Best 3 songs on my 3 mile run

Again with the Sony Walkman W Series. Ran a quick 3 miles in the serious evening heat. It was actually cooler tonight -- perhaps in the mid-80s, which is practically Christmas weather. After some bothersome adjustments to the headphones, I was propelled by the following:

1. "Waitress in the Sky" - The Replacements (for all the smartass runners)




2. "Your Own Private Idaho" - The B-52s (Who knew this could be a good running song?)



3. "Let There Be Rock" - AC/DC (Yes. Indeed. Let there be)




Looks like I was feeling my 70s and 80s music tonight, which is logical because I was running like I was in my 70s and 80s.

It has been a while since I was in a serious training regimen. I'm ready to get back into it, though I don't have a marathon goal or any specific running target other than to minimize the jiggling gelatin clining to my thighs.

TMI? Perhaps.

Understanding calories in your marathon diet

Too cute

It is important to remember: Don’t try to train on your existing diet – unless you’re already eating too much – because the more exercise you do, the more fuel your body needs. It is actually OK and a good idea to increase food –namely carbohydrates (more on that below) -- intake when training because your body needs more fuel.
The more you exercise – the more miles you run – the more fuel (food) your body needs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends 2000 calories a day for an “average” person.“Average” in this blog means “sedentary,” “slothful,” and “couch-potatoey.” As a runner, your diet will need to adapt.

An unscientific, but pretty useful measurement of your caloric benchmark (I just made up this term) is to take your weight and multiply it by 13.

A runner of, say, 210 lbs. – and this is not to suggest I know anyone of such prodigious dimension – would need to consume 2,730 calories a day to maintain this weight.

* Note, I’m not suggesting that this is a healthy weight or that 2,730 calories a day is ideal It is a suggested training caloric intake.

210 lbs x 13 = 2,730 calories

A conservative estimate of the calories burned in one mile of running is 100 calories. The actual number of burned calories is adjusted depending on the speed at which the mile is run and how hefty is the runner. Therefore, a runner clocking five miles a day burns 500 calories. Arguably, the hypothetical runner would need to consume roughly 500 more calories a day.

Taking the USDA’s recommended caloric intake of 2000 calories, the preferred target for a 5-mile-a-day runner is 2,500 calories a day. Of course, the more miles one runs the greater the caloric demand.

All said, appreciate the fact that you are pushing your body harder. Accordingly, it will need more fuel.

Now, the question you should ask your inner runner is, can I stand to lose a few pounds? Do I really need to maintain the caloric intake that supports these love handles, chicken arms and double chin? Maybe the 2,500-ish range is appropriate for you anyway.

Marathon training Food (get it?) for thought

Food might very well be represented simply as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats: the basic food categories that allow your body to function.

If we thought of food with as much passion and obsession as we do with, say, gasoline or nuclear fission, it would be much easier to treat cuisine with the same benign desire as we have for cardboard.

Of course, such a fantasy ride as this exists only in some make-believe, twisted Disney World of nutrition hell. After all, I am a Louisianan. Were my world to consist of anything less than grease, salt, and alcohol (our basic food categories), the world would hellish indeed.

We live in the real world, and few people I want to associate with think in such terms. But the valid point is this, especially with regard to marathon training: to achieve greatness – and your goal, whatever it might be, is greatness – you need to think differently AND rise to the occasion.

Because nutrition is such an important part of marathoning, and because it is indeed fuel, understanding the value of what you put into your body, and how it affects your body is a very relevant point.

In this marathon endeavor food is fuel. You might have to eat more. You might have to eat something that popular fad diets eschew. You will need to supply your body with the tools it needs to carry you to new heights, and this, friends and neighbors, begins with food. Well, a lot of prayer and cussing first, but certainly food.

Food is fuel

If you learn anything from this series of posts– Indeed, if you learn anything from this blog – one of the most important concepts to remember is this: Food is Fuel.

If you think of food as a mere energy source, and not as recreation, therapy, and a distraction from boredom, you might just change your life.

