Praying and Running

On my run this morning I was nearly overwhelmed as I began to reflect on the Advent season and the coming celebration of Christmas. In these last days of Advent I cannot help that my patient waiting and quiet preparation begins to turn more and more to joy. I know what is coming, I know what we are about to celebrate. It's not presents but presence and no ordinary presence but the presence of God Himself among us, as us. Think about how truly awesome it is that the Lord, who created all things, so badly wanted to be reconciled to us that He Himself took pity on us and took on our human form and gave humanity the best gift we could hope for. A gift that was beyond all expectations, Himself, and when you realize the "us" includes "you" how can you not be bursting at the seams with true and complete joy. O come, o come Emmanuel!

Today in the "O" antiphon we pray to be taught the virtue of prudence. The antiphon for today is today in the traditional Latin is "O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodidisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae. "* One English translation of that is "O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence."* So today in our preparations for Christmas we pray to develop the virtue of prudence. But what exactly is prudence, what does the Church mean by this prayer. Prudence is defined in paragraph 1806 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as "Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane an...

Training Stats Number of week -- 18 (7/1/2013 - 11/2/2013) Total miles -- 1199 Average daily miles -- 8.5 Longest run -- 26.2 (Fox Valley Marathon) Peak weekly mileage -- 88 Average pace -- 7:30 Number of 20 + mile runs -- 8 Race Stats Goal -- 2:54:59 Actual Time -- 2:53:28 (PR) Avg HR -- 165 (92% of Maximum Heart Rate MHR) Peak HR -- 175 (97% of MHR) Avg pace -- 6:36 Finished 62/3494 Overall 51/1994 Men 5/334 40-44 Age Group First half 1:26:16 Second half 1:27:11 I ran a strong race as shown by continually moving up in ranking through the race 101st @ 10k 88th in the first half 79th @ 30k 59th in the last half The Monumental starts and finishes in downtown Indianapolis so to avoid the stress of travel on race day we stayed in a hotel just a couple of blocks from the start line. We checked in early afternoon on Friday hit the expo, did packet pickup and then headed over to the Spaghetti Factory for some serious carb loading. After dinner we drove the course ...

This morning my daughter is on her way to a cross country meet and I wish I was going to watch. If I were there I would remind her of this before her race. The feeling you get when you are running as hard as you can, your gut turning to liquid and being as close to puking as possible, your legs turning to jello and your lungs screaming for relief. All of that goes away within a matter of seconds after crossing the finish line. But the feeling of satisfaction, knowing you gave it everything you have,the pride of a shiny new PR and the disappointment of your rivals.That lasts much longer. So go, give it all you've got and never, ever be afraid to puke. But then again I know she's not afraid to puke. I know she's going to give it all she's got. I know because I've seen it before.

This has quickly become one of my favorite races of the year and I am not alone because there was a record 575 participants across the different events this year. I like the small town atmosphere, I like the course that is an out and back on a country road, and the timing makes it a perfect tune up race for the fall season. After my performance here the last two years I am also really beginning to appreciate it for the confidence booster it is and it's ability to add a breath of fresh air to the end of the training cycle for the 2013 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. For this race I added an early morning shake out run to get my body primed for running. This was just a short and easy 20 minute run very first thing out of bed. Nearly all of my running is first thing in the morning but  I've never done it as a shakeout for a race. I liked it and think I'll keep it. The last 5k I ran I didn't do a warm up and I learned my lesson because it cost me a very slow fi...

It wasn't exactly a race for me but more like a training run. I used this marathon as one of two extended long runs that I planned for this training cycle preparing for the goal race, the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on November 2nd, 2013. When this cycle started I had planned the same 2 extra long runs that I did last time. A 25 mile run and a 30 mile run. Then in early August the Carmel Marathon had a facebook contest to win 1 of 2 entries to this race. I won one of them and decided to swap out the 30 mile run thinking it would be way better to run 26.2 with full support, other runners and spectators. It was a Sunday marathon 3.5 hrs away so we got to town the day before and spent the night. The first order of business was packet pickup. My first complaint about the race is that the expo was in way too small of a space. Then when I got to the table to get my packet they handed me a medium shirt. I don't wear a medium, I wear a small. They couldn't do anything abou...

