Hard Decisions

I just got back from a 3/4 mile warm-up, 20 minute tempo at 6:00/mile pace, 6 minute recovery jog, 6 x 200 meters at my "R" pace which is 38 seconds with 200 meter recovery jogs after each one and then a 2.5 mile cool down at my "E" pace which is 7:34/mile. It was tough, there was ice and snow on the ground and a pretty good wind blowing south, which was a side-wind for half of the tempo and a beautiful head-wind for the other half.  It felt good; I feel good.  I'm not sure what the future holds and I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing with my life, but here's your update.

I Am Grateful

Today I went to Walmart with my son.  I saw a bum begging and decided I would remember to do my part and get a loaf of bread.  I forgot until I was out the doors, so I turned around, went back in, bought a loaf of the cheapest white bread and drove out of the parking lot.

I went out of my way so I could give him the bread.  Instead of going in the left turn lane, which is what I would have done, I went in the straight/turn-right lane and rolled down the window.  The sign he was holding said a few things, but "Hungry" was definitely written on it.  I showed him the bread before throwing it to him, but before I could, he yelled, "No.  I don't have nothin' to put on it!" Are you JOKING ME!!! I mean SERIOUSLY!  You are a BUM and you are BEGGING and you aren't going to take my bread because you don't have nothin' to put on it?!?!?!?!?  So I proceeded to throw the bread to him, not at him, and I said, "You just gotta be grateful for what you get."  And I said it nice, but with a little sass I guess and then I drove off.  Anyways, I just wanted to share that and I am grateful for the blessings in my life.  I would like to think that I would take a loaf of bread if I was poor and begging.

Next time I'll be peanut butter, jelly and have two disposable knives on hand.  I'm serious.

Introduction

Since  I last wrote I've been doing a lot of running, praying and soul-searching.  I went to a wedding in Utah of a close friend.  I made a cool video of my son talking.  I read a cool book called The Alchemist which was awesome and inspiring, full of good insight.  I also watched two old-school movies that pushed me over the edge, in a manner of speaking, and was the impetus for my decisions as of late.

My Training

If you go to my Training Since September page you'll see ALL of my workouts since I started my "Olympic" training.  I haven't gotten sick since April, so I'm healthy (although I have been eating a TON of sugar and refined carbs, which for me is almost a sin, maybe not for you, but just for me).  I haven't been seriously injured, just some minor aches and pains.  I was going to do a time trial this week, but then it snowed and got really cold.  I'm not sure what I'll do, but something must be done.


Dreams and Fulfillment

I'm going to be straight up honest and direct: I will never give up on my dream.  It will always be with me.  I've been trying to get rid of it for 10+ years, do you think I can get rid of it now? Nope.  Sorry.  And if you want to tell me I can't, please do, just know that someday, down the road you may be sorry.  You may regret your negative words of pessimism.  Just know I never told you that you couldn't do it.  I may not accomplish my dream the way I've always thought, winning a gold medal at age 27, my prime, in the London Summer Olympics--maybe it'll be when I'm 51 at the Masters World Championships, when I'm faster at age 51 then I ever was at age 17.  Who knows? I don't, and I don't want to put limits on the human body.  People that do that only get proven wrong.

Sunday night, November 20th, we returned home from Utah having gone to a friend's wedding.  My sister was watching these old-school LDS films like The Telephone  and Cipher in the Snow. I remembered there was one about a runner called John Baker's Last Run about this guy who was a fast runner and while he was training for the Olympics and being an elementary school P.E. coach/teacher found out he had cancer and died a year and a half later.  I then watched another short film on the same DVD called Emmet Smith which is about this high school cross country and track coach who had a brain tumor, but after his operation did everything he could to get better and help people etc.  Anyways, the acting is horrible, but the stories were inspiring.  I felt so good and so bad at the same time.  I've only been working part-time, and Amy and I have cut back on a few things to save money, but it's not enough.  I realized that although my goal is not a bad goal, the way I'm going about it may be wrong.  I think I've been selfish.

1 Timothy 5:8 says, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." I believe that's true.  I had to learn it independent of anyone.  Amy has been extremely supportive and never has said a word about me pursuing my dream to be selfish, but I know that I have been failing at my familial responsibilities.  Okay, maybe not failing, but I'm not doing as well as I should be.  


Conclusion


If my dream is right then it will happen as long as I am working hard and doing what I should be doing.  I have faith in God that He will see to it that I can accomplish everything He has put into my heart.  I need to earn more money, get out of debt and provide better for my family.  End of story, or should I say, beginning.  Ha, ha, ha, ha!  More on my training and racing plan for the future to come.  Stay tuned boys and girls.

Blog Break

I decided to post daily when I wanted my blog's traffic to increase.  I wanted more people to know about what I was doing, be inspired and live their dreams.  Well lately it's been hard to post daily.  Not that I can't force myself to think of things to write about but sometimes it gets tedious.  Because of the way my training has been going there haven't really been very many races.  For me at least, racing and times are one of the most exciting things about running.  Beating yourself, PRing etc. is the best. 

I've been doing a lot of long, slow (and by slow I mean 7:34 per mile, about 40 miles per week) running so it hasn't really been that exciting, to me at least.  If it's not exciting to me, it's probably not exciting to you, and not that you wouldn't be interested in my mundane life, but for now I'm going to give the blog a rest. I am going to postpone posting for 5 weeks.  So 5 weeks from now I promise an update on how things are going.  I'm going to put reminders in my calendar and I will let you know how things are going.  If something exciting, or even kind-of exciting happens before then, which is December 1st, then I promise I will write about it.  If I end up doing a race or time-trial and it's noteworthy for example or if some shoe company wants to sponsor me, you know--I'll let you know.  For right now I don't have any races really planned for this year.  I have some tentative plans for some races in December, but until then I have nothing planned, but I'll keep you updated for sure.  You're awesome and never forget it!

My Race, My Life, My Blog

Alright, sorry it's been so long since my last post, but it's been crazy.  I'm a little sick right now, but not too bad so I've been taking care of my body, but life is grand and I wanted to tell you about it.

On Saturday I ran a 5K.  I finished in like 17:44, second place overall.  Frankly it wasn't as fast as I was hoping for.  I was a little disappointed to say the least, so I ate some sugar cereal, watched some cool races on YouTube and then went to work.  My manager at work took me home that evening after we closed.  We talked about the race and I again expressed my disappointment.  My manager by the way took third right behind me in a banana suit/costume promoting for Jamba Juice. He brought up a really good point that I have been doing a lot of slow runs.  My mileage has been good, but my intensity really has been non-existent, so taking into consideration those factors I should be happy with that time.  He was/is right and I'm glad for friends that help bring things into perspective.

I had been wanting a GPS watch for a while.  Mainly for keeping track of mileage.  But recently as I've been using Jack Daniels' book and training plans realizing I need a GPS watch, or rather a GPS watch would be really beneficial to my training, to keep me on pace for the runs that require a certain, steady pace.  Anyways, I got a message from a lady in my ward that does Ironmans/Ironmen :) (Ironpeople is more politically correct;) and she said she had an extra GPS watch I could borrow.  I don't even know how she knew I was looking for one, maybe my mom told her, I doubt it, but I used it for the first time today without really knowing how to use it and it worked pretty good.

I'm not going to lie.  The original purpose of my blog back in 2010 was to make money eventually and be able to do the thing I love: running, for a living while I blogged about it and made it big.  Well, in the past few days I've realized I'm too attached to my outcomes of running and I believe that in order to succeed I need to relinquish my attachment to those outcomes.  I need to let Heavenly Father know what I desire, work hard and learn along the way.  I still want to achieve my goals, but if they don't happen I won't be so heartbroken I won't be able to move on.  So with my blog, I'm going to back off, post when I want.  It'll be like my journal in that I used to write a lot daily, but now I write when I feel like it and I like that for now.  Stay tuned.

