The Night B4 Run Numero Two-O

Good Evening Friendly Readers. It's the Friday night before my second big run. Tomorrow is the 5 miler out of Cranberry School in Norwalk starting at 8am. Right now, I'm sitting on the comfy chair in our living room and Kristine and her Mom are on the couch. On the 60" is Because Of Winn Dixie care of Netflix. Cute flick.

It's been two weeks since my last race and I don't know what to expect for tomorrow. I've been doing some training and exercising but since I'm not supposed to do any training the day prior to a race...

I was the same way the night before the last race. I just want to run the race now and get it over with so I know how I did and learn from my mistakes. I learned some things at the last race. For one, I'm in a running class all my own. I started in the company of a team of 6 last race and ended up by myself. 5 of my team consisted of very fit people who finished a good distance ahead of me. Kristine was with me the longest but not having trained, she told me to go ahead of her a few minutes in. I'm not sure how many outside of the core 3 will be running tomorrow, but Kristine will be spending time with her Mom instead of racing which is fine as she hasn't had the time to exercise in the last week or so.

Running and the other exercising I've done in the last 4 weeks has been both very cool and very trying. Sometimes there have been moments that were rewarding. Other times, I have been in a mental state that I refer to as Whiny Bitch Dave. The picture above is the perfect example of that mindset. I took it of myself for a blog entry I never wrote called, "What Have I Gotten Myself Into". Whiny Bitch Dave is what I become when I'm exhausted from the running and I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything and I think all is lost. I've learned that when I get this way just to ignore most things that cross my mind and let it pass.

As my abilities improve, I've found the harder times are becoming fewer and the cooler times come more frequent. I made the mistake of running on the Stamford High track at high noon on Wednesday. It's a little too hot right now to be running at that time of day and I won't make that mistake again. After jogging/walking for 2 miles, I called it quits for the day, but I had 2 cool moments before I did.

The first cool moment came when I hit the track, running that first lap. The plan was to run 2 laps and then walk the third. When I started on that first lap, it's the first time since I started running that running felt right. I felt like I knew what I was doing and that I would have no trouble doing the first 2 laps.

The second cool moment came after I finished that 2nd lap and was walking to the stands to get my water and towel to carry with me as I walked the third lap. In the stands was a young woman along with three boys, one of which was maybe 6 years old. As I was grabbing my stuff, I looked up and saw the young boy standing behind my bag, holding his hand out to shake mine for having run the two laps. I shook his hand and said, "Thanks little man." A smart man would have stopped running that day after a mile but the image of the little boy shaking my hand kept me going for the additional mile. That was a very cool moment I will cherish thru all my races.

Speaking of that which we cherish while running a race, one thing that I needed to come up with was a way to keep running while focusing on something other than the thump thump of my feet and the heavy breathing. I picked up this months Runners magazine and in it, a women talked about how when she ran a marathon, she dedicated each mile to someone she cared about and thought about that person during their mile. It sounded like a good idea so when I ran my practice 5 miles on Monday, I created a music mix so that I could dedicate each of my 5 miles to people I cared for. Since I run around a 12 minute mile, I created 12 minute blocks for each person.

Mile #1 goes to my wife, Kristine Novak. I do this because my she is my wife and my wife always comes first.

Mile #2 is dedicated to my Godsister Laura Kelly. Her wedding is next Saturday and in addition to the wonderful memories I have of Laura, I run on behalf of the long and prosperous marriage I wish for her and her future husand, Mike.

I'm dedicating Mile #3 to Karen Lynch. In addition to being awesome, Karen is strong and perservering. Not only do I get to listen to Bon Jovi music while I run her mile, but I will have the strength of knowing that any hardship I'm facing by running will pale in comparison to what Karen has gone up against and successfully kicked it's ass. I expect this to be one of my stronger miles.

Mile #4 goes out to someone I don't believe I've mentioned in these pages. His name was Chris Plaag (rhymes with flag). In my life, there have been 3 guys responsible for taking the confused, intraverted, silent, outcast, low self esteem, sad on the inside kid that I once was and turning me into the complete opposite persona that I am today. The 2 most recent of the 3 are Tim Lynch and Steve Gilbert. Chris became the first of the three at the age of 14 when he shook my hand and introduced himself to me and that's a day I will never forget. It's unfortunate that I will also never forget the day that I just happened to be in Newington on the night of his wake. Chris was only 15 at the time of the car accident that took his life. While I only knew Chris for a short time, his impact on my life is timeless and thus I run this mile for him.

