A 2000 Mile Quest

This morning I went for a run.  That is nothing unusual.  I went for a run on 260 days in 2013.  So, going for a run on the second day of the yar in 2014 is something that I would expect to do on approximately two out of every three days anyway. 

But I learned something about myself today.  First, I must be building up a reputation for posting pictures of my watch.  A friend wrote a post today with a picture of his Garmin and noted “in true Professor Frick style”.  He had the opportunity to run 16 miles in about two hours.  That was almost twice as long as the time I had available to run—I ran just under 1:04.  And that was twice as far as I ran (I ran exactly 8 miles).  So, his pace (based on the twice as far in less than twice as long) was obviously faster than mine.  I have not run with this friend in quite some time.  I noted that I look forward to running with him but that I will have to work to keep up with him next time.  That’s also not really a surprise.  If I had run the Charles St 12 last year, he would have been way ahead of me.  In the Baltimore Running Festival half marathon he was well ahead of me, although not nearly as much as he’d planned.  The only race in the past twelve months for which I had the lead was the Boston marathon.  There, we ran nearly even for about the first half and then I had the lead.  It was the third marathon (and fourth race overall) where he was ahead or we were even but I eventually took off.  The other three times it was much closer to the end of the race.  But on any given day for any race less than twenty miles, he will be way ahead of me unless something goes seriously wrong.

But that is part of why running is such a cool sport.  Many of my friends are impressed at what I do.  The distances I go each day.  The distances I go in a year (1867 miles last year).  The pace at which I run.  But then I look at what some of my friends manage, and I realize that my running is neither as fast nor as far nor as consistent as many other people. 

This is the first year I recall lots of people posting about how many miles they ran during the year.  I have several friends over 2000 miles.  I have one friend who was a little closer to 2000 miles than I was.  And I have friends with a variety of shorter distances that either they achieves last year or are looking to achieve in the cominb year.  And, in the end, all are fine.

I posted online this morning that I was happy with my overall 1:03:40 for 8 miles as other than a 14.4 mile very hilly run (at least noticeably uphill in the second half) on the winter solstice, I had not run much that included hills since the 5 mile race on December 14.  And, for six days in a row, I had run nothing but treadmill miles—nearly all at an 8 min/mile pace with the most slight incline possible.

So, today, I began by climbing Highwood, running the down and up along Lake to York, and then the relatively flat from Lake and York to Lake and Bellona and then along Bellona toward Springlake Way for the first mile in 8:12.  Then, I ran down Springlake Way to Norhtern, across Northern to Charles, and up Charles toward Stevenson for the second mile in 7:55.  After that I continued along a relatively flat Charles, then hung a right on Stevenson toward Bellona and then downhill along Stevenson after crossing Bellona for mile 3 in 7:55.  Next, I ran up Stevenson toward Osler and then down Osler toward Towsontown—hitting 4 miles before I hit Towsontown.  Fourth mile run in 7:53.  Then, I continued along Osler, hung a right on Towsontown, and then around Bosley headed back toward York Rd, hitting mile 5 right around York and Bosely.  Mile 5 run in 7:53.  Along York Rd toward Regester, hitting 6 along York, with mile 6 run in 8:01.  It’s a bit more up on York Rd than meets the eye when driving.  Then, along Regester to Sherwood.  Hit 7 miles right about there with mile 7 in 7:58.  Finally, finished by taking Sherwood to the Alameda, then Walker, Northwood, Woodson, and home.  Last mile in 7:51.  Relatively consistent.  Home in time to eat, shower, get Christopher to the light rail, eventually pick up the dog, do some work, take Joshua to TWIGS, and go to SPH to record two lectures. 

