Running on Faith

Is it really race week?  And no one is posting anything?  That could mean a few things.  Either everyone is so busy with work and race preparations that they have no time to post.  Or they are in full rest mode and not wanting to waste the precious energy it would take to type a post.  Or……………they are all petrified about the upcoming race and are hiding under the covers praying that it was all a bad dream.

Whatever the reason……..it is race week.  And one way or another, we will make the trek to Memphis and do our best.  Because that is all we can do.

Yes folks, some of us are crazy enough to head to New Orleans on Halloween to run a race.  Not only is it Halloween, but the Voodoo Experience is going on this weekend as well!  Maybe the members of Kiss will be running the race with us!

This is the inaugural event for the Jazz Half Marathon, so I have no idea what to expect.  The inaugural Half Ironman in New Orleans in April had its ups and downs, but overall was a success.  And just as the weather was a huge factor then, it will be for us tomorrow as well.

Rain, thunder, high wind, and cold are all adjectives used by the weather folks.  And I don’t like any of them….well maybe cold.  So it will be an interesting morning to say the least!

Expect a race report from at least a few of the team in the next day or so.  I am sure there will be some good stories.

Our team has once again grown and we are now at 17 members.  My sister, Wendi Poirrier, and her boyfriend, Andy Parker, have both signed up for the half marathon and have joined the team!  And that is a very good thing……because the rest of us are dropping like flies.

Well, we are not actually dropping out of the race or the fund raising, but our bodies are throwing up all kinds of red flags these days.  And this trend seems to be limited to the male side of the team.

Unfortunately, most men are hard headed.  We have this tendency to ignore the obvious with the hopes that it will just go away.  And if it doesn’t, then we will keep ignoring it.  I would definitely place a wager that the first ostrich that stuck its head in the sand was a male one.

However, when it comes to training and especially long distance running, some level of pain is always present.  In the words of my dad, “It’s all part of it.”  So it is often easy to ignore some lingering pain and chalk it up to training soreness or just a tough workout.  But sometimes it is not.  And the “sometimes it is not” is now hitting the team.

Paco has been suffering with cantaloupe ankle for months now.  Actually, I think it progressed to watermelon ankle for a while there.  After ignoring the fruit growth around his lower leg for months, he went to the doctor and was told he had a bone spur.  His running has been extremely limited(ie. non-existent), but he informed Mr Xctmnt and myself today that one way or another he will finish the half marathon.  As long as the beer is flowing at the finish line, he will finish!

Mr Xctmnt is just old.  Wait…..his knee is old?…….no…….I remember now….he has some arthritis in his knee.  He has had some knee issues for a good while now.  Of course, he chalked it up to hard training for a month or more.  Then when things didn’t get better, he started using the “can’t get an appointment” excuse.  A couple of weeks ago at the Oktoberfest Beer Run, he had a rough time with the 3 miler.  He had run 10 miles a few hours before the race, so I am sure that made things worse.  Whatever the reason, he was hurting.

And then he still couldn’t get an appointment!  Well, he saw one doctor yesterday and another one today.  The diagnosis…..messed up cartilage and some arthritis.  The remedy……a needle in the knee and limited running between now and the marathon.  But both doctors said they will get him through the marathon.

And now for me.  I have spent the last few months listening to these guys fall apart.  And up until about 3 weeks ago, I had been doing pretty well minimizing my aches and pains.  Even with the massive increase in mileage, I was holding my own.  And then I had a really bad workout (see here).  It was the start of about 3 weeks of pain, self diagnosis and wondering what in the hell is going on.

You see, here is the problem.  Every day since then, I know I am going to hurt.  Most days I can get through the initial pain quickly, but sometimes it never seems to go away.  But in the midst of the 3 weeks of pain, I have had some awesome runs and races.  I had a great race at the Middendorf 10 miler.  And then I hobbled around for 3 days.  I had a good race at the Oktoberfest run with minimal pain.  And last Saturday, I ran 20 miles around the LSU lakes averaging a 8:30 pace (I was wearing compression sleeves on my legs.)  But two days later, my leg was killing me during an easy 5 mile run and it still hurts a day later!