The Final Mile, I run for my Mother, the dearly departed Dale Barber. I'll get into the full music mix I'll be listening to at another time but for those of you playing along at home, at around 8:55 tomorrow morning, if you were to play "Flashdance (What A Feeling)" by Irene Cara, followed by "Suite - Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Still, & Nash, it would be like you were finishing the race with me and mom.

Thanx 4 reading. I'll talk 2 u soon.
Dave

Monday Morning

Good Morning,

I've got 20 minutes before my train comes to take me to South Norwalk. One of these days, I really need to get my own car. I'm looking forward to my week of working at Stone House Productions. When I last worked at Stone House, I was a bit burnt out at the end of my project with them. However, I've had some time away and have experienced some other things and I'm looking forward to going back today. I should mention that the show I got burnt on was a show on the Food Network called Ham On The Street starring Chef George Duran. The show is only in it's first season but it seems like 1 out of 10 people I run into have seen it and they like it a lot so it appears I helped do some good work in spite of my work exhaustion a few months ago. Stone House is currently working on season 2 of HOTS and the new episodes should air soon. The Food Network airs HOTS several times during the week but the only time I know for sure is 10:30pm on Wednesday nights. Be sure to check it out.

For those of you who have been waiting for me to post more of the wedding proofs, I apologize. It takes a while for me to scan photos and I haven't had the the time. Hopefully, I will get to scan more soon. There are a few wedding related things you can expect in the coming days. I've received a few pictures from people with digital cameras and will post those soon. Also, my good friend, Mr. Tim Beeber had his video camera with him the night of the rehearsal dinner as well as in the limo with me before the wedding. Once I figure out how to convert that for the internet, I will post his video uncut.

By the way, I did get up this morning at 5 and jogged/walked for 3.5 miles, gearing up for the 5 miler in 2 weeks. My mile time was 12:40. This is 5 seconds longer than what I did Saturday, but the distance was slightly longer and it was 2 hours earlier. I tend to jog better later in the day.

Gotta get some Dunkin' b4 the train comes. Talk 2 u all soon.
Dave

3 Miles And Running

Here I am around 6:30 this morning before Kristine and I went to Norwalk for the first of our long distance runs. If nothing else, this running thing is helping my physique. I'm feeling and looking more fit than I have in a while.

So the run is over and I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing from the perspective that I'm a newbie and it was my first run. During the 3 miles, there were more patches of walking than I would've liked but it was a good start. In the end, my time was 35:35 which puts my pace under 12min/mile. Kristine finished just behind me

This is probably a mistake but since I know I'm going to keep this exercise thing going and I want some more accountability, I'm going to throw out a couple of numbers. My post run weigh in has me at 266lbs with 29% body fat. That's not bad considering I was over 275 a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully though, those numbers will improve.

In two weeks, Kristine and I will be with the other team members at Cranbury Elementary for a 5 mile race. Here's hoping for some exceptional training over the next 14 days.

Tomorrow's The Big Day

Hello Everyone,

Chillin on the couch watching the drunk driving episode of South Park. Otherwise, I'm mentally preparing for the run tomorrow. I don't know what to expect from it. Will I be able to run the entire 3 miles? Will I run out of breath? Will I keel over? I won't know until tomorrow.

I almost feel helpless today as I'm called upon to do nothing today as part of my training. It's a rest day. I just want to go out and run the 3 miles now. So what I'm left with is to do mental exercizes and imagine how I will run tomorrow. It's a tad bit frustrating.

Running The Distance

Coming this Saturday to the Norwalk High School...Dave Novak RUNS!!! Woo-Hoo.!

I have it in my head when I compose a number of these blog entries that the general idea is, "You never thought you'd see a guy like me do this, but look at me now!" The thing is I'm starting to realize that premise is a little silly. I'm a married 33 year old, living in a decent apartment, making a fair wage. There's not a lot goin on with me these days that you wouldn't expect. However...look at me now.

