LISTER

I tend to like to read blogs that sound like a conversation. A witty conversation. A fast paced, matter of fact, entertaining monologue about whatever random thought or story is on the writer’s mind. I wish that I could write like that but usually fear that I come as across sentimental and cheesy. And, if I’m honest, when talking about goals how could I not be?

And so, how does one write a year end summary of achievements without doing just that? Talking about goals and obstacles, hopes and fears, victories and defeats–all without coming across like a very special lifetime movie miracle. I think all I can do is keep it short and sweet. But first–I have a few more achievements that I must mention.

For my weight loss goals, I’ve been steadily chipping away at the last few pounds. My eating habits have drastically changed from a couple of years ago, and my workout schedule (for the past few months at least) has been pretty consistent. So this morning I stepped on the scale and saw the glorious 184 staring back at me. I had to step on and off a few times to confirm what I thought I was actually seeing–and it was! Soooo…(drumroll)….

	Biggest Loser Weigh 185 pounds – 40 pounds total weight loss.	65 Acquired 12/29/2009

I have officially reached my goal weight. Although, now that I’m here, there’s still a bit more I’d like to lose. My wife and I are still contemplating the P90X thing, so we’ll see.

Ok…this next one I kind of forgot about. The goal was basically to save money for property taxes at the end of the year. We don’t escrow our taxes, because we’d rather have the money earning interest through the year. The short version of this story is that stuff always comes up, but the Lord always provides.

	Security Blanket Save previous year’s amount for taxes.	75 Acquired 12/06/2009

Another achievement I actually finished about a month ago, but haven’t been able to figure out a good way to post it. The achievement was to memorize a chapter of scripture. I somehow feel the need to prove that I’m actually accomplishing these tasks and not just making them up. I thought about making a video, or typing it all out, but even still I don’t want to just regurgitate it. I need to actually hide it in my heart. So for this one, I think I’ll try this….the chapter was Proverbs 25. So if you read this blog and you actually know me, ask me for a verse sometime. There are 28 verses…just pick one and ask me for it. Hopefully I’ll be able to say it. And if not, feel free to ridicule me mercilessly.

	119:11 Memorize a chapter of scripture.	50 Acquired 11/13/2009

So, now that it’s the end of the year and people are talking about 2010 resolutions, I’m still contemplating mine from this year. I learned quite a bit striving after a handful of goals that I made for myself a year ago. For one thing, I realized how much time it takes to really get somewhere. Running a marathon doesn’t take a few hours. It takes a few months. And losing weight doesn’t take 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week. It takes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

And I learned that some things are a lot harder than I thought. I don’t know if it’s our culture, our generation, or both–but we all seem to think that we can experience by observation. That we can absorb the experiences of what we see and live vicariously through any medium other than our own lives. Not that I’m saying that we all need to go run a marathon or climb a mountain–but rather that in our reality TV and Wii simulated lives it doesn’t hurt to go out and try real life every once and awhile.

People have started to ask if I will make a new list for next year. The answer is probably not. I’m really not as type A as people seem to think that I am. Having a list was fun, but I quickly grew tired of having something so intangible directing daily decisions. I still want to run and stay in shape and memorize scripture–but I will continue to do so without an official list. So for now, adiós. And I hope your new year’s resolutions will be as adventurous as mine.

	Forget Me Not Review this list in Decemeber 2009.	20 Acquired 12/29/2009

Most runners like to do a post-run race report. For this post, the race report is fairly short. It’s everything after the marathon that is worthy of a lengthy blog post.

The actual marathon was what it was. The first 8 miles were great. I ran at a comfortable pace, taking it easy on the up hills, and taking advantage of the down hills. After mile 8 my IT band started to show signs of weakness. I struggled through the next 5 miles until mile 13 when my knee decided to call it quits. I couldn’t run more than 1 step without doubling over in pain and hobbling to the side. I walked the next 5 miles–pain with every step. Eventually the pain was bearable enough that I could shuffle step, swinging my right leg wide to keep the knee from bending, and actually run for 100 yards at a time. I finished in 5:28:12. Key word being finished.