Good and Evil are real and objective. I don't think this can be said enough because as fallen and broken humans we are constantly trying to justiy our faults. Instead of admitting our failures to lead the holy life we were created for we present our evil as good. Our conscince, our moral compass, is broken. So instead of following the straight and narrow path we wonder around every which way depending on how we "feel." The Good News is that our God saw us in our wonderings and came down to lead us. He said that the gate was narrow and the path hard to find Mathew 7:14. He also said, "I AM the way, the Truth and the Life" John 14:6. He never said, Whatever road you chose willl lead to the same place. In fact going back to Matthew 7 He said that the road to damnation was wide and easy to chose. Stilll here we are. Always picking back up that broken compass and relying on it to lead us to Him. But he already came and indeed stays with us until the end. He is r...

Is it just me or does this not sound like a way to have a really fun week? This Sunday 9/22/2013 I will be running a "Marathon as a Training Run." I am currently in training for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon which I will race on 11/2/2013. During my last training cycle I incorporated a few training runs over the standard 20 - 24 mile "longest run in a training program" runs. Most programs cap the long run here because it is thought firstly that a run longer provides very little more in the way of preparation and increases the chance of injury past an acceptable point and secondly because the runner could loose valuable days to the additional recovery needed from such an effort. My last time around though I found that I could do some longer runs pushing my body to be better adapted to the specific distance of the marathon and I could do them in a way that minimized injury risk and recovery time. I blogged about it back then here . My plan was to do the sam...

Last night my daughter's confirmation sponsor invited her to Mass this morning and then breakfast after. When my daughter told me this I realized that I was on vacation, not doing a darn thing and the idea of attending a weekday Mass hadn't even dawned on me.With that I decided that I would go to Mass this morning too. When I woke up this morning the reality of the "Real Presence" was on my mind. This is a Catholic doctirine that states that the Eucharist becomes truly and fully, not symbolically or partially, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. As I was sitting and waiting to leave for Mass I was moved to compose this facebook check-in for when I arrived at the Church. I had hoped at the time that this would make a difference to someone else. That maybe it would inspire some soul to become more fervent about what happens at Mass. What I think it really did was to cement the importance for me in what I have come to take for granted. It actually served to ins...

 Sometimes it is good to sit back and evaluate your life, where you are and where you want to be and when you get there will it really be all that you thought it would be?. We seem to spend an awful lot of time chasing happiness. What makes you happy? What is it that will finally satisfy you? Do you know? I can remember just out of high school thinking if I could just find a job where I made $300.00 a week I wouldn't ever need any more than that. I got that job and I remember thinking if I could just get that full time job that paid $12.00 an hour and offered health insurance I would be set. I got that job and began searching for a way to just make $40,000 a year. The pattern continues through out my life. I reach what I thought was the goal and a new goal appears. I could recite a similar pattern with things. If I only had this car or that phone or this television life would be grand! It feels like it is never-ending because it is never-ending. Money and things never bring conte...

17 weeks. 1142 Mile. 146 hours of running. 95,135 calories. One 30 mile run and 9 runs of 20 miles or more. Average pace 7:41. 25 hours of strength training. This sums up the work I put in for the 26.2 miles I ran at the 2013 Carmel Marathon on April 20th. Friday on my lunch hour I drove to the Monon Center in Carmel IN for packet pickup. Not much to say about this except that trying to squeeze it into a long lunch resulted in undue stress. Also this didn't allow me  time to stick around and explore. But in the end I guess that's OK. Friday evening we headed out for some serious carb loading. With the taper and my efforts to load up on carbs over a 3 day period, I wasn't really hungry but I ate that pasta like a trooper anyway knowing that I would need it in about 12 hours. Sleep Friday night was spare. A sick dog and a wife finishing up her last semester for a Bachelors degree kept the house hopping until about 11:30. No problem, if you follow my training on dailymile  y...

