13 is not as good as 14 but it's better than 0.

     So I've talked about how tough it is sometimes to set that alarm early, well, that's the easy part.  The hard part is to avoid hitting the snooze button and lacing up your shoes instead.  But sometimes life can throw more at you than just a bit of sleepiness.  This past weekend some punk kicked in my front door while I was at work and my wife and children were home.  There aren't many more instances that make you feel helpless than that.  Thankfully, I'm married to an amazing Mama Bear who came out of the room, saw the kid and told him the police were on the way as the first beeps of the alarm filled the air.  She then set off the sirens and chased him out the door.  I'd never second-guess her decisions but am very grateful that she was unharmed.  

     She was more shaken than anything and I did my best to console her while trying to fend off thoughts of what I'd do to that kid if I ever caught him.  All for what?  A stupid TV.  One that I watch maybe an hour a week.  Now, I have a wife that's trying to come down from a state of high alert and have to install a new door with more heavy-duty locks as well as install plenty of security lighting.  Staying up late Saturday night calling my insurance and waiting for callbacks that never came knocked out my plans for an early morning 14-mile run.  

     Sunday morning turned into a sleepwalking affair of pricing doors, trying to find a contractor to install and trying to help my wife relax and get her out of the house for a bit of a break.  Then, go to work.  It was then that I made the decision to suck it up and try to keep to my schedule and run 14 miles in a pleasant South Texas evening with obnoxious humidity.  I stopped at least 5 times and was so happy just to get to 13 miles.  I know, I'm a stubborn idiot.  You don't win every round in the game of Life.  A saner person would have chalked it up to a lost day and moved on.  But I like to consider it a small victory that I still got out there.  What do you think?  Am I crazy?

Spitting in the Eye of Sleep

     My alarm clock goes off at 6 (or earlier) on the weekends.  I work weekends but I don't have to be in until well after noon.  But I get up.  Sometimes eagerly, sometimes grudgingly.  I do it to beat the heat, I do it to spend more time with my family and I do it to run.  I subscribe to Runner's World's "Daily Kick in the Butt", a daily quote that's usually inspirational and oftentimes very blunt.  One a few days ago was from Tom Fleming, a 2-time winner of the NYC marathon: 

"If you want to be a better runner, you've got to run more.  It's as simple as that."

Not very inspirational but blunt.  A hard fact for many to swallow.  It reminds me of a more general quote that I'm paraphrasing a bit:

  "If you want something you've never had, you must do something you've never done."

I WANT to run a marathon.  But I don't want to just finish it.  I have a goal time, that's already had to be altered because of an injury that knocked out about 10 days of training.  I logged my first ever 40-mile week last week and intend to get close to 50 or 60 by the time race day comes.  

     So I get up every weekend before the sun. I find the time to get in the extra stretching, foam rolling, weights and core.  If it means I watch a little less TV, drink fewer drinks, or none at all, that's what I will do.  Hell yeah there are days when I wake up and want to go right back to bed.  But as much as that bed calls me, quotes like the two above pull me to the road or treadmill even stronger.  

     What pulls you out of bed every morning?  Maybe your work starts at 6 a.m.  If so, what pulls you off the couch at night?  How or where do you find your motivation?

Keep on runnin'!

What Did I Get Myself Into?!

     People, if you're training for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon like me, we have 12 weeks to go before the big race!  How is your training coming along?  Learning new things about yourself?  Well, I have to admit, I really have no idea what I got myself into this time.  After finishing up a cut-back week on Sunday with a 10-mile run, I took a much closer look at the rest of my training plan and for the first time in my life, got a bit nervous about my training.  Eventually I'll get to run 20, 22, 22 and 23 miles on my long runs over five weeks.  Oof.


     Two weeks ago, I ran 14 miles, matching the longest run I've ever gone out on.  I knew that I would eventually hit 20+ during my training but I have to admit, looking at all the mileage at once was probably not the smartest thing to do. It's more a matter of the mind being willing and hoping/praying the body is not weak.  I'm doing my best to learn from past mistakes and am really stepping up my strength training as well as stretching and maintenance. 

     What was it like when you first started training for a marathon?  Did you get more supportive replies or more that questioned your sanity?  I'm very impressed with all of you who have run a marathon in the past, regardless of finishing time.  The commitment level, I'm starting to learn first-hand, is truly amazing.  Family support is a must and I hope you all have it too. 

     Good luck and keep on runnin'!

CW-X PerformX Tights Review

I've recently been looking for ways to help aid in my recovery and have run across several ads for CW-X tights.  I finally bit the bullet and decided to try some out.  I'm not against running in tights but wanted them more for post-run recovery, so I settled on the CW-X PerformX tights.  I paid $70 for them at Zappos, where I've also purchased Saucony Fastwitch 4s, which I'll review soon as well.  

