my running since the Fall of 2010. I need to make some new goals for myself and start working towards those goals. When I'm running at my best, I'm following a plan and making every run count towards something.

Rough Draft Goals (for 2013 and 2014):
- Run another half-marathon in the Spring 2013 (~1:30:00)
- Spend some concentrated effort training for shorter races like 5Ks and 10Ks.
- Run a 5K with an average pace of 5:59 or lower
- Run another marathon sometime in the next 2 years

The Winter Blues

*Sigh.* I suppose it's finally here. Winter. When I was a kid I used to love the winter. I loved snow, I loved the excitement of that occasional day when school would be cancelled and we could play for hours in the snow building igloos, forts, sledding...now I hate winter. Since I've gotten back into running I've really come to loathe winter - all the extra clothes you have to wear to go running, being forced onto a treadmill when the sidewalks are impassable, having super dry skin all the time because of multiple showers every day. Winter sucks.

Anyway - this post isn't to bitch about the weather. There's nothing I can do about the cold days/nights and the inevitable snow we'll get here in Chicago...eventually (hasn't snowed here yet). No, this post is about something else entirely - but it's related to winter. I think I have the 'winter blues' when it comes to running. My last race was Thanksgiving Day and for the foreseeable future, I have no races to look forward to. I had a great 2012 running season. Two half-marathons, a couple of 5Ks, my first 8K and the crowning achievement of my first marathon. The only problem is this: for almost the entirety of this year, I've had something to focus on - whether it was a half-marathon or marathon or some other race, there was constantly that thing coming up that served for motivation. Now it's not there, and I'm seriously struggling to get excited about working out.

I know what I need to do - I need to make a plan. Find some race in the Spring to start training for. I know this, but I lack even the motivation to put together a plan. I feel worn-out. I've contemplated taking a break from running for a couple of weeks just to recharge the batteries, but then I think about all the progress I made this year and what I stand to lose if I just stop running. I know it doesn't disappear instantly, but it's a mental thing. I just can't seem to bring myself to stop running completely. I have been scaling back the running over the past month and focusing more on weights but even my weight days are a chore now.

Maybe others of you out there have had this problem: when I have a plan, I stick to it religiously. When I don't have a plan, everything becomes hard. By 'hard' I mean, I push hard. Too hard. All the time. All my runs become steady-state or clock runs. My weights are hard. I know this about myself and yet I seem not to be able to hold back. If I sound like I'm bragging I'm not - in fact, I dislike this about myself. As disciplined as I can be with a plan, I'm equally undisciplined without one. This is yet another reason to find a race, make a plan, and start training smartly.

I still haven't decided what to do. Might take some time off AND find a race, make a plan, etc. I gotta change something though because the ways things are going now isn't likely to lead anywhere good. The main reason for this post was just to write it out. I feel better.

Shoe Review: Adidas Supernova Glide 4

I'm no shoe expert - I'll leave that to RunBlogger. That said - Ken W. on DailyMile suggested I do a show review of a pair I recently bought so I thought I would give it a shot. I've managed to collect quite a pile of shoes over the past couple of years and I know what I like and don't like. Anyway, here goes.

I'll start off by saying something that everyone should hear, whether you've already heard it or you're a new runner and you're hearing it for the first time: shoes cannot make you a faster runner and no matter what you hear, there is no magical shoes...HOWEVER, shoes can hurt you and if you don't have the right shoe for you, it can ruin running for you. If you want living proof, I'm living proof and you can read all about that here (and read the comments too to see how many other people have been through the same thing). With that out of the way, here is my review of the Adidas Supernova Glide 4s.

I've been pretty strictly a Saucony man for the past year or so. After some experimentation I found that the Ride series, particularly the Ride 2s and 3s were the perfect shoe for me. Then Saucony had to go and mess everything up...they changed the heel-to-toe drop on all of their shoes from 12mm to 8mm (or less). I bought and ran in a pair of Ride 5s this past year and it ended up causing me some serious achilles pain. I switched back to my Ride 3s and wah-lah, no pain. You might be thinking "so what's the problem?" The problem is that Ride 3s are becoming increasingly difficult to find because they're discontinued. I've been buying rogue pairs of Ride 3s on eBay for the last 6 months knowing that eventually I was going to need to find an alternative for the future.

I have the greatest blessing a runner could ask for - my brother-in-law works for The Running Room - which is a running-shoe specialty store and not only that, he's a regional manager...so I get my shoes at a very nice discount which basically means that I can buy any shoe out there, even the expensive ones, and they don't end up costing me that much (THANK YOU SCOTT!). I was in one of Scott's stores over the Thanksgiving holiday and I presented him with my dilemma and he suggested that I try these Adidas Supernova Glide 4s. I tried them on, they felt good, they are a NEUTRAL shoe and so I bought them.