This Saturday Morning, I will be waking up early so I can go to the Norwalk High School and at 8am, I will go jogging for 3 miles. Two weeks later, I'll be jogging 5 miles. Two weeks after that, 7 miles. 3 weeks after that, 9 miles. Why 3? I don't know but THANK GOD! Two weeks after that, I jog 11 freakin miles. And then, if I'm not dead, on Saturday, September 19th, I'll sign up to run for 13 miles or what they call a half marathon. This insanity is part of the Norwalk Lightfoot Summer Series and you can read about it here.

This craziness started a few weeks ago over Memorial Day weekend. My good friend Chris Kory and I were playing tennis on Memorial Day when he sprung the idea that WE needed a goal because HE was out of shape. At the time, I wasn't really looking for a goal but when he had me over to his home later that afternoon, the discussion would continue.

Now that I've had some time to reflect, I realize I am to blame for this excessive fitness rediculousness. I'm fairly certain I've gone off on gyms and personal trainers in this blog so I won't rehash my rant now, but suffice to say I'm of the belief that personal trainers at gyms are part of a business model that takes money out of your wallet without giving you much in return. I mean, if you were really training for something, you wouldn't need a "personal trainer". Boxers train for fights all the time but I have yet to see Mike Tyson using the local lackie at The Fitness Edge.

The second part of this abbreviated rant is that the only way you're going to have success at the gym is if you have something motivating you to excersize. For example, I play tennis on Saturdays. I know if I use our eliptical xtrainer during the week, I'm going to have a better game. That's the kind of goal related success you can have from exersizing.

Now, I was not looking for a goal on Memorial Day. I was beating Chris at tennis so I had that together. I'm a newly married man so it's not like I need to trim down to go to the club and meet women. (and yes, I can hear wives all around the world cringing at the thought of a man not needing to look good because he's married. I'm not saying it's right, ladies. I'm just saying that's the way it is.)

The idea that Chris Kory, a man who I've easily got 80 pounds on, came to me because he need motivation and a goal because HE is "out of shape"...THAT'S JUST CRAZY! Sure, I was beating him at tennis but after the game was over, I went home and took a nap while he ran laps.

Chris(middle) served up some great barbeque later that day when I went over to his condo and a few beers later, we got to talking about this goal thing again. Included in the conversation were Chris's wife Tanya(a personal trainer but not for a gym) and our friend Brian(top), a man who makes a living motivating people to do their jobs better. (I just reread what I wrote there and I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't have a chance.)

I can't tell you too many specifics about what happened during the discussion except to say that Kristine eventually came over, there was some Karaoke involved, and the next morning when I checked my gmail, I found this:

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:

Registration: Norwalk Lightfoot Summer Series
Purchase Date: 05/29/06
Category: 5 Race Series (3, 5, 7, 9, 11 Mile Races)
Name: David Novak

I had actually used a credit card to pay someone $33 so that I could run 35 miles. I haven't mentioned this yet for the strangers who read my blog but to know me is to know I don't run. Sure, I can go out for a pass. I can run around the bases. I certainly get a good workout playing tennis. But running for the sake of running has never been my thing...well, until now.

For the last two weeks, I've been "training". At first, I was just trying to jog a consistent lap which I eventually accomplished. It wasn't easy in the beginning. I've found that I'm a less than pleasant person when it comes to mood swings and exhaustion. To my surprise, I've perservered and I'm getting better. Today, I was able to run 2 consistent laps. That's in addion to several other laps I ran with some walking in the middle lest you think I just ran 2 laps and got excited about it.

Originally, I was just doing my own learning but then Tanya got a hold of me and gave me a training program. Initially, the machismo inside of me was skeptical but I opted to go with Tanya's plan, seeing as how I know nothing about fitness and she makes it her career. It's worked well and while I'm a little nervous, I feel pretty good about this Saturday.

Part of the fun will be the comradery(sp?). First there was Chris, Brian and myself. Kristine has decided to join us as well. Tanya's doing a mini triatholon in the near future so she originally wasn't going to join us. She changed her mind though and now she's in. Also, our friend Elyssa who is a nutritionist and a personal trainer will be joining us as well.

