No good deed goes unfed

Why do we reward good behaviour with food?  And crap food at that. "Hey good job.  Here's some donuts and cake."  (We all know that donuts and cake are crap food, right?)

When I experience this at work I often graciously turn down the food and say “thanks I appreciate the sentiment.”  But I get looks like “well isn’t he a snob, and ungrateful.”  I often feel brow beaten into eating crap I don’t want, because folks just keep pestering you.

I work in a cubicle farm where everyone sits all day, so you can imagine almost everyone is very overweight or carefully watching their weight.  To reward these people with more crap food is making the problem worse.

I just don’t get it.  It’s like dropping a brick on someone’s toe that is already broken.  Why would you do that?

I also see folks give crap food to others in an effort to cheer up a friend.  “Sorry your boyfriend dumped you; let’s gorge ourselves on ice-cream.”  Huh, how does eating ice cream help the situation?

Is it our North American society that only does this?  Why is there such an emotional attachment to food?  It's just food for heaven's sake.  Sure it tastes good, but it’s not love or compassion or <insert emotion here> that you are craving.

I guess I just don’t seem to have the emotional attachment to food that some others seem to be a slave to.  Now don’t get me wrong; I enjoy eating some foods more than others as some food just taste better.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m an ice cream addict; but I won’t touch brussell sprouts (they are just plain evil).  But after the 5 luxurious minutes of the wonderful taste, you think “oh, I should have eaten all that” and feel guilty the rest of the day.  It doesn’t seem worth it.

And where and when does this emotional attachment to food start?  I see my mother in law, who takes care of our kids during the working day, as she says she wants to treat the kids so I often come home to numerous chip bags, cookies, fast food wrappers, etc all scattered throughout the house.  I think “you want to spoil the kids so you feed them crap that is no good for them?”  That makes no sense.  So maybe we teach this to the next generation at an early age and they just perpetuate the behaviour forward to their kids.

I also recall on older commercial when some kid broke something or got hurt and the parent quickly whipped up some easy to serve milkshake concoction that was crap and gave it to the kid.  The kid then smiles and forgets his woes.  “Ooh, don’t cry, here’s some crap food to make you feel better.”

We celebrate milestones by eating food too.  “Congrats on your graduation or anniversary.  Let’s eat.”  In fact we often celebrate making it to Friday with Pizza or some other food.

It’s no wonder we have such an obese society.  For every occasion we eat.  We even makeup occasions to eat.  “Let’s have a potluck lunch just because we haven’t had one in a while.”

So how do we break this crazy ingrained behaviour? 

How about rewards using non-food items.  Make someone a homemade card saying thanks or congrats.  Something from the heart.  We all love that sort of thing, don’t we?  How about a treat of a gift card to a bookstore or non food related store, movie tickets or just a face to face “Hey, you did a great job, I really appreciate it, thanks.”  I like this best of all, but our society is quickly turning away from this type of activity.  “Can’t I just email or text something instead or just leave a voice mail message?”  Now there’s a real personal touch.

Or how about instead of rewarding someone with crap food, perhaps dish out something else which not good for you.  “Good job Joe, now here’s a poke in the eye.” 

Running on holidays

I’m on vacation next week. 

Woohoo! <insert happy dance here> 

Folks at work are asking “so you’re going to relax and not run, right?”

Running is a big part of the summer camping vacation that I look forward to.  Sure I bring my watch, but don’t look at pace, splits, time, etc, only the distance.  I’ve got “all the time in the world” now. 

Running while on vacation is food for the soul I find.  Time to slow down and connect with nature & hit some trails.  The air smells better, tastes better (or rather doesn’t taste) and you gulp down as much as you can.  You see lots of wildlife; deer, bears, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, loads of birds.  You get away from the traffic, smog, congestion and noise.

Best of all I get to unplug from the rat race for a while.  No work pressures and rushing home for kids’ soccer practices and games, trying to fit your runs in and get some food in you before you have to go to bed at 10 pm so you can wake up at 5:30 am.  Basically I wake up when I want and ask “what do I FEEL like doing today?” rather than “what do I HAVE to get done today?”  I get to run when I want, or if I want. 