Awesome No-Bakes and Incredible Crepes

Just thought I'd pass along some Fearless Recipes I thought you'd all enjoy:

I made both of the following recipes recently and really enjoyed them.  A friend at work asked for the recipes and while I was sending them to him on Facebook I realized it would make a really good blog post so here you go, just sharing the love:


Caleb's Semi-Healthy, Almost-Vegan, Dairy Free, Gluten Free No-Bake Cookies

(Before you make them look at my "what I wish I would have done differently" after the recipe)

1/2 C. Olive Oil
2/3 C. Honey
1/2 C. Almond Milk
3 T. Cocoa
Sprinkle Salt (Real Salt if you have it)

Put all these ingredients in a pot, heat up until it's a liquid mixture, then add:

3 C. Old Fashioned Oats
1/3 C. Natural Peanut Butter (like Adams)
1/3 C. Flax Meal (not necessary, but I liked it, but I'm sure it would taste just the same without it)
Sprinkle Vanilla

Stir until all the oats are coated and have soaked up everything, then drop by the spoonful on wax paper or whatever you have.  I usually make mine like double or triple spoonful.

What I wish I would have done differently:
I think you could do less Olive Oil, like a 1/4 cup instead of a 1/2, you could probably do a 1/2 cup honey because even 2/3 cup was a tad too sweet.  You could probably increase the amount of peanut butter if you really like peanut butter, or substitute with almond or cashew butter and I'm sure that would taste really good.  Let me know how they turn out if and when you make them.

Caleb's Vegan Wheat-Free Crepes

(Okay, so I'm not a vegan, but I think that eating less meat and more healthy stuff like plants and whole grains is REALLY good for everyone, so here you go)

1 C. Spelt flour (reg. wheat flour works, but then they're not wheat-free, I'm a little sensitive to wheat, so I try to avoid it)
1 C. Almond Milk
2 T. Flax Meal
1 T. Olive Oil

Alright, so maybe you've made flax meal before, but if you haven't you can grind flax seed as you would any other grain (like in a wheat grinder, or hand grinder, or in a blender like a vitamix or blendtec), and then before you do anything else take 2 tablespoons of the flax, put it into a little bowl or cup, then add like 4 or so tablespoons of water so that the flax meal is soaking in water, stir it around like a few times so it makes a simple paste--that will be your egg substitute.

I put everything into a 2 Cup measuring cup thing so I can then just pour it straight into the pan.  Put the flour in the cup, then the milk, then add the flax meal paste, mix it all up real good, then add the oil, then make crepes.  I usually put oil in the pan too, and heat it up on medium-low heat as I'm preparing the mix.  If you've never done crepes I can teach you some time, but you probably have because you're pro like that.  Enjoy!

Wish Walk Run

I forgot to tell everyone that I'm doing a 5K this Saturday.  When I've thought of it I haven't been in a place to post, but when I'm posting I forget.  Anyways, that's the plan.  I hope to 1. Break my previous best of 17:38, 2. My realistic goal is a low 17, precisely 17:03 I think I can do if things go well, 3. My ambitious goal is 16:34, we'll see and 4. My "super-human" goal is 15:54 which I kind-of think is possible, but at the same time for me, at this point in my training etc. is "super-human".

If you are in the Idaho Falls area come out and run the Wish Walk Run 5K. Good night!

Plugging Along

Just wanted to let everyone out there know that I haven't given up, I don't plan on it.  Training is going well and I feel very good.  Not giving up, not looking back.

45 Miles Later

This week was week 4 of phase 1.  I increased my mileage by 9 miles.  Each morning I did a 4 miles run and in the afternoon I did 3.  Thursday I did the group run for Teton Running and the lady I ran with wanted to do 4 miles so I did 4 in the evening. The following day I did 6 miles instead of 7 to even things out.  This morning I ran 10 miles in 1:13.30.  It felt really good.  I ran a little faster than 7:34 per mile, but didn't feel like I was pushing my body too hard.

I increased my supplemental exercises like push-ups, sit-ups etc. (if you want to know more, maybe you do, maybe you don't read Of Maxes, Circuits, Plyos, Planks and Push-ups.) and it was dang hard.  Because of my work schedule working a full day on Friday and Saturday I decided to do my circuit on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Monday was hard because it was the first day of the new increases, Wednesday was tough but okay, and then Thursday was really hard because I was still recovering from Wednesday.  Anyways, the point is that I'm becoming really strong and my six-pack is getting RIPPED! Already, enough of that, but thought there would be someone out there that would want to know.

Tomorrow/starting tonight is fast Sunday.  Always tough but always awesome and worth it.

The Cold has Come

Yesterday morning I went for run #1.  Before I left my dad walked in the door having gone for a run himself.  I could tell it was sprinkling a little, not thinking much of it because come on, I grew up in Vancouver, Washington.  Rain doesn't faze this!  My dad said that it was raining lightly and "wanting" to snow.  I was like, how can you tell it wants to snow?  but I didn't ask that question out loud, I just left on my run.

Well, it was a light rain, and the wind had picked up a little.  I could tell the temperature was dropping, but I did NOT think it was going to snow.  By about 10:00 a.m. I was going to the temple and it was snowing. By the time I got out of the temple, about 30 minutes later, it was sticking and then about 3 hours later there was a snowman on the front lawn.

That night, last night, I led the group run for Teton Running, the store I work at, and it was very, very cold.  Not too bad, but compared to the summer, and compared to 5 days ago for goodness sakes, it was freezing.  This morning I went running.  I ran about 6 miles.  I thought my toes would stand a better chance if I wore two pairs of socks.  Well, I wore two pairs of cotton socks, soaked through both within 15 minutes of the 45 minutes run.  My toes were incredibly cold, but my fingers did well as I wore some good gloves.

We had a lady come to work and she did a training on Icebreaker which is apparel made of Merino wool.  We each got some socks as part of the training.  I plan on wearing them tomorrow during my long run.  I'll let you know how they hold up.  Apparently they are supposed to be some of the best clothing out there, and by the way that lady was explaining things it's pretty much bomb.  Anyways, let you know.

Why Success Principles

I thought I would do a short post on why I use The Success Principles by Jack Canfield.  There are tons of self-help/motivation/achieve-your-dreams books out there, but there's a reason a have selected The Success Principles to form a part of my success.

It was around June/July 2010 and I went up to the base of the "Y" mountain.  I went off on a little trail, found a large rock to sit on and began to pray.  My prayer ended with me yelling out to the city of Provo, "Why can't I do what I love and get paid to do it?!" and then I ran home.  Well that same day I get a phone call from my mother-in-law who had become part of a book club/mastermind group reading the book The Success Principles.  They gave me a copy of that book, and instantly I was hooked on reading it.

A few months later I was struggling with a mold allergy caused by where we were living and with school and work and an internship it just got to be more than I could handle.  I had to drop out of the group, but I did continue to read the book.

Fast forward to a year later, when the timing was right, I could pick up the book again and begin to apply the principles.  That's my story.  Thought you'd be interested.

Of Maxes, Circuits, Plyos, Planks and Push-ups

Yesterday was the start of an increase in a lot of things.  My white-board states a goal of increasing stress by increasing mileage and work done during my circuit training.  3 weeks ago I maxed out on push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups.  3 days a week I would perform the circuit and yesterday I maxed out again to measure improvement.  Here are my gains, needless to say I am very happy:

Area                                              3 weeks ago             Yesterday
Push-ups                                             32                             44
Sit-ups                                                 40                             70
Pull-ups (front "harder" way)              8                              14
Pull-ups (back, "easier" way)        didn't do it                     12

I was also doing a combination of plyometrics/callistenics, about 10 of them, 30 seconds for each one, 2 sets.  I have increased that to 40 seconds for each one and 3 full sets.  I do that 3 times per week as part of my circuit.

