The Running Fat Guy

Change in the Wind

2012-01-31T12:45:00.001-08:00

I’m not talking in the literal sense though. It appears that after months of trying to figure out how to find gainful employment, I have managed to stumble into an opportunity.

Well, not really. Stumbling that is. It’s an opportunity that I have been chasing for several months. It’s right up the alley of what I was looking for – back in the Management Consulting industry working for a small boutique firm. It’s back to my roots and what I enjoy doing.

It’s not all peachy keen and ideal though. My first project is ten weeks long (which means I could be looking again in a few weeks) and it’s not here in sunny Southern California. The pay is good, so I can deal with the 10 week duration, and I do get to come back home every weekend. But, beginning Monday it’s the life of a consultant – airports, rental cars and hotels.

In the meantime, anyone in Sacramento have tips on some good trails?

What a Dud!

2012-01-23T11:29:00.001-08:00

That pretty much sums up last week. The lowlights:

I ran on Tuesday. 4 miles.
Umm.
Okay.
Saturday: The rains came. The trails closed.

Saturday night I missed what I’m sure was an all around great time with my blogger friends Jill, Meg, Irene, and others at their pre-Carlsbad Marathon carbo load celebration (by the way – I do need a pictorial report please!)
Sunday – see the picture above. And I couldn’t find my car keys because I knew if I did, then I could move the car out of the garage and would then have to row.

So, last week was a real dud. All around. The worst part? If I’m not running, I can’t eat! Yikes!

It’s Monday and it’s raining again. That means the trails will be closed until at least Wednesday. Which is okay, because my Wednesday is booked solid anyways. Besides, the sun is supposed to be out and the temps into the upper 70’s by the middle of the week. That’s more like it.

Here’s this week’s plan:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4 road miles
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 4 miles. Hopefully trails.
Friday: Poker day.
Saturday: Let’s try this again. 10 miles. Trails
Sunday: 8 miles. Trails.
Total planned: 26 ish miles.

Hey! That’s like a marathon!

A Minor Setback

2012-01-19T10:56:00.001-08:00

After all that rah rah talk about getting started on my journey to aerobic fitness, I suffered a setback over the weekend and couldn’t get out to do my long runs. Nothing physical – just some scheduling conflicts. Yeah. Unfortunately life has a way of getting in the way sometimes.

This week has also had it share of schedule challenges. Here was my planned schedule:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4 easy
Wednesday: 4 easy
Thursday: 4 easy
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 10 trail
Sunday 8 trail
Total: 30 miles

But, to top it off, my job search had me running around Wednesday, and I will be doing so today (Thursday) as well, so those two runs aren’t happening. To top it off now, the weatherman* is forecasting rain Friday night and Saturday, which means my beloved trails will be closed this weekend. If that’s the case, I may end up breaking out the rowing machine. After all, a man has to eat!

* I use the term “weatherman” loosely. There are several female weatherpersons on TV in L.A. A couple appear to be keeping plastic surgeons in business…

Building a Base

2012-01-13T10:38:00.001-08:00

The toughest part of running for me right now is I remember the way it used to be. Back when I could confidently say “Four miles? Bah. It’s not even worth tying my shoes for.”

Well, these days I can’t even run half a mile without breaking into a brisk walk. Sure – some of it has to do with the extra 20 pounds I’m carrying (yes – I really let myself go during the last year and a half), but most of it has to do with the fact that I’ve lost *all* of my aerobic base.

Here’s a statistic for you – do you realize that your aerobic system provides about 95% of your energy needs in a 5K and almost 100% of them in a marathon? Yet most of us neglect proper cardio vascular training by doing our long runs too fast and doing too many intervals and hills way too hard.

Building our cardio vascular system involves slow, persistent training over a long period of time. I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story, but (time for some proud parental bragging) two of my children were rowers (the kind who row the big boats like you see in the Olympics, or the opening credits of House). My daughter scholar shipped at an NCAA division I school, and my youngest son was racing internationally at the ripe age of 16. Both of them received coaching from people who rowed internationally at the highest levels (World Cup and Olympics). The two of them would literally spend hours every day on rowing machines or running at *very* low heart rates (65% of max or less) building their aerobic base. Why? Because that is how the elites train. All I know is within a few months they were able to row on the water for hours and not really break much of a sweat.

What can I take away from this? This time I’m not going to fall into the trap of thinking that I *need* to train hard. The key this time around will be weekends – long runs at low intensity. Back to back. Miles of slow running until my body says it’s ready to train hard. How will I know when I’m ready? When my long runs become easy.

Yes. This time I’m going slow and steady. Say, wasn’t there some Greek fable about that?

This week:

Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 4 miles easy.
Thursday: Rest.
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 10 miles easy.
Sunday: 8 miles easy
Total: 28 miles

Back to Back

2012-01-11T09:22:00.001-08:00

I know I said I would be back on Sunday. Sorry if you visited and found nothing new. I spent Sunday on a 10 plus mile trail run, Monday on a back to back 6 plus mile trail run, and Tuesday sleeping it all off.

Today my fingers no longer hurt (believe me – on Monday evening every part of my body was sore and tired!), so here’s my contribution to my YouTube channel. Come join me as I travel some of the ridges and canyons of Laguna Coast and Crystal Cove:

I think I’m reinvigorated. After well over a year of being in the dumps, I am finding some satisfaction with setting aside three or more hours on my weekends to traipse the hills. Not enough yet to say I want to race a marathon (or even a half), but enough to get out when the weather is good and enjoy the sights and sounds.

The other thing that is painfully obvious is that I need to build my aerobic base. More on that this week.

Short Post for a Short Run

2012-01-06T09:04:00.001-08:00

Put in a short four miler around the Back Bay last night. I had some issues with my heart rate spiking under minimal stress, so I backed off the pace (if that’s possible) and half jogged half walked this one.

Sorry for the bad photo, but the light wasn’t great.

I’m off today, so you all get a day’s rest from my ramblings. Big plans for this weekend though, so I’ll be back to bug you all on Sunday!

Is it Really January?

2012-01-05T12:52:00.001-08:00

I was back in the Laguna Coast yesterday. I got a late start. No. I didn’t need to wear sleeves:

Seen at the Pacific Ridge Trailhead. Can I join this team?

Is it really January? Yes it is! That’s why I live in Socal!

The sunset was pretty dramatic:

I really wanted to head down into Emerald Canyon, but with my 4:45 PM start, it was going to get dark on my way out of there:

So, instead, I turned around at the 3 mile mark and headed back along Bommer Ridge to the car. It got really dark. I’m glad I had my headlamp:

By the way – I ran into a set of glowing eyeballs in the distance about half a mile from my car. Does anyone know if a coyote has two forward facing eyes?

Ha ha! I’m pretty sure it was a coyote. I mean it seemed to be more afraid of me than I was of him, because as I crept closer, it stopped and then bounded up the hill. No. It wasn’t a rabbit….

6 miles yesterday. 4 miles today.

My Annual Night Running Post

2012-01-03T08:17:00.001-08:00

Except I missed 2011. And 2010 for that matter. Have I really been slacking that long? My waist says yes.

I thought I would go ahead and post this year because it appears that I will be using some of my equipment. Or at least, should be using my equipment.

Anyways, here is the gear that has a permanent place in my bag:

Headlamp/Flasher: This is the most important piece of equipment in my night running arsenal. It’s about seeing and being seen. The other day I posted myself in action. Here’s a breakdown of my see and be seen equipment:

Flasher: I picked this up from Road Runner sports a couple years ago.

I slap this onto the back strap of my headlamp. It is my attempt to not get run over from behind by some crazy cyclist (LOL). So far it seems to have worked.

Duravision Pro 180 Saftey Light, Road Runner Sports, $8.99

Headlamp: Okay. I went a little overboard with this. But, I do a lot of running where there aren’t streetlights. I also use this guy a lot when I get caught hiking after dark, or just in lieu of a flashlight at home.

This is a tremendous headlamp. It has variable strength LED and Halogen lamps. I can pretty much illuminate a trail like it’s daytime with this lamp. Or blind any cyclist or car coming at me.

Black Diamond Icon Headlamp, REI, $64.95

Here are the two in action:

Reflective vest: Unfortunately, most of the places I like to run (Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Crystal Cove State Park) are closed or off-limits at night (as in get a ticket if caught), so sometimes I have to resort to the Back Bay or along trails that are frequented by cyclists and/or cars. For that, I wear a reflective vest. It’s all about being seen before I get run over:

Nathan Streak Vest, Road Runner Sports, $24.99

I approach night running as an exercise in safety. I slow down a little, turn the iPod volume down a notch, and tune in a little more to my surroundings.

Out with the Old

2012-01-01T13:22:00.001-08:00

I woke up yesterday with a decision to make. Being of Asian heritage, I can be convinced of the validity of certain superstitions. One of those is that whatever you do on New Year’s Day will set the stage for the rest of the year. And therein lay my decision.

I had 9 miles planned for “the weekend”. I really wanted to do them on Sunday to set the stage for the rest of 2012. But, my week is rounding up to be pretty busy. I will not be able to do a Tuesday run – I have an Tuesday afternoon appointment, which coupled with the famous L.A. traffic means the whole afternoon/evening is shot. So, I will need to use Monday for my Tuesday run, which means that I need to use Sunday for recovery from my “weekend” run. Oh well. I guess my decision got made.

I was a little hesitant about going. The weather forecast was for a spectacular Southern California day, but even at Noon, it was a foggy, hazy, damp 55 degrees. I packed up some sleeves just in case, and headed up to the Laguna Coast.

As I headed up the hill, I drove out of the inversion layer* and into a bright, sunny gorgeous day. I parked and got my feet moving. The first thing that I was thankful for was that despite this being much more wild than the Back Bay, there apparently aren’t any skunks:

Did I mention that it was a gorgeous day?

At least until you got looking toward the ocean, where the fog and moisture were clinging to the lower elevations.

One thing that is quite amazing of these coastal hills is that even in December, there are still flowers in bloom. Although I wouldn't try picking one of these blossoms to put in my hair.

The other thing that is pretty amazing about these trails is as often as I blog about them (and I have run them more than that), there are always little side canyons that I haven’t explored. Today, I decided to do just that. I headed along Bommer Ridge. I had great views of West Ridge and Top of the World across Laguna Canyon, where my blogging buddy Lauren can be found most days. I looked for the cloud of dust that would have been at her back as she ripped the hills, but I didn’t see one.

Wait a minute. I didn’t see “deer” listed as one of the dangers on the sign.

After about 3 3/4 miles of gently rolling hills, I arrived at the turnoff to Boat Canyon. I hung a right and was ready for some exploring.

I’m sure that on a clear day, the views must be breathtaking. Unfortunately, the coastal haze and fog made things a little less than spectacular today.

If you are new to trail running, or are thinking about taking it on, I have a tip for you. When you are on a ridge top, and a spur trail has the word “Canyon” in it, you’re probably going to have to climb back out.

All in all, it was a beautiful day for 9 miles in the hills!

Happy New Year from The Running Fat Guy! May 2012 be filled with joy, health and prosperity!

* To understand “inversion”, you have to keep in mind that the L.A area is really a big flat desert flood plain surrounded by mountains on three sides and the ocean on the fourth. In the winter, as the sun comes up and warm air rises, cool, damp air is drawn in off the ocean. Bring heavier than the warm air it is replacing, the “inversion layer” sits for (sometimes) a couple hundred feet next to the ground. On windless days (like yesterday), nothing moves the air to mix the cooler air next to the ground with the warmer air higher up, making it cool and moist at sea level, and quite comfortable just a few hundred feet higher in elevation. Here’s a photo of the inversion layer in action:

One More Day…

2011-12-30T10:58:00.001-08:00

Don’t worry. Today is a scheduled rest day, so you’ll get a day off from reading my blog tomorrow. Until then though….

With my body actively rebelling two days of hilly workouts, I decided that I would stick to the flatlands, and opted to get my workout on the paved trails of the Back Bay in Newport Beach.

Sometimes I’m surprised when people tell me the animals they are afraid of. Want to know what scares me?

Yes. You can yell and scare coyotes. You can hear a rattlesnake. But surprise a skunk? Oh man. I know people who’ve had that experience.

There’s a little for everyone around the bay. There is beauty for those who just want to enjoy life:

There are cars for the Housewives of Orange County:

There are beautiful sunsets:

Hills for those so inclined:

And mega mansions:

But, the coolest thing last night was the fog:

I got to my turnaround point just as it was getting dark. I put together this little video showing off my mad headlamp running skillz:

Now, please take this time to rest and relax. I’ll be back next week after my long (?) weekend run.

The Plan Said 5!

2011-12-29T19:23:00.001-08:00

Okay. You can pick yourself up off the floor. Three days in a row. Get your coats out. Hell is about to freeze over.

I made it out in the late afternoon for some more hill traipsing. My plan (yes I have one) said 5 miles. My body was still rebelling from Tuesday afternoon. But, who am I to listen to my body. I headed up to Newport Ridge to get in some miles in Laguna Coast.

I parked and looked at my watch. 4PM. Let’s see, 5 miles at 4 mph (hills and such) should put me back to my car a little after 5:00. The sun should just be setting, and the winds should be blowing off the ocean. I filled a handheld, donned an Underarmour, dialed in the iPod, and went off into the wilds of coastal Orange County.

Being one who gets bored pretty easily, I decided to be adventurous and hang a left onto an unmapped single track.

I had been this way before, but it had been a few months (Who am I kidding? It’s been months since I’ve done any serious training).

Up up and away I went on this magnificent single track. The views toward the ocean were amazing.

There are some cool things to see. I can just imagine the wildlife that must congregate at this watering hole – just a few steps off the beaten path. Water is a precious commodity in these normally dry hills.

Eventually though, what goes up, must come down. The problem with these single tracks is that the mountain bikes have found them too. One thing that big knobby tires have a tendency to do is to tear the crap out of trails. Then, when The Running Fat Guy gets his mighty mass hurtling downhill, it’s easy to step in the wrong place and turn an ankle. “Jog” is reduced to “walk” in the interest of safety and injury prevention.

Ever so slowly, I worked my way down into a wonderful meadow (meaning an old cattle corral area when this used to be a working ranch) where I could once again break out into a 14 minute per mile dash.

The only problem is I had spent the last two miles crawling along at a sub 20:00 pace. I had just worked my way down 800 vertical feet in a mile. Which meant that I had to climb back out of this canyon and make my way back to the car. I was glad that I had my sleeves on, as it was beginning to get chilly.

I worked my way up the hill in front of me, taking frequent gasp/wheeze stops (have I really let myself get this out of shape?). I crested the hill and got to Bommer Ridge just in time for a spectacular sunset.

I turned around and noticed that I had quite a view to my north as well. The only problem? It was a view of lights. Hmmm.