Think about how you eat, when you eat and what you eat. Do you eat mammoth portions at each sitting? I know I do. Lord help me, but I do. Do you eat lunch and dinner automatically at an appointed time or when you’re hungry? Do you frequent restaurants and take out joints? Do you stuff your face because you’re sad, lonely, or otherwise grumpy? Do you eat because you have nothing else to do? Do you stand in front of the fridge or in the pantry waiting to be served? Are you reading this right now with a napkin tied around your neck and a fork and knife in your fists?

Not to be confused with "food gives you gas"

What if you thought of food strictly as fuel, and as the energy needed to fire the engine and put your body in motion? Think about how that would change your attitude and vision of eating.

If food meant more to you as calories and good health than it did flavor and frequency, chances are you would be quite fit, trim, and in those jeans you saw in the store display, because food would be more or less a mere energy source, not recreation.

Again with the car metaphor: sure you may enjoy driving your car, going on long drives, driving fast… but you don’t get very excited about putting gas in it even though it is the necessary fuel to make the car fun and functional.

You can and will enjoy all the mystical things your body can do when it is fueled up. Just think of eating as stopping for gas.

Intro to good nutrition

This is how I feel

** Note: over the next few weeks I will serialize in blog entries the Nutrition page over there on your right. Feel free to read ahead. But the daily entries will be sometimes different than what's on the Nutrition page.

Good nutrition is a critical component to marathon training. In fact, I consider it important as road work. And nearly as important as rest, which you may recall me browbeating you about earlier. Rest is important and too because it is easily ignored and forgotten during a serious training regimen. Neglecting rest could be harmful to your health. Neglecting nutrition, too, is harmful to your health, but there are few Americans in these modern times who ever neglect a meal.

When I set out to write this blog I did extensive research on nutrition, foods, nutrients, vitamins, phytochemicals, nutriceuticals, and everything I could get my hands on about the science of nutrition. With a head obese with gluttonous food information, it occurred to me that not only was this information unnecessary, it missed the point. This blog is about dreaming the Big Thing and grabbing hold of it, all in the metaphor of marathoning. This is not a blog about dietary nutrition. I will give you advice if you prefer to tackle the science of food, but for the purposes of this blog, I will keep it simple, but essential.

And without stuffing your brain as much as your stomach with food information, there is still a lot to say about nutrition. It is critical to your marathon success. This cannot be stressed enough. And planning out a dietary strategy, in my opinion, is just as important as the actual running.

Commitment



Sexy Beast

What is success? I believe success is maintaining faithfulness to the process, or in a word, commitment. We must celebrate the little successes along the way. Instead of cursing your surroundings, celebrate your faithfulness in spite of them. The problem with cursing your surroundings is that it becomes your focus and undermines your commitment. This diminishes your ability to concentrate on what’s before you.

The goal is on the horizon and the strategy is your path. Motivation, energy and self-discipline keep you on the path. Questions get you back on track or steer you to a better track. These concepts effectively serve as your blinders to get you focused.



Failure / Set Backs

A benefit of measuring the progress of a specific, value-oriented strategy is that when failure darkens your doorstep, it can be dismissed as incidental, not coincidental, to your goal.

If a goal has true value and meaning, then it has purpose, and you are validated in that purpose.

A strategy, as your plan to fulfill that purpose and reach your goal, is merely a means to an end – albeit a very important means to a very important end. The strategy should never be confused with the goal it supports, so when you encounter failure along the path, do not assume that your goal is unachievable or worthless. It is not. It remains pure gold.

On the other hand, your strategy might be kaput. If you fail, keep trying. Failure doesn’t mean your goal is wrong, it means your plan is wrong. Ask yourself what went wrong and what needs to be fixed? Adjusted? Eliminated? Improved?



Big time "failure"... before he was president

Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time.

Never lose faith that you know how to reach your goal. If you crap out in a 10-mile race while training for your marathon, analyze what went wrong and endeavor to fix it (dehydrated, soreness, cramps, fatigue?). Don’t think for a moment that 26.2 miles is impossible.