In addition to that I do trunks (as we called them in high school), I think others call them planks.  I was doing each position (7 of them) for 23 seconds each and 2 sets per circuit.  Starting yesterday I did each position for 30 seconds and I did 3 sets.  I will be doing 3 sets per circuit.  Man, they are difficult.  By the end my whole body is shaking.  I didn't know if I was going to be able to do 3 full sets, but I kept telling myself that even if I didn't complete the set, I was going to at least start it, and I did, and I completed it.  It was a small victory for me.  The video below shows what trunks are, and also how I do my push-ups and sit-ups:

So I take my maxes, divide them in half, and then each time I do a circuit I do that half-max 3 times like this:

On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, before I run I would do a set of plyos, a set of trunks, another set of plyos and another set of trunks, then the final set of plyos and the final set of trunks.  Run.  Then come back and do 7 pull-ups (front-"hard"), 22 push-ups, 6 pull-ups (back-"easy"), 35 sit-ups and do that 3 times in a row.

Bloody Soldier

Saturday morning was one of the most traumatizing experiences I have had in a long time.  It wasn't even that bad, but lots of blood for me equals trauma.

I'm just not a blood guy.  I have O-negative, which means I can donate to anyone including infants which the red cross always so nicely reminds me of every time they call and ask me to donate.  So I have felt an obligation to donate blood and have overcome my fear of getting poked periodically.  I have not overcome the fear though of watching the needle enter my body.  I've never looked at any needle enter my body and I could probably count on 2 fingers how many times I've seen it done on other people.  ANYWAYS that's just to give some background on my aversion to blood in person.  Movies sometimes is fine, but live, no thanks.

I had a really, really good run Saturday morning.  I felt like I was giving my normal 7:34 per mile effort, but I was hitting close to 7:00 each time.  I tried to slow down, but I just couldn't.  So I had to work at 10:00 that morning and Amy wanted to shower before I left.  Kimball, my son who's 20 months old, had a rough night so he was super tired.  We decided that he would be fine while Amy showered and then after she was done, she could put him down for a late morning nap.  Well, lately we have been letting him stand on a chair while we do things like when my mom makes cookies, or when my dad makes granola, or when I make green smoothies.  Kimball LOVES, he absolutely loves to help.  I'll wash a leaf of kale, and then give him half to put in one of the Magic Bullet cups.  He really likes to use knives too, so we let him sometimes, or maybe it's just me that let's him... But not all by himself, I help him.  Anyways, this story does not include a knife, so don't worry, sorry if I scared you.

I got the oatmeal out, was heating up some water etc. and Kimball was reapeating "Cereal" over and over again, which when he says it it sounds like "Seeweeuhl" which is super cute, except he was whining it loudly and due for a nap anyways.  Well I started to take the oatmeal back the pantry and he followed me with his body, turning towards me bit by bit, well I couldn't tell until I passed the counter top that he was close to the edge of the chair he was standing on and as he was turning and doing his mad mini-stomp he fell backwards off the chair, I think hitting bum first and then hitting his head on the ground.

We learned later that he had bit both sides of his lower lip.  He started screaming, grabbing his lower lip as blood just poured out of his mouth and onto to my wrist and sports watch.  Amy was in the shower and I was in blood-trauma-I-don't-know-what-to-do mode, so I ran down, the bathroom was locked so I hit the door hard, went to another door and found a little key--you know the ones that look like a straight piece of round metal and go into a little hole lock in the door-knob.  When I got back to the bathroom door Amy had opened it and she freaked out a little, but then got a washcloth to start treating it...

Okay, enough details, but needless to say we're all traumatized, but glad that Kimball's okay.  When he fell he was holding an army guy.  I did a little video that you can see it below.  He got blood on the army guy which makes it look like the real deal.

At first I had a lot of emotions rushing through my brain.  I wanted to say, "See, that's shouldn't let you stand on chairs." or something, but I realized that really it was a combo of problems and when it really boiled down to it, stuff like that happens no matter how careful we are, at least it does in my my family.  Accidents happen and I'm very grateful that Kimball was okay.  I think the whole thing helped me develop more love for my family, a greater appreciation for my wife and a stronger testimony of God.  It's a shame that traumatizing experiences have to be the things to do that for me, but nevertheless I am grateful.

Achieving Maximum Improvement

Tomorrow will mark the end of my first 3 weeks of my new training plan.  I talked to my buddy Brant on the phone this morning and we were talking about how my training was going and I'll tell you the same: It's going really good.  I really feel like it's exactly what I need to be doing.

I'm basing a lot of what I'm doing off of the training plans in the book Daniels' Running Formula.  It's a book that explains really all the specifics of training; why you do easy runs and why you do them at a certain pace, what pace to do them, what's the purpose of the tempo/threshold run, how fast to do repeats with how much rest and why that's how you should do them and on and on.

I've been doing two workouts every day, 3 miles each for a total of 6 miles each day and 36 each week.  I don't run on Sunday, it is a day of complete training/running rest.  I run at 7:34 per mile and that's how it's been going.  I've consistently been hitting my times easily and I feel really, really good.  I've had a couple of realizations as I've been following this plan.  In high school we went on an easy run or a long run and I couldn't tell what pace we ran it, nor could I ever tell you if my coach ever told us how fast to run.  I think when I was a Freshman I probably went to slow, but as I got older and started running with the faster guys I think those "easy" runs turned into hard runs.  I think there's a common misconception out there that in order to get really good you have to train incredibly hard as often as possible.  That may work for people like Steve Prefontaine, but for most that's a good way to get frustrated, injured, depressed, sick, and fatigued.  On the same token, if you go so slow all the time then it'll be hard to see improvement and you won't see even close to the results you're wanting.  I feel like Daniels' Running Formula does a good job at explaining what you should be doing and why.   I know I already said that, but I'm realizing that there's a balance to achieve for maximum improvement.

Not too hard, but not too easy at the same time.  That's how it's gotta be with everything, even the hard stuff.  Let's say you have 3 hard workouts one week.  Each hard workout has a specific purpose.  One is to improve speed, another to solidify race-pace, and the last to improve anaerobic endurance.  Well, if you go too hard on the speed, then you may not be fully recovered by the race-pace workout, and unable to complete the set. Maybe you were going to do 7 x 400 m, but because your feeling really tired, by #4 you're falling off the pace, which means you shouldn't be doing them etc.  Anyways, if that doesn't make sense, sorry, ask me some questions, but I think that explains it.

So next week I'll be doing 4 miles in the morning, 3 miles in the evening with a 9 mile long run on Saturday.  The long run shouldn't be more than 25% of the total weekly mileage, so because my total weekly mileage I want to be about 44 miles,  I shouldn't do more than 11 miles on my long run, and since I have been doing 6 miles every day, I thought it would be wise to start out at 9 miles.

On top of that, and I probably need to do a separate post on this, but I'll be testing my new maxes for push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups, along with increasing my plyometric duration time and the time I spend doing trunks, or core strengthening.

Good night.

The Ruling

So I thought I would give a brief explanation to the picture I put on Facebook earlier.  It's a picture of the women's current world record holder in the marathon, Paula Radcliffe, who also happens to be a hero of mine.  I hope to meet her one day, like next August.  The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations, the governing body for track and field) ruled that they will not recognize any marathon record performance by a woman who set said record in a race that had men.  So in order for a record to be legit, it has to be an all-woman race or a race where the women start ahead of the men, like they do, I believe, in the Boston Marathon, where the elite women start 45 minutes early.  Anyways, I think the whole thing is poppycock, ridiculousness. And that's all I'm going to say about it right now because I'm going to bed.  Here's a picture that describes how I feel, it's of Paula Radcliffe--I love it.

