The Final Frontier

One of the things that you always hear about, and worry about, when you run your first marathon is "the wall". Can I cope with the mental and physical toll that a long run will take on me? It's something I've wondered about. Until now.

Saturday I ran twenty miles in 2 hours and 52 minutes. I was able to occupy my mind for that period of time. I was able to run through any discomfort I was feeling. I was able to stay fed and hydrated. I finished and finished in one highly conditioned piece. I now know that I will finish the marathon. The only question is how quickly.

I have met the final hurdle, the mental one. I have visited the final frontier and I like it. I can't wait to run this race!!


Training Runs Completed
Monday (8/20) - 6 miles
Wednesday (8/22) - 8 miles
Friday (8/24) - 6 miles
Saturday (8/25) - TWENTY MILES!!!

My Story (Part 4 of 4) - Staying Motivated to Work Out

I know how hard it is to get motivated and stay motivated. There have been times in my life during which wild horses couldn't drag me to the gym. But today, those same wild horses can't keep me away. My friends ask me all the time, "how to you stay motivated?" Here are my Top 10 keys to staying motivated to stay fit. I hope this helps you find the motivation to stay your course!


10) Ease into it
When I was younger, I would get all jacked up after returning to the gym from a long...um..."hiatus." I would invariably push myself so hard that I would be sore for a week, causing another...umm...hiatus. Go slow and build up. You have no one to impress but yourself, so pump the brakes when you are starting out.


9) Stretch
Stretching is generally the last thing I want to do. When I get to the gym, I want to get after it and when I get done, I want to "get gone." However, stretching before and after workouts will help you beat back the soreness, giving you one less reason to give up.


8) Be consistent
I have heard it said that it takes 21 days to develop a good habit. Exercising is no different. You have to develop the habit of working out consistently. In the beginning, in these first 21 days, it is more important to show up on every scheduled day than it is to go hard. Even if it's just 10 minutes, make sure you show up!


7) Sleep well
For those of us who work out in the morning, the biggest threat to a workout is often the snooze button. He's a sneaky brotha and he'll trip you up if you don't allow yourself enough sleep. Often, a great workout (or a skipped workout) starts the night before.


6) Eat well
I used to workout on an empty stomach in the wee hours of the morning. However, I find that I'm stronger when I eat at least a little sumpin' sumpin'. For me, it's protein bars or whey protein shakes. Not enough to get full, but enough that the sound of my stomach growling doesn't drown out my iPod.


5) Set Short Term Goals
I used to get overwhelmed by knowing that I had to work out for ... the... rest... of... my...life. I thought, "what's the use. Pass the Oreos". Now I keep myself motivated by breaking up "the rest of my life" into 30 to 90 days increments. It's much easier for me to push to the end of a 90 day program than to keep pushing with no end in sight.


4) Mix it Up
The folks at P90x have done a great job of popularizing the notion of "muscle confusion." The concept is that, in order to get the best results, you have to keep your muscles "confused" by varying your workouts. This works on two levels. Mixing up your workout keeps you from being stuck at a "plateau," but it also keeps you from getting bored so easily. If your workout is fun, you'll keep at it.


3) Set Long Term Goals
Everyone needs a vision. I have long terms goal as well - lofty goals that will take some time, but inspire me to keep going. I plan to finish a marathon (first) and then qualify for the Boston Marathon (next). I plan to maintain my current weight for another year and then another year after that. None of this will be accomplished tomorrow, but they are tangible, measurable goals that keep me moving forward.


2) Make Your Program Fit Your Lifestyle
Don't set yourself up for failure by making your "workout appointment" difficult to keep. If you are a night person, forget about working out early in the morning. If you travel a lot, don't choose a program that you can't do on the road. Don't choose a gym that is way out of your way or you'll quickly stay out of its way. Make your work out program fit your lifestyle and you will be more likely to stay with it.


1) Work Out With a Purpose
I work out for several reasons that are meaningful to me. Some are "higher calling" reasons (I.e. - setting a good example for my kids) and others are not (I.e. - I'm can be straight up vain too). Each morning, I have a purpose. One of these reasons is meaningful enough to me to get my butt to the gym. If you believe in your mission, even wild horses won't keep you from completing it!

My Story (Part 3 of 4) - Getting Educated

The largest of life's mysteries is not discovering the meaning of life. It is figuring out how a multi-billion dollar industry could have arisen based upon the selling of knowledge that nearly every adult already has. Please raise your hand if you are unaware that to lose weight you have to consume fewer calories than you burn. No hands? Then why are all these jokers selling so many books, videos, seminars, etc.

Ok, I maybe it's not such a mystery.  We're all looking for the silver bullet, the magic plan that can make blood, sweat and tears feel like a pillow fight.  We all want that special chemical reaction that makes food hit your lips like pizza, but your stomach like steamed broccoli.  Oh, I get it now. I'd buy that book and probably have.  You just need to go to the fiction aisle, not the fitness aisle, of the bookstore to find it, assuming you can find the bookstore in the first place.

So if we can finally admit to ourselves that this equation is a natural law no different than gravity - I have seen any "how to" books on levitation recently - we can really start to get somewhere. The answer is to know how many calories you consume, know how many you are burning and keep the former less than the latter. This was a tough one for me initially because I had to get educated. I had no idea how portions related to calories or the relative differences between pizza and steamed broccoli. That led me to gorge on 2,000 calorie meals when I should have been living 2,000 calorie days. Getting educated changed everything.

