When You Can’t Quit

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5k, arnold palmer hospital, base camp, celbrity waiter, character, charity, children, childrens cancer, dr joseph, exercise, quitting, run, Running

The past few weeks have been full of reflection. When we moved into our home, like most people, we met and got to know our neighbors. Some neighbors you get to know a little better than others. It seems that you get to know those neighbors a little better that might have children the same age as yours, or go to the same church, or even share a hobby.

The family that lived across the street at the time, had four boys of which two were the same ages as our two boys. Our youngest son became friends with Jason (the third son) and are still best friends to this day. We learned that the family were missionaries to Jordan, and that their youngest son Joseph had leukemia.

What I’ve Learned from Running Everyday

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barefoot running, diet, ego, exercise, fitness, jogging, mental attitude, minimalist running, pride, Running, vibram

My last post about running, I talked about trying to step up my schedule to a six days on, one day off. I wanted to see what I could learn from the “experiment” of limiting the amount of rest between my runs. After all, the elite runners you see in the marathons that keep up a superhuman pace for 26 miles are running every day.

Well this is what I learned:

Nine Runs

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barefoot running, exercise, fitness, health, healthy-living, mental toughness, mental-health, minimalist running, motivation, motivational, Running, running schedule, sports, training

I have been trying a new approach to my running schedule over the past week and a half. So far I have logged nine runs in the past eleven days. This is quite a departure from my normal running routine. I have been content to run three to four times a week with an every-other-day type of schedule.

Running to Her Dreams’ Post

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exercise, fitness, health, jogging, motivation, Running, sports, training, wisdom

I don’t usually re-post other people’s blogs, but I thought this was just a great post. The auther has been preparing for a half marathon while dealing with an injury. Read how she deals with making her decision about the race. Like my wife always says “Life is about the journey and not the destination” and true to this blog this post is about the lesson along the way. Great blog post!

http://runningtoherdreams.com/2013/08/10/letting-go-isnt-the-same-as-giving-up/

How to get my “Footloose”

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barefoot, exercise, fitness, jogging, leg cramps, restarting, Running

After my last post on running and deciding wether or not I should actually call myself a runner; I have battled a very bad cough and cold. Isn’t that how it goes? Talk about being a runner and then have to take off nine days. Well yesterday morning I hit the pavement again. I ran my normal route of 3.4 miles and honestly it felt pretty good. I just took it easy and wanted to get my run in without coughing up a lung. At that point I was successful.
The one thing I wasn’t expecting was some crazy leg cramps. Last night we were watching a movie (Footloose) at home with friends and my left calf totally cramped up. That’s irony for you, leg cramps while watching Footloose. I think I provided some great entertainment value to our guest. I can’t really say that I have ever had anything like that happen to me. It just completely knotted up and was so incredibly painful. I have been drinking coconut water and Gatorade to help with this. I’ve been getting cramps in the bottom of my feet as well. It certainly doesn’t take long for your body to begin the process of degeneration.

Am I a Runner?

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barefoot running, exercise, fitness, jogging, Running

Have I become a runner? If you were to look at me you wouldn’t think so. I’m still classified by the machine at Publix that takes your blood pressure as being overweight. Who are the people that come up with those charts anyways? I have dropped some weight, 23 lbs since last November, mostly just from monitoring my diet. But I started running a year before that.

This morning on my run nothing really felt right. My hamstrings are killing me from yard work this past weekend. I’m developing a cough that I am trying to keep from getting worse. I slept terrible last night, tossing and turning all of which was confirmed with my iPhone sleep app (Sleep Cycle).

But there I was, standing and the end of my drive at 4:55 am to go on my run. The whole first mile I kept thinking of all the reasons that I shouldn’t be out here, and then I had the thought “when do you actually get to call yourself a runner?”. Is it a matter of time, say two years? Is it when you can say “I’m a runner”, and people don’t cover up their laugh with a cough or something? Do you have to finish in say the top 5% of your age group in the local 5K?

On my running app (mapmyrun) it tells me that I have logged 681.9 miles and burned some estimated 118,158 calories as of this morning (since I started using this particular app). For some this may seem like nothing at all. For others, it probably seems like quite an accomplishment. I can remember starting out and barely making it five minutes without having to stop. Whew, I don’t want to go back there again. I guess that I am a runner simply because I run. It’s not pretty, or graceful, or even competitive – it’s just getting out there and running. Being a runner is standing at the end of your drive to start your run when it doesn’t make sense because of your inner compulsion to run.

Growing Stronger

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barefoot running, challenge, determination, exercise, iPhone, jogging, lessons, life lesson, map my run, minimalist running, Running, spibelt, vibram

This mornings run was a mental challenge for sure. I slept hard last night, the kind where you just feel heavy when you wake. It took a long time to even recognize the alarm was going off. To make things more difficult my stomach wasn’t feeling the greatest. In short, I didn’t want to run.

2 Seconds

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barefoot running, determination, Family, God, life, minimalist running, run, Running

When the alarm went off this morning I have to say I didn’t feel much like going on my run. It’s early, 4:30 to make it real, and the pillow is making some very compelling arguments. There are lots of things that I really love about getting my run in at such an hour.

DNF – Did Not Finish

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barefoot running, Running

Well I had a pretty good week of running. On my normal route I broke my personal record twice. This morning I went on my longer route which is not quite 6 miles. I had to take a DNF at the 5 mile mark because I just wasn’t feeling very well. The pace was still good for me. There’s always the next time and the point is to just keep trying. I did see this cool dragon fly while walking in the last mile.