After the race I immediately went to the runner’s tent and ate a banana and drank a few cups of water. More on that minor detail later. I then went straight to the chiropractor’s tent. They had about a dozen tables and workers taking care of all kinds of issues. My knee was actually only a minor issue compared to the sharp pain in the middle of my back. I’ve been going to a chiropractor for the past few weeks which has helped, but after 26.2 miles, my back was in agony. My designated chiropractor examined me and instantly found the spot on my back. “This HAS to be it”, he said. And he was right. He did some other twists and pops and came back to my back. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out….and -crack- as he smashed my spine back into place.

I cannot describe the relief that I felt.

I found my wife, our son, and our friends soon after that. We took some post race pictures with our medals and headed to the car. We piled in and started the long drive home. Now–about that post race banana.

The whole ride home was an interesting mix of feelings. I felt cold. The race had been cold and windy. And even a little rainy. I had gloves, but only a short sleeve shirt. Being forced to walk the middle portion of the race–the portion around the lake where the wind picks up and carries the cold air to all of the runners–must have lowered my body temperature to a point that wouldn’t soon recover. I was also sleepy. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Don’t worry, my gracious wife was doing the driving. And mostly I felt nauseous. I was beginning to think that banana was a bad idea. A very bad idea. It was all I could do to hold it in until we dropped off our friends and made it home.

Interestingly enough the last mile home was similar to the last mile of the marathon. The whole time I was thinking, you’re almost there, you can make it. For the marathon, it was to keep going. To not stop moving. For the car ride, it was to hold in that which my stomach was ready to let out.

We pulled into the driveway and before I could take it any more I opened the car door, leaned out, and let loose the most powerful projectile vomit I have ever experienced. My legs still hurt to bad to step out of the car so I let myself fall out of the car onto my hands and knees where my body continued to forcefully remove the banana/water mixture from my stomach. My wife ran over to comfort me and after a few minutes, I was better. It’s amazing how your body will respond to something unwanted. And how you feel once it heals itself.

I was still a bit cold and still had no appetite so I took a hot bath, hot shower, and crawled into bed. I rested for an hour and a half before getting ready for the Christmas party we had that night. Yep, that’s right–after 26.2 miles, and a few hours of misery, I put on my happy face and went to hang out with a group from our church. I slowly regained my appetite–finding solace in sprite and salty lime tortilla chips. We went home and I sat on the couch, a long day finished.

The past couple of days has been a slow and steady recovery. My IT band has still not completely loosened up, but it’s getting close. I will probably take it easy on the running for awhile and stick to some cross training.

In other achievement news, the last couple of weeks leading up to the marathon (and the marathon itself) were great for my weight loss goals. So, without further delay:

	Hold My Calls Run a marathon.	100 Acquired 10/13/2009
	Almost There Weigh 190 pounds – 35 pounds total weight loss.	40 Acquired 10/12/2009

I still have a few more achievements for the year. One that is finished, but yet to be posted. And one that is definitely not possible at this point. I think there are some others in there too that I should start looking at…

Ok, so I hate to try to combine multiple topics into one blog post, but I’m also not ambitious enough to do separate posts for all of these either. So bear with me as I try to make them all seem somehow related.

So you may remember me mentioning a couple of weeks ago that my 15 miler was less than ideal. Pretty painful in fact. Something I didn’t mention was that around mile 8 I had a extremely sharp pain right in the middle of my back. Not good. I’ve heard of runners going to the chiropractor and figured if I ever had a sign of telling me I should go that was probably it.

I found a chiropractor that also does sports/physical therapy that my insurance covered, so I went in. A quick x-ray showed a nice little curve right at the spot where I felt the pain. Actually, to be honest, I nearly freaked out when I saw it. I didn’t know that it was normal for people’s spines to not be perfectly straight all the time, but the doc seemed fine with it, so I played along. We also talked about my IT Band and how that’s also normal for runners. Or at least normal for people who find running for hours at a time to be both recreational and productive.

