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I Went to Church Today…

Posted in motivation, running, tagged 100 miles, church, MAC, Massachusetts Advocate for Children, music, running on April 5, 2015| 1 Comment »

As my feet hit the pavement for the first time in so long, Selena Gomez sang in my ear…

When you’re ready come and get it
Na na na na
When you’re ready come and get it
Na na na na

The song is at the beginning of my playlist for my Boot Camp in part because it’s a great song to ease into activity. The slow, steady beat keeps you from starting too fast, but the throbbing, eastern feel gives you a sense of anticipation of what is coming after your body warms up…

…but today, the song felt different to me. You see, I normally don’t listen to music for the lyrics. Unlike Jess, whose love of country music stems from the stories country singers tell in their songs, my pleasure from music comes from the weaving of beats, sounds, harmonies, points and counterpoints. It can be years later that I realize I still don’t know the lyrics to a favorite song, in part because I don’t care about what the artist is saying…I care about what the artist is saying…

…but today, the song felt different to me. As Selena Gomez’s voice sang to me…

When you’re ready come and get it
Na na na na
When you’re ready come and get it
Na na na na

…it was almost as if the road was singing as well…

You ain’t gotta worry, it’s an open invitation
I’ll be sittin’ right here, real patient
All day, all night, I’ll be waitin’ standby…

…and here I was. I have not run regularly in over a year. My last marathon was NYCM ’13, but even before then my mileage had dropped precipitously. Though I still considered (consider) myself a runner, my heart and mind were not cooperating.

…but the road knew…

This love ain’t finished yet
So baby whenever you’re ready
When you’re ready come and get it
Na na na na

As the road sang to me, I got more excited for the slow, 6-miler I had planned.

Some of you may know that way back in the Fall I began talking with a local advocacy group about running 100 miles for them as a way to possibly raise money and awareness of their wonderful work. Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC) is an incredible organization that offers free legal advice to families in need and works tirelessly on capital hill to protect the most vulnerable of society. By the end of the Fall, we had settled on a Father’s Day run – a crazy dad running not just for his children, but for all children in Massachusetts. The run will take me from Amherst to Boston Commons (an 89 mile route).

Then we got hit with the worst winter Boston has ever (EVAH) seen. Between work and the snow, I ran a total of 0 miles in preparation for my run in June…that’s right: 0.

As my thoughts wandered during my run today, I inevitably began thinking of this monstrous task ahead of me. It is, to say the least overwhelming and scary. The long distance and short training time is not something I would ever prescribe or recommend for a client. As I wrestled with my thoughts, Aloe Blacc began to sing to me…

Stand up now and face the sun
Won’t hide my tail or turn and run
It’s time to do what must be done
Be a king when kingdom comesWell you can tell everybody
Yeah you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man

…that was quickly followed up by Angélique Kidjo’s rendition of Voodoo Child…

Well I stand up next to a mountain
Chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well I stand up next to a mountain
Chop it down with the edge of my hand
Pick up the pieces and make an island
Might even raise a little sand

…and I knew, barring injury, I was going to do this 100 miles run.

Kidjo continued to sing…

‘Cause I’m a voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child

I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
Make it back to you one of these days
I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
Make it back to you one of these days

…and I was brought back full circle.

Throughout my run, feeling the flow with each beat, I dance and sang and laughed with the music – I can only imagine what it looked like to other runners and pedestrians.

It was a celebration of sorts.

Toward the end of my run (my planned 6 had turned into 10 for no reason other than I was having fun), I passed a Church. People flooded out of Easter services, all dressed in their Sunday best. It hit me – I was dressed in my Sunday best and attending a Church I had not been to in a long, long time.

Now, despite being baptized presbyterian, I am not a religious man by any stretch, but how appropriate would it be were I to resurrect my passion for running on a day many believe to be a day of renewed life?

I went to Church today…and it was good.

Happy Easter and Good Pesach everyone. I hope your Sunday morning was as glorious as mine.

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…just excuses

Posted in boston marathon, motivation, running, training, tagged Bay State Marathon, boston 13.1, excuses, Ghost Train Rail Trail Race, motivation, running on September 5, 2014| 4 Comments »

I could blame it on my focus on getting my personal training and boot camp business up and running.

I could blame it on my studies for a nutrition certification.