That pretty much meant that I was going to have to get back to my car in the dark. The sun had set and all I had was some water. No headlamp. Hmmm. This could be interesting.

Trail running in the dark comes with a different set of dangers. Most would be worried about animals like coyotes and mountain lions. But the #1 danger on trails after dark, are the trails themselves. In fact, here is how I would rank after dark trail running dangers:

Trails: Most trails are uneven, rutted, and filled with obstacles like rocks and ridges (just take a look at the photo above). Stick your foot into a rut or a hole and you could end up with a turned or broken ankle, a knee injury, or at worst, a concussion from smacking your head on a rock or hard surface. For this reason alone, I walked back to the car.
Snakes: Here in California during certain times of the year (like when the temperatures are in the 70’s like they have been this week), snakes will often pull themselves out of hiding and stretch out lengthwise on fire roads or flat rocks. They do this to capture the heat dissipating from surfaces that have been in the sun all day. In the dark, a snake would look like a long stick. Or with an iPod blaring, you may not even notice a coiled snake until…. Wait! What’s that?!?!?! It looks like a coiled snake! Oh wait a minute….
Which brings me to trail danger #3: Steaming piles of coyote poo! Yes. They look pretty innocuous. Like a rock in the middle of the trail. Step in it and you’ll never know until you climb in your car at the end of your trek. “Ooooo! What’s that smell?” Don’t ask me why, but for some reason, animals love to poo on trails. Maybe it’s because it’s the only place they can squat without putting a thorn in their butts.

Seriously though – other than leaving my headlamp behind, it was a magical night on the trails of the Laguna Coast. I mean, where else could you snap a picture like this without having to wear 5 layers of clothing and risking hypothermia this time of year:

Run safe!

Three Days in a Row?

2011-12-28T09:40:00.001-08:00

So now I know you’re beginning to wonder. If I start following again is he just going to break my heart in a couple months when he falls off the deep end? I guess that’s for me to know and you to find out, because I’m in control!

On a serious note though – I did make it out the door. I headed into the hills and put in about 4 miles at a pace that resembled a less than brisk walk. It’s been so long since I had seriously attacked hills (real ones) that going up was really really tough. I’m not going to lie – I am woefully out of shape. And carrying an extra 30 pounds doesn’t help either.

I started out a Ridge Park and ran down (please note the proximity of these two words) into Deer Canyon in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park/Crystal Cove State Park. It’s been a while since I’ve been down in the canyon. It was interesting to see that the State has been putting some of their outrageous parking fees (Lauren can appreciate this) to work:

Being down in the canyon meant that I had to climb out next. At least I didn’t have to worry about mountain lions or anything. My huffing, puffing and wheezing going up the hill certainly scared away anything afraid of humans:

When I got to the top, I was rewarded by another view that those of us who live in Southern California get to enjoy in December while we complain about the 55 degree weather:

Then I realized I wasn’t really at the top at all, but just the first of two more climbs to the car. At least I didn’t have to worry about mountain lions or anything. The stream of obscenities I was muttering certainly scared away anything afraid of humans.

So–Where Did We Leave Off Yesterday?

2011-12-27T15:12:00.001-08:00

Oh yeah. 2011.

I, for one, will be happy to get 2011 behind me. So many things on a personal level didn’t quite go right. I seemed to always be on the defensive. I subconsciously started controlling the things I could – and what easier to control than exercise? I cannot tell you how easy it is to decide that it would be better to work out tomorrow. Sigh.

On the flip side though I really get to rub it in now. While you all are going to be stressing over miles to run, races to register for, and distances to PR, my goal for 2012 is easy:

“Be in control”

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it. But then so does running a 4:00 marathon. The difficulty lies in execution. Those who make the 4:00 marathon are willing to commit physically and mentally to the task of training for the marathon.

Life isn’t all that much different. It’s just most of us are too lazy to figure out what to commit to. Face it – when you’re training for a big race, someone gives you a training plan. You commit. You execute. The only difference with life? No one’s there to hand you a training plan. Which really means that we need to work a little harder to figure out what we’re committing to.

For me, I am going to re-commit to some core values:

Self Renewal: I will do things that lead to a long term effective lifestyle so I can have the energy to tackle each day.
Independence: I will be proactive in my approach to life. I will put things on my task list as they crop up. I will not let them languish. Especially if they are unpleasant. I will put first things first instead of doing what is easy because its easy.

That’s it. Pretty simple on the surface. As long as I have physical health and energy and deal with life’s ups and downs in a proactive manner, I will be way ahead of 2011.

Now comes the hard part. Execution. I find it’s real easy to fool myself and to convince others that I am justified. So, this year I am going to work hard to surround myself with positive people who have more than just their own interests are heart. Sometimes it nothing more than a “Good morning, What’s on tap today?” tweet. Nothing like having to focus on today’s task list while on my first cup of coffee to help me prioritize my day.

So there you go. Let the countdown to 2012 start!

But first – it’s a beautiful day here in Southern California. I think I’m going for a walk….

2011–A Year in Review

2011-12-26T11:16:00.001-08:00

This pretty much sums up 2011:

Things started slow. And they never really picked up.

On the positive side, I think I’ve defined the Bell Curve:

I also found this function that defines my waist size:

Heck. I even started with 371 items in Google Reader this morning.

Yup. Those are the lows of 2011.

Which will bring me to where I go from here. But, my readership numbers are in the dumps too, so I need to save that for tomorrow’s post.

Trying to Become Regular

2011-12-23T10:57:00.001-08:00

And doing it without Metamucil!

Two posts in two days. Can it be true?

Yesterday was a bad weather day here in Southern California. A cold winter wind was whipping about making life miserable. There were lots of complaints on Twitter from those living around here. I documented it in this little video. Just so the rest of you digging out from under snow, cold, and ice know that it’s not peachy keen here:

Merry Christmas all! I’ll be catching up on my reading this weekend.

So Much to Do….

2011-12-22T07:58:00.001-08:00

Sorry I’ve been absent from these pages. I’m needing to hit the reset button yet again. Seems like blogging has taken a temporary backseat.

I’m hoping to get caught up on reading this weekend, and get a post or two in the coming week.

Quick edit!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever your version of the Holidays may be. My you and your family enjoy a happy and safe Holiday Season!

Now That We Have Our Ducks in Order…

2011-12-06T14:42:00.001-08:00

Once I caught on and got my ducks in order, I was finally able to effectively network and job hunt. The good news is that in the last two months I have had 4 or 5 opportunities come across my desk. Nothing has really solidified yet into something concrete (or even into something more solid than the wet cement that comes out of a truck), but things are pointing in the right direction. The only problem is that it’s taken me several months to get here.

Which brings me to a few suggestions:

Think about hiring a career coach. Yes they are expensive. No they won’t do the work for you. But they provide expertise and will hold you accountable. If these are problems, it might be something you consider.
Sign up for any webinars dealing with how to use LinkedIn. There are little tricks that you can use to get yourself elevated in search results. (If you are in Orange County, consider attending the Career Coaching Ministry at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest).
Get ready for a roller coaster. I’ve been around a lot of years and have been through my fair share of trials and tribulations. I still wasn’t ready for the emotional swings of a modern job search. Just remember – when you are turned down, or worse yet, hear nothing from a position that you feel you are perfect for, it’s nothing personal. Instead look inward to see if you can figure out why you may have been passed up. Then take corrective action.
Finally, you might want to consider going into business on your own. This takes a special type of personality willing to risk it all – but in times like these there may be opportunities for project related work in your field!

Once again – as Miss Zippy said – it’s a full time job!

Which brings me to a sore spot. My running has been relegated to even less than part time these days. I need to get on the stick here soon if I have a dream of making my goal race a reality. Last week didn’t go so well. I’ll try again this week. I need to start running. After all – I want to start eating!

Monday: Scheduled rest.
Tuesday: 3 easy miles.
Wednesday: 4 easy miles.
Thursday: 3 easy miles.
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 8 to 10 on the trails.
Sunday: Rest.
Total planned: 18 – 20 miles.

Well, That Really Blows…

2011-12-02T12:28:00.001-08:00

You know what? I have a rare opportunity today to talk about both my job search and my training. What do they have in common? They are both really blowing.

That’s right. From a training perspective, we had a “significant meteorological event” this week. You folks in Colorado are probably familiar with the Chinooks or Boras. We have a similar scenario here in Southern California called the Santa Ana winds. Well – we had them this week. Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday they were blowing 20 – 30 mph down here along the coast. We got off pretty light. The damage was devastating in other parts of Los Angeles, where sustained winds of 50 mph and gusts in the 70 to 90 mph range were clocked.

The effect that it had on me was that my four miler on Wednesday turned into a frigid 3 miler, and yesterday turned into zero as I was not about to brave the 20 mph winds and the blowing sand, dust, leaves and litter. I know. What a wimp.

So then you ask – how does the job search blow? Well, in my last post I talked about putting together a complete networking strategy. And I thought that that was the holy grail. That the job interviews and offers would come trickling in. But alas. Meeting people is just step 1 of a multi-faceted gem. Remember when you meet people, you are telling a story. Make sure that your story is consistent. What does that mean? Here are some of the details:

Have a resume handy at all times. The resume you’ll need for networking is probably different than the resume that you’ll have for your job interviews (more on that in a different post). Focus on things that will make you stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Business cards: Have them ready. And no – not your cards from the company you used to work for (unless you want people to call you at your place of business, or worse yet, call you somewhere that you are no longer at). And no – not the ones with the Vista Print logo on them (the free ones).
Elevator pitch: If someone asks you what you do, be ready to tell them. In 30 seconds. And not what you did. But what you do.
Practice, practice, practice: Be able to tell someone everything they need to know about you that would make them want to develop a relationship with you in two minutes or less.
Have your “close” ready: If you feel that this is someone you want to have coffee or lunch with, ask for the appointment. Have your calendar ready and set the date.
Know what your looking for: If someone asks – “What are you looking for?” be able to answer the question. Once again – not what you did, but what you want to do.
Don’t be bashful: If this is someone you really don’t want to develop a further relationship with, don’t be bashful.Tell them so. You wasted five minutes with introductions and your story. Get on to someone who can help you.
LinkedIn: This is not an option. You simply must have presence on LinkedIn. And the story you are telling there must be consistent with the story that you are telling your connections. The first thing that HR organization who is interested in you is going to do is to look you up on LinkedIn.
And while we’re at it - Facebook and Twitter: Yes. They’re going to look there too. Don’t give someone a reason to deny you before you even get out of the gate.

Learn from my mistakes and have your ducks in a row when you start. I learned how to network, and *then* I had to take another month to get the rest of these things in order.

I think Miss Zippy put it best in a comment she left here the other day – “Most people don't realize that job hunting is a job in and of itself.” Nothing is more truthful than this…..

Now That We’re Networking….

2011-11-29T14:51:00.001-08:00

Sorry about taking some time off the running aspect of my blog. But hey – there are tons of running blogs out there. And without a job, we can’t afford the races and travelling that we all love doing. We *do* love travelling to huge races don’t we?

When I left off last week, I talked a little about getting networking in order – set some metrics and meet the right people. But, meeting the “right” people is only the first step in our journey. Most people who I was meeting at networking events were in the same boat as I was in. We were all unemployed trying to find a job or other opportunity. We need to drive networking to the next level. I’m sure there are a bunch of ways to do that, but here is what worked for me:

At each networking event, when I found that person that I had something in common with, I got agreement to meet in one on one for coffee or lunch.
Within a couple days of the event, I would contact each person and set up coffee or lunch to meet. The whole purpose of the meeting was to get to know each other better and figure out how we might be able to help each other. 30 minutes. Nothing else. No commitments. No promises.*
We’d meet over coffee and just get to know each other better. Find out what we were doing individually to further our situations. Engage in some knowledge transfer.
Then, important interchange #1: “You know, I attend <<insert name of networking group here>>’s meetings. I find that there is a good mix of employed people who attend who are willing to help. Let me email you the specifics. What about you?”
And important interchange #2: “I have this contact who I’ve known for a while who might be able to help you. Let me give you his/her info.” I think you can now see where this is going.

The bottom line here is that, just like setting up a training plan, I set up a networking plan for myself. That plan currently looks like this:

Attend 4 networking events a month.
At each event, meet 1 to 3 people with similar backgrounds.
Set up at least 3 coffee/lunch meetings per week lasting at least 30 minutes each
From each lunch/coffee, get one networking group suggestion and two referrals for other people to meet.

And just like that, I started meeting with 12 people a month with similar backgrounds. Some were employed. Some weren’t. But – they all wanted to help!

Speaking of training, I’m going to make another attempt this week:

Monday: Scheduled rest.
Tuesday: 3 miles.
Wednesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: Scheduled rest
Sunday: 8 to 10 miles
Total mileage: 18-20 miles

It may not all be running, but it will all be moving!

Ch ch ch changes….

2011-11-26T10:48:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in my last blog post, lots of things have changed since the last time I looked for a job. But then again, Al Gore had just discovered the Internet.

The thing that has changed first and foremost is the tool that is used to find a job. Back then it was the Classified Ads in the Sunday newspaper. Today it’s all about networks - your collection of friends, family, and acquaintances.

Back in February, I wrote a little about networking. And I got to it. I started attending networking groups. Went out to coffee. Lunch. Got to know people. And promptly wasted a lot of time. If you look, you will find a bunch of networking groups in your local area (If you are having trouble finding some, start with LinkedIn, go to a local networking group, and ask around). People will point you in the right direction to other groups in your local area. Now you have a list of groups to attend. And, like me, you will meet a bunch of great people, drink a lot of coffee and have very little to show for it.

Now, you’re probably asking, “So what does this have to do with running?” Well – here’s the tie in. How do we approach a race? 90% of the blogs I read say the following: “My A goal is hh:mm:ss, my B goal is…”. Why is it that we approach a race with metrics but don’t approach our livelihood the same way?

Well, it all became clear one day over coffee with a person that I met at a networking group. I was talking to her about suggestions for other groups when I let it slip about my frustration with the fact that my network was taking me no where. That’s when she give me her words of wisdom – metrics. Have in your mind what you are looking for in a networking session that would signify success. For me that became:

Meeting 1 to 3 people with a similar background to mine who are on the same career track (i.e, looking for the same opportunities) as me. This gives us something to share and a reason to develop a relationship past the initial meeting.
If I am unable to achieve this metric in two meetings of the group, then I cross them off my list.

This little gem helped me get focused on what I needed to get accomplished when networking. It’s not just about meeting people - it’s about meeting people who can help each other. And just like that, things started getting unstuck. To be continued….

The Big Fat Zilch

2011-11-24T10:04:00.001-08:00

Zero. Nada. Zippo (not the lighter). That’s been this week’s running output.*

I know. No excuses. It’s all about desire. But, each of us has a different reason for running. I use running as a release from the day’s trials, tribulations, and stresses. Which naturally means my running takes place near the end of the day. It used to be a ritual that I used to wrap up the day.

