My Return to Running

  

     If you are a vigilant follower here at HTH, then you've probably noticed that I haven't written about my own personal running endeavors as of late or really in quite sometime. There is a simple reason for that and that is because there just hasn't much to even write about. My slide into running oblivion began very simply, but I fell pretty hard. Last October 22nd, my XC team was running in our region race and I was running around the course cheering on my runners at each mile marker. This is something I do at every race. However, during the girl's race, I was running to the marker at Mile 2 and tripped on some dixie cups while running up the very short incline to the marker. I noticed my leg sort of felt weird, but didn't think anything about it. This is also something I do all the time. I trip. I'm clumsy. However, the next day I woke up and ran 10 miles and didn't notice anything. I was ready. I was already getting in the zone. In five short days, I would coach my team at the state xc meet, then drive with my sweet wife up to Atlanta to run my second marathon. I was way past ready. I was at the end of my two week taper. I had run almost 900 miles preparing to run a very fast marathon (for me). I had done all the speed workouts, the hill workouts, the tempo runs, the progression runs, the long runs, the stretching, the two-a-day runs, etc. I was going to cross the finish line in Atlanta and kiss my marathoning days good-bye because I'd have run two and enjoyed my time doing so. However, Sunday came along and my wife and I walked to Ingelside Village Pizza and when we got home, I noticed my achilles felt a little tight. I put some sport's lotion on it, rubbed it down, and went to bed. The next afternoon at xc practice, the tightness hadn't gone away, so I blew it off and walked with two girls who were hurt and taking it easy because they wanted to be healed come the state meet. I, again put some sport's lotion on it, rubbed it down, and tried not to panic. I decided I had put in the work and I would just wait to run again when I warmed up for the marathon on the morning of the race. I put a brace on and tried to take it easy for the next four days. Saturday morning rolled around and I coached the state xc meet and my achilles felt okay. I got excited. Around 5 that night, I decided to run for 30 minutes to see if I could run the marathon. I made it 15. I got angry. I got depressed. I pretended not to care. I lied. I didn't run the Atlanta Marathon. In fact, my dad told me not to run for 6 weeks. I listened for three. Ran a couple of times including my own turkey trot during Thanksgiving and once again felt my achilles calling me names I can't type here or really anywhere. I hung up the shoes as they say. I needed a break. I could use a rest. I'd run almost 4000 miles in three years. I'd wait till track season.

    Well, to make a long, depressing story shorter for your sake, three and a half months went by. I gained 10 lbs. I lost all of my fitness. Track rolled around and for a month I got into shape by getting my runners into shape. My achilles felt a little sore still, but I took it slow, or at least most of the time. Track season began and the running came to a complete halt almost. I lost what little fitness I had gained during preseason workouts very quickly and by the end of track season, I was barely getting in 10 miles a week. I was tired of not running, so I signed for "Macon's Hardest 5k" and trained for it the way you write a paper the night before it is due and proof-read it on the way to turn it in. I ran it hard and came in fourth and almost 3 minutes slower than my best. My achilles screamed at me like I had wronged it in so many ways. Then something wonderful happened, but it was very bad for my running career. Ford was born! And nothing cancels hobbies like a newborn baby. My newest hobbies became changing diapers, napping with Ford, walking around my neighborhood at strange hours of the night, and trying to not fall asleep while I taught Biology. I didn't mind. Ford is an awesome addition. We are blessed. I would give up running for little ole' FH. He's going to run with me soon. We are going to accomplish great things. He may even take me to the Olympics when he runs the 10000 meters or the marathon in 2028 or at least we can watch them together in 2016.

    Flash forward a couple months and I start back to running. I signed up for a half marathon. I began running at night to beat the heat. I begin with 12 miles a week, the moved up to 15, then 20, then 30. I am tired. My legs are sore. My lungs are learning how to breathe again while I run. My sweet mom even took me to Fleet Feet Sports and bought me a new pair of kicks! I am back at it. I am extra slow. I am still giving those 10 lbs. I gained a free ride around the Macon streets. But none of that matters. It is just good to be running again. I am counting down till Ford turns 8 months old because then I can break out the jogging stroller and we can hit it hard. My half marathon is in nine days. Cross country camp is in four days. XC season officially begins August 9th. I am back and it is so nice to cruise the streets and trails again in my own two shoes. 