I could blame it on the weird pain I’ve been suffering through in my left foot.

I’m sure if I really thought about it, I could find a lot of reasons.

But if I’m going to be honest with myself (and with you), I have to simply admit, I haven’t been motivated.

I have a half-marathon next weekend, a full marathon and a 100-miler in October.

Bay State (the marathon) was supposed to be my attempt to return to Boston. Ghost Train (the 100-miler) was supposed to be my attempt to go sub-24 hours.

After watching my social media feed back in April, as many of you ran a glorious Boston Marathon, I got excited. I got psyched. I was pumped at the prospect of running a competitive (for me) marathon and getting myself back to the starting line in Hopkinton. With the added 10 minutes allotted to me because of my impending age bracket change, I knew I had it in the bag.

I bought new shoes (Go Mebs).

I announced my plans.

I pulled out my calendar and worked my way back from October to determine my base building runs and then my Bay State specific runs.

I planned it out.

My early morning runs.

My late night runs.

I was going back to Boston…

…and then I wasn’t.

My calendar began to fill. Early morning runs became a problem. With 6AM clients, 4 to 5 days a week, I was already getting up at 4:30AM to prepare. Late night runs became a problem for the same reason. You can’t give your clients your best on only 4 hours of sleep. I was studying at night. My feet were (are) suffering from an undetermined ailment. The list could go on and on.

Honestly though, those are just excuses. The fact is, as excited as I initially was to run both Bay State and Ghost Train, that motivation abandoned me at the first hurdle I faced. Perhaps I really didn’t want to run, I merely wished I could. We make priorities in life in part because there are only 24 hours in a day. We make choices. Maybe it a day was 30 hours, I would have found the time…maybe…probably, the results would have been the same.

At this point, if it isn’t obvious, I will not be running Bay State in an attempt to qualify for Boston. I may still run it, depending on my feet, but it will be simply to enjoy a long run through the town of Lowell, MA. Ghost Train is out of the question. Attempting to run 100 miles on zero training would be foolish. As for Boston 13.1, which happens next weekend, I am not sure. Like Bay State, we’ll see how the feet hold up over the next week.

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Time & Money

Posted in health, motivation, tagged fitness, health, money, motivation, Time, wellness on December 7, 2013| 6 Comments »

There are a lot of empty excuses out there for not taking care of yourself.

I’m not good at taking responsibility…

I don’t know what’s in the food I eat…

I don’t like the taste of water…

Then there’s the excuse about Time and Money.

It takes too much time…

It costs too much…

A lot of people will frown upon those last two excuses. I used to be one of those people. My response was, “you can make the time” and “can you put a price on your health and well-being?” I was taken aback when several people, including my father, pointed out that saying things like “make the time” and “it’s cheaper than being unhealthy” were narrow-minded, insensitive and, to put it not so nicely, ignorant.

No matter how the economy is doing, there are people who struggle simply to put food on the dinner table and clothes on the backs of their families; this while working 12, 14, 16 hour days.

Yes, your health is important. True, if being fit is an overwhelming priority, you will make time for it. No doubt that being healthy is less expensive over the long haul than being sick – but here’s the question, at what cost? I love how many of the “experts” out there will whip people they see on the street over and over again about their unhealthy life-style, how they’re killing themselves and their kids, how cancer is a choice and blah, blah, blah, and as it ultimately turns out, they, the “experts”, have never had to take care of anyone other than themselves – they have no family; they have no real responsibility other than to themselves and their business.

Yes, family health matters, but you want to know what matters more? Children spending quality time with mom and dad; children going to bed with a belly full of food; children having clothes and shoes that fit to wear to school; children having an environment where they feel safe – these things take both Time AND Money.

So though I agree that people will often use Time and Money as empty excuses to avoid the perceived hard work of becoming fit and healthy, I believe we in the health & fitness profession need to think a little more sensitively about those who are struggling simply to get by – offer real solutions (like family walks) as opposed to generalized judgements (like “if you care, you will make the time and spend more wisely.”).

Not everyone is as fortunate or as well off as many seem to assume they are.

My one piece of advice to those struggling to feel better overall? Start small – whether that’s a promise to yourself to drink more water or take the stairs instead of the elevator (don’t start with 20 flights!!!) or eat out one meal less per week or play tag with your kids…whatever it is, start small. Give yourself a true opportunity to succeed and then, after a few weeks of that, fold something else in and then another and then another and then another…before you know it, a year or two will have gone by and you won’t recognize yourself or your family from a year before.

