Praying and Running

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...

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...

Training Details 18 Weeks Total 8 weeks with more than 80 running miles 2 week in a row at 100 running miles 10 runs of 20 miles or more 2 runs of full marathon distance Race Details Finish Time 2:49:46 62nd/3725 52nd/2163 5th/354 Age Group (40-45 male) Negative Split (My first in a marathon) 1st half 1:25:15 2nd half 1:24:31 The best short description of this race would have to be the perfect end to the perfect training cycle. The long description follows. My goal for this race was simple. Crush my PR by running under 2:50 and show the marathon who's boss. Based on my training and tune up races everything looked to be set. All I had to do was go out and execute. Then the weather forecast stared coming in. Cold and windy. In fact the forecasted winds were 15 to 20 MPH and the wind chill a cold 18* for the start and it wasn't going to warm up much. At first I was a bit disheartened but then I decided I had worked way too hard to sacrifice my goal and the fir...

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!

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.

This was my first marathon and it was a great personal success. I put in nearly 1200 miles at an average pace of 7:47 MPM in training over the course of 19 weeks with the highest mileage week coming in at 80 miles. In the 19 weeks of training 6 days a week I missed only 2 runs. The first was a medium-long run at the end of a the first "step-back" week. I was absolutely exhausted. The other was a 4 mile recovery run on a day with 2 recovery runs scheduled, you know, a double and life just didn't cooperate. I had several goals for the race with my "In your wildest dreams" goal of 2:54:59, a stretch goal of 2:59:59, a "probably can do" goal of 3:04:59 and a "least acceptable" of 3:14:59. All but the "stretch" goal were based on Boston qualification standards. 2:54:59 would allow me to register on day 1 nearly guaranteeing a spot in the 2014 running of the Boston Marathon. 3:04:59 would allow me to register in the second phase and st...

This is my second year in a row running this race but there was a huge difference this year. I am in the first week of "taper" for a very aggressive marathon training cycle. Last year I decided to run this race about 6 weeks out and didn't do any real focused training. I had been running long runs of any where from 10 to 12 miles every week or so. This year because I am following a high milage training plan I have been running long runs once a week as far as 22 miles and runs of 12 to 15 miles 2 times a week. I have been excited to run this race for a few weeks now. It is about 2 weeks out from my goal marathon so it was a great tempo training run with plenty of time for my body to absorb the physiological adaptations and make me that much stronger for the marathon. About a week ago my youngest daughter Hannah finished up the cross country season and began an intense off season training program on her own. I signed her up for the 5k as a baseline race for her to build h...

I ran this race for the first time last year at the suggestion of a coworker and I was hooked. This is a small town race with about 450 or 500 runners and walkers participating in a 5k walk, 5k run, or the race I run the 10k. The people who put this on really know how to do it to. The cost is a mere $18.00 for the 10k run + shirt + a ridiculously large 5 lbs goody bag packed full of things like moon pies and granola and everything in between. The best part is the supreme breakfast buffet that is served up after the race. Biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, yogurt, fresh fruit and a host of other breakfast foods. This breakfast smorgasbord is included in the race entry as well. I'm telling you, the people of Burnettsville know how to put on a race and I just don't think you could find a nicer group of people than the swarm of worker bees that volunteer their Saturday morning to put this race on. I was very excited for this race because my oldest da...

I have never been a person to pray for specific favors. It never felt right to me. My prayers generally are for strength, guidance, an acceptance of what comes my way. That is always how I "felt" right praying. To pray for a specific favor like a good grade, to do well in some competition and things like that just always felt a little wrong and to pray for physical healing was something I never would have considered. I am not saying this was any kind of selflessness. I am not sure exactly what it was. A fear of seeming childish or perhaps it was out of fear that my faith would be shaken if the prayer wasn't answered. Regardless, this is how I generally pray. And that is not to say that I don't or didn't think that God doesn't concretely answer prayers. I believe that He does. For instance I have always prayed when overwhelmed something like "God, I cannot do this all alone, please help me" and I will somehow, someway find my way through whatever it...

A year of anticipation. A year of preparation. 12 weeks of intense, focused training. 3 weeks of competitive banter with a dailymile running friend. All of this led to a 1:32:39 13.1 mile PR effort at the One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon on 5/5/2012. I ran my first half marathon here a year ago and I was hooked on racing. I knew when I crossed the finish line in 2011 that I would be running more races. I knew that I would be back for the 2012 running of this race. What I didn't know is how much faster and how much more competitive I would be. In other words, I have been looking forward to this race for a year. It has been a primary focus of my life for the last 12 weeks as I went from my regular running to an intense focus on preparing for this race. The mini is the largest half marathon in the country. 35,000 people run the half marathon and another 5000 run the accompanying  5k for a total of 40,000 participants. Factor in these people's family and other spectators...

I have been praying the Rosary for several years now and I notice from time to time that things get just a little too routine. When this happens I feel like I miss the point of the prayer. On my run this morning I finished the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary and realized I hadn't been paying much attention to it. In fact, I finished it and it seemed as though I hadn't actually prayed. This is Lent and it is no time for zombie prayer! What to do? Pray it again and try harder to stay focused? Move on and try to get into some contemplative prayer? Just count it as a Rosary prayed and try again tomorrow? Then I thought of a new strategy. I would spend time summarizing, paraphrasing,  and analyzing each mystery before praying the prayers and then try to keep the fruit of that exercise in mind as I prayed the mystery. I have no doubt that this technique is not unique to me. If the truth were known, I probably read or heard about it somewhere but I can't really say wh...