What I learned while I was running was not just that I had not lost anything on my pace during my 10 days without hills, but that I really do enjoy the hills.  Maybe not a hill workout but definitely a workout with more variation that I get on most of my treadmill workouts.  I love the sounds of the city.  I love the smell of the city.  I love seeing the outside—more than I could ever enjoy any number of minutes or hours of watching TV while running.  I love being in running tights, a long-sleeved shirt made for cold weather, and a long-sleeved t-shirt.  I love seeing people with their dogs.  I love seeing other runners.  I love saying hello.  I love being a part of the early morning community.

Of course, I would not run outside in bitterly cold temperatures.  And I would not run on the streets with ice and a risk of falling that is more than the risk I already face on the sidewalks—which I have fallen on once or twice. And there are only certain parts of the city I will run in by myself.

And I learned how far I am willing to try to push myself this year—I wrote that I am on a 2000 mile quest.  If I simply run 1:04 per day at the same pace for each of 250 days, I’ll have the 2000 miles. I don’t need any 10 mile races.  I don’t need any half marathons.  I don’t need any marathons or ultras.  And 250 days is fewer days than I ran in 2013.  So this is very doable.

What will I have to overcome?  Well, sometimes the workouts can take much longer than 1:04 when I drive somewhere to run.  And sometimes I won’t run at an 8 minute per mile pace if I am running with certain friends.  And there will be times that I just won’t have the 1:04 even without needing to drive.  And there are times when I will want to go further—and run either a half marathon or a marathon. 

But each run will bring a lesson.  Each run will bring a meaning.  Each run will bring a revelation. 

Something about me.  Something about a friend.  Something about life.  Something about running.  Something about my city.  Something about my shoes. 

And I will take it all in. 

And I will write it all down.

And I will share it with anyone who wants to read.

And I will continue to try to understand the meaning of life.  How I fit in.  What I am called to do.  And what God’s plan is for me.

Other than to run and write and teach and learn and be the most supportive person I can be to my friends and family and students and colleagues.

Life is good. 

Family is People You Share Food with on a Regular Basis

Last night, I wrote a post about my social media family. I described family as: 

It includes blood and marriage of course. And immediate family are the people I cherish most in the world. But family here is the people I share with and who choose to share with me each day.

My friend, Alex, then posted:

I was in a community once that defined family as people that you share food with on a regular basis.

This was an interesting premise to learn about.  It got me thinking. In the traditional sense of a community, this would make a lot of sense. What would it mean to an electronic or virtual community? I wrote that perhaps if we adapted it to say "food for thought" or "pictures of food" it would work.

While this is an interesting adaptation of what Alex said, I wanted to spend some time thinking about why sharing food on a regular basis would make family by choice.  This is particularly interesting in light of some recent posts about blended families being families by choice and what the implications of families by choice would be.  

We can start with the obvious.  Family is about sharing.  Not only food, of course.  Although perhaps the earliest versions of family were mostly about sharing food-at the bottom of Maslow's triangle.  The most basic need.  With whom do we share when we are worried about taking care of our most basic needs?  The people we care about most.  Family.  At that point it was about survival.  And if we want to get biological-it was not only about our own survival or the survival of the species but also about the survival of our DNA once children were involved.

In this day and age, what does sharing food bring out?  Well, food brings our conversation.  When humans moved from just sharing whatever they already had to planning ahead, people could have been discussing strategy for the next hunt. Today, conversation could be about what was good in the day.  About what was bad in the day.  About the bigger picture.  About how each of us and the family unit as a whole fit in with the bigger picture and something bigger.  Spirituality.  Much higher on Maslow's triangle.

Why does it bring this out?  Well, I believe that truly sharing food doesn't mean just leaving a pot of something on the stove that everyone can grab a plate of when they get a chance.  Truly sharing means stopping and sitting at table together.  It makes us slow down.  It means we spend time in one place.  Around one table.  Focused.  Together.  Being a part of something bigger.  If we give a completely secular interpretation to "whenever two or more are gathered in my name" and just write "whenever two or more are gathered" I begin to recognize that there is something to that.  

