08.07.08
Lomong chosen as U.S. Flag Bearer
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-olyelliott7-2008aug07,0,3672582.story
Discuss..
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05.01.08
I did it.. I gave in
Well, thanks to a little peer pressure from Brent, I am now $350 poorer - but soon to be all the more richer because of it. The trip to and from Penn Relays last week gave Brent and I ample opportunity to discuss a wide range of topics, including whether or not we would purchase the new Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS watch when it finally became available. While I left that discussion still undecided (about 75-25 pro purchase), Brent’s phone call informing me that REI had them online and that he had already ordered one pushed me over the edge.
Why do I think it’s worth the investment? There are a few reasons, not the least of which is all the immediate feedback I can get during a run - pace, distance, heart rate (if wearing the included chest strap).. but most of all, I can’t wait to experience the post-run scenario that I have built up in my head: I finish my run, bring the watch in the same room as my computer, and “voila!” I have a map of my run, a graph showing my change in pace throughout the run, my heart rate graphed on top of the pace chart.. I mean, how awesome is that! The features don’t stop there, but that is by far what I am most excited about..
And all this without having to wear a laptop on my wrist (a little jab to all the guys I know who have the previous version of this watch 
http://www8.garmin.com/learningcenter/training/forerunner405/
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04.20.08
Fam = the man!
http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/coverage.php?c=245&id=13330
Thanks to Brent for pointing this race out to me - he suggested I watch this before doing my workout today, the last steeple workout I will do before he and I head up to Penn Relays for our Thursday night races. If you have 15 minutes or so to spare, you should watch this race and the events that immediately follow - I can’t believe I’m going to be in the same heat as this guy! (I already did the math, and am pretty sure I won’t get lapped
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02.28.08
Test Yourself…
“I loved testing myself more than I feared being beaten.” - Ron Clarke, Australian runner who once broke 12 world records in 44 days in 1965
As I sit here at midnight putting off these last minute Excel charts and PowerPoints, after an awesome workout in which I was only able to get in a 5 minute warmup (read: very stressful work week), I can’t help but try to be honest to one of my fellow teammates.
I view a scratch under these circumstances as cowardice. I even tried to look up a ‘nicer’ synonym, but unfortunately that’s what I take from it. You will never know if you were able to run 6:20 miles for 20K last weekend..
To quote last Saturday’s (how fitting?) entry in my Runner’s Book of Daily Motivation, “..you must, from time to time, test yourself. How else are you going to know how you fare as a runner? … there is pleasure in testing yourself. You learn when you test yourself, and learning can be a pleasure… you now have more information than you did before, information that can be put to use in the future. And, then, there’s always the possibility that you will put yourself to the test and surpass expectation. What a supreme pleasure that is!”
Now is when I admit that I didn’t read this Motivational entry until Sunday.. and I immediately thought back to my own race on Saturday. No, I didn’t scratch, but I did run like a coward. Instead of testing myself and seeing what I could run the mile in on that day, I settled for sitting on a less capable runner and cruising to an unsatisfying victory. I tried to blame it on ‘forgetting’ how to race the mile, or the NC State guys who took it out hard only to drop out at 1200m.. but the fact of the matter is I did not test myself and see what I was capable of, and that disappoints me. Far from ’supreme pleasure’.
I think we should approach races with that one goal in mind - let’s find out what I am capable of today. If my long work week, lack of sleep, hard workouts, etc keep me from PR-ing, so be it. But we should always walk away from the finish line knowing that we couldn’t have run any faster on that day.
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02.04.08
Brain vs. Body
“Man, this really hurts.. if you back off just a little bit, I promise it won’t hurt as much..”
We’ve all gone through it before. Our body starts feeling pain in the middle of a race and tries to convince our brain to let it slow down. The lactic acid is starting to build up, we’re feeling fatigued, and if we take it down just a notch it won’t hurt quite as bad.
This happened to me again Saturday - after a 21 month hiatus from track racing and having never run at that speed around a 200m flat track (only other race being a 5K at Clemson two years ago). About 8 laps in I really started to feel those turns and my body was screaming, “what the hell is this?”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve let my body get its way. It’s a really good negotiator.
But what are the consequences if you let your brain listen to your body? The leaders start getting farther away - others who aren’t listening to that voice of pain start passing you - you hear Joan scream, “you lost a second, get it back!”. But you don’t get it back - because you already decided that you’re too tired, you already quit, you already settled for a ‘try’ instead of a ‘do’.
That’s why you have to make that decision before it even happens. When the body knocks on the brain’s door and says, “hey, let’s ease up, this isn’t comfortable”, the brain is already gone. “Not this time, we’ve worked too hard for this.”
Which feeling do you think is worse - hurting, a lot, for the last 4 minutes of that race.. or walking around afterwards for days, weeks, however long it takes for you to get another chance to prove to yourself you’re not a quitter? Rhetorical question, we all know the answer.