Often though I’ll chose to wake up earlier than most folks and run.  Nothing like the quiet stillness of a campground at early morning before anyone else is stirring.  I try to avoid the pavement and roads if at all possible and my joints thank me for the springy dirt packed trails or crushed stone.  I feel like a gazelle happily bounding down a trail.  If I'm really lucky I get to run on a trail beside a lake and hear a loon’s call in the distance.  Beautiful.  It reminds me of the scene in Forrest Gump where he is reliving his runs through majestic country scenes to Jenny.  Often I’ll avoid listening to an mp3 player as this really detracts from the entire experience.  These runs aren’t fast or superman like, but it’s all about the Zen-like experience, which is what I crave.  During these runs I enjoy every step of the journey and not just the “being done” part. 

Toward the end of the run, heading back into the campground people start waking and I whisper “good morning” to all those shuffling along to the bathroom.  Everyone smiles through squinty eyes and says “morning” back to me.  The smell of bacon and campfire fills the air and you inhale deeply and grin.  End back at the trailer but no time for stretching yet.  Quickly swap shoes for sandals and hop on the bike and head down to the beach.  Not a soul on the beach yet; it is all mine.  The water is like glass.  Wade into the water, then dive underneath and relish in the cooling sensation.  Ahhhh!!!!  

Am I running on vacation? 

And miss all that? 

You betcha I’m running! 

<sigh>, until then I sit at work and watch the ever sluggish clock. 

Easy weeks

I’m an all or nothing kinda guy.  I can’t do the ½ assed thing.  I’m either fully 100% assed or no assed at all.  This is true for me in dieting, running, biking, just about everything.  I honestly don’t get it.  What’s the point of making just a bit of effort?  If you’re going to make a ½ assed effort, you’re going to get ½ assed results.  Who wants ½ assed results?  It’s no wonder folks struggle so bad with dieting.  I find especially in dieting, you need to give 100% or you definitely don’t get results.  This holds true in running as well.  If you’re not pushing the pace and/or distance, you don’t get the results.  When I work hard, I find I’m rewarded with feeling stronger, faster and recover quicker.  I guess that’s what I like so much about running.  You can’t cheat.  Don’t push, just hang back (give a ½ assed effort), and you’ll find you can’t perform as well later when you really need to and then you’re really struggling.  Although there are some folks that are just gifted in this area and seldom train yet still perform well.  (Life is so unfair)

Next week in marathon madness training, is an easy week.  We do 3 intense weeks running 10k two times a week followed by a long run on Saturday.  We started with long runs at 16k and every week add on 2 k to increase the distance.  After 3 weeks of pushing hard, we scale back for an easy week which is 40 minutes twice a week and 10k on Saturday.  I’m told that you need these easy weeks to help the body recover for the next round of intense training, because you can’t keep pushing all the time or you’ll be mentally burnt out and physically your body just can’t take it and will start to break down and that's when injuries happen.  Time for a massage, time to relax and reconnect with family.  Logically this makes total sense to me, but still I find this difficult.  Intense training, then take an easy week.  I’m in the mode of push, push, push, so I find it hard now to take it easy.  I know it’s the smart thing to do, so I trust and follow the plan but I often feel fat and lazy during these easy weeks.   

After a ½ marathon race, I need to take about a week totally off from running.  This is super tough for me.  The first few days of not running are nice, but by about day 4 I find I’m climbing the walls.  I need my fix.  This spring after the Around the Bay 30 k race Nancy and we’re both feeling mentally and physically burnt so we took two weeks off running altogether.  This was unprecedented for me.  Two whole weeks of not exercising at all.  I’ve never done this in the 3-4 yrs I’ve been running.  I was going crazy inside, but wow my body sure appreciated the rest as I was achy all over with legs feeling like lead and really struggling.  Starting back up was tough though, we felt like beginner runners again, huffing and puffing and quickly out of breath.  But after a few weeks and we were back to our usual selves.

For this easy week my body is feeling perfectly fine.  Unusually good in fact, which really feels awesome.  Not a single ache or pain.  After a hard but great 20k run Saturday, followed up on Sunday with a hard 45 k bike ride and I thought for sure I’d be feeling burnt and exhausted today.  Nope, I’m revving to go still.  What’s next?  Whoa, time to put on the brakes.     

Got me a massage booked for Tuesday and I’ll be busy packing for Camping for the following week, plus the usual kids’ soccer practices and games Tues, Wed, and Thurs nights.

My other running partner

She’s affectionately known by many names:  Maddicus, Maximus, Mad dog, Maddy mad, Muttface, Dogface, Maddilicious, etc.  Her real name is Maddy, but that name hardly gets used.  This is another weird family thing, we makeup names.  Just ask Phil all the names that Joyce calls him.