"Blessed is the one whose fault is removed, whose sin is forgiven. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no deceit. Because I kept silent, my bones wasted away; I groaned all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength withered as in dry summer heat. Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, “I confess my transgression to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin." Psalm 32:1-5 One week of Lent remains. This is a great time to rediscover the Sacrament of Reconciliation or as it is commonly called confession. Most parishes will be offering extended and extra time for parishioners to receive the sacrament. I know it can be daunting if you haven't been in a long time. You don't remember the formula and you're nervous about telling someone else what you did and what that will make them think of you. To help you the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop...

It's sad to think that people put God aside and miss out on a life of faith because ultimately they feel they are unworthy. None of us can ever be worthy! And thank God we don't have to be. Psalm 6 and a very good reflection . Enjoy.

I have been stunned every time the Holy Father has spoken. Usually it is because he has a way of communicating the truths and nuances of our faith in a way that always resonates with me. The faith, as Pope Benedict XVI conveys it, always seems so simple, beautiful and undeniably true. However, today I am stunned by his resignation. As much as I am stunned, I am saddened. I have great admiration and respect for the Pope and as I stated above he has always spoken in a way that really "speaks to me", so to speak. I believe Pope Benedict XVI was exactly the right Pope for where we are, both the Church and humanity as a whole, at this point in history not only because he spoke, taught, and lived the truth of our faith unapologetically, but also because he was very effective at being able to communicate that truth. Even though I am saddened that we will be losing this Pope, I have always believed in the supernatural guidance of the Church and therefore I must look with Hope and J...

The first phase of training for the Carmel 2013 Marathon is complete. This phase is called the endurance phase and lead me through a build up in mileage from running 55 to 80 miles in a week. I am now in the last few days of a recovery week where my mileage and intensity is purposefully cut so that my body can respond to the stimulus provided and make the adaptations needed to allow me to run more with less fatigue. This will be valuable in the next phase as I will increase the intensity of running while maintaining and even increasing the distance in order to teach my body run further, faster. In looking back at this period of training which began on 12/23/2012 I have logged about 350 miles at an average pace of 7:41 / mile for a total of over 41 hours of running. My average distance is about 8 miles per run with the longest run being 21.1 miles. The average of 8 miles per run doesn't really tell the story though as the runs tend to be either 12 - 15 miles or 5 miles. About once...

I have some friends who are struggling with difficult situations in life right now and I have been thinking a lot about them lately. While thinking and praying about and for these friends I realized that I have been going through a blessed time with nothing weighing heavily on me. For the most part my life has been happy and carefree for the last several months and I am grateful for that while still knowing that it won't last forever but confident that God will guide me through whatever situation I find myself in in the future if I let him. To my friends who are struggling and find themselves in times of trouble remember this verse “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” MT 11:28-30 Our Lord is still with us and we can truly follow His invi...

I have known for sometime that in order for me to race my best I need to have training runs longer than the race I am preparing for and this is not unique to me. Most people who want to compete in a race from the 5k to the half-marathon are aware of this and train like this. When I stepped into the world of marathoning however, I found that conventional wisdom and nearly all training plans have long runs capped anywhere from 16 to 22 miles with 20 being the common longest long run. I was uncomfortable with this during my first training cycle for the 2012 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon but "they" all said that going longer than that wouldn't produce any benefit that would out way the negatives. "They" all said a run any longer would carry with it great risk of injury and would require too much recovery time. I am a big believer in knowing your body and understanding what it is capable of rather than letting conventional wisdom dictate your limits. For that re...

In the Gospel reading for Mass today, LK 5:12-16 we read Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” LK 5:12 The weather this morning forced me into the gym and onto the treadmill. So as I was runningandpraying on the treadmill I kept coming back to this first verse of today's Gospel. This verse I think addresses 2 profound yet prevalent misconceptions about Christianity. On one hand, there is a notion that Christians believe they are perfect and don't sin and don't need to be made clean. But that is just not true. We are all like this leper, full of sin that is eating away our life. That doesn't mean we cannot approach our Lord. Rather, it means that we must approach Him because He is the one who can make us clean. On the other hand, a lot of people have the idea that Christians think they merely need to say "Jesus i...