New Year, New Blog

In case you missed it last week, I will be migrating over to a new blog at Wordpress.

http://runlikehell50.wordpress.com/

Currently, I have half of my race posts at this site and will be finishing those shortly. After that, it's full steam ahead with new posts. I'll be writing about running things, Pittsburgh training updates, and the adventures Janel and I share. First up: a recap of our Honeymoon in Charleston and Savannah over Christmas break!

See you at Wordpress!

http://runlikehell50.wordpress.com/

New Blog

Hello All,

I will soon be moving to a new blog site. You can check out a quick preview of the site here. Keep tabs as I update and be ready for a new, sleek look!

http://runlikehell50.wordpress.com/

Pittsburgh Training- Full Steam Ahead

A few weeks ago I let you know that I had started my marathon training for Pittsburgh! This week marks the official beginning of increasing my mileage and getting ready to run fast.

The last few weeks I've done less mileage and worked to do Fartleks. It was quite fun running faster and for shorter distances than I've been used to. My hips appreciate it and my lungs did too. I was pretty worried when we hit those negative temperatures in November, but things have rebounded nicely. I don't mind cold-weather running, but it still hurts the lungs when things get so cold so quickly.

This week things start to ramp up. I usually always have a day of rest and the other days of running. Most weeks I have a few days of short mileage, usually 3 or 4 miles, and a few days of medium mileage, like 5 or 6 miles. Then one day of long mileage, this week, 10 miles, which slowly increase throughout the schedule before tapering off as the race approaches. By that time, your legs and lungs should be strong enough to get you through.

Basically, I'm telling you all that marathons are not trained for by running 26 miles every day or even several times over several weeks. Marathons are things that take time to prepare for like everything else, and the result that you have on your race is a result of the work you put in. I want to share this process with you because you've supported me with your funds and because this is where the race is really run. The event itself is just weeks and weeks of effort culminating in a jog through the park.

Thank you again for your support. Even if you haven't donated, you have supported me in one way or another. I'm actually very close to my goal of $500, but things have been pretty quiet lately. I'll ask once again for your help in sending out this link for donations. If you know anyone who would like to support Autism awareness or runners, please let them know I need a few dollars. You are all wonderful!

A Glimpse at Community Organizing

Hey Folks. So this will be a very strange post. I will be taking an exam tomorrow for my community organizing course and am required to post my exam study guide on a blog. It's a strange request, but it is a requirement because we have been investigating social media techniques to organize communities and our professor asked us to interact with a blogging site.

I thought I would use this time to introduce to some of the concepts we are discussing in 'Organizing for Social and Political Action.' Enjoy!

Conflict Styles and Resolution
One of the topics we covered in our course is conflict styles. Conflict styles are important because they can inform group dynamics during community organizing efforts. They are also helpful during regular group efforts.

Informal versus Formal types of meetings 

No single style is better than another (courtesy UM Office of Student Conflict Resolution)

These three styles are forms of opportunities to transform conflict.

Strong Ties and Weak Ties

Malcolm Gladwell, an intellectual who writes for The New Yorker and often shares the stage with his massive ego, wrote a provocative article suggesting that social change cannot rely solely on social media. The main crux of his argument is that social media is great for 'weak ties' where we have loose connections with lots of people, but no real impetus to get up and DO something. This is in sharp contrast to true social movements that require 'strong ties' to others to make real change happen. 

You can read his piece titled "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted" here. 

Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

Community Organizing relies on an understanding of a framework of social justice that a CO will operate under. The model that we use in class requires a topic called 'Possibility' which suggests that for truly transformative work to occur, one must understand the possibilities that are out there for things we can aspire to. 

One example of possibility is a typology developed by Gosta Esping-Anderson who reviewed different types of welfare regimes and worked to classify them into the types shown below:

Image developed by Professor Larry M. Gant, adapted from Esping-Anderson, 1990

One of the biggest pieces of these models is the idea of decommodification. Commodification is the practice of turning services into commodities such as health care or access to water. In the US, these are usually seen as commodities that require funds to pay for them. In other models, the State works to decommodify such services to ensure they are provided to all residents. 

