No Turning Back Now

The last long run before race day is complete.

It's two miles short of what I was supposed to do, and it was the craziest roller coaster ride I have ever been on.

I ran with Mike, as he has been a rock star and improved his running time by roughly 3 minutes per mile in the last two weeks. So it was a great help to have him for company and for motivation. Unfortunately, he probably is not as happy he had me for a running partner Sunday.

I started off in that "I really don't feel like doing this" mood. So I told Mike I would run behind him and I was able to block out the negative thoughts and just concentrate on the rhythm of his feet and match my pace with his....left...right....left....right. That got me through the first ten miles with a stop here and there for a drink, or a Gu, or a trip to the natural bathroom that the woods so generously provide. My knees were hurting, my neck was tight, and I was complaining a little.

The next three miles I started to break out of the funk, and felt pretty good. I took the lead, and we came to a fork in the road. Following the road straight would have gotten us home faster, but our 18 mile course demanded that we turn right. Mentally, I took another turn, and started down a frightful path. It started to rain, my whole body was aching, 15 miles in and I had no idea where we were. I knew I was looking for a stop sign, but every time I cleared a hill and saw open road, there was no stop sign. I thought maybe we mapped the route wrong and started thinking about calling someone to come pick me up. I thought I was hurting so badly that I would never make it back home if the stop sign wasn't even within eyshot yet. Then I got mad at Mike thinking that it was his fault that we didn't take the stupid shortcut at the fork in the road when we could have. Then I screamed out with gusto, "Where the &*^% is this f*#&ing stop sign? Where the %$# are we?!?!?" It was a complete meltdown. If I had any energy left, I would have cried.

Well, once I got it together, the stop sign appeared and I recovered, knowing I only had two miles to go. I was hurting, but I got into a rhythm behind Mike again, and was able to push out the hill at the end of that ridiculous run.

I'm hoping that the crowds and the scenery will sooth the rage in me when I hit those tough moments in the race. And I hope Mike is mentally strong enough for both of us, the way he was this past Sunday.

Food For Thought & Runners

On Thursday 11^th March, Dani and I headed to the Center City Philadelphia Runner store to hear a talk led by Nancy Clark, one of America’s leading sports nutritionists and author of the book “Nancy Clark’s Food Guide for Marathoners”. Small in stature and huge in personality, she answered every question posed and gave some great insights and ideas. Her key ideas were:

1. Think of your body as a vehicle and figure out how much fuel it needs to get you through the day.

This was done through some simple arithmetic that I’ll try and explain. Start with your target body weight in pounds and multiply it by 10. This is the number of calories the body will need in one day to survive with no exercise. To account for the everyday energy the body uses during the day (carrying groceries, luggage or children, walking to and from the car, loading a new pack of paper into the photocopier), add 50% of this total. If it’s a running day, add 100 calories for each mile you run.

Using myself as an example:

Target weight is 200lb

Calories needed daily to exist is 200 x 10 = 2000 Calories

Add 50% for Daily activity (Stripping wallpaper, walking to the South Philly Taproom etc) = 3000 Calories

If I were to run to FDR Park and back (my 6 Mile route), I’d add 600 Calories, making my daily calorific requirement 3600 Calories. Easy peasy.

2. Eat the same size meal, 4 times Daily.

Nancy recommended that we should be eating 4 times a day, every 4 hours, with each meal giving us a quarter of our body’s daily need. So if my body needs 3600 Calories, I should be eating 900 calories for breakfast, 900 at Lunch, Nancy introduced the concept of 2^nd Lunch (also 900 calories) and then 900 calories for Dinner. She explained that the regular eating pattern and second lunch prevents lows and food cravings (notably when you get home from work and you’re starving).

3. The food break during a long run should be a reward, something to look forward to.

If you don’t like GU or Shot Bloks, then don’t eat them. You can replenish your body’s needs to the same extent with Gummy Bears, Nuts, Tootsie Rolls, Dried Fruit, M&M’s, Pretzel, Twizzlers. She apologised to the storeowner for any impact on sales.

4. Figure out how much water the body sweats so you know how much you need to replenish.

Simply, weigh yourself naked. Go run for an hour and weigh yourself naked again. Every pound you lose is a pint (16oz) of liquid. Use this number to evaluate how much you should be taking with you and drinking on the longer runs. On this point she also added that it is important to train your intestines as to what they can expect, as well as your muscles. If we go to Paris and are drinking water or Powerade at each of the 5k intervals, and we haven’t been doing the same in training, our bodies will react badly.

5. You should be peeing every two hours.

If you’re peeing less frequently, increase your water intake. Water in juices, coffee, lettuce, yogurt etc counts too!