In a world of friends separated not by the next cave, next house, or even next community over but by hundreds or thousands of miles, we can always gather at table.  But there are other ways to gather.  

I find that sharing pictures of food speaks volumes.  It speaks to how I (or anyone else sharing such a picture) likes to put time into our cooking.  Cares about our cooking.  Cares enough about our cooking to do something more than just a TV dinner for our family.  Cares enough to share it.  Some might say, show off rather  than share but I think it is about having other people be interested and thinking about whether they would ever make the same thing.  What they are going to make for dinner tonight. Sharing our inner workings as it really matters.  And sharing what is important.

Finally, sharing food for thought.  For me, it means I take the time to write.  For those who are part of my "Connecting the Dots" family it means taking the time to read what I have written.  The time to think and write, and time to read and think, is a reflective process that fits well with the sharing that could occur around a table with family (in whatever sense of the word) and food and drink.  It is an synchronous sharing relationship, but it is still a sharing relationship.  An online family.

It doesn't mean that a virtual family (even one centered around thinking) could ever replace a real family.  A family of people you can walk next to, sit next to, hug, and look at.  But it does offer a way of extending family.

And for that, I am grateful to have learned about my friend's community's interpretation of family. 

Looking Back and Looking Ahead--A Review and Some New Thoughts

Always good to look back and look ahead.  Here is what I wrote last year looking ahead to 2013…

(10) Keep running in the right place in my life—it should promote physical, mental, and social well being—the gold old health triangle we learned in high school health ed class.  It should also promote spiritual well-being. If it ever interferes with those re-assess. I think I was successful on this one.  Some may argue too much running, but it did everything it was supposed to do, and I have been trying to balance.

(9) While keeping it in the right place in my life, don't forget that there are some real goals. Mile on the track under 5:40.  2-mile on the track under 12:00.  5K—wherever—under 19:30.  Complete Boston—and if the weather permits aim for 3:10.  Half marathon closer to 1:30.  10 miler closer to 1:10.  Achieved some goals here.  Ran Boston but didn’t even break 3:15.  Ran a 19:10 5K.  Did not do so many timed track workouts this year.  Ran a half marathon distance at sub-7:00/mile pace although not in a race.  Continuing to get stronger. 

(8) Continue to be creative.  Maybe art.  Maybe words.  I'd say 10-15 minutes per day.  Could be a little verse.  Could be a little progress in my ongoing attempts to write longer stuff.  Could be a blog entry.  Could even just be some project like the silk tie I did earlier this week.  Just to keep that part of my brain in high gear.  This year lots of words.  Some “art” in the sense of taking pictures and beginning to think about how combining my pictures (or other people’s pictures) and my words might make a more effective message to share.  Below is a combination of words and pictures that I gave Sherry for Christmas.

(7) Think about next career steps.  Who knows what they may be?  The key is that even as a full professor, there are things to think about.  Even if I stay a full professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for the remainder of my career, the job will change.  And there may be opportunities within JHU (or someday in the future outside JHU) that would bring about even more changes and hopefully changes that would challenge me and engage me in new ways.  And while my well-being now is about stability, my well-being once the kids are out of high school and college will depend on what I see as my next steps.  So, I might as well start thinking now.  So last year when I wrote this, I was interviewing for the position I now have, but not telling a whole lot of people.  I got the position.  So, check!

(6) Continue to grow spiritually.  I have stopped writing about every single bib number and race time.  That was fun.  But I have found many new inspirations for my spirituality including the tattoo that is now nearly finished.  That turned out to be an interesting part of my art experience last years as it really has become much like a piece of commissioned artwork that I always have with me and really participated in a two-person (me and the artist) effort to bring about a vision of symbolism that I had.  Finished getting the tattoo.  Wrote three sets of compiled blog entries.  And really have a feel for spirituality meaning recognizing that I am a part of something bigger and that there are lots of connections to make and to share. .  

