This Week

This week was a tad crazy for many reasons. My son Barrett came down with some horrible congestion and when he doesn't feel good it affects everyone haha. Then on Monday evening I came down with horrible Heartburn. When I am having a bout of Heartburn it is so awful that I am up all night with excruciating pain. This time it was worse and I even threw up a couple of times (sorry for the detail.) I finally felt better by Tuesday afternoon, but decided not to run etc.

Thursday came and we were out of school due to the weather, so I went for a tempo run in historic downtown Mt. Airy. Around 3 miles into the run I started to have stomach problems again, so cut it short at 4 miles, came home and went to the doctor.

At the doctors office they checked me for an ulcer causing bacteria called H. Pylori. I was negative for H. Pylori, so I was given a 2 week regime of a prescription H2 blocker. After being on the meds 2 days now, I am starting to feel a lot better. I wonder if this could have been caused by a stomach bug, as there is one going around school.

Now Saturday, I woke up with a hefty Honey Do list. My wife Meghan is about 30 weeks pregnant with twins. She is definitely "nesting" at the moment, so I don't mind trying to do all I can. Even though I had a lot going on, I met a friend at Westwood Park for another beautiful trail run. I got in 45 minutes at a moderate pace, and did some of the bigger hills coming up from the "bottom."

To wrap this post up, I am happy to say I am currently feeling better and this week is ending on a high note. My Honey Do list is almost completed, and Barrett is feeling much better. Happy Running everyone!

Log: Thursday- 4 miles, 3 Tempo avg HR 161. Shoes: Brooks Launch. Saturday- 45 minutes single track trail running. Moderate pace. Avg HR 151. Shoes Brooks ASR.

Pictures from today's trail run @Westwood Park.

Beyond the Run

I started this blog as a way for me to keep a diary so to speak of my running adventures and to sometime dabble on the topics of music, family and life. Well life is the main theme of this blog post, as someone else's life is on my mind today.

All around us everyday we see struggle. The struggle to pay bills, the struggle of trying to always do the right thing, the struggle to be who everyone wants us to be, and struggle at times to face our individual realities. What if your struggle was against your own body, and it was a struggle unlike exercise etc., that you are going to inevitably lose. It would be heart breaking, devastating and "giving up" would probably be the response 99% of us would have to a situation like this.

We have a friend in our close community of friends gained from the many years of playing music. His name Tim LaFollette and he, at a young age, has ALS. ALS for those that do not know is Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease) is a form of motor neuron disease. ALS is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. In other words his ability to control his body is fleeting.

While most of us would give up, Tim and his family are fighting tooth and nail against his ALS, and most of all raising awareness of this disease in the hopes of one day finding a cure. He is an inspiration and someone who should be admired for his courage in the face of the upmost adversity.

Another good friend in our community has started a charity driven by artwork. You can purchase posters and 100% of profits go to Tim and his family. I am not affiliated with this charity or Tim's charity, "Often Awesome" but as a runner and friend, I felt the desire to discuss this. Below is an image of the poster you can buy to help out if you choose, or you can visit Tim's Often Awesome website to find out more about how you can help.

Thanks for taking the to listen to my ramblings once again. Tim's life is truly an inspiration, and reminds us not to take lives for granted. Until next time. Run Happy!

Link for Poster Cause: http://shop.thepostercauseproject.com/products/often-awesome-poster-designed-by-ant-sanders

Link to Tim's Page: http://www.oftenawesome.org/

Westwood Trail Run

After the 10k my calves and foot began getting "tight" again, so Thursday I ran indoors at our school's gym using minimal footwear(Brooks Green Silence) and kept the pace light. I ran 30 minutes with an average heart rate of 139. Yesterday my leg/foot pain began to increase due to a couple of games of basketball at school. I rolled out trigger points and iced last night and felt good this morning so I decided to go for a trail run.