Some days you just don’t have it. Your brain is telling your body to speed up, to catch that next person - but your body just will not, can not, respond. Just make sure its never your brain that gives up on you - or else you’ll never know what you’re capable of.
When I was fatigued on Saturday and getting cut off to the point of stumbling, my mind was already made up.
I love this sport.
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09.20.07
Success vs. Failure - which is which?
I have the honor of being Facebook “friends” with Josh McDougal, NCAA XC and track star at Liberty University, and recently noticed a powerful note he had shared with the Facebook world. I’ll let his note speak for itself…
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2007/2008 Running Goals
This entry has everthing, and at the same time, nothing to do with my running.
As I am currently setting goals for my SR year, I have been looking through my journal entry’s from last year, to see what I want to do differently during the upcoming year. I was just looking through one of my old journals, and I came across this entry I had written last February. I had the privilege of sharing it with some campers at Jim Ryun’s Camp this summer, and in light of that thought I would put it up here for everyone who so chooses to read.
First, before I post the entry let me give some quick background info.
This entry came during one of the darkest moments during the hardest time of my life thus far. I scratched this entry out on a piece of paper while killing time during a long lay over in O’Hare International Airport on the way back from a disappointing race out in Seattle. At this time, I had just become aware that my running had become my identity, it was no longer something I loved to do, it had become all that I was, something that I used to try derive satisfaction and meaning from for my life. In light of this fact, and with a string of utterly disappointing races behind me, I found myself completely drained of happiness, motivation, and purpose.
So there I was sitting on a bench all alone in one of the most crowded airports in the world, for the just about the first time in my life sincerely wondering if running was still worth it to me. It was right then after months of running 100 milers per hour in the wrong direction that I turned around, cried out to the Lord, and did two things that I sadly had not done much of for the past several months. I prayed, and I opened up my bible, and asked God to speak to me. Afterwards I took out a piece of scrapbook paper and just let it all out. This is NOT a sermon, or even a planned lesson, its just the wild ramblings of a desperate individual who was at the end of his rope. In fact like most areas of my life this entry ends not with a complete solution, but with more questions.
Thoughts - 2/11/07 Chicago IL - O’Hare International Airport.
May I learn to accept my successes with as much humility as I do my failures, and may I never confuse the two.
Looking back over the “learning experiences” I have had in my life. I am stunned to find that success was never (at least at the time) associated with the results or outcome. It was in these moments of “failure” that I have learned the most, these most, these moments of failure that strip away all traces of my foolish pride, and lay bare my true self. It is in these painful moments of candidness that I see myself for who I truly am, and not for who I truly think myself to be. Contrarily, it is in these moments of “success” that I see myself for who I truly think myself to be, and not for who I truly am. Which leads me to question. Which is the true success? Which is the true failure?
Though I may succeed in the eyes of the public I fail to see who I truly am, and in fact only reinforce a false image of myself. Where as, when I fail in the eyes of the public, I get a true glimpse of who I really am. Which I now come to see is worth so much more, for then I can get a gauge of who I truly am, and some degree of learning takes place, which is not the case with my successes.
Its strange that I have never noticed it before, but my most monumental “successes” have usually followed in the footsteps of some of my most monumental “failures.” Though this is a two way street, for most of my monumental “successes” have lead to some of my most monumental “failures.”
How can something that leads to success be called a failure ? How can something that leads to failure be called a success ?
I know I’m not the only one who suffers through this vicious cycle. As I read the Old Testament I see Israel time and time again rebel in the good times, and repent in the bad. It doesn’t seem like they learned anything from their successes or failures, and apparently they never learned to distinguish between the two.
I know that the Lord has great plans for my life, for my running career. Heights I have not reached yet, though why would the Lord allow me to “succeed” if it only drives us apart ? Why wouldn’t he allow me to “fail” if it brings me closer to him ?
I think the Lord wants to bless me, though it is more important to him that the state of my heart is right with him.
For me to reach the heights the Lord desires for me to stand upon I must learn find a way to learn from my successes as I do my failures. I must learn to be as close to the Lord in my successes as In my failures.
HOW DO I DO THIS ???
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This was not the last of my struggles, but merely the turn of the tide it you will. The point where I realized my problem and in desperation began to fight. The fight is still a constant reality in my life, my running still becomes my identity at times, and as such is an idol in my life. It is a constant struggle, but I keep fighting, I press on. Currently I’m where the apostle Paul was at when he said. “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Currently I’m about to embark upon my final athletic year here at Liberty. I’m not sure how it is going to turn out, but I’m looking forward with great expectation to the journey. I know there will be joys, struggles, victories, and defeats along the way, but for my part I will try and embrace them all with the same spirit of humility, and learn from one as well as the other. Sure I’d love to win nationals and even make the Olympic team, but if that is my driving passion behind every step I take this year I will have to look back over the past year and call it a failure, even if the goals I set were attained. My one goal for the year is to be able to look back over my SR year, and with the same level of confidence that Paul while looking back over his life in 2 Timothy 4:7 say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Its going to be a great year!