You’ve heard that when Failure closes the door, Opportunity open a window. Failure is not the end. It is only an interruption. Just ask Abraham Lincoln. Better still, ask me.

Reward is its own Reward

By setting up small, achievable goals, you will reinforce the actions and behavior necessary to reach your overall goal. An even better way to help prod you along is to reward yourself. That’s right. More than just reaching over your shoulder for a pat on the back, give yourself something to look forward to in addition to reaching your small goal.

If your goal is to lose 30 pounds, don’t wait until you have reached 30 pounds to reward yourself; celebrate when you lose 5 pounds, then 10 pounds, 15 pounds, and so on. Obviously your reward isn’t a Whopper with cheese. Maybe it is a new pair of jeans or a music CD.

Whatever the reward, it is yours to choose, but please do give yourself a tangible, meaningful “atta boy” when you reach the small goals. Not only does it give you something to look forward to, it lubricates the process of achieving your goal and reinforces the positive behavior you want. It works for dogs and children, why not ourselves?

Energy

Energy is the fuel that powers you toward success. Energy can be mental and physical. Mental energy, as described below, is called motivation. Physical energy comes from real fuel: food. To remain energized, it is important to eat responsibly and exercise regularly. This is described in greater detail on the “Nutrition” page.

Eating responsibly means understanding what your body needs to be strong. To succeed, surround yourself with the right foods and establish an eating pattern that addresses your body’s needs and what satisfies you. The more you know about your body’s requirements, the better equipped you are to remain strong. Plus, if you take the time to understand what your body needs, you may make it possible to enjoy the things you want.

Responsible nutrition doesn’t mean eating only tofu and bean sprouts; it means a balance of a variety of food sources – including fats – to remain healthy. Again, surround yourself in an environment of nutrition and a pattern of responsible eating. This will give you the physical energy that is compatible with – no, critical to – mental energy.

Read the “Nutrition” page (when I load it), and then make a shopping list of all the healthy foods you need to eat each week to stay physically energized – which of course will help with your mental energy as well.

Playing the Odds

Successful gamblers, athletes, and even politicians – to randomly name a few – achieve their success by learning everything they can about the variables that influence their ability to triumph. There are obstacles that work against the competitor and those that help. Those who strive to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative – to coin a phrase – will “play the odds” to their favor.
A gambler will avoid the long odds of an older horse that wins fewer races and performs poorly at certain tracks, while favoring the young, healthy horse that excels in any condition. [I’m not a gambler, so I hope this metaphor worked for you.]

I don't know art, but I know what I like

Sad, but true: politicians know that certain demographic slices of humanity regularly vote. Candidates know where these voters live, generally how they vote, and their likelihood of voting. Campaigns are expensive, so office seekers target specific voters and lean on them like their lives depend on it. In other words, politicians improve their lot by mobilizing the bloc of voters that will elect them and to hell with the rest. They are “playing the odds.”

A basketball player will most likely take chances on shooting many high-probability shots closer to the basket than the high-risk shots outside the perimeter. Or a football team will watch films of their opponents. The more they know about the environment and obstacles that will influence their success, the better their chances of exploiting those influences and making success their own.


This is not to suggest that high risk will not lead to high reward, but the chances of failure are greater when one opts for the long shot. In fact, there is a reason it is called a “long shot.” For the goal seeker and marathon runner, the chances of success are imminently greater when they identify the most powerful influences in their lives and nearer to the positive ones and cut loose the negative ones.

I call all of this “playing the odds to your favor.” By exposing yourself to the positive and motivational, and by removing the negative and stressful, you will your environment by controlling the influences that direct your life. You’ll be inspired with power and energy and confidence to accomplish anything.With confidence and hope, there is nothing you can’t do.

Playing the odds in your favor is, in my opinion, a critical component to training for and finishing the marathon; to achieving all your life’s goals; and to being happy and fulfilled in life.

What are some of the influences you must manage to help you play the odds? Motivation, energy, self-discipline. The negative forces of these influences, among many other challenges, can conspire to defeat your attempts to reach your goal. Without motivation, where’s the passion and desire for success? Without energy, where is the fuel that propels you toward the finish line? Without self-discipline, how will you commit to the hard work that’s required to reach any of life’s goals? These, in a manner of speaking, are the odds. You can “play the odds to your favor” or ignore them as they array themselves against you.