Welcome to Idaho Falls

I thought you would like some video action.  Idaho Falls is a cool little town that I'm really enjoying.  This video shows us on our way to the Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner starting from the house:

And then there's this video.  All I know is that if I fail in everything else, I will have succeeded in producing one of the world's cutest, coolest and most adorable kids.  I did like 5% or less of the work, thanks Amy! :)

"Amy, oh my gosh! I got an email back from Dr. Jack Daniels."

About a week ago I sent Dr. Jack Daniels (read my posts about what I'm doing with him: Post #1, Post #2, and Post #3), one of the world's leading exercise physiologists specializing in running, an email.  Most of you know that I coach myself.  I have been since the Summer of 2003 until the present.  For most of my life I haven't known how to properly train and as a result have over-trained and injured myself repeatedly.  Anyways, this will be short, but he emailed me back telling me he is a very busy man, but suggested some things and told me to get back to him in a few months when I had done what he suggested.

Most of you know I don't really have the money to afford a coach of any kind, so I'm using Jack's book, Daniels' Running Formula, to help me train.  I got a little scared a week and a half ago because I wasn't sure I was doing things right, so I had this idea to ask Jack.  I figured the worst thing that could happen is he could say no.  Well he didn't and I have a simple but awesome email from him.  Ask and ye shall receive--it's true.

Jennifer Toomey: Part 2

Alright, life is crazy, but I had to write this post and put some closure on this whole thing.  So basically what it comes down to, cutting to the chase of Jennifer Toomey, is that her story, I think is even more incredible than what I'm trying to do.  Maybe...

Turns out she was a really good athlete in high school and college, but not in running, nor was it anything close to running.  Jennifer Toomey was a diver.  She was a state champion, then went on to dive in college.  It wasn't until she was 27 (in 1998) that she started running.  Her friend made a bet with her that he could beat her in the Boston Marathon, so she started running.  She joined the local running club, was noticed by the coach as someone with quick strides and in 1998 ran an 800 meter time of 2:14.  2 years later in 2000, she had dropped her time to a 2:00.38 and placed 5th in the Olympic Trial semifinals.  In 2004 she was incredible.  According to Jen Toomey's USATF Bio: "she became the only athlete ever to win the middle-distance double at the USA Indoor championships. Toomey won the 800 and 1500m at 2004 USA Indoors, then placed 4th at World Indoors in a personal best time of 1:59.64 with an American record for 1,000m under her belt as well (2:34.19)."


Anyways, I guess the fact that she won a state championship in something in high school kind of disqualifies her from Ed Eyestone's theory.  But at the same time, she did it in diving.  I don't know a ton about diving, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of carry-over from it to running, just saying.

Jennifer Toomey: Part 1

On my wall there is this page from a Runner's World magazine.  It's a runner spotlight of Jennifer Toomey.   The date on the page is April 2004.  I've kept it all these years and it's meaning more and more to me.

When I talked to Ed Eyestone, he told me that he didn't know of anyone who had ever done what I was planning on doing from my situation, and what I mean by that, is that Ed hadn't ever heard of someone who had never made it to State in high school, or who wasn't a state champion, or who hadn't made the college team, but had made it to the Olympic trials and the Olympics.  Well, my dear friend Ed, have you ever heard of Jen Toomey?

I had, but I had forgotten.

How to set effective goals

I'm currently on Principle 7 of Jack Canfield's Success Principles which is about goal setting.  I'm actually semi-obsessed with it at the moment which is why this post will be short, but oh so sweet!

There are two elements you want with a goal to transfer it from a good idea to a real-deal goal.  How much, by when?  That is the criteria and here is my example:

Good Idea:  Win a gold medal.

Goal:  I will win a gold medal in the 5,000 meter run in the 2012 London Summer Olympics and I will run 5,000 meters in 12:55 in that same race by Saturday, August 11th at 8:00 p.m. British Summer Time [BST] 2012.

Some of you may be asking, is that his goal for reals?  Yes.  Go big or go home is my motto.  I really believe it's possible.  Canfield recommends reading your goals every day, 3 times a day.  One of the things that stood out to me from the chapter was this:  "When you write it all down, your subconscious mind will know what to work on.  It will know which opportunities to hone in on to help you reach your goal... Read the list one goal at a time.  Close your eyes and picture each goal as if it were already accomplished.  Take a few more seconds to feel what you would feel if you had already accomplished each goal...Your brain wants to close the gap between your current reality and the vision of your goal" (Success Principles, pages 52-55).

Right now I'm working on 101 goals, so that's what I'm going to get back to right now.

The Wall of Greatness

So I know I need to put up more pictures and do more videos, so here is a post with a vid.  Next week I'm thinking of doing pure video.  Like a vlog, you know?  We'll see.  Anyways, this is a video of my wall.  My video explains the rest:

How's Your Training Going?

I think the question that people ask me most often is "How's your training going?"  In the past I would have responded, "Oh, it's going okay, I'm running good times, working really hard, but I'm not exactly where I want to be."  But right now I can answer and say that my training is going better than ever before, and this post is about what I'm doing and why.

Okay, so I was overtraining, have been.  Last week I did a total of 36 miles.  Monday through Friday I did a 3 mile run in the morning and another in the afternoon with a light warm-up and cool-down.  My pace was a consistent 7:34 per mile.  Sometimes I went faster without really meaning to, so I slowed down.  Other times the wind was strong, so it slowed my time down, but I did not speed up, or at least I tried not to.  On Saturday I ran 3 miles, stopped, stretched/rested for 5 minutes, then did another 3 miles.  I have not been sore, or at least not running related soreness.  I was incredibly sore though in my chest because I needed a max performance for push-ups so I could plan accordingly for my circuit.

I have been tired.  I was going to bed pretty consistently at 9:30 p.m. and waking up at 6 a.m.  So in theory I should have been getting good sleep, but my son is still having trouble sleeping through the night, so even though my total sleep time is pretty good, it's filled with interruptions.  I'm not complaining, just explaining.  Amy has the worst of it, because my son refuses to let me put him to sleep.  We're working on solutions to that problem.

So in review, I'm really enjoying my running, it's going so good.  I feel fresh for each workout although I'm tired and I'm excited to see what happens in the next few months.

A Letter of Opposition

This post is actually an email I just sent to a friend.  I sent him an email last night wanting to make a friendly bet and he responded that he would be happy to do it, but that he wanted to warn me.  He wanted to warn me that I wasn't going to be able to do what I wanted; achieve my goal of going to the Olympics.  I thought about putting the message he sent me, but didn't want to do it without his permission, but didn't want to ask.  Suffice it to say that he warned me that I was setting myself up for the biggest failure and disappointment of my life if I was really set and had my eyes on running fast enough to qualify for the Olympic trials and Olympics themselves.  Here's the message a accompanying picture:

"My friend,

Got your call, got your message, but I don't feel like talking on the phone for now.  Nothing personal, but I just don't feel ready.

I don't hate you or have any hard feelings towards you or your words.  I want you to know that I am very grateful for our friendship, and for your friendship towards me.  I am grateful for your frank and brave words.  I know it takes a lot to say them and I am grateful.  I consider myself warned.  I consider myself more warned, or just as warned as anyone in the history of the world who embarked on a seemingly impossible journey, was told they wouldn't be able to do, and then did it.  I've gotten it from two very reliable sources, you and Ed Eyestone.  With that said I want you to know that I factor in the chance that I may not succeed with my dream.  I realize that there are factors beyond my control that may limit my ability to achieve my dreams.  I may go on my afternoon run in an hour and get hit by a car, be paralyzed from the neck down, and not be able to provide for the needs of my family and then never be able to do what I've always wanted to do.  At the same time there are things that I take into consideration that push me every day towards my goal.

