Praying and Running

Hitler was an evil man and you know that from the fruit of his work, the mass annihilation of ethnic groups. He was pure evil. He killed people simply for their Israelite heritage. That being the case, it's only natural in the modern American political landscape that from time to time you see various politicians likened to Hitler by their detractors. After his comments on general immigration and specifically Muslim immigrants and visitors, Donald Trump is the latest target of the "Hitler Attack"and his supporters are likened to Hitler's supporters. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Trump supporter. I think the guy is a joke and frankly, I wish he would sit down and shut up. However, to compare him to Hitler; that's wrong. It is as wrong to the Jewish people, the cripples, the infirm, and the rest of the "useless" people who suffered under the Nazi regime as it is to Trump himself. If you really feel the need to compare someone or something in Am...

The marathon is cruel. Training for it will beat you up and it will wear you down. It holds out to you the hope of glory but with that hope comes the risk of heart break. While I have been blessed and usually win the glory, I experienced this heartbreak first hand Saturday 11/7/2015 at the 2015 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I have gone back and forth about writing this and after a few people have inquired I decided to go ahead and put it out there in case anyone else was wondering. As you all are probably aware, I have been training for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon for the last 18 weeks. I had a rough time starting out and mentally and physically committing fully to another marathon training cycle but got that put behind me after several weeks and I dove in. The goal was to run the 2015 Indianapolis Monumental in under 2 hours and 48 minutes. My previous PR was 2 hours 49 minutes and 46 seconds. This was the same goal I had and missed for the 2015 Carmel Marathon back...

This was my big tune-up race for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I always run a half-marathon at this point in the build up to the Monumental to get a final big fitness boost, a reality check on where I am at fitness-wise and, if all goes well, probably the most important aspect is the confidence boost that I get. I got one heck of a confidence boost yesterday, 10/25/2015, at the Valpohalf Half-marathon in Valparaiso IN. Valparaiso is about 2 hours from home which is kind of right there on the line of driving on race morning or staying in a hotel the night before. This time we decided to get up and drive. Valparaiso is on central time which puts it an hour behind us. Meaning the 8:30 AM start was really a 9:30 AM start for me.  Making the decision to drive that much easier. I have been dealing with some issues on the top of my right foot, which is probably extensor tendinitis, for the last couple of weeks. I saw my soft-tissue guy last Friday. He worked on it some and got...

Last Saturday, 10/17/2015, I ran the Indianapolis Marathon as a training run in my build to the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I have run the half marathon at this race for the last several years and have used it as a tune-up race and final fitness gauge for what has always been my "A" marathon, the Monumental. This year, the calendar proved a little challenging. This race is usually at the end of my first week of taper. So, I can use it to gauge where I truly am and I am rested enough to run a PR effort which usually results in an actual PR. The way it worked out this year though it was at the end of my biggest block of training both in quality and quantity. Leaving it a full 3 Saturday's out from the Monumental. I have come to rely on my wife as a manager/coach and when I pointed this out to her she had a solution as usual. She suggested I run the full marathon as a final strength workout and find a half-marathon the next week to run as a tune-up race. 21 days is...

I really just finished week 5 according to the plan with the week late start mentioned in the previous training update. About that plan, it went pretty much by the way side over the last couple of weeks due in large part to running Blister in the Sun Marathon on Sunday the 8/2/2015. More on that when I get to it. As I eluded to in my last post, I have really been struggling with getting going in this cycle and I think a lot of it had to do with the vacation to California and then rushing and trying to cram workouts in to get caught up. In the future I think I would simply trust my fitness enough to know that I could have sacrificed that first week and maybe even the second week in order to not start out the cycle stressed and tired. Enough with the psychology and on to the training. Week 4 only had 1 real workout which was a 20 mile long run and 2 other "kinda" workouts with 14 and 12 mile medium long runs. No tempo or race pace workouts scheduled but I skipped the race...

It's marathon training season again. I went back and forth over the off season trying to decide on which training plan I would use this time around. I have always used the plans in Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfizinger. Because I get bored easily, I was tempted this time to go with Jack Daniel's "Final 12 Week" program found in "Daniel's Running Formula vol. 3." In the end I came back to Pete; "stick with what you know" Since it was by far my best marathon ever, I will be trying to replicate my build up from the last Monumental with the paces just a little quicker to help propel me to a new PR. I got a late start with this cycle because we were on vacation in California the week I should have started. So I basically I planned to run the workouts from week 1 and 3 for the first 2 weeks. I faltered a bit because I had a hard time getting into the groove and getting my mind into the right place. It takes a lot of physical AND mental effort to t...

