What can I say? I love to run. I've run 4 full marathons and 6 halfs. But I love God more and I'm determined to run this race of life for Him to receive the ultimate prize of Heaven. I'd like to share my thoughts with you. You can agree or disagree. Comment or don't. You can read or not read. But it's here if you want it. Enjoy! .

Friday, July 23, 2010

I've Got Bugs in my Tummy

11:01AM

Got injured by a bug last night. Yep, injured by a bug – you heard me right, or read me right. Whatever. How you ask? Or even if you didn’t ask. I was running 6 miles last night. It was going okay. I didn’t eat the best of suppers and it was still pretty hot with little or no breeze so the run was just okay. I was about a mile from home and feeling good. I love approaching home. I guess I had my mouth open too wide. I definitely breathe through my mouth when I run. Does everyone? Anyways, a bug flew right in there. And before I could help it, the bug became protein for my body. But it caught me off guard and I swallowed it. That made me cough for several seconds which totally messed up my breathing. And since I wasn’t getting the oxygen I had been getting, it literally made my lungs hurt for a couple minutes. I guess I wasn’t “injured” for a long period of time, but for a couple minutes there, I felt injured, all from a bug. Ok, took too long to tell that story.

Anyways, the interview with Dick Beardsley went great Tuesday night. I actually got to ask him several questions including asking him advice for my own camp coming up. I asked him for advice for my high school runners as we are about to begin our Cross Country camp on Monday. His main advice was to build those core muscles with things as simple as push-ups and crunches . He also said running during the summer to build up endurance is very important. Hope they have been running! Anyways, Dick seemed to be a very nice, down-to-earth guy with a great attitude and kind heart and I really enjoyed talking with him as well as a couple of the campers at his camp.

Speaking of running camp – Monday I officially begin my stint as a high school Cross Country coach and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. So I also have bugs in my stomach for this reason. My nervousness is dropping though and I really am very excited as well. I have finished making out a camp schedule of workouts and I’m really anxious to get started. I know it will go great, but I think everyone would have some hint of nervousness beginning a new job or position. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. I went to our “fieldhouse” yesterday to check it out. This is the building that belongs to the team. It is used for team meetings, changing, etc. It’s a wreck to say the least. I think with the flooding back in May, it was used for storage. Anyways, I’ve gotten the ok to throw away all the junk so we’re going to have a major cleaning day(s). I’m actually looking forward to getting that place cleaned up.

Well, that’s it for now. Planning to run 12 again Sunday. Hope it goes better than last week. I promise to eat a good dinner tomorrow night. Have a good weekend.

Keep runnin’,
Albert

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

What an Honor

12:37PM

Tonight, I have the distinct honor of co-hosting the Runners Roundtable podcast once again and we are interviewing Dick Beardsley, one of the greatest American runners in history. His website can be found here. It will be so exciting to talk with him and hear from him. He is mainly going to be discussing his running camps which particularly interests me due to the fact that I'm about to begin my first ever high school Cross Country camp next week. More about that later. Just wanted to post a quick update about tonight's podcast. It begins at 5:30 central time and you can find the link here if you want to listen. I will again be co-hosting with Mike and Lesley. Some of the campers at Beardsley's camps might join us as well. Listen if you can.

Keep runnin',
Albert

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Fountain Sent From Above

10:03PM

Well, I hope this is not a sign of things to come but I did NOT have a good run this morning when I officially began my Chicago marathon training. That's the bad news. The good news is - I know exactly why I didn't have a good run and I can fix it. It all started last night....

As I mentioned in my last post, I was at church camp all week. Yesterday was a long day spent cleaning, unpacking, mowing, etc. I was already worn out from camp and all the "back home-cleanup" work wore me out even more. I knew I wanted to run last night since I didn't run Friday. The boys had a birthday party from 5-7 so during the party, my wife and I went to the grocery since our pantry/fridge were barren from the week away. When we got home, I didn't want to eat knowing that I would then have to wait a while to run. So I decided to skip dinner. MISTAKE! Note to self and everyone - don't skip a meal the night b4 a run, especially a long run, especially if you run the night before as well. I ran 6 last night and it was fine. In fact, it was really good. The empty stomach didn't affect me last night. I pretty much got home from the run and went to bed. I was exhausted. I set my alarm for 4:45 this morning so I could get up and run my long run - 12 miles.