  I wrote this post not to bore you into submission, but because in getting injured, becoming depressed about it, having to give up my goals, and then struggle to get back to running again, I have learned so much. It is common knowledge in running circles that one learns much more from failure than from success. That sounds so good when I tell it to my runners, but when I had to swallow it, it tasted horrible. However, it is so true. Somehow, I had lost a little of why I love to run. I have rediscovered that and so much more in the last several months. It hasn't been easy to get back to running, but it has been worth it. If you have been injured or just gotten injured, I hope you get something from this post. Running will wait for you. Get better. You may miss weeks, months, and even years, but it will wait for you. You may have to slow down. You may have to create new goals. However, no matter the pace, you will find your new pace and realize that running is about more than what you used to believe it did. I know I did. 

Happy running, reading, and be on the look out for my future races, 

David

The Olympic Track and Field Trials

* I am many days late and many dollars short for this post. The Olympic Track & Field Trials were held June 21-July 1, 2012. You can read and see for yourself the full results here. The United States is sending nearly 600 total athletes to this year's Olympic Games which will be held in London, England for a record setting third time. London is the only city, save Athens many, many years ago, to have that honor. The Opening Ceremonies are scheduled for tomorrow, while track & field events don't begin till August 3rd. The marathon is scheduled for the 5th for women and the 12th for men. 

    Has the question ever come to you as you were watching an event that is taking place during the Olympic games, "How does one become a Olympian?" Well, if it has, today is your lucky day because I am going to do my very best to answer your question in a very brief "Yahoo Answers" kind of way. This is something that I've always wanted to know. For as long as I have been cogniscent of the Olympic Games, I have wanted to be an Olympian. I know this will never be, but I can always dream. So, how does one become an Olympian?  Do they (the United States Olympic Committee) just follow your career and then ask you to represent the USA at the Olympics? Do you have to qualify? Do you just tell them you want to be an Olympian when you are an athlete of a certain caliber? The resounding answer to all of these questions and those of similar matter are a BIG no. Here IS the way one does become an Olympian for the most part minus a few exceptions like baseball, basketball, and soccer, and this is a great time of year to watch some achieve this lifelong dream and goal, while watching others watch that dream disappear in the mere time span of milliseconds or a space of a few millimeters into the finish line tape.

   All athletes for any sport that takes place during the Olympics must meet a certain standard in order to even be invited to the "trials" event for their sport. In the case of track and field, there are two standards: the A & B standard. The "A" standard is the one most athletes shoot for and as can be surmised in track & field, the standards have to do with either running a certain time or performing a certain distance task to qualify for the "trials". The track and field trials were held in Eugene, Oregon this year and they have been held there in years past as well, which has given the town of Eugene the title of "Track Town USA". Eugene is also the home to the University of Oregon, which has produced some of the finest runners in America; the most famous being Steve Prefontaine. The way the track & field trials works is very simple, if you have earned the "A" standard, you do not race, throw, jump, hurdle, etc until the "final" of your event. However, if you have earned the "B" standard coming into the trials, then you must race, throw, jump, hurdle, etc in a preliminary contest in hopes of earning the "A" standard. If you finish in the top 3 of the preliminary contest, then you move on to a semi-final contest in hopes of either earning the "A" standard or finishing in the top 3 hoping to move onto the final contest. And finishing in the top 3 of the final contest will give you a place on Team USA and the right to call yourself an Olympian.

