If you are reading this in St. John’s tonight then you know the weather is typical for this time of year, wet and cold. It’s the kind of weather where you just want to lock yourself inside and hide until you see the sun. Instead, however, I went for a run. As I ran, I had a chance to ponder a question that a few people have asked me over the last couple month, “why do you run?”

My running started as a desire need to get in shape. Just before Christmas I started having more problems with my back. I have had problems with the past, but this was different, this was causing me to lose sleep (and I lose sleep over very few things). After a few x-rays and a couple visits to the doctor I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my lower back. It’s nothing that cannot be managed now that I know what I am dealing with, but at almost 300lbs I had to loose weight. So starting last November I joined Weight Watchers and started losing weight.

I needed to add physical activity to my routine, so I decided to start running. It was relatively cheap, didn’t involve the gym (not a fan) and was non-contact (something that lead to my back problems in the first place). Once I had a few pounds gone, I signed up for the Resolution Run (early evening on New Years Eve) and used it to catapult me into a new year of running.

Thus far this year I have completed a 5k, will complete a 10k clinic this weekend and have started a Tely 10 training clinic, all with the Running Room. As I progressed through these I found the running became less about weight loss, and more about just challenging myself. When you run, people sometime think it is about winning a race, or completing the course faster than other runners. For most runners this is not the case as you quickly realize your probably not going to become a top level athlete. You don’t feel the need to beat others as some sort of validation, you feel the need to compete with yourself.

With running, there are all kinds of challenges you can find for yourself. They normally start small like run 5 minutes without collapsing and progress to more difficult task like running 5km without stopping. These physical challenges give you something to strive for and once complete give you an amazing sense of accomplishment.

Oddly enough though, the physical part of running is often not the hard part. Of course you cannot get off the couch after lying around for years and go out to run a marathon. But most anyone can get to that point if they train correctly and work there way up to that goal. The biggest challenge is convincing your brain that you can do it.

A couple of weeks ago, my 10km clinic coaches John and Vicky challenged our group to run a 5km route, non-stop. To this point, we had been doing interval training, running 10 minutes and walking 1, and had not had a run without any kind of break. When I first saw this task in my email, I like many in the group screamed “What?” in my head. But over the remainder of the day I start telling myself things like “they would risk discouraging us, they think we can do this” and “try it, you can always take the break if you need it.” That night, aided by some chatting with my clinic mates to distract myself and some internal chatter of “one foot in front of the other, one step at a time,” I finished my first non-stop 5km.

It didn’t stop there once I had broken down the barrier in my mind. That one challenge had allowed me to realize that I didn’t need the breaks if I didn’t want to use them. This weekend, only two weeks later, I ran my 10km of a 12.5km run non-stop (the only breaks I did take were at times when the coach wanted to give the group instructions). Mind you, this didn’t come easy either. Once again I wasn’t convinced I could do this distance just like the I wasn’t convinced with the last. But this time I knew how to deal with my doubt, take it one step at a time and complete the challenge.

That’s why tonight, while the wind was high and the rain was cold, I decide not to stay at home. The route we ran was around Long Pond and then up Mt. Scio Road, lots of hills and about 9km long. The distance and terrain presented me with a good physical challenge and the rain and the cold present the mental one. I am happy to say I conquered both, bring on the next challenge.

It’s been a long time since I have written anything here. I’d like to say there is a good reason, and for part of that time there was, but not all of it, so I’ll have to chauk it up to laziness. I’m am hoping to write a little more, as well as post more photos, going forward and I have started a few posts to help me along. Seeing as how most of them are rants about various technology issues, I figured I would update my status here first.

Over the past six or seven months, I really haven’t done all that much. I did have a chance to visit Quebec City on a IEEE trip last September (I would like to spend more time there in the future), but other than that most of my time has been spent on my thesis. I am happy to say that is now a complete draft in the hands of my supervisors for their comments and suggestions. The process to complete it will probably take another few months, but the bulk of the work is complete. From this point on, it should just be editting and passing the examination by a couple of University chosen professors.

