I've been a bad runner, a bad blogger, and a great son

Since Thanksgiving, a number of maladies have kept me from keeping a proper running schedule. As I believe I've mentioned, I was working 30+ hours a week at work on top of school and life in general. My last day of work was Christmas eve, so I get those hours back, plus, until school starts up, the hours from class. On top of that, I managed to bruise the underside of my heel. Had some dead skin peeling off of it, a callous giving way, so I gave a pull at it, and the skin didn't come. Ouch. Thing was deep red for a few days, now it's more purple. Doesn't hurt much now, thankfully.

So I haven't really run much in the last month. Shame on me. I've kept up my core workouts, which is good, and work got me used to being on my feet for hours and hours on end. With the New Year will come true dedication -- running a 4 miler on New Year's day, YMCA membership will be back in use, and my newly acquired Under Armour (woo Christmas gifts) will be put to the test.

That said, Christmas went well. I was up until the wee hours of Christmas Eve/Christmas morning putting together the presentation of my Dad's gift.

First, I took a beat up, old, empty shoebox. Then I dug out my beat up old Sauconys. Then, I took the lovely banner that we received from Dana-Farber, folded it up, and put it in the bottom of the old shoebox. On top of the banner, I placed the card I wrote, which said something to the effect of the following:

Dad, over the last year, you've had a long, difficult journey. You've met it head on every step of the way.

Now it's my turn.

As a tribute to your victory over cancer, I will be running the 2010 Boston Marathon to raise money for cancer research, as a member of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge.

Merry Christmas, and many more.
Love, Chris

On top of the card, I placed the busted old Sauconys. I closed the shoebox, taped the lid shut, wrapped it. Christmas morning, I told him he couldn't open my gift until we got to my aunt's house, where his entire side of the family would be for Christmas dinner.

After dinner, dessert, and everyone else had opened their presents, my mom got everyone's attention, and I gave my dad his gift. He opened it, took out the shoes, confusing everyone. Then he went for the plastic of the banner, but I yelled at him to open the card. He opened the card, and read it to himself. Everyone else watched closely. He passed the card to the right and let a few people read it before everyone asked my uncle John to read it aloud. He did, and upon finishing, I looked around the room and realized that everyone in the room was crying.

I made roughly 15 people cry tears of happiness on Christmas day. I think it's safe to say it was the best Christmas gift anyone in my family has ever given, and I am endlessly proud of that.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Equilibrium

I have found myself in a balancing act worthy of Cirque du Soleil. And I have no idea how to manage it from now until Christmas.

I am working, on average, about 32 hours a week. I have no problems with that by itself, I'm 21, I need the money. However, I also have roughly 16 hours of class a week. Plus time commuting to and from both places, and in between classes. That puts me at about 55-60 hours of work and travel. Two and a half out of seven days. Then there's sleep. Probably 48 hours of that in a week. And work for classes, which at this time of year is probably another 8-12 hours a week. That's five out of seven days of my week accounted for. You'll note that this is omitting "menial" tasks like eating, showering, using the bathroom, and breathing.

It's also omitting my social life. The one thing I want to be taking up my time. And to my credit, I have managed to keep myself from becoming a total hermit / workaholic. I've kept up with my friends pretty well, all things considered.

And I've met an amazing girl. I'll save you all the gushy details, but her name is Lauren, and I am smitten. The commuting required for our dates is a bit... obnoxious (Salem for me, Brigham Circle area for her), but I couldn't care less. Curiously, the DFMC is actually making it easier. Runners meetings at DFCI are close for her, and when I start getting out to some of the Crossroads runs, that'll be almost as easy, I think.

Anyways, here I stand, like a stork in quicksand, trying not to lose my footing. Thankfully, school is over on the 18th and work is probably done for me on the 22nd. But in the meantime, S.O.S.!

Catching up

Been busy lately. Thanksgiving was good. My mom knows that I'm running the Marathon, and has agreed to help me tell my dad and his side of the family on Christmas day. Working on mapping out who where donations will come from and how much we stand to raise. It's looking pretty solid. My fundraising is gonna start catching up with my training.

Training, on the other hand, has ground to a near halt. Blisters on my feet are weird, in that they are under the calloused skin. They won't break open on their own, but I'm not about to break them open, either. It's still uncomfortable to run on them, particularly up any sort of incline. I'm going to go by the Y tomorrow or Thursday to renew my membership and probably hop in the pool. I sorely miss the swim workouts I was doing in the spring and summer.

Anyway, that's the word from me. Happy December everyone!

Race Day Recap

The Wild Turkey Run this morning didn't quite go as well as I'd hoped. After starting out at about 9:00-8:30-8:00 pace for the first three miles, I ran into a bit of a snafu. Some distance into the fourth mile, my left foot started to get numb. Pins and needles-y. Got worse until I had to stop at about 3.5 to mess with my shoe some, in the hopes that it would help. It got worse. As a result, the last two miles of the race were laborious and very uncomfortable. What would've been about a 43 ended up being a 49. Tch. Gotta figure out what caused the tingling foot.

Anyway, on with the training and the fundraising. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Prepping for the Wild Turkey

Pretty good run today. Got home from class, got suited up, and went out. Took a long slow descent for the first mile and a half, then a series of four sizable hills, each harder than the last. Stepped in some dog shit on a grassy corner turning up the last hill though, so now my shoes are sitting on the deck waiting for me to give them a proper cleaning, which I didn't have time to do because I had to be at work shortly after my run. Probably'll clean them tomorrow between class and work. Maybe go for a run if there's time. Wednesday will apparently be a cross-training day, since it looks like there's gonna be some pickup Ultimate. Race is Thursday morning. 5 miles in cold and potential rain, woo.

Back on the right track

At least I think I am.

At 2am, I donned my spandex, my new gloves, and a hat, and went out. I took parts of the last two runs and tied them together to make a 3 mile course that was primarily downhill, including "Heartache Hill", this time as a descent instead of an incline. It felt pretty good, for the most part. My stride was good, my pace (~7:40) was good. The compression shirt I bought on Thursday didn't fit nearly as well as I thought it would. A little short/tight in the wrong places. Gotta return it and get something better. I feel a little invigorated though, which is good, considering the 5 mile turkey trot on Thursday morning. But more about that later this week.

Wavering Commitment

I find myself... shrouded in doubt.

I sorta know why. It's not that I doubt my capabilities as a runner (at least not generally). It's not that I have some mental roadblock, or some physical ailment.

My last two runs have gone worse than I expected. Not a ton worse, but enough so that it was a little discouraging. On top of that, the fact that I have to work every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from now until Christmas means that I really won't be able to run more than one of those three days a week, because I spend almost all of my 8 hour shifts on my feet. That, in turn, means that I will need to run three times out of the other four days of the week. That means that no matter what I do, I'll have work one day and running the next day or the day before. I feel like that will either make my runs less effective or my work less efficient.

Once Christmas is here, I'll be fine, I'm almost sure, but I have to maintain until then, and that's what I'm concerned about. I suppose I'll have to renew my YMCA membership, that will probably help matters some. And breaking the news to the immediate family at Thanksgiving dinner will be a shot in the arm (yes, you're reading that right, I haven't told anyone in my family with the sole exception of my brother, so he can cover my alibis for me).

But damn, do I wish I could just figure out a way around this.