Monday, August 27, 2007

Reflection is the better part of a champion

Craig Hanson has meant a lot to me in my life (don't worry everyone else, it's an inside joke).

In a nut shell, training has 2 components: 1) weekly mileage and 2.) speed work.

A basic schedule goes like this: Monday is a short run (3-4 miles)and speed work, Tuesday is a medium run (5-6 miles), Wednesday is another short run (4-5 miles). Thursday is an off-day and Friday is the weekly long run. The weekly long run is usually un-timed (early in training) cuz the major reason for the long run is to begin to strengthen/condition your body for the prolonged pounding it will take over a number of hours while running.

The week started out well: Monday, Jesse and I did a 4 mile run and then our speed work: 5X400 meter repeats (I will explain a repeat in a minute). A 400 meter repeat is one lap around a track. When you do "repeats," you do a timed run of whatever distance (we did 400 meters) then you rest for a predetermined period of time (usually not longer than your timed run) you repeat the process of timed run followed by timed rest. We timed our repeats to run one lap in 1:45 followed by a 2 minute rest. These repeats are designed to increase cardiovascular output...enabling us to maintain a faster pace over a longer distance.

Anyway, we did our Monday workout in the rain and it was nice, cuz it kept your from overheating, but it was not nice....cuz in the end,it was still raining. During the workout Monday, I think I stretched something/pulled something in my left leg and it hurt quite a bit after the workout. Tuesday we did 5 miles and I did it, but the leg was still quite sore. I took off Wednesday cuz I wanted to rest up for the long on Friday: 13 miles. Jesse and I did the 13 miles in just over 2.5 hours but my leg was killin' me! It did not improve Saturday or Sunday. I'm sitting here on Monday still limping around like a gimp.

So now comes the title of this post. "Reflection is the better part of a champion" to me, means that being able to look back at where you've been, where you screwed up or succeeded, and making necessary adjustments is part of what successful people do. I'm taking Monday-Wednesday off to see how my leg feels Friday. If it feels good, I'll go out and do a short 4 miler...if not, I may entertain the thought of not running the Harrisburg Marathon. That sucks, but I don't enjoy walking around hobbling like an old man (ok, a reeeeaaaallllyyyy old man). Maybe people fail because they never look back in order to make adjustments...maybe they look back and decide they don't need to make any adjustments....or maybe they make the wrong adjustments. Regardless, I believe one's ability to reflect and adjust is crucial in one's success.

I'm going to take some days off and hope to heal, if not...I guess I'll adjust.......I am just that good and that's just the way it is people!

Thanks for reading!

SEE YA ON THE HILL
Michael

Monday, August 20, 2007

It always comes back to The Wonder Years

I love the old TV "The Wonder Years!" You guys remember that show with Fred Savage (as Kevin Arnold), Danica McKellar (as Winnie Cooper), and Josh Saviano (as Paul Pfieffer)? I think the reason I love The Wonder Years so much is because that show came out when Kevin Arnold started 6th grade...that was the same year I started 6th grade. Anyway, I feel like I kinda grew up with that show and it strikes a very real chord with me. I still try to watch the back-to-back episodes every week night on Ion Television from 10-11PM. I just finished watching it and so I'm feeling kinda sentimental tonight for this week's post.......

As much as I write in my posts about my determination to push myself and my desire to live a life full of passion...I never write about where that stuff came from. As tonight's 2nd episode came to close, a montage of past episodes came across the screen with that light acoustic guitar in the background and the narrator's voice talking about friends and family, time moving on, memories, and how all that stuff sticks with you. I thought I'd talk about that tonight.

Throughout the course of my life, I have been blessed with an unbelievably supportive network of family and friends. I never had someone telling me I wasn't good enough to do something, or that I what I wanted to do was impossible for me. I wrote a paper about it in college. I think I came across as arrogant, but my intent was to show that the environment in which I grew up was one of possibility, positivity, and willingness. It was that environment that made me feel like I could do anything.

