The War on My Timeline

As a kid I remember riding in the car and pulling up beside beat up old trucks or mini vans or station wagons completely covered with bumper stickers. I was too young to understand the metaphors or puns or even some of the language being used. But somehow, I intrinsically knew the driver was passionate about something. There was a marked intensity that was palpable even if I had no understanding.

Fast forward to today. Grab your phone. Hit Facebook, Twitter or even Instagram. I'm right back at the window of my family's minivan looking out at a nearly indecipherable world of e-bumper stickers.

The truth is we're not more or less opinionated than we were 20, 30 or 50 years ago. We just have more access to information and more square footage to cover with sticky sided vinyl. Yet, despite more perceived awareness and the availability of more potential platforms to inform, it feels my corner of the world is more divided than ever before. And according to every thing else I can find, the rest of the nation feels that way too.

It feels like a war on my timeline and I'm struggling to figure out where to engage. I've posted about sport and it becomes a war zone about the politics of socioeconomics. I've posted about ministry to various at risk segments of society and it becomes a war zone about theology or race relations. 

Have we lost the ability to ignore the things that don't deserve our time? Have we lost the ability answer legitimate questions without hostility? Is there a way to stand for beliefs, knowing you'll upset the cart, without the sole intention of creating hostility?  

I know there has to be a fight and change requires anger, division and most likely rage. I'm an endurance sport coach and athlete so I am fully aware that washing yourself clean through the tides of pain and struggle is both necessary and often healthy.

I'm just not sure social media bumper stickers are any more effective than the polyurethane plastered to the rusty bumpers and rounded glass of AMC Pacers in 1987. 

And yes, my car is covered with bumper stickers, too.  

103 Days, Toddler Injuries and Dr. Sheehan

We'll, we're deep into 2017 and I'm quite behind on my goal of one post per week. Life happens and I'll chalk up the lack of posts to focusing on my family and coaching, both of which are completely true and part of my three-prong focus for the year.

The other included running every day for a year. That dream is currently alive and well. After today's brief shakeout and strides I'm at 103 consecutive days of running at least 2 miles or 15 minutes. I'd say 2-3 runs per week are 15 minutes to 3 miles at just faster than 8 minute pace. The other 4-5 days are 4-8 miles at what ever feels comfortable with no goal pace. After the run I allow the garmin data to tell me if I should do a short day or get another normal day in before a recovery is needed. 

I'm also doing a lunge matrix before each run and a hip strength and mobility series after each run. They are the recommended items from Coach Jay Johnson if you want to look them up online. My legs feel pretty normal and I ran the 2017 TCM Hot Dash 10 miler 2 minutes faster than a year ago on a much more challenging course. Overall I feel good and my runs are now habit which was my man goal all along. 20-25 miles per week obviously isn't a ton of volume. But if I get up to 25-30 a week over the summer I'll easily surpass my highest mileage total in at least 10 years.

In my reading I've been enjoying some classic early 80's Dr. Sheehan and I'll try to get some prime snipets put together for another post in early May.  There has also been some time looking back at Joe Vigil's classic text "Run to the Top" as I've enjoyed seeing the success of his protégé, and one of my favorite pros, Brenda Martinez. 

I'll wrap up this post with something from the parenting realm. I'm not an expert and my wife and I are learning day by day how to raise a very active 19 month old toddler. But in case you were wondering, it's not a great idea allow the boy to hop off a moving swing. After a wonderful few precious hours of family time on Sunday, our guy hopped off a slow moving swing and the landing created a fracture in his lower tibia. We spent the afternoon at an urgent care and then Wednesday at an ortho getting his first hard cast. It was pretty lame but we all love each other a good bit more and that was also one focus point for my 2017. Maybe we'll come up with something a little less traumatic next time.

Playing Catch-up in a 24/7 World

So here we are. A new world. Maybe not a brave new edition, but the current version. During the last few months the common denominator is flux. New baby, new boss, new home. All of these things are awesome. Coaching, working 50+ hours a week, and running on four or less hours of non-continuous sleep each night. Planning, preparing and hosting a college cross country conference championship meet from scratch (with infinite amounts of assistance and grace from my supervisor and co-workers). Still loving and supporting my awesome wife, maintaining involvement in the lives of friends. Heck, I still found time to run and race three times the last six months.

Yet there remains only so much waking time per day and the allotment remains overbooked. But the desire to engage the world through writing and processing thoughts in this location never once left my mind. Holding a crying infant at the most unholy of hours, driving 12-passenger vans across the upper midwest, logging a thrice weekly 30-60 minute run and leading over 100 team practices allows lots of time for asking questions and pondering answers but little time to post a coherent response.

As the new year flew by, the naive notion of 52 posts over the 2016 calendar year flowed through my mind. Yep, it's the last week of March and here we are...entry number one. I assure anyone interested enough to actually follow, that I will not attempt to play catch-up over a brief period of time. But I do assure you that there are plenty of entries rolling around in my very dizzy mind.

For now, I'm pleased to say my six month old, handsome, talented, runny nosed, future olympian son is sleeping enough during the day that I might actually get back to writing regularly. You might even see pictures posted here. I am a competitor, especially with myself. So stay tuned as I attempt to play catch-up in world that just keeps on running.

Hopefully I'll be back soon to talk about books I'm reading, training questions I'm asking and other random items that roll through my head while I'm rolling down the river road logging miles in my office on the run.