When I was 17 years old I ran two significant personal bests in Washington state.  Early in the season, before I was injured with severe IT Band tendonitis, I ran a mile/1600 meters in 4:39.  I also ran 400 meters in a relay in 53 seconds.  Now I know I've brought this up before, but what's interesting to me is that when I was 17 I ran those times.  Do you mean to tell me I peaked at age 17?  That my Senior year in high school, where I was sometimes a whole year younger than my competitors because of my summer birthday, that I was running my fastest times I would ever hope to run for the rest of my life?  I REFUSE to believe that the fastest running of my life came at age 17 in high school.  I loved my coaches, they were and are great men, but as far as their knowledge of the best training plans and methods of training, it was alright.  I trained myself during the Winters and Summers.  A lot of times I pushed myself too hard during the Cross and Track seasons, which I believe was a contributing factor to my consistent ability to injure myself successfully.  I distinctly remember one session of 400s during Track season.  It was POURING down rain, as it often did, but we were doing a hard set of repeat 400s.  I think we did around 16.  My buddy Chris and I felt so good that we decided to do more despite the quickly cooling climate and the incessant down-pour.  We tore our shirts off and did 2, 3 or maybe 4 more as fast as we could.  My coach was standing by, letting us do it.  Knowing what I know now, that was a dumb move by me.  I'm pretty sure I got sick the following day or week.  I overtrained.

Well that's what's been going on for the past 5 years.  A combination of intense circumstances mixed with a high dose of prideful overtraining and I haven't really improved the way I would have hoped. My immediate success with triathlons and marathons are pretty good indicators, I think, of my potential.  My first triathlon I ever did was an Olympic distance and my time was 2:24 and 3rd place overall.  I trained seriously for that for about 3 weeks.  I actually trained on a mountain bike, borrowed a buddy's road bike the day before the race and raced on it.  I attached a picture of my training plan that I still have, I took it with my phone, but hopefully you can zoom in and see the specific days' plans.  Anyways, my point is that I have never really known how to train.  I've blinded myself and been prideful thinking I knew what I needed to do, but until now I have been shooting in the dark, but every time it has led to overtraining and injury.  We'll see what happens, but I feel very confident that by training properly I will be able to achieve, or at least start achieving my true potential. I finally feel confident in training and by reading have realized why I need to do certain workouts a certain way, at a certain speed, at a certain intensity etc.  You should know that since I haven't been doing that, I probably/definitely wouldn't see the results I expected.  If that takes me to the Olympics, which I believe it will, but I won't be devastated if it doesn't, then so be it.  Love you."

My Current Training Plan

Okay, I just want to start off with this.  My wife and I usually have some type of green smoothie as part of our breakfast.  We've been giving our son, who's 19 months old, a little as well.  Sometimes he likes it and other times he doesn't.  Well this morning we had eggs and toast along with it and he was dipping his toast into his green smoothie--definitely more daring than I.  He was eating it, funny kid.

Alright, so I thought it would be good to tell you exactly what my training plan is currently and how I came to doing it.  So I started reading Daniels' Running Formula as I've mentioned in previous posts (What do Deepak Chopra, Jack Daniels and Jack Canfield all have in common? and I'm going to rest) and I realized that I was overtraining; pushing my body too hard.  I thought that as long as I was eating incredibly well, getting more than enough rest and thinking positive thoughts that I could push my body as hard as I wanted to and I would become incredible faster than normal.  Well it turns out that plan didn't work so well.  I was getting tired, my foot started to feel stress-fracturey. (Meaning like I felt a potential stress fracture coming on.  How could I even know this? You may be asking.  Well I had a stress fracture in both feet two years ago from going to fast, too soon, without a strong enough base of training and before I even saw a doctor and he confirmed it I was sure it was a stress fracture, but anyways...) So I felt like that, started reading the book, which then shifted my running, training paradigm.  

I calculate that in order to get where I want to be I need to peak around May.  That gives me around 36 weeks for training.  Daniels recommends to split the training into 4 phases.  The first phase is a relatively easy phase where all you're doing is easy and long runs.  You start out at a certain amount of mileage that you feel comfortable doing, and then if the amount is feeling easy/manageable then every 3 weeks you can increase 1 mile onto your weekly total for every workout session you're doing.  If that doesn't make sense, read my post on For the Beginner, Beginner: How to Get Started. So I had been doing 8-12 miles daily and I knew that I could semi-comfortably do two workouts of 3 miles a piece 5 days a weeks with a six-miler on Saturday morning.  36 miles each week.  In 3 weeks I'll bump that up by a maximum of 10 miles, we'll see when we get there.

Now for all my runs I run at the same pace, for now, and that is the E pace of 7:38 per mile.  Based on my most recent time in the 5K of 17:38 I score about a 58 on Daniels' scoring system called VDOT.  He's got another page that then calculates according to the VDOT what the E pace (or Easy Pace) should be.  It also calculates what the tempo run pace should be, what the marathon pace should be, interval training pace for different distances and repetition training for different distances should be.  So I run 36 miles per week at 7:38 per mile.  I really want a GPS watch, but for now my system of MapMyRun.com with my good Timex watch is working fine--I just feel a little restricted that's all.  There's a little more as far as stretching and a circuit/plyometric/calisthenic workout, but I'll get to that tomorrow or something. Peace. 

Prove Them Right, or Prove Them Wrong

As I'm writing this I'm listening to Paradise by Coldplay.  Love it.  I love music, and I love new music.  I hope I continue to love new music.  Alright, today was awesome.  I woke up this morning and did not want to get up.  The little guy had trouble falling asleep for whatever reason so we took desperate measures and went for a car ride.  He fell asleep and I had some good one-on-one time with my sweetheart.

Anyways, so that made this morning tough, but it was good.  I'm waking up at 6 so I can get a little snack in before I run at 7.  I read scriptures, like the Bible and Book of Mormon for about 30 minutes.  Great way to start my day.  I actually ran faster than I should have when I did my morning run.  I wasn't paying attention to my watch; just running comfortably.  It felt good.  I had to wear long sleeves and light gloves.  It's getting cold.

I feel very confident that if a combination of books has the answers to help me achieve my dreams then it's Daniels' Running Formula, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and The Success Principles.  I feel really good about them.  I go into more detail on my post about choosing them.  Today I focused on The Success Principles.  There are 64 principles.  I move on to the next one when I feel I have adequately accomplished the previous principle.  I have done a lot of them already because of last summer, but I'm going through them again so I can say, "Alright Jack Canfield.  I have done everything you said and here I am."  I will either prove him right or wrong.  I expect to prove him right.  We will see; time will tell.  It always does.

Quinoa Explosion and Dog Chase

Today has been great.  Let me break it, break it down for you.  For those of you readers just joining us for the first time today, I welcome you.  You may or may not know who I am; my name is Caleb and I want to be a pro runner.  There's more that goes with that, like wanting to go to the Olympics, shatter world records and such, but I love running and want to do it for a living.

Today I started a training plan from Jack Daniels' book called Daniels' Running Formula.  I went for an easy 3 mile run this morning, approximately 7:34 per mile pace and then I did the same thing in the afternoon after work.  I work at this awesome place called Teton Running and I have awesome co-workers.

So this morning on run #1 I was running down 49th towards Holmes, like a good boy on the left side of the road so I could see the cars (before they hit me) and out of the corner of my eye, as I pass this black thing on the ground it bolts up into attack mode, bears it's teeth as it growls, barks and oh, this gets better, chases.  My instinct tells me to 1. Run faster and 2. Cross the road a.s.a.p.  It's a good thing there weren't any cars because I swerved to the other side like nobody's business and outran that black devil.  I wished a silent prayer, which I later took back, that that dog be hit by a car.  It scared me so bad and could have caused my premature death.  Anyways, who knows, I probably woke him up and he, or she, probably thought I was attaching it.  Anyways, I recovered and finished my run.

