Life After 30

I am officially a 30 year old.  For as anxious and mentally beating myself up about turning 30, now that I am actually 30, there is no difference - other then the fact that I now have to say I am 30 and that I am now in a different age group for races (M30-34), of course.  The time surrounding my actual birthday was fantastic.  It was exactly how I would have wanted it to go.  I spent a lot of time with my wife and daughters, my extended family, and yes, I successfully ran 30 miles on my actual 30th birthday as I had planned on doing.  I figured with so much going on in a couple weeks, I'd take some time to just share everything that went on during that time.

With my aunt Carol (our childcare provider) being out of the country, visiting her sister in Spain, for the good part of 2 weeks, I had taken off from work starting on Thursday, February 27th.  Doing so gave me 4 days off from work, in addition to my already prescheduled 3 off days.  I had a full week off from work!  Come Friday, we planned on getting together with my family and my in-laws and getting together for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Downtown Appleton.  I originally wanted to get dinner at Stone Cellar Brewpub (my favorite) but had to make alternative plans due to the size of our group and the inability to make reservations on Friday nights at SCB.  To make up for this change of plans, I met my mom and dad, JD, and my brother and his girlfriend at SCB for a few beers before heading to Sangria's for dinner.  After dinner we all came back to our house for drinks, cake, and a game of dominoes.  Every year for my birthday, Sarah's grandmother makes me a from-scratch carrot cake, from a recipe she concocted herself.  The carrot cake is to die for - so rich and moist, with a delicious cream cheese frosting.  To go along with the carrot cake, my mom made a batch of Monster Cookie Dough Cupcakes from a recipe that was going around on Facebook.  The cup cakes were very very very rich and heavy.  As per the recipe, my mom scooped the frosting onto the cupcakes with an ice cream scooper....no joke.  So you can imagine the sugar overload on just a single cupcake.  As good as they were, it was almost too much of a good thing.  

Saturday was a more laid back day with no real plans at all.  I didn't do much of anything on Saturday and just hung around the house with Sarah and the girls.  Sarah brought the girls to the Circus in Green Bay in the afternoon which the girls absolutely loved.  Later that night, we went over to my parents house for one of my favorite dinners - homemade lasagna.

Sunday had arrived and my official birthday had arrived.  I stayed in bed as long as the girls would allow me to, which ended up being about 7:15am - which isn't too bad, actually.  The girls and I had breakfast together, which has become a regular tradition of ours.  After I got the girls all set for the day, I headed out the door for my epic birthday run.

I'll be honest with you, when I had woken up, it was damn cold, -4 was the actual temperature with windchills around -17 and there was about a 1/2" to 1" of fresh snow that had fallen overnight.  I was really considering just driving over to the YMCA and running my 30 miles on a treadmill, just to avoid the cold and snow covered roads.  It certainly did not help that it had snowed pretty much every day for the past 2-3 days before my birthday, which lead to the roads being completely covered with snow as it was, not to mention the side walks.  I sat there thinking about how miserable it was going to be out in the bitter cold for over 4 hours straight.  I then thought, on the other hand, how flat out boring and miserable it would be running on a treadmill for over 4 hours.  It was a toss up.  I opted for the fresh air and running outdoors, regardless of how cold it was.  I thought to myself, I would not torture myself on my birthday and would just suck it up and dress warm.

I had all my fuel preset from the night before and kept it all indoors, just inside our front door to prevent it from freezing.  I had my 3 mile route all planned out, and I dressed super warm.  I was finally ready to begin my run.  I brought our dog Bella along for the first lap and she appeared to be having fun and didn't look tired after the first lap, that I brought her along for the second lap.  After each lap, I stopped inside to warm up briefly and grab some fuel.  After my second lap, I figured that 6 miles in the cold was enough for my dog, although the way she looked at me after I took the leash off, I still think she wanted to join me for more.  The run progressed nicely and I never really got too cold.  I never stopped my watch throughout the run so my time included all the breaks I took after each lap.  During one of my breaks my Aunt Carol and Grandma FaceTimed from Spain to wish me a happy birthday, which kept me inside a little longer than usual, but I was ok with it.  During another pit stop, I helped my wife get Delaney down for a nap.  And then on a third pit stop I actually stopped to relace my shoes, as the laces seemed to be bothering the top portion of my feet.  It seemed to alleviate some of the added pressures on the top of my feet because after I relaced my shoes it was no longer an issue.