My first run in them was that night - the temps were chilly (mid-20s) and the surface was a paved road surface. I ran with my brother and we kept a pretty solid pace (around 7:25). We ended up going 6 miles and I was happy with how my legs felt after the run...especially considering this was my first run in these brand-new-off-the-shelf shoes. I didn't have any blisters or even any hot-spots which was also a major plus. Since then I've run on an indoor-track surface, on roads again and today I ran on a crushed-gravel surface. The only test I haven't put these shoes through is a long run. I've done fast running and slow running and so far I've put about 20 miles on these - maybe too few for a good review, but hey, I'm an impatient guy.

Pros:
- I really like the distribution of the cushioning in the shoe. There is a lot of support towards the heel and progressively less towards the fore-foot. I'm not a heel-striker, but I like having that extra support in the heel area.
- The shoe feels like it has a nice wide base, which contribute to an overall sense of stability.
- Another thing I like about the shoes is that they are extremely comfortable. The tongue of the shoe is nice and thick and the shoes really feel like they're cradling your foot.

Cons:
- The only con I can think of is that the shoes are a little clunky. Weighing in at 11.3 oz. these are by no means racing shoes. With all the comfort though, it's no surprise these shoes are a little on the clunky side.

So far so good with these shoes - I think they are a worthy replacement for my Ride 3s. I never expected to be running in Adidas, they aren't exactly known for their running shoes, but hey - I'm satisfied.

A Meaningful Race

I just got back last night from a Thanksgiving break of sorts. It was five glorious work-free days spending time with all of my favorite people in the world: my family. In this midst of this break, I ran a race and it turned out to be perhaps one of the most memorable races I will ever run. My brother, sister-in-law and I decided, somewhat on a whim, to run a Thanksgiving Day race. We were looking for something longer than a 5K but shorter than a half-marathon and we ended up choosing a small race in Chisago City, MN called the "Dash 'n Dine Race"; a 5-mile race.

Temperatures on race-morning were PERFECT. Mid-to-upper-40s, mostly cloudy and only a slight breeze. My brother (Tony) and I decided to do a couple of warm-up miles and when we finished those, we realized that we had gone out too early because there was still 30 minutes until the start. After twiddling our thumbs for the next 1/2 hour with nervous stretching and pacing, it was finally time.

I didn't really know to expect as far as a goal-time. I had never run the 5-mile/8K distance and my training over the past month hasn't really been all that focused, I've been concentrating more on weights and injury-prevention than I have on speed or mileage. That said, I had it in my mind that I wanted to come in around 33-33:30 which would have been a 6:36-6:42 mile split. I felt confident that I could achieve that goal.

The race started as all races do: too fast. Through the first mile I was focusing on slowing down to a hold-able pace. There were only a handful a people in front of me through Mile 1 and my brother was way ahead of me by then with another guy running right next to him. About mid-way through Mile 2, I saw the 2nd place guy stop and put his hands on his knees. I thought to myself, "huh, maybe he just started to fast (?) and ran out of gas?" As I drew closer to where he was though, I realized that he was clutching his ankle area and as I approached him I yelled, "hey are you ok?" and he said that his Achilles had popped. I felt bad for him, but only for a second. At that point it was my brother in 1st place and only one person between he and I.

At that point I realized that I had a unique opportunity before me. Tony and I don't get to run too many races together - we've managed to run 3 races this year, but typically it's been about one race per year. We've never had the chance to go 1st and 2nd in any race before and I realized we had that chance in this race. "It might be the only chance we ever get" I thought to myself. Tony had a stranglehold on 1st place so it was up to me...

Around Mile 2 or shortly after the mile 2 mark, I overtook 2nd place. I felt good, but oddly enough it was at that point that I started to doubt whether I could hold the pace I had established. I'm sure this happens to everyone in races; you get to that point there it starts to hurt, but you're only about half-way. This was where it really helped to know that I had a chance to finish 2nd to my brother. I decided that I was going to be damned if I gave up 2nd place, no matter how much it hurt. I shortened up my stride and put my head down. As we hit the mile 4 mark there was a 90 degree turn and so I peeked to see how far ahead I was - my best guess was that I had about a 20-30 second lead on 3rd place. For the last 1/2 mile, the courses for the 5K and 5Mile races joined so I was having to yell to get people to move out of the way. I saw Tony a few hundred yards from the finish and he gave me a high-five and a "Go Adam!". I crossed the finish-line in 31:24 - 2nd place out of 72 finishers in the 5-Mile race.

I suppose there is one caveat to be made. My Garmin measured the course at 4.90 miles, which is within the potential error range for it to have been 5 miles, but more than likely it was closer to the 8K distance of 4.97 miles. Regardless - I consider it an 8K and/or 5M PR, close enough right? Either way, I'm very happy with the time, it absolutely crushed my expectations. Tony got a PR in the race, 29:00 to take home the turkey (literally). It was a pretty disorganized little race, but fun nonetheless. Tony's wife MJ also set a PR in the race and finished in 11th place (2nd overall female). It was a great day all around and a race I will always remember fondly.