Well, a few months back, everything started changing. Back in January (has it really been that long?), I blogged about a big life change. Yes. I was going to be unemployed. I blogged about Marketing for a Job, using LinkedIn as a resource, and establishing a personal brand for differentiation. I then talked about getting out and networking. Meeting people. Having coffee, lunches, and getting the job search on track a la 2011.

I went to work. Met a lot of people. Started establishing/re-establishing my network. And nothing happened. Week turned into months. And nothing continued happening.

It took a little introspection to realize something. If this was a training cycle, and my training was getting me nowhere, what would I do? I’d be looking for a change. Why is it that when we’re talking about our hobbies, we are always capable of figuring out what to do, but with our livelihoods it’s a different story?

Well, I did just that. Went for the curve ball. Tried different things. And in these past two weeks I’ve had four interviews. Including a phone interview Monday afternoon, a lunch Tuesday afternoon, a phone interview Wednesday morning, and another call planned for Wednesday afternoon. Which means I’m spending my time late in the evenings studying up. Getting prepared. So – sorry running – my attention is required elsewhere for the time being!

Over the next couple of posts, I’ll talk a little about some of the things I changed to get some traction in the job search. Let me tell you – things sure have changed since the last time I went on the prowl for a job back in 1996!

* Well – not really. I did get 2 miles in on Monday evening. And will be out and about Friday. And Saturday. I need to get some release from the trials, tribulations, and stresses of the job search!

Speaking of Shoes*….

2011-11-16T10:43:00.001-08:00

After reading through a couple of the comments that were posted, I wanted to tell a story about how I figured out that the ASICS GT2160’s were the shoes that made sense for me.

Being an old fart, I can empathize with one of our ex-Presidents:

When I want to avoid getting fooled, I go the tried and true conservative route. That meant that the first time I realized that running shoes were not the ones that you pick up in the sale rack at a discount retailer, I decided to head down the street to Road Runner Sports.

To be honest, they do a great job for beginning runners. They put you on a pressure pad and then do a treadmill, look at your footprint and watch your gait, and then put you into the most expensive shoe they can based on your analysis. Oh well. They’re entitled to their profit. After my first visit, they put me in a pair of ASICS Kayanos (maybe like the 13’s or 14’s back then). And they were heaven…

Until I reached about 250 miles and started having all these aches and pains. I went back to Road Runner and they put me in a new pair of shoes. I was in heaven again. For another 200 or so miles. Needless to say – this was beginning to become an expensive proposition. By this time I had joined a running club and after talking to some of the folks in the club, I was pointed to a local store that was run by a guy considered to be reputable. Long story short, I visited the store, took my shoes, and he gave me the entire rundown on ASICS. He then suggested I get into a pair of ASICS GT-2130’s. Basically the same support, a little less cushion, but a lot more wear. And I was in heaven. This time for 450 miles. I replaced the 2130’s with 2140’s. 400 miles and repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

These days, shopping for shoes involves sitting at my computer and finding the best price on a pair of ASICS GTwhatevers. But – I couldn’t have done that without that first trip to the big store that set me in the right direction to begin with.

*Sorry about the inconsistent posts these days**. I am going to try to make an effort to be more consistent in both my training and running. Lots going on these days, but if I told you about that, I wouldn’t have anything to post about later this week.

** And thanks for reading! Even with the inconsistency and the lack of real content, I am floored every day when my Google analytic reports come in.

Something Exciting Happened…

2011-11-08T14:58:00.001-08:00

Okay. I guess I lied yesterday. Maybe there are exciting things that can happen during the boring miles. I’m being Imelda Marcos now…

Yup. Shoes. It was time to replace the old GT 2150’s with ASICS newest version the GT 2160’s. In case you missed the changes between the two model, here’s a photo of the GT 2150’s to compare:

You get my drift…..

In all seriousness, our shoes are the one thing that we, as runners, should be especially strict about keeping tabs on. They are the tools by which we ply our trade. We wouldn’t dream of not having the best fastest computer, or newest tablet, but I’m surprised at how many people have no idea how many miles they have on their shoes!

I know it’s time to start looking when I start getting little pains in places that normally don’t hurt. And last week, I started getting some new pains in my shins and hips. I checked my log and sure enough – 400 miles on this pair. Time to start shopping.

These shoes work for me. Firm fit, no blisters or hot spots, and good wear. It’s a relief that I don’t need to head over to a retail outlet to get or look at a different show. Instead I just settled in behind my keyboard and shopped for the best price – currently on sale at REI for $69.93. That’s $30 off standard retail price. If you run in these shoes, beat a path over to REI!

Sliding into a Training Regimen

2011-11-07T09:44:00.001-08:00

Me and my big mouth. An ultra next spring. Yeah right. The problem is since I let is slip, I’d end up with egg on my face if I decided it was all part of a weak moment of temporary insanity and pretend that it didn’t really happen. That’ll teach me….

In all seriousness, I’ve been putting in miles, but not much else exciting has been going on. 3 miles here, 4 miles there, 6 to 8 miles on the trails on the weekends. I’ve been in the 15-20 mile range for the past few weeks, just kind of mind numbingly going through the motions. This does not lead to events that are especially blog worthy – hence my recent absence from these pages.

I have more of the same (15-20 miles per week) for the next four weeks until I slide into my ultra training plan. What I guess I’m saying is don’t hold your breath waiting for a lot on this blog. I’ll be lucky to come up with something insightful once a week for the next month. Maybe a 30 minute video of me putting one foot in front of the other?

This week:

Monday: Scheduled rest
Tuesday: 3 miles easy
Wednesday: 4 miles easy
Thursday: 3 miles easy
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: 8 miles (if the weather cooperates – supposed to be cold and wet next weekend)
Sunday: Scheduled rest.
Total: 18 miles

Rinse and repeat….

Just an fyi – in case you really do miss me during the next month – you can probably catch me over on my other blog – Poker Perdition. Some exciting stuff going on there (like what to not do if you want to win…)

Occupy..

2011-10-26T12:34:00.001-07:00

Sorry! Just had to post it…..

Can You Look out Your Window Please?

2011-10-25T10:03:00.001-07:00

My motivation may be running past. If you see it can you please catch it and send it back home?

As you can gather from the title, last week was a fail. Got in the runs during the week, but just couldn’t get motivated to get out the door on the weekend. So, I put in 14 miles, but my long(ish) run went out the window.

Assuming someone catches my motivation and sends it back home, here’s what I’m look at this week:

Monday: Scheduled rest
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: Schedule conflict – scheduled rest
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: 6 miles
Saturday: Schedule conflict – rest day
Sunday: 10 miles on the trails
Total planned: 24 miles

Thinking about it, I’ve been reading about a lot of motivation issues lately. Maybe it’s a conspiracy?

I Guess Summer is Over

2011-10-20T09:24:00.001-07:00

We’re in a weird transitional season in Southern California. Kind of in between what we call summer (a little bit of heat with no humidity) and winter (more like spring in the rest of the country).

The thing that identifies fall in Southern California are extremes. For example, in the last week, we had had days of upper 90’s (here at the beach – triple digits inland) followed two days later with fog and temperatures barely in the mid 60’s:

Saturday was absolutely spectacular with temperatures in the low 70’s, light breeze, and bluebird skies:

But, unlike the rest of the country where autumn looks like this*:

Here in Southern California, autumn looks like this:

Sigh.

Keep your head down and feet moving!

* Just to rub it in – the fall colors photo above was taken in Southern California – about six hours north of Orange County.

Another Week

2011-10-19T11:00:00.001-07:00

Well – I was conspicuously missing from these pages last week. I had a busy week (too much busy work, unfortunately not enough productive work) and some weather issues (over 90 here at the beach early last week) created some scheduling and rescheduling requirements. Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday became Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Then, a last minute appointment on Friday put the kibosh on that day. Finally, I found out (not surprisingly) that I’m not in as good a shape as I want to be in when I hit the trails for a 12 miler on Saturday. I made it through 8 of the miles. Man. What a sad sack.

Saturday’s ~~run~~ slog was spectacular though. We are very much into Southern California fall.

The good news is that goals are made to strive toward, and plans are the road maps to get there. I think I’m still on the right road – but hey – I’m a guy. I don’t ask for directions:

Monday/Tuesday: Scheduled rest
Wednesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 6 miles
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: 12 miles (heading back into the hills – so will probably be 8 to 10 miles to be realistic)
Sunday: 4 miles
Total: 22-26 miles

Nose to the grindstone and all that crap….

Committed

2011-10-08T11:56:00.001-07:00

I guess that has one of two meanings. You get to decide which one fits: http://www.bhs50.com/index.html

The past six weeks have been all about hitting the reset button and making sure my body is able to handle some training stress. I’m handling four days a week pretty well. Starting next week, it will be about lengthening out. It will be about spending more time on my feet.

I picked up a 50K training plan (don’t make fun of the source guys – these women can run circles around most of us) and made a couple of adjustments. You can keep track of my progress here.

So – come join me as I learn about the ultramarathon world. Enough of the streets for me. Upcoming this week:

Monday: Scheduled rest
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 12 miles
Sunday: Rest
Total mileage: 24 miles

Sweated Yesterday…

2011-09-30T15:04:00.001-07:00

Been a while since I’ve had sweat actually dripping off the brim of my visor. But it was totally worth it.

Five miles in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. My feet hurt today…

And Another Week….

2011-09-28T08:55:00.001-07:00

Okay. Things are getting serious here. This week I’ll make it to 20 miles. As long as I don’t wimp out and make some excuse for not doing my “long” run:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: 3 miles
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 9 miles (WTF? Next thing you know I’ll have to worry about a double digit run)
Total planned: 20 miles

Now – I’ve also got to come clean. I didn’t make my long (yeah – seven miles is long these days) run last week. Instead of 17 miles, I only got 10 in. So, this week will be one of those no no’s – doubling mileage. As a result, I’m going to take it especially easy on pace. There will be some lots of jogging and even some walking this week. The last thing I want to do is to break before I’ve even started.

Summer Draws to a Close in Southern California

2011-09-23T11:43:00.001-07:00

That means one thing. Race season is here.

Unlike a lot of the country, race season is a fall/winter thing here. We are blessed that our winters are (while we think of them as frigid) quite temperate. Sure, in the throes of winter (January, February) we might have a race start with temps in the 40’s, but by the time the race is over, the temps are generally in the 60’s. Compare that to the summer when (OMG) temperatures could be in the 80’s and 90’s.

Right now, the “Next Up” sidebar is empty. It has been empty for a long time. I suppose that eventually a race or two will find it’s way there. For right now though, I’m barely waddling five or six miles, much less racing in a 5K.

So – while race season has started here in Socal – I’m not ready to commit yet. But keep your eyes peeled. You never know when one will show up….

Another Week in Boring Land

2011-09-21T09:12:00.001-07:00

It’s been a week since I posted here in the Blogosphere. Life on the running front has been plain old boring. But – isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? I’m seeing a small improvement week to week. I’m testing my patience. Who knows? At some point I might actually add a race to my sidebar.

This week:

Monday: Scheduled rest
Tuesday: 3 miles easy
Wednesday: 4 miles easy
Thursday: 3 miles easy
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: Scheduled rest
Sunday: 7 miles
Total: 17 miles

At this rate in a month I’ll actually break 20 mpw!

Sacrebleu!

2011-09-15T09:38:00.001-07:00

So, I said something yesterday that is probably sacrilege to most runners. I said I’m not interested in speed. Yup. Flog me now! The reason I am not interested in speed is because I’m already fast. Yessiree bob! I know that I have an 8 minute mile in me. The only problem is that I can only do that eight minute mile for maybe 50 yards.

I used to think that in order to be fast, I had to train fast. And that’s what happened. I trained fast. And my 5K and 10K times got better and better. The only problem? I was training for half and full marathons.

This is the same problem that I see most runners grapple with at some point in their running career. “If I want to run fast, I need to train fast.” Well – yes that’s true. But if you can’t last 26.2 miles, it’s not going to make a bit of difference that you trained for speed by doing four miles of intervals every week.

Here’s the bottom line folks – the single most important thing in your training is your aerobic base – your body’s ability to work efficiently for long periods of time. If we ignore our aerobic base, then regardless of how fast we can go, we won’t be able to do it for long periods of time.And how do we build aerobic base? Directly from Pete Pfitzinger:

“How do you develop a big aerobic base?

Slowly and persistently. The key is to accumulate mileage over the course of months and years. Most distance runners should include two blocks of base training in their annual running plan. The minimum period required to obtain a significant improvement in your aerobic base is about six to eight weeks.

If you live in a part of the U.S. where you can train consistently through the winter, then starting aerobic base building in January provides about 12 weeks of solid training before the spring racing season kicks in. Similarly, if you can stand the heat, the relatively quiet racing months of July and August can be a good time for six to eight weeks of base work. With two solid blocks of base training per year, on top of your otherwise "normal" mileage, your aerobic base should build steadily from year to year.

How much and how quickly you should try to increase your mileage depends on your propensity for injury. Although you can increase your mileage dramatically over several years, increasing too much at once is almost certain to leave you injured. As a general guideline, most runners can handle an increase in mileage of 10 to 15 percent every two to three weeks. For example, if you have been running 40 miles per week, you would increase to 44–46 miles for two to three weeks before increasing your mileage again. No rule of thumb works for every runner, however, so you need to pay close attention to your body’s feedback to find the optimal formula.

During your base training, you should avoid VO2-max sessions and speed work and slightly reduce the overall intensity of your training. By backing off the intensity, you can increase your mileage without increasing the overall strain of training. When you are building up your mileage, it is particularly important to train on soft surfaces to reduce the accumulated jarring on your body, and to be sure that your running shoes are in good repair.

Aerobic cross-training, such as cycling, swimming, elliptical training, and deep-water running can contribute to your aerobic base with less risk of injury than further increasing your mileage. The more similar the cross-training activity is to running, the greater the crossover effects will be. If you have a history of injury or live where the winter (or summer) is not conducive to high mileage training, then cross-training can be a worthwhile component of your aerobic base training.”

Two-time Olympian Pete Pfitzinger is an exercise physiologist.

Here’s the bottom line. Want to run fast? Train far…..

This Week’s Plan

2011-09-13T10:16:00.001-07:00

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I am slowly but surely settling into a running routine. Easy Tuesdays and Thursdays, a (little) longer on Wednesdays, and a (short) long run on the weekend. In the past I’ve always had Saturday’s set aside for a long run, but with my current schedule, I think I’ll be moving that to Sundays. That means for this week:

Monday: Scheduled rest.
Tuesday: 3 miles easy
Wednesday: 4 miles easy
Thursday: 3 miles easy
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: Scheduled rest
Sunday: 6 miles
Total: 16 miles

At this point, I’m just trying to slowly build my base again. No races, no speed work, nothing fancy. Just boring nose to the grindstone work for the next several weeks. Hope you can stay awake….

