Running on Faith

Thank You to the members of Central Lodge #442 for there generous donation to Team Running on Faith.

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.

Folks, I apologize for the delayed posting of this report. This report was typed and ready however I was sidetracked by my mom’s surgery and hospital stay.  I’m happy to report that she’s doing much better.  I love you mom!

If someone were to ask me what I do in my spare time, as if I really have any, I’d have to say that I run.  A LOT.  Take Saturday 10/17/09, for instance….

Saturday morning, we were up at 6:15 in the morning and by 7:30 we were headed to Walker for a cross country meet with Blake (leaving Camren behind because he had Beta Club obligations).  I proudly watched my son and the rest of the Catholic High Cross Country team run their race in the worst conditions so far this year.  Every time I watch these guys, I’m awe struck and inspired and as parents of these boys, we all have many blessings.  The most important blessing is that those boys are healthy, strong and are able to run.

We left the meet thinking Camren would be ready to be picked up from his Beta Club event.  He wasn’t so we went home only to have him call me once we drove up in the driveway.  So I dropped Paul and Blake off and “ran” back out to get Cam.  Then Cam and I “ran” to Wal-Mart to pick up some warm clothes because we planned to be outside later that night.  After that, we “ran” home. 

After we got home, I started thinking about when Paul and I would be able to get our long run in.  We had planned to run the Mockler Beverage 3 miler that night and I really wanted to be able to sleep in Sunday morning.  So….I sheepishly asked Paul around 2:00 if he would mind getting a quick 10 mile run in with me.  And that’s just what we did!  We ran between 2:00-3:45.  It was painful and miserable and I wondered what in the world I was thinking.  How could I run 10 miles at 2:00 then run 3 miles at 6:00?  I spent 2 hours and 45 minutes running and worrying about it then we returned home, took showers, cleaned up and THEN we “ran” out to the Mockler Beverage facility to meet up with the Hutchinsons and Mr Jimmy (the original Mr Xctmnt). Why?  To run again! 

And thank you Christine!  Without you, there is no way I would’ve been able to run those 3 miles.  My feet hurt so bad from standing several hours at the track meet and then running 10 miles that I was unsure if I would be able to even put those Nikes on.  But that was one of the most pleasant runs I’ve ever had, the weather was great and it was so nice to visit with one of my favorite people (I rarely talk when I run).  When we finished, I was shocked to learn that Blake finished the race in a lightening fast, incredible time.  Where does he get it from?  Not from his mama.  I turned around and “ran” back to meet Camren and finish his run with him.  He didn’t need me…he was coming around the corner with a steady pace and a big smile on his face.  He volunteered to run this 3 miler and he did it with a great attitude and a lot of heart.

We spent the next hour or two eating sausage poboys and drinking a few “recovery” drinks.  And I learned that I’m still young enough to use my feminine charms to get my way.  I think Christine, Lara and I had more fun trying to talk the Mockler guys out of a couple of cheap ice chests….and you know what?  It worked!  I would classify Saturday 10/17/09 as a successful day.

This is Flash and I’m running on faith that I’ll have more good days like that on the road to training for the St Jude marathon.

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.

Well Saturdays run was great. 16.72 miles in 3 hrs. I would have to say a personal best.  Tim and I ran around the lakes. I personally love running around the lakes it keep your mind not thinking about the run. It reminds me of the Marathon. Goes by quick and God’s great work to look at and it keeps me praying about everything.

I am hoping for a better time than last year and my focus has been all over the place this year in training. It has been a busy year, but I still would like to do well in training and fund raising. I did get great news and St. Amant High will do a fund raiser to help me raise money for St. Jude. Thank You St.Amant High.

So send in your donations and lets help change the life of a child.

Until next time keep looking up because that is where He is.

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.

This week I was forced to do my long run  today. Yes, I know it’s Friday, but due to the fact my kids have sports activities I must attend this weekend there is no time for me to do a long run.  Two positives came out of this: one the weather was a lot cooler  and I have my workout done for the weekend and I can just play and not have to worry about fitting in a work out.

Let’s talk about the weather for a minute. It has been so hot that running has been no fun. Well this morning I got cold weather and wind. At one point I was having to hold my cap on my head and my eye was watering at the same time because of  the wind going in it.   I thought I was going to lose my contact. That would be just great blind in one eye and loosing my cap would mean bad hair being blown all over the place. Kind of funny when I think about that picture.   Now I am not complaining because my run was great and I actually did 15.5 miles in 2 hrs and 45 minutes. It was just such a drastic change from the 90 degree temps on my last run on Tuesday.  I love to run around the lakes because it just seems like time flys and before I know it I am done and running in the cooler weather I just did not feel so tired when I was done. Yeah me!!! I think I might move all my long runs to Fridays.

