Mind Games

Earlier in the day I battle my powers of rationalization in jogging two miles without stopping, and now I'm rationalizing that I deserve some dangerous but delicious food at the buffet line... the salad lost...for today.


Sunday, Jun 29th, 2008 - Recovery Day. I been able to complete three more days
on the runner training plan for the Seafair Torchlight Parade Run since my last
blog posting. Four weeks to go!

Thursday the 27th was a 20 minute fast walk/jog. I opted to make it a 20 minute
jog, followed by a 15 minute walk. I was able to do 1.55 miles in the 20 minute
time period. I had to work late, so I ended doing it on a treadmill. Treadmills
just don't compare to the real thing, but it does provide a nice Ipod holder.

Friday was a 10 min fast walk followed by a one mile jog. Fast walk? I can do
that, and did, to the tune of 2.5 laps around the LHS track. Then the jog. I
took it easy, then followed the with another few laps walking to get two miles in
for the evening. I didn't want to do much more with the two mile run greeting me
as I wake up on Saturday morning. The lawn inside the track was freshly mowed,
and it really smelled good.

Saturday. - The two mile run. It seems like, in the past when I've trained,
usually my legs have more stamina than my lungs. Initially my lungs have been
behind, but today, during the second mile, my legs felt like stone. Legs and
lungs were usually the two components, as I saw it. Today, my brain made it a
trifecta. Yogi Berra, a catcher for the New York Yankees in the 50' & 60's was
known for his colorful quotes. I thought of this one as I was running: "Baseball
is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical." I felt like runing was
ninety percent legs and the lungs, and the other half is mental. In my eight
lap run, as I finished lap three I thought, "Oh, man I've still got 5/8ths of
this run to go. I felt like the guy in one of those old cartoons who has the
devil talking in one ear and an angel talking in the other. "It's OK to quit,
you haven't run this far in fifteen years." "You can do it, just keep moving."
"It's OK if you quit after seven laps, that's almost two miles" "You don't want
to write about failure in your blog - it will disappoint your children" "Your
children don't care - they're happy you tried? "C'mon, suck it up."

Suck it up, I did, and completed the two miles in 27:24.

Later that day we met Andy and his family at the Old Country Buffet to celebrate
his completion of the State Board Medical Exam. It was a seven hour test. So
now we're at an all-you-can eat buffet, I'm hungry and I felt like I really
deserved to eat well having complete my two mile run. I think the angelic side
of my brain was worn out from the run, so the other side took over and treated me
with ham, grilled pork chop, mashed potatoes, baked beans, and a piece of
chocolate cake with ice cream on top. Take that, brain! While my lungs, legs,
and brain were in recovery mode, my taste buds did quite fine holding up under
the challenge!

Still on Track, Literally & Figuratively

Wednesday, June 25th

It's midweek and I'm still on track with the running prescription for the Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade Run.

Monday's prescription was:
4 minute jog
5 minute walk
4 minute jog
5 minute walk
jog until tired
I covered the timed part of the prescription over about a mile and a quarter. Then I started the "jog until tired" part of the plan. Jog until tired?...I'm already tired! But I stuck it out for a full quarter mile and then walked two more laps to get in a full two miles.

Tuestday's plan was:
20 minute fast walk. - "Walk?" To quote Barak Obama, "Yes I Can!" Wendy and I went to Ikea for dinner. She had a yearning for their meatballs. I went for the rice pilaf. Bad choice. Plenty of rice, way too much pilaf. Interesting how when a food has just the type of seasonings you like, it's really, really good. But, when that combination goes in the wrong direction, well, I was hungry, but I didn't finish my dinner. We had Ringo my training partner in the car waiting for us. I walked home - 2.2 miles, most of it uphill.