When I woke up, I was very thirsty. I got quick drink of water and thought it would be enough. I was wrong. The first 6 miles were fine. I could tell I wasn't feeling the best ever but I was making it. Around mile 6 though, I got extremely thirsty. And I really wanted to walk. I felt so drained, weak, and tired. I saw a sprinkler and decided to stop and try to get a drink. I've done it before but it's very difficult. Sprinklers are usually too strong to drink from. This one was impossible. It was a spider-type which sprays 8 different directions in a complete circle and spins at the same time. Needless to say, all I got was wet which felt nice, but didn't quench the thirst. I was bummed and still so thirsty. So at that point I made the decision to walk a little bit. I hate that. I don't like to walk unless I'm injured but I just didn't feel good. I walked probably a quarter mile and then started running again when I reached a downhill. I still had around 5 miles to go. I needed water bad and didn't know where I was going to get it. Then I saw it....

Believe what you want, but I think the big guy upstairs was watching out for me. About 50 yards into a neighborhood I was passing was a fountain of water shooting 3 feet up in the air. I don't know if a sprinkler was broken or what but it was perfect. It was shooting out at the exact speed of a water fountain and it was a huge gush of clean water. It looked a lot like the picture to the left. It was Heaven at that point. I needed it so bad. I took several drinks and it gave me a little boost. I started running again and thought I would make it all the way back. I got to within a mile of home and my legs started to go numb. The lack of food in my stomach was really hurting me. Again - I know it was a mistake not to eat last night. I've learned my lesson. I walked a little bit more and ran the last half mile home. My time was around 9:20 per mile average due to the walking, not good for me. But like I put on dailymile - everyone had good runs and bad ones. This was a bad one. Lesson learned. I'm due to run 12 again next week so I hope it will go much better. I think it will.

I'll write again later this week about the RRT podcast on Tuesday and my HS coaching career officially starting next week. Be careful out there. Take care of yourselves. I'll try harder to do just that.

Keep runnin',
Albert

Saturday, July 17, 2010

It Begins Tomorrow

9:33PM


Man! Where have I been? I can't believe I haven't written since July 3. That was 2 weeks ago. I'm really slacking on this blog thing. Summer is just too busy. I was at church camp all this week and had no computer access. Probably a good thing - I'm on here too much as is. But I do need to update this blog more. I guess it's one of those things where you do really well when you first start but then you kindof slack off. I'll try to do better. Camp was good. It was hot. This was our 26th anniversary of camp and I've been to 24 of them now. Not too shabby. I started going when I was 9 years old and only missed a couple of years in high school when I was "too cool" to go. Now I'm a counselor and I absolutely love it each year. I had a great group of guys this year once again. One of them will be on my HS Cross Country team this year and we ran together one day. He ran everyday which I was very proud of. I only ran 3 days. The other days it was either raining or I was too tired to get up and do it. We stay up so late.

Well, tomorrow I start officially training for my 3rd marathon. Chicago. 10/10/10. I can't believe it's time to start training. I haven't trained for a marathon since early December. But tomorrow morning I'll do 12 miles and start working my way up to my 22 max before the race. I've also started to try and do more core exercises (push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, etc.) I've been doing pretty well so I'm going to try to keep those up even though they aren't my favorite thing in the world.

In a little over a week, our High School Cross Country summer camp begins. Monday, July 26 is when we can officially start practice so I'm going to spend this week putting together our "camp" schedule. I'm really looking forward to this starting and I'll talk more about it later. I need to get to bed since I've got a long run in the morning. I'm co-hosting the RRT again Tuesday night. More about that tomorrow or Monday.

Keep runnin',
Albert

Saturday, July 3, 2010

I'm Heeled! Get it?

9:01PM

Ok, that was a corny joke, I know. Especially since I just realized I twisted my ankle, not my heal. I'm an idiot. But I'm baaaack. I ran for the first time tonight since Sunday's fiasco. Love that word. I wanted to run earlier in the week but figured I better play it safe. I don't think I could've run earlier than Wednesday, maybe Thursday. The ankle was swollen through Tuesday and slightly on Wednesday. It's still slightly tender to the touch and even I roll it a little or stretch it too much, it hurts. But walking on it doesn't hurt, only in the mornings when I wake up.
So I decided today would be the day to give it a shot. Not sure what a doctor would've said. Didn't see one. But I went with the feeling. And the good news is that it felt fine. If anything, my lungs and side hurt more than my ankle. But the run was good. 3 miles in 22:30. Just like old times. I didn't lose anything. It wasn't easy. I hated not running. I mean I enjoyed the free time, but that's it. I missed it. I'm still a little nervous about stepping wrong or re-twisting it. I admit I was watching the road pretty carefully tonight. I know it's still healing and so it's still a little fragile. I'm going to try to get back to my routine this new week but I'm going to really try to watch it carefully. I'll try a longer run tomorrow morning, maybe 6 miles. We'll see how that goes.
I start officially training for Chicago in 2 weeks! Yahoo. It's good to be back.

Keep runnin',
Albert