Marathon Training, day 1

Day one. The alarm sounded at 0500. It was the hardest thing to wake up this morning. I laid in bed for nearly 20 minutes trying to come up with some excuse to stay in bed. The excuse never came so I finally got up at 0520. After getting everything together and putting it in my backpack I rode four mile to the gym. The ride turned out to be just the thing I needed to get motivated. I wore my new sunglasses, a pair of yellow "roadsters" from Red Star World Wear, they have orange lenses so they're appropriate to wear in low light.
I got to the gym about 15 minutes later than I wanted to, so I didn't have time to do the weight portion of the workout. The schedule called for a 45 minute run at an easy/steady pace and before I started I kept asking myself if I should do the sub-elite training plan, because I am not that accomplished of a runner yet, but I decided I would rather start sooner than later. I started at a pace of 8:00 but as I ran that dropped closer to a 7:45 pace. I felt really good this morning. The mild ache in the arch of my right foot I have felt for about a month has gone away, but now I have a dull ache in my left knee. It is to be expected I guess. There are few days a 30 year old soon to be father of three and a US sailor can feel 100% but my body is still able to pretty much everything I ask of it, so I can't complain too much about. The 45 minute run resulted in almost a 10k, I ended up running a distance of 5.77 miles, and felt great afterwards. I'm really curious to see how I feel this week, especially since I had to change the rest day from Friday to Sunday. Six straight days of training are going to take a while to get used to.

A long delayed update

So a lot of things have happened since the last time I posted on this blog. No surprise really, after all it has been nearly a year and a half. Emily, Eibhlin, Aislin and I are now in San Antonio. I must admit I greatly underestimated the heat (more the humidity and the overall heat index). It can be pretty brutal. There have been a few days that I have thought to myself, what made me decide to take orders to San Antonio? Georgia wasn't that bad. But then I remember why and I just smile, put on my sunglasses and go.
There are some more bonuses to being stationed here. I have made more friends in the eleven months we've been here than I did the five years in Georgia. I've lost 10 pounds and cut almost 2:30 off my 1.5 mile run time for the Navy PRT. I've registered for and completed my first ultra marathon, the Prickly Pear 50k. Granted it was probably the easiest ultra to do for my first, but 31 miles is 31 miles no matter how you look at it. And best of all I didn't finish last. Just like my one and only marathon to date, right in the middle of the pack.. It makes me wonder what I would be capable of if I actually trained for these events.
Training...that's something I need to really get batter at. Not just with my running, but with my Navy career and my education as well. Speaking of training for running, my new training schedule starts tomorrow. For those who don't know yet, I have been selected by the international charity Peace and Sportto be one of 20 amateur marathoners to represent them in the ING NYC Marathon this November. It will be an amazing time in the Big Apple with the other 19 runners being able to meet the three world champions, Paula Radcliffe, Wilson Kipketer and Tegla Laroupe. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to pick their brains, especially Wilson's and Paula's. I mean Paula is an amazing runner, a beast on the road course, her book is going to be a great read. Wilson is the one I'm most looking forward to meeting. He held the world record in the 800m until last year when Rudisha broke it. This will be his first marathon and I am so curious to see how he had mentally prepared to run so much farther than he ever ran before.
The main challenge in this adventure is going to be raising the money the charity requires to fulfill their projects. These projects are designed to give kids in developing countries an outlet other than joining gangs or turning to crime. The project I have chosen the assist is the one in Colombia. If you would like to help me in this great cause please visit my fundraising page on the Peace and Sport website: http://peace-sport.org/ING-NYC-Marathon-2011/joshua-voyles.html

