RAoN: Running

It has been a while since my last update.  I have been trying to enjoy my time away from the IT field, and by that, I mean turning off my brain from all things IT (a very hard thing to do).  I do have some technical blog posts that will come out once I decide to turn my brain back on, so please be patient.

With that, I am adding another acronym to the long list that I see fly around on a daily basis (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, ROFL, etc).  The new one is RAoN, or expanded, Random Acts of Nuttiness.

My first RAoN is running.  I use to run quite a bit back in the day (yes 10 years ago is back in the day for me).  I use to run 50-60 miles a week and walked on to the LSU Cross Country and Track team.  Two years later after my first two serious injuries, I decided to run away from running.  I was burnt out.  I would do a race now and then, but never at the level I was at before.  One thing with running: when you stop, you get out of shape very quickly.  I tried to start back running quite a number of times over the past 10 years.  My problem was/is in my head.  I remember the pace I used to train at, and it would frustrate me how hard it was to run slower than that for vastly shorter distances.  I was so frustrated, that I would stop after a couple of weeks.

So what is different now?  Well there are a few reasons even though I am older now and my body aches more.  First, I bought myself a pair of Nike Free 5.0 shoes.  Ever since lacing these up, I have been able to run without pain in my ankles and knees.  Seriously, if you run, get yourself a pair and try them out.  Second, I am forcing myself to work through my mental blocks.  How?  As much as I hate it, I am running on a treadmill.  This allows me to better control my pace as I work myself back into shape.  It also helps me keep my distances relatively short (2 miles) because I can not stand running on a treadmill.  And third?  I set myself a goal.  I just recently completed my first Crescent City Classic in New Orleans.  For being very out of shape and not having run anything over a 5K(in a race or training) in 10 years, I completed the 10K course in 55 minutes.  Good for the shape I was in, horrible compared to 10 years ago.  So my goal for next year is 45 minutes.  I plan to get there by slowly increasing the distance of my runs (half mile at a time), and slowly increasing the pace I am running at.

I know I will never be in the shape I was in 10 years ago, and that is perfectly ok.  However, I need to train my brain while I am running that I will never be able to run at the pace I use to.  That is the difficult task at hand for the next year, oh and staying healthy.

Stay tuned for the next RAoN: Triathlons.

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