Two Parents one Child and Far Reaching Lives

 

My wife and I decided to wait 5 years after we got married to have children. In both of our cases our parents rushed to children. In both cases the marriages didn`t last and it was the kids that felt it the most. 

Our son turned 24 this week. 

On Father’s  day he sent me two messages :

• Thanks for the genetics
• Thanks for guiding me to athletics

I am not sure what he sent his mother on Mother’s Day. I was in Prague that day doing my work. They are the best of friends. They talk virtually every day. If I were to guess what he said or what he will say one day. 

• Thanks for the World View you gave me. 
• Thanks for the daily education on things that matter. 

Before his 5th Birthday

• A trip to Texas
• 2nd Birthday in Mexico
• 3rd Birthday in Spain
• 4th Birthday in Puerto Rico

After his 4th birthday I gave up long distance triathlon racing. I had a couple of goals and completed them. I wanted to go under 10 hours and I wanted to qualify for Kona. I qualified twice and on both occasions let it roll. I had already done Kona twice before he was born. There was more to it than that…

I stopped long distance triathlon racing so my wife could begin her doctoral work. She did not stop teaching she simply piled her doctoral work on top. I agreed to take up the slack with our son. This is where he and I developed the very tight bond we still have today. 

Ankle Update

The searing morning pain is gone and has been gone since last Sunday. The swelling at my ankle and the lateral moment pain is still there. I tried running on Tuesday. The run felt good and there was no pain. After the run though the throbbing was debilitating. I will not do that again. Since then I have been soaking my lower leg in Epsom Salts. Each day the foot is improving and the swelling is receding. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Disciplined

 I love to strike up conversations with US Veterans. I share a kinship with them not because I am one but because our son is making a career out of the military. On Sunday there was a guy standing in line in front of me and he had a hat on that said 101st Airborne. That is the group our son is attached to right now. It was an easy conversation to strike up. He did two tours to Vietnam. His first was in 1968 at the start of the Tet offensive. He said on that first tour he was surrounded by men who had dropped in on Normandy. The 101st made a name for themselves on D-Day and long after. 

I did some quick math to determine this guy who was standing in line to enter the competition pool was 76-78 years old, happy and fit.

 The picture of the puppy above takes me back to a discussion I had with my step mother. She is a wonderful woman and I would not be who I am without her in my life. The puppy is replacing Buster the dog she and my father got just before his passing. My visit to meet the dog was also a couple days past my fathers birthday. My step mother brought something up that was totally out of the blue and also disturbing in a way. She said “your father was such a disciplined man, he always wished you kids would have more discipline”. 

My Dad spent 2 years in ROTC and then 2 years in the US Army. He was an officer and he learned discipline there I guess. I didn`t reply to my step mom but I have to say her comment has been eating at me. Talking to a 76 year old Vietnam Vet brought her comment to the surface again. My father did not see his 76th Birthday. 

Our father left our family when I was 8 years old. He and our mom sat us down and told us they were divorcing and that he was moving out. He first moved not far away then he moved with his new wife (his former secretary) to Bogota, Colombia, where I was born. There they had my little sister. My memory of my father from basically birth to 18 was one of absence. In the first 8 years he was always traveling. His stories of travel were legendary. Then of course he moved to Bogota before internet and cell phones. 

Discipline 1

One of my vivid memories of my father was drink in one hand and cigarette in the other. On nights he was home for dinner, he would always come home and pour a martini. I was young and did not pay attention but I am certain it was the first of a few. He would not give this practice up (he later switched to beer) long after his first heart attack. 

In my teenage and adult life I have not shied away from alcohol. I spent a number of nights in college stumbling my way across campus doing a face plant in my bed. I still like to tie one on from time to time with my wife or our son. But never did I come home from work and grab a beer and rarely if ever on a daily basis do I have more than a single beer or glass of wine. My discipline of wanting to start the day fresh and raring to go far outweighs any desire I have for alcohol. 

Discipline 2 

Both my mother and father smoked. I believe he introduced our mother to smoking. We sat in smoking sections on trans -continental flights, our parents threw parties at our house where everyone was smoking. My dad would smoke while playing golf. He finally quit when he married (3rd Marriage) my step mom with the puppy. I think I was 18 at the time. 

This one was easy. Not a single one of his kids or step kids smoke. We were so turned off by what it represented that none of us ever started. 