Now it has gotten to the point of being depressing and I don’t look forward to running.  So I finally pulled my head out of the damn sand and made an appointment with a doctor.  Tomorrow afternoon I will find out what is going with my leg.  Of course, no matter what he says I will still plan on going all out at the marathon.  I just may have to adjust a little of what I do between now and then.

So until then, please start saying some prayers for this team.  At our present rate, there will be Running on Faith bodies littered all along the marathon course.

You know the saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”?  Hopefully in my case, the tree isn’t that far from the apple.  This past weekend my two children, Lara and Mason, had a weekend full of activities.  Lara danced at the St. Amant game Friday night, ran the 3 mile race Saturday night, and then had a marathon dance practice Sunday afternoon.  Mason swam his butt off Saturday afternoon, ran the 3 mile race, and then swam his butt off some more Sunday morning.

I would hope that what Christine and I have done in the past years by working our butts off has influenced our children to work hard as well.  But sometime, I think it works the other way around.  I have seen how hard Lara works to be good at dance and how hard she practices for swim and track.  And I have seen Mason struggling to get out of the pool after a grueling workout.

I guess it goes back to not asking someone to do something that you would not do yourself.  And that should apply tenfold for your children.  If I never follow through with what I say I am going to do, then why should I expect them to?

Speaking of apples and trees, I think the Esch boys came from another tree!  Mr Xctmnt and Flash got smoked by Blake’s speed on Saturday night and could not compete with Camren’s determination or jovial attitude.  I think there are some oranges growing near their house.

Last night I brought Mason to swim at Crawfish Aquatics.  During his two hour practice, I did my best to do my workout which ended up being about 7.2 miles.  It wasn’t the best, but I am suffering with some leg issues right now.

Anyway, after my run I went inside and chatted with fellow team members, Weesie & No Show(Nancy).  We talked about the heat and the unbelievable funk permanently emanating from our shoes and running clothes.  We talked about the upcoming races.  And we talked about our training and long runs.  No Show had just done a 15 mile run on Monday and made the comment that she only has four more long runs left.

Really?  Only four more?  That made me nervous and excited at the same time.  Nervous because that means the race will be here soon and I have more work to do.  Excited because that means the race will be here soon and my work may almost be done.

This afternoon, I did a short 3.25 mile recovery run.  For the whole run, I was like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting to open my presents.  Because while I was running, I planned on counting the long runs and workouts I had left!  I could already imagine having a board on the wall with a low number on it and just marking them off after each run.  And then it will be time to rest up and do the race.  Ooooh!  I am so excited!

And then I looked at my plan.  Somewhere in the back of my brain I should have realized that it was all a fantasy.  I counted my long runs and I have 6 more over 13.1 miles including a 20 miler and two 22 milers.  But that is only 6 long runs.  Maybe I will be cutting out some of my speed/stamina workouts…….nope.  I have 10 more speed workouts.  And 6 more easy runs (not as fast as speed, not as slow as recovery).  And 14 more recovery runs.

Well crap, that is 36 more workouts before the marathon!  So much for that brilliant idea.  I don’t think I will start my countdown quite yet.  Maybe when I hit December, I will come up for air and see where I am again.  Until then, I will just keep my head down and keep moving forward!

You can have training plans piled 4 feet high.  You can pay 15 coaches to advise you every day.  You can be permanently wired to every time of heart rate monitor, respiration monitor and even a rectal thermometer.  But if you don’t listen to what your body is telling you, you can get in trouble.

I am famous for getting a training plan and following it no matter what.  And that has probably lead to most of the overuse injuries I have had in the past 5 years.  Plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, etc. have all plagued me at some point during my training.  I will follow the plan no matter how much it hurts or how bad I am hurt.  And some how I have finished every race I have started.

The particular plan I am on now is not for sissies.  It is demanding on my time, sweat and muscles.  But I am seeing some progress, so it has been worth it.  But the coach who created the plan said the number one goal was to get to race day healthy.  And if I have to move workouts around then so be it.

Last week my body talked to me.  There were a lot of four letter words used and none of them were “love”, “easy”, or “good.”  To say that my legs were unhappy with me would be an understatement.  So unlike most politicians these days, I actually stopped and listened to what my body had to say.  And then I gave it some rest.  I stopped the workout.

