The Months Before My Running Transformation

I had been living with my Mom, my brother, and my brother's fiance in the house I grew up in since I graduated college in May of 2011. My brother was getting married in November and started house shopping around September. I was living in the utility room in the basement while my brother was in his childhood room and his fiance was in my childhood room. I didn't mind being stuck in the utility room that much. I had everything I needed in that room, a twin bed, a dresser, a computer, a TV, and very easy access to a washer and dryer which were only about twelve feet from my bed. I had lived  on my own or with roommates the previous nine years and although I didn't mind my arrangement I was anxious to get into my own place again.

I had paid off some credit card debt and a few other bills I had left over from college and was ready to start house shopping. I was definitely ready to buy since I had home loan benefits from the VA (Veteran's Affairs). My benefits would allow me to purchase a home with no money down and not have to pay PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance). Another reason I was ready to buy was that it was a complete buyer's market. Since the whole debacle in 2008 house prices and interest rates had plummeted. I knew I was in good shape to buy. I had my friend Nick's mom, a realtor, show me around ten different houses. Nothing really struck my fancy until I came across a home online. The house had only been on the market for two days. I went and looked at it and knew it was exactly what I wanted (my mom loved it too so that helped in the decision). I put an offer down and beat out two competing offers, one of them by only a few hundred dollars.

In the thirty days before receiving the keys to my house I kept running and ran two marathons, Towpath and Columbus, described in my previous post. A few days after Columbus I received my keys and moved into the new place. I knew I didn't have any races scheduled and I was trying to get my new house organized so I pretty much stopped running altogether. If you read any of my previous posts you can probably conclude that this was the start of yet another "Winter Hibernation", a full winter and a little bit of Spring with no running whatsoever.

During the month of November I took classes and got my OHSAA (Ohio High School Athletic Association) wrestling referee's license. I figured getting involved in the sport of wrestling again would be nice and I could make a few extra bucks in the process. Throughout the Winter I continued a lifestyle of unhealthy eating and near zero physical activity with the exception of  wrestling tournaments or matches I was reffing. I felt like crap and my blood pressure was back through the roof. I was not too happy with myself that Winter and needed something to get me out of my funk.

Luckily my best friend's mother stepped in and set me up with a wonderful girl, Leigh. Leigh and I went on our first date on February 8th. We went to a Cavs game and to my surprise the Cavs manage to beat the LA Clippers without Kyrie Irving in the line-up and held Blake Griffin to only one dunk. I took that as a good sign. Leigh and I continued dating after that game and we have been together for over a year now. She has become the love of my life and been a great motivation to me to get my act together in the area of health and fitness.

During the Winter Leigh was regularly working out and attending boot camp workout sessions at her gym. She had signed up for a 5K race in April and was very excited about it. I was very familiar with that pre race excitement and knew I needed to get back out on the road. So I started running again around late March or early April. Leigh's 5K was the third Saturday in April and I think she really wanted me to run it with her. I told her that I was too out of shape and didn't want to be embarrassed running super slow in a race and being completely out of breath. She probably thought the real reason I didn't want to run it was my pride in doing races that are no less than 26.2 miles, but at that point in time it really was because of the whole out of shape thing.

I took to my normal "shaking off the rust" routine of short 2-3 mile runs around my neighborhood during the evening hours. I chose to run during darkness when I was out of shape on purpose. The main reason for this was I didn't want people to see me struggling on a run. I have always been a bigger guy and hated the fact that people would automatically judge how good of shape I was in strictly based on my appearance. Now don't get me wrong at some points I was nothing more than a big out of shape guy, but a lot of times I was an big guy running marathons. Things like that have always bugged me a little bit.

Before college I spent four years in the Marine Corps. I was lucky enough to join with a good friend of mine I grew up with, Austin. We managed to spend three of our four years in the Corps together and when we got out lived and went to college together. After spending a little time at school I put on some weight and Austin maintained his weight as always did. Austin and I would go out often at school with our friends and as two former Marines we were proud of our service and also thought it was a good way to impress the ladies. Well a situation that happened several times always bugged me a little bit. Austin would tell a girl that he was a Marine and he normally received of a response of "Oh wow you were a Marine. That is awesome." I would do the same but the response I always got was "You, were a Marine???"