So a few cracks, bends, stretches, and knuckle massages later, I was on my way. Now with my new rejuvenated self, I was ready to tackle the 20 miler the following weekend.

Compared to the 15 miles from the week before 20 miles was fre-ack-in’ awesome. On the previous run I figured out that I didn’t need the carbs and energy as much as I just needed food. I was hungry! To fight my ravenous gargling stomach I used an old strategy from back when I used to go hiking at Enchanted Rock…trail mix! In this case, sweet cajun trail mix to be exact. I found that the energy gels were great but didn’t last very long. The trail mix is a nice way to just get food in to not make me feel so stinkin’ hungry. I used this “fuel” again for a 12 miler last weekend and it went beautifully. I think I officially have my race day strategy in place.

In other unrelated topics, for Thanksgiving we all went down to the family ranch in Jarrell Texas and then on to San Antonio for my 10 year high school reunion. The reunion was a lot of fun, and a lot of awkward. You know the feeling when you’re in the grocery store and you think you recognize someone, but you’re not sure…and then if you do remember them, you’re not sure if they remember you? Take that, and then multiply it by the other hundred people in the room, and that’s what it was like. And I definitely got a “Hey buddy!” pretty early on into it. It’s ok, I didn’t remember his name either.

So yep, pretty fun little weekend. I got to eat a lot of food and then go run and burn it all off. Here are some of the magical moments captured…

Carb loading before 12 miles. Ok…I didn’t eat all the waffles.

Just hanging out with the bull on the ranch.

Ok this picture was actually pretty random. As if you couldn’t tell from the non-shoulder hugging awkward standing positions from everyone.

Boom. Boom. Pow.

Welp. It’s official. I signed up for my first marathon.

Yesterday was the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon. I did not participate.

Earlier in the year I considered doing the half at SA as a warm up to running a full in December. After some major IT Band woes that plan changed. I watched some of the live video feed from the website that morning and admired the finishers. It was actually quite entertaining. They had two finish lines, one for the half and one for the full.  Both races started at the same time. So at the 3 hour mark I watched the overly-in-shape athletes crossing the full marathon finish line, and at the same time watched the “recreational” runners crossing the half marathon finish line with arms raised high in celebration. It was awesome. And it reminded me of why running is so great. That even in a race–everyone’s race is their own.

Yesterday I also ran my 15 miles for the first time. This was 3 miles further than the 12 I ran last week (which was also my furthest at that time). It was brutal. Because of my knee, I’ve been specifically avoiding hills. Yesterday wasn’t an option. My running buddy, BJ, talked me into doing my miles with him on a route near his house. Now in all honesty these hills weren’t that bad. Nothing that would be unexpected in any marathon I do, but after avoiding them for so long, they were wicked. My knee actually held up pretty well, but my quads were in so much pain. I was mentally exhausted too. There were many points that I wanted to tell BJ to go on and I’d eventually make it back, but I knew he wouldn’t let me get away with that. He’s a football coach, but his coaching could extend to running as well. He knew when to push it, and didn’t let me quit even though I wanted so badly too.

As we talked he said something that convinced me to go ahead and sign up. I told him that many people suggested I just run the half and save the full for later.  He advised against it saying that most people do that and get stuck only running halves because they can’t imagine running that distance twice in a row. Right around the point that we hit 13 miles I knew what he was talking about. I literally wanted to lay down on the ground and stop. But we pressed on–and although those last couple of miles were the worst I’ve ever run–we finished. I was suddenly reminded of Dean Karnazes’ book where he talks about the pain of running and the human resolve to not stop, and to keep going. It reminded me that running that far was supposed to feel like that. As Dean would say, “it’s supposed to hurt like hell”.

So after I got home from the run we had a Thanksgiving Dinner with our home group from church. Perfect timing for a 15 miler earlier that day. I loaded up and quickly gained back the 4 pounds that I had lost that morning by running.