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#AutismStreaks Week 8

Posted in motivation, tagged #autismstreaks, autism, log, running, week 8 on February 26, 2013| 2 Comments »

Week 8 brought a 24 EEG and an MRI for the little one – by Friday I was cooked and could muster only a mile. I’m not sure whether all the visits to the hospital or my lack of sleep affected my ability to think straight, but I also seem to have registered for a 100-mile race come June. Good thing I’ve been doing all this base building!

Friday night would have been fantastic in the moonlight, but all I could muster was one mile…

Week 8:
February 19 – 7.0 miles 59:38 8:31 pace aHR 133
February 20 – 8.0 miles 1:00:33 7:34 pace aHR 156
February 21 – 8.0 miles 1:11:45 8:58 pace aHR 126
February 22 – 1.0 miles 10:00 10:00 pace aHR 147
February 23 – 9.0 miles 1:08:59 7:40 pace aHR 138
February 24 – 3.0 miles 24:59 8:19 pace aHR 125
February 25 – 7.0 miles 1:01:28 8:47 pace aHR 122
Week 8 Total – 43.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 293.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

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#AutismStreaks Week 5

Posted in log, motivation, Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, autism, Autism Speaks, Charity Miles, running, streaking on February 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

I thought the slightly milder weather this past week would bring a few more miles, but sometimes life doesn’t play out as planned. It didn’t help that I came down with something on Friday, cutting my planned Friday and Saturday runs short. Despite my head and chest cold, I did get to run one of my favorite races of the year – the Super Sunday 5-Miler put on by RaceMenu. It’s hard to go wrong when finishers are greeted by FIVE different brewers of beer, each presenting a variety of their brews. A race report is on its way.

I hope everyone got some miles in this week!

-Luau

Week 5:
January 29 5.0 miles 36:20 7:16 pace aHR 151 (surpassed 150 miles YTD)
January 30 5.0 miles 42:43 8:32 pace aHR 132
January 31 1.0 miles 09:27 9:27 pace aHR 150
February 01 4.0 miles 29:46 7:26 pace aHR 137
February 02 2.0 miles 15:40 7:50 pace aHR 182 (short mileage after debilitating head cold Friday night – don’t think the HR monitor was functioning properly)
February 03 5.0 miles 36:28 7:18 pace (Super Sunday 5-Miler – didn’t wear heart monitor – race recap coming)
February 04 2.0 miles 13:58 6:59 pace aHR 144
Week 5 Total – 24.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 170.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610) – puts me 5 miles behind my goal of averaging at least 5 miles a day. Hopefully I get it back this week.

Waiting for the start of the Super Sunday 5-Miler – it was 22°F and snowing!

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

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New Month Resolution

Posted in diet, health, motivation, Uncategorized, tagged do it, eat clean, gym, health, meditation, New Month Resolution, new year's resolution, running on January 30, 2013| 2 Comments »

Tomorrow is the last day of January, the first month of 2013. Some have managed to stick to their Healthful New Year’s Resolutions while others have, well, to put it nicely, fallen off the wagon.

Here’s the cool thing – just like the change from December 31st to January 1st, tomorrow night at midnight the calendar turns once again. For those who want a “clean” beginning, February 1st offers the same “magic” that January 1st does, giving you a second chance to start again, this time hopefully learning from any mistakes you may have made over the last month.

So if you have fallen, you CAN get up, dust yourself off and try, try again. If you stumbled and stopped running, going to the gym, eating clean, meditating daily, whatever your healthful resolution was, think about it today and tomorrow; ask yourself where you fell short and on February 1st, wake up and take back what is rightfully yours.

And if you’ve been strong and steady in your resolution, then take tomorrow to pat yourself on the back and then resolve to do it again for another month!

DO IT!

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#AutismStreaks Week 3

Posted in log, motivation, Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, Charity, Charity Miles, running, running for a cause, update, week 3 on January 22, 2013| 1 Comment »

The Streak Continues…

21 Days in the books. Better than 1/5 of the way there. Due to differences in GPS measurements, I’m at 116.851 “Charity Miles” miles.

Wanna help your charity of choice simply by running or biking or walking?

