Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Zeus and Airplanes

Now this is funny. So it is break, and I was taking a conference/relax trip. Of course it is the red eye.

Flight one 950pm to 11pm.
90 minute layover...
Flight two 1230am to 530am
3 hour layover...
Flight three 830am to noon, arrive at destination.

I cannot honestly say I was real thrilled about these travel legs, especially considering that the day was already rushed, and I detest these type of red-eye flights. They are just no fun, and sap your energy for a day after.

Well, it seems that my old buddy Zeus himself took pity on my lamenting and directly intervened. The plane, which was to be flight number one for me, was hit by lightning (Thanks Zeus, credit given where it is due), and so there was at first a one hour delay while they did a thorough maintenance inspection. I will give the airline credit for doing the safe thing and doing the right thing.

They found a hole in one of the wings. So the 'on call' flight crew was called, and new aircraft arranged for. A little of a pain, but hey, its better than eating a mountainside due to an unsafe aircraft.

As a result of the 5 hour departure delay, I would miss flight 2 and 3. As a result, a shorter trip, and instead of 3 flights to the destination, 1 each way at a civilized early afternoon time. So instead of 16 hours of planes, airports and security, about a total of 3.5 hours. No cost and with additional compensation.

Yes I can definitely live with that. I also get to sneak in a good night's sleep. Way to go Zeus. The moral of this story is rather comical. If you are going to pick a fight with a lightning bolt - you will probably lose.

But I must say that, the other passengers, were disappointed - yet very understanding after all, their safety was very much at risk too. And the airline, was quick to solve the travel needs of the passengers. It was nice to see people do the right thing. And nice to see the customers being grateful rather than nasty.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Again


Yes, again.

After being rather caught up with a nasty flu and cold in February and part of March, I was determined to get back on things, particularly the running. I am still "officially" waiting on the clearance from the doc's before I start hitting heavy miles. That has cost me a month, plus being ill, almost 3 months total.

Of course, my body is far from ready for 'real' or 'hard' miles. As it is, the muscle atrophy is so bad, that even after scant workouts, I can't yet run a full mile. Though it is closer, it is really a statement of the sad state of my body. No one to blame but me. When I got out (of the army), a few years ago, frankly I had more than enough. I needed to decompress. Then I had the brilliant idea to go back to school and be serious about it. Result, lots of stress.

School was the right choice. I needed something to focus on. Something real, tangible. A way to measure some sort of continued progress. No more awards, medals, evaluation reports, and no more 'promotions'. More than anything I needed to find myself again. I had started that path once again, finally with the right tools. But it has been a slow process. I think it must be for anyone who finds their entire being spent on a failed enterprise.

What does any of this have to do with running? Several years ago, I made a conscious decision to write a memoir. I needed to do it for me. But it was never the right time, I never quite could find the motivation to start banging out the pages. I did not want it to be a regurgitated version of Platoon or Full Metal Jacket, only in print. I wasn't in Vietnam so maybe those movies were accurate, maybe they weren't. I always found them to be a bit problematic. Feed the stereotype that all people in the service are bottom feeding animals, who have a vocabulary of 3 and 4 letter words that fit on a single-sided, double-spaced page. Well I know that is not very accurate in my experience, granted it was nearly 2 decades later.

The point is, I wanted my memoir to be something more than that. I have not been particularly impressed with some of the current conflict literature I have seen. 'Literature' is a stretch that I am not really comfortable with either. It is not that I am better than that, so much as that type of digression is not my character and never really has been. I tried to fake it a time or two and failed miserably.

When you are nine, wandering the streets of Frankfurt (A.M. Main) not Kentucky, lost and you don't speak a lick of German; it IS a life changing event. Even if you are only nine. So very early on, I learned I had to be true to myself, when push comes to shove you may find yourself in a spot. A spot, a situation, where even if you can get help - you may not be able to get to it, and it may not be able to get to you.

A year ago, I decided I would finally tackle this long lingering task of writing my memoir. Shameless plug (http://www.a-view-from-the-wall.com) I had a motive, but things have changed, but I was determined to see it through. Oddly I had gone out for a run, another failed attempt to return to running. In the intro, I talk about how my brain and eyes did not recognize my body. I had let it go so badly for so long. I suffered micro tears and pulled muscles from that run. I am not 17 anymore, I can't just go run 5 miles without injury, especially packing an extra 50 pounds. But that never stopped me from trying, which over the last 5 years has led to a number of injuries. Some minor and some, not so much.

So I waited this year until almost the end of January. I started from scratch, changes in diet, small but important. I pretended that I know nothing about my body and nothing about running, except I used to be very good at it, although many many lifetimes ago. And I re-educated myself. Hit the running store, let them gear me up, and dropped a small mini fortune on proper shoes.

In the interest of NOT repeating the injury mistake yet again, I was determined that I would not be stopped. Not by my own lack of foresight or impatience at least. So a slow start, but a start I can live with. Then I decided, to do something, well truly crazy. I decided that in honor of ringing in my 40th birthday, I want to run the "Spartathlon". (http://www.spartathlon.gr/main.php) A grueling 154 mile straight through trek from Athens to Sparta - yes in Greece. In September, and it is not cold there in September.

It is 4 years away. Plenty of time, if I play the cards right and stay uninjured. then there are the doc's I mentioned earlier. Yup, there are some heart issues in the family. Better safe than sorry. Regardless I will keep running, but that run, will test the very best athletes every time. I did not pick it because it is a cake-walk after all.

In the old days, I wasn't even a long distance guy. I was a sprinter, and not what I would consider the easy sprints. The 400 meter is a race that requires speed, and stamina. I remember my first 400 race, during the race at least 4 different times I thought my heart was going to explode inside my chest. And I was 16, cut - ripped - and in awesome shape. I could turn in a 5:45 mile at the drop of a dime. My first 400m was a 54.5 - at 4500 feet above sea level, that is really not bad for a first time out. I learned to hate that race, but I became quite good at it. As a point of reference, most high school and college tracks (around football fields) are 400 meters. Yeah try to sprint the entire thing, on your toes and balls of your feet... I will have to post a picture of what I looked like then, and don't worry there will not be any traumatic pictures of now. Not for a while, say at least -40 pounds ha ha.

So Saturday night I went out and did a hybrid run/walk/run. It was something like 5 miles, but a good workout. I can feel the strength coming back finally in my legs. They are tiring slower, and the spring is increasing. I good sign for the future, and patience and discipline are my enemies - it seems embracing them instead of fighting them is working well. This morning I went out again, a very early 430am 5 mile workout, a little better feeling than Saturday. Progress, even small, is welcome.

Now comes the discipline to keep working on things. To keep pushing the extra half a block, to push all the way over the hill. So to that end, this series fo blogs, I will do my best to track things.

I had originally planned to try my first half-marathon (no I have never run that long of a race, only a 10k twice long ago) by the end of the year. Realistically that is probably towards February of 2011. No problem. As an old saying i once heard goes, "Speed comes from slowness".

I am sure the morning commuters were a bit dismayed by the fat white guy in shorts and sweatshirt, 'trying' to trot down the sidewalk this morning, but I am doing it for me not them. More and more like the old days. Today 35 degrees and dark out, then 29 degrees and snow, shorts, sweatshirt or t-shirt. If it ends badly and I get even half way to what I once was, I just might smile.

Test post

My test blog post.