Getting Back to Normal

2011-09-12T11:16:00.001-07:00

A number of things are kind of getting back to normal these days. First off – the weather. Late summer in Southern California is back. After a little lighting, thunder, torrential rain and hail on Saturday morning, followed by Florida like heat and humidity, Sunday saw our normal weather back. Yay! I don’t know how all you folks in the Midwest and the Southeast put up with it.

With normal weather, I had no excuse to not head out for a quick 5 miler. I headed into the wild (or at least as wild as it gets here in Orange County) for some spectacular views and a spectacular run (well, okay – half run, half walk).

So, slowly but surely, things are getting back around to normal.Now,if anyone has a job for me, that would make things pretty darn perfect….

Just a Minute Here…

2011-09-08T07:20:00.001-07:00

I’m shuffling my training around this week. It’s been unseasonably hot, humid, and stormy. We’re just not used to this type of stuff here in Southern California.

First off, on Sunday, I went to do my miles in the hills. I was greeted by 20 mph winds, a temperature of 63 degrees, and rain. Yes. Rain. In August. Very unusual.

I opted to put the run off until Monday. Then on Monday:

The weatherman was talking all weekend about the heat wave making it way into Southern California following our stormy weather. Well – it got here with a vengeance:

This was at the beach mind you – which means humidity up around 50% or so. All of this is so strange to us Southern Californians!

Well, I’ve been adjusting this week. Since it was still in the mid 80’s Tuesday evening, I moved my Tuesday run to Wednesday early AM, likewise will be moving Wednesday’s run to Thursday AM. And you can see that by Friday, things get back to normal around here. All the more reason to not move to Southern California.

This week’s plan:

~~Tuesday~~ Wednesday: 3 miles
~~Wednesday~~ Thursday: 4 miles
~~Thursday~~ Friday: 3 miles
~~Saturday~~ Sunday: 5 miles

Slowly but surely….

The Next Day…

2011-09-04T20:37:00.001-07:00

The waves weren’t quite as big, but the action was better!

Oh. And I did get out for a run in the evening….

I Took a Break on Thursday…

2011-09-03T11:56:00.001-07:00

To go see something that happens once every few years. Check it out:

Some of these are 20 feet high. That’s like looking down a two story building.

Back to the training grind on Friday.

And Another Week Moves Forward

2011-08-30T22:59:00.001-07:00

I just realized tonight that I missed blogging last week. Not that there was a whole lot to blog about – I put my head down and got my four days and 15 miles in.

Progress is slow, but it’s coming. Each week is a little easier. On tap this week:

Monday: Scheduled rest
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: Scheduled rest
Total: 17 miles

One thing for sure, starting again from scratch is teaching me the virtue of patience…..

You Don’t Love… Whaaaat????

2011-08-19T15:24:00.001-07:00

Yes. I know. What a bombshell. But I have an explanation! Really!

I’ve been around long enough (face it – I know who Walter Trout is and you don’t) that I understand what motivates me. And the bottom line is what motivates me is reaching a goal. I’m willing to put up with pretty much anything to get there. So, while I don’t love running, if it’s the means to the end, then I *will* do it.

I guess what I’m saying is that I have a goal that involves running as a means to achieve it. Right now it’s carrot cake.* With cream cheese frosting.** The best I can tell, there’s about 300 calories in each slice of carrot cake with cream cheese icing. So, for every three miles I run, I can have a slice of carrot cake. There. See how easy that is?

Well. I guess I better go earn a piece of carrot cake….

* No. Actually that isn’t my goal. I’m keeping my real goal secret for for a few weeks to make sure my body isn’t going to fall apart again. I hope you get my point though.

** But, if carrot cake were my goal, I’d be an idiot to not include cream cheese icing…..

Can We Talk About Something I Know About?

2011-08-18T09:46:00.001-07:00

I’ve been reading through some of your blogs (remember – just because I’m not commenting doesn’t mean I’m not reading – just think about me as your bloggy mother) and I’m picking up on some words that have my skin crawling. “My mojo is missing.” “I’m burning out.” “I’m tired.” All these are like knives being thrown at me. Why? Because all those feelings are still fresh in my mind.

Any of my long time followers know what I’m talking about. The last time I seriously trained was for the L.A. Marathon. 2010. Yes. Like over a year ago. During that training cycle something broke. Not just physically. I got the car started several times in the past year, but I never did much more than admire the paint job before pulling it back in the garage.

Now, before we take the “Blog Mom” role too far, I’m not going to lecture you on what to do to combat burnout. I will tell you what has worked for me though. Honesty. That’s right. Realizing that running is not something that I love. I no longer stress at missing a day. Or of not being able to run three miles right now without walking.

So – here are my words of wisdom – be honest with yourself. We all “love” running. But do we really? Or do we do it because it’s easy? Because we have a training plan that takes all the thought out of it? Think about it. Be honest with yourself. Don’t be part of the “Mindlessness is our normal state of mind” camp.

Anne and Irene – I think I finally understand what you two were telling me many many moons ago…..

80’s Nuthin!

2011-08-16T13:08:00.001-07:00

Hopefully we’ll still be rocking like this in our 60’s*!

Walter Trout at the OC Fair 8.14.2011**

* Some of us are closer than we might want to admit

** Overheard in the row behind me: “Who is this guy? He’s pretty good.” “I don’t know. Walter something or other. Not really sure who he is.”

I turned to see a couple of twenty somethings. I felt like giving them a history lesson – Canned Heat, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Coco Montoya, etc***. But before I said anything I decided that it might be a waste of breath.

*** Be honest. How many of you know who I’m talking about?

May We All….

2011-08-15T21:17:00.001-07:00

Have this kind of energy a month away from our 86th birthday….

Seen at the Orange County Fair on Sunday, August 14th, 2011. Lucille in action….

Seen at the OC Fair this Weekend

2011-08-15T13:31:00.001-07:00

Can anyone tell me it’s name?

More to come…..

So, You Want to Visit Southern California?

2011-08-11T09:17:00.001-07:00

Two days of running this week. I am heading out soon for day 3. Well. Okay. It’s not really running. Yet. More like a waddle. But I’ll get there. Eventually.

While I was out, I was thinking about the fact that several of my out of town runner friends have recently visited Southern California lately. But why? I decided to put this little public service video together:

So, if it has crossed your mind, don’t *even* think about moving to Newport Beach. Believe me. The downsides just don’t make it worth moving here….

Well, If I had an Excuse….

2011-08-08T13:43:00.001-07:00

I’m starting tomorrow.* And my last excuse has been taken from me with the discovery of my HRM strap. Now I can train efficiently**.

Are you coming back from an injury or a lengthy absence? Just getting started? Why don’t you join me? I swear that if you follow the plan that I am, we’ll all be better off in a few months.

This week: Starting from scratch:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 3 miles
Saturday: 6 miles

* No. My dusting of my right shoulder isn’t because of dandruff.

** Now for the editorial:

I always get all kinds of comments about the virtues or lack thereof of heart rate based training. All I know is that it worked for my kids when two of them were serious athletes (two rowers in my family). I’ll address the whole heart rate vs. effort based training in a few weeks when my runs start lengthening out.

So Are You Going To Believe Me This Time?

2011-08-07T11:59:00.001-07:00

Things have been quiet on the workout front. Like real quiet. Like I’ve been buried in though. Imagine Good Glenn on my left shoulder, and Bad Glenn on my right:

Good Glenn: “You know, you’re not getting skinnier by not getting your lazy ass out of the house."

Bad Glenn: “Yeah. That’s true. But I’ve waited for so long. What’s one more day?”

GG: “One more day! You know one of your favorite races is coming up in one month. How can you expect to Run to The Top of Baldy if you don’t get in shape! Like now!”

BG: “Big deal. You can’t afford it anyways.”

GG: “What about starting next week then. Just a couple miles a day like “normal” runners (thinly veiled Lauren reference).”

BG: “Meh. In the meantime, why don’t we watch some tube?”

To which I rolled over and turned the TV on. For whatever reason , the Versus HD network was on (must have been a replay of the 2011 World Series of Poker the night before) and an episode of the Jeep World of Adventure Sports was on. The episode? A replay of the 2007 Western States Endurance Run. This isn’t it, but it does a great job of capturing the “why”:

This, my friends, is what it’s all about. Screw the clock. I just hope I rolled over far enough on my right side…..

Still Around..

2011-07-28T11:57:00.001-07:00

But not doing much. A few miles here, a few miles there. Reverse weight loss by 2 pounds last week (as in gained a couple).

I’m just finding it difficult to fall into a training regimen these days. Sometimes I really wished I loved running enough to want to commit to it. But the bottom line is I don’t so I’m not. Committed that is. Guess I need to figure out how to get my mojo working:

So far this week – zero miles. Have a phone call this afternoon, and have dinner duty after that, so nothing’s happening today. Maybe tomorrow and Saturday. But then, maybe not. I gots me some seerius mojo issues!

Did I Really Say That?

2011-07-20T10:29:00.001-07:00

So, the midyear goal status checkpoint has come and passed. As so many have done, I went back and checked to see where I was with my goals. My response: “Did I really say that?”

The bottom line is that I have not been making progress at all. I basically had two goals for the year:

Lose 40 pounds by 12/31/2011. There you go. Achievable (3 lbs per month). Measurable (40 pounds, needs to be done by 12/31).
Climb Mt. Whitney by Labor Day. Achievable (did it before – it wasn’t easy though. Almost turned around day 1). Measureable (make it to the top, needs to be done by Labor Day).

These goals are not happening this year. Why? Because I never bought into the tactical plan. In short, if this were my job this year, I would have been fired.

It’s time to, once again, pick myself up and dust myself off. I have a lot of things going on these days in a bunch of different life theaters, so right now my ability to commit to any type of serious training is pretty much off the table.

But, my ability to commit to some serious weight loss continues to make progress. Last week I was only down 0.5 pounds, but this makes three weeks of consistent weight loss. And even though I have been a little less than diligent in tracking my intake, I am making some conscious eating decisions.

I’m running when I can, and not stressing when I can’t. 15 miles per week is about my max right now. I’m going to adopt a plan that looks like this for the time being:

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays: 3 miles when I can
Wednesday: 2 miles just to enjoy the beautiful Southern California weather
Saturdays: 4 or 5 miles when I can

I’m not sure how long this will last though. I have a couple of prospects on the job front that will have me doing some significant commuting, living (during the week) in a different city, and working significant hours for a significant client. Nothing is for sure yet, but it’s a lot further along than just a couple months ago.

Thanks for putting up with my rambling!

All This and Only Two Hours from the Bustling Metropolis

2011-07-12T11:16:00.001-07:00

So, as mentioned in last week’s blog post (am I really relegated to one post a week these days?), I spent Friday traipsing the local hills…

This was in the mountains just to the west of Palm Springs. To get up to the top, we got to ride the Palm Springs Aerial Tram:

Other than that though, I got absolutely zero in. Saturday was a forced recovery day (believe me – walking from the bed to the computer was painful) and Sunday was a family get together to celebrate two of my kids birthdays.

This week, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are out. I should get some miles in on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

At least the scale is going the right direction still. Another loss of 1.9 pounds. If you look closely at the last scene of the first video, you’ll see why this is important.

Gotta run to my lunch appointment. Thanks for stopping by!

A Tough Workout Week

2011-07-07T05:54:00.001-07:00

Well, after last week’s success, this is proving to be a tough week to get my workouts in. A number of appointments have found their way on my calendar (like I don’t want them or something?). I’m busy in the mornings, busy in the afternoons. It doesn’t look like my mid-week workouts are happening.

Oh well – Friday is actually going to be a day-long workout (a hike actually), so all is not lost. Sometimes we just need to let life take it’s course. Thank goodness I have no races planned.

On the calorie front, I’ve managed to stay within +/- 150 calories of my daily goal. It sucks being hungry….

I’ll check in again this weekend!

Well, the Numbers Seem to Work…

2011-07-05T17:44:00.001-07:00

If you recall, I was a little concerned last week that MyFitnessPal was grossly inflating some of my exercise numbers. Well, the final tally for last week: –4 pounds. I guess they work after all. All I have to say about that is:

Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!

Another Week…

2011-06-30T05:56:00.001-07:00

Just grinding away the miles and the calories.

Monday: Scheduled rest
Tuesday: 3 miles (done)
Wednesday: 2 miles (done)
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: 4 miles
Sunday: 3 miles
Total planned: 15 miles

It seems like ages ago when I used to whip out 30 miles a week without thinking twice. Oh well. At least I’m back to grinding the miles.

On the calorie front:

Monday:

Calorie budget: 1690
Calories eaten: 1699
Exercise burn: 0
Calorie deficit: -9

Tuesday:

Calorie budget: 1690
Calories eaten: 2201
Exercise burn: 616
Calorie deficit: 105

Wednesday:

Calorie budget: 1690
Calories eaten: 2047
Exercise burn: 462
Calorie deficit: 105

I’ll have a weight loss report this Saturday. Believe it or not, I didn’t weigh myself when I first started this cycle.

Went for a Run and a Hike Broke Out!

2011-06-27T10:46:00.001-07:00

It’s not often these days that I can find someone to force me out the door, but, on Saturday, I caught wind that one of my “buds” from Colorado was in town. Turns out that she had just finished a trail run on Saturday, so I thought I would be safe and offer to take her on another run on Sunday. After all, who would want to run trails two days in a row?

Well, I may have found out why some people are in shape and improving and I’m not. She accepted! So, I met up with Ali and Yas Sunday morning for a trail run. I know that we don’t have anything in Southern California that compares to the majesty of the pines and elevation in Colorado, but we do have our own little gems. I decided to take them on a little jaunt through the oak canopy that lines many of our hills here.

Luckily we met early, because the sun was already out and blazing at 8:30. We headed into Laurel Canyon in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.

I was maybe a mile and half into our run when I figured out that the one think I had left behind was a rope so Yas and Ali could pull me up the hills! Oh well. Thankfully they waited around and made sure I made it back down in one piece. Thanks for making me get out there and get it done gals!

On the calorie front – at least the exercise let me have a Mexican dinner out. It’s amazing what those tortilla chips can do to a diet:

Calorie budget: 1690
Calories eaten: 2294
Exercise: 477
Deficit: –127

That’s two days in a row of exceeding my budget. Hmmm……

Software Pitfalls

2011-06-25T09:46:00.001-07:00

So, after a few days of tracking and watching my calories and exercise, I noticed something that is a little distressing. According to MyFitnessPal, every mile that I run at a leisurely 12 min/mile pace (well - leisurely for most), I'm burning 185 calories. Say what? That's a full 50% greater than my Garmin reports.

