Day Thirty Two - "Off Season"

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
Lao Tzu

The next couple of weeks call for some business travel. This aspect of the job does not frequent the role as much as I would like. In a position where my employees travel almost 2 million miles a year, my travel is minuscule in comparison.

I write this as I returned from a day trip to Birmingham, Alabama. 10 hours and 425 miles to accomplish the task I had starting at 4AM this morning.

I awoke this early morning without the assistance of the alarm. As I lie in bed scheduling my trip in my head and what needed to be accomplished, I decided to get up and begin the day.

I arrived at LTF at 4:25AM and notice Jay & Bob’s car in the lot. I wondered which one of the Dynamic Duo was traveling as well. It is very uncommon for them to get up this early just to run.

Monday’s are tempo runs. I run the fast paced run on the treadmill to maintain the speed I need to hold for the workout. The roads in Alpharetta are plagued with hills and to hit my goals on short tempo runs is almost unobtainable. So, “Off to the mill I go.”

The Tempo Run
1 mile EZ @ 8:00
4 miles short tempo pace @ 6:30’s
1 mile EZ @ 8:00

I could say that the run was easy, but on Monday morning at 4:30AM after spending 8 hours at the “Cheer Bowl” it was a struggle.

Yesterday our daughters along with a couple hundred other 5 thru 13 year cheerleaders competed in the big Cheer Bowl for Forsyth County. All the girls looked great and did an awesome job competing against each team in their age groups for the champion of the Cheers. After almost 8 hours of cheers and dancing a team was victorious. The Sharon Springs Eagles, my oldest daughter’s team. They had won the competition for 10-13 years olds out of 9 teams. It was a glorious night for her and her squad. My youngest also competed in the 7-8 year old was not as successful. Her team came up short out of 13 teams on an award, but being the good sport she is she was proud of her big sister and her win. She already wants to start practicing for next year’s competition by learning back flips and walk overs. She has a competitive streak in her that is slowly emerging. Sarah & I will just let that streak come out naturally.

The first mile on the mill is always used to shake the cob webs out and gets the blood flowing. I knew this was going to be an up hill battle during the first mile and my heart rate and breathing increased dramatically.

After 8 minutes I increased the speed of the mill to a pace of 6:31 (closest I can get to 6:30’s) and started out on the 4 mile speed run. I settled in after the first mile while I saw Chris hop on the treadmill next to me. He was also hitting his tempo run as he glanced over at my speed and rolled his eyes. He knew there would be next to no conversation at the pace the mill was going.

I hit the second mile as the sweat started to drip and I took a sip of water from my bottle to cool my core. The air in the gym is stagnant and running on the mill at high speeds increases the amount of heat in your body. I started to feel a little fatigue into the second mile as I focused on my form in the mirror in front of me.

There are 20 large LCD TV’s on the wall in front of the tread mills but I found nothing interesting to watch in silence as I pound away on the moving track below me. The music from my iPod drowns out the visual of the tubes and without the assistance of my glasses the view is a blur. I focus on my form and posture in the mirror to insure efficiency of the run. Does it work? Yes, when I can stay focused but that starts to increasingly be a challenge with people, TV’s, music, sweat and the voices in your head telling you to stop this madness.

Rounding the end of the second mile Ann Marie appeared and claimed her stake on a mill one over from me. She was dress in black top and long black tights. Into the third mile and heating up from the calm indoor air in the gym, she was not helping my overheating cause. I wondered how and why she was in long black tights, but that thought quickly vanished as I needed to focus on the planting of my shoes on the tread mill so I don’t catch a corner and shot off the back.

After the third mile, the fatigue was overwhelming and the voices in my head were drowning out my iPod telling me to stop. I buckled down and figured I only have 6:31 minutes left, suck it up and get er’ done!

The next 6:29 minutes were agonizing. I was hot, sweaty, tired and going numb in the brain from this. I looked over at Chris and he was strolling along at his pace, which I know is not slow and Ann Marie was on and off the machine which again I thought what it going…ah forget it.

At one point I had to slow down the speed to 6:48’s because the blood was rushing to my eyes making it hard to see. I blinked a couple of times and the vision cleared. With less than a half a mile to go I keep it at 6:48 for another .2 miles then increased the speed to 6:27’s. At the quarter mile mark, I “ramped” it up to 6:15’s then 6:10’s to make up the time. As soon as the mileage indictor hit 4.00 I happily slowed the mechanical hamster wheel down to a walking pace.

I walked for a tenth of a mile to get a drink and catch my breath. After the cool gulp of water and a deep breath I increased the pace back up to 8:00 to finish the last mile. Done.

After the tempo run, I talked to Chris and Ann Marie for a few minutes before I headed off to stretch and then hit the road to Birmingham. Ann Marie was in black tights because she is a good wife and did not want wait her husband to search for a pair of shorts. We all try to be very quite in the wee times of the morn. I understood completely.

I emailed Jay on the road and discovered the Dynamic Duo hit the track this morning early so Jay could head to the airport and start his travels for the week.

The first step of this journey has been completed. Tomorrow comes another journey to Atlanta.

The miles of running and driving only increase from here.