Day 9, The B.B. Gun Bandit

Ever since I can remember, I have always admired people who run.  It was an immediate connection that I felt with them when I either saw them running past me down the neighborhood street, or later in conversations when I would learn of their athletic exploits.  In particular there was a kid from my childhood town who in a sense became immortalized as legend as his exploits grew with every person that heard his story, passing it down to the next generation.

Childhood infamy described him as the B.B. Gun Bandit (I'll leave you guessing on that one), but to everyone else in the county he was the King of the Track, the actual High School Prom King, and a demi-god of mythological proportions.  A man among men.

"Did you hear about the one time, after school got out, he ran to Hillsboro all by himself?"  One kid might say.

"Well how'd he get back home?"  Another kid would ask in disbelief.

"He ran back home again... Was there before dinner."  The first kid replied.

"Yeah right!  That'd take the entire day!"

"I swear.  Johnny's dad saw him coming and going, both ways."


After his high school career where he smashed every track & field record imaginable, the B.B. Gun Bandit went on to college and continued his legacy of record breaking.  As a child I only heard about him through the conversations of adults and older kids.  I never met him before.

One day I saw a figure running, way out on some country road, as my dad and I were literally out for a Sunday drive.  It took us longer than I thought it should take to catch up, but eventually we pulled alongside this solitary runner.  Sweat was pouring down from his blond hair and down his bronzed frame.  He had on a thin pair of yellow running shorts and a pair of beat-up sneakers, and that was it.  He looked wild and noble all at the same time; a mix between the sun-god Apollo soaring across the sky, and Hermes, the messenger-god with winged feet.

"Who is that?"  I asked my dad as we pulled passed the runner.  My dad looked back in the rearview mirror.

"Oh hey!  That's Mark Theiss."  He said nonchalantly as if they were good buddies.

"Really!?"  I said with amazement, turning around to see the runner one last time.  He was barely behind our car, it seemed.  A smile broadened across his face as he waved.  We both eagerly waved back at him, but as we crossed the train tracks, he turned in and followed the tracks back towards town.  I remained in my car seat, turned around on my knees as I watched the solitary figure on the horizon run along the tracks.  I was in awe.  The stories were all true.

There is power in myth.  Though perhaps they can be at times exaggerated, the lessons we learn from them help to shape and mold us for the rest of our lives.  More importantly, and maybe this is what myth does, there is the power of suggestion.  And there is no greater suggestion than that of example.  Nowadays, I can't run without remembering Mark Theiss that day.  His example continues to be an inspiration every time I put on my running shoes in the morning.  As I write this I'm resisting the urge to do so right now.  The ease with which he ran made running seem so effortless; an art form like a ballet with Debussy playing from the orchestra pit.

So it is that when I run, I hope that others may be so inspired.  But then again, they may look at the expression on my face and say to themselves, "I'm glad that's not me."  The other day as I was ending my run, I was climbing a hill, pumping my arms back and forth at full steam, with a face that silently shouted my pain.  Two elementary school kids were walking down the hill, and they began to mimic my gait, arms and all, not to mock me, but to make sense out of what I was doing; which was to them an adult form of play.  Instead of giving them a snarl, which some runners are unfortunately prone to do as if to say, "Leave me alone.  I know I look ridiculous," I recalled the influence that a certain runner had on my life.  So I smiled and I waved.  And they waved back with an eager childhood glee.

Day 3 - Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Today was a great, but tough, run.  I always push myself harder than I should pace-wise because my stride-memory, the rate at which your leg is comfortable turning over to the next stride, remains about what it was in college, which was then a comfortable 8:00 min/mile Easy pace.  But now that pace feels like an all out sprint.  So whenever a person gets back into something which they've already done, it's extremely tempting to do so at the same intensity as before.  This almost always leads to some sort of injury, which likely put them out in the first place.  So tomorrow, even if I'll be poking along at a 12:00 min/mile pace while scrambling up a hill, I will keep my intensity at a certain level.  How do I do this?  Easy.

I was introduced to Polar heart rate monitors my junior year of high school while a student at Fort Richmond Collegiate in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  These are great for educators, especially PE teachers, because it records the heart rate, and HR averages, of an individual over a certain time.  Therefore you know that even though that nerdy marching band player is poking along at the back of the pack, her heart rate is beating faster than anyone else on the track.  Therefore, that nerdy wimp should get an A+ in PE for the first time in her life.  (Good job Mom!)

Often times when training, we're training too hard.  Inversely, when we need to be training hard, about twice a week, we're not training hard enough.  Through the bio-feedback of a heart rate monitor we come to understand the correlation between our muscles, our lung capacity, and our hearts; what I call aerobic intelligence.  A friend in college, grizzly Nate, had a pace like you could set your watch to, a human metronome.  He knew his pace and consequently rarely, if ever, got injured.


These days I've graduate from a polar heart rate monitor to a Garmin 405 GPS/HR monitor.  Costing roughly about the price of an annual membership to 24 Hr Fitness, I'm now in the middle of my second year with this device and it has proven to be phenomenal in helping me monitor not only my heart rate, but also my pace,  distance, and calories burned.  It keeps track of me wherever I go, if I have it on.  Nowadays they have programs for your iPhone which do the same thing GPS-wise, but until you can strap an iPhone on your wrist without it looking like the old Garmin watches from the 90's, I'll stick with this one.  On top of all this, you can program different runs into your Garmin device that simulate fartleks (look it up), or any other type of workout, speedplay, that you would want.

Because of this, I like to get lost.  That is, I'm not tied down to a certain route, though I do like to fall into comfortable patterns where I know the route will end in a nice round number of miles.  But with this I can track my weekly mileage to a greater degree without always guessing on how long it took and my perceived pace, which is almost always faster than what it actually is.  For example I ran for 30 minutes and it felt like I was running around a 10:00 min/mile pace, but in reality I didn't get that much sleep last night and what felt like a 10:00 min pace was really an 11:00 minute pace.  So I didn't actually run 3 miles.  Again, having a GPS/Heart Rate Monitor, keeps you honest, humble, and in perspective.  It gives you knowledge, and of course, knowledge is power and will help you train more efficiently and accurately.

So here's to getting lost!  Here's to running around and discovering new trails.  Here's to going down dead ends only to discover that you found a new and interesting running route/ trail tucked away between two houses.  Here's to doubling back, going the wrong way, but not worrying about it.  Here's to the great adventure of suburban exploration, discovering neighbors that you never knew you had.
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Today's Run

Day 2 - Sabbath Rest

As usual, Sunday is a rest from running. But that doesn't mean I can't do other activities. Saturday's were always my long runs. On Sundays I typically enjoy a bike ride, swimming, or more likely a long walk.

The sabbath was mad for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath. - Mark 2:27

The Seattle Seahawks are playing today in Chicago against the Bears at 1 PM (EST). Their currently in the run to the Super Bowl. No team in NFL History has ever won a Division Title with a losing record. No team with a losing record has ever defeated last year's Super Bowl champions. Until now. Until the Seahawks. I'm waiting to pleasantly be surprised today as they've already defeated the Bears once this season, even with a losing record.