Throughout the run, I consumed about a total of 850 calories.  I used Hammer Gels and Perpetuem solids during the first 5 laps of my run, and then Perpetuem Drink and Solids during the second half.  I felt great throughout the entire duration of the run, which honestly surprised me.  I finished with a time of 4:21:06 with an average pace of 8:37/mile.  Like I said, I never stopped my watch during my breaks,  so this time is including my downtime.  Based my mile splits of the miles run between my breaks, I's estimate that my actually average running pace would be in the ball park of 8:10/mile.  Looking back on the run itself, it definitely had its ups and downs; its good times and bad times.  It didn't start getting truly had until about mile 21.  It was at this point were I started to actually get cold and that the cold air started to have an effect on my breathing.  The cold air made it difficult to breath and it seemed to tighten up my chest a bit.  Don't get me wrong, I could still breath plenty well, but it was at this point where it seemed that I started coughing more frequently as I attempted to breath.  There was a couple times when I really questioned what the hell I was doing.  I asked myself, why the hell I was out in the sub zero temperatures, running for hours and hours, when I could be inside in a warm house, enjoying time with my wife and kids - and on my birthday of all days???  I really questioned myself around laps 4 and 5, just before and right around the half way point.  It was at that point where I had already ran about 12-15 miles, but still had another 18-15 miles too go.  But then I started thinking about my life and life in general.  It dawned on me that running, especially endurance running, and specifically challenging yourself specifically, has a lot of similarities to life.  Just like my very own life, there were times where life sucked, where I wanted to give up on something, times where you just wanted to quit and take the easy road.  Also, just like in life, I had moments duirng my run, where I was at complete peace, almost a state of euphoria.  I was happy, calm, and relaxed.  I was listening to my breath, focused, and just "there" - in the moment.  Life has the same ups and downs.  It has short bouts of good times and frustrating times, it has just as many times where it seems like you'll never get out of a funk.  It may be days, it may be weeks.  But knowing that it will not stay that way forever can be comforting.  Just like endurance sports, you have to come to expect times where you feel like absolute shit, times when you want to slow down, or even quit.  You need to know that you need to do what ever you can do to get those thoughts out of your mind and refocus your energy on the task at hand.  You need to know, with confidence that those feelings will pass.  You will overcome your struggles and you will be better for it.

That is the exact reason why I do what I do.  I love the challenge of it.  I love the excitement of it.  I love knowing that the benefits of my sport far exceed better cardiovascular health.  I know that I am a better father, husband, employee, friend, and community member because I run.  I am a better person overall because I put myself into challenging, uncomfortable situations and work my way through them.

My girls and I at our hibachi dinner

After my run, I was sore....duh!  I took a warm shower and sat down with a bottle of Sah-Tea Beer, brewed by Dogfish Head Brewing along with 2 pieces of that homemade carrot cake.  For dinner that night, we went out as a family, just the 4 of us to a local Japanese hibachi restaurant.  I wanted to surprise Maya by taking her there for dinner as she has been asking to go to "the restaurant with the fire on the grill."  Once there she was so happy and surprised.  Her joy made my night.  

By the end of my birthday I was in a great mood.  I was happy.  I was again reminded how lucky I am in life.  That I have 2 absolutely adorable, beautiful daughters, a caring, supportive, and loving wife, and a wonderful family including my in-laws.  I may be turning 30 and getting older everyday.  But, I know that each and every day is another day I get to spend with the ones I love and that I truly have the greatest life I could ask for.  I am truly blessed and fortunate to be were I am in my life and to have done everything I have done to this date.  But, rest assured, that I am not done.  I am not satisfied where I am and have plenty I still want to accomplish, places I want to see, and things left to learn.  I may be 30 and I may have had a great life to this point, but by no means am I depressed about getting older, I am excited and motivated about what is left for me to accomplish and experience!