On Saturday, Hardcore and I ran the Middendorf 10 mile race.  You can read the race report here.  This time I told my body what I wanted, and it did its best to deliver.  Of course, it also let me know that the price was going to be high.  That price involved me hobbling around the house Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday as well.  Something in my lower left leg is not happy at all.

Today was going to be a Goldilocks workout: not too hard, not too easy, but just right.  I headed out trying to dodge rain drops knowing that a monsoon with some hellacious thunderstorms were heading my.  After two miles, my body told me there was still a balance due on the bill from Saturday’s race.  Fine.  I guess you want a tip too?  So with the looming hurricane, I decided to switch tomorrow’s recovery workout to today, and do this workout tomorrow.  It may make things complicated later in the week, but it was the wise thing to do.

Hold one minute please…….Okay.  My body just told me that I stink and need to go take a shower.  Hopefully it will be less vocal during tomorrow’s run.

Normally one of the keys to accomplishing a goal is staying focused.  Right now, with the advice of Hardcore and Mr Xctmnt, I have decided to lose all focus about qualifying for Boston.  Because I have figured out that with every run and every workout I do,  I evaluate it compared to what I need for Boston.  And for most of my workouts, they are not cutting.

What is happening is that my running has become a job with no enjoyment at all.  And that is not what this marathon should be about.  This should be about raising money for St. Jude, enjoying the training with my team mates, and just working towards a good race.

Now please don’t get the wrong impression.  I am not going to go curl up on the couch with a half gallon of Rocky Road ice cream and watch a House marathon on T.V.  I am going to continue training the exact same plan that has been kicking my butt for the past 12 weeks.  Because it is only a good training plan with the goal of running a fast marathon.  And whether that “fast” is good enough to qualify for Boston or not remains to be seen.

So I will take out my contacts, let my eyes lose all focus and just run the workouts to the best of my ability.  And whatever happens on December 5th happens.  I will worry about it then.

I have a certain level of arrogance when it comes to running.  But before I go too far, trust me when I say it has nothing to do with speed.  It has more to do with taking things for granted and in the process giving the wrong impression to others.

For example, I am running the St. Jude Marathon this December (just in case you didn’t know and randomly found this website.)  Out of our team of fifteen runners, seven of us are doing the full marathon and for four of them it is their first.  And it is awesome accomplishment just to sign up for a marathon much less to train for and finish one.  This will be something they remember forever.  And right now, most of them are probably stressed out about how they are going to find the strength to run 26.2 miles, how they are going to handle the pain, how they are going to break through the “Wall”.

But for me, I have already learned all of those things.  I have been to the cave where the bear lives who jumps on peoples backs, and he is presently mounted and standing in my foyer.  I know what it feels like.  And I know I am stronger than it.  Short of a compound fracture with multiple bones penetrating my skin, I will not stop until I cross the finish line.  So the fear of not finishing has lost its motivating force.

This is one of the main reasons I am making an attempt at qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  And right now, I don’t have much faith in my chances of success.  Maybe it has been the weather.  Maybe the stress at work.  Maybe the hectic lives Christine & I live.  Or maybe I have just bitten off way more than I could chew, and I am choking on it.  Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

It is ironic that our team name is Running on Faith and I can’t find any.  Of course, the faith that Christine and I talk about for the team is our faith in God.  So maybe that is what I need to fall back on.  Whether I find the faith in myself to qualify for Boston will remain uncertain until December 5th (or later.)  But as long as I have my faith in God, I will be fine.  And that is another lesson learned that has gotten me through many “Walls.”

First of all, thank you to David Rogers and to Lorien & Kevin Johnson for their donations to St. Jude through Team Running on Faith.  I think Lorien & Kevin have donated to every single charity I have raised money for since 2005.

Awesome!  Thanks to all of you!

Now for the and…….  I just posted on my Timbeaux site that it appears we have all become too busy to post.  And maybe we have.  But since we only have 2 months from today before the race, I figured I better step it up a notch.

So one way or another, I plan on writing a post on this site or my other one every single day until the race.  Some posts may be exciting like the time I was chased by a pack of dogs on the levee.  Some may be boring like…….like……like……….Sorry, I don’t remember the boring stories.

Anyway, the time is now.  The time to train.  The time to spread the word.  The time to donate to St. Jude.  So get your butts moving!

Okay, folks.  I am too tired to re-post this.  Take a look here.