Maddy is our family dog and a great running partner that I run with sometimes.  She’s a black lab cross with Husky (we think).  She’s always over the top excited to go for a run no matter what the weather is like outside.  She runs at whatever pace I set and never complains about me running too fast, or too slow, never says a word when I need to walk, never barks at other dogs or rabbits or birds, never pulls on the leash.  In fact, most of the time the leash is slack so it’s not a problem holding it while I run. 

I always wanted a dog that you could run with, as it seems really neat to see dogs running beside their owners.  Previous dogs we had we couldn’t even walk without getting your arm yanked out of your socket, so running was totally out of the question.  Not Maddy.  She’s also learned a great skill of being able to do a quick pee on the run without me breaking my stride.  She runs up ahead a bit and squats to pee.  By the time I’m striding past her and almost ready to tug her leash, she’s done and runs quickly to catch up to me.  It’s a beautiful thing.  She doesn’t stop to sniff, unless we’re walking; then I let her have some fun. 

You’d think we spent loads of time training her in all this, but no.  We haven’t trained her at all.  She’s just seems to be a natural.

Now it does get to be a pain sometimes when she has to stop and poop.  Especially when I’m having a good run, as I tend to forget she’s even with me.  So we stop and I scoop the poop into the bag (we have a small roll of bags attached on a dispensing device to the leash).  Now I’m running with a swinging bag of dog poop looking for the nearest garbage can so I can dispose of said poop.  Having a swinging bag of dog poop is not fun on the run, so to avoid it swinging all around, you have to hold the poop itself in your hand.  Thank God for the thin veil of plastic bag.  Hopefully there are no holes in the bag.  In the winter, this acts as a great hand warmer.  Often Maddy is thoughtful enough to poop within about 40 meters of a garbage can so it’s not a long time I’m running and holding poop.  Sometimes though, I don’t see a garbage can for quite some time, and now I’m running, holding a dog leash and bag of poop, while scouting out the nearest garbage can.

Another pain is when she somehow manages to get a front paw tangled in the leash.  This is another time I need to stop and untangle her.  Ok, now my run is really getting interrupted.  Lately though, she’s magically learned how to untangle her paw all on her own so I don’t have to stop or even slow down.  Sweet!  Thanks Mad!

It’s fun for both of us and she never tires.  I won’t take her on runs longer than 10k and never in the really hot & humid weather. 

Best part about running with dog, is that when you have a crappy run, you can always blame the dog and say “it was because she had to stop and walk a few times.”

Just throw on some shoes

"Running is a great activity, it’s cheap and all you need is to just throw on some shoes and get out the door.  You can do it anywhere, anytime.”

Am I missing something?  I chuckle when I hear folks say this. 

Cost of running:

You can’t just use any shoes.  Proper running shoes for me cost about $160.  They last about 500 km, so I go through about 3 pairs of shoes a year.  Add in the superfeet insoles for support at $35 a pair.  Now you don’t want to wear cotton socks, you’ll need to get some moisture wicking socks to keep your feet dry, which can cost about $10 or more a pair.  You’ll go through a lot of socks too.

Next you’ll want special moisture wicking running shorts for summer, a few pairs of long tights in winter, long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts, jackets, running vest, tank tops, hat, gloves, balaclava, ear muffs, ear bands, nice sunglasses for sunny days with clear interchangeable lens for cloudy and dark days and nights, reflective vest, lights so car drivers can see you.  Oo, and a watch.  Gotta get a watch that can track: time of day, time spent running, time spent stopped, distance, pace, overall pace, heart rate, time and HR zones with alarms that go off when you’re outside set zones.  Basically a watch that can measure every conceivable thing you can think of.  Got mine for decent price of $150.

It’s nice to listen to music while running, mostly just to drown out the sound of being chased by a bear.  It’s actually not a bear, but your own heavy breathing.  Ipod or mp3 players cost anywhere from $50 and up.

You’ll probably want to join a running group, as it’s motivating to run with others, plus it’s a fun social event.  They also teach you neat stuff like how to run.  Yearly fees are about $200/person.

After a while you get a crazy notion to do a race.  Race fees range anywhere from about $40 – hundreds of $.  If you do a few races a year, it can get expensive. 

Once you’re running longer distances you’ll need to pack a gel or 2, 3, 4.  They can be add up too, needing to consume one every 7 k or so.  Add in a water belt to stay hydrated, eload to drink.  After running longer distances you’ll now get achy and sore.  Time for a trip to the chiropractor and massage therapist.  Now you’re spending $ on foam rollers, ice packs, trigger point set, and other various devices to make you feel better.  Wait, I thought running was supposed to make you feel better?