Discipline 3 

The heart attack that killed my father was massive. It was the second. Between his first and 2nd my Dad and I became the best of friends. We rarely went a day without talking. He helped us raise our son. He became the father my wife Mary never had. My step sisters and their cousins all regale what a wonderful man he was and how much of a father he was to them. 

I train my ass off, watch what I eat, get regular blood tests, take my HRV daily and wear and Oura Ring. People always ask me “what are you training for”. My answer is always “For the rest of my life” The discipline I have for this borders on obsession. I want to be that 76 year old guy standing in line waiting for the pool to open. I want to run at night with our son even it means falling on my face from time to time. I want live longer than my disciplined father who died way to early. He was 72. 

The Multi-Sport Approach. To Running

 My Foot

Last week after blowing up my ankle I did almost no work on healing. My job was to help our son and his wife move from one Army base to another. The days that should have been spent icing and recovering were busy with moving an apartment worth of stuff down a flight of stairs to the truck, driving the truck 400+ miles then moving the same apartment worth of stuff up a flight of stairs to the new home. 

I spent the first two days after my flight home working to bring the immense swelling down and working on some mobility. Each time I took the dog out for a walk the ankle would swell up again. Finally after two days of this the swelling began to stay down. 

Multi-Sport

I have a life time of multi-sport in my body. Rarely in my adult life have I gone long periods of time without running, biking, swimming and strength training on a weekly basis. I am so consistent with it that if I choose to do a triathlon (any distance) or an ultra running event I can train specifically for 6-8 weeks and be competitive. 

Swimming

Right now with my foot in disarray the only things I can do are swimming and strength training. I swam for the first time on Wednesday. In general I can swim a regular workout. One of the things I aways do in swimming is band my feet together when I put a pull buoy between my legs. That cuts the circulation off my swollen ankle so I won`t be banding. Also I am only pushing off the wall on flip turns with my right leg. I think in the end this will add more range of motion into the foot and it will generate blood flow that the foot needs to heal. 

Biking

As soon as the swelling is gone I should be able to put a cycling shoe on. Once I can do that I will start by riding indoors. There are too many times where my ankle will need to be used when riding outdoors. I can`t see that being very safe at this time. Indoors there is no balance needed, just sit on the bike and pedal. That I know I can do without pain. 

Running

It`s what I love. I have always been on in a triathlon that can`t wait to get to the run. Right now I simply can`t run. I do not know when that will be possible. What I do know is with some swimming and cycling my running is not that far away. When the time comes I will be able to ramp up my running to my standards 30-40 miles without much of a problem. 

That, is the multi-sport approach to running at its best. 

Injured Runner

 

There are two types of running injuries. 

• Stress Injuries - These are the most common. There are people just predisposed to running injuries and those who get their trading balance wrong by running too much at tempo or faster and not enough slow and easy. I personally can count on one hand the number of stress related injuries in my years of running. 
• Impact Injuries - these are less common. Trail runners get them often when they hit a rock, root or anything else at an odd angle and hit the dirt. For me it takes two hands and maybe more to count the number times I have been injured this way. 

The picture shows my latest one. I was in Tennessee helping our son and his wife move to North Carolina. We had eaten dinner and watched a movie when my son said “Dad, do you want to go for a run?” By the time we got to the parking lot where we would run it was almost 9:30 pm. We headed out down a a bike path without lights (Next time I will choose to wear a light). The trail lead into the dense forest where it was just the two of us and the bugs that frequent the dark. We were having a glorious run, just chatting about life. We hit the turn around at close to 3 miles and headed back. There were two obstacles on the path. There was a bridge and at each end there was a poll in the middle ensuring nobody would drive a car on the bridge. That was it, stay in the middle of the path and all would be good until the polls. Early after the turn around I some how ended up on the left edge of the path. Without warning, my left foot hit the edge of the path which was raised 3-5 inches off the ground. My ankle gave way and like a rag doll I went down. 

I twist my ankle often enough to know I bend but rarely enough to hobble me. I got right up and started walking. My son told me not to rush it. I walked a bit and although I knew it wasn’t minor I started running. It felt ok over the final 2.8 miles but by the end of was throbbing really good. Aside from that I was bleeding down my right leg and left hand. Later I would find road rash on the front of my right hip. 

I was partially right on this one. I did bend and for sure did not break any thing and also did not snap any tendons or ligaments. What I did do was heavily strain the lateral side from my foot to just above the ankle bone. 

