In psychology, they are called “lifts.” Lifts are the little things that get you through life. They are the small things that people say to you that, insignificant as it may seem to them, change the world for anyone who hears them.

Today, while swimming at the gym, I noticed a couple of nice older ladies doing an aerobics workout in the aerobics pool. By the way, did I mention how awesome that the new gym made a separate pool for this? Now I can swim any time I want and not have to worry about aquafitness classes kicking me out of the pool. Anyway, back to the story….

So, I was swimming my pyramid. 100/150/200. Then I was going to do a 300, but the 300 turned into a 450 just because I was feeling so good! After that I was pretty toasted, so I got out of the pool. One of the ladies said, “You are a very good swimmer… very smooth!” I smiled and said, “thank you” I wished them a nice day, and went into the locker room. What they didn’t know was that they gave me the biggest confidence boost of my life! I have been struggling and fighting for the past 2 months to get my swimming up to par. And, for someone to tell me that I am smooth!?? I don’t care what they know about swimming. All I needed to know is that to someone I am smooth.

For today…. that’s good enough for me. I’ll take that lift.

So, here we are.  Day 1.  Well, it’s more like coming to the close of year 1, actually.  It’s hard to believe that nearly a year ago, I was running my first 10k in Riverside.  This November, I will commemorate my 1 year anniversary of running at the Mission Inn 10k.  That fateful day, I showed up to run the 5k, but since I got there late, the 5k registration already closed.  So, I had only one choice.  Be a man, and run the 10k.  And, run I did!

That day, I told myself I would stop letting life pass me by.  That was the day that I decided to push myself to new challenges.

It’s hard to believe that less than a year ago, I was not the same person that I am today.  Today, I live in the present.  I focus on living every moment to its full potential.  I take pleasure in simplicity, and try to not complain when things don’t go my way.  Running has taught me that things aren’t always going to be perfect, but they could definitely be a lot worse.

This year has been a monumental year in my life, and I intend to make the year to come even bigger.

You like how I leave the title all in lowercase except for the first word? That’s how they do it in exotic foreign countries.

Anyway, I am working on the look of the site again… yes, aesthetics has once again prevailed over content. But, I think now that I am increasingly pleased with the look of the site, I will want to keep posting and adding things to the site. I am also working on my lighting design website at the same time, so it’s just blog madness!

Ok… so as you can see, things seem to be up and working, and I might even say better than before. I have two of my favorite posts from the old blog posted here below…

Now all that’s left is to get the ads back up and working on the site. That shouldn’t be much of a problem, as Google makes it really easy. I hope that I am not violating some kind of TOS by writing about it here. I just want to let people know what’s happening.

I’m back!!! So, please do enjoy.

I must admit that the last few days, I have been thinking extensively about nutrition. First, a bit of a tangent/rant. I was helping Lucy with her Nutrition homework yesterday. The assignment was to watch an hour of children’s programming, and write down all of the products there were advertised during that hour. (Big props to her 9 year old brother for doing this part for us. That kid wrote down everything in amazing detail… that’s one smart 9 yo.) Then we were off to the grocery store to find nutrition facts about the products. I was appalled to see just how much sugar was in these products. The first four ingredients were something like: Enriched Flour (Refined Carb.), Sugar (Sucrose), Fructose Syrup (More sugar), and High Fructose Corn Syrup (Hey… just what we needed! More Fructose.) In any case, I also noticed that all the sugary junk food is down toward the bottom of the shelf. Perhaps some of you parents have taken note of this, but I hadn’t really given it much thought before. What are we doing to our kids!? Whatever happened to Oatmeal and Cheerios? Wheat toast with Peanut Butter? When I was a kid, I despised that I had to eat Wheat bread. But my parents (and I thank them for it to this day) told me, “You don’t like it? Guess you’re going to be hungry then, huh?” Needless to say, I got used to it.

So all this has led me to reflect on my personal nutrition choices during the week, and during training/races. I am now committed to eating healthier during the week. I have got to get that on track. Read: Less chocolate, more salad.

Another key note I have taken comes courtesy Ben Greenfield Ben writes about the ability to keep track of nutrition/electrolyte/fluid replacement during race and training sessions. When training for the San Diego Marathon this year, I had a real handle on Nutrition. The structure of my club’s water stations helped me plan out my nutrition, and I had a great plan before-hand and I stuck to that plan. It worked out to 100 calories every 35-50 minutes. (We have some odd placed water stations). This came from a mixture of PowerBar Gels and Cliff Shot Bloks. Gels for regular stops, and Bloks whenever I felt like I needed the extra rush of more refined sugar. This was all well and good and for all of my training runs, I was pretty satisfied with the way nutrition went.