Wednesday's plan:
1 mile jog, walking as needed. - I went up to Lindbergh High School to do the run. I walked two laps to get warmed up, walking with Wendy and Ringo. Then it was off to the races. OK, not to the races, but I did start the jog. The Ipod was providing Beach Boy tunes. I found that "409" was the perfect cadence, so I listened to it three times. 409 was a hot Oldsmobile car in the 60's. Either it meant the car had an engine with 409 cubic inches, or the marketers felt "409" just sounded cool. At any rate, Oldsmobile went on to become a car that people stopped buying. When they all look alike, why buy an Olds? Perhaps the competion from the cleaner Formula 409 made the car seem less enviable in the eyes of the buying public. I know that personally I've vowed to never purchase a car with the same name as Clorox.

I did the mile in 14:15, delayed by the dog for a short time. Total distance running and walking was three miles. Who knows, maybe I can pull this off yet. However, Saturday's two-mile jog assignment is starting to lurk.

Operation Torchlight - Training Continues

Monday, June 23rd

The first six days of training for the Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade 5 Mile Run continue. I have been adhering to FDr. (Future Docter) Tegeder's prescription. Day 2 was a minimum 20 minute fast walk - "Walkings, yeah, I think I can walk.." Day three was a 10 minute fast walk, followed by a 5 minute jog, then a 10 minute walk. I went to the Lindbergh High School track. My walking covered 2&1/2 laps, and the jog was about a lap and a half. All the while I was jogging, I was thinking, "I don't know know about tomorrow." "Tomorrow", Saturday, was a scheduled one mile jog. (Photo:) Ringo gets a break with a shorter-legged human, Grandson Noah Tegeder

I don't think I've actually run a full mile in over ten years. I've spent a lot of hours on an elliptical machine in the past year and one-half, but very little actually running. I spent all morning doing yard work, then donned the running close. Ringo, our dog and training partner sees me in sweats and he thinks good things are going to happen.

We walked up to the high school as a warm-up (1.3 miles) and then there it was: the track, and four laps waiting to be assaulted before I could go home. It wasn't easy, but I did it. During the last lap, I felt like letting go of the leash and just saying "Go head Ringo, you can finish without me." Time: 13:10 for the mile. As I was running, I was thinking to myself that I can't comprehend running five miles by the 19th. But I'm going to follow the prescription and see what happens.

Sunday on my running plan is always a rest and recovery day. Saturdays are the long days. FDr. Tegeder has me running a mile further every Saturday. So now this coming Saturday's Two-Mile run is already looming.

Sunday we went up to Andy & Julie's and had dinner and spent some time with his family.

Taking the Future Doctor Tegeder Challenge

Last year son Andy, his marathoner wife Julie, and my daughter Sonja all ran in the 2007 Seattle Torchlight Parade Run. It's a 5-mile (8K) run that starts at the Seattle Seahawks Stadium, Qwest Field, goes up the Alaska Way viaduct with a scenic view of the waterfront, cuts into the city onto 4th Avenue downtown where the run finishes on the parade route for the annual Seattle Torchlight Parade. It a night parade with lots of lighting and floats, bands, politicians to boo, etc.

(Above) - A random photo of runners in last year'r run in downtown Seattle.

So the fun thing on this run is that you get to finish in front of 300,000 people or so who are waiting for the parade to start. I was thinking about running in it, but pulled a groin muscle about two months ago while playing some basketball with some younger guys. The pain has only recently gone away, and at our Father's Day dinner I brought up the race to see if Andy and Julie wanted to run in it. Andy has been studying 10 hrs a day getting ready for the state medical board exams, and Julie just gave birth last month, so neither are in tip-top running shape. I mentioned that I had thought about running but with the injury I figured I'd have to wait until next year.

Upon hearing this, my 2-years of medical school trained, graduate student-degreed exercise science major said that anyone can run 5 miles with the amount of time left to train. So, I told him to write me a running prescription and I would do my best to follow it and see what happens. So I'll chronicle my progress, or lack thereof on the blog.

(Left) - First Day of training. Right off the bat I demonstrate my ability to outdistance some overweight , tired rec-league soccer girls on the track.

Ringo, our dog, is my training partner.

FDr (Future Doctor ) Tegeder's prescription for Day one is:
10 min fast walk
4 min jog
10 min walk
4 min jogWalk for 10 min or so more

Ringo and I pulled this one off. Wendy started with us, but her knees have dictated that she is the official photographer, and will be the official Grandma with Andy and Julie's three children during the race.