(Brandon liked the Thanksgiving Dinner too)

I woke up this morning sore, but no worse than any other time after a completing a new long distance. So I signed up. And Lord willing, I’ll be running/walking/crawling the Dallas White Rock Lake Marathon in less than a month. I’ll try to keep the blog up to date for the next month leading up to it. I already know a handful of other folks running white rock, but I’m sure there are more so if you’re one of them let me know!

Losing the last 10 pounds is becoming increasingly more difficult when people keep bringing stuff like this to the office.

And yes, I already took a bite before taking the picture. Don’t judge.

So my running is still mediocre at best. My IT Band seems to not want to recover as quickly as the last time. I’ve incorporated all the same stretches and walking as before, but I’m not catching up on my miles. I’m getting a little antsy about whether I will be able to meet my marathon achievement for the year. Not to mention that running was my catalyst for weight loss, and my plateau hasn’t gone anywhere in the past two months.

Well, sort of.

A couple of months ago I re-joined 24 hour fitness. I actually typed a nice little post to talk about it and never posted it. All you need to know is that they gave me a massive discount to rejoin and it was at a time when I was in desperate need for some cross training.

So anywho, when I re-joined they calculated my stats, including (gulp) body fat percentage. And the result was….22%. Sigh. For those playing along, that puts me in the “acceptable” category. Gee, thanks. But now, after cross training for 2 months, my body fat  percentage is…..18%!! What?! And ok, ready for this…my weight is exactly the same. Hmm…so in other words: fat off, muscle on. I’ll take it!

Now, I still have 10 lbs to go, and I still want to bring that  body fat percentage down. One more percent would actually put me into the “fitness” category…then I’ll start celebrating.

So what the heck have I been doing at the gym you ask to accomplish all of this…why Crossfit of course!
I was introduced to Crossfit by my brother-in-law who started an affiliate gym that is based around this type of exercise. According to their website, CrossFit is “the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide“. 

Basically, it’s working out with the purpose that you might actually need to perform those moves.  After all it makes more sense to practice a move that will help you squat , lift, stand, and move than it does to just use most gym weight machines. Don’t get me wrong, leg extensions are great, but how often do you really need to kick your leg forward with 100 pounds of pressure?

I haven’t done the P90X thing, but I think it is very similar to those workouts with lots of body weight exercises and plyometrics. They don’t just follow the idea of calories in, calories out. They look at kicking your ass until your body is forced to adapt and grow.

To give you an idea of the type of workouts, here is one that I’ve done a couple of times. It’s called the Filthy Fifty where you perform 50 reps of one exercise before moving on to the next one.

50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows (hang from a bar and throw those legs up)
50 Push press, 45 pounds (similar to shoulder press, but with more umph)
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees (reminds me of squat thrusts from PE class)
50 Double unders

I’ve done this workout twice and both times it took over an hour. By the time I get to the end, I feel pretty light headed–like I’m going to pass out. In a bizarre way it feels really good. And the soreness after feels good too. Much better than the gross overfull feeling following a hearty dinner at On the Border.

As fun as all that is though, I really want to get back to running. I miss the consistency of the footsteps on the road and the solitude of being outside.  I’ve all but given up on running the San Antonio half, and the White Rock Lake Marathon may not be far behind.

In other news: Congratulations to Keri and Dale for finishing their first half-marathon this past weekend! You guys are an inspiration for crossfit and for running! Keep it up!

The past month or so at work has been the busiest in some time. I can usually keep a pretty good handle on my internal to do list, but this time I actually had to (gasp) make a sticky note. For all my listing, I find sticky notes to be rather tacky, pun intended. But alas, I was losing focus, and I do love the feeling of taking a big red pen and marking through items. There’s something about a list that is completely checked off that makes my soul smile. And yesterday, I got to mark through the BIGGEST one on the list. Which leaves one tiny little item left. It already feels sooo good.

