The Progression

I have this new hobby. Its called running so far my joints and muscles hurt. Why I enjoy doing this? I'm starting to understand. What i do know is that in a span of less than a year ive gone from mixed martial arts to marathons. It all started beacuse I like to eat, and getting in shape was a must. However,  although the joy of punching people was bliss, getting punched back by grown men with increased amounts of adrenaline and testosterone in their system, not so much fun. So, changing directions, i went back to what always works, running. However, I was not in shape and getting in shape sucks. But, I put myself in the homewood metro fun run back in July and made it happen. Since, I have done two other 5ks and last weekend my first 10k (6.2 miles). The Vulcan run WAS NOT fun at all. I started out way too fast and had to walk some around highlands, but still managed to finish with a solid 1hr 27 seconds time. Averaging around 10 mins an mile. My business partners, David and Daniel are getting into the running scene too. I found them at the finish line.

Burns, Jones & LeCompte (from right to left)

Me and Erin (my friend/training buddy) we glad to be done at this point. Our smiles are deceiving here because we were exhausted.

So, all of this has been for me to just get back in shape, but it has slowly morphed into a bigger meaning. To have a goal and reach it. Simple enough. Now, my goal is the Chief Ladiga Half Marathon (13.1 miles) on Dec. 5th. In order to train for this, I had to go on my longest run ever this weekend. So, yesterday at 6:30am, I met John, Mindy and David (more people I have met during this journey) at Brownell travel on lakeshore and we spent the next 2.5 hrs running. Luckily, John is super prepared and had stations already set out every 4 miles with water, powerade and protein bars. (you have to take in calories every 40 minutes during a long run, who knew?) SO, yesterday I did my personal longest run at 10.6 miles. The rest of the group is in true marathon mode and continued on to run 20...i'm not there yet.

Suprisingly my body is reacting very well, but weird things happen when you push your body like this. My circulatory system is a bit shocked and keeps sending blood flow to my head, so i felt like i had a fever all day yesterday. I have these spurts of adrenalin everyonce in a while where I get tons of energy, and then crash soon after. Hopefully as my body adjusts to this madness, it will chill out. I have to watch how much advil i take as long distance runners are prone to kidney and liver issues from poppin the pain meds. I can see why, my knees and hips feel like a 70 year old man.

So, why am I doing this? Honestly, its a thrill to even try. Also, it is such a sense of commrodery. As we were running yesterday, EVERYONE who was running past us said, "goodmorning!" or made comments like "how far are yall in?" When we responded they would return with "keep it up!" So the Bham community (which is way more into running that I first realized) has turned an individual contest into a team sport. Very cool. If i were new to this city, and enjoyed running, this is certainly a great way to meet some really nice people. For me, its a way to keep pushing myself and continue to have a sense of personal achievement.

With that said, off for a jog!

(by the way, the kitchen will be done today! Expect posts very soon!)