What this really points out is that calories counting is an estimate at best. And depending the program that you're using those estimates can be grossly off - both for food ingested and exercise burn.

For the time being, I'm going to assume that the algorithms in MyFitnessPal are equally off for both sides of the equation. If they are, then the deficit is still correct - which is why I'm really aiming for. Today's lesson? Due diligence.....

As far as yesterday's burn:

Calorie goal: 1690
Calories eaten: 1727
Exercise burn: 0 (scheduled rest day)
Calorie deficit: -37

Whew. Glad I decided to pass on dinner out with the family last night.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Arrrrgh!

2011-06-23T08:46:00.001-07:00

So, just as I was heading out the door yesterday afternoon, my phone decided to ring. I spent the next half hour talking instead of running.

It’s not a big deal exercise wise – it was only two miles that I missed. But missing a workout results in a *huge* rippling effect to my diet. That’s 200 calories that I need to be careful I don’t put in the pie hole….

So, I had to portion control even more than I normally do. Bottom line:

Calorie goal: 1690
Calories eaten: 1646
Exercise: 0
Calorie deficit: 44

So this is the way it feels to wake up hungry……

Underway…

2011-06-22T09:47:00.001-07:00

Got it started. Again. Three easy peasy miles. Hey. It’s a start (or a restart actually). Two more this afternoon….

On the calorie front:

Calorie budget: 1690
Eaten: 1783
Exercise: 286
Calorie deficit: 193

My “Other” Hobby

2011-06-20T10:30:00.001-07:00

So, I’ve let it slip in these pages a few times that I have this *other* hobby. Some consider it a vice. There are times it can be unhealthy – making those who partake in it stay in a sedentary, seated position for hours on end. I like it because there’s a lot of mental stimulation in this hobby. Calculating odds, equities, and probabilities on the fly with real money involved. When everything is going well, it adds a little spending money to the budget. When not, well…..

Those of you who know me know that I’m talking poker. I spend somewhere between 6 and 10 hours a week playing. I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination. Every hand I see seems to have some type of learning experience associated with it. Just like running, you get better at poker by practicing. The only difference is that practice in poker involves studying hands and situations. I’ve been looking for a way to put hand histories in a database for later study, and the thought of including them in a blog crossed my mind this past weekend. Why not?

So, if you’ve ever been just a little intrigued by watching poker on TV, come and visit my new blog: Poker Perdition. Just a warning before you do though – it’s nothing like you see on TV!

Can We Talk?

2011-06-19T11:53:00.001-07:00

To borrow a line from a popular comedienne from the past...

So I pulled the handle marked "CAUTION: EJECT". It was pretty apparent a couple weeks ago that 400 feet a mile was going to give me trouble. Much less 400 feet a mile for 6 plus miles. So much for the 2011 edition of the Billy Goat Half (But - check out Madison's report. She finished fourth female over all. Outstanding!)

As I alluded to in Friday's post - sometimes life does not go as planned. Some of you may remember some posts I did a while back about being in career search mode (I believe the euphemism is "transition"?). Well, job search has resulted in nothing. Nada. Career search these days is much more a personal marketing campaign than it is just looking for work. So, about two weeks ago I decided it was time to revamp the existing campaign. Come up with a new spin. Start forging new relationships. New networks with new people. All that takes time and effort. Not to mention that a lot of networking opportunities come only after those gainfully employed are off work. I had every intention of getting the miles in, but a coffee meeting here, a lunch there, a mixer here and there, and before I knew it, training was out the window.

It occurred to me late last week that if I'm going to get my training in, I am going to have to treat it like any other important meeting. Put it on my schedule. So there you go:

Every training day. Same time. That means this week:

Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Saturday: 4 miles

Watch for photos!

Tomorrow: A new blog I'm working on for my other "hobby".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Race on Saturday?

2011-06-17T09:26:00.001-07:00

About 10 seconds into this video sums up what I’m doing about my race on Saturday:

Yeah. Basically I had no time to put in any training for the last two weeks. That’s why I’ve been quiet around these parts. I’m around and I’m healthy. No injuries or anything. Sometimes life just sucks.

I’ll be back tomorrow though to talk about what’s next. Just as soon as I wade through 500 items in my Google Reader. Yikes!

It Just Occurred to Me…

2011-06-06T10:11:00.001-07:00

It’s been over a week since I’ve even looked at my blog roll. Yikes! 265 items in Google Reader!

I may be absent from these pages, but I’m still getting out a couple or three times a week. Here’s a little video from one of my treks in the hills last week:

It’s pretty impressive – the entire area in this video was once filled with agriculture and cattle ranching. And not so long ago either - I can remember cattle grazing in some of the canyons in this video when I first moved here in the mid 1970’s. Gads! Okay, maybe it *has* been a while.

After watching this video, I’m feeling a little guilty too. I was complaining that it was in the low 60’s with a stiff onshore wind blowing. Jeesh.

It’s two weeks until my next race. While my training has been happening, it has been anything but consistent. I have a feeling that I’m going to be paying for my transgressions.

I’ll be out in the hills at least three days this week. Who knows – I might even put in something over 10 miles this weekend….

Same Old Place, Brand New Trail

2011-05-27T10:29:00.001-07:00

I was out yesterday in Laguna Coast. Again. But, this time I tried a different trail – West Ridge. I had been avoiding this trail because it has these things that I detest:

It was an absolutely stunning day, and even though the onshore winds were stiff, their cooling effect was pleasing and appreciated!

The plan was five miles. The first two and a half were spectacular. The views were tremendous:

Okay. I know I’m old, but I’m not a fossil yet!

I got to the turnaround point surprisingly fresh. I enjoyed the view toward the ocean:

Then I turned around. Gulp!

It wasn’t until I got back, that I found out that I had essentially run downhill for 2 1/2 miles:

That meant I would be climbing back up toward those homes in the distance that you can’t see in this photo:

After some huffing and puffing (and some less than speedy foot shuffling) I crested (yet another) hill and was welcomed back to civilization:

It’s kind of scary that in less than a month I have a race that is going to essentially do this climb three times in a row. Yikes!

When Man Becomes Godzilla

2011-05-25T15:06:00.001-07:00

I was out running on Bommer Ridge yesterday when I came upon a sight that left me a little sad. This little guy was probably scared shitless by something that resembled Godzilla to him….

Here’s my foot next to him for some scale. And yes, I have small feet.

I’m really recommitted to building a little aerobic conditioning before my race in a month. I’ll be out in Laguna Coast all week:

Monday: Scheduled rest day.
Tuesday: 3 miles. Bommer Ridge
Wednesday: 5 miles. Bommer Ridge
Thursday: 5 miles. Bommer Ridge to El Moro Ridge, then a mile or so on El Moro.
Friday: Scheduled rest day.
Saturday: 8 miles in the hills. Maybe Bommer Ridge to El Moro Ridge to BFI and back.
Sunday: Scheduled rest. Maybe a short Deer Canyon jog.

I’m feeling a little resurge of energy and commitment now that I think I’ve uncovered the real issue behind my mental block. Thanks everyone for your kind words. I think it turns out that my issue wasn’t so much a dislike of running – it was where my mind was taking me once I fell into everything that comes automatically these days.

A final thing – remember my little vid at the Wedge last week? Well – here’ the same place, same day about two hours later. Enjoy!

Should Have Been Running Take 2

2011-05-22T13:13:00.001-07:00

There was a time where running was my therapy. I used my hour in the evening to decompress from my daily dose of work stress. It used to be fun and refreshing.

Lots of things have changed in the last year. The last six months seem to be about deviations from "the plan" every time I turn around. And I'm having a difficult time with that.

Late this week, i finally figured out why my alone time isn't fun anymore. I'm spending my hour dwelling on what is not right. How I've lost control of my life plan, and not about what I should be doing to get things back on track. It's turned running time from my therapy into my dungeon. I spend time fearing the monsters under my bed. About the evil monkey in the closet. It's not the way it used to be.

I spent a lot of time when my kids were growing up preaching to them about accountability and responsibility. About how a pronoun in a sentence can turn it into an excuse. About how you solve a problem by telling yourself what you are going to do to solve it. Not about what he or she did or didn't do to create the problem. It's time to take some responsibility and get life back on track. Time to spend an hour a day figuring out solutions and not dwelling on problems.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Should Have Been Running

2011-05-20T08:36:00.001-07:00

That will be the topic of tomorrow’s blog. In the meantime, do you know what happens here in Southern California when there’s a big storm in the Southern Hemisphere? Well, a couple times a year, storms in *just* the right place in the South Pacific generate waves that travel across the Pacific Ocean that erupt on our South facing beaches. Yesterday we had some serious wave action thanks to a storm off of the Pitcairn Islands (remember “Mutiny on the Bounty?”) 4100 miles away:

I’m hoping to get my butt in gear today. But to be honest, I’m tired of lemonade…..

Ever Have "That Feeling" ?

2011-05-13T12:32:00.001-07:00

This is a test. If you're really a runner, you are probably thinking this post is about poop, porta potties, or the mad dash through the woods. Or, you might think this post is about diarrhea (although there is not way that I could even approach the subject as well as lindsay did).

Well, sorry to disappoint you. "That Feeling" this week has been fatigue. I'm up over 20 miles a week at this point, and am really feeling the effect of three day in a row workout. My three mile recovery run on Wednesday was met with spiking heart rates whenever I got my feet moving faster than a slow jog, and my 4 miles in the hills yesterday was met with bed at 9:30. Either my fitness has really dropped back to rock bottom or I'm just becoming an old fart.

At least the views yesterday were tremendous:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Has It Been a Week?

2011-05-10T10:49:00.001-07:00

Jeesh! Life has been happening, and I spent a little time away from blog land last week. What meets me on the weekend? Something like 300 records in Google Reader. And nary a blog entry last week. Sigh. I feel like I’m missing something.

This week:

Monday: Scheduled rest
Tuesday: 4.5 miles
Wednesday: 3 miles
Thursday: 4.5 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: Erg 50 minutes

My next scheduled race is a month away. I am *no where near* being ready. This could get ugly….

It’s Springtime!

2011-05-01T10:44:00.001-07:00

The weather has been absolutely stunning the past few days here in Southern California. Bright blue skies, temperatures in the upper 70’s and low 80’s, humidity in the single digits. Time to head out into the hills.

Looking north toward Irvine and down into the canyon we’ll be running in.

One third a mile into the run I see my first snake of the day. A rattler! Buzz!!!!!!

Right down the trail I see another. At least this gopher snake isn’t poisonous!

The view toward the ocean.

Heading down some single track. With all the snakes out, I better keep my eyes and ears open.

A wet winter means that the flowers are in full bloom.

Down at the bottom of Deer Canyon. Nice campsites here.

Time to climb out now. Crap.

That shouldn’t be my heart rate when walking!

Okay. It isn’t Garden of the Gods, the Grand Canyon, or the Sierra Nevada, but it’s four miles from where a million or so people live. I’m lucky to have it!

Back to It

2011-04-28T09:00:00.001-07:00

After a short detour thanks to Mr. Cold Virus, I’m back to training. While my chest is clear, my head is not, so if you see little piles of green snots by the side of the Back Bay trail or on Bommer Ridge, you’ll know I’ve been there…

Monday: Getting better
Tuesday: Still getting better
Wednesday: Feeling human again
Thursday (today): Four easy miles
Friday: Two easy miles
Saturday: Four easy miles
Sunday: Six miles. Most likely trails.
Total: 16 miles

So What going to Happen Now?

2011-04-23T15:34:00.001-07:00

Training has been going well, that is until today. Somehow, even though it's been beautiful spring like weather, I've managed to catch a mean head cold. I got a decent run in on Friday, but right now it feels like my head is about to explode. Time for a day off.

So back to the title. If you pay attention to baseball, you have no doubt heard that Major League Baseball has taken over the operations and finances of the Los Angeles Dodgers from owner Frank McCort. If that name sounds familiar to you as a runner, it's because a couple years back, McCort purchased the Los Angeles Marathon. It's under his "leadership" that the amazing Stadium to the Sea route was adopted. For the frat time, us Los Angelenos were looking at the possibility of a World class marathon in Los Angeles.

But, if the business practices that McCort used to run the Dodgers (basically leveraging to the hilt, including borrowing against future earnings) have been applied tithe operations of the L.A. Marathon, we may have just seen the last of the Stadium to the Sea.* There is no Major League of Running to save the sport. My fingers are crossed.

* I've already heard rumors that some of the higher ups have been let go. News an tweets have been conspicuously missing.

Has it Been a Week?

2011-04-19T08:53:00.001-07:00

Wow. I had no idea. No wonder my stats are down.

Sunday I made it out on the trails for the first time in several months. It was a perfect Southern California day. I’ll let the video speak for itself. No music. Just the sights, sounds, a heavy breathing. Join me for five miles squeezed down into 3:52. If that’s too long, skip to 3:08 for a view of the wildlife on the trail. Hope you enjoy it!

Bommer Ridge on a perfect Southern California day

Changing Up on the Calorie Front

2011-04-11T10:48:00.001-07:00

As I enter week 3 of this Half Marathon training program, I’m getting pretty tired of my clothes fitting a lot tighter than they did a year ago.

In the past, I wrote a blog review of an app on my iPhone: LoseIt! Well, after the using it for some time, I’m finding that the weight loss that I’m looking for just isn’t happening. This can only be for three reasons:

I’m not tracking *everything* that I’m eating: Counting calories requires attention to minute details. That extra cookie could be 150 calories! And yes – guilty as charged.
I’m not able to track everything I’m eating: This is usually due to an incomplete food database in your calorie counting app.
My BMR is lower than what my tracking app calculates

I really really need to start dropping some of the major poundage that I have put on in the last year. To get things back on track, I’m going to change up my calorie counting regimen. Here’s what I’m doing:

I’m changing to MyFitnessPal. The food database seems to be more complete than LoseIt (at least based on what I eat). And, my calculation of my BMR is a full 200 calories lower in MyFitnessPal that LoseIt. Not to mention, it’s never my fault, right?
I will be tracking *everything* that I’m eating. Period.

My goal is to drop 30 pound by the end of the year. That’s about a pound a week. About 3500 calories less to eat. Keep the carrot cake and casino buffets away!!!!

Speaking of burning calories – I ramp up by a couple miles this week:

Monday: Scheduled rest.
Tuesday: 3.5 easy miles
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 3.5 easy miles
Friday: Scheduled rest
Saturday: 5 miles
Sunday: Erg 35 minutes
Total: 14 miles plus rowing

A Glimmer of Hope?

2011-04-06T10:47:00.001-07:00

Last night I introduced a hill into my (at present) meager mileage. And I still managed to run at a pace faster than I have the previous few weeks. Maybe…. Just maybe…

The other item of note was Babe was out last night. Dang! Too bad I didn’t have my camera. Who is Babe?