Gratuitous Movie Review

So here's a question I never dreamed there would be an answer to: What do Burt Reynolds (Mr. Smoky and the Bandit himself), Jason Statham (the balding, middle-age epitome of the type-cast actor), Ron Perlman (does he need any explanation?), Ray Liotta (usually a very solid actor), John Rhys-Davies (Gimli and Saleh from the Indianna Jones trilogy, I don't count the most recent offering as part of the series), Matthew Lillard (Without a Paddle) and Leelee Sobieski (Joan of Arc and a nubile teen co-ed in The Glass House) all have in common? The dubious honor of playing in another tripe ridden offering from German director Uwe Boll (the brains behind such classics as House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne and Bloodrayne II: Deliverance).
Had I realized who produced/directed this gem I wouldn't have wasted my time. But waste it I did and after fifteen minutes I wanted to burn my eyes out. As cliché as it is, it was a trainwreck and I couldn't stop watching (or taking notes on all the ridiculousness that made up the two-hour long nails-on-a-chalkboard).
First off, the music. Um....well. I don't know if it really qualifies as music. The discordant notes laboriously squeaked out by a string section that seemed to be composed of a group of arthritic monkeys. There were numerous attempts at creating a rousing feeling or a somber one for the more tender moments but these fell appallingly flat.
One of the afore-mentioned tender moments comes when Jason Statham unsurprisingly discovers he is indeed the king's (Burt Reynold, of course) son. The king is lying on his bed supposedly dying from an arrow shot by Matthew Lillard's character but the wound to his chest in the area of his lungs and heart does nothing to hinder his speech in any way. Burt explains how great the responsibility the kingship brings and then initiates this confusingly contradictory exchange with Jason:
Burt- "As long as there are kings; as long as there are lands they will fight over it."
Jason- "Battles fought for power and lands. None of these wars have any end."
Burt- "We fought for peace. Peace is a dream. A dream that maybe you as king, you will bring peace forever."
Did I miss something here? Did not the wise old king just say that as long as kings are around there will be war? Not the best last words I've ever heard in a movie. But that is not the only flaw in the dialogue. Here is another Shakespearean line delivered by the king's general to Jason's character: "I would be proud to have you fight by my side so I may keep an eye on you." What does that even mean?
The editor should be shot for being drunk when he pieced this movie together. The cut scenes were terrible. One instant a bad guy and his horse are riddled with arrows, the next they are tearing through the king's army without an arrow in sight, then back to being riddled with arrows. Jason takes an enemy cavalryman down, along with his horse, then is immediate set upon while he is still on the ground by another cavalryman but the first horse and rider are no longer in the frame.
Who cast the Cirque du Soliel rejects to play the forest maidens swinging by their legs in vines (jungle vines in a pine forest? Really?) and flinging vines like Spider-man flings webs at the enemy. Lame. The same self-proclaimed protectors of the forest boast that no one enters the forest without their knowing but somehow Ray Liotta (the bad guy) gets a huge dude in a rubber costume and black armor riding a black stallion right to the edge of Burt and Jason's camp and out again without anyone noticing.
This movie's lameness can be summed up in the line Burt utters to Jason and helps Jason realize he is his son "Wisdom is our hammer. Prudence will be our nail. When men build lives from honest toil..." then Jason finishes with "courage never fails."
Can a movie get a negative star? If so, this one deserves five of them.

Why Do This To Myself?

There are many people I know who say running is crazy. And they are right, to a point. Why run? Why put myself through the strain and stress of running any further than across the street? Aside from the number one rule in a recent movie (rule #1: Cardio), I run because every time I do I learn something more about myself, about my body, about my mind and about the commitment I have to a dream. It is not always something good that I learn about myself, but even this seemingly negative information is enlightening and can serve to strengthen my mentality for the next run.
I don't run to win, at least not at the point I am in my running career (if it can be called such right now). I don't even remember the last race I won, it was sometime during my senior year at Anadarko High School but that was over a decade ago. So there remains the valid question, especially in our competitive society; Why? Because I can. Because once you break through the wall your inner critic places before you and prove that negative voice wrong, that you are capable of so much more than you think, then anything is possible. You become a better person. More confident. More at peace with yourself and your capabilities.
I run because, like kids on a playground (at least when I was growing up) it makes me feel good. Because it makes me smile, and laugh, and sometimes ache. Because it was something I, and each of us, was born to do.

Joshua fought the battle of Jericho....