Let me start by saying, I LOVE to run on trails. I met a friend at Westwood Park here in Mt. Airy and ran on the mountain bike trail. The local mountain bikers do an outstanding job of maintaining this trail so when I run there I try to clean debris from the trail ads I run as a way of helping and saying, "thanks." I also make sure the bikers are not riding at the time, because I feel they have the right of way and the trail is technical enough it could be dangerous for them to encounter a runner at high speeds. There were no bikers there so it was a go.

The trail is pretty technical and has some great climbing. The various log piles and fast downhills make for some added fun. When I biked a lot I loved mountain biking and I love to trail run for the same reasons I loved to mountain bike. You feel like a young child exploring and it just feels good to be in nature. I really hope to log a lot of trail miles this season.

Overall I did not keep up with miles, but ran as much as I could in the time frame I had. Total 40 mins. with an average heart rate of 146, which was great considering some of the climbs coming out of the "bottom." Shoes: Brooks ASR, great for this trail and winter running. Pictures are of various spots and a special thanks to "JE" for taking the picture of me coming off one of the log piles.

Drive to Work

I work as a Teacher for the Patrick County School System at a wonderful small community school located at Meadows of Dan in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I love my drive to work and use the time to prepare and decompress so that I am focused for work and home.

On this drive I often see various forms of wildlife and because the drive requires me to go from the foothills up the mountain, I see amazing scenery. Everyday feels like an adventure.

This morning it was very foggy here in the foothills. As I traveled to the foot of the mountain and began to start climbing up, I noticed the higher I climbed the fog was lifting. When I arrived at the top I had to stop and take a couple of pictures. The lowlands were completely blanketed with fog and a distant mountain range was barely peeking out. It was incredible and just a another reminder of how "small" I really am.

The pictures I took with my phone do not do the sight justice. The light was not great because They were taken at dawn. Hope you can get an idea of just a sample of the treats I get to see on my daily drive.

Easy Run with a Good Friend

Today I was still sore from Saturday's 10k race, so I decided to just keep the pace and distance light. I was also joined by a good friend who is getting back into running, so it was definitely going to be fun shaking some of this soreness out.

We decided to go to run the Greenway at Riverside Park. It is a beautiful place that even though it is paved, it travels through the woods and runs parallel to a river which makes it a very nice place to run. We had a great run and the logistics for me were 40 mins at an easy pace with an average heart rate of 139.

As you can tell from earlier posts, I am a shoe geek. I wear Brooks shoes and am a member of their I.D. Team. I cannot say enough great things about their company and products. Today I wore the red/yellow "wild" colored pair of Green Silence. Great shoe that is light and has a nice lower heel to aid in mid/forefoot running. Another great day pounding pavement!

ProHealth 10k for 10 years

This morning I ran in ProHealth's 10k to honor their 10 years of business and service to our community. I started the day with my usual pre-race routine. Small breakfast of easily processed carbs and green tea. Got clothes and gear together. On shoes: I decided to wear my Brooks Launch which are a wonderful middle ground between racing flat and full blown cushioned shoe. They are light and flexible enough for me to still be efficient in my mid/fore-foot gate.

I arrived at the race and chatted with friends and got game plan worked out, which was to start off slower and see how I felt after mile 2, if I felt good I would start to push. Plan came together well and after mile 2 I started to push the pace. The course was very hilly with around 1125ft of climbing overall. I started near the back and kept moving up jumping from group to group until I finally reached a group I could not shake. Some of the hills were long an really made me push mentally. It was intense at times. I did what I could and ended up finishing around 52 minutes, overall heart rate of 164 and pace was right at an 8:30 min/mil, which I am happy about just coming back from a year long injury.

Hung out afterwards with friends and fellow runners an really enjoyed the fellowship. Overall, I am feeling stronger and hope to continue to run injury free. As an added bonus, luck played out into my favor and I placed 3rd in my age group and got a pretty cool medal. It was a great event and I had a blast. (pictured: Brooks Launch used today, great shoe)

Snowy 5 Miler

I really love this time of year. I like cold weather a lot and love how the snow can blanket an "ordinary" trail and make it "extraordinary." I got in a little over 5 miles almost all on the Greenway and had the best time. It was covered in snow and really pretty. Wore my Brooks ASR's, not a minimalist shoe, but an outstanding all weather shoe.