Also, while I'm nowhere near skinny, I've dropped around 7 pounds in the last week and a half and I'm enjoying feeling good from the exercise and the better eating. The mood swings are gone now that I'm not overdoing the exercise.

I guess that's it for now. Provided I keep up with this running thing, I'll let you know how I'm progressing in future entries.

Until next time.
Dave

Proofs Pt. 3: The Wedding

I learned a few years ago when I was president of the Ski Bears that whenever you're planning an event, there comes a point where you can't stress about the planning anymore because the event is happening. No matter if the event called for little or extensive planning and no matter how big or small the stress level was, this point of no return is my favorite moment because even if everything goes wrong, there's nothing I can do about it and so I stop worrying.

For the wedding, the PONR came for me when we left the park and we were heading over to the VIP Club in our limos for the wedding. My groomsman, Tim Beeber,...I think he was talking to his wife on his cell and after he hung up, he said to me that there was an accident on southbound I95 and that there was a lot of traffic and there might be some latecomers to the wedding as a result. I still remember the complacency I felt when I said, "Well, nothing I can do about it now."

The rehearsal dinner that we had the night before the wedding was a dinner without a rehearsal. The number of painstaking conversations I had about what that dinner was supposed to be leading up to it...that could fill up 20 blog entries that I don't want to write and you wouldn't have the patience to read. Suffice to say, it was a nice dinner and the next day, when we got to the wedding, we had very little idea of what we were doing. Thank goodness for the VIP Club and their helpful staff who organized us very well. Afterwards, during the reception, I was asked a couple questions from guests regarding the wedding. For instance, one friend asked why my best man wasn't standing next to me during the wedding. Until he asked, the thought had never occurred to me and I told the guest simply that it just didn't work out that way.

Hopefully, in a few weeks, Kristine and I will have a dvd of our wedding as the whole thing is a blur in my mind with little touches of distinct memories. I remember being struck by hearing our Minister say the words out loud that until that point, I had only seen on paper. I remember having a big smile on my face that wouldn't quit because I was soooo happy to be marrying Kristine. I also remember that my nervousness got the better of me a couple of times while Kristine and I were holding hands for most of the ceremony. Once or twice, I gripped Kristine's hands too tightly, especially around her rings, and one time she quietly yelled, "Ouch!"

Oh, there's one other thing I remember. There's a line either Kristine or I had to say regarding being with each other thru the hardships. Having gone thru what we went thru planning the wedding and the stresses of just about everything having at least a small problem, I let out a quiet funny snort, Kristine started to chuckle, the wedding party began to laugh, and then the audience had themselves a good laugh. The Minister went on with the next line which neither Kristine nor I heard well, which lead me to quietly say, "We're going to need to do that one again," followed by Kristine saying, "DO OVER!" loud enough for everyone to hear which got another laugh.

All in all, the ceremony went well and everyone had great things to say about our wedding. The wedding photos have been added to the same album I've been working on. Just scan down to the bottom for the new photos. (Unless there have been several blog postings since this entry. Then scan down to somewhere in the middle.)

Coming Soon: The reception photos are on the way but I have a blog entry about some running thing I've been doing and that will probably appear in the next day or so.

Thanx 4 Reading
Dave

Proofs Pt. 2: Glen Island Park

I've added the pictures from Glen Island Park. These pictures were taken a couple of hours prior to the wedding. I forget the timing of everything but the ladies were running a half hour or so late because they were taking the first set of pictures I posted. I had given all of my groomsmen flasks for their gift at the rehearsal dinner the night before and fortunately, they all brought them to the wedding filled with rum. So while we waited, we drank in the park.

I've added the park pictures to the same wedding album so you'll need to scan down about 40 pictures or so.

The Proofs Are In

Saturday afternoon, Kristine and I drove to Long Island for my nephew Eric's 13th birthday but we made a quick stop on the way in The Bronx at Martone Brothers Photography to pick up the proofs from our wedding. Unlike the previous photos I posted on Snapfish, our professional photos were shot on film. It's going to take me a while to scan all the photos but the process in underway. As of this writing, I have scanned and posted the photos taken of Kristine at the VIP club prior to the wedding and before she and her bridesmades joined me and my groomsmen at Glen Island Park for more prewedding photos. I'm putting all the wedding photos into one album and you can check my progress by clicking here.