She is our resident Bobcat. Yes. She lives in Newport Beach. She knows how to live in style.

Today I’ll be out for a quick 2 mile recovery run. I may have to move my Thursday training run to Friday, but the mileage will get done.

Know Thyself

2011-04-05T09:53:00.001-07:00

After 50 plus years on this planet, you think I would have learned.

For the past few months my training has been unguided. I’ve been wandering around the trails and paths of Orange County without any raison d'etre (pretty fancy French speak there). And yet I expect results. I am just not the type of person who knows how to achieve without a short term goal in my sights. I should know myself better.

If you’re lucky enough to be one of those folks who can achieve without setting those short term goals – all the power to you. If you’re having trouble getting/staying motivated - my advice? Know thyself.

With that in mind, I completed week one of my “HM training plan from scratch”. I had to juggle things around toward the end of the week, but I got all of the runs and my erg time in. This week is a repeat of last:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 miles easy
Wednesday: 2 miles easy
Thursday: 3 miles easy
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 4 miles
Sunday: 30 minute erg
Total: 12 miles plus 30 minutes rowing

I may actually run 50 miles this month….

By the way – anyone know of a good 5K the weekend of May 8th and a 10K the weekend of May 29th here in LA/SD/OC/IE?

Keeping it Slow and Steady

2011-04-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

These days this is my challenge. I remember what it was like to have the wind flow past my face. These days, the only way that happens is when I’m running into it. I feel like I’m the underpowered Yugo (no offense to anyone who may have owned one) in the slow lane of the freeway. I hear steps coming up behind me and I watch a back disappear ahead of me. It can all get very frustrating and discouraging.

How did I know I was ready to get back to training? When I felt good about slowing down as someone passed me. They say slow and steady wins the race. But why?

The key is our body’s aerobic engine. As we increase the intensity of our workout, our muscles respond by breaking down Adenosine Triphosphate (any biochemists out there?) or ATP. The reaction is known as hydrolysis, and happens when a water molecule (hence the requirement for hydration while exercising) reacts with an ATP molecule to create fuel for our cell’s little engines. Well, without getting too technical, that little water molecule is split into a Hydrogen ion (H+) and a hydroxide ion (OH-) during the process. The hydroxide binds with phosphorous compounds to create a phosphates. But poor little H+ is left to be dealt with by our bodies. And if I remember Chemistry 101 correctly (it’s been a long ass time since my Biology Degree days), that little extra proton decreases our body’s pH level, which starts decreasing our body’s ability to aerobically create energy as described above. Once we are no longer able to aerobically create energy, our body, in it’s infinite wisdom, tries to take other less efficient paths to fuel our little microengines. As those less efficient paths take toll on our systems, we begin to shut down and reduce the efficiency of our workouts until we are left on the side of the path puking and gasping.

So, I just counted that paragraph. 211 words basically saying that if we work out too hard, we reduce the efficiency of our workout. And efficiency is what it’s all about. How do we maximize the efficiency of our workout? By exercising at the point where we are at a balance – where the production of hydrogen ions is balanced by our body’s ability to flush them from our cells. When we reach that point where we are producing more ions than we can flush – we are at that magical point called “Lactate Threshold” – the point where we can workout for about an hour before we essentially shut down.

How can we make sure we are exercising at an appropriate level? There are two ways:

Perceived Effort

Notice that Lactate Threshold is at an intensity level that most people can endure for about an hour. Also note that an hour is about the length of time it takes for most folks to complete a 10K. It shouldn’t be a surprise then, that running at just below (around 80%-85%) your 10K race pace is that place where you are efficiently building your aerobic capacity.

Heart Rate Monitoring

If you’re like me, you like gizmos and gadgets and data. I wear my HRM religiously. For us data geeks, Lactate Threshold occurs somewhere between 80% and 90% of maximal heart rate (MHR)*. Therefore, to maximize aerobic conditioning, we should be running at a pace that puts our heart rate at somewhere between 70% and 80% of MHR. What I have done is program my Garmin heart rate zones, and then set the target for any aerobic workout (easy run) to stay in this zone. If I get a little too aggressive, Garmin yells at me and I back off. (These days that sometimes means a brisk walk).

So you may be asking at this point – “So why should I care? I just want to run a sub two hour half marathon.”

Here’s why. A two hour half marathon (conversely a four hour marathon) is running a 9:09 per mile pace. All of us can run at that pace. The magical question is “for how long?” I know right now, I can hold that 9:09 pace for probably 200 meters (half a lap). How can I get myself to the point where I can hold that for 13 miles? Simple. By training my aerobic engine to efficiently work for at least one hour, so I can through myself into anaerobic metabolism for the other hour. And the only way to get there is to efficiently train that aerobic engine mile after mile and hour after hour! That’s what “training” is all about.

So – avoid the pitfall of putting “speedwork” into your training plan – especially if you’re not ready for it. Don’t turn training runs into races. Slow down when training to speed up on race day.

* It’s important if you are adopting a heart rate training methodology that you test your maximal heart rate. Google “maximal heart rate test”. Don’t rely on calculations (220 – age). The calculations are normalized over a population.

I was Ready to Post Three Days Ago

2011-04-03T13:45:00.001-07:00

But my computer crashed! Luckily, Dell was on top of things and got a hard drive to me the next day. Then to really press my luck, I was able to buy a USB disk enclosure, slap the old "bad" drive into it, and recover all of my pictures and important documents. I guess I must be on a lucky streak:

(1) Two weeks ago - Meat Loaf
(2) Last week- Score on twitter again! This time Free Eats from Rubios's. Sweet!

So what better way to close out the week than to get lucky and recover my important documents. And, to cap my lucky streak, I had backed up my iPod music just a couple weeks ago. Whew!

My advice? Don't be the cobbler whose kids don't have shoes. Backup your important data! CDs are cheap. Losing years of photos aren't.

Now, honestly tomorrow - how to run slow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Difficult Part of Starting Over

2011-03-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today is day 3 of my start over as I work myself back into race shape. I'm finding the going to be difficult. Want to know why?

When you take as much time being inconsistent in training as I have the past few months, the worst part is not the weight gain that I experienced as much as the loss of cardiovascular fitness. Right now it's kind of sad to think a year ago I was *over-trained* for a marathon. These days I can barely huff and puff a mile out of my body!

So, these days the exercise is getting back into aerobic shape. The key to getting back into aerobic shape is putting in volume at a *steady pace*. And the key to a *steady pace* is running slow enough to be able to maintain that pace over several miles. It's the old adage "You need to train slower to race faster." Do you know how difficult that is?

Well, I'm finding out. Tomorrow: tricks to maintain that slow and steady pace.

Getting the Train Moving

2011-03-29T15:45:00.001-07:00

This week starts training for my first next race since an underwhelming performance in Long Beach last October. I’ve been pretty consistent with training over the last 8 weeks, but I’ve done nothing longer than 5 miles, and I’ve only done that once. Also, since my planned race is going to be a hill climb trail race, I’m not under any pressure to pull off any type of PR performance. So, I’m going back to square one and using a Higdon novice plan to start my long journey back to respectability

This week:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 miles easy
Wednesday: 2 miles easy
Thursday: 3 miles easy
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 4 miles easy
Sunday: 30 minute erg
Total: 12 miles run, 30 minutes on the erg

The “Before They Kick It” Tour

2011-03-28T09:10:00.001-07:00

This is going to be a little departure from running, because, face it, I don’t love running that much that it’s the only thing I (would) do (come to think of it, a lot of my blogs the past few months have been a departure from running). In fact, I’m going to expose to the whole world just how twisted and dark my sense of humor is…

One of the things on my bucket list is to see as many classic rock acts from my youth as I can before the artists kick their own bucket*. I’m being pretty selective – not so much about the acts – but about where I see them. In my youth I saw most of the mega groups in the large stadiums/outdoor venues, but time and time again, the most memorable concerts were those in the small venues (Elvis Costello at Millikan High School, Peter Gabriel at Crawford Hall (UC Irvine’s gym at the time), The Tubes at Crawford Hall, The Runaways at The Whiskey a Go Go, etc.).

So, last Thursday I was incredibly lucky and was in the right place at the right time on Twitter to win a couple tickets to see Meat Loaf Friday night at Casino Morongo! I like playing poker at Morongo, but don’t make it out there too often because it’s a bit of a drive (close to an hour and a half or so). So it was a double win for me!

Now, I’m not a big fan of rock ballads, but Meat Loaf is a guy who has cheated death a couple times already, so he has at least an honorable mention on my list. He’s been having a bit of a rejuvenation lately with his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice. Not to mention, who could turn down seeing Eddie**?

I showed up 10 minutes before the scheduled start to some awesome seats:

And, sure enough, right at the scheduled start time of 9 PM (well, okay – five minutes after) the show begins!

If you understand the Eddie reference above, you’ll like this song.

And for all you real Meat Loaf fans:

Meat Loaf’s signature hit. 5th best selling album of all time.

Yes. His voice is shot and he doesn’t move around as well as he used to, but hey, who from our generation does?

And as should be expected at a casino, right at 11PM on the nose, the last drum thunders, the house lights come on and the casino gets what they were after!***

* I can add Meat Loaf to Tom Jones at the MGM Grand, X at the Orange County Fair, KC and the Sunshine Band at the Orange County Fair, ZZ Top at House of Blues, and George Clinton at House of Blues. Up next? Bob Dylan is supposed to be playing at the OC Fair this summer. Hmmm.

** So who remembers Eddie?

*** The one thing that casino management understands is the value of a bunch of people *not* gambling. As a result, concerts tend to start on time and end on time. A casino is *not* going to let a room full of a few hundred people sit around doing nothing for half an hour while the band “preps” for the performance. They *especially* aren’t going to allow an act to end late!

No Turning Back Now

2011-03-25T11:53:00.001-07:00

Thank goodness I'm cheap. Now that I've paid for it, I'm committed.

I guess I really will need to start training next week....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Next Up…

2011-03-24T14:11:00.001-07:00

I need to start today’s post by thanking three people. First off, I need to thank Linda (Gymnotes) for convincing me that I wanted to run a few miles of the L.A.Marathon. The excitement of being on a race course struck a little spark. Then yesterday, I think Jay (Tri2Thrive) and Madison (I’d Rather Be Eating) conspired over a conversation on Twitter (a twitspiracy?). Anyways, by the time arm twisting was done and the smoke cleared, I found myself pretty much committed to The Billy Goat Hill Climb in June.

So, training starts in earnest next week. I’ll finish up this week’s training calendar first:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Run 35 minutes
Wednesday: Run 45 minutes
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Run 40 minutes
Saturday: Run 30 minutes
Sunday: Run 50 minutes

Then, because I’ve had such an extended period off, I’m going to start back up using a Higdon Novice Half Marathon plan. I’ll get started next week. Yessiree. Twelve weeks until “It Ain’t But One Hill.”

Glad I Wasn’t the Wicked Witch of the West!

2011-03-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

Los Angeles Marathon XXVI. In sunny Southern California. Sun. Beaches. Convertibles. Well – anything but this year!

The forecast was for rain. Well – let me tell you – it RAINED!! To put things in perspective, a normal rain year for us in Los Angeles would be around 13 to 14 inches of the wet stuff. On Sunday it rained 4 1/2 inches in Beverly Hills – miles 15 through 17 on the route. Add to that 30 mile per hour winds (thankfully to our backs) and it was a cold, sloppy, miserable day.

The day started out great. I hopped in my car for the drive out to Beverly Hills. The streets were dry. I met up with my twitter pal @ridgeley at Lulu’s Café for a scrumptious banana walnut filled pancake (oops! Forgot the picture!). It was blustery out, but it was dry. Then about halfway through breakfast the sky opened. Dang. All of a sudden I was glad I brought my tights along!

The next part of the adventure was finding parking in West Los Angeles. If you don’t live in West L.A., parking can ~~sometimes~~ be a challenge. Certain streets are permit parking only for residents. Other streets have no parking. Add to that the fact that major East-West thoroughfares were closed for the marathon. I was anticipating grid lock and parking hell. Instead, I pulled up at the corner of Overland and Santa Monica Blvd (right at Mile 19) and found a parking spot. For free. Street parking. With no restrictions. Winning!

From there I braved the elements to make my way back two miles to Mile 17 at the corner of Rodeo and Wilshire (even Paris Hilton wouldn’t have been out in these conditions). But I’ll let the video tell that story:

L.A. Marathon 2011

Huge props to all who finished this marathon! It was cold, wet and ugly out there. You deserve to hold your head high!

P.S. – Yes. I know I misspelled “Zeppelin” in the credits. But it YouTube is the *slowest* upload in the world. I’ll live with the legacy.

Time to Start Thinking About What’s Next

2011-03-21T08:58:00.001-07:00

First off – I need to congratulate all those who braved the elements and ran the Los Angeles Marathon yesterday. The conditions were *horrible*. News reports say that hundreds were treated and a couple dozen people hospitalized for hypothermia. I never equate Southern California with hypothermia, but mix in rain, a brisk breeze, and a 26.2 mile death march, and I supposed it could happen. So – congratulations to all those who braved the elements and hit the pavement!

I’m down to the final two weeks on this little recovery plan that I’ve been executing for the last five weeks. The good news is that all physical and mental systems appear to be “Go”. This week, I’ll run three days back to back to back, and just shy of an hour on Sunday. I guess it all means that I need to start thinking about what’s next. Maybe something in the middle of June?

Time for us Californians to Take Note

2011-03-17T11:35:00.001-07:00

No doubt, most (if not all) of us have been glued to the news about the tragedy in Japan. I’ve been especially interested for a couple of reasons. First, I have two aunts in Japan. They are both fine (one lives in Sapporo, Hokkaido and one is Osaka) and out of danger. The second, and much more selfish reason is, I live in California.

Yes. I’ve been through a few earthquakes in my time. Most of the time, you kind of wonder what a truck is doing driving down the street in front of your house. Then, before you have a chance to do anything, a little shake rattle and roll happens. Five maybe ten seconds. It’s usually all over before you even realize what’s going on.

The aftermath of a minor earthquake. A 4.0 about 8 months ago.

Some are much larger though. The most terrifying I’ve been in was probably the Northridge earthquake in 1994. From a pure magnitude perspective, it was major, but not catastrophic (6.7). It lasted a whole 20 seconds. 20 freaking seconds. It felt like a lifetime. But, its proximity to where I was living at the time (about 30 miles) made the shaking pretty terrifying. Books flying off shelves. Paintings off the walls. Cupboards dumping out their contents kind of shaking. Ever watch a cupboard door open on it’s own?