Alright, then I'm in my little office in quiet meditation, just BEING, as Deepak Chopra says, when all the sudden I hear this sizzle-like sound, as if someone has lit a firework and this POP!  I had put some quinoa, peanut butter, honey and soy milk mixed with hot water over-night for a pre-run and post-run snack/meal--Well first of all it was a little nasty, which is what usually happens when I experiment and second it exploded.  I have no idea the chemical reactions that were taking place, but it might as well have been baking soda and vinegar because the lid flew off, which I didn't even know could come off the way it did, hit the ceiling and landed 6 inches from where I was sitting AND some of the nasty quinoa concoction flew out and landed on my desk.  Yes, it was cool, but I learned my lesson that I will steam quinoa from now on.  Or soak it, or sprout it.

Now it's dinner time.  Amy is making black bean and kielbasa soup.  I love that girl and I love the food she makes.

Next Week: Phase 1

This is gonna be quick because it's bed time, and speaking of bed time, my new bed time is going to be 9:00 on the dot.  I think my performance will be directly tied to several factors, one of those being recovery and bed time/sleep time being very connected with that, but that's not necessarily what this post is about.

After realizing that I have been training less-effectively for some time I have revamped my training, split it up into four phases and Phase 1 starts next week.  I've been resting and recovering from my over-training.  next week I will start many things and among those will be running twice-a-day, 3 miles each time, totaling 36 miles next week and then increasing every 3 weeks.  I probably won't be running any races for at least 6 weeks even though I want to see next Saturday where I'm at race-wise, but I have to remind myself of the goal:  The goal is to produce very fast times next Spring during track season.  So all of my training, everything I do revolves around that purpose alone, for now.

For the Beginner, Beginner: How to Get Started

A good friend of mine named Katie sent me a message on Facebook.  She wants to do the Portland to Coast relay next year which is a walking relay from Portland, Oregon to the Pacific Coast.  I read the info page on the website and it says that you will end up doing two legs of 5 miles each, so a total walking distance of 10 miles.  This would be my advice for anyone out there that is thinking about starting, but where starting out running isn't practical, or at least not purely running:

1.  Consistency.  Pick a few days out of the week that work best.  If each day is the same as far as convenience and schedule goes then I would pick 3 days out of the 7 to just begin.  You can work up to as many days as your body permits.  I recommend just being very consistent in the days you choose, like forming a habit.

2.  Start by walking.  Pick an amount of time that's comfortable for you.  You want it to be enjoyable.  That's something that I'm learning right now.  I have entered a lot of my own training plans to find I'm overtraining and working my body too hard.  It becomes unenjoyable and many times ends in injury or illness.  So pick an amount of time that's comfortable.  A goal of 15 minutes of walking 3 days a week for the first couple weeks will be great to get started.

3.  Increase gradually.  As time allows you can increase the time spent walking, or the total mileage walked per week.  The book I'm reading, Daniels' Running Formula, suggests sticking with a certain amount of time or mileage for 3 weeks before increasing.  If you're feeling really good then Daniels recommends increasing in the following way:  For every workout you're doing increase the total weekly mileage by that amount in miles.  It didn't make sense to me when I first read it, but after reading it a few times I understood.  Say your total weekly mileage is 3 miles.  You walk a mile, 3 days/times a week.  Now say you're doing 3 workouts per week.  You would increase your total weekly mileage by 3 miles.  So for the following 3 weeks you would want to total of, at most, 6 miles.  If you're still doing 3 workouts a week then you're probably doing 2 miles each time. After 3 weeks, if you're feeling good and you want to increase, then you would do the same thing. You would again increase by 3 miles, 1 mile for every workout = 3 miles that you could add to your total weekly mileage, making your new total mileage goal 9 miles per week.  Daniels suggests that you don't increase by more than 10 miles every 3 weeks.  Now if it's too much, too soon, back off.  Listen to your body.

4.  There are definitely other factors that play a part.  You want to be hydrating properly.  I wrote a post about this a year ago and you can find it here.

I plan on doing another post in the near future on how to get started with running.  For now, let me know how that goes and I promise to do more posts on the same subject.

I'm Going to Rest

So I've been reading the book Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels which I mentioned in my post on Monday.  The more I read the better I feel about everything.  I have realized that I was overdoing it, last week and probably in previous weeks.  The section I read today that really hit me was called "Step 5: Include Planned Breaks".  I'm going to quote straight from there:

"Runners should take a few weeks off occasionally as scheduled breaks from training...Although runners are often reluctant to take breaks, most breaks are beneficial in terms of overall development."  I will pause here to say I have been training pretty consistently ever since my buddy Tim suggested we run together around January.  My original thoughts were to train as hard as possible for as long as possible.  I'm realizing that that would have led to the demise of my dream.  Anyways, I'm trying to say that a combo of things this last week, my body was asking for a rest, so late last week and up until today I have been reluctantly giving it one, but today when I read what I read I realized I need to take it easy and really rest.  I will continue:

"Continuous exhaustive training (which is what I was doing) can place too much wear and tear on runners' bodies and have an adverse psychological effect...Breaks in training also allow little injuries to heal, ones that might not have been serious enough to interrupt training but that could have become much worse had hard workouts continued...Many coaches and runners don't want to take time away from running, especially when things are going well, for fear of losing fitness.  Such individuals tend to be pessimistic types (like myself, but not anymore!) who figure there will eventually be an unplanned setback that will serve the same purpose.  I don't think you should ever plan on unplanned setbacks, because that's a pretty sure way for a serious setback to occur (bold added for emphasis)... Often a training break offers a great opportunity to carry out a strength program or to learn more about stretching and relaxation...Your breaks play an important part in helping your body and mind rebuild for the next season or phase of training."

Olympic Trials Qualifying

Okay, so honestly I ran out of time today to do a few things and that's why this will be short, but the reason I ran out of time was because I found the qualifying standards for the Olympic trials.  They're not quite as fast as the standards for the Olympics themselves.  This is a link to it here.

The 5,000 for the A (automatic) qualifier is 13:33 and the B (provisional) qualifier is 13:50.  I read a lot of Daniels' Running Formula today and I'm putting together a training plan so we'll see what happens.    

What do Deepak Chopra, Jack Daniels and Jack Canfield all have in common?

(The last paragraph explains everything you need to know about this post, feel free to skip to that if you'd like, but I promise it won't be quite as fun!)

I encountered a hurdle, a moment of truth, an instant of indecision if you will.  I got some positive opposition last week that made me think about what I'm doing.  In my post on Thursday, Smarter not Harder, (which was my last post because I didn't post on Friday or Saturday--I'm sorry, but you'll know why I didn't post those days in like t-minus 1 minute and 45 seconds, depending on how fast you're reading) I was already feeling a little down.  The positive opposition told me that I couldn't run as fast as I'm planning on.  It told me I couldn't make it to the Olympics.  Really, if you think about it it's near impossible.  Maybe some of you, if not most, if not all of you have not taken the time to examine exactly what I'm trying to do.  Let me shed a little light:

I want to make it to the Olympics.  From what I understand, in order to go to the Olympics you have to run an Olympic A or B, but because everyone in the U.S. can run the A standard, an Olympic A qualifying standard by the time of the Olympic trials to go to the Oympics--on top of placing in the top 3 at the Olympic trials.  My goal races are the 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter runs.  The Olympic qualifying standards for them are as follows:

5,000m A: 13:20
5,000m B: 13:27
10,000m A: 27:45
10,000m B: 28:05

Okay, yeah, those are fast.  Now, my personal bests are kind of far off those times.  I just ran a 5K (5,000 meters) on the roads a couple weeks ago.  Pretty flat course.  I was feeling pretty good.  I did run all out, as fast as I could and I ran it in 17:39 and this was my post about it on I Wept and I Raced.  I ran a 10K (10,000 meters) on a pretty downhill course on July 25th in a PR/PB time of 35:13, (read about on My Craziest Pre-race Experience Yet, video version and written version.)  Okay, so for the 5,000, currently I'm 4 minutes and 19 seconds off of the A standard.  In the 10,000 I'm 8 minutes and 28 seconds (check my math) off the A standard.  Now, if I was just leisurely jogging these races that would be one thing, but it's another that I'm running close to 100%, if not 100%.  Going to the Olympics (in the words of the man I sat in front of on a train at Disneyworld) "is a a tall order" to say the least!