- Josh McDougal
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08.07.07
I miss Chapel Hill
I found my watch.
I found it next to my bed underneath my CamelBak as I was moving two weekends ago. I had put off finding a replacement because I was sure it was around somewhere and was patiently hoping that the move would reveal its location to me. I had temporarily lost it again in the move because I was smart enough to put it somewhere that’d be easy to find. Remembering that easy to find place turned out the be the hard part.
The past 10 days were pretty stressful for many reasons related to my move. Tonight will hopefully be the first time I get a chance to be in my apartment and not be cleaning or sleeping. I didn’t know rooms could get as dirty as the one I moved into - but I guess that’s what I get for not putting any time or thought whatsoever into the move.
I’m pretty sure that up until two weekends ago I was in denial that I had to leave the house in Chapel Hill. As I sat in that house, empty, exhausted from a 3-day move, it all finally hit me - that was the perfect house, perfect location (especially for running), perfect roommates - and here I am moving to Southpoint. I flat out hadn’t realized what was coming, what was now already here. I broke down in the middle of the empty den.
I went back to CH for my runs almost every day of that following week. The security of the Pumpkin Loop trails and my girlfriend’s clean bathroom made not being at the apartment the obvious choice.
As I put on my watch this morning for the first time since losing it, I realized this would be my first run since July 4th without my “naked wrist”. Finally, I’ll know how long I have been running. However, I was NOT excited about trying to find 10 miles worth of decent running around Southpoint. I can’t begin to explain how very upset at myself I have been for not thinking more about my running when considering a location to move to.
So, for some reason I thought I’d try going south on Fayetteville Rd - the sidewalks began to vanish very quickly. There were a few small neighborhoods that weren’t nearly enticing enough to get me to turn into them. I slowly began to get angry again for having moved to such a bad running location when something caught my eye. I was running over a very small bridge and had noticed below and to my left what appeared to be a dirt road / trail. I nearly jumped off the bridge in excitement, scattered to the other side of the road, found an entryway to below the bridge, and immediately began thanking God for what I had just found. I know this must sound ridiculous, I mean come on it’s just a trail right?, but I seriously thought I must still be asleep and this was all just my hopeful dream.
I now realize that this is apparently the “real” Tobacco Trail. I had heard about the Tobacco Trail but always assumed it was only the greenway part that starts at the Kroger on 54. Many of you I’m sure already knew about this and would have told me if I had asked for places to run around there - I’m pretty sure it was much more satisfying to discover it on my own though.
Needless to say, it made my day that what was going to be a painful 10 miler of neighboorhood loops turned into an eye-opening 12 miler. By the way, anyone know when the “Future Bridges” (as labled on the map) are supposed to be complete?
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07.11.07
Naked Wrist
I’ve been hesitant to post on here. Everyone’s just so darned good at expressing their feelings towards running, at creating clever lines and phrases, at using all kinds of big words that I’ve never even heard of (why is it that runners always seem to be extremely well educated - I mean are we really that smart, participating in what has to be the worst sport in the history of athletics with regards to what I like to call the “self-inflicted pain / celebrity and fame” ratio?)… but alas, I have decided that it doesn’t matter if I write like a middle schooler.
I lost my watch somehow after my run on the 4th, and this has been the most frustrating yet rewarding thing for the past week. It sucks to lose an expensive piece of equipment and have to resort to glancing at the clock on the stove right as I head out the door, repeating that time over and over in my head while running so I won’t forget it, wondering how long I’ve been running and if heading back now will cut the run too short, and upon finishing the run having to rush inside to see the new time on the stove.
I used to have a running buddy back in Knoxville who absolutely hated to know the running time of our runs. I would annoy the hell out of him “oh wow, we’ve been running for 5 minutes already” or “man, it’s only been 2 minutes since the last time I looked”. Even during a 4th of July race that our team would eventually go 1-4 in I glanced over at him and said “hey look, we’ve been only been going for a minute!”. Well, his pet peeve soon rubbed off on me, as now I’ll often times switch my watch to the ‘counter’ feature to avoid seeing the duration of my run. The longer you run without looking at the time, the longer you will have been running when you eventually do look - and that’s a great feeling.
I feel we often cling too much to our watches. I’ve had college running buddies who insisted on running complete “badger miles”, tacking on 90 seconds to our 10 mile runs if we got back in 68:30. Mile intervals on the track would result in us looking at our watches every 200m - pacing off the watch instead of our own bodies. My favorite types of workouts are fartleks because, while we rely on our watches to tell us when to speed up or slow down, distance and pace isn’t really an exact science - you just run as hard as you can for that period of time.
I do need to get a new watch I guess… sometimes runs just seem so much better without one. That and I’m hanging on to the hope that mine will miraculously show up somewhere soon.
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