Once I was in a little better shape I would run right after work or early mornings in the daylight. It probably sounds silly, me worrying about what someone driving by or walking by me thinks, but I guess I have a lot of time to think about stuff like that when I am out there running. Chances are someone passing by me isn't giving anything thought to my presence at all let alone thinking I was an out of shape fat guy. Oh well, we all have our quirks and that is one of mine. After Leigh had signed up for her race and I started running again I was ready to sign up for some races of my own. I really wanted to run at least three marathons in the coming Fall. I had done three marathons in the Fall of 2010 and really enjoyed it. I ended up signing up for the Towpath Marathon, Columbus Marathon, and Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I had run all three of these races before and really liked the courses, but the main reason for selecting those specific races came down to geographic location and cost.

The Towpath marathon starts and finishes about half hour drive from my house. That meant I could drive there race and drive back and still have the rest of my day to do whatever. The Columbus marathon is only about a two hour drive from my house and one of my best friends Shaun lets me stay at his place which is conveniently close to the race. And in Indianapolis my cousin usually runs the marathon with me and happens to live there so I stay with him. I am always trying to save a buck when I can so only having to pay for gas and registration was perfect.

I had signed up for the races but still had a long way to go. I was struggling to complete three miles without walking some. I eventually started to add some longer runs on the weekends to my "shaking off the rust" regiment. I was planning on starting a 17 week training program that led up to the Towpath marathon on October 7th, but had a few weeks until that program started. I figured I would get in decent enough shape to not struggle when I started the program. I was in my new house and looked around for some local spots to run. I found a couple of good spots.

The first was the Bradley Woods Reservation, part of the Cleveland Metro Parks system. It is one of the smaller reservations in the system, but it is great for short runs. You can easily get up to a 6 mile run in at the reservation by utilizing all of the trails. There is around a mile of paved multi-purpose trail and around 5 miles of dirt trail to run. The majority of the dirt trails are flat and have some tree roots running through them and are good for smooth and fast trail running. These trails seem to hold a lot of water during rain and snow, so if you run on them within a week of either be prepared for some wet feet.

Trails at Bradley Woods

Another great spot I found was the Bridegeway Trail in Elyria, OH. I refer to it as a whole the Bridegeway Trail, but it is actually a combination of three trails that flow together seamlessly: the High Meadows - Bur Oak Connector Trail, the Bridgeway Trail, and the Steel Mill Trail.This trail is a paved multi-purpose trail with a one way length of around 6 miles. You can add another half mile by running a small dirt trail, the Waterfall Loop, that takes you by two waterfalls.

The bridgeway trail is extremely scenic and unique. The trail is named for its several bridges along the way that give you great views of the Black River and surrounding area. The trail is flat for the most part, but has a few climbs and descents. The two big elevation changes occur between the connector trail and trail and the Bridgeway Trail, as you drop underneath the Interstate 90 bridges, and in between the Bridgeway trail and the Steel Mill Trail at the park at Day's Dam. There are also signs along the way with historical facts and wildlife information about the area. I spoke with a park worker one day and he said there are plans to extend trail all the way to downtown Lorain which should add probably another 4 miles or so.

Bridges on the Bridegeway Trail

The Steel Mill Trail is a very unique trail as it runs along slag fields from the nearby steel mills. Slag is a by-product of the steel making process. It is essentially the impurities that are separated out from the iron in ore. Slag has several uses, but one major use is in cement. As you head North on the trail the slag fields line the East side. It reminds me of a sort of no man's land. There are heaps of slag everywhere and all kinds of other debris such as bricks and cinder blocks. For some reason it always makes me think of World War I articles I have read and movies I have seen where trenches are separated by desolate land that has been hammered with artillery shells and bombs. On the West side of the trail is the Black River. Beyond the river you can see a steel mill and Day's Dam. Eventually you end up at the end of the trail that exits on route 611 near Parker Marine, Inc. a shop and Winter storage facility for boats. There is a boat launch and lift where Lake Erie boaters can drop their boats off for Winter storage after following a 3.5 mile river from the Lake.

Between the months of April and June I stuck to shorter runs. They were slow and usually left me out of breath and taking walking breaks. I had a lot of extra weight on me and hadn't run since the Fall. I try not to overdo it after my hibernation periods. I start with two to three days a week of running two to three miles. I do that for two or three weeks and then throw in a weekend long run of around six miles. After that I spend a few weeks running three miles three times a week with a long run of six miles or more on the weekend. In about two months I am ready to start some sort of training schedule. This year was no different I followed that routine and kicked off an 17 week training program in June. The program would end with me running the Towpath Marathon on October 7th. I was ready to get back into my usual routine and run the Fall marathons. I didn't know it at the time but in the months following I would transform myself into a whole new runner.