And the walls came tumbling down. The only word that comes to mind when I think about the Groundhog Day 10k I ran today is brutal. I felt good when we arrived at the stadium and when I went through my warm-ups but once we started the good feelings scrammed and were replaced by feelings of doubt and almost apathy. It was quiet alarming to be honest. I have never felt more unmotivated at the prospect of running before.
The race started at 0530 (that's 5:30am for those of you not familiar with the 24 hour clock) and there were maybe half as many people there as were present for the Reindeer 10k in December. I don't know who organized the race, but they should be shot, or at the very least horse-whipped, for instructing all the walkers to proceed to the FRONT of the group! What kind of brainiac thinks it's a good idea for a mass of runners to line up behind about fifty walkers on a track? The starter yelled, "Go!" and we were off! Not really. I had to basically walk to the first turn as I tried to weave my way through the mess of bodies. When I finally got a chance to start running I was immediately cut off by a girl who was completely oblivious to her surroundings and was aimlessly drifting from one lane to the next.
Luckily we only had to do 3/4 of a lap and then we were out on the streets. If any of you have been to the desert in the winter before you will know that it is pretty dark at night. This was the case here. There were so many people tripping over rocks or rolling their ankles I didn't even bother to count how many I saw. We weren't a block from the stadium when all motivation abandoned me. My body kept telling me to quit and my mind was ready to accept the idea. I checked my watch at least five times in the first seven and a half minutes but that realization did nothing to improve my mental situation.
I kept telling myself to just keep going for a little more, to reach the halfway point and see how I felt. When I finally did, I was cut off again (and this time given an elbow to the biceps) and wanted so badly to throw in the towel. I depressed a button on my watch and squinted to see the little blue-green numbers glaring up at me. Mocking me. My body was done but the race was only halfway done and my pace was nearly three minutes off my target time. I don't know at what point on the second loop of the 5k course (a sick, twisted idea concocted as an homage to the Bill Murray classic) I decided to finish; it might have been when I passed the stadium and the Siren-like call of the finish line so painfully close but not really close at all, but I promised myself I wouldn't give up. I mean, if I gave up on a 10k how was I going to convince myself to get through an entire marathon at a faster pace than I was now struggling with?
So I ran. And ran some more. Eventually I passed the guy and girl I had been drafting off of for the first four miles and slowly crept up to pick runners ahead of me off one by one. Then something strange happened. I started to get passed as well. What the deuce is this? I asked myself. I hate getting passed (one reason I tend to start these races towards the back portion of the middle of the pack). But I was only able to catch one of the guys who passed me. I crossed the finish line with the unimpressive time of 0:45:20, a minute slower than I ran it last month.
Ah well. At least I finished. I overcame my inner critic and broke through the wall of doubt that had threatened to unceremoniously flatten me and deal a significant blow to my confidence as a runner. Not bad for having been laid up for three and a half weeks before the race with a gimpy foot. There are six 5k's this month. We'll see how those go.

You may find me crazy, but....

I love to run. I never really thought I would say that. Growing up and all through the three high schools I went to I played sports. Basketball, football, baseball. If there was a ball involved I was game. I would play and play and play and I never really thought anything of it. I knew I wasn't the best on the team, per se, but I knew I was better than most. Especially on the football field.
I remember in off-season football my junior year we would run laps aroun the football field. Our field in Anadarko, Oklahoma is located in a sort of valley with a fairly steep slope that runs around the field in a horseshoe shape with the open end facing the fieldhouse. The coach would have us line up with the other players from our position (I lined up with the other wide receivers) and we would run up one tip of the 'U' shape, around the bleachers, the opposite endzone, the visitor bleachers, down the other tip of the 'U' and then complete the 400+ yd loop. I never really thought much of the fact that I was consistently running the circuit in less than a minute, at that time the competetive nature in me took over and all I wanted was to come in first. Every time.
Well, it just so happened that my position coach in football, Coach Williams (the best coach I ever had the pleasure of playing for), was also the head Track and Field coach. The other coaches had him leave track practice, which took place at the same time, and watch me run. He came one day with his own stopwatch and when we were done he asked me to run track on the 4x400 relay team. I blew him off that year, saying I didn't like running around in circles. What a fool I was!
Happily, I did not make the same mistake the next year. I went out for track my senior year and we eventually qualified for State. Needless to say we got our butts kicked, but considering we qualified last out of 16 teams and finished 6th it was a rewarding experience.
I didn't seriously run again for nearly ten years. When I, basically on a whim, signed up for the 2009 Disney Marathon. I overestimated my athletic ability and vastly underestimated how grueling it is to run 26.2 miles. The day before the race I was still with my family in Grovetown, GA and seriously considered not driving the 400 miles to Orlando, but thankfully my very supportive and vocal wife convinced me to go. We were going to miss the runner's expo and package pick-up so we had my brother-in-law, Jacob, pick it up for me and arrived at my sister-in-law and her husband's house just before 10 o'clock that night. I think I got something like two hours of sleep, if that much.
The atmosphere was electric. Literally thousands of people were milling around at the staging area, a fairly talented band played songs meant to hype us up, and I knew I was hooked. Only once during the race, I think it was at mile 18, I said to myself, "what the hell am I doing out here?". I knew I should've actually trained for this, the longest run I did was 14.5 miles, but there was no way I was going to let lack of training keep me from finishing. I crossed the finish line at 5 hours and 4 minutes and came to find out that my racing chip only registered at the halfway point, so I was in the very last group to start and didn't get the adjusted time because of the malfunctioning chip. Lame. But there's nothing that could be done about it.
So here I am, just over a year after my first marathon and I have a decided that at the very least I am going to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I know if I actually train for this I can drop my time sufficiently to attain that goal at the very least. We'll see how I do once I get back to the States and participate in the Chicamagua Battlefield Marathon on November, 13th.