In other news, this blog will be changing soon. Some of you may have noticed the location of this blog is www.georgeandmandy.com. You may have also noticed that only I (george) actually post to it. And while noticing things you may have noticed that my wife (mandy) has a blog of her own that only she posts to.

Hmm.

So yes, sometime around the new year it is likely that our blogs will be merging. Seeing as we are one, it only makes sense that our blogs would be one as well. We’re working frantically-ish on this site, and by that I mean we’re still deciding if we are actually going to do it. In the meantime, feel free to check out the greatness that is my wife’s blog.

Oh wait, I’m not a teacher and I’ve been working all summer. But as for my achievements…meh. Ok, not really, but that’s kind of how it feels. At the start of the year, I was all over it—getting a new achievement every month it seemed. But then I got bogged down with some of the long-term achievements and lost momentum. I’m still going, but it doesn’t really feel like. Knowing that there is only three and a half months to finish the rest of my goals for this year is a little daunting. So, for starters, it’s time to mention one achievement that I’ve been procrastinating posting.

After I reached my goal of weighing 200 pounds, I celebrated by going back to my old eating habits. Not completely falling off the wagon, but I certainly didn’t deny myself the enjoyment of a fulfilling éclair donut or bowl of cookie dough ice cream from time to time. I kept running, so I remained in balance, but I pretty much stopped losing weight. By sheer momentum, I kept going and got down to 195. And hovered. I was as low as 190 and as high as 198, but I’ve pretty much stayed there for the past few months. And really, I think I’m procrastinating posting this because it means I have to move on to my next 5 lb weight loss goal. I’ve enjoyed being less than a tenth of a ton long enough. And with the new season of Biggest Loser starting TONIGHT…it’s time that I too continued on with my goals. So with that:

Achievement Unlocked—Break the Barrier.

	Break the Barrier Weigh 195 pounds – 30 pounds total weight loss.	40 Acquired 09/15/2009

The second achievement I’m posting was accomplished last night for reading 12 books this year. I didn’t realize I was that close until I randomly decided to count up the books I’ve read. I actually read 13 if you count reading Ultramarathon Man twice. And I actually read 113 books if you count reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my son about a hundred times. Not to mention that my favorite author, Jason Pinter, has two books coming out this fall, so I’m sure I will end up with even more. I’m already considering how to “up” this achievement for next year. Perhaps, reading one really long book instead? We shall see…

But for now:
Achievement Unlocked—Paperback King

	Paperback King Read 12 Books.	25  Acquired 09/15/2009

For those playing along, these are the books I read this year:
The Guilty, by Jason Pinter
Star Wars: Death Star, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
My Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey
Bringing Up Boys, by Dr. James Dobson
The Terminal Man, by Michael Crichton
Ultramarathon Man, by Dean Karnazes
50/50, by Dean Karnazes
The Stolen, by Jason Pinter
Star Wars: Jedi Search, by Kevin J. Anderson
Star Wars: Dark Apprentice, by Kevin J. Anderson
Personal Record: I love affair with running, by Rachel Toor

As for the rest of my achievements, I’m still not even half way there. It is possible, and I’m on track, but it’s time to get after it. I was completely on schedule with my marathon training until I decided to do a 6 mile run at a high school track which completely re-aggravated my ITB issues. So now I’m trying to rest and cross train while it heals. Hopefully I’ll still have time to get miles in to make it to the Dallas White Rock Lake Marathon. Just about everyone I know that runs marathons or is running one for the first time is going to this race. I’ve heard it’s a great “debut marathon” race, so it would be quite fitting. We shall see.

george

So here’s a quick story that I forgot to share…

It happened a couple of weeks ago right after my long run. This was my second 10-mile run, and by now I had started to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. For starters, getting up before the sun comes up–works. Running with the sloshing-brick-of-a-water-bottle-glorified fanny pack–doesn’t work. So I finished, took my ice bath, drank a protein shake, and reveled in the glory that is the post long run rest. I then loaded up the kiddo to go somewhere (I don’t remember where). As I pulled out of my driveway, I noticed a runner strolling on by. Here was my thought process:

Cool, another runner!

