Muddy Calves

Warning: This ends with me running my personal slowest 5k by over 6 minutes.

I tackled a project this fall that totally Kicked My Ass.

I’ve posted some about my preparation for my fall project, like when I took the Road Runners Clubs of America (RRCA) Coach Certification class and a CPR class. But I haven’t said why I was doing those things.

Now, for the Grand Reveal.

I coached a Run Club at a local elementary school.

It was incredibly frustrating, challenging, and difficult but extremely rewarding.

One thing to keep in mind is that I work as a computer programmer in a very…mature office. At 41 years old, I’m probably 20 years younger than the average age. It’s a very slow, quiet, and structured place to work.

The exact opposite of coaching 30-some 1st to 8th graders.

While I had a teacher and a couple semi-regular volunteers helping me, I was totally out of my element. With their help and some additional support and advice from fellow coaches, Rebecca and Ann, I survived and, I think, near the end, almost knew what I was doing.

But there were times that I came home and wanted to quit. From a second grader hitting another second grader in the gut, to trying to get some of the kids to actually run, to dealing with a boy who couldn’t control his temper, to a girl learning about “the trots” the hard way, to trying to come up with snacks twice a week, to trying to keep the 1st graders to middle-schoolers interested at the same time, to one of the kids crashing with Gumby in the end-of-season race.

I do appreciate more what my teacher-wife goes through on a daily basis.

But uff-da!

But it was extremely rewarding, too. From the girl who always pushed to do a little more, to the 3rd grader who just kept going and going and going, to figuring out how to manage one of the tricky kids, to getting a gift of cookies, and just getting to know the kids, I learned a ton. I grew a bunch. I might not yet be a good kids coach but no one got a concussion the second half of the season so that’s a positive.

This was, in a way, therapy for me. I’ve been painfully shy–at least around new people–for most of my life. Largely due to the fact that I had a hard time making some sounds when I was young; partially, I think, because I grew up surrounded by people with Finnish accents. I often was embarrassed or frustrated because people could not understand what I was saying so to prevent that from happening, I talked as little as possible around new people.

As some point, I outgrew most of my speech problems but I never really realized it. It only was recently that it dawned on me that I rarely had to repeat myself to people. But I still carried the fear of talking to new people with me. And talking to groups–I was almost completely successfully in avoiding it.

After my epiphany, I started to make an effort to talk in groups–at first it was in company meetings with co-workers that I had worked with for a few year.

But coaching really forced me to get over any fears of talking in a hurry. I had 30-some kids I needed to yell at give instructions to, I had parents that I needed to yell at communicate with, and I had assistant coaches & volunteers to yell at coordinate. And, for the most part, I didn’t have time to think about it, I just had to do what needed to be done.

But really the most rewarding part was getting to know the kids. At the end of the season we ran a local Halloween race. We had 19 participants run a quarter-mile fun run and five participant, one volunteer, and myself run a 5k at the end.

I ended up hanging back with the 5kers instead of really racing but even that was incredible. I watched as our 3rd grader, who ran slow & steady, raced another boy about his age and, just like the proverbial tortoise, win in the end. I got to cheer our middle-schooler as she finished her first 5k with a flourish even though her shins were killing her–I told her it was OK to walk it in but she was determined to run the final stretch.

I looked forward to the end, but now I’m starting to plan for the Spring session.

Hey, I’m giving away a Garmin Forerunner 405. All you need to do is go to http://tundrarunning.com/FreeGamin and leave a comment!

I just got done listening to my buddy Norm finish his first ever 17-miler. He does a podcast called The Ruminative Runner. Go and listen to it, I’ll be here when you get back.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Christoph Niemann, a cartoonist for the New York Times, just ran the New York City Marathon and illustrated & tweeted his run while running.

The 5 minutes you spend reading his report will be well worth it.  Go now.

This is another long-overdue post.

This summer, I took a CPR class that I surprisingly enjoyed.

Although at first, I thought I was going to have a panic attack in the middle of class & need medical attention myself.  I was taking the class largely because I was going to be working with kids and the initial discussion started to freak me out a bit because I kept imagining have to give CPR to my own kids that was overwhelming.

Eventually, I relaxed a bit, largely due to the instructors, Tiffany & Katie of In-Pulse CPR.  They combined a serious topic with a touch of humor that created a comfortable atmosphere.  I’m one that never asks questions in a group setting but they made the class comfortable enough that I actually asked two questions.

But where they really excelled, I thought, was bringing their real-life experience–they both have worked as EMTs–to the class and telling us what to really expect if we need to do CPR.  For example, Katie told about the first time she had to do CPR and was totally freaked out when she broke ribs on the patient.  Her instructor(s) had never told her to expect that and that it is actually a required first step to give effective CPR.  The ribs are there to protect the heart and until you break them (in adults) you’re not going to be compressing the heart.

They told us that a coroner (not sure if just in one specific jurisdiction or universally) is required to indicate that “ineffective CPR” was administered whenever a corpse’s ribs are not broken.  And they told us about seeing nurses give WWF-type elbow blows to patients’ chests to break their ribs before starting CPR.

They obviously got the point across that breaking ribs (in adults) is to be expected.   Coincidentally, my wife, a teacher, took CPR training the same day with the school nurse and this wasn’t mentioned.  I feel taking the course from instructors who have actually done CPR and are willing to prepare us for the gruesome-ness of it helped better prepare me if I ever need to use the training.