Time spent running: 

Just throw on some shoes they say.  Here is my routine for long runs on Saturday mornings.  Wake up 6 am.  Eat oatmeal, pack gels/bars, water belt, water, post run water, post run protein shake, post run food, yoga matt for post run stretching, stretching band.  Next sit on toilet, because you definitely don’t want to experience the runner’s trots if you can avoid it.  Now it’s time to get dressed.  Strap on HR monitor, body glide your entire nether region, underarms, and basically any part that rubs against another part, including nipples as these rub against the shirt. (forgot: body glide is about $18).  On with the shorts, shirt, hat, socks, shoes, watch, mp3 player (making sure the headphone cord is not flopping around), sunglasses.  If you’re crazy enough to run in winter you get to also wear gloves, hat, balaclava, tights, thicker socks, yak-trax, chap stick, jacket/vest, reflective vest, led lights so cars can see you.  In winter it takes longer to get dressed to run, than time spent actually running.  Going out for just a 5k run in winter is so not worth the effort of getting dressed. 

NOW we put on the shoes, which of course are laced up special to avoid pressure points on the top of the foot, so it takes a while to get them snug.  This is after inspecting the inside of the shoes for any foreign objects that might cause you grief.

Now can we start to run?  Nope.  Time to drive to the location you’re going to run at.  Drop off your bag of stuff for post run activities and stretch for 15 minutes, get instructions on the day’s route and off you go.  Don’t forget to put on that water belt.  Wait, my watch hasn’t synched up with the satellites yet.  Ok, time to run.  But stop at 1 km to do even more stretching.  Did my mp3 player battery just die?  Oh crap, now I have to listen to that bear chasing me for 10+ km.

After the run is done you're guzzling copious amount of water, consume protein shake, eat post run snack, change wet clothes, stretch and complain some more.  Yak with friends for a while and then drive home.  Once at home, time for an ice bath.  And if you thought we were crazy running in the winter and snow.  Now you get to sit in a bath full of ice water for 20 minutes.  Follow this up with a hot shower and eat some more (because now it's lunch time) while trying to warm up for the rest of the day.

So where is that carefree part about “just throw on some shoes and away you go?”  Because that sounds like fun.

Run to be done

Why do I run? 

Newton's First Law of Motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it, and a body in motion at a constant velocity will remain in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force.

I’m constantly reminded of this law when I run. 

At the start of a run, I often feel like the tin man from the Wizard of Oz trying to run.  Creaking and stiff, I feel winded within the first few minutes.  It’s hard work, but does get easier after the initial push to get the 245 lb hulking mass of me to move in this manner. 

So the beginning part is not really enjoyable.  You’re going from a walking motion (which is quite easy and natural) to a running motion while trying to get your breathing under control and find a rhythm and feel fluid and graceful.  “Fluid and graceful” – this phrase brings about a picture of an elegant, lean, supple, typical ideal body image of a long distance runner.  Everything I am not.  I’m more like a charging rhino.  Not a pretty sight I’m sure. 

So you’d think I’d enjoy the middle part where you settle down your breathing and find a rhythm that works for you, and you fall into “the zone.”  Not necessarily; because now I’m thinking “how far am I going today?  Good Lord, I’ve “only” got 15 km left of this 18 km run.  Can I turn around with the beginner group now?  When can I stop for a gel?”  The middle part is really long and wears you down in its endless plodding along.  It’s during the later part of the middle stage where you start thinking “I’m getting hungry.  What am I going to eat when I get home?  Oo, an omelette with cheese & ham, PB on toast, bacon, OJ.”  Now the stomach really starts to growl and you can’t wait to be done.

 

The end part is tough too.  You’re often beyond tired of all this and you just want to be done.  It’s always the last few km that I find toughest.  No matter what the distance, I seem to struggle the last 3 km.  Whether I’m running a total of 12 km or 22 km, those last few km often break me and I fall into a walk/run kinda thing, just to make it back.

The last 100 meters I think I don't mind  The part when you realize, “hey, I’m almost done.”  And not almost as in “you’re almost half way done”, because you still have to run a long way.  The other half in fact. 

My family often jokes about how we hate when folks cheer you on in a race saying “you’re almost there!”  When in fact, you’re still about 5 km from the finish line.  That is NOT “almost there!”

I’m talking about you can see the end and it’s just a few more minutes.  So you tough it out and often sprint to the end and push hard and feel like Rocky running up the steps.