   I was only able to watch a little of the US Track & Field trials, but the events that I did have the chance to watch were incredible from start to finish. I begged my gracious family if we could watch the 10000 meter final races and they really got into it, but were surprised that the runners had to run 25 laps around the track. My dad and I watched the 110 male hurdles and the 100m semi-final races. And later, I watched the final of the decathlon. I wish I would have gotten to see all the events, but that is the way it goes. I have included some photos from the Trials and hope you enjoy. And now you know how one becomes an Olympian and is the case of Julia Lucas who missed the chance of becoming an Olympian by 4/100's of a second, "it only took 15 years of tireless effort" to make it to the trials. So, when you're watching the Olympics this year, stop for a moment and know they make it look so easy because they have doing their event for as long as most of us have had our driver's licenses. 

The logo.

The redemption of Dathan Ritzenhein. He missed becoming an Olympian in the marathon by one place or 15 seconds and came in 3rd place in the 10000m final to earn a spot to London. 

Amy Hastings gutting through the last meters of the very tough women's field during the 10000 meter race. Winning was also her redemption since she came in fourth during the Olympic Marathon Trials.

During the Trials, Ashton Eaton put on a clinic for how one should perform the decathlon and in doing so became the owner of a world record.

The women's 3000m steeplechase race. Ryan Hall's wife Sara, in black on the right, missed her ticket to London by 30 seconds. 

Oliver making the 110 hurdles look easy. 

The long jump.

The pole vault.


Hoffa showing what a man can do with a 10 lb. shot put. Wow.

The male 5000 meter race. 

This was my favorite picture from the Trials because it was so ironic. Each year during XC & Track, I hand out uniforms that I keep in a Rubbermaid bin and lay the sizes out on desks or tables and have my  runners come in and get their correct sizes and sign a complete uniform out. In my mind, I had something more grand pictured when I thought about Nike and the Olympic team, but as it turns out, they do it much the same way. 

My 2012 track team. We didn't make it to the Trials, but we did take a little trip down to Albany for the State Meet. I should say they did. I was a little tied up! Ford was born on the first day of the state track & field meet.

Happy reading, running, and watching the London Olympics,

David

How To Make Your Own Sunflower Seeds

    I love eating sunflower seeds and I have done so for as long as I can remember. I'm not exactly sure where it began, but I feel I started my addiction to sunflower seeds during my days of little league. This addiction has grown from the eating them around the baseball diamond, to eating them whole working in the yard, to eating them while driving late at night during college and after college going to see my love, Mel, to eating them while coaching track, and sometimes just sitting on the porch and going through a small bag of them. And along with my love for eating sunflower seeds has been a desire to make my own. So, this summer I decided to try my hand at doing so. And to make it even better, my in-laws planted several hundred sunflower plants on their farm. I needed a recipe or at least a plan of attack, so I typed it into the ole' Googler box and away I went into action. I won't write a lot, but the pictures should help if you want to make your own seeds. 

The sunflower plant at its best.

The four rows of sunflower plants.

The tired bloom ready to be put to another, more tasteful use.

The head of the plant with the seeds inside. Many of this particular plants' seeds had been stolen by some very big crows already.

 

Cutting the head away from the stalk of the plant.

I cut 8 heads for my seeds. Obviously, if you want more, you would have to cut more.

An up-close picture of the layers of the head after I'd split it down the middle.

An example of a cleaned out part of a head and a full head.

A very full bloom.

The aforementioned bloom after most of the pistils had been removed.

Here I am removing the pistils and the seeds from the bloom.

A pic of the empty blooms and a tray of the seeds.

The tray of seeds.

A sifter and the seeds. Even with careful harvesting of the seeds from the bloom, there will still be a lot of debris from the blooms in with the seeds.

Attempting to sift much of the smaller debris away from the seeds. This didn't really work that well.

This step was the most time-consuming step. Separating the seeds from the other debris become very tedious, very quickly. Mel helped me here a lot or I may have not passed this step.

An up-close pic of the seeds and the separated debris.

The bowl of seeds before I roasted them.

My next step was to soak the seeds in salt water. The recipe I used said to use 1/3 of a cup. I got nervous and used 1/4 of a cup. My next batch will probably call for soaking the seeds in a brine made with a much larger amount of salt. 