Okay, so back to the topic which we're on, but I've written a lot.  The reason I didn't post Friday or Saturday is because I've been reading, thinking and doing other things.  Amy finally came up from Utah and my brother's girlfriend also visited who I hadn't met, so it's been busy.  But anyways, to answer what do Deepak Chopra, Jack Daniels and Jack Canfield all have in common? Answer: Currently they are my coaches.

Deepak Chopra is this cool Indian guy who wrote a book called The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success which after listening to it on my old, ghetto iPod and then reading the book, I feel deep down that his stuff is one of the things that will help the most.

Jack Daniels may or may not be the Jack Daniels you're thinking of.  This is not related in any way, shape or form (as far as I know) to the whiskey.  According to Runner's World he is the "World's Best Running Coach", or at least that's what it says on the cover of his book Daniels' Running Formula.  Now I don't know how true that it because Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco kind of dominate the distance running world, but 1. it's the best I have, referred to me from a great source and 2. as I've been reading his book and thinking about things it feels right.  Right now, "feeling right" is what I'm going off of, and that feels right! LOL, love it.

Jack Canfield is the author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul phenomenon and he has a book called The Success Principles which I started reading as part of a Mastermind Group a year ago and then dropped out of the group, but finished the book.  It felt right back then, but the timing was off--story of my life!  And it feels right now.

So the current plan of action if I were to summarize it into a concise and clean paragraph:

Drop my current time trials.  Train smarter not harder by following Daniels' Running Formula.  Focus on the event I plan on running in the Olympics: The 5,000 meter run.  Put into practice Chopra's and Canfield's success principles.  Attack!  (If you skipped ahead, go back and read the whole thing for this to make more sense, but if you don't care, this is all you need to know.)  Good night!

Day 4: Smarter not Harder

Today has been an eventful day.  Very important things have happened.  Let me tell you about them...

Teton Running Company called me this morning and I was offered a part-time position.  I promptly accepted it.  Who knows all the reasons, I'm sure there are several, but I think part of it had to do with the fact that I had detached myself from the outcome.  I did a post on it yesterday entitled Detachment and you're welcome to read  it.  Anyways, that was awesome.

Next:  I did two workouts.  I was not happy about the second one.  I was feeling a little discouraged, tired.  But I went anyways and it ended up being a good run.

Next:  My plan today was to do my next 400 meter time trial.  I went to the library with my mom and when I got home the plan was to take a little nap, take my brother to the high school to set up for the Welcome Back dance, and then I would do my time trial at the track.  Well I was feeling really tired first of all.  Second, I didn't have any spikes because they were in my wife's lost piece of luggage that was then returned to my wife in Utah.  Third, when I went to take a nap I couldn't sleep.  I had tons of thoughts going through my mind.

To make my long thoughts short I realized that I need to train smarter, not harder.  I decided that I need to take some time to figure things out, specifically what my next steps are with races, my goals with training etc.  So I decided to train as my blog title says: Smarter not Harder, which I think may be the title of a book.  Anyways, my plan therefore is to ease off and train harder as I feel better. I plan to read the book that Ed Eyestone recommended, Daniels' Running Formula, and take a smarter approach to my training so I don't get injured or sick.  You know?  Over. 

Day 3: Three Workouts

2 posts today to make up for no posts yesterday, not that I feel obligated, but I want to give the readers what they deserve.

Today will be the first day I will be able to do 3 workouts.  That's been one of my goals ever since we planned on moving to Idaho.  I don't know how long I will be able to sustain it, but I am happy to know I have the ability both with my time and my body to be able to do it.

Monday we flew all day so I ran in the evening about 4 miles.  Tuesday I slept in because that's what my body needed so I only had time to do 2 workouts.  Today I was able to run in the morning, late morning and I will do run #3 in like 15 minutes.  I am tired and that's why I hope to be able to go to bed shortly after dinner.  Oh, it's wonderful.  I am enjoying my workouts and getting used to Idaho Falls and the country roads.

Day 2: Detachment

Okay, so yesterday was awesome.  I slept in which hasn't really happened in a couple years I think, okay maybe like since February of last year.  Anyways, I went to a job interview at a running store in Idaho Falls and left the interview feeling pretty good and really wanting the job.

I went on run #1 when I came back and then went out for some more job searching.  My dad has offered me some work at my uncle's clinic doing data entry, but he can't offer me a consistent 20 hours a week, $10 an hour like I need to pay the other bills.  So I went out and realized after I had gone to a few places that if the running store job didn't work out, that would be fine because there were other things I could do and I would be happy dooing them.

That night I was listening to some Deepak Chopra where he talks about the 7 Spiritual Laws of Success and he talks about law #6, The Law of Detachment.  He advocates that in order to get what we want, we must relinquish the attachment to that thing.  You still have the intention to do it and achieve it, but you have relinquished the attachment to that thing or the outcome.  He says, "I'm headed from point A to point B and whatever happens in between doesn't matter...I'm stepping into the field of all possibilities...I'm accepting things as they are...I am grounded in the wisdom of uncertainty."

I know that might sound a little weird, well it kind of is, but what I know is that once I accepted the fact that I would be happy at another job if I didn't get the job at the running store I felt better. I wasn't as stressed.  I could be calm and happy.  I think that's a good thing.

Day 1: Mindfulness

Today has been a long, long day.  We left Ft. Lauderdale at 6 this morning and arrived in Salt Lake at 12 noon, then drove to Idaho Falls.  I ran and now we will be eating dinner shortly.  Amy is in Utah for a wedding of a very good friend later this week, so I'm here with my parents and the remaining siblings and I have a job interview tomorrow.

I'm going to go to bed early.  I can tell my body needs sleep so I'm going to give it what it needs.  I decided that I am going to be more mindful of my running.  As I run, instead of thinking about other things, I'm going to practice mindfulness.  Today I learned that what my body needs is really good sleep.  I plan on doing this daily and then tweeting what I learn from running, as I run and am mindful if that makes sense.  I want to pay more attention to my running.  I want to pay more attention to my body, my mind, my feelings etc.  Follow me on Twitter to get my daily running mindfulness wisdom.  I don't promise anything great or incredible--heck, I don't even know how long this will last, but it seems like a good idea so stay tuned because it may turn into something incredible.

Gotta Tell You My Secrets

I just thought it would be good to tell you my secrets.  Now prepare yourself--I'm not going to tell you this to seem self-righteous or to pretend like I'm special, but it is one of my secrets that now will not be a secret because I'm telling you:

Scripture Study.  That's what it is.  Christmas 2008 I got a new set of scriptures.  I decided I was going to read the scriptures start to finish.  I started in Genesis and slowly made my way through the Old Testament.  Man there were some boring parts, and yes I admit to speed-reading through some of those genealogy sections and some, mind you some chapters in Isaiah, but overall it was awesome.  I found some incredible stories I had never heard of, inspiring scriptures I had never read before and gained a further testimony that the Bible, specifically the Old Testament, is the word of God.

Now I'm in Luke, New Testament.  I think I'm enjoying reading about Jesus more than any other time in my life.  Something specific I learned about Jesus is that Jesus never gave up.  He had a clear vision of His purpose and moved forward with perfect faith.  He encountered many obstacles, but He never gave in, and NO ONE could stop Him.  Even though they thought they were stopping Him, they were following the plan exactly.  Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

After I finish the New Testament I will then read the Book of Mormon, then the Doctrine and Covenants, then the Pearl of Great Price... and then I don't know what I'll do, but I'm confident that I'll find a great way to study my scriptures.