6. Electrolytes = Sodium

You shouldn’t be drinking a sports drink unless you’re exercising – a Gatorade from Wawa with lunch is just adding extra salt to your diet.

Dani and I picked up her book and would definitely recommend it. She really seems to grasp that people have lives outside of running and that it’s difficult to balance hectic schedules with training. We’re definitely going to give the 4 hour, second lunch plan a go and Dani’s excited that she can give up the GU in favor of something her body likes.

On the way out, Dani asked Ross (the Philadelphia Runner co-owner) if he’d heard from Mizuno about the running shoe sponsorship for Tom Coyne. He responded, “Who is Tom Coyne?” I guess he’s a Jeopardy fan too!

Best Laid Plans

I think it was inevitable that it was going to end up this way. Despite a lifetime of better efforts, no matter how much I plan in advance, deadlines are met with an adrenaline fueled, high octane dash to the finish line. Having spent most of November and December using the weather, work commitments, the Philadelphia Eagles home schedule and anything else I could muster as an excuse to not run, I found myself on a plane with Dani on the way back from Christmas and New Year with our family in Europe and only 14 weeks to prepare for Paris. Still enough time to prepare without the last minute, frantic panic. I was convinced. The plane touched down on January 6th, I vowed that January 7th was to be the first day of 14 weeks dedicated to gym enrollment, the accumulation of road miles, physical fitness and nutritional health.

January 7^th – Julian, You’re Fired.

Generally, I was not fond of my job. For nine months I learnt a lot, unfortunately most of the lessons fell in the “What not to do” column. But I was being paid, paying bills, I had a client that I loved to work for and (I later discovered) loved the work I was doing for them.

With a house move on the horizon, hiding out as long as it took for the clouds of the recession to pass by had been my plan. Unfortunately, the clients that canceled projects or chose not to renew their contracts did not share this plan. Neither did my boss who had the courage to ask someone else to pull me aside at the end of the day to ask me to pack up my things and bid me a fond farewell. At least I suddenly had time on my hands to run, you would think.

With my calendar suddenly open, I was now able to help Dani’s dad (Rainer) work on our new home. Even an untrained eye would know that a toilet and wash basin shouldn’t be 2 feet from the circuit breaker panel in the basement, or that outlets on all three floors shouldn’t be protected by just one fuse. Rainer had trained as an electrician in Germany many years ago, prior to a career developing new technologies for Siemens and he was heading over for three weeks to manage the rewiring project at our new home. A daily pattern quickly began to emerge – breakfast, work, lunch, work until 9pm, dinner and 3 beers, bed. No time to run, and limited physical capability to do so even if I wanted to. 11 weeks to go and no effort made to fulfill the promise I made to myself on the January 6^th flight.

It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye!

Other than the promise I’d made to myself, I’d forgotten a lot. I forgot that I’d made a promise to do this. I forgot that I was part of a team of 12 that were also dealing with personal and professional commitments as well as inner demons. I also forgot that I was part of a team of 2, and that Dani had our own plan and commitment to help each other get to the finish line. Despite my complaints, tantrums and reluctance to put in any effort, Dani had continued to forge forward. She was putting in the miles on the road or getting to the gym to run on a treadmill when the snow outside was too deep.

Then she quit.

She’d run further than she ever had before and was rightly proud of her accomplishments. She was financially supporting us both whilst running a business in the same recession that had cost me my job. Airfare to Paris and accommodation for two was going to be expensive. She wasn’t getting the motivation she needed from her coach, but more importantly she wasn’t getting any from me. Some kind of team-mate I was.

This was the motivation I needed to get back out there, but now I needed to find a way to pick Dani up too. I threw everything I could at her – the history of Germany v England (sporting and otherwise), the story we’d tell our grandchildren (a weapon she’d used to good effect to motivate us both early on in the project), and the fact that her competitive nature wouldn’t let me do this without her. I managed to get her back on the road logging the miles again, but she wasn’t convinced.

Paris 2010 BK (Before Kate)

On February 27^th, Tom had arranged for us to meet with Sports Psychologist, Kate Taylor. Mike and Kim kindly offered their home as a meeting venue and welcomed us on a cold Saturday morning with champagne bottle in hand, enough food to feed 12 hungry runners for a week and the phrase “We’re not going to run today right? it’s too cold”. My kind of people.

Kate had been introduced to Tom through his Bishop’s Collar network. As Kate Fonshell (her unmarried name) Kate had walked behind the US Flag in Atlanta 1996, representing her country as an Olympian in the 10,000m. Kate had trained as a Sports Psychologist and she wasn’t here to wave the flag, but to boost the flagging. In light of the mental cracks that were beginning to appear in us all it was as welcome as the mimosas and cinnamon rolls that accompanied the discussion.