Planned Parenthood is on the ropes again. We've had them here before and allowed them to duck, weave and bob their way around until the round was over. It's time to take the knockout punch. We have had politicians say they are going to take that big right hand cross before but they always end up just covering up at the first flailing Planned Parenthood does. We have a bunch of republicans once again boasting that they will throw the knockout punch by making sure Planned Parenthood's tax payer funding dries up. This article is the latest example and I have a couple of things to say about it. "The Kentucky Republican and presidential candidate released multiple statements Friday promising to use “all legislative vehicles” to “defeat and defund Planned Parenthood” next week." First, the article indicates that Senator Rand Paul will make amendments defending Planned Parenthood to important senate bills that need to be passed. I say, go for it. Any and all mea...

There is no off season for a runner who wants to hang on to hard gained fitness. I just finished up my spring marathon season with my goal race at the Carmel Marathon on April 18th, 2015. It was a long, tough cycle and I was wore out by the end. I ran 90/100 mile weeks and suffered 2 minor injuries. I didn't blog much about it because, honestly, I was wore out from the miles I was putting in. That being the case let this serve as not only an introduction to my post about my summer plans but also a training wrap up and race report for the 2015 Carmel marathon. It was a hot day for running and as a result I ran about 1 minute and 40 seconds slower than my goal. I am satisfied with the performance knowing that I put in the required work but the goal was submarined by the heat. I'll look at it as an investment toward the fall 2015 season. Now that that is out of the way I could be entering the off season, right? But I know how hard it is to get to a high level of fitness and I ...

St Jerome said "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." I can identify with St Jerome on a few different points, today this one is really jumping out at me. One of the best things I have done to make God more a part of my daily life is reading the Bible. Frankly, most times as I sit there reading, I don't feel any different than when I am reading a training manual, technical document, or anything else. I am just reading. But I was reminded today that God is still working and still present in that time. This morning, Last night I learned that someone I care deeply about is in a funk. She has worked hard toward a couple of goals and made significant progress but she is just having a hard time right now. I didn't really know what to say to her. This morning, on waking I had a verse from the Gospel of John running through my head. I didn't immediately make the connection but as I was out running this morning it dawned on me. She is in a funk and thinks she...

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Indiana’s RFRA that passed last week. The main subject of controversy is being beat to death and I think most people have made up their minds so I won't try to convince you one way or the other except to say that for myself after reading the bill’s synopsis and listening to the people who have actually read the bill it doesn't sound like it legalizes discrimination. Instead it attempts to protect small business owners from being forced into participating in something they find objectionable on the grounds of their faith. That being said, I’m not a lawyer or politician and I won’t speak from the perspective of an expert. I’ll say this, I don’t believe that there are more than a small handful of people in the entire state, let alone the elected government, that would actually like to see discrimination legalized so I don’t believe that there is a statehouse full of these evil little people who would advocate treating anyone in ...

Race Stats Date 1/18/2015 (7:05 AM) Gun Time: 3:40:50 Chip Time: 3:40:45 Overall 1/136 Male 1/63 For Christmas this year I received a trip to Florida and entry into the Clearwater Distance Classic 50k from my wife and daughters. I had been looking for a couple of 50ks to include as extra-long long runs in my training for the Carmel Marathon this year. In the past I have just done these as self-supported runs but that is a very daunting way to go about it. I figured with a fully supported race and plenty of other runners it wouldn't be such a mental task. My wife and I left for Florida on Thursday afternoon. We flew out of Indianapolis and into Tampa Bay. It was great to get away from the single digit temperatures for a few days. The race wasn't until Sunday so the plan was to spend a few nights at our favorite Disney resort and then drive down to Clearwater on Saturday Morning and check into our hotel for a couple of nights on the beach. I slept remarkably well Satur...

I spent most of today, like every other day, ignoring the abortion problem and today I also ignored the march for life. I couldn't be bothered. then I saw the number 1,322,371,875 innocents slaughtered since the evil that is referred to as "Roe vs Wade." Abortion is the most profound evil and honestly, it shouldn't take a number of that magnitude to get and hold my attention. But like most of America I have fallen into a stupor. Today, enough is enough! America immolates its infants not to Moloch but to the American, or the Western World's, god of convenience and comfort. Why does nobody care enough for them to put a stop to it? We are ripping human beings apart, literally limb from limb or bathing them in a chemical fire because they don't fit our "life plan", because we are "scared", Because we don't like how they were conceived or because we can't "afford" them. You see infants in a mother's womb are silent, the...