It's one of the things I do everyday.  It accompanies prayer.  It is one of my daily devotions to God.  It is a way I show God that I want his help, that I'm trying to do my part to deserve the blessings He has prepared for me and lastly it's one of the best ways I know to know the mind and will of God.  That's why I do it.

And I wanted to add this video:

The Definition of Success

Just watched a sweet movie called The Conspirator and it was awesome.  I love movies that challenge thinking and opinion.  Movies based on true stories or documentaries that help me start to question the world, become less ignorant and think outside of the box.  Anyways, good movie.

My dad shared with me a quote from John Wooden where he defines success: "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."  Currently I am striving for that success.  I think that's what motivates me to do what I'm doing.

My First Ever Cement Track

You'll have to forgive me.  Life has been pretty crazy, relatively speaking.  Right now my wife and I (and my parents and brothers and sisters and brother-in-law) are in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  My sister and brother-in-law live here where they go to school nearby.  My brother-in-law is going to dental school and he'll graduate next Spring and my sister is graduating this week from the nursing program which is the reason why we're here.

I can't really remember the last time I took a true, true vacation where I wasn't very worried about things and could relax and just kick back.  Part/most of that is due to the fact that I'm in child mode because I'm with my parents and siblings like the good-old days when we were younger.  Anyways, I definitely have more responsibilities now, but it's really nice to have several people who haven't spent a lot of time with Kimball, my son, and are happy and willing to play with him.  It's nice that he's happy, they're happy, we're happy etc.

We've gone to the beach pretty regularly.  It's the first time in my life that I have gone to a beach and the ocean water has been warm.  It was kind of weird at first, but I love it.  Because of the lack of body fat I have I get cold pretty easy and I like going to the beach, but when it comes to cold water, I can only do so long before I start shivering and have to take a break.  Anyways, we saw some alligators which was pretty cool.  Yesterday we went to Disneyworld which was wonderful, especially with the little guy, but at the same time it was really fun to revisit places I had gone to at Disneyland as a kid like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and especially Pirates of the Caribbean.  Today we went to the beach and almost all of us were stung by jellyfish--just minor stings, kind of like being pricked by little needles, but then it went away after a little.

Alright, now to the cement track part.  I wanted to go to a track because I thought I would run a fast 400 meter at sea-level. I found two.  Stranahan High School and St. Thomas Aquinas High School.  Aquinas had a big fence around it that I saw from Google Maps, and Stranahan looked a little lower key, but it looked fine from Google.  Anyways, so my dad and I went to the track Monday morning and when we saw it it looked okay, but then we stepped on it.  Definitely cement.  I know, I should have gotten some authentic footage with the Flip, but I didn't so you'll just have to believe me and besides would I lie about something like that?  Answer: For those if you who don't know me, I wouldn't because I'm pretty dang honest.

So back to the track.  Cement for reals.  And I'm trying to figure out what to do, so I decide to just go with it.  I wasn't about to use my spikes.  I think that would have done more harm than good, but I warmed up, which wasn't hard because it was super humid.  I went running Saturday morning to the beach and sweat more than I had ever sweat IN MY LIFE I'm pretty sure.  I don't know if ever before that I had ever managed to get my whole shirt soaking wet.  So I did the 400 and it was semi-respectable 58.  Nothing special.  I felt very tired.  Jet-lagged, but that's good training for the future!  I think the track was 50+ years old, in the ghetto.  Kids going to school for their first day, yelling as I ran by.  Not my ideal time-trial conditions, but hey, gotta get used to anything and everything.  That's all for now.  Peace.

Test #2 for the Branca Barefoot Running Sandals

As you know I am a wear-tester for a running sandal company and I decided to see if it was possible to do stairs in the Branca Barefoot Running Sandals. This is the video I made:

Farewell Provo

This video shows a lot of the places in Provo, Utah that have come to mean a lot to my wife and I over the past few years.  We officially leave Utah today.  Farewell Provo, you have treated us well.

Ode to Fillmore Spencer

Today is my last day of work.  Yesterday I had attorneys and coworkers ask me how it felt.  I responded by saying it was unreal.  It hadn't hit me and still hasn't.

In April of 2010 I was no longer to work at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  They have a 3-year cap on all the teachers so my time was up.  I got a job there shortly after I returned home from my mission in December of 2006.  It was awesome every day as I was able to teach and train the missionaries in Spanish and learn from them as well.  I never had difficulty finding a job and when I was about to end at the MTC I thought this time would be no different, but I was wrong.

I was a new father, with little financial help from family and nearing the end of my college degree.  One week I applied to about 20 different jobs that I thought suited me well and I was rejected by ever one.

In July of 2010 I got a job doing PCI Compliance with Security Metrics.  It was a good job and a lifesaver for my current situation, but I was working the UK shift from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. and quickly developing a mold allergy because of our old basement apartment so needless to say, I was miserable in many aspects of my life, especially the ones I hoped to love.

Towards the end of August my wife's cousin Brooke told me about an opening as a receptionist at Fillmore Spencer, a law firm in Provo.  I don't know what Kathy, the office manager, was thinking, but she hired me and I am so grateful.  I started to enjoy going to work.  I was inspired by the attorney's.  I felt like a key player in the firm as I directed calls and helped people find the right attorney.  It made me want to go to law school.  And to this day I still consider it a likely option.  After a few months there was an open position as a legal assistant working for Randy.  Because of my availability and Spanish skills I was a good fit.  I don't know if I would have gotten that job if it wasn't for the receptionist position.  Anyways, 8+ months later working as a Legal Assistant I have learned so much about so many things I never thought I would ever learn.  I could go on, but all I want to say is thank you to them.  Thank you to them for showing me greatness and thank you to them for helping me rise to a new level in my life.

Part of the reason I did this post is because I know many of the attorney's and paralegals will be reading this for the first time.  Allow me to include some links to different posts that will help explain things better.

The Proposal talks about how my decision to leave and chase my dream started to materialize.

This is how things are going is an explanation of what I'm doing and how it all came to be.

When there's a burning in your heart talks about what's going on inside of my heart and mind.

And if you do a search on the right side of my blog and search "14 Miracles" you'll see several posts of small miracles that began to happen when Amy and I decided to move to Idaho Falls and pursue my dream.

Love you guys.  Run Fearless.

Peaceful Warrior

The reason I didn't do a post yesterday is because 1. I normally do my posts at night because that's when I have time to do them and 2. I was finishing a movie called Peaceful Warrior.  It's about this gymnast who ends up getting injured badly, but with diligence, perseverance and mindfulness he conquers his injury.

 Because it's late, suffice it to say that I want to watch the movie again and I want to read the book--I can't say the same about every movie I watch.

I Wept and I Raced

I'm going to make this short and sweet, because it is short and sweet.

When I found out that the Salem City Days 5K had a $50 cash prize I was in.  I small race, probably not very many fast people, I could make up my entry fee and boost my confidence.  I planned on winning.  I prayed that I would be able to run my fastest time yet and I figured that if I could do that I would win it.  Deep down inside I was praying to win.

This race was different than my last race which was my craziest pre-race experience yet.  I actually was able to go to the bathroom, get a good warm-up and I had time to think.  Well, about 15 minutes before the race I was praying again and while I was praying, for whatever reason I realized I was being selfish.  I thought about the innocent people in London who were suffering and who had died.  I began to weep.  I was not crying, this was powerful, this was weeping.  So I asked God to give them whatever blessing He was planning on giving me.  It was a very special experience and I share it with you.

The race was great, my time was fine.  Nothing special, but a great experience.  I think I was still feeling a little tired from my 400 meter time trial Thursday night.  But the result was a 4th place overall finish and a 17:38 PR.

Today I went running and felt very good.  I have no regrets and I will never look back.