Let me comp the ways…

The end is at hand. I am in the process of working on my comp which is a comprehensive exam. Basically, it’s a research paper. I have decided out of the three topics I have chosen to work on question 1 which is about libraries using Facebook and Twitter. This is a close topic to my heart as my library system has a Facebook page and no Twitter account. There have been some success with Facebook but it is still far from being properly used. Part of the fault lies of the restriction the county places on the library system as we are part of county services. Second, who are we trying to reach and what do we want to convey. I think this part more than the first is a huge barrier. We are comprised of 48 library branches and have a single voice that is clear and consistent is a huge challenge. Lastly, there is a possible upcoming new social media position that looks to be create in the near future. I am hoping that the research I will do can help prepare me for a possible interview.

While I am in day 2 of the paper, I have yet to write a single word. I spent my first day doing research and getting the actual paper in shape with title page, abstract, topic and reference page. I have downloaded more articles than I usually do but I think I have a good start. As for today, I have spent the day catching up on rest and reading some of the articles. I have noticed that I am not good at spending hours and hours on just one thing. Just like my marathon running, when I take breaks between miles or time sessions, I do better. And even when I am not writing, I am still thinking about my topic and mulling over ideas. I can’t wait to get this over and finish my last set of assignments and be done altogether.

It’s not over yet…

 

Social Research Methods. Edition 7. Chapter 1

Why do research? On the whole, this sounds like a relatively simple thing to do but what I’ve read about concept sounds even more complicated in the age of the internet. Mind you, I have no problems delving into a subject that I want to know more about and at times, explain to my family and friends the findings I’ve come across. It is when we need to take things to the next level. I’ve remember on several occasions on past employment where I thought we should do something to help a certain process get streamlined or increase the bottom line by using technology to handle much of the workload even if I lost my job in the process. As I did some research, I would find some articles which had valid points to support my idea. While I believe my claim is legit, I may have something that is called selective observation. Neuwman (p.4) stated, “Studies also document our tendency to “seek out” and distort memories to make them more consistent with what we already think.” This is just one of five errors in our everyday decisions and the research process tries to reduce such errors. Those are: Overgeneralization, Halo effect, Premature closure, False consensus, and Selective observation.

What is then the research process to help overcome or reduce the errors? The Steps are: Select a topic, Focus the question, Design the study, Collect data, Analyze the data, Interpret the data and Inform others.

Select a topic: this would be a study or an issue of professional  or personal interests. Avoid topics that are too broad.

Focus the question: narrow the topic down to a specific research question which the study can address.

Design the study: Requires making decisions about the type of case or sample to select, how to measure relevant factors, and what research technique like a questionnaire or an experiment.

Collect data: we must record and verify information in the form of numbers. (ie. X amount voted for Y.)

Analyze data: condense the data use computer software to create charts, tables, graphs to give a picture.

Interpret the data: examination of the data with the research topic, what answers do we come up with for our research question.

Inform others: the report of the findings and results are created.

First 1/2 Marathon Under My Belt!!!

I had to give myself a couple of days to, not so much recover but reflect on what a major accomplishment I did in my life. Getting married, graduating from college, raising a family, these are all high of my list of accomplishments but what I did was a long time coming. I remember growing up in NYC, (Da’ Bronx), watching the NYC marathon on TV every October. As always, the news reports would show a variety of runners from young to old. Why couldn’t I do this too? I tried for a bit when I was in Junior High School but never stuck with it more than a week. Nonetheless, I had always wanted to do this but never gave it much thought. I fact, I never thought about it for almost 30 years. But as fate would have it, my year-long unemployment was almost a blessing in disguise. Since I couldn’t find work, my family and friends had to go to work and school, I had nothing else to do. My depression, which I’ve always dealt with food, was not getting better. There were times I wanted not to be here any more. I felt worthless with nothing to show but of course, that was when the ING Marathon in 2012 came in to focus.

I had always been a walker because living in NY that is what you do; you walk. Here in Miami, in the hot, sweltering, and humid stickiness, I continued to walk and to boot with a backpack. Yes, the walks were draining but this was the extent of exercise. When the ING rolled around, this is when I decided to challenge myself to walk 13.11 miles. I just wanted to prove to myself that it could be done; that I could do it. 3+ hours later, in pain and barely able to stand, I did what I set out to do. For some reason, this is the exact moment when I thought to run in the ING the following year. In the 10 years that the ING was running, I never paid attention to it until 2012. In the following weeks, I used the Couch 2 5K app on my iPhone and I was on my grueling way.