(5) Continue to play an active role at St. Pius X.  I don't see that changing for any reason--but it is just worth putting out there.  No matter what other pressures may come and go, the stability of my involvement in Sunday school and the worship band--each with its own set of ups and downs--is definitely like a rock for my to stand on in my faith and in my life.  I’ve continued to teach for religious ed, help Mae when needed, and play in an occasional mass on my bass guitar.  Check!

(4) Continue to mentor.  The experience or mentoring has been a gift to me as much as anything from me over the past several years.  I have a new student to mentor in the Penn State Schreyer Honors College and there are other opportunities for mentorship as well.  I’ve continued to be in touch with one of my old mentees, reached out to a few more, and taken on mentoring as an important part of the job. Check!

(3) Help my two oldest on the path to figuring out where they will go to college and high school respectively.  While the process will not be completely finished one year from today, it will be well on its way.  We are on our way.  Check!

(2) Remember that I would not be where I am without the help of others.  This is part of what I reflected in my artistic vision last year and what I hope to continue to reflect this year.  This is part of my spirituality.  It is part of my professional mentoring.  It is part of my family relationships.  It is part of being a good neighbor.  I am ultimately responsible for me.  But I am not responsible for just me.  And in the same way, I know that I have truly benefitted from having so many around me who are not only interested in benefitting themselves but who are interested in lifting up others.  When I am taking credit, I must give credit where credit is due. And when I am deciding how to act, I should remember to act with others in mind.  During this year, I have thanked many and shared my writing with many.  I could probably still do a little better at work.  Check!

(1) Be the best family member I can be.  Husband, father, son, brother, and so many more rolls.  All important.  All provide ways to lift others up.  All provide ways to reflect on what others have done to lift me up.  And all provide ways to show God's greatness in blessing me and my family with abundance. Not sure how I would rate according to my family, but I keep on trying.

For the year ahead, there will be some repeats and some new interpretations:

(10) Run.  Do it a lot.  But keep it in its place.  Use it as a focal point.  Use it for goal setting.  Use it for friendship building.  Use it to seek meaning.

(9) Keep teaching Sunday School.  I really like working with kids, introducing them to things about our faith and introducing them to things about St. Pius.  And teaching is the ultimate learning experience and I love to learn.

(8) Keep writing.  Use it to sort things out and use it to find meaning.  Use it to share.

(7) Find a place for music.  I can’t imagine myself getting back in a worship band any time soon but I have to find a place for some music.  It is another good release.

(6) Bake more.  I know that I bake more than most, but I am stuck in a bit of a rut.  So maybe the key here is to bake a wider variety of things.

(5) Take more pictures.  This is a different take on art than last year.  One that I can manage.  And one that I can turn into “art” but using effects with the pictures and mixing and matching pictures in collages and matching them with my words to ell stories.

(4) While I have access to all types of electronic technologies, but them down more.  There is a time for being connected electronically and a time to just turn it off.

(3) Recognize my limitations more.  This goes along with many of the things I wrote in the Epilogue to the Spirituality of Advent 2013.  When all is said and done, I am just a speck in the bigger world.  My life is just a blink in the history of time.  And I have to realize that I can’t do everything for everyone all the time.

(2) Structure my time better.  Structure will help with focus.  Focus will improve performance in so many areas.

(1) Remember that family comes first.  There will be times that I will be called on to do things for work, especially in my job now, that make it seem like family is not first.  That family has to wait.  But in the bigger picture, family has to come first.  I think that finding a way to make family first “on net” without it having to be first every second of every day is a real challenge.  A challenge for me to do.  And a challenge for my family to accept and work into our family life.  But I keep trying.

Happy 2014!