I look at my entire family (who has been with me since the beginning) and I look at how it always supported me. When it comes to family, the support of my mom and dad go without saying, but my mom and grandpa coached my tee ball team, my grandma used to come and travel to many of my gymnastics meets...all my life, my family has told me that I am capable of doing the things I set out to do. I look at my school friends (I didn't really hang out with too many kids from Middletown but the few that I did were so important to me. I had guys I played sports with (Reed, Dice, OG, Blazi, Mupes, Matty G)were always so positive that they made me believe I could succeed all the time. I also hung out (mostly) with the girls (as I am sure many of you are NOT at all surprised). These girls (KT, Keri, Liz, Keefer, Whistler, Jen) were girls that made me feel very comfortable talking about what I wanted to do with my life, what I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, etc and they never laughed at what I told them! They, too, were always super supportive! Then there was my youth group friends (Jam, Court, E, T, Diadato, Bicker, Budge) and they made me feel like I had a place and friends that I could lean on and ask for help if needed. That was a HUGE confidence builder.

Ya see, I look back at the people I had around me, pushing me, enabling me, supporting me...and I know I would not be where I am (or the person I am) today without all of their love, support, and understanding. Growing up in that environment gave me the confidence to get through physical therapy after knee surgery, to go all the way to Florida for my college education, to teach in Baltimore, to leave teaching for Youth Ministry, to turn down a full-time teaching position to follow an opportunity to become a college baseball coach....the list goes on and on with examples of the empowering effect the love and support my friends and family have had in my life.

I see where I am now, I look at the things I am doing, and at those around me (now and the not-so-distant past) (Chard, Molli, Knill, Schiavoni, Chaz, J Wood, Jackson, JJ, Shifflett, Kelly K, Class) and recognize how they all make/made me feel empowered to continue to try new and different things, feeling secure in knowing that if I do indeed fail, I have a huge network of friends (old and new) and family to catch me...

What a great feeling! This post may have bored you, but I guess it was my turn to tell some people how much they have meant to me. I thank you all for helping to build me in to me and instilling in me the confidence to go out and make the most out of this life (for which I am totally not deserving but only through His grace).

Thanks for reading
SEE YA ON THE HILL!
Michael

Monday, August 13, 2007

It's Gotta Be Personal

I now have internet access at the new crib so my blogging will be much more consistent. I'm sorry for those who look forward to my inspirational messages (Matt) and haven't been able to be inspired over the last months. I will do better.

I spent 4 days at a National High School Baseball Showcase. Dickinson sent me there to recruit. I met players from all over the country and got a chance to meet and talk with coaches from major college programs. I met coaches from Georgetown, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, U of Richmond, Fordham, Maryland, Texas, and the list goes on and on. It was my first recruiting showcase and I gotta tell ya, it was intimidating. Here I am from small-school, DIII, Dickinson College and I'm talking to (some of) the same players as some of theses major college coaches...how do you talk to a kid about playing ball at Dickinson when earlier that morning, the coach from Princeton was talking to him? It took me a day or 2 to figure things out and get my bearings straight, but I figured something out (actually, a parent who had been watching me talk with players all week gave me the answer).

I was talking to a parent and he told me he had watched me all week and that he and his son both thought I was the most popular coach at the showcase (not to toot my horn or anything). They had watched me speak with each and every player that came up and introduced himself to me. They said they were impressed that I took the time ( a couple of minutes) to speak with them and not just shake their hand and walk on. This parent said, after talking to me for a couple of minutes, that he could tell I was passionate about the program and that he wanted his son to be at a program where the coaches are passionate. WOW! What a compliment! It nearly floored me to hear that.

After he said that to me....it hit me. I told him baseball was personal to me. It wasn't a business. I got the feeling from some of the coaches, that it was a business to them....it was cold and calculating. It was about getting the best players and being the best team. Players get cut and lose scholarships cuz someone else better comes in and the only excuse is "hey, it's not personal, it's just business." Well coaching is personal to me. I think when something is personal to you, you are passionate about it and people can see it in you.

Find what's personal to you. What are you passionate about? I had a talk with a friend a couple of years ago who was worried cuz one minute I'm way up on cloud nine, the next minute I'm plunging downward. He said I gotta find a even place, in the middle between high and low. Looking back, I disagree. I'm up and I'm down cuz I have passion for those things and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I wear my heart on my sleeve and although, at times, it may cause me to bleed a little more than others...I want others to see my passion. I'm proud to love doing things and I want others to see that in me. maybe they will find something they love doing and show others too.

I guess it's gotta be personal. I know it is for me. Not just baseball, but this whole undertaking of a goal (running marathons). It's personal cuz it's a striving for personal excellence. I guess I gotta hype myself up with words of passion to get me through training....but hey, whatever gets ya through, right?!

Thanks for listening!
SEE YA ON THE HILL!
Michael