If ever asked, I will always recommend that someone–especially first-timers–take the classes from instructor(s) that have actually done it in the field.

Sometimes a simple idea is so obviously great, it makes you wonder why no one  thought of it before.  One of those ideas flickered across my Twitter feed today.

Enter parkrun.

parkrun is a British organization that organizes free, weekly, 5k runs.

I love this idea on a few different levels.

First, earlier this week, I whined about the whole process of getting into some races now-a-days.  You can almost hear me cuing-up my old, crotchety voice, “back in my day, you could just decide on a whim to show up at any race on race day and just sign right up”.   From what I skimmed, these are much smaller, informal races that discard the hype.

Second, from a training perspective, the best way to get into racing shape is to race.  I know I’m able to race much faster than I can train.  For whatever reason–the excitement, the competition, the feeling of being judged, I can just race faster than I can run.  Having a consistent, affordable, regular series of races/runs provides awesome workouts and measuring tool.  Reminds me of the awesome Salomon Autumn Trail Series that I’ve run the last three years.  The series consists of 4 races, two weeks apart, at a local park.  I’ve said it before but the Salomon Trail Series give me a chance to re-create a mini-Cross Country season.

Which leads me into the final, and perhaps most important, reason I love the idea–it gives runners an excuse to get together on a regular basis.  A few different events over the last three months have emphasized how much more personal an in-person bond can be, experiencing things together.   Getting together with friends, comparing notes, having a bit to eat, and going for a run together is a great benefit.

I’ve been toying with a similar, less grand version of this for a little while but maybe I should raise my goals although taking time to organize things takes a lot longer than I knew.

Would you participate, at least occasionally, in a weekly run/race?  For either training, psychological or social reasons?

Registration opens today for the 2012 Cellcom Green Bay Marathon & Half Marathon, which I am not running for a  record 11th straight year.

Not that I have anything against this race, in fact I would have signed up for the half today if it weren’t for the fact that the route will not go through Lambeau Field this year.  Last year, I considered running the half primarily for that reason but by the time I wanted to (Mid February), the race was closed.  And while Green Bay is one marathon that allows numbers to be transferred, I wanted to set my schedule in stone and not hope I could find a second-hand number.

But this raises an increasingly common issue–races that fill up to capacity.

I understand races need to limit the field of races because of logistical, planning, and safety reasons–overbooking a race is worse than limiting the field.  But, for the runner, it’s a pain in the gluteus maximus.

It seems that to get into some of the more popular races, you first have to win the registration race just to get into it–and as a race becomes known for filling up, the registration race gets more competitive.  Which really sucks for a marathon or even half-marathon because they can fill up months before the actual race and if life gets in the way of your training, you end up donating your registration fee to the race unless they let you transfer or roll-over your registration although that isn’t the standard.

Some races–Garry Bjorklund 13.1, my Goal Race for the first half of 2011–require you enter a lottery for registration.  And while I got in, going through the lottery process isn’t fun either as it makes planning difficult.  In most cases, I think you find out fairly quickly but there still is usually a period where you end up training without knowing whether or not you’re actually going to get into the race.

Generally, it is a good thing that more runners are out there doing more races but it has added a dynamic to some races that takes away a bit of the fun.  As I’m thinking about my 2012 racing plans, the ability to actually get into the race is another factor to take into consideration.

Running smaller, less likely to fill up races is an option with a different set of pro’s and con’s and I enjoy doing that for training races but would be a little bummed if that decision gets forced onto me because of race capacity restrictions.

I do have an idea of what I want to do next spring & there haven’t been registration problems the last couple years so, if my training goes well this winter, I might not have to worry about getting in but if things fall through, my backup plan could definitely be effected by registration caps.

Has anyone been burnt by training for a race they couldn’t get into?

Have you “discovered” a great  race that you ended up running because you couldn’t get into a different race?

Obviously, I’ve neglected the blog for a while.

I’ve had reasons.

They’ll become apparent soon. Unless you already know about them & if you’re one of the few reading this, you probably already know the main reason. I’ve been busy. But that will have to wait for another day.

Today, I’m launching a new challenge for myself. To blog every day for the month of November.

I’ve had an urge to be a writer that I haven’t really gotten started on ever. My blogs have been my mild attempt at actually making sentences. For the most part, I’ve successfully avoided writing.

So now that my unnamed reason has mostly ended, I’m taking up the challenge to actually blog. November happens to be National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The basic goal of NaNoWriMo is for the author to get the words on the paper, to generate the mud. The NaNoWriMo novel is not a finished novel, it is in need of editing. One the hurdles I face in starting to write is that I always feel the need to get everything right before moving on. I get bogged down before I get going.

So my goal for November is to type for 10-20 minutes, let it sit for awhile, do a quick edit and post. Generate some mud.

Incidentally, you may notice I renamed the blog from “fartleks” to “Muddy Calf Running”. Why? For one of my projects, I’ve been thinking about names & Muddy Calf was something I liked but didn’t think suited my other needs. Besides, fartleks was a bit too generic.

Well, my time is up for tonight but first some questions:

Have you ever thought about being a writer?

Have you ever cam up with a plot for a novel?

Does the name of a blog matter?