Appreciation

The place at which we vacation has condos to stay in, a recreation building that is within about a 15 minutes walk (with lots of hills on the mountainside), and a ski area.  With only one car, I get dropped off at the recreation building near 8, do my workout, and then walk back.  Today I was able to do my workout, change into a dry shirt, put on a sweatshirt and a windbreaker, and then carry the wet shirt I'd run in and sweatpants while walking back to the condo in shorts.  Between wearing shorts, my tattoo, and walking along the side of the road where the is a shoulder but no sidewalk, I'm not sure what passing motorists thought of me.  But it is great to vacation somewhere that I can walk along in shorts after a workout while my family skis.  God made the world a very interesting place.  And being on a mountainside like this with the trees and the beautiful fog yesterday makes clear how cool God's handiwork is.

For today, that is all. 

The Spirituality of Advent--All Entries in a (large) PDF

Very brief entry tonight.  I put together all the entries including the one in which I introduced the idea of the spirituality of Advent, the 25 entries, and teh epilogue.  I edited a bit.  I added some pictures--some I'd taken and others I borrowed from the web with citations.  If you have read everything in my blog in the past month, you might still want to read this to see the whole thing together.  If you haven't read the blog entries in the past month, then it will be interesting to see how I have put together a series of thoughts about the Spirituality of Advent.  It went in directions that I never would have anticiapted.  But that is what keeps life (and writing about it) interesting.

Here is the link.

Epilogue to the Spirituality of Advent: Complementarity

I have been working on putting together the set of 26 blog entries that I wrote regarding the Spirituality of Advent into a connected sequence.  Ther ordering is obvious--the one that set the framework, the 24 written on days of Advent, and the one written on Christmas Day.  What is interesting is the search for themes.  

When I began, I sort of thought it would be a piece of cake to write about themes of hope, preparation, joy, and love for 24 days.  What could be easier?  There are many things each day that make me think about these themes.

What I could not have predicted when I began was playing bass at a funeral, finding a little time to pick up the mandolin again, finding Emmet Otter on a site where I could play the entire special from start to finish online for free, multiple interesting exchanges with a fellow runner/blogger, an especially good race, and a 10 day period during which I would see almost a performance a day on the evenings I was in Baltimore.  

What I could not have predicted is that despite being incredibly happy with where I am in life, satisfied that I am pretty well off, and still recognizing that I could improve myself and how I interact with others, and despite being really high on Maslow's triangle, I am still truly searching.  Not searching for something bigger--I am comfortable with the notion that there is something bigger out there.  But searching for the meaning of whatever it is that is bigger and searching for ways to allow it to guide me to a better life.

So, since I have reflected on the Prayer of St. Francis and I have put it in writing that I want  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 read at my funeral some day and I have written about contrasts before, I will close this set of writings about the Spirituality of Advent with a set of reflections that I will refer to as complementarities rather than contrasts.  I think that what I will offer is a set of things that go together--each having it's time--rather than things that have to be one or the other.  And since I have also written recently about the Beatitudes, I will make eight complementary "there is a time for" statements.

Everything in my search for self-actualization and deeper meaning has its time:
There is a time for seeking that something bigger in the universe,
   and a time for appreciating every little detail of life that goes 
   right on a daily basis;
There is a time for being the biggest help I can be to those around
   me,
   and a time for realizing that ultimately I play only a small role
   in helping a person or changing a person's life;
There is a time for feeling that things like crossing finish lines
   are big accomplishments,
   and a time for realizing that each moment in life--and even each
   marathon--is but a speck of dust relative to the whole of life;
There is a time for seeking to express myself and all that is unique
   about me,
   and a time for conformity and doing things just because that is
   best and I should trust those around me who have done things
   before and not ask questions.
There is a time for drawing attention;
   and a time for realizing that I am but a speck in humanity and
   that humanity is but a speck in the universe and my role is to be
   the best I can be but that I will not change the world in a
   moment;
There is a time for running,
   and a time to realize that running is only one part of my life and
   that many other parts deserve and require attention to keep the
   whole of my life functioning well;
There is a time for seeking to make new connections with
   interesting people,
   and a time to carefully nurture the many connections with
   incredible people I have already; 
There is a time for pondering the meaning of life,
   and a time for acting on the meaning I have found.