During the race, however, my plan was shot to hell. I planned on taking about 100 calories every 40 minutes, again, depending on the availability of water stops. Inevitably for a newbie, the temptation of the Energy Drink at the water stops was too great (it was the only thing they had that was cold) and focusing on finishing and the inevitable frustration of the first race left my nutrition plan as a secondary priority. I blame it on lack of mental processing ability during the race. There are literaly things that I do not remember about that race. For example, my running club had a station set-up at mile 18.5 for us to refill on Gels and supplies, and they also had some extra water, and Salonpas spray. I can remember stopping for some stuff, but I can’t remember what I had, and I can only remember 1 person’s face out of the 4 ladies that were there.

After the race, I was shocked to realize how much stuff I had left over. My goal time was right around 5 hours. That would have put me at 1,000 calories for a consumption goal. Say, 7-8 gels and 1 full pack of Bloks. I ended-up with 4 gels left over, and a half-pack of Bloks. I did get one Gel during the race at an aid station, but that still leaves me 400 calories short of what I really thought I should have. This explains why I literally felt low on fuel during the last 40 minutes of the race. My body just didn’t have the energy to go anymore.

What have I leaned? I need to be much more mentally prepared before-hand to deal with the rigors of race nutrition. Rule 1: Stay away from the energy drink. It’s an invitation for stomach cramps, and unexpected tastes. Rule 2: Stick to the plan. There is a reason that I train on a plan of nutrition, and that plan applies during the race, whether or not I “feel hungry” or “need it”. Bottom line, there is still a LOT that I have to learn about race nutrition.

The smell of urine. Wet paper towels on the floor. More random debris than the aftermath of a frat party.No… I am not describing a gas station bathroom, or a rest stop 300 miles out of town. I am describing the locker room I pay a monthly fee to have access to. Each night when I walk into the 24-Hour Fitness in Anaheim, California I am confronted with a level of cleanliness on-par with such fine establishments as Arco, and Valero. I carefully weave my way past the abandoned paper products, and try desparately to find a dry spot where I can change my clothes. I dare not let my feet touch the floor because, while I am pretty sure it’s not urine…. well, let’s just say that with the smell in there, you’d never know one way or the other. On most nights, I will stay as far away from the bathroom as possible, simply changing and heading for the treadmill. I’ll then spend the next 30-50 minutes ponder what kinds of diseases one can contract from poor hygiene. Did I get ringworm? Psoriasis? Athletes foot? So far, no, but I’m crossing my fingers next time. I’m hoping for impetigo.

Some nights, I opt out of the run, and go for a swim instead. In that case, I get into my shorts (although a Hazmat suit would seem more appropriate) and head for the pool. Towel and goggles in-hand, I carefully thread my way past the wet toilet paper, lint, and unidentifiable muck of the shower area. I crazily twist and contort my feet in a futile attempt to make as little contact with the floor as possible. If I survive the sludge, I make it to the prize! My prize is the single shower required for pre-swim washing. I don’t know why I rinse off before I get into the pool, as clearly I am the only one. After rinsing-off whatever I might have contracted in the locker room, I get in to the wonderful, cold salt-water pool. What’s that? It’s not salt water? Chlorine, you say? Oh…. Well, it tastes like salt. I mean… shit. So… that must be other people’s sweat then. Great.

And with that, I head home. I would take a shower, but I am pretty sure that I wouldn’t walk out of the shower any “cleaner” than I walked into it. Besides, I am pretty sure that the burning sensation I am feeling is completely normal.

So, the blog was down for a few days due to what I am assuming was (and am going to call) database corruption. Don’t ask me exactly what database corruption is. I just know that blogs are created from databases… and my blog was screwed up. Therefore, I assume the database was corrupted… or at least being bribed by criminals or something. Anyway, later tonight I will post the archived posts. Until then, just sit tight and be cool, my babies.

Also, I realize that this theme is a bit girly… it’s a variation of the theme that I had on the old blog. All I have to do is change-out some flower graphics for less girly ones, and it should be fine. Or maybe I have changed the theme altogether and this entire paragraph is just pointless.

EDIT:: Okay, so I think that I decided on a theme. No, it’s not girly. It is actually quite nice “out of the box”. There are definitely a few quirks that I am going to have to work out, but I think that this is going to end up looking quite nice.