The largest I’ve experienced was Landers in 1992 – out in the desert sorta kinda near Palm Springs. It’s about the same distance from where I was living as Tokyo was from the quake in Japan. We rocked and rolled for pretty close to two minutes. Because of the physical distance, the shaking was not severe. But, I had to physically hold a 30 gallon fish tank to keep from having a minor gold fish extermination event. The worst part was the shaking just kept going on and on and on. And on. Forever. That was a 7.2 magnitude quake.

Any of my fellow Southern Californians remember those quakes? Well, let’s put Japan in perspective. 3 plus minutes of shaking. 9.0 magnitude. Since the moment magnitude scale is logarithmic, that means the quake in Japan was 2818.382 times stronger than Northridge. Hell – there were aftershocks in Japan larger than either the Landers or Northridge quakes.

The scientists say we’re due*. Just remember how Los Angeles ground to a halt in 1994. If you’re not prepared just keep in mind - there are no riots or looting in Japan. Let’s not wait until it’s too late. It can happen here. It probably will.

* The good news is that the type of quakes we have here in California (strike-slip) makes tsunamis unlikely.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

2011-03-12T12:07:00.001-08:00

The L.A. Marathon is next Sunday. That means that it’s been about a year that something broke. For two years running had become a bit of a religion. 30, 40 sometimes 50 miles a week. I was at a point where I felt that I was wasting my time if I wasn’t going to run 6 miles. Then came March 21, 2010. Sitting on a curb in Brentwood hoping a golf cart would come along and whisk me in anonymity to the finish line. The 5:30 pace group happening by. Latching on and finishing under my own power with my tail between my legs. Humbled.

My plan was to return to the scene of the crime and get the monkey off my back. But, by the time I was able to get back to training, the window to be ready for L.A. 2011 had long come and gone. I was relegated to waiting another year. And we all know what happens with wounds and the passing of time…..

Fast forward. March 3, 2010. The talk on Twitter was tapering for L.A. I was sitting at my computer feeling sorry for myself in general. Then, a familiar name popped up in my gchat window:

“Linda: ...how about running me through Century City? Maybe mile 17-20?”

Linda is “Ms. V” in the blogosphere and @MsV1959 on Twitter. I’ve been following her blog and tweets almost since the inception of my blogging and tweeting days. It’s been so long, I don’t even remember how I happened on her blog – Gymnotes. And even though she lives 400 miles away, whenever she’s in town she always makes an effort to include me in races or tweetups. How could I turn her down?*

So let the therapy begin. I’ll be on the course. Rodeo Drive. Century City. West Los Angeles. The Veteran’s Administration. At that point I’ll hand her off to Shiloh, who will be running her into the finish.**

Maybe it’s not the return that I had envisioned eight months ago. I won’t be able to stop and spit on the ground at mile 22 in Brentwood. But I’ll be out there rain or shine. In my running shoes. Linda – THANK YOU for asking!!!!

* Now that that is public knowledge, I’m also planning on meeting a ton of other blog/twitter friends out on the course. The list right now includes @ridgeley, @nobel4lit, @borntorun77, and @tri2thrive. There’s even a rumor that @b2squared may make an appearance.

** The only thing I can’t figure out is how a die hard Dodger’s fan could let a Giant’s fan pace her into the finish. Linda? Are you losing your mind? You should have made her pace you the first few miles. That way she would have had to set foot in Blue Heaven!

Head Down, Nose to Grindstone

2011-03-07T10:45:00.001-08:00

Sorry I’ve been missing from blog land. Nothing much exciting has been going on. I’ve been like my title says – head down, nose to the grindstone – trying to work myself back into injury free shape. Last week was the fourth in the Pfitzinger recovery plan that I’ve adopted, and I’m up to a whopping 30 minute run. Not that I can go the whole 30 yet without a break somewhere in the middle, but hey, it sure sounds good!

This week I have four days of running – two times two days back to back:

Monday: Scheduled rest.
Tuesday: 25 minute easy run.
Wednesday: 30 minute easy run.
Thursday: Scheduled rest
Friday: 25 minute easy run
Saturday: 35 minute easy run
Sunday: Scheduled rest.

Other than being tired and woefully out of shape as I tackle these easy peasy flat runs, the rest of my body seems to be faring well. No more knee pain, no more back pain, no more groin pain. Maybe – just maybe – I might be ready for trails.

Does This Qualify as a Progression Run?

2011-02-28T11:30:00.001-08:00

When I started this current training cycle, a "training run" was a walk followed by a run (about the same duration each) done three times. Then, the next week was a run followed by a walk (not the same duration) done three times. This week, it's going to be a run followed by a walk (definitely not the same duration) followed by a run. Shouldn't this qualify as a progression run? LOL!!

The best part is by Friday, the walk portion is officially out of the plan. Well. While it's officially out of the plan, I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that it will still unofficially make an appearance here and there. Oh well. It's a heck of a lot better than where I was a few weeks ago!

On the calendar this week:

Monday: 15 minute slow run, 2 minute walk, 15 minute slow run
Tuesday: 30 minutes on the ergometer
Wednesday: 20 minute slow run, 2 minute walk, 10 minute slow run
Thursday: Scheduled rest day
Friday: 25 minute slow run
Saturday: 30 minutes on the ergometer
Sunday: 30 minute slow run

Now, if I can only get back to 30 miles a week so my diet can catch up!

Have a great week everyone!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Two Days in a Row

2011-02-24T09:58:00.001-08:00

Yup. I was up on the ergometer last night for 30 minutes to mark the first time in a while that I’ve actually worked out 2 days in a row. I wasn’t quite sure how my back was going to react, so I kept it relatively easy, doing a series of 15 rep stroke building exercises (15 strokes arms only, 15 strokes at quarter slide, 15 at half slide and 15 at full slide) to get in 5.4 total kilometers. The good news is while my back is a little stiff this morning, there is no pain. Yea! My legs on the other hand? Well – let’s put it this way. I’m outta shape. Jeez!

I’ve had something come up that I need to attend to this afternoon/evening, so today’s run and tomorrow’s rest day are going to be flip flopped. But, for the first time in several weeks (months?) I’m actually looking forward to getting some exercise.

This weekend *may* be a challenge. The NOAA is forecasting a once every five year style storm for Southern California, with high temperatures in the mid to upper 40’s and moderate rain Friday evening into Saturday. There is talk of snow down to about 1000 feet in elevation. Snap! That is still about 500 feet higher than anything around here. If the snow were to fall here, it would call for some hot chocolate and a lounge chair out by the nearest intersection to watch Southern California drivers handle the snow and ice. Now THAT would be entertainment! In the meantime, I may have to break out the tights….

So That Really Blew Over

2011-02-22T10:05:00.001-08:00

The weatherman (I know – not PC, but someone needs to take the blame) had forecast a weekend of doom here in Southern California. Rain starting on Friday. Up to 6 inches by the time the storm blew out on Monday. I was ready to face the elements Sunday. The total upshot? About a quarter of an inch Thursday night, and six tenths an inch Saturday night. So, as ready as I was to face the elements on Sunday, I ran in cool temperatures to blue bird skies and big white puffy clouds. How boring can it get? Hmmph.

My wogging is on track. My back is still a little tender, but about five minutes into a run, everything seems to warm up and the pain goes away. I’m relieved it seems to only be a muscle strain of some type. I’m hoping to get up on the rowing machine by the end of the week.

Speaking of training:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: (2 minute walk, 8 minute slow run) times 3
Wednesday: Cross train. I’m going to attempt a 30 minute rowing session
Thursday: (10 minute slow run, 2 minute walk) times 3
Friday: Rest
Saturday: (12 minute slow run, 2 minute walk) times 3
Sunday: Cross train.

I’m slowly working my way back. The really good news is my knee and groin are 100%. I’m hoping my fragile psyche doesn’t shatter during the next few weeks. I really miss things like this this past weekend. Grrrrrr….

I’m Starting to Get Tired…

2011-02-18T10:42:00.001-08:00

Of this crap. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Somehow, Tuesday, after my restart of my restart of my restart to training, I’ve done something to wrench my lower back. I don’t think it had anything to so with my running, as much as the way I slouch in my chair when sitting*. What I *do* know is that the lower quadrant of my back has been painful since I got up Wednesday morning. It is very painful to move from a sitting to a standing position. Two months ago it was a knee. Two weeks ago it was a groin. Two days ago it became a back. It’s like I’m getting old or something……

As a result, I haven’t been on the rowing machine yet this week. I *am* heading out later today for the second “run” (5 min walk, 5 min LR pace times 3) on the plan. I’ll wrap up the week on Sunday with a 3 min walk, 7 min LR pace times 3.**

* My wife says I “sit on my back”. I say I’m just stretching across the Ottoman. Of course, it must be the Remote Control’s fault for tempting me in the first place.

** I’m heading out rain or shine. A word of warning for all who live to the east of the West Coast – we’re in for what is supposed to be a cold wet storm this weekend here in California. You know what that means for the rest of you in a couple days.

Thank you!

2011-02-16T10:39:00.001-08:00

The blogosphere is awesome! I asked a simple question last weekend and got some immediate answers. This week I am starting the Pfitzinger Recovery program. I’m going to modify it a bit to give me a couple rest days during the week, and will supplement non running days cross training on my rowing machine.

For the next couple of weeks, my running regimen will be pretty slow and boring, and a lot of other things are happening in life in general - so the blog updates will be few and far between. But I’ll be ~~stalking~~ reading all of your blogs – so don’t be surprised when you hear from me.

Thanks again blogosphere!

Need Some Advice

2011-02-12T13:38:00.001-08:00

This post is going to be simple. I did a slow (11:30 pace) and easy three miler last night. This morning I woke up with a sore right adductor. Not good. As the day has progressed, it has gotten better. Two questions:

(1) Is this my body telling me to start slower?

(2) For those of you who have been shelved due to injury/laziness for an extended period of time, where do you pick up your training? Do you have a training plan that you followed so you didn’t over do it the first few weeks?

I’m eager to work myself back to some modicum of respectability. Yes – I’m aware that it takes time. I hope you can help me with a foundation to get started. Thanks!

A Case Study

2011-02-09T10:23:00.001-08:00

Sorry folks! This post was supposed to happen over the weekend, but things got a little got a little crazy. Even though I am in the job search phase, my business is still running and required some TLC.

When I started this whole topic a week or so ago, I started by telling you about my last experiences finding a job back in 1996. Once I decided it was time to get serious, I fell back to what worked before. That was in September. But, after a month and about 40 resumes sent out in response to online job ads, I got absolutely *zero* response. Not one. Not even a rejection. Something told me that I was going about this all wrong.

I contacted a old client who was in the outplacement business (Networking!). In the past couple of years, his business has been pretty brisk as he helps and coaches executives that have been laid off from the corporate positions. We went to work right away on redoing my resume (Branding!). Believe me - it was a tough transition to go from tasks to accomplishments. What we ended up with is a great resume that differentiates me as someone who has had *both* past Management Consulting experience and experience as a CEO/CFO (Branding!). Cool!

I then attacked the job ads with renewed vigor. I probably sent out an additional 30 or so resumes over the next two weeks. At least one thing changed. I got some rejections. We were now into mid November.

The next thing my “coach” had me work on was building my network. Like many old farts, I had pretty much ignored my professional network for the last decade. As I was finding out, this really put me behind the eight ball. He had me join Execunet – a networking group especially for executives in transition. There are three chapters that meet in the L.A./O.C/San Diego area. I started attending meetings and added a few contacts here and a few there. It was at Execunet that I first learned about LinkedIn’s power as a networking tool. I was off and running (Networking!). It was now mid December.

I was pretty low around the holidays. Things just weren’t going right. My knee was flaring up and I wasn't running. Every time I stepped on the scale, my weight was up. I had had an incredibly bad run at poker the last month. Business was down. And the job search was going nowhere. It was time to make a bunch of changes.

So, in January I consulted my coach and he had me make a few changes. The #1 change I made was to make it a point to either lunch or coffee with three people per week (Networking!). Shortly afterwards, things started popping.

First I received a call from an old grad school buddy working for a boutique consulting firm (Networking!). They are looking for people to staff an upcoming project. I sent my resume and got a call shortly afterwards. (Branding!)

Then, I was having coffee with one of my new Execunet contacts. One of the cool things with these type of meetings is it becomes a mutual “How can I help you?” session. In this case, I had an old friend who might be able to help my contact. I went home and got in touch with my old friend to set up lunch. In the ensuing conversation, I find out that the company he is working for has two positions opening in the next two weeks for Project/Program Managers. Score! Lunch interview next week! (Networking!)

I haven’t quit searching. Far from it. But using this approach of networking as the driving force, I’m starting to see results. Oh. And my poker game has improved too – it’s providing my Starbuck’s money. Now if I can just do something about the running thing….

Establishing Your Personal Brand

2011-02-04T15:30:00.001-08:00

If you’re still reading after three days – thank you! I hope some of my experiences will help you in what, these days, should be your non-ending search for your next position.

Today we’ll start with a walk down the detergent aisle in the grocery store. So many selections! Tide. Cheer. Sun. Gain. Powder. Liquid. Don’t they all do the same thing? How do you choose your detergent?

Today’s job market is much like that. Hiring managers are walking down the aisle. They literally have their pick from all the boxes on the shelf. How are you setting yourself apart?

Here’s another way to ask the same question. You’re at a race. You’re in your starting corral and are making small talk with people around you. You mention that you’re looking for a new job (why not?). The person next to you says, "My company is hiring. What are you looking for?" You have about 30 seconds to respond before the start gun goes off. What are you going to say?

Our ability to land that dream job is based on our ability to set ourselves apart from our competition. It’s about establishing our personal brand. That’s a lot more than just listing some accomplishments on a piece of paper and calling it a resume. I’m still working on establishing my personal brand, but here are some things that I’ve learned (in order of importance):

Elevator pitch (or starting corral pitch): You *will* get a phone call when you are prospecting. So are at least a few dozen other people. What are you going to say about yourself and what you are looking to do in the first 30 seconds to make sure that the person on the other end of the line is going to be interested in talking to you for 5 minutes? Get you pitch down pat. Practice. It’s not a speech. It’s from your heart. It has to be.

Accomplishments: What have you accomplished in your career. Here’s where things get tough. It’s not what you’ve done, but what the impact of what you have done was. I’m a member of a couple of networking groups for “executives in transition”. I can’t tell you how many resumes I see where the accomplishment is, “I managed a group of 5 accounting professionals.” I’ve got news for you. So have about umpteen million people out there. So what? An accomplishment is, “I managed the accounting department at XYZ where I had responsibility for a department budget of $750,000. I streamlined processes that resulted in an increase in efficiency of 10% from year to year.” See the difference? You’re no longer just a box of detergent. Think of the impact that your work had to the bottom line of where you worked. Write each of the points that are on your resume down on a sheet of paper. Quantify the results of each. If you can't, don't put it on your resume. Remember - your resume is your reflection. Give your interviewers something compelling to talk to you about.