Exercise in Patience

Today's treadmill workout was an exercise in patience as much as it was an exercise of my muscles or cardio system.  I got on the treadmill for a one hour workout.  I ran at 7.5 or 7.6 miles per hour the whole time.  And I reached 7.5 miles (the intended distance with a constant 8 minute mile) with one second to go.  That was because I wanted to make sure I reached the distance.  Part of the flick up to 7.6 miles per hour every once in a while was to make sure I reached my distance before the time was up (1 hour is the default workout) and part of the flick up to 7.6 miles per hour every once in a while was because every treadmill takes time to get to up to speed.  So I always have to do a little adjusting to make sure I reach my intended distance at the intended time.

In any case, running for that long on a treadmill at essentially the same pace is an exercise in patience.  I am tempted to run faster.  I have to resist the temptation to do so, however.  If I do, I open myself up more to injury.  Not that I have had any serious injury in quite some time, but why risk it.

I usually do math.  How many minutes?  How many seconds?  How many gone?  How many left?  What percentage?  When will I hit the next milestone? I even took to counting steps today and found that in a minute I take about 160 steps so that a one hour workout will be a total of about 9,600 steps.  That is pretty amazing.

At the end of one hour today, here is how I looked.  You can't really tell how sweaty my leg is, but trust me, after an hour in a relatively warm fitness room, there were drops of sweat all over the treadmill.  And then, I bundled up with a dry t-shirt, that good old 1985 Upper Darby Cross Country sweatshirt, and the Heather Hurd 5K headband.  It was a morning of things past and things future as the tattoo is significant of both, the sweatshirt and headband are past, the shirt I wore for the workout was also past (from a former student in Ireland).  But, when I run, I run forward and that is always looking into the future.  I know how many miles I have run this year: 1832 in 256 days of running.  Assuming I run each of the remaining days on vacation that will be 260 days of running for the year (essentially 5 days per week) with each run being on average a bit over 7 miles.  That is a lot of time spent running.  I'll have to see whether I can do the same next year or not.  But I hope to continue to set and meet new goals--fitness and otherwise, so I am certainly doing to try.

There are many goals. I have talked about new year's resolutions on a FB note or my blog each year for the past 3 or 4 and I will reflect again this year in a few days.

But one thing that came to mind yesterday that I found I have been returning to multiple times lately is the prayer of St. Francis.  A friend and fellow runner/blogger put up a post yesterday that said "Better to be the one who smiled than the one who didn't smile back." It made me think of the prayer of St Francis.  It has lines like let me seek to console more than to be consoled.  Let me see to understand more than to be understood.  So, I figured a person could add "Let me see to smile at others more than to be smiled at."  

That is really a good plan for life.  Give.  Give.  Give  And when the time comes for you to need to ask others to give back if you have given consistently, there will almost always be people there.  People who can give back in ways that I may never have imagined.  People who are more than willing to give back because of all that I gave along the way.

There is a refrain--the more you put into life, the more you get out of it.  I certainly felt that this year.  There were numerous friends who had job issues, marriage issues, business issues, or running issues.  I was there for them as I could be.  And when there were times I needed to tap into other people's wisdom and kindness, I was able to do so.

I smiled and got smiled back at.

I understood and was understood.

I consoled and was consoled.

Numerous friends have talked about simply surrounding oneself with good people.  The rest will take care of itself.  While it is not always exactly that simple, it goes a long way.

Coming back to where I started with an exercise in patience--the relationships that one must build to live life surrounded by others who share values and who share goals and who are "good" do not always come in a day or overnight.  Sometimes they require weeks, months, or years of development.  But with investment, patience, and an awareness of how special the outcome can be (of a well built friendship or of well build fitness) the ultimate goal and ultimate answer will be strong and amazing. 

But while

I was running, in addition to showing patience and resisting the urge to go faster, I was ponder