It should be noted that this typology was completed in a European-Centric model, so the examples used are typically found with Anglo-Saxon countries such as the US and Australia, and examples from continental Europe and Scandinavia. Some additional characteristics are listed below:

Structural Determinants of Health and Epigenetics

All of this leads to the idea that the way our systems are set-up actually lead to detrimental health outcomes for members of society. Structural Determinants of Health is the term used to describe the complex, integrated social structures that are responsible for health inequities. This video suggests that we can measure the impact of inequality to show how structure impacts health. 

Epigenetics is a new term I learned that describes how traumatic experiences and inequality can be passed from generation to generation. This video (the third part of a five part series) describes how an event such as September 11th can actually be passed on from generation to generation. The traumatic stress endured by a parent during certain periods is actually attached to the genes of their children. While this is true for major events, it can also endure for something such as poverty or racism, where people experience everyday trauma. These traumas are then passed to their children who then experience new health problems that are uncommon to children their age. 

All of this suggests that we should do more to impact structures, inequality, and poverty in our nation. Not only is it a human thing to do, but we are literally making ourselves sick by ignoring it. 

I hope you learned something from this. If you want more detail on any of these topics I can send more. Wish me luck on my exam!

Pittsburgh Training- Day 1

Yep, day 1 of training for Pittsburgh has arrived. For those who know a thing or two about marathons, you might recall that a typical marathon training calendar is 18 weeks long. You may also wonder if its possible that May 3 is only 18 weeks away. Well, its not possible. Its actually 26 weeks away. I am doing a bit extra for this marathon. Let me tell you why.

If you don't know yet, I'm running Pittsburgh for charity. It's the first time I've ever raced for charity before and since joining the team about 2 weeks ago, I've already raised $330 for the Run for Autism.  The organization is a great organization that does a lot of work on autism research and awareness. I also enjoy the breakdown of what different levels of funding do for the organization. While my initial goal is $500, I have my eye on the $1000 level, as it provides a research grant to a graduate student studying autism. I can relate to graduate students and $1000 would be awesome!

 To those who have already donated, thank you! Please be sure to send the link to others who might be interested in supporting my cause. To those who haven't donated, see what you can do. Even $10 would be incredibly helpful in pursuing my goal.

The other reason I'm working on a 26 week training schedule is because I want to make some big improvements on my time. I ran the Indianapolis Half-Marathon this past Saturday and found myself just 14 seconds shy of my personal record. I'm not one to toot my own horn, but my half marathon time is pretty good. I can see only two options left on the half-marathon, improve my time to see if I can start placing in the top spots, or enjoy the times I've got and relax on my half-marathons now, focusing on location, rather than time.

It seems paradoxical that running a full marathon can help the half marathon, but at this point, I'm interested in seeing if I can sustain a faster pace over 26 miles, versus only 13. I know I can run pretty fast for 13 miles, but the pace I've been running would leave me completely exhausted if I needed to do another 13. I'm trying to see if I can bring my 26 mile pace down: hence the longer training period.

26 Week Training Calendar

Today I started my training with a Fartlek. A fartlek (besides being a wonderfully juvenile word) is a speed workout designed to increase your sustained speeds. Basically, you choose a distance or time to run, and slowly increase speeds to faster than your normal. Today, I ran time for a good speed base. I would run for 2 minutes 30 seconds, with every 30 second interval slightly faster than the previous, increasing from my normal pace during the first 30 seconds to breakneck speed in the final 30 seconds. I repeated this 4 times with a 90 second light jog in between. The idea behind this is that you can start to build up speed over time. I used Active.com's suggestion for fartlek workouts.

My goal is to bring my marathon time down from 3:43 to 3:35 or better. My stretch goal is 3:30. Ultimately I want to qualify for Boston, which requires a 3:05 marathon time. I want to take baby steps though. Shaving off 40 minutes is a lot of work and runs the serious risk of injury. That is the LAST thing I want to do. Therefore, fartleks (heh) and 26 weeks of training are necessary to reduce the risk of injury and improve times.

Today was the first day of a long journey to Pittsburgh. I'll keep you posted as things progress!