Get the Charity Miles app:

Week 3:
January 15    1.0 miles   07:36 7:36 pace    aHR 156
January 16 5.0 miles   41:29 8:17 pace    aHR 134
January 17 8.0 miles   58:27 7:18 pace aHR 151
January 18 8.0 miles   71:41 8:57 pace aHR 116 (100 miles on the Garmin as of today!!!)
January 19 4.0 miles   39:55 9:58 pace   aHR 111
January 20 7.0 miles   55:02 7:52 pace aHR 146
January 21 3.0 miles   23:06 7:42 pace   aHR 133
Week 1 Total – 36.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 114.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)

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All Aboard!!!

Posted in diet, health, motivation, Uncategorized, tagged all aboard, healthful change, new year's resolution, train on January 17, 2013| 2 Comments »

Don’t worry! You can catch the next one!

Did you miss the train?

Did you get to the station platform just to see the train pulling out?

***

I’ve run across a few people recently who, despite it only being the third week of the New Year, feel they missed their chance to embrace a New Year’s Resolution; that they missed their opportunity to change their habits from bad to good.

Well, guess what people! The “change my life for the better” train leaves every day, every hour, every minute, every second! So if you’ve missed it, it’s not too late to hop on board because the next one is leaving now, and now, and now – and due to a strange quirk of quantum physics and the universal magic of platform 9 3/4, once you hop on the train, you’re on the SAME train as the people who hopped on on January 1st!

So don’t delay – do something…today! Substitute an apple for the cookies, some carrots and hummus for the potato chips, a walk with the dog for the post-dinner TV, the stair for the elevator – every little bit counts.

All aboard!!!

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#AutismStreaks Weeks 1 & 2

Posted in motivation, Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, autism, Autism Speaks, running, running streak', streaking, update, weekly log on January 15, 2013| 5 Comments »

“We’re going streaking through the quad…”

So I’m finally embracing this streak.

Once a week I’m am going to post a summary of the runs from the previous week. I’m using the “Streak” more than anything as a motivational tool to get me back to my love of running. So far it has worked like a charm – every day I’ve felt that old urge to get at least some miles under my feet.

I’m even posting on dailymile again. Anybody who has tracked their mileage in the past, knows what it means to have walked away from tracking miles to then return to it.

The great part of this streak so far has been that I want to run – that need has returned, all without an “A” race in the near future. Sure the Vermont 50 looms over the horizon, but quite honestly that hasn’t really sunk in quite yet.

Who knows how long this streak will go. The post that my buddy Doug put up said 100 days – I’m better than an eighth of the way there. The coolest part of this is that every day, by using the Charity Miles App, I’m raising funds for Autism Speaks and giving a voice to autism. Will I make it to 100? I don’t know. I’ve always been a proponent of rest days, but sometimes you have to weigh physical need with psychological need. If I make it to 100, will I keep going? We’ll cross that bridge when, and if, we get to it.

Week 1:
January 01    6.0 miles   47:40 7:57 pace    aHR 158
January 02   6.0 miles   46:07   7:41 pace    aHR 168
January 03   4.0 miles   30:04   7:31 pace aHR 153
January 04   6.0 miles   48:16   8:02 pace aHR 157
January 05   3.0 miles   26:13 8:44 pace   aHR 145
January 06   7.0 miles   57:24   8:12 pace aHR 140
January 07   3.0 miles   21:18   7:06 pace   aHR 156
Week 1 Total – 35.0 miles

Week 2:
January 08   6.0 miles   49:37    8:16 pace   aHR 141
January 09   7.0 miles   63:14     9:02 pace aHR 124
January 10 3.0 miles   21:39    7:13 pace   aHR 150
January 11 10.0 miles 1:17:39 7:45 pace   aHR 145
January 12    4.0 miles   33:00   8:15 pace   aHR 130
January 13 10.0 miles 1:21:50 8:11 pace   aHR 139
January 14    3.0 miles   28:53   9:38 pace   aHR 120
Week 2 Total – 43.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 78 miles

Any experienced streakers have any words of advice?

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Cold Start

Posted in motivation, Uncategorized, tagged 100 day streak, cold start, crow athletics, healthy living, January, motivation, New Year's Fitness, New Year's Motivation, one hundred days, running, running streak', Streak, training on January 7, 2013| 6 Comments »

From October 7th to December 31st of last year I ran a total of seven times. Granted, some of those runs were 20+ mile runs, but that’s seven runs in eighty-six days. That’s just over one run every two weeks.