So it’s not so much the actual running part of the run that I enjoy, because the running part is rather hard.  Now is the part I really like.  The part when you’re done.  The part where you look back and think “Cool, I just ran __ kilometres and lived to talk about it.”  The heart & lungs are pumping, endorphins are swirling around in your brain making you feel high, the sense of accomplishment you now have.  You check your watch and review your pace, HR, time, distance, etc.  High fives & congrats to all your friends you completed the run with.  

It’s too bad you can’t get to the “done” part without having to go through all that tough running part.  It reminds me of a sign the kids had at the Mississauga race: “This would be a lot more fun if it wasn’t for all this running stuff.”

Plus there are all the awesome added benefits of running that you just can’t seem to get without doing the actual running thing. 

The lowered blood pressure, lowered resting heart rate, lower cholesterol, better sleep, less headaches, can eat more, improves your mood, lowers anxiety, energizes you, reduces risk of heart disease, hypertension cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, increases life expectancy, improves immune system, eases stress, it’s a great way to socialize in a group, or find some alone time running solo, a chance to think about your day, ponder life, the universe & everything, solve all the worlds problems, etc, etc.  I could go on ad nausea.

So yes, I’m the proverbial guy banging his head on the wall and people walk by asking “why are you doing that?” 

Because it feel sooo good when I stop.

Building a deck, and other marathons

Deck project is finally done.  It was a long project, seeing as I’ve never built a deck before.  Sure, I’ve helped others, but that’s easy being the helper.  Do this, nail that, cut this, etc.  Not much thought or planning involved if you’re the helper.  This deck I tackled by myself, well, with Nancy helping out.  Not that she’s built a deck before, but at times when I was stumped (quite often) she’d come up with some alternative ideas about how to tackle a certain part, and it seemed to work out well.  There was a lot of head scratching and standing back looking at it from different angles, levels, to make sure it was done correctly and was solid.  We took our time and made sure it was done right. 

With 2 kids in soccer, running 3 days a week and both of us working full time, we only had weekends and the occasional night after 6 pm to work on it.  It took the month of June (plus the July long weekend) to complete the deck.

The whole process reminded me of what I think training for a marathon is going to be like.  Both are long projects that require a lot of work.  You can’t just throw up a deck (or run a marathon) all willy-nilly with no thought or planning or you end up with crap.  You need to lay the groundwork (good base of running/support beams), study it from different angles, plan and take your time.  Both require a lot of patience, endurance, and perseverance.  At times you feel like giving up, you don’t know how it's all going to come together, and you’re so frustrated that things just aren’t working out as you originally planned.  Just keep building your deck/training and soon you’ll see what you need to do to make the pieces fit together.

Marriage is like a marathon as well.  It takes all the patience, endurance and perseverance that you can muster.  Some times it does not go well and you want to throw in the towel.  Just keep building. 

When Nancy and I first got married, Nancy’s mom thought it was a great idea for us to setup the Christmas tree together.  This task as akin to putting up a dining room tent (aka divorce tent), or wallpapering together.  It was a mitigated disaster.  We fought like cats & dogs attempting any of these jobs trying to work together in the past.  But lately we seemed to have found a way to work together and not cuss each other out.  And I’ve got to say, it’s rather nice.  But we didn’t just get to this point overnight.  It took years of learning what NOT to do. 

Sure, we’re not in that “puppy love” stage where it’s all adorably sweet and cute (and I do miss that; who doesn’t?)  This is a much deeper love now.  A love born out of years of being together and really appreciating each other for what the other brings to the table.  I still piss her off at times, and she drives me nuts with her quirks, but we’ve learned to look past these trivial issues and come together as a team, focusing on the good parts.

And I think that is what marathon is training is going to be like.  There will be some tough runs, blistering heat where I think I just can’t do it, what was I thinking signing up for such a colossal distance?  I’m already there with the last long run, which is only our second long run, and yet one of the shortest (18k).  My feet were incredibly aching for the last few km.  I don’t know how I’m going to manage it all, but I just keep running, enjoying the runs that go well, hoping it'll all work out in the end when we toe the line in October.  And with Nancy at my side, I need to have faith that the training will get us there and fit all the pieces together. 

Raising kids is another type of marathon. More like an ultra-marathon.  A long journey requiring immense patience, where at times you fight a lot of uphill battles, but it's all in hopes that the kids turn out alright in the end.

And now that the deck marathon is completely done, I’m enjoying a Caesar while typing this on the deck, basking in the fruits of our labour.

Time for a refill.