Day 2 - Jun 19th - FDr. Tegeders running prescription for today was : 20 min (minimum) fast walk. Hey, I can do a walk! Even my training partner didn't think that was so tough, although he was distracted the entire half hour walk. I went on a trail that we used to call the Bunny Trail from the days when we would go on family bike rides, and often see wild rabbits. Ringo was not disappointed, seeing many rabbits, and wanting to go after every one of them. He usually heels very well, but this evening he was pulling on leash most of the time, being distracted by the sight and smell of rabbits. I'm crossing Bunny Trail off of my training venue list.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game, It They Don't Win,...it's Expected...

Saturday night, Father's Day Eve I met my old friends the Hardcastles for a night at Safeco Field. We saw the 2nd game of a three-game home stand. Entering the game, the Washington Nationals and the Mariners were tied for most losses in Major League Baseball. The M's lost Friday night, and we were able to witness them take a firm hold on worst record in baseball with a 5-2 loss. But it was a terrific night to be at the ball park, even though I don't think I could have named a single member of the Washington Nationals before the game started.

The Hardcastles were our neighbors about 18 or so years ago and have moved all around the Western US. They are living in Midway, Utah now, and took vacation to the Pacific Northwest, ending their trip at Safeco Field. Their oldest son, Colt, used to be Sonja's playmate when she was a toddler. Colt is not a Richie Sexton fan, so he got ample opportunities to enjoy Richie's ineptness in light of having the batter in front of him being intentionally walked to load the bases in order to pitch to Richie. The Washington Nationals, and Colt, were not disapppointed as Sexton was easily retired.

My Frist Bolg Entry (Wow, I'm really nervuos...)

Saturday, June 14, 2008

So, the blog has begun. I enjoy reading the blogs of my offspring, so I figure I might as well join the blogosphere and hopefully others will enjoy reading my/our blog as well. So what do I have to report? Not much. Wendy and I are still working in healthcare, she as a nurse at a kidney dialysis center, and me as the senior accountant for a hospital.

Computers are amazing machines. They don't compare with the human mind, however. The good thing about computers is that there is a "search" button - when you can't find a file, you can ask the search feature to find it for you. I wish my brain had a search function...well, it does, but sometimes it operates at the speed of a Commodore Vic 20 computer.

Anyway, I was able to actually use my search function in my brain yesterday. A co-worker was leaving and said "Wish me luck. I'm going fishing." I entered a little chit-chat, like "Where are you going?" and "What are you fishing for?" etc, to which most of her answers were "I don't know - my friends planned it." So it was the end of day, people are winding down the week, good time for a joke. I hit the mental search button and came up with about the only fishing joke I think I have on my mental hard drive:

Some fishermen were fishing on a river. One guy was by himself. A little further down the bank three guys who were on the excursion together were fishing. The loner would reel in a fish every now and then, while the threesome weren't even getting a bite. Seeing the loner's success, they moved down to his part of the river, and the guy decided to move to the spot they vacated. Not too long after that they noticed the solo fisherman started to catch some fish in the spot they'd vacated, while they remained fish free.

The loner moved down to a bend in the river, and noticing this, one of the threesome suggested that they do the same, figuring that if you can't beat them, join them. So there they were, within a few rod-lengths of each other, and the loner stared to reel in a fish. Seeing this, one of the exasperated fisherman in the trio said "Buddy, what's the secret to catching fish around here?" "Hrmmmfmmuww" came the reply. "What? said the questioner?" "Hrmmmfmmmuww" was the reply again. This exchange happened a third time, same as the first two. The questioner then said "I'm sorry, but I just can't understand what you're saying. " Now the successful fisherman was a little exasperated himself, whereupon he held up his hands, blew out a wad of something out of his mouth into his cupped hands and said, "You have to keep your worms warm!"

OK, I haven't told that joke for years, but it sent a few people out the door of my workplace yesterday with a smile. Hope you smiled too!