So I received my pair of tights on a Friday afternoon and opened them up when I got home.

Tried to put something to reference the pre-wear size

Fit: 

     I'm 5'9" and weigh about 156 so according to the size chart, I was in the gray area between a small and medium, so I went with a small, figuring snug is better than loose.  Of course, I reconsidered after trying them on (as well as wondered WHY women ever want to put on panty hose).  They suggest to get them fitted around your knees first, which took minimal effort once I got my size-12 feet through the ankle holes.  And snug they were, but that's the point.  The compression should increase blood flow to aid recovery.  

Snug as a bug.  

Construction:
  
     I'm not sure, but I think the seams alone could stop bullets.  Each leg is made up of just a few pieces of fabric that sort of swirl around your leg.  The seams are incredibly solid and I would be surprised if they ever give.  The waistband is double-reinforced and has a flat string which does help in the comfort department.  They're also constructed gender-specific so make sure you fill out your order correctly or you could get some chafing where you'd rather not have it.

Performance:

     I don't plan to wear them to bed every night, mainly after speed/tempo days or my long runs.  The first night I wore them was on an off day but I still felt like giving them a try to make sure I wasn't uncomfortable wearing them through the night.  I never felt any discomfort, except for the extra bathroom trips, which I wasn't sure if they were due to the compression or the extra coffee I drank a little too late.  But in the morning, getting up for a pre-dawn 5-miler, my legs felt refreshed and I didn't feel any soreness or fatigue in them during my run.

     The second time I tried them was after a 14-mile run.  I wore them for about 4 hours afterwards and my legs did not feel like they had just hit the ground about 20,000 times earlier in the day.  Over the next week, I alternated wearing them or not, after runs similar in length.  I did wake up feeling a bit more fatigue on the days I didn't wear them.

Conclusion:


     After wearing them after both long and short runs, and not wearing them after some runs, I have to say that these tights do the job.  I only wore them overnight once.  The other times I ended up taking them off after about 4 hours each time.  Because of where I live (south Texas), I'm not sure if I'd ever get a pair to actually run in outside, although if I do, I'll update you guys on how those perform.

The PerformX style is only available in one style, black and dark grey.  CW-X has several different styles and the site allows you to narrow down which ones might work best for you depending on your activity, areas of concern, as well as insulated styles and pants, 3/4 and shorts.

Keep on runnin'!

Running into Reality

After watching "Inception" (don't worry, no spoilers!), I thought about finding my own totem.  Sometimes my life seems surreal.  Sometimes I wish it was, especially during some of my runs.  Like my latest attempt at a tempo run (a run where after a brief warm-up, you attempt to run x miles at x pace).  I've set my bar WAY too high.  A week after coming to terms with the fact that I pay more attention to our vehicle maintenance, another realization has hit me much sooner than it ever has during my sometimes over zealous training: I'm not ready for the speeds I want to run. 

Two months ago I broke 20 minutes for the first time in a 5K, a barrier I've seriously pursued for a while.  But in the weeks that followed, I went on vacation and paid little attention to my running mileage.  Well, I keep a log but kept telling myself that I needed the rest.  So I ran fewer times than I ate pancakes for the next month.  Then I jumped in head-first and ended up with a strained hip flexor and paying a doctor to cause me serious pain to recover. 

Now, the leg feels fine.  Somehow I took that to mean my fitness couldn't have possibly suffered.  So as I went on my first tempo run in well over 6 weeks, I expected to kick some serious butt.  The warm-up mile was fine.  The first mile, I was able to keep my pace up for nearly the entire mile before my heart and every other internal organ started to conspire to jump out of my body, wanting no part of this runaway train (OK, I'm not that fast, but don't crush ALL my dreams).  As a subscriber to Runner's World's many emails, I get daily running quotes.  Many of them have focused on running within yourself.  Do you suffer from this too?  I set many goals when I run, admittedly, some of them are not within reach.  At least not now.  

Maybe (and I say that very pessimistically) some of my stubbornness is fading away and I'm doing a little bit of growing up.  But at least I'm not growing old. 

Ready... Set... Go!

     Alright people, with a little help from my friend Nicole, I'm breaking away from the blog format from work and going out on my own.  I'm doing this for a few reasons.  For one, this format will allow me to have better control over the updates (which I intend to do at LEAST twice a week) as well as the links, photos, etc.  Second, I try a lot of running products and every now and then, I will offer my two cents and don't want there to appear to be any type of conflict of interests.  So until further notice, this blog is mine alone, independent of my job as a news reporter/anchor at KSAT-12.  

     This blog will focus on running, my own training, and life lessons learned along the way.  Again, I'll also blog about some new products I've been trying or will try to give you guys the best information I can.  I hope you enjoy reading them and spread the word and keep in touch!

Charles