A New Commitment

I want to thank Phil from Arizona for his well thought out advice on my
current condition of running and I agree with all that he said in his
comment to my previous blog entry. I have been inconsistent lately and I
began wondering if it is one of two things:

1. My new shoes may not be working well for my feet.

I have had my new Brooks for less than 100 miles. I purchased them from a
store that specializes in running and they watched me jog up and down the
sidewalk to recommend a certain pair. The shoes felt 'made for my feet' but I
noticed the calf trouble soon after I had them. The calf pain has been
insignificant after my long layoff but I do feel a faint twinge still. I
have seen the shoes reviewed in magazines and they receive great remarks
but the continuing calf pain makes me wonder. However, I think I am going with Phil and focusing on number 2 for now:

2. I am actually training too hard.

When I was running yesterday at the ½ mile track, a runner who looked in
much better shape passed me. He looked very relaxed and, since he passed me
slowly, I thought he was probably running (for him) an easy pace. It got me
thinking about how very few of my runs actually seem relaxed and, as Phil
said, are all pretty close to my maximum pace for the distance. I was
thinking I may need to focus on slowing down more a few times a week and
let easy runs truly be easy. Then I read Phil's comments later in the day. Of course, I am fearful of slowing down in that it will take me much longer to better my race paces. It is also hard for me to accept because I feel like I should be making faster progress than this already. But I know this should be more fun and it is getting more and more mundane.

So I will refocus on having at least a few easy days in the weeks to come that includes a pace of 9:30 minutes/mile or slower. I will begin on Saturday with my long run but continue in the weeks to come with my shorter easy runs as well. I may even cut out speedwork all together until I feel I am running 20 miles a week fairly comfortably and without injury.

Now while I am confessing, I think there is another factor at work that has affected my slight weight gain. Just a few of months ago I accepting a tremendous promotion at work and took on a buttload (funny that word wasn't in the blogger dictionary) of increased responsibility. To be honest, I have strayed back into some of the stress eating that plagued me in the past. I notice I am not only eating more, but not being as choosy in what I put in my mouth. Snacking in the evening, sweets in particular, has been the main culprit. Therefore, it is time to take drastic action I hold in reserve just for times like this -- and here it is:

I will swear off ALL SWEETS -- eating nothing, noth--ing (think Hogan's heroes) sweet until June 14th, the day I will officially go on a vacation to east Tennessee. This means no cookies, candy, cereal, etc, even sugar in my coffee -- gulp! (This does NOT mean the nutrition bars I eat in the mornings forbreakfastt.) I will also avoid replacing the sweets with any other junk food like chips or crackers. IF I break mycommitmentt (and this is not a big "if" I must admit) I COMMIT to posting my very worse fat picture from the past on this very blog. That's right - an embarrassing me right there for your enjoyment if I break the commitment. I have asked my wife to hold me personally accountable to my pact with all my blog readers so I will let you know how it goes.

By the way, I love feedback and appreciate all the advice Terry and Phil leave. If you are a regular reader of "Running in the Deep South", please feel free to offer your two cents anytime! Hopefully, you WON'T be seeing a big ol' picture of me anytime soon! :-)