It was amazing to hear a world class athlete talk humbly of the demons that they battled as a college athlete and as an Olympic hopeful. We openly shared our own worries and concerns and she reassured us all that the goal was still in our reach. We talked about visualization, devising a mental as well as a physical plan for the race, we had our running form reviewed and importantly for Tom, she reminded us that he had only provided us with the opportunity and that taking it was our fault and not his.

Importantly I felt that we came back together as a team with encouragement from each others accomplishments. Cristin joined us live from Dubai via satellite having completed a half marathon in the dessert. Helene’s run log showed that she’d run the equivalent of Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and back. Shannon, in true altruistic Coyne style, had found a passion for running that she converted to helping others. Mike had dropped pounds while he and Kim had become the envy of their neighbors as they ran to basketball practices rather than drive the few miles. And Dani asked the question, “With six weeks to go and only a handful of long runs under our belt, is there still enough time to be prepared for Paris?” Kate answered “Yes.” Team Europe was back in the race.

Running with Duffy.

After we met with Kate, Duffy suggested to Dani and I that we meet the next weekend and do our long run together. We run at a similar pace (10 to 11 minute miles), Dani and Duff like to run on Forbidden Drive, we had similar distance goals (Dani and I 14 miles, Duff,16). Perfect.

We agreed to meet at Valley Green Inn at 9:30am on Saturday March 6th; Duff and Dani had charted a course with appropriate intervals:

Section 1 - Valley Green Inn to the equestrian center and back - 1 hour, 5 miles, water and GU.

Section 2 - Valley Green Inn to Kelly Drive - 1 hour, 4.5 Miles, water and GU.

Section 3 - Kelly Drive to Valley Green Inn - 1 hour, 4.5 Miles, water and GU.

Duff was then in a position to run the extra 2 miles, body permitting. Dani and I were able to collapse into a heap, 5 weeks from Paris with our 1^st half marathon complete.

10:30am – Section 1 went as well as could be expected. The sun had emerged from its hibernation and the conditions for running were better than they had been for the previous 2 and a half months. Duff cast aside his sweatshirt and jogging pants and off we went on the next leg of the run, to Kelly Drive. The snow and ice on the path was still heavy in parts, making it more of an arctic assault course than a running trail. This made the section slower, but intact, we arrived at Kelly Drive and the end of Section 2. This is where Dani, Duff and I split up.

11:16am - Convinced that if he ran back to Valley Green Inn with us, Duff was confident that his car seat would be too appealing and that there was no way he would motivate himself to run an extra 2 miles to achieve his goal. Instead, he decided he would run from Kelly Drive to the Falls Bridge, and then back to Valley Green with his 16 mile goal accomplished. Dani and I wished him well, expressed that we may see him back at the end and we headed our separate ways.

12:24pm - Our final 4.5 miles were a slog and progress had not been quick. We stretched out our tired limbs as best we could replenished our bodies with water and shot blocks, and any other foodstuff that was lying in the car. We had run slowly and it took some time for us to be able to stretch our limbs enough to operate a vehicle. As we drove away, Dani commented, “I’m surprised that we didn’t see Duffy finish.”

Square One

Well, after 7 months, countless doctor visits, hundreds of dollars in co-pays, 12 extra pounds and 8 weeks in 1 giant boot, the doctor has cleared me to start training again.

I have to admit that when the good doctor told me I was not to do any weight bearing exercise of any kind, I thought it was the best news I'd heard in my entire adult life. I had permission to be the lazy, out of shape person I always knew I was.

I had the best of both worlds...I could legitimately say I was injured while I was training for a marathon (no one had to know I was only up to 3 miles). I became a fake athlete and talked more about running and sports injuries than I ever thought possible. Other runners treated me like one of their own. And I never had to run. It was brilliant.

All that being said, with Paris approaching I've started to feel sad about not being part of this experience the way that I thought I could have been. There's little reward in being the first one "booted" off the island.

After meeting with the team and listening to their stories of struggling to get to distances I can still only imagine, I've become inspired. You all have come so far and accomplished so much already. I now wish I knew the feeling of completing a "long run" or a race (or even 3 miles at this point). You should all be VERY proud.

So by the time the team is headed to Paris, I will be up to one slow mile on the treadmill (according to my new training schedule). It may sound crazy but I am determined to start running again. I think I'll start with a 5k though. Let's face it, 26miles is just f-ing nuts Tom.