The addition of the salt.

I thoroughly mixed the salt into the seeds before I added hot water.

I let the seeds soak for around 12 hours, but a part of me wished I would have let them soak longer. Live and learn, right?

After 12 hours of soaking, the water had turned an odd brown color like the water in a pond that contains cypress trees.

I then poured the water out and let the seeds dry for a whole day.

After the seeds were relatively dry, I spread the seeds out flat on a pan. 

I preheated the oven to 300 degrees...

And I roasted the seeds at this temp. for 45 minutes.

The seeds slow roasting.

The newly roasted seeds still hot in the pan. 

The finished product bagged up for the portable snack they are. I guess you could say that these really are "David's" sunflower seeds. 

Hope your seeds can turn out like mine and happy eating,

David

My First Father's Day

“Bear in mind, children, that they listen to you because you are kids—not because you are right. That's how our Father listens to us.” 
-Rich Mullins

“He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God, God never spoke.” 
-Cormac McCarthy, The Road

“And so seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, "Father, what is sexsin?"
He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor and set it on the floor.
Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?" he said.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
It's too heavy," I said.
Yes," he said, "and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”
-Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place

   An older man that I used to work with and that I really looked up to told me one day while we were eating lunch that he thought that God gave people children as part of their path towards Sanctification. I didn't really understand what that meant till Ford came into this world at 10:06 am on April 26th. My life has not even been close to the same in any capacity. I am slowly seeing the truth that my older friend was trying to tell me about. I will never be able to see or think about God the Father and Jesus the Son again in the same light. I can now not imagine God's only son on a cross begging for help and the agony of turning my back. I can now see the dove flying and God beaming down with such pride at His son. I can now wonder about being a true child of God. Little Ford just sits in my lap and we swing and he talks to me and I am so happy for him to do so, I can't seem to even understand why God would be so glad for me to just talk with Him. I am thankful to God and to my sweet wife Melissa for giving me such a great little boy. The wisdom, knowledge, and responsibility that he brings that I do not have terrifies me, but know that my father and my heavenly Father does.  Anyway, I will write much more about that later. I am still amazed and overwhelmed by all of it. There is so much that I can't wrap my small brain and amount of understanding around. 


    Needless to say, this past Father's Day meant more to me than others in the past. I am not saying that the others haven't meant anything to me because they have. I know most of what I know about anything because when it comes to fathers, I've got one of the best, but this Father's Day....I was a father this time. And Mel and Ford made it so special that I was overwhelmed. I got Mel to take some pics for me as I enjoyed such a special and wonderful day. 

The day started with my favorite...scrambled eggs. And they tasted so much better since the eggs, tomatoes, and herbs came from our yard. 

And while I ate, Ford told me so much about all I do not know about. He is getting to be a great maker of sounds and I yearn to hear them all. He was great breakfast entertainment.

After breakfast, Melissa and Ford presented me with some great presents. For my first Father's Day, Mel and Ford got me three great things: Snickers, David's Sunflower Seeds, and Atlanta Braves tickets. They couldn't have gotten me anything better. 

On top of the great presents, Mel and Ford also made me a very special Father's Day lunch. The best part was the homemade, vanilla ice cream. It rivaled Blue Bell's Natural Vanilla Ice Cream and we all know that is saying something. 

And here is the main course. Mel makes the greatest and my favorite of all pizzas. She makes the dough  for the crust by hand and then adds pesto, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese. It is an amazing slice. And yes, she makes the pesto from our basil and the tomatoes are from our garden. God gave me the best one. I am humbled by such a great woman.

Two of my favorite things: San Pellegrino Lemonade drink and Mel's pizza. You would be hard pressed to find a better lunch.

And then after the great lunch, Ford and I sat down for a heaping bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream. 

I had a wonderful 1st Father's Day and am looking forward to the next 50.  Hope you enjoy the pics and the post. 

David