Run Forrest!

So this morning was my first 5k in 4 years. I woke up feeling pretty good, but a little nervous. It's only 3.2 miles...not a big deal. I made some coffee and used vanilla protein powder as my creamer. That was a worse idea than it sounds. I know, it sounds like a great idea. It's not.

The race was to help a family whose father and husband is battling stage IV esophageal cancer. According to the race website, the course was to be "flat and fast", and it was, which I was thankful for.

My goal was to finish the race in 23:30. I run around here at a 24:30 pace and my local route has a couple of killer hills. So I figured a flat course, with people pacing me, should be able to do it in a minute less time. I found what could turn into one of my favorite pastimes...watching people stretch before a race. We all looked ridiculous. It reminded me of Ben Still in the Disney cult classic, Heavyweights; "come here you devil log!"

So I stretched and ran the race. It was complete with cheerleaders and everything, and I even spilled Gatorade down my face halfway through! Well I ran the race in 22:45 which was a big surprise to me, but I am definitely pleased with the results.

I am looking forward to the next race that I run. I don't know when that will be but maybe I can do it in 22:44!

Read more »

Help me help Emmett...

So I have signed up for my first 5k race since starting to run and get myself into race shape. I received an email from a friend that told the story of her neighbor and his family as they battle cancer. On April 2, 2011 they will be hosting a 5k for Emmett Stallings to raise money to continue his treatment and support his family as they fight this disease.

Please take a minute and look at his website here and consider giving to help him if you can. As always, prayers may be the best kind of giving you can do, even if that is all!

If you are interested in running the race you can also sign up for that http://teamemmett.com/5k/.

Read more »

Run it off...

So I've been dealing with my first "running" injury. For the last 2 weeks I've been hobbled by painful shinsplints. I've been blaming my shoes and have decided that I need to get a new pair, but I've also been evaluating my running form. I think I may be a slight "stomper" and that could be leading to the issues as well.

Well tonight I was tired of and I just needed to run. I've spent a lot of time lately trying to learn to deal with my thoughts and emotions differently than I have in the past. Running is becoming a big part of that. I'm learning to think and process before I react. Reacting has never led me to a good place, so it's time to change.

On top of the shinsplints, I'm also very sore from a leg workout yesterday (and my attempt is not to complain here, but rather set a scene), but my run today was deliberate and slow. Without an iPod. Just an opportunity to think and allow my thoughts to process out.

Running can be sweet therapy!

What is your therapy? What do you do to think more clearly?

Read more »

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are...

I think that clarity is finally coming to me. Slowly, I am rising from the haze of 27 years of being over-marketed and over-sold an image, an idea, a standard that I had to live up to. The image is unattainable. We can't be anybody else, we can only be us.

I saw a stat (admittedly I don't know how accurate it is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's close) that 92% of Americans wish they could be somebody else.

Who do you want to be? Maybe it's a celebrity, or an athlete, or a noble character like Christ or King David. I heard a suggestion recently in a book that I am reading that Christ's purpose for being here (outside of Savior of the world and all) was not for us to BE like Him, but rather to FOLLOW Him. Is there a difference?

For me, the desire to be somebody else manifests in a desire to add 20 or 30 pounds of muscle, and to have hair, and to be really smart. I would love to be a great basketball player, and I sometimes daydream to believe that if I would have done this or focused on that, that I could have been a great athlete, but I didn't, and I am who I am.

Goals are not a bad thing. Self improvement is not a bad thing. But as a friend reminds me on a regular basis, "why are you wanting those things?" Is the goal to achieve a status that I perceive in someone else, or is the goal to better provide for my family or obtain something that I like. Could I set a goal to lift weights everyday and gain 30 lbs to fill out my 6'2" frame? Probably, but why, and at what cost?

My wife recently took a courageous stand and chose to leave her hair wavy, even though she thought I wouldn't like it. It's easier for her, and she likes how it looks, but does my opinion matter? Probably to a certain extent, and in other things that are more important in life, and our marriage, yes, but her hair doesn't. For her she has to reject the all-American sense that I won't love her or accept her if she doesn't conform. I'm proud of her for doing that. I'm proud of her for continuing to quell the lie that her appearance determines my love. What kind of love would that be if it was true? She always gets things quicker than I do.