Madness

You have everything but one thing: madness.
A man needs a little madness or else -
he never dares to cut the rope and be free
                                                - Zorba the Greek

Dream a Big Thing Dream, damn you.
                                                - Paul the Whitebread

 



I'd still like to be a rich man

Wilco & Billy Bragg Easter Message

Somehow I screwed up embedding the video for one of my favorite posts. I fixed it. Enjoy!

Aching ankles, shoe adjustments - the sequel

Way back yonder when I was training for the Houston Marathon, I wrote about the torture besetting my ankles and Achilles heels. At the time I was logging respectable, but not aggressive, miles -- say, 24-32 miles a week - as I prepared one month out before the race.

My original intent was to train mostly in older, but not inadequate, shoes that still were well within their recommended lifetime miles of 400 miles, then transition over to new shoes. This plan would allow me to have "fresh" shoes for the race while giving me time to break them in.

Gnashing not to scale

Oh the pain. Early morning runs began with gnashing of teeth and pulling of my breast because of the near-tendon popping tightness and pain emanating from my Achilles and heel, and from the ankle-separating pain sort of at the bend between chin and foot and the top of the foot.

Both sensations caused me to run kind of club-footed for 1/2 mile to a mile until I warmed up enough to suck it up. Even still, the Achilles pain usually lingered.

I even tried new stretching techniques, concentrating on the calves. And by "new" stretching techniques, I mean I actually started stretching my calves, which I never really do. I'm having a "do as I say, not as I do" moment. Anyway, nothing worked, until I remembered, as I always do late during marathon training, that the new shoes may be the culprit.

So, as I blogged before, I made adjustments to my new shoes.

You know how new shoes come tightly laced out of the box, or not even laced at all, which the store salesperson usually laces up right there in front of you with the shoe in their laps and not on your feet?

For me this almost always means that the shoe is too tight. When working ina new pair of shoes, I always do this toe kicking thing while running to position my toes further toward the toe of the shoe. This would suggest a losely laced and tied shoe, but actually it is a tightly laced shoe that forces the foot toward the back/heel of the shoe.

For me, the remedy has always been to give my feet some breathing room in the shoe by loosening the laces and allowing the feet to find their position in the shoe more comfortably. Eventually, I may tighten the laces, but that just comes with constant adjustments over time.

So, why am I repeating a previous blog topic? Because I am here to report that the solution worked. The feet feel great and the running is more or less painless -- at least there is no pain in the ankles or heels.

The Highly Effective Habit of Habit Forming

In an unaccredited fortune cookie somewhere, the fortune reads that habits are formed by routinely repeating a pattern of behavior for 30 days. Other conventionally wise fortune cookies elaborate on signal stimuli and environmental influence that also lead to habit forming. Were these fortune cookies the words of lettered professionals, they would all likewise conclude that a habit is the product of persistent behavioral patterns.

Habits include smoking when bored or eating when anxious. Other habits include enduring excruciating traffic every morning and wasting another 9 hours at your lousy job.

What is most characteristic of a habit is that it requires little to no thinking. In other words, our habits are almost automatic and practically involuntary. While I have described what appears to be bad, unpleasant habits, and have otherwise painted a negative picture of habitry, I am about to encourage you to form… a habit (gasp!).

Wise cookie

Another important feature of establishing small goals is that they help reinforce the behavior you rely on to accomplish your goal. Call it training, call it a habit, but the frequent, regular routine of training should eventually become an automatic function in your life like brushing your teeth and teasing your hair. What? You don’t tease?

Herein lies the gist of Stephen Covey’s multi-platinum bestseller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey’s premise is that the more we adopt leadership and results-oriented behavioral patterns and integrate them into our pathology, our very fiber, then we essentially train ourselves to become more effective, productive people. By making such behavior habitual, we eventually lose awareness that we’re trying to become more effective people, and we transform ourselves into automatically effective leaders. It is quite the transcendental premise. I encourage you to read Covey’s book.