I joined a free website called Sparkpeople.com and I logged EVERYTHING. Contrary to popular belief - at least in my household at the time - there are no calories that don't count and no times at which calories don't count. The calories count even if no one saw you eat them, if that piece of candy (or 4) was really small and even if you deserved them because that person on your job really pissed you off today and she is a real (fill-in-the-blank).  On SparkPeople, I found no exceptions for these things, or any others, so I had to do a legit count. And in the process, I became educated. And in the process, I lost 40+ pounds without even taking one step on a treadmill. That came later.

The point.  There is no way around the truth, so you need to get educated.  It's all hard. Losing weight is hard. Keeping the weight off is hard. Being fat is hard. 

Choose your hard.

My Story (Part 2 of 4) - Deuces: When to Say Bye-Bye

Anything that you wish to keep in proper working order needs to be fed properly.  To have a healthy body, you have to feed it right.  You wouldn't put sugar water rather than "premium petrol" into a Maserati and expect it to perform well.  The same is true for your body, of course. Food is the fuel that drives either keeps your body in proper working order or has it broken down on the side of the road. 

Most people understand this without much explanation, but we all seem to minimize the impact of feeding our minds well.  The biggest driver of performance - at anything - is what we expect and what we believe.  If you believe, you can achieve.  So, if we know that strong performance comes from high expectation and strong self belief, then, of course, we should be very careful about who we allow to feed our minds. Most of us are not discerning enough.

There was a popular song a couple years ago called "Deuces."  It was about saying good bye to someone in your life by figuratively - presumably - "putting the deuces up" (flashing the peace sign) and "say bye-bye, say bye-bye, say bye-bye to her."

 
The sad fact is that not everyone in your life wants to see you do well.  So many people are on standby waiting to give you all the reasons why what you are trying to do won't work and why you are foolish to even try.  I strongly believe the only people you should invite into your life are people for whom your success is their success.  We need people who will help us get to the mountaintop and stay to celebrate with us rather than wishing that they got there first.  And we should be that person to the people in our lives as well.  Allowing anyone to feed you "mental garbage" is no less dangerous - perhaps even more dangerous - than eating the physical kind.  Both will make you sick and quick!

I have learned first hand about the power that positive and negative support has had on my personal performance. Neither is a guarantee. Surrounding yourself with positive people who believe in you does not necessarily mean you will win.  On the flip side, prolonged exposure to negative people, while toxic, does not have to be fatal. 

However, if you want to succeed bigger, faster and more consistently, you will have to learn when and to whom to say "deuces."

It's Empowering

A couple days ago, a friend of mine asked me if I felt "empowered" by running long distances, running further than I ever had before.  My reflexive reaction was "yes," of course.  In the last couple days, I have been re-thinking my response and I have changed it.  The answer today is no longer "yes," but "hell yes!"  Why?

Success begets success. Just a few weeks ago, I was nervous to think about running double digit miles in one stretch.  On Saturday, the 10 mile mark of my run came and went without fanfare.  It was no big deal because I had my eyes on a larger prize.  It's amazing how quickly the things you build up to be "Mount Everest" in your mind become "been there, done that."

You more you win, the more you expect to win. It is an amazing feeling to know that when the moment, your moment, comes you will be ready.  Knowing the moment will not be too big for you because you have faced similar moments before.  Knowing you will be up to the challenge, ready to win and win big!  It's an amazing feeling.  Some may even call it "empowering."

My friend nailed it with that one!

Training runs completed
Tuesday (8/7) - 6 miles
Thursday (8/9) - 8 miles
Friday (8/10) - 6 miles
Saturday (8/11) - 18 miles

Monday (8/13) - 4 miles
Tuesday (8/14) - 6 miles
Wednesday (8/15) - 5 miles
Thursday (8/16) - 5 miles

Thank you, haters

Running for the long haul? Pack a lunch!

The scariest thing for me about running a marathon is listening to all the stories people tell about "hitting the wall."  "They" all talk about it.  "They" say that you hit the wall at 18 miles or 20 or 22.  Of course, I start to get visions of being the discombobulated athletes you see on YouTube videos trying to finish a long race.  Thinking about it used to almost make me break out in a cold sweat!

Then, I had a conversation with my friendly neighborhood running guru, the helpful sales associate at Fleet Feet in Lawrenceville, GA where I buy my running shoes.  He says "the wall" is a myth.  Not really a myth, but something that is completely avoidable through proper eating and hydration.  And then he sold me some "stuff."  But I'm not mad at him, because the stuff he sold me works phenomenally well!

For my long runs, I have been carrying several packs of GU Energy Gel with me as well as "spiking" my water with Nuun Electrolyte Enhanced Drink Tabs.  

For my long runs, I eat a GU pack every 30 minutes or so and drink my "enhanced" water, I have had no symptoms of "the wall."  No cramping, no wobble-de-wobble-de-wobble... I finish these runs feeling fresh....well, at least has fresh as you can feel after burning 2000+ calories.

It's the good stuff.  The next time you go running, you should try them!

Training Runs Completed

Tuesday (7/31) - 6 miles

Wednesday (8/1) - 8 miles

Thursday (8/2) - 6 miles

Friday (8/3) - 16 miles