Having that complete, I have spent the last couple of weeks straightening out some things that got left on the side and looking forward to having spare time. Unexpectedly though, I found myself with a lot of spare time this week. Unfortuately, I did not have any energy to enjoy it. I have spent the last six days fighting off a lung infection, something I would not wish on anyone. Everyone understands how inportant your lungs are, but I think I really took them for granted until this week. I had trouble breathing for much of the week and that is a tiring and slightly scarey thing. Fortunately, I can say I am now on the mend.

So with the thesis and lung infection more or less out of the way, I am now back to looking forward to more free time. Some of this will be spent offloading chores around the house from my wife as she starts to work on completing her thesis. Some of it will be spent on my photography. Some will be spent out running as I try to get in better shape (and train for the Tely 10). And most definately, some of it will be spent being more social. The problem with rushing to get a thesis completed in a short period of time is that you start to ignore your friends. You don’t want to, but it is a necessary evil if you ever what to get it done. So, over the next while, I plan on spending more time with my friends to make it up to them for ignoring them for so long.

I am currently writing this post in the dark.  Lori and I have decided to participate in Earth Hour this year, turning off our lights from 8pm to 9pm.  Actually it is 7:40 – 8:40 for us since we are going out later and don’t want to leave the puppies home in the dark.

As I sit here, there are a few observations I would like to make:

•  The light on the pole outside our house is enough to keep me awake when I want to sleep, however provides little light when I want to see my way around the house.
• It is impossible to turn of all of the lights in your house without decreasing your personal safety.  Even candles only provide so much light.
• I don’t understand how anyone could get anything productive done by candlelight.  You need to get close enough to burn yourself to be able to use the light.

Finally, one interesting question pops into my head: how many candles do I have to light to produce the CO₂ output of a 13W CFL light?

I don’t understand modern art!

A couple weeks ago, while Lori and I were in New York City, we spent a rainy morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art enjoying the impressive collection.  We started with the Egyptian collection (from my point of view more for the history), checked out the photography and then the 19th century European art.  I really enjoy Monet, so this was a treat for me.

Last, we decided to check out the modern art.  The collection includes some familiar work by Andy Warhol which was interesting have a chance to see somewhere other than the web or TV.  On our way down the stairs to another part of the exhibit, I noticed a florescent light mounted on the wall diagonally just before the stairs.  It wasn’t until Lori pointed out its title that I realized it was art.

Someone (the Artist, who’s name I don’t remember) attached a working florescent tube light to the wall on an angle, titled it and therefore it was art.  When I do this, it’s considered a DIY project gone terribly wrong.

Mind you, someone out there may enjoy that piece just as much as I enjoy Monet and I am fine with that.  However, at that moment I decided I had to admit to myself, I just don’t understand modern art.   I guess it can now keep modern dance company in the part of my brain where I store things I don’t get.

I have a problem. I am addicited to caffeine.

There, I have said it. That’s the first step toward beating my problem.

Back in October I noticed a trend that was having a lot of trouble sleeping on Sunday night. I basically thought that it was cause I slept in those mornings, or it was the stress of the week ahead. However, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get to sleep easily on Sundays. So I decided to visit my doctor.

He went through the basic list of what it could be, but decided quickly what he thought the problem was. You see, one of the first questions he asked was if I drank a lot of coffee or other caffeinated beverages. Of course the answer to that was yes. I was up to as many as 8 cups of coffee a day at that point. However, I had ruled that out because I could sleep most nights, just not Sundays. And I purposely avoided coffee on Sundays. What I didn’t know was caffeine could linger in your body for up to 2 weeks. Bingo! I think we had a winner.

Therefore, starting Halloween of last year, I gave up caffeine. All caffeine! No coffee, tea, soft drinks or anything that contained what the experts would call a “significant dietary source of caffeine.”

The first two weeks were awful. Headaches and a general feeling of malaise. With a little will power, I got through them and then it got easier. In fact, I went caffeine free for 6 months. That was the goal, and after that I planned to only have a cup of coffee a day since I enjoy it so much.

However, this is where I realize I have a problem. The cup of coffee slowly became a cup and a half. Then it was two cups. I am now back to 3 cups and starting to see a trend.

So, it is with this decree of my newly admitted problem, I am going to go back off caffeine. This time the goal is one month. After that, I’ll just have to play it by ear.