I highly recommend the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. Among other things, it is a story about these two guys: Scott Jurek and Arnulfo Quimare. In between epic race stories, the book has a number of discussions on nutrition, running form, shoes and of course, the Raramuri people.
The book provided a little inspiration and a few tips that I hope will help me with my 5k goal for this year, and with longer-distance goals beyond that. I don't think I'll ever be doing 100k runs like Scott and Arnulfo, but I do want to knock the marathon off my bucket list sooner rather than later.
Here's a short February update on my 2011 goals:
1a. I succeeded at this goal 4/4 weeks in February. I may have made this goal somewhat too easy, and I will reassess during March and possibly update for April. I think I am leaning toward a suggestion from Dana to cap snacks/workout at a set weight (like 200g) as opposed to a "number of bags". That may serve to up the difficulty and increase the measurability of my progress.
1b. Epic fail. I technically failed this goal 3/4 weeks, but I ate at least some unhealthy food at probably half of the meals on our cruise, so to me it feels like I missed 4/4. This goal is proving to be tough because you don't always have complete control over meals. There were a couple occasions where I had already had an unhealthy meal for the week and then I was heading for food with other people and the group consensus led me astray. Of course, there were some other times when I just didn't do it. I'll try to improve this one in March.
2. I visited Belize and Honduras for the first time in February. I enjoyed both experiences, but I'm not sure if either is high on my list to go back to. Belize has potential though, I could see myself back there at some point, if not in the immediate future.
Amit let me know that the letter of the law may not allow me to get a speeding ticket for running too fast. Darn!
3. I've been running pretty consistiently throughout the month, and I think I will at least make an attempt at the Mother's Day run. Unfortunately, I've mostly been running on treadmills, but hopefully it will be warm enough to test the course soon. I think I'm almost back to the level of fitness I was at last year...I think I have a sub-21 minute 5k in me right now, but I'm not down to 20 yet.
4. Not much progress to report here.
5. I've been good about supersetting biceps/triceps regularly and I am starting to see an improvement already. My 3-set, 10-rep bicep curl is up to 55 lbs and my overhead tricep is up to 40 lbs. I want to begin varying my superset in March to continue to provide muscle confusion.
Get out there and run everyone! Embrace the pain and learn to beat it like it's a competitor, and run because you love it, not because it's a chore!
