I’ve always felt young. But for the first time in my life I’m actually feeling old. My birthday is on Sunday and I don’t like the number I’m staring at.
I’ll be 35. I don’t know why, but looking at the 3 and the 5 sitting next to each other looks terrible. Birthdays have never bothered me. They haven’t been exciting ever since I turned 21, but I’ve always looked forward to them. A lot of people don’t like their birthdays and don’t like to celebrate them. I’ve never really understood that feeling … until now.
I’m not dreading it, and I’m looking forward to whatever Tiff has planned (she has something planned, but I have no idea what). November 22 will always be the one day out of the year that I own. But I’m really bothered by this 35 thing. I’ll admit it. I’m not young any more. But this should be a good year. I think I’ve probably got about 55 or so marathons to run before my 36th birthday (OUCH, 36 … for real?) and hopefully lots of good things to accomplish. But I’ll be accomplishing them as a semi-old man.
Standard introduction: If this is your first visit here, I’m a marathoner and a father of three — but not in that order. My middle child, 6-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and next year I’m planning on running 60 marathons in his honor to try to raise money and nationwide awareness for Train 4 Autism, a wonderful charity.
Running Update
This morning, I woke up, was super-tired, got out the door, stood on my porch and went back inside and went to sleep. I was just too tired. Sometimes I’m sleepy and sometimes I’m also physically tired. That was today. Somehow, I think I’ll be OK tomorrow.
Yesterday, I ran 14.15 or something like that at 8:00/mile. I had some fairly quick sections, I took some sections easy, and all-in-all, I’m starting to feel better about how the wheels are turning. My heart rate has been fairly high in the chilly weather this week (low 40s, chilly for here), but I don’t care about that. I just care about the speed I’m getting up and down my hills. There’s a portion of my run that reminds me a lot of some of the downhills in Tucson. On those portions in 2007, when I ran my 3:00:05, I was running in the 6:35-6:45 range, and yesteray I was right around 6:30 or so at a good, solid (but less than marathon HR) effort. I need 6:52s. So, I’m getting some confidence. Part of that is also because of …
Weight Loss Update
About a month ago, I was feeling heavy, typically weighing in the 203-206 range. I’ve never really been below about 195 or so since I’ve been running marathons and my average weight has probably been in the 198-200 range. I decided I want to weight 190 when I start Operation Jack next year, and even though I haven’t gotten down that far since I started running, I don’t think that’s an unrealistic goal. It’s been about a month since I’ve been working at it and yesterday when I weighed in, I was 197.5. They say it’s two seconds per mile in a marathon per pound of weight loss. So, I like the direction that’s going. But I’m still enjoying myself. Which brings me to …
Ice Cream Update
I ran the streak to 29 days in a row with ice cream or frozen yogurt yesterday, leaving me 80 days behind my personal best. Yesterday’s was a pretty sweet serving.
I was at Costco, getting my hot dog lunch, when I noticed the woman in the line next to me fixing a tall cup of vanilla yogurt for the man in her line. She packed it in — not a lot of space wasted on air — plus she swirled it tall. It had to be the best serving I’ve ever seen at Costco, and I’ve seen plenty. So when I went back after finishing my hot dog, I made certain to get in her line. I normally get a vanilla/chocolate swirl, but she poured that man a vanilla, and I didn’t want to mess with something that was working. I ordered a vanilla, and she came through in the clutch for me. My serving was easily 20 percent larger than normal. $1.47 well spent.
Go Orange Strikers!
My 8-year-old son Bejamin’s soccer team is playing in the Region 85 U9 playoffs on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. And if when then win, they’ll advance to the championship game later that afternoon. His team has been a blast to watch this year. They have great coaches, some great players and they’re a lot of fun to watch. They’re just a bunch of young kids, but they sure do play hard and have a lot of fun together as a team. I’ve watched all the games and practices this year, and it sure has been a treat.
Sunday is going to be the year-end party for the team. There’s going to be a parents vs. kids soccer game and I think those 8-year-olds are going to make us look bad!
That’s All For Today!
I highly doubt I’ll blog tomorrow, so have a great weekend everybody! Good luck Ally!