By Wednesday morning as I helped load the U Hall (that I drove to NC) my foot ankle and calf swelled to almost tripped their normal size. Over the next 4 days and we work driving and finally unloading the truck all I could do was manage the amount of swelling. 

Home now I can feel the healing process at work. In general I heal fast. Only time will tell how fast from this one. 

It was a dumb mistake on my part. That said I would not change a thing about it. The opportunity to run with my son far outweighs the pain in my ankle. If he asked me to run today with my ankle the way it is I would go. I am grateful every chance I have to run with him. 

Are You Running Too Hard?

 

I was listening the the Rich Roll Podcast with Camille Herron one of the greatest ultra runners we have ever seen. During the podcast Rich asks the ball of energy Camille about her training knowing that she was a bit of a stat freak. She said based on Strava, 86% of all of her running is easy. When Rich asked what her easy pace was she said “somewhere between 8 and 9 minutes per mile”. Later in the show they were talking about her coaching service and Rich asked her “What is the #1 problem when you meet a new runner” Her answer is the same answer from virtually any running or triathlon coach out there and it is not new. She said “most run there easy days way to hard”. 

Also this week I read the new book from Steve Magness, Do Hard Things. The one thing I got from the book fits right into what Camille was saying. I will paraphrase: People are constantly looking at the pace or race time they want to run. What they should do instead is bring the floor up to meet them. In other words, you have to understand where you are right now before you can set a time or pace you want to run. 

On the Track

I do my track sessions on Wednesday. I go to the local middle school which has a dirt track. We have access to mondo tracks but for some reason I prefer the solitude of the dirt track. On my plan was 12 x 400 with a 200 float rest. There are two keys to this workout. 12 hard 400s and the float. I know if I run too hard I won`t be floating by the end and will probably stop floating around rep 6. So I set out on the first 400 at a comfortably hard effort. On my third of fourth effort the best runner in the county and maybe in the state in my age group starts a workout. I stuck in my head, do your own workout. We exchanged a few words then continued our workouts. I was doing great. I was running about 6 seconds slower then the last time I ran this workout but I was was also executing the 200 float. On the two times he and I were on the same straight I noticed something. We were running the exact same pace. I was energized by that. Not because I think I am that good but because I was actually executing a workout as planned and still running reasonably well. I had not reached for a time I had brought the floor up to meet my feet. 

Shoe of the Week 

Saucony Endorphin Pro 3 

In my regular work I track all shoes but since last year I have tracking super shoes. Over the last year that has been one dominant shoe, the Nike Vapor Fly Next %. That is no secret. The #2 shoe is always the Alpha Fly Next % also from Nike. Number 3 is the Endorphin Pro from Saucony. With the Endorphin Pro 3 I think Saucony did everything right and it could lead them to jump of the Alpha Fly Next % to the #2 spot in the rankings. What did they do?

1. They increased the amount of foam under your foot. Their Power Run PB foam is a Pebax based foam just like the foam Nike uses in Zoom X. The increased the stack height to the absolute maximum allows by World Track and Field. 
2. They stripped the upper down to the bare minimum. When you put your foot in the shoe you can instantly feel the speed. 
3. They continue with why I think they are so high on the charts. I think with every other super shoe on the market there is an obstacle you mush get over. With the Alpha Fly Next % it is the super high arch support. With the adios Pro from adidas it is the unstable feel a slower speeds. With the New Balance Fuel Cell RC it is the rather strange lacing system. With the Saucony from the start, you put them on and run. There is nothing you need to get used to. 

Race Predictions

 

The other day I was texting back and forth with a friend of mine. He had just run a 10K race and won his age group. He made the standard comment “I started out way to fast” which I will cover later but one comment really struck me. He said “when I heard the split at 5K of 19:20 ish I thought I was running slow. The race predictor on my watch says I should be able to run 6:04 pace and I ran 6:19 pace” 

The above picture is from my Stryd foot pod. These race calculations are based on all of my recent training. To my knowledge it is basing these numbers off my critical power of 264 watts or 3.99 watts per KG. My 1 mile run would have to be run above that number to hit the time listed. My 5K would have to be run at that power for the entire 5K and so on down the road. 

Notes about Me

1. The 3.99 watts per KG is kind of high. It is based on me being at race weight of 146. I am not there right now. The question would be should I go down the slippery slope of trying to get to race weight?
2. Every predicted time on that list would be a new PR. I am fairly confident I could train specifically for one of those races (I have never trained specifically for any one of those events) and maybe I can set a new PR but those times I am not sure. 
3. I don`t ever pay attention to these numbers. In fact I didn`t even know they were there until my buddy talked about his GPS Watch. 

