The Future of Me

Dear Everyone,

This may be the last post for a while.  I'll try to be clear and concise about my thoughts.  The summary of everything is this:  For the time being I am giving up, I feel like life is going great, but my dream is not going great and I can't keep chasing something I'm so far away from while my family suffers and I avoid becoming a provider for my family.

Now here's further explanation:

I'm giving up for now.  Maybe it'll happen in the future and maybe it won't.  I'm not going to stop running and I'm not going to stop training.  That's something I really enjoy and something I know is really healthy, but my current times are so far away from the qualifying times and my current training has been poor to the point that I don't want to continue.  I will never say it's impossible, but for now in my life it's not right.  Or at least that's what I am choosing.

I need to provide.  My wife has been one of my best supporters, but I've been working part-time, living in my parent's basement (which is a very nice basement, don't get me wrong) and barely making ends meet, and I, by myself, independent of any person (which I think is the way it had to go) came to the realization that I am unintentionally making my family suffer while I pursue a selfish dream.  I would like to convince myself it's for good reasons, but really it's not.  So I need to work more, get out of debt and provide better which is what I'll be doing with my time.

Idaho Falls.  Moving here has been not only right, but the best decision for my family.  I have seen several reasons why moving here was awesome.  One of the principal reasons being that I have really enjoyed working at Teton Running for several reasons and I feel like it's where I need/want to be for the time being.

It seems like God has shown me that what I have been wanting to do for a long time is not really what I want to do.  I am grateful for that.  I'm also frustrated, but more grateful than frustrated.

That's all for now, I love you.

Sincerely,

Caleb Scoville

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: