Cotter’s Corner

Sadly, I read last night that Wynk lost her grandfather. Losing someone is always a pretty horrid event and its one of those things that always makes you reflect on your own experiences. If you haven’t lost a grandparent yet, consider yourself lucky. It’s definitely a life changing event. One minute there, the next gone. Makes me sad. I miss my grandmother. But, it also makes me feel bad. I was all weird when she was sick, not quite sure how to act. This quote always makes me try and look at the brightside…

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.
–Rabindranath Tagore

I know I’ll see my grandmother again. She was an amazing woman who had an amazing personality. I do miss her.

Anyways, on to less imprtant things…

I couldn’t finish my week 5 run. The big 22 minute run I had been looking forward to I was unable to complete because I got sick. And I’m still pretty sick. Coughing and feeling like ass. So, I suppose I will re-do week 5 next week. Stinks. The Country Music Marathon makes me even more sad, since that event was my goal (next year!). So, going to have to get back on the horse on Monday, I hope I will feel better by then.
In spite of my sickness we still took a small trip to Alabama yesterday. We drove down to Huntsville and stopped into one of my favorite places on earth. Dreamland. No, not area 51, but a place with just as much mystery. How DO they make their ribs so good? They really need to make one here in Nashville. Then we stopped into the Unclaimed Baggage place. Which was amazing. It was like a Goodwill store with an inordinate amount of expensive high quality stuff. We found all sorts of cool stuff. The electronics were probably the coolest. It was insane. Broadcast electronics (TV network stuff), MP3 players, cameras, camcorders – if it is electronic, it was there. Picked up Mario Cart for my sons DS for $12. Very cool. Don’t go on a Saturday, seriously.

Tomorrow is Week5/Day3 of the program and it’s a big one. I will walk/warm up for 5 minutes and then I will run for twenty-two minutes.

That’s right.

22.

Minutes.

Running.

Without, you know, stopping or anything.

It’s all I’ve been thinking about. But I’m gearing up for it. I’m going to eat good tomorrow and I’ll be preparing myself for it mentally. I’ll let you know how it goes. Oh, and the Country Music Marathon is this week. I had really hoped to be ready to run the half-marathon this year, but alas, no. Next year I will, however.

I just wanted to let everyone know that after sweating it out ALL DAY. I completed the run tonight. Didn’t stop or anything. Did it ALL. I’m very proud and just had to post it. I can’t believe I can friggin run for THAT LONG and not be dead right now. It’s an amazing feeling. If I wasn’t a believer in the program before now, I sure would be at this point. Sure, I’m sitting here sweating my ass off. Sure, I’m tired. But I DID IT!!!!

I betcha I’ll sleep good tonight.

Today marks my step up to week four (it’s a nine week program) of the “Couch to 5K” running program. I’m more than a little nervous. Yeah, I feel like I’ve made progress and all of that – but this is a big step. I’ll go from running about 1.25 miles to almost 2 miles today. I was running 3 minute segments and I’ll now be moving up to 5 minute segments. Which is a little intimidating to say the least. I’m trying to keep my head in the game and not be psych’d out by the prospects of my run tonight.

Robyn and I were without kids on Saturday night. We were invited to join our neighbors that just moved in next door for a few drinks and dinner. They moved in about a month ago or so and are really great people. And they’re from Scotland. So, we went to an English pub with a couple of Scots. We had an excellent time and discovered many things we share in common. We’re really lucky to have cool neighbors all around us now in place of the ones that used to live there. So, things are good.

On the work front I am excited to report that I received my first invitation to a project kick-off that will be starting at the beginning of May. Should be fun.

Here is mine. I started with some Nike Airs that didn’t seem to help me a lot (shin splints). Then I got a pair of Asics Gels (damn near hurt my feet just to walk in them) and finally broke down and went to Team Nashville (running shop) and they watched me walk and run and recommended these bad boys…

These are Brooks Beasts. They are hands-down the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn.

I am to the point where I am not having trouble breathing while running. I don’t get “winded” while I am running, even during the long parts. The bigger challenge is now getting my legs to move. Very interesting, actually. As far back as I could remember the challenge for me has always been getting air into my body and now, oddly – that’s not an issue. Anyways, enough on that – it’s just very odd/cool.

Oh, and another update. Monday night I was apparently thinking about something else and I didn’t stretch properly before I started and I really think I hurt one of my calves. It was bugging me the entire run and hurt the next day too. It got somewhat better, but I think I was running to compensate for it last night as now my right ankle hurts (same leg). So, hopefully that will sort itself out before Fridays run. Just really stupid of me to forget to stretch. I stretched really good last night before AND after.

And lastly, no, I don’t have the scans of my old columns up yet. Sorry about that, busy getting taxes done. But now that’s over so I can get back to it. Perhaps tonight I will get those things going.

I’m sure you are wondering about the name. Well, it’s not some vain thing that I created. Actually the name has a little history. You see, back when I was in high school (J.M. Hanks High School – El Paso, Texas) I took Journalism and I was a writer for the school paper. My teacher for Journalism was a gentlemen by the name of Ken Blystone who I will credit as being a huge influence in my life. That was my freshman year. My sophomore year I was on the “Hanks Herald” and the class was led by a gentlemen named Noel Knight. Mr. Knight was also a big influence in my life (I’m sure he would be surprised to hear that). Mr. Knight thought that I conveyed a certain I’mnotsurewhat in my writing and said that I should write a column in the paper. No one else had a column, so I was little surprised at this but being your average attention-seeking teenager I accepted my assignment. I wrote about all sorts of things, but one of the articles that got the most attention was the article about “Nougat”. Yeah, the stuff inside of a Three Musketeers. I know, it sounds bland and all, but it was pretty funny for a sophomore! I’m going to post link to scanned copies of the articles so you can see what I’m talking about. So, that’s basically how Cotter’s Corner was born.

Just thought I would take you guys for a little trip in my personal “way-back” machine. Links coming soon.

Friday was insane. Just insane. Nashville is one of the few cities to ever have a tornado run right through the middle of it and Friday (4/7/2006) looked to be a repeat of what happened about five years ago here. So, I hoofed it out of work when this GIANT wall cloud was rolling into downtown. Luckily nothing really bad happened to downtown Nashville or to my neck of the woods on Friday. However, Goodlettsville/Gallatin/Hendersonville area (which is North-East of Nashville) really took a hit. It was very sad to see that twelve people had to lose their lives. I first saw the pictures of the houses that were destroyed and I took some solice in the fact that there were no brick homes. However, later pictures showed plenty of brick homes that were completely destroyed. I think we should revisit our tornado plan, myself. I’m concerned that we don’t have a really good place to ride out the storm in our house, should something serious happen. Anyways, I’ll have to figure that out.

As for my running, I am now moving on to week three of the plan I am following. I am supposed to run three days a week and take off the weekends (or do some sort of other physical activity – which is what I have been doing). I started off a little too strong as I was running every day and near the end of week two I started to feel a little “twinge” in my knee that was painful. So, I took off Thursday and it felt a little better. It returned after my workout on Friday so I decided to not run at all this weekend. I’m worried about moving up to the new plan for this week, but I’m anxious to try it. I’ve been pumping myself up for it all morning. I know I can do it, I just want to prove it to myself.

It appears that I may be able to try for a 5K run (not walk mind you, RUN) near the end of May. I’m VERY excited about the prospect of that.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention report card day which was Monday for my son. I felt it fitting since I whined about parenting in my last post that I should crow a little about the boy. You see, he is a very smart kid. Yes, I know ALL PARENTS say that crap. But I have the test scores to prove it. His main issue is that he’s just now really getting involved in a lot of the more social aspects of school. Not athletics or anything, just having larger circles of friends. Which has been good for him. Without question.

The cost, however, hasn’t been so great. His grades have really suffered a hit. And with his age has come a staggering loss of common sense and responsibility. So, turning in papers and assignments is more of a chore than it has ever been. Frankly, he’s struggled in a few classes that should be a breeze for him because he slacks off on the work. Robyn and I have worked and worked on getting his head removed from his “nether-regions” so that he understands the importance of the “boring” daily work.

I’m pleased to report that this report card has been the best in some time. He made improvements in most of his classes and that’s been a fantastic thing to see. And I really just wanted to give equal time to the “good side” of parenting after being so wordy about the “bad side”. We’re very proud of what he’s accomplished and we’re hoping that the trend continues. Because once he regains/finds/discovers his common sense again – this kid is going to be one smart cookie.

Okay, so. I’ve not been looking forward to posting this. The reason? Well, I don’t want to be accused of evangelizing something that I don’t believe in myself. I also don’t want the naysayers to feel like they can be critical of me for talking about something I’ve not been doing. Now, all the caveats out of the way…. I’ve taken up running.

Why running you ask?

I’m not sure really. I’ve dabbled in lots of things. I’ve tried lifting, racquetball, biking, etc etc. And nothing has ever inspired me the way that running has. I know it is cliche and I don’t really care if you think that (well, maybe I care a little). But, I’ve been doing this for two weeks now and I finally, for once in my life am doing something that is allowing me to witness my improvement. Last night was HANDS DOWN the best night running I’ve ever had. I ran for ~27 minutes total and I felt friggin fantastic. No really. FANTASTIC. It sounds a bit odd for me to say that. But it’s the truth.

Now, how can a fat ass like me run? Well, I felt that I had to do SOMETHING. I’ve been slowly but surely packing on the weight the older I get and I didn’t see an end in sight. So, I felt like that unless I embraced exercise, I would just be dead at 50. So, I started on something basic. It sounds a little intimidating, but, it’s not. The program I am following is called the “Couch-to-5K” plan. It’s for fat-out-of-shape-asses such as myself and it’s been amazing to feel myself getting less winded and more aggressive with my running just over a short two week span. I never thought I would be able to run until I lost a ton of weight and I never felt like I could lose weight until I did some exercise. See the dilemma yet? This plan has allowed me to slowly increase my pace.

Truth be told I am not following the plan exactly either. You are supposed to only run three times a week. But I’ve been running every night. I don’t feel bad, but I suppose if I get injured by doing too much too soon, I’ll regret it. I’m just hoping it doesn’t come to that. So, I’m breaking the rules.

Imagine that.

Me.

Breaking Rules.

Anyways, just wanted to post this here so it would seem more “real” to me. I get done running and I just can’t believe that I actually did it, and that I am actually doing it. It’s a tremendous feeling and I just had to share it.