Not a lot of running.

***

A day or two before New Year’s my buddy Doug posted a link on Facebook to a Crow Athletics Streak Challenge – run or walk at least one mile every day for one hundred days. I have never been a fan of streaking, that is, the concept of running as many consecutive days as possible. I’m a firm believer in the necessity of rest and I have a hard time believing that one can run and rest simultaneously.

But this piqued my interest – not because of its uniqueness, people streak all the time, but simply because of the personal nature of its timing. I struggled off and on with motivation for almost all of 2012. Even while I was training for Sugarloaf last winter, it was still a fight to get myself out the door. I yearned for that time, not so long ago considering I’ve only been running for four years, when my legs were out the door before I was even aware of it. 2010 was a banner year for me. I ran four marathons over the course of eight months; I pushed myself harder with each race, training with an eagerness that was fueled by hunger.

After qualifying for and then running Boston 2011, that drive slowly began to shrink. I continued to enter races – Around the Lake (July 2011), the Vermont 50 (September 2011), NYCM (November 2011), but the training, the motivation continued to dwindle. After being left out of Boston 2012 by a mere 30 seconds, I rallied briefly last Winter in an attempt to qualify for Boston 2013, but despite my decent training cycle, my lack of miles over the previous 12 months caught up with me. At mile 20 of Sugarloaf 2012, on pace for around a 3:13 finish, the wheels came off the bus and I finished with a respectable, but non-BQ time of 3:23.

Despite the fact that 3:23 was my second best marathon time ever, my mojo was officially DOA. I found other ways to encourage others to run. I recruited and ran runners in at the Boston 13.1 Half Marathon in September (running a total of twenty some odd miles…barefoot), I pulled off what would have been a fun, silly stunt for New York 2012 by getting Katy Perry to donate 25 blue wigs to Team Up with Autism Speaks runners, but even in doing so, I hardly ran. Yes, I ran some in October to help #teamLuau beat #teamBecca on the Gorilla Suit throwdown, but I was also helped tremendously by other runners and biker donating their miles. I was still having fun running, but I just wasn’t doing a lot of it.

***

But then I saw Doug’s post.

Run at least one mile (or more) for one hundred days.

***

God, I hate streaking.

***

Hmmm.

I ran six miles on the first of the year. It was like starting a cold engine. I had run once in December (on my birthday) – 4.3 miles to celebrate turning 43. Before that I had run 30 days earlier on Thanksgiving – 3.1 miles in a personal Turkey Trot.

My legs were not ready for my New Year’s run.

But I did it.

The following day I put in 6 more.

***

I am NOT streaking!!!

***

On the 3rd, I put in a quick 4-spot, feeling good about my 7:30 pace. During my run I began to think about a promise Doug and I made a while back – to attempt a sub-10 hour Vermont 50 this year. I ran an 11:04 on essentially no training in 2011. Sub-10 was going to take some work. As I hit the 2-mile mark in my run and turned for home, I realized that that work started with building a base. Before I really started to train this summer, I would have to put some miles behind me. It didn’t matter how long my runs were this winter, I was just going to have to run…a lot!

***

The following day I went out for 4 miles and came home having run 6. My legs were tired from 4 consecutive days of running, but just like starting your car on a cold winter day, my engine, my drive, was warming up.

***

I wanna run tomorrow! But am I streaking? I don’t know!

***

I put in a short 3-miler because of time constraints, but the point was I ran. Then yesterday, before going on an all-day road trip, I got up early to put in a few miles. I was planning on 4 or 5 miles and came home having run 7. I will be squeezing in a short run at lunch today.

Am I streaking? I really don’t know. But the turning of the calendar and the concept of this challenge, if nothing else, has at least turned the engine over. I still believe in rest days, but I also, as a trainer-in-training, believe that we have to do what we can to find our motivation. Sometimes that motivation is a size 6 dress (well, not for me); sometimes that motivation is an old pair of jeans; sometimes that motivation is a number on the scale; sometimes that motivation is being able to play with your children…sometimes, that motivation is something as silly as a streak.

What are YOU using as motivation this January to get your body moving?