My reply back to him was in three parts. 

1. There is no way you could accurately track your mile splits on that course using GPS, you would have to use a Footpod to get more accuracy. The course he ran is on a bike path around a lake. The path follows the contours of the lake which almost looks like a leaf off an oak tree. Many virtual u turns and lots of short ups and downs. GPS would struggle to keep up. 
2. Everything would have to be perfect on the day for you to hit that pace. You probably played Pickle Ball last night and there is a couple seconds per mile right there. I am not suggesting you don`t play pickle ball. 
3. Starting too fast is a chronic problem of yours. You need to train that into yourself. Years ago I coached a friend to a PR in the marathon and a Boston BQ. She told me about her tendency to start fast. Once a week I had her do a medium length run 7 - 10 miles on an out and back trail. I have her a split at the turnaround and then a split for the finish. As we got closer to the event the run got a bit longer and the differential got a bit larger. So say we stated with 30 minutes out and 28 minutes back. Maybe we ended with 45 minutes out and 40 minutes back. The goal was to go out easy enough to be able to run back comfortably faster. She negative split her marathon and had a great race. 

Morning Routines

 

In general I have the same routine year round. It is possible I have talked about a morning routine here before but as always I try to improve it over time. The two variables that have an effect on my routine are my travel and my wife. During the summer neither has an impact. My work travel starts in February ends in June and then resumes in September to the beginning of December. My wife is on her normal summer trip. This year she is gone for a month in Egypt working on her Arabic while teaching English to Sudanese refugees. During the school year her alarm goes off at 5am. 

The Routine

Wake Up - I don`t use an alarm. I wake up when I wake up. During the summer I am usually up around 5:30am. That is when the first light of the day creeps into the room. 

Measure HRV - I grab my Polar HR Strap (the best in the market) lay down on the floor downstairs and take a measurement. It takes roughly 5 minutes. 

Make Coffee - I get the coffee brewing. 

Cold Shower - I sleep hot. During the summer it is hot. The only cooling we get is the regular cooling outside and a ceiling fan. Even in the winter I still sleep hot. So the Cold shower is what I have found to wake me up. It is a miserable feeling jumping into a cold shower but I always feel revived when I get out. 

Coffee - Once out of the shower and dried off I have my coffee. I mix in one scoop of Bullet Proof Collagen Powder and a half a teaspoon of Lion`s Mane. The Bullet Proof is protein that my body needs and the Lion`s Mane is to get my brain functioning. 

Snack - If I am doing a standard run or a swim I skip the snack. If I am doing a hard/long run or intervals on the bike I have a snack of GF toast with peanut butter and honey. 

Write in my Journal 

Dog - By 6:15 we are out the door on a walk. We have a small canyon in our neighborhood where she can run free. I do some hip mobility and stretching as I walk along. The walk is usually 20 minutes but can stretch to 40 if one her friends is also in the park. 

Usually around 7 I head out the door to work out. Nothing is exact in the process. Today for instance I think I left the house to run my normal 10 on Sunday at 7:40. 

Shoe of the Week - Saucony Endorphin Speed 3

Available in August

$160

The Endorphin Speed is the best shoe to come out of the Super Shoe craze. The Power Run PB foam is just plain fun under your foot. The Speed Roll  in the forefoot just ensures your roll off the toe is smooth and the TPU plate offers some resilience. It is not nearly as stiff as the carbon plates in all the super shoes. Put all of this together and this shoe just feels outstanding. The Endorphin Speed and the Endorphin Speed 2 had the same midsole with some upper modifications. The Endorphin Speed 3 has a new midsole and a new upper. 

Honestly I don`t think anyone will notice the change in midsole. It is visually different but functionally the exact same. That is a good thing. 

The upper is a very good update. If I had any complaints on the first two versions it was that the uppers stretched too much. Both the original and 2nd version got a bit sloppy at the end. The upper on the Speed 3 won`t do that. It will hold up and probably won`t stretch too much. 

Every day I run around the world in places where there are runners I see someone in the Endorphin Speed. On Thursday on a one hour run at mid morning I saw two runners. One was in the Endorphin Speed 2. Today while running down the coast for the start of my 10 miles I saw at least 2 people running in it. There is no doubt in my mind this is the hottest shoe to come out over the last 3 years that is not a super racing shoe. Go to any running store near you and try it on. I bet you go home with it.