Quick tangent about shoes... Due to previous injuries, I am constantly working on landing mid-foot/forefoot and have spent some time running barefoot. My main shoe right now is the Brooks Green Silence, which for me is a great minimalist shoe, not to mention a very environmentally friendly running shoe.

After working on my form for awhile now, I can wear just about any shoe as long as it is flexible in the forefoot. Back to the run....Pace was not a concern as I am running a 10k this Saturday and just wanted to get out and keep the legs fresh. It was a great run and nice to be in the elements.

Background of Running

While playing music and touring, I took up smoking and eating poorly. My weight and health ballooned to an unacceptable point. I started biking with some buddies and became pretty obsessed with it. My weight started to drop and my overall health started to improve naturally. My wife wanted to start jogging, so I decided to put the bike down a couple of days a week and jog with her. It HURT! It hurt bad, but in a very good way.

Running became a new challenge, or obsession for me. It was not easy, and took a lot of mental discipline. After my wife became pregnant with our first son Barrett, I started running more and more out of necessity due to time constraints. I began to enter races and I also began fairing well amongst my peers. I have a 5k PR of 20:45, and a 1/2 Marathon PR of 1:45:12. These are the only two distances I have truly "raced" at, although I have ran other events of other distances. I began having pain in my left foot and just kept running through it, running to a point I was almost trying to run away from my own insecurities. I eventually got very hurt. Plantar Fascitiis, Peroneal Tendon, and Achilles Tendon pain were all inflamed to a point I could barely stand.

I read everything I could on training and injury prevention during this time and started coaching other runners. (2 runners to a Boston Qualifying marathon performance) After a year of battling this foot injury, my chiropractor Dr. Leslie turned me on to Graston, which is torture but got me running again. Now with a renewed appreciation for being able to put one foot in front of the other, I am smarter about my training, my diet and most of all the craziness which almost destroyed my running has left and a more civil person has emerged.

I love to run, and it is the most rewarding form of exercise. I am just thankful for family and friends who helped me get back to what I love to do. The power of spirit seems to always prevail in cases like this. I don't think my experience is any different.

Background in Music

I started playing the drums as most teenagers do. Beating the crap out of them basically to see how much annoyance I could get away with. I began to realize after about a year of "banging" away at the drums, that I really did enjoy the release "playing" them gave me. After high school I went to Surry Community College (place of dreams) and eventually met up with a couple of guys who needed a drummer.

I almost literally threw myself at the opportunity to play drums in a real band. Excitement was an understatement. Like most young naive people, I realized very quickly that being in a band meant you had to deal with a lot of drama. After lots of drama, I started a band with my brother. Now armed with my new found experience and a band full of friends, I set off to make a small impact in the music industry. Long story short, we signed some record deals and toured most of America and Canada. It was no small feat for a group of small town boys.

The most important parts of why I even got myself into the general mess of the music industry revealed themselves later in my 10 year jaunt with an alternate reality. I met my wife through being in a band and I have made life-long, deep friendships along the way. I am making what could be a novel very short for a couple of reasons. 1. Nobody really wants to sit through a life history of my short music career and 2. The friendships and relationships I made during this period of my life were worth every minute of the experience that I have no regrets or loose ends that need to be tied up. It was an amazing experience. I also became a fairly decent drummer as well, which could be an added bonus right?

First Post

I wanted to use this first test post just to basically explain the purpose for this blog. This blog is going to be the catalyst for me to look at my running, health, family, etc. reflectively and try to always improve myself as a runner and most of all a person. It is often hard to look in the mirror and realize that the day begins and ends with you. We will see where this leads to. Hopefully to all sorts of self-realization and happiness.