With my 30 mile run under my belt, it's time for a rest/recovery week from running and training.  Truthfully, it really isn't even going to be a full week.  On Tuesday evening our SWAT team received an award from the Association of SWAT Personnel - WI (ASP) for the SWAT Team of the year.  It was a cool award to receive and an honor to be recognized by our peers.  I returned back to the routine of working third shift on Thursday night which is the start of a new training "week" for me.  When I started training/running again back in December, I was training specifically for the Green Bay Marathon.  Since then, my main goal was to build a strong base.  One that would help sustain another two and a half months of marathon specific training.  I also wanted to build a large enough base to allow me to run 30 miles on my 30th birthday.  So far, I'd say I'm doing pretty good with my base building (considering I can cross off half of my list).  So with the birthday run behind me, it is now time to shift gears from the easy long runs to more speed, tempo, and threshold running.  I have revamped my original training plan slightly due to my recent "injury" to my right calf.  I say "injury" (with the quotations) because, I am not 100% sold on the fact that I was ever truly injured to being with.  I still think it could have just been some significant wear and tear, inflammation, or something along those lines, as opposed to a full blown injury.  Basically, I tend to believe I was in the realm of an "overuse injury" which almost always leads to a full blown injury if not treated with care.

All the teams that won SWAT team of the year

My new training plan follows my standard 9 day work week, as opposed to the traditional 7 day, Monday - Sunday week, like my original plan did.  I also spread out the running days more to avoid more back-to-back run days.  My total volume is actually pretty close to where it was with my original plan and many of the same workouts are still in my new plan.  I will still be relying on weekly easy long runs, mile repeats, tempo runs, and long intervals.  I also inserted more swim and bike days to make up for the days the used to be run days.  So all in all, there was minimal changes to the plan, more of a shifting around of workouts, to allow more thorough recovery from the pounding of running high volumes.

I brought the girls to the YMCA to swim on Monday after running

As far as my diet and nutrition, I have recently fallen right back into my piss poor habits of overeating and having little to no self control with sweets and treats.  After completing my Whole30 back in late February, I felt great, probably the best I have ever felt.  From that day through today, I progressively ate worse and worse, culminating on the days following my birthday weekend.  I won't include my birthday weekend as that has always been a special time for me and I do not try to limit what I take in and how much I take in.  I just try to enjoy the treats on the few days that surround my birthday.  But after my birthday, we had leftover cake, cupcakes, cookies, snacks, and on top of it all, Sarah brought home Girl Scout Cookies on Tuesday after work.  Needless to say, I ate and ate and ate plenty of Girl Scout Cookies, cereal, processed foods, chocolate covered cherries, anything that was made with or from chocolate, I ate.  My plan was to enjoy the week before my birthday with no diet restrictions as a reward for eating so well during the Whole30.  Shortly after my birthday, I wanted to conduct an experiment of 1.  I wanted to eat a diet comprised of nearly the exact opposite foods that are allowed on the Whole30.  My plan was to eat a high carb, grain and plant based diet void of any and all meat and animal products.  I would eat this way for 28-30 days and monitor how I felt day-to-day along with how I felt throughout my training.  I would then compare those 4 weeks to the 30 days I spent on the Whole30 back in January/February.

Ultimately, I am backing out of that decision.  I am doing so, because, when looking back at my W30 experience, I felt so good.  I had no digestive issues, no discomforts, no bloating, I slept good, I recovered from my workouts faster and felt great during my workouts.  I also find it ironic that by the end of my W30, my calf/ankle issue was nearly gone, but now that I have been eating less-then-healthy foods, I am starting to feel more pain in my lower right calf area.  So starting today, I plan on jumping back on the W30 band-wagon and eating a higher fat, lower carbohydrate diet.  I will focus on eating REAL food, specifically lean, organic cuts of meat, and fruits.  I will allow myself to eat some grains, an occasional bean/legume, full fat dairy, and some foods that have minimal added sugars.  I will avoid milk, gluten, and proceeds grains, such as bread, crackers, etc.  I will focus on eating square meals that are satiating and avoid eating anything my meals.  I will schedule my eat around my training - which means, when I do opt to eat grans, such as oatmeal rice, or amaranth, or other foods that are higher in carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, squash, etc, I will eat then shortly before or just after training.  All other meals will consist of little to no carbohydrates.  It'll be an extremely clean form of eating again, with a few exceptions which will definitely be the acceptation, not the norm.  Eat this way, will allow me to eat meals without being overly concerned if it is indeed "Whole30 approved."  Also, eating this way, will give me a strict guideline to follow with a little more leeway in the plan to allow me to live my life without stressing over whether or not something has 1g of added sugar.