Now with that workout done I am going to go and enjoy the St. Amant football game tonight and tomorrow I will be at Mason’s swim meet. Oh yeah tomorrow night a bunch of us from the team are running in the Oktoberfest 5k put on by Budweiser. Wow another Saturday of running and finishing with beer. I hope everyone enjoys the cooler weather.

Until next time keep looking up because that is where He is.

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!

My mouth is still giving me problems so I decided that since I really couldn’t eat supper, I’d just run a little bit instead.  I imagined that with each step I was taking, the hot steam from the asphalt was healing my mouth…and maybe moisturizing my 40 year old skin.  What can I say, when I’m tired and I don’t feel like running, I play mind games to help me get through it.  About halfway through the run, it started a light drizzle and it felt great.  It really cooled things off and I think I sped up a little….just a little. 

On a humorous note, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of running with Mr Xctmnt, you know that he sweats more than an ice cold glass of water sitting on concrete in August.  I mean that when he takes his shirt off after running, he actually rings the sweat out of it like it was a dishrag.  Also, if you’re familiar with our neighborhood, you know that fire ants are a big problem for us.  There’s a fire ant mound every two feet in everyone’s yard.  Well, after running 3 miles today, Paul took of his shirt and tossed it on the side of the road.  After I was done, I picked it up for him because it was lying on top of an ant hill.  Normally, those ants would be crawling all over anything that was lying on top of their home.  Not today!  That sweaty shirt actually KILLED a few of those ants.  We may be on to something….instead of spending major bucks on ant killer, maybe Paul can just run around the yard and sweat!

This is just a quick post to let everyone know I had a good training run today.  It was longer than normal for a week day run for me as I ran 4 miles in 42 minutes.  I’m hoping to get the same type of run in Thursday.  Until then….this is Flash and I’m running on faith the hot weather is gone and the cooler weather is here to stay!

Eight weeks to go and as of this post we are still $2,834 away from our goal. Please people we need your help! I know a lot of the people that read this are people that have already given and we thank you but if you haven’t given please consider it, every bit helps. I also ask that you please pass this site on to your friends and family, help us make a difference.

 With that being said it has been a few weeks since my last post and all is going well, I guess. OK everything is not going well, I am tired! I am tired of running. I am tired of triathlons. I am tired of the heat. I am tired of work. I am tired of going to the gym. I tired of riding my stationary bike. I am tired of cutting the damn grass. I am tired of doing the laundry. I am tired of doing the dishes. I am tired of getting up at 4:00am every morning. Do you get the picture? I am just TIRED!!!!! BUT as Timbeaux has said in one of his previous post “the show must go on”! I hate to give Tim credit but it made a lot of since and with every long run I do I keep telling myself “the show must go on”. The kids at St. Jude don’t have a choice they must continue on, so I must continue on. I have got to do this. OK, I am done complaining, I just needed to vent a little.

 Back to my training. My running is going well, my long runs are up to 16 miles on the weekend, my Tuesday and Thursday runs are around 6 to 8 miles and I am now trying to add a couple of recovery runs in between if time allows. For the month of September my total mileage on runs alone was 87 and for the month of October it needs to be more. My running times are not all that good but I’m still hoping that it will all come together as my fitness level goes up and the temperatures come down. Please temperature, come down.

 I have also started running with my heart rate monitor more and more and that has slowed me down considerably. I kept seeing the headlines:

 “40 Year Old Man’s Chest Explodes While Training for Marathon”

 I had no idea that my heart rate could get so high. For those who have never monitored your HR while you run or if you are smarter than me and don’t run. Here is how the HR thing works. The old rule school of thumb for maximum heart rate is 220-your age = Max HR. So for me that would be 220-40=180. There are also dozens of other calculators on how to get your maximum HR. I think I tried all the different methods and I came up with an average of about 185 beats per minute maximum. So I am calling my MAX HR 185. With that said there are 5 different zones in which you can train, they Recovery (Healthy Heart), Endurance (Weight Manage), Strength (Aerobic Threshold), Interval (Anaerobic Threshold) and Race Day (Red Line).

 

Somebody correct me if I am wrong but shouldn’t running 26.2 miles be considered ENDURANCE! Me being the person that I am and thinking that I know more than the people that come up with this stuff have been training in the Race Day (Red Line) zone from day 1. The more I read about it the dumber I felt. I started looking back through some of my HR data and realized that on some runs 2 miles in I was running around 95% of my MAX HR and it only got worse from there. The longer I would run, the slower I would go and the higher my HR would go. Talk about counter productive. On one run I actually hit 195 beat per minute, looking back I do not know what in the hell I was thinking? See what I mean with the headlines? Anyway I am now running slower but feel like I might actually have a chance to make it 26.2 miles.

Until next time here is a quote from Jim Rohn.

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.”