More on Sony Walkman W Series

Let there be rock

When last we checked in on the Sony Walkman W Series, I was expressing my particular pleasure about the device.


Last week I was in Alexandria, VA working on a house I've been trying to sell for 5 years. Oye veh don't get me started on this house. Anyway, rather than carrying around a clunky iPod and earbuds while doing serious tree trimming and power washing, I instead wore the Walkman W Series. The battery lasted two full days (~16 hrs). Sound was crisp. It didn't fall all over and around my head. It did hang off my left ear for a while, causing me to believe I was deformed somehow, but once I adjusted the headband thingy higher up on my crown, I recommenced to rocking to AC/DC, Pearl Jam, the Replacements, the Foo Fighters, and Paul Simon. Yeah, I said Paul Simon.

Many of life's failures...

I invented the light bulb today. What did you do?

are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
- Thomas Edison

Often times the last step is the winning step
- Paul Sawyer

Regret for the things we did...



What Hits!?

... can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things
 that we did not do,
that is inconsolable.
                             - Sidney J. Harris

OR...



I'd rather regret something I did,
than something that I didn't do.
                              - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Small goals

 

Stepping stones... small goals... good analogy, no?

There are too many variables that affect your ability to attain your goal. That’s a lot of time and energy to manage unforeseen events. Small goals are like hand-to-hand combat or short, manageable steps that get you to your goal. A series of short, easier goals is equal to one, large, “impossible” goal. By succeeding in numerous smaller goals, you are likely to increase your energy, motivation and self-confidence.




Publishing this blog is a BIG THING goal (at least for me) comprised of several small goals. I could never have written this book were it not for breaking it up into small, manageable pieces that I could easily digest. Notwithstanding that all of it is in my head, when sat down the first time to hammer out a small book from A to Z, I was immediately daunted, disconcerted, discouraged and disenchanted. I was intimidated by the thought of swallowing a whale in one sitting. I couldn’t do it!

It was just too much until I remembered my own philosophy of small goals. By consuming the whale pieces at a time, over time, I would swallow that sucker yet! And if you are reading this right now, you know I did.

In marathoning, the small, measurable goals are just as obvious. The long runs of 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 miles are certainly significant benchmarks. Completing any one of these small goals is an achievement in itself.

Think of it. Have you ever run 12 miles? Can you imagine it? It is a small goal on the way to your larger goal. You’re gonna do it on the way to marathon glory!

Other small, measurable goals of marathon success include finishing a 5K, 10K, 10-miler, and half-marathon. Competing in these races demonstrate your success by merely finishing. They are also great indicators of how fast you run and how well you perform under race conditions.

Drawing again on the “I want to be a doctor” paradigm, one can measure success by getting into college, get the necessary grades, getting into medical school, and getting into an internship. Sure, these are obvious benchmarks, and an aspiring doctor can modify appropriate, personal small goals, but it is important to understand that often there are obvious indicators of our success that are occasionally, or routinely, dismissed as incidental. They are, however, your best report card on your progress.

Think also of a football team. A football team wants the touchdown. It is literally their goal. But they don’t normally go for it each play. Usually – and I’m not coach – they seek small goals. Several first downs to get them closer. Each play is not intended to gain 100 yards and score a touchdown; rather, they are more designed for short yardage.

Strategic Vision & Specificity

Andy Stanley further describes in his book Visoneering that people without a clear vision are easily distracted. They have a tendency to drift from one activity, pleasure, or relationship to another. Without vision, there is no rational, financial, or moral compass. Consequently, they make foolish decisions that rob them of their dreams.

This is why a vision or strategy are necessary parts of your goal making.

Once your goal is identified and personal value is determined, design your strategy with specificity, measurability and commitment.