Recommendations: In two words - get them. Here's where the value of networking really comes into play. If someone is going to vouch for you, have them do one of two things - either make an introduction to the hiring manager (along with a personal recommendation) or have them leave a recommendation for you on LinkedIn. People want to be comfortable with their decisions. A recommendation from someone they know goes a long way to making them comfortable. In fact, one of the comments yesterday from fellow blogger Naomi says a lot, " I also know of some recruiters and hiring managers who refuse to consider candidates because their LinkedIn resource is not "robust" enough." Get those recomendations.

A couple words of caution. Just like poor quality can destroy a brand (anyone drive a Jaguar?), poor "quality" will destroy your personal brand. Anyone want to guess another website that recruiters check when looking at you? Just be aware - what they find on Facebook or through a Google search will *not* be used as reasons to hire you. Think about that before you post a scathing diatribe attacking your boss or your company, or before you decide to share those photos from the strip joint bender last weekend.

There is one thing that should never leave your mind during your job search - the person who is interviewing you *really* wants to fill that position. Think about it - would you really want to have to spend hours of your day interviewing people to fill a position? Why don't you help them walk through the detergent aisle?

Tomorrow I'll use myself as a case study.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

LinkedIn - Your Career Search Resource

2011-02-03T09:05:00.001-08:00

I need to come clean to you folks. I ran the idea for this post past my son (3rd year student at UC Irvine) late last week. His response was very much the same as I think I’m going to hear from a lot of people – “Why do I need to do LinkedIn? I already have Facebook and Twitter. And I don’t even really understand Twitter!”

Let’s start with my favorite explanation of the differences in social media (I apologize in advance if you are one of my Twitter or Facebook friends – you’ve heard this one before):

Twitter: You tell people what you are doing. Twitter is all about the moment. There is no timeline of events. You use twitter to let everyone know you are peeing. Like right now.
Facebook: You tell people what you did. Facebook is all about memorializing and then discussing. You use Facebook to tell everyone that you peed. Then you all sit around and discuss the color of your pee.

But neither of these social media gives you a place to tell everyone how well you do things - where you can brag about your accomplishments – and gather recommendations from those who witnessed and agree with you. Enter LinkedIn – where you can tell the world how well you pee, and your friends can leave recommendation letters corroborating your accomplishment.

Seriously though – LinkedIn is your resource to brag about your past employment accomplishments (more on this over the weekend when we discuss personal branding). Recruiters actually use LinkedIn to find people to fill positions*. More importantly though, LinkedIn is your resource to find people in companies that have access to the hidden job market – that market that we talked about yesterday where a job posting never sees the light of day. So let’s talk about that aspect of LinkedIn for a bit.

Remember yesterday’s little experiment? I asked those who might be interested to connect to me in LinkedIn. Here are the results – 11 people connected to me yesterday. Those 11 people now have access to my 92 other connections. Likewise, I now have access to their total of 1,292 connections. Think about that. 1,292 people I didn’t know about yesterday morning. 1,292 potential job leads. And that’s not counting all of the connections that the other 92 people that I was already connected to. Starting to understand?

Let’s look at using LinkedIn in the big scheme of things. Here’s where the use of a job board is required. I use three job boards – SimplyHired (more of an amalgamation of job boards), 6FigureJobs.com, and The Ladders. I also read the business pages at the OC Register, and scour SocalTech.com. Now – I’m not looking for specific positions – I’m really looking for companies that might be hiring. The companies that are hiring are those that may have dozens of jobs posted (yes – they do exist – look at Delloitte&Touche or IBM Business Services), companies that just landed a major contract, companies that might be moving into Orange County (like Experian did not too long ago), or companies that just had a major cash infusion. This tells me that there is opportunity to be had – positions that might be available or opening soon.

Next, I start using LinkedIn. Say we read about how business is booming at Ingram Micro – a large electronics distributor and channel reseller here in Orange County. Now – I know *no one* at Ingram. If I just send a resume in responding to a posting on SimplyHired, I’ll just be one of a few thousand doing the same. But, maybe one of you can help. The first thing I’m going to do is a company search:

I get the following results:

Just in case you thought I was lying – I really have *0* connections at Ingram. But I do have seven first level connections that know people who work there. And look at the top two! One of my connections is connected to the CEO, another is connected to a Senior Director. I never would have known without LinkedIn. Time to pick up the phone and arrange a couple coffee or lunch appointments! And – who knows what else might come out of those appointments with my connections?

I hope at this point you’re starting to grasp the importance of LinkedIn in a search for a job. The best part of this is if you spend a couple hours a week doing this, you won’t need to wait until you’re out of work to land your next job!

By the way – if you still haven’t done so, please feel free to connect to me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/glenn-jones/23/4a9/746. If you did connect to me and you perform a search and find that I’m connected to someone who might be able to help you – please please please let me know. I am more than happy to help however I can. That’s what networking is all about!

Tomorrow I’ll talk a little about differentiating yourself – establishing your own personal brand. And then the final post in this series (before getting back to the boring running stuff) will be a real live case study of how I've managed to pull things together and get some activity in the last three weeks. Thanks again for bearing with me through these off-topic posts.

*Note: A good family friend’s daughter actually just landed a job in the Fashion Industry in NYC through her LinkedIn resume. Honest truth!

Marketing for a Job - Networks and Brand

2011-02-02T10:20:00.001-08:00

The last time I looked for a job, a Democrat was President and Al Gore had just invented the Internet. It was 1996. The economy was on the upswing and the unemployment rate was running around 5.5%. Monsters lived under your kid's bed. Newspapers were still king when it came to finding a job. It was right around Halloween 1996 that I opened the classified ads in the Orange County Register, browsed the four or five dozen ads and sent out eight or nine resumes. A couple weeks later I started a job running a System Integration practice.

Fast forward 15 years. About the only thing that is the same is a Democrat is President. We are coming out of the worst economic downturn in a couple generations and the unemployment rate is close to double what it was the last time I looked for a job. But the biggest change to the job search these days is the Internet. The job boards like Dice and Monster allow access to scarce jobs evenly across the board. That "perfect job" you are eyeing is open to all comers - recruiters from the opposite coast with clients who want to move, over qualified candidates, under qualified candidates, etc. I can only imagine how many applicants must submit their resumes for that one job posted on Monster. And have you looked in a newspaper for serious job ads lately? They are non-existent.

Not only have the times changed, but so have the rules. it's no longer possible to reply to classified ads and expect to get a call. After consulting a couple of "career coaches" recently (i.e., out of work HR professionals who have figured out how to make a living providing advice and counseling), i found out that only about 20% of their clients find jobs through job postings. And much of that relies on luck - being in the right place (in front of your computer) at the right time (the day the job is posted) with the right resume (includes the key words that make it through the scanning software).

In today's market, even with the economy looking up, we need to rely on two other things to be effective in our job search:

() Our Networks, and
() Our Personal Brand

Let's start with the whole area of networking. The reality is that the majority of jobs out there as the economy starts making it's way out of the doldrums will be in small businesses. The same ones that were hit pretty hard when credit was rolled back and profits were squeezed. These are the businesses that were sensitive about spending a buck foolishly even before the recession. Many have some pretty critical needs that they would like to hire to fill, but they lack the time and dollars to post their jobs. And then, even if they post the job, the hiring manager will not have the time to read through the thousands of responses they will receive from a job board posting.

This means that if you want that job, you need to find it. How? By knowing someone who knows about the position. The only way to do that is through your network of friends and acquaintances. And here is where things start becoming uncomfortable for most people. How many people are comfortable asking people for "stuff"? Well - if you are a successful sales professional maybe not, but for the vast majority of people, asking others for "stuff" without anything apparent to give in return is not a comfortable thing to do. But (coming back to the running motif now) - was training for and running your first half/full/ultra comfortable? Success is about forcing yourself out of your area of comfort and taking a risk or two. You know - nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that stuff.

Seriously though, establishing and maintaining your network is more important than ever in today's job search. The good news is we have the tools for this at our fingertips. If you stop and think about it, our running groups, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook provide us a wealth of contacts that would have taken a lifetime to amass back in 1996. And when it comes to a successful job search, the grandaddy of all networking social media, LinkedIn comes to the rescue.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about how I am using LinkedIn. In the meantime, if you have a LinkedIn profile, please connect to me! In fact - let's do a little experiment. Bop over to LinkedIn. If you don't have a presence, go ahead and create a profile. It's free and far more secure than Facebook. Then, connect with me! Just search "people" for Glenn Jones. You'll see my smiling face. I'll report back tomorrow on how many new connections I make today. Don't be bashful! (Back to the running motif) Just do it!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Life is Boring as Ever

2011-01-31T08:42:00.001-08:00

At least on the running front. I’m sure glad I don’t have any races on my calendar right now. I’m plugging away a couple or three days a week. I wish I could do more, but I have some things happening on the life front that are higher priority. I thought I would share that with you today. The story begins…..

…about 11 years ago. Yours truly came up with a little software idea right at the time of the Internet bubble, managed to raise some cash, and took a prescription writer product to market. The dreams were huge, the execution was tough, the success was limited. It made me a decent living. It didn’t get me rich.

Fast forward to mid 2010. Meeting with my largest customer. News that their new legacy software includes the functionality that my software provided. Heads up that they would be migrating away from my product. Add to that the fact that larger medical groups (the kind that can afford to pay for services) are moving toward fully integrated electronic records. The writing was on the wall. Time to start polishing the resume. I had become what I never thought I would become. A mid-fifties executive in a down employment market.

But – I’m not the kind of person who shys away from things that are challenging. I polished the resume. And started looking for a job. It took me about two seconds (well okay, maybe about a month) to realize that things were way different than they were the last time I looked for employment, that was back in 1996.

So – I’m going to change up on the subject matter in my blog for a few posts. It won’t be as much a running blog as it will be a “learn from my mistakes” blog. The good news is the jobs are there. The bad news is it’s a lot of work to uncover them. If you all don’t mind, I’ll talk about my trials and tribulations in finding those elusive jobs. Believe me – there’s a lesson for all of us in what I‘m about to write. And thank you for putting up with me for the next few days!

The Hardest Part of Getting Back in Shape?

2011-01-23T09:50:00.001-08:00

If you would have asked me this question a couple weeks ago, I would have said That the hardest part of getting back into shape was lengthening from two or three miles to double digits. Well, after a week of going six miles every other day, I have a new answer for you - the hardest part is so having to go so freaking slow!!!

Now, before you guys get all soft on me and start commenting about how well I'm doing, please note the use of the words "having to". Yes. At this point the lack of speed is self imposed. I thought I would rehash some physiology 101 to explain.

Somewhere in my pile o' crap I have the book "Advanced Marathoning" by Pete Pfitzinger. Yes. The Pfitzinger who developed the Pfitzinger training plans. By the way - if you are serious about running, I would highly recommend that book. The book is not a motivational book. It is about why you do certain things in certain order when training. In short, it's the scientific justification for a structured training plan.

The first chapter of the book discusses the how and why of periodization. The upshot is for us to work like well oiled machines in a race environment, our muscles need to be able to process the fuel that we provide for an extended length of time. If everything is running okay, and we are burning fuel at a sustainable rate, our cells are able to breakdown carbohydrates and rid themselves of waste products in perfect harmony. This is known as the aerobic (requiring oxygen) cycle. If we are unable to provide oxygen to cells fast enough, our muscles use a different path to produce fuel - the anaerobic (without oxygen) cycle. This form of respiration is not as efficient as the aerobic cycle - creating more waste product in the form of hydrogen ions. At some point, our body's inability to flush these waste products causes a bunch of other biochemical processes to occur. We (first) mentally shut down, and eventually physically shut down. This is the infamous "wall" that we all either read about or have experienced.

The real key then is to spend as much training time as possible in the aerobic zone - getting our bodies to efficiently use oxygen for long periods of time. If we spend too much time in the anaerobic zone while training, we actually need to spend more time recovering and less time training.

So - how do we know if we are training in the proper zone? Well, the technical way is to use a device that tests blood acidity during exercise:

This is typically done by taking blood samples at certain points in time during exercise. Then a graph is constructed showing blood acidity versus heart rate:

Then, one can train at the ideal heart rate - right where blood acidity is at 2 mmol/ml. Training at this level maximizes aerobic conditioning.(*)

Well, most of us don't have a Lactate Pro analyzer, nor do we have a desire to get lanced every 10 minutes while training for an hour. But, what we do have is a heart rate monitor. When data is generalized over the population, it turns out that the anaerobic/lactate threshold for most of us occurs right around a heart rate of 83% of max. So, with your handy dandy Garmin, you set the appropriate heart rate range to beep when you reach this range. Now you are outfit to train efficiently in your aerobic zone, and train efficiently when your plan calls for LT training!

So back to my "problem". Right now, my Garmin starts beeping at me as I pass from aerobic to anaerobic zone. Unfortunately, that beeping occurs whenever a small incline is thrown into the mix, or I run at a decent pace for about half a mile, or .. or.. or. You get the idea. I'm not paying attention to my pace during a run. I'm just waiting for a beep, slowing down, and then speeding up again when my heart rate is back under control. And you know what? Each time I do six miles, I'm trimming a minute or two off my elapsed time. Yes. I think I'll be back to normal soon. As long as I don't run out of patience along the way.

Face it. We can all run a 7:30 mile pace. If you're like me, you can run at that pace for 50 yards. If you're aerobically fit, you can do it for 26.2 miles...

(*) This was the approach that was used by my daughter's and son's rowing coach to aerobically train. The end result was a rowing scholarship for my daughter and International racing for my son. This was also the approach the coach used to win an Olympic Gold in 1996 and a Silver in 2000.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Nose to the Grindstone

2011-01-21T09:20:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the infrequent posts, but not too much exciting is going on on the running front in my little world. There is some bad news/good news. For the bad news – the little storm event that played out toward the end of last December has left the trail infrastructure here in Orange County in a shambles. The word on the street is Laguna Coast Wilderness (closest to home) won’t reopen until sometime in March. Until then, I’m pretty much relegated to road running during the week. The good news is without the hills and uneven footing brought on by trails, my knee seems to be pretty much fully recovered. Now if I could just recover my fitness and speed….

In order to do the latter though, it’s just more nose to the grindstone work. The kind that is boring and mind numbing. Especially when those current 11:30 paces are the best that I can do. Double especially when remembering when 9:45 was a comfortable long run pace. It’s been tough, but I can finally see some progress. I went out for a one hour slow run (about 3 miles out and back, 6 total) last night and watched an amazing sunset. I’ve also dropped about 5 pounds in the last three weeks. So – I think I’ve got the ol’ cruiser turned and headed the right direction. I’m not ready to put races on my calendar yet, but it’s just a matter of being smart and putting in the time.