Fancy clothes–she must be a serious runner.

Man, she’s running fast–she really is a serious runner.

Why is everyone faster than me?

She’s running on the sidewalk? Maybe she’s not that serious.

At least I already finished my run. That makes me serious.

Wait. Is that a dog chasing her? Ohh, that’s why she’s running so fast.

Why do people let their dogs out like that? That’s so annoying. 

That dog is totally harassing that girl. She’s having to high-step to get away from it.

Huh, that kind of looks like our dog. I didn’t know there was another black miniature schnauzer on this street.

(pause)

Wait. Did I leave the door open for a second when I was leaving today?

At this point, the world stopped for a moment, and I realized that my own worst nightmare of being chased by a dog while running was now happening to someone else. And I had caused it. I sped down the road and pulled a quick u-turn. I now had a complete unobstructed view of the excitement that our dog was experiencing by chasing this poor girl down our block. And boy was he excited. Perhaps it’s the fact that we never walk our dog, or let him out of the front of the house, or some combination of a few years of rarely doing anything exciting with him, but he was showing his gratitude now. I’ve never seen him move so fast. As for the girl–she did not look happy. And now, she was really fast.  

I pulled ahead a couple of houses (while certainly breaking the speed limit followed by parking practically in the middle of the street–I figured if the HOA is gonna get me for having my dog out, I might as well make it worth their while). I hopped out and ran over to scoop up Wiley. I hesitated, wanting to offer an overly dramatic apology to the girl to let her know I understood the crime I had just committed. But I focused on the dog and got him into the back of the car. The girl kept running, and I took Wiley back to the house and continued on with wherever it was that I was going. I felt pretty guilty for awhile. Still do. I’m sure she either blogged or facebooked all about it. As she should. I’m sure it made for a good story to tell. So if by some small chance this blog finds her–my sincerest apologies. I hope I haven’t tainted a favorite running route or spoiled a new one. I hope that you finished your run and the unplanned interval wasn’t too much of a hindrance. Please forgive Wiley, our dog, as well. If it is any consolation–it was the highlight of his week.

If I were being honest, I would have to say that running is something I’ve always loved, but have been horribly inconsistent with. More than anything it’s been a tool for weight loss. Therefore, if I felt like I could lose a few pounds, I went running. If not, I didn’t. So running shoes were always more of an afterthought. My two priorities when choosing a pair of shoes were comfort and cost. Even between those two, cost usually won.

So it feels odd to do a shoe review, but through a handy dandy turn of events, I have nice shoes to review. (And by handy dandy turn of events, what I really mean is that I find it no coincidence that I have received provisions for nice shoes right at a time when I happen to be very into running. The Lord always provides.)

The first came through a gift certificate to a running shoe store for Christmas. The kind of fancy shoe store where they look at your feet/stance/gait, try to hold back awkward stares, and then recommend a shoe that provides enough stability for a horse on roller skates. Ok, not really, but I am now self-conscious about my “severe over-pronation”. Who knew?

Anyway, after that whole escapade, I ended up with some Saucony Hurricane X shoes. Fan-cy! I’ve been running with these since February and love them. I had some ITB problems leading up to these shoes (apparently over-pronation + cheap shoes will do that to you), but my knee woes are pretty much gone now. So when I landed another gift certificate (this time specifically for Saucony’s), the decision was pretty much already made up. Meet my new Hurricane XI’s:

Same as the X’s–I can definitely feel the arch support that forces my feet and ankles back in alignment. Not to mention the wealth of cushioning that’s in there. Superb for my “large frame”.These shoes will get there official debut for the back-to-back 5Ks I’m signed up for tonight and tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to tonight’s race just because it’s at night.  The one Saturday morning is one that my wife found and really wanted to do.  She’s recently been re-inspired to running, so I’m looking forward to running it with her.