I love this commercial. It kind of shows what we truly have become as Americans (albeit I don't really care about the product being sold, but you'll get the point).



Everybody is just becoming a clone. We all want to be perfect images of this perception that is being fed to us by the Hollywood machine.

I am choosing to not worry about the bulk muscle and the hair that I am lacking. I was created with a body to run, and I am getting more and more excited about the running that I can do. I am looking forward to running for causes and using my created being for good, and I am truly loving the idea of being authentic; being myself.

Kurt Cobain once said, "Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." Quit wasting your life. I'm going to quit wasting mine.

Read more »

Beauty and the Run

So I woke up this morning at 4:30. I had 3 cups of coffee, a few pieces of toast, and made some muffins for my bride to eat once she woke up. I had some quiet time and tried to think about how blessed I truly am.

At 5:30 my dog finally sauntered down the stairs in his normal early morning daze and decided that he needed to answer nature's call. When I opened the door to let him out I was immediately greeted by an absolutely beautiful 60 degree morning! Ahhh...how amazing is life? I decided that it was a perfect morning to finally really stretch my legs and go on a casual long run. You see, up to this point my runs have all been quick and to the point. My goal: run as fast as I can for 2 miles. Today I plotted out a nice 4.1 mile route through an adjacent neighborhood, and as my wife backed out of the drive, I embarked on my journey.

It felt absolutely phenomenal! I would encourage you to get out some today. If it is nice out, get out and walk or run and just take 40 mins to an hour to enjoy the world around you. It felt great not to be rushing or pushing myself to beat my last time. It was just a casual, relaxed adventure through God's beauty.

I'm starting to feel better about my running. It is coming easier. My legs aren't as sore afterwards. Tell me how yours is going. Have you had a chance to participate in activity? Are you deciding to do the small things, on a regular basis, that it will take to step towards a healthy life? I encourage you to, if you haven't already!

Read more »

Aspirations.

Okay, people, I have aspirations. One day I want to be an author. I also want to, at some point, become a personal trainer. Today, I want to start a project, and I need your help. I am working on developing an encouragement/developmental program to help people achieve better health and fitness. My goal is not to create a weight loss and diet program, although weight loss will be a component to reaching better overall health. My goal is not to create an exercise or weight training program, although both will also be components of achieving greater levels of health. My goal is to create a baby step, habit-forming program to help people learn how to eat better, understand the importance of the things that we put in our bodies, as well as a slow building process to help people become more aware of their level of daily activity and increasing that to maintain overall health.

I need some volunteers. I need people that are willing to share data with me, as well as give me helpful and critical feedback to better develop the program. I need people that are willing to give this a try and not be afraid of making a commitment to improving themselves one day at a time. I need people who are looking to love themselves, and live their lives. And that is actually what I want to call this...Love Yourself. Live Life.

For your help, I will be getting bumper stickers made, and possibly t-shirts. I just need you to be willing to try it. If you are, please facebook me or email me directly at brad.mehaffey@gmail.com.

You guys rock! Please keep reading my blog and helping to keep encouraging me to improve myself.

Read more »

I got a job!!

Okay, I know this has nothing to do with running. And I know that all of you didn't know that I was looking for a new job, but I have been and today I accepted a position with VF Imagewear Inc. here in Nashville. VF Corp is the parent company for Northface, Wrangler, Lee, Jansport, and Nautica, but the division that I will be working for is their industrial workwear division.

I am super excited and looking forward to beginning this new endeavor.

Thank you guys for your prayers and Mindy and I are really excited to begin this new chapter in our lives!

Read more »

Brrrrr....baby it's cold outside!

So I wasn't going to run yesterday. It was like 30ish degrees and I felt like that was too cold. Then I went out on an errand and saw this, probably, 60 year old woman running and I felt like a wimp. So I went and ran. I felt sluggish and slow the whole time. Maybe it was the sweats that I had on, because I am not used to running in sweats, but I just felt slow. Turns out I ran the second best time of the last two weeks! Come to think of it, the day that I ran my best time was also cold.