If you are not accustomed to making and pursuing goals, you will need to give yourself more direction that you’re used to. To train for the marathon, you will need to do more than merely “train for the race.” Specificity (that is, being specific about the actions you need to take) takes the guess work and confusion out of the training regimen. The more decision making and details you can take care of early on, the less worry and mystery there is about, say, the number of miles you run, when to run, where to run, etc. (these are details we will cover later)


Pick a specific date for a marathon. In fact, the date of the marathon – your end point – is actually the best place to start. As Stephen Covey (author of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) might say, begin with the end in mind. Pick the date of the race and build a strategy that culminates on that date.

Run miles, don’t just train. You know you will need to run regularly to prepare for the race. You know that you’ll need to run long runs too. Take out a calendar – the one with the big “X” on marathon day – and work backwards, selecting the exact days on which you will run specific mileage.

On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday you might run 4 miles each day.

On Wednesday you can rest or lightly cross-train for 30 minutes.

Monday and Saturday you can run easy 2 to 3 miles.

Sunday you will run 10 miles. Next Sunday you will run 12 miles, and 14 miles the following Sunday.

We’ll get into specific training routines later. The above is illustrative.

Knowing that you have to work late on some days, early on others, you will adjust your training schedule precisely to reflect that. So, say, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are late nights. Your schedule will reflect that and indicate that you run at 5:00 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday, and you will either rest or cross-train on Wednesday. Wednesday’s calendar will precisely reflect what kind of cross-training you will do. Swimming? Walking? Biking? Put it down because come Wednesday morning, if you don’t know, you might easily give up on yourself. The point is that you spell out the details well before you actually run. Also, this helps you track your progress.

Fuel up when the tank is low. You will develop a specific list of grocery items that you will keep supplied to ensure that your body has all it needs maintain endurance. Plan specific foods and meals for breakfast, snacks, lunch and supper. Failure to do so means you will likely improvise with what is easiest and most attainable: junk food. A Big Mac or bag of chips might feel mighty satisfying in the moment, but when you’re bloated, poorly nourished and constipated, don’t come crying to me. In fact, keep your distance and go eat some roughage.

Two nights before your long run, it is good to eat a pasta supper. If Sunday is your long run day, then noodle up on Friday. Friday becomes pasta night.

These are just a couple of examples. What’s important to grasp is that specificity means mining down to the smallest detail of your goal-oriented actions.

You have to know the specific details ahead of time; otherwise, each day will be wasted wondering if you’re running the right number of miles and if you’re making progress.

In fact, specificity is the way to chart your progress. By establishing the specific steps you need to take to reach your goal, when a specific task is done, you have validated that you’re getting closer to the proverbial – and actual – finish line. Specificity – the act of being specific about the steps necessary for progress – is an important feature of all honest goal making in life.

If you want to get from one end of your house to another, well, that’s a goal.

Plotting a course through the living room and family room and hallway to get to the other side – that’s a strategy.

Specificity is detailing step by step, maneuvering around a piece of furniture, turning a knob and opening the family room door, and turning on a light so you can see down the hallway.

Specificity also means empowerment. The more details you control in your life and in goal making, the more your life is under your command (as opposed to your boss, group of friends, family, society, etc.).

As tedious as it seems, it is this kind of detail that supports the success of great achievers in business, sports, celebrity, and life.

Mentor / Model

Perhaps the easiest way to shape your strategy is to find and emulate a role model or mentor who has succeeded where you hope to succeed.

Fiction writers are taught early on in their graduate workshops that all the stories have been told. There are no really unique plots; however, there are unique characters and voices that cause stories to come alive.

Success, I believe, is equally “unique,” and successful people are the reincarnation of the skills, experience, and environment of their overachieving predecessors throughout humanity.

The steps they have taken in life can be repeated. There really is no mystery to their success. Get to know them. Read their biographies. Channel their knowledge and understand what they know and believe.

If you are a lazy bum whose burning desire is to run a marathon, I’m your guy! Follow my example! If you want to invest like Warren Buffet, read his story, follow the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder report, and study his beliefs, behavior and actions.

Sure, we can’t very well emulate the first person to walk on Mars because that has never happened (at least not by earthly humans), but an aspiring astronaut can emulate Neil Armstrong and apply that awareness while reaching a little higher and farther to achieve a Martian goal.