So I started reading online today about cold weather running, and found some stuff that I thought I would share. First off, it's not true that cold air is harder to breath or even bad for you, it just feels like it. Apparently, the air stings a little coming in because your nose and mouth are cold, but by the time the air reaches your lungs it is body temperature and safe for consumption. It seems that some doctors are willing to diagnose "cold air asthma" but I found conflicting reports as to whether or not this was a factual ailment; it's possible it's just doctors diagnose and prescribing meds when not necessary.

Secondly, as long as you stretch properly, you are under no more danger than usual of a pulled or strained muscle. Some people say that they feel "tighter" when it is cold outside, and to that I would say, "Stretch better!".

Finally, I found that cold weather is no longer an excuse that I can use to not run. Many times it's easier to "plan to do it tomorrow", but who knows that tomorrow holds? There may be a hurricane and I'm definitely not running in one of those (although I'm sure I could find a blog or article somewhere detailing the benefits of running in the midst of a large tropical depression). So I would encourage each of you and myself to continue to set goals for our health and overcome the reasons that we create to neglect the steps that it will take to reach those goals.

Thanks for reading! If anybody has any good running or exercise stories, please share them. I would love some encouragement from my brothers and sisters in the field.

Read more »

The big MO...

Where does your motivation come from? I have found that 80% (probably more than that) of exercise is motivating yourself to get up and move. For me, sometimes its a song. Other times its a trip up a flight of stairs when I find myself out of breath at the top and I go, "Whoa! I need to exercise!" And even some other times it is just a beautiful day out and I feel like being out in it.

Well for me, today, it isn't any of those. Today, my motivation is the fact that I started this blog and I promised you guys, and myself, that I was going to redefine who I am. And if I don't get up and run, then someday when I'm signing up for the next social networking tool, or sitting in the next job interview and they ask me what my hobbies are, I won't be able to say running.

Find your motivation, and if you continue to struggle then maybe you should watch this:



****UPDATE****
Well I just went and ran and I'm a little bummed because my time was the slowest of my first three runs since I started to run, but hopefully it will get better. I actually felt better today. I felt like my breath came easier, so it's starting to get better.

Read more »

Check out my new widget!

So I thought it would be cool to add a widget to be able to keep up with my miles logged as a runner. I have a cool little 2 mile route that I run, plus any competitions that I complete, so the miles will start to add up and I want to see a progressive total increase.

I would encourage everybody to just start small. It's like paying off debt, small efforts make for large dividends paid in the long run. Even if you can only walk, at a snail's pace, for 10 minutes a day in the beginning, do it! Eventually, you'll be walking for 15, 20, and then 30 minutes, and who knows, maybe you get a little crazy and start to run for a minute or two at a time.

Just have fun with it, and remember that it's better now to force yourself to do something that you might not like than it is to be dying at 60 because you didn't take care of yourself! Okay, a little extreme, but you get the point.

Read more »

The Runner's Diet at Runner's World.com

The Runner's Diet at Runner's World.com

Read more »

It all has to start somewhere...

Let me start off by saying that this is a beginning. Not the beginning of my life as a runner, but the beginning of it becoming a lifestyle. I have always been able to run and it has been a large part of my life, but it has never been something that defines me. I am determined to change that.

I am choosing to do this for multiple reasons. First and foremost because from my current position I continually watch people waste away from a lack of caring about their health and a lifetime of making poor choices. All around me are people who are suffering at the end of their lives because they didn't choose to change their lives earlier.

The final stages for somebody suffering from renal disease or diabetes are ugly. It is literally a progressive "wasting away" that the person has to endure and the family has to suffer through. What if they would have made different choices along the way? Now I know that there are circumstances beyond our control, and some people are afflicted by things outside of their ability to change, but it can't hurt to attempt to control things; can it?

Secondly, my decision to make running a lifestyle is that I want a release, a place where it can just be me and my thoughts. As I continue to strive to make personal changes and grow closer to my God, I find that I need time to just be left to my thoughts. I hope that running can become that for me.

Finally, I love the rush of competition. The opportunity to be good at something and be able to show it off in front of other people energizes me. I hope to become a good runner and win some races, but I guess that can all come later.

Please feel free to follow this blog and offer suggestions or advice where you feel lead to. More than anything, I hope that I can be an inspiration or an influence to my family and you people out there that will read this. I hope to focus on running techniques, encouragements, as well as healthy food choice material.

So please join my on this winding path through life...

Read more »