As I’ve mentioned before, I was unemployed and had nothing but time on my hands. I went through the app in 1/2 the time and did it a second time. Once I was able to run for 30 minutes straight, yes I was tired and in pain, I knew that running a 5k was not out of reach. And once I achieved this goal, a couple of months later, I did a 10k. Just as I thought, I had pushed myself to the limit, I did not stop training. Along the way, the countless hours of running in the day and night, not once did I say I am not going to run the 1/2 marathon. The only thing stopping me was $$$. When I got my job back as a librarian, I ran during lunch on my first day back and continued to train even harder. On my first or second paycheck, I paid my fee to enter in the 1/2 marathon 2013. There was no turning back. Despite my wife apprehension about not even racing in a 5k, I never thought I couldn’t do it. In December 2012, I ran 12.6 miles with a run pace of 6-1-6 (run 6 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 6 minutes). I miscalculated the distance on my Nike+ app as I was trying to convert the kilometers to miles in my head. Still, I went beyond anything else to date. I had to do it again but I held off until the day of the real race.

The night before, I had to finish up a library homework assignment after work. When I was done with this, I head to the Sports Authority to get some last minute supplies. I got a new white Nike cap, body glide and a couple packets of GU Energy Gels. I still needed to have some type of pasta for dinner and came across the Rockfish Grill. By this time, it was already past 10 when we were done. My kids had to sleepover at my in-laws house as I had to get up around 4am with my wife. By the time I got into bed, it was a little after 12am. My wife was out but I was still wired with the knowledge that I was going to do something I thought I was never ever going to do.

3 1/2 hours later, I was up. I could not sleep anymore but I let my wife sleep a bit more. Having done my research, I did not have coffee or any caffeine on the day of the race. The 4am alarm goes off to the tunes of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are Gonna Go My Way” and I’m doing some slight head banging to the opening. My wife gets up and I go do my warm up stretches in the next room. By 4:30am, we are out and about (or aboot if you’re Canadian, eh). Of course, traffic is light until we get to downtown. Having parked a couple of blocks away from the American Airlines Arena, this was really happening and boy did I have to pee.

Moving on, my wife and I headed towards the Arena and with 30 minutes left, I did not know where to go. When I checked in with Foursquare and posted this, a friend of mine posted that I should go the starting line. Ha…ha..ha. But seriously, I saw corrals with letters and I did know where I belonged. My wife looked at my runner number and saw in little print Corral I. We looked all around and could not find it. Finally asked someone who looked like he worked for the marathon and pointed my due south where the finish line was. Feeling like salmon swimming upstream, we pushed the oncoming crowds but there was nothing except the place to check your bag. So, we headed back up to the Arena. The race was about to begin but since I had a letter further down the alphabet, I wasn’t to worried…except that I still had to pee. Luckily, the long lines that were there before the race were practically gone once the marathon began. As the letters were being called off, I still couldn’t find Corral I and decided to tag along with Corral H since there wasn’t anyone stopping me.

Having said goodbye to my wife, I started to head towards the starting line. I had to take this picture as past the American flag was the starting line. I texted this to a couple of people to let them know that I was about to start the race. And right before I get to the starting line, I fired up my Nike+ app, music already playing, and then right before I start my run, I look to my right and there was Corral I. I said, “Screw that shit, I’m not waitin’.” Off I went and my heart was racing.

This was an amazing feeling to experience to run with so many people. I started to get overwhelmed with emotions when I attack my first incline. I was heading east and saw daylight ahead. I promised myself not to focus on taking pictures during the race but I did…twice. This picture was me on that first incline.

Once I approached my first 15 minutes, I remembered to stop running and to walk for a minute. I had practiced this so many times that I had to make sure I actually did during the race. I had to remember I was only competing with myself and no one else. The only gripe from this moment on was the lack of water until the 3rd mile. I know I read the water stations would begin after the first mile but I was getting worried that this was not happening. However, after seeing a crowd pulling over to the right for water made me happy. While the sun was just rising, I was starting to feel the effects thirst.

The second picture I took was this older gentleman with a black t-shirt with 13.1 on the back. This became my elusive goal. Every 15 minutes, I would get close enough to over take him but then the 1 minute walk would kick in and he would be further ahead on the course. The next 15 minutes, I made up for the lost time and distance but to only lose those gains during the next walk. This went on for several miles and lost time after mile 7.

Around mile 8, I smudged my glasses as I was wiping away the sweat from my brow. I had nothing to properly clean them so I put them in my pocket. At mile 9, I started to hit “The Wall”. I wasn’t a matter that I was worried about not finishing the race but my muscles were becoming sore and stiff. The pace of 15-1-15 was dropped to 10-1-10 but I couldn’t do that. I opted for 6-2-6 which got me through the next two miles. At mile 11, I had to drop my run time to 3-2-3. The pain was increasing and my goal of finishing the race 2 hours and 30 minutes was going to happen. By mile 12, I grabbed several cups of water and Gatorade which I needed desperately. I still get going because I was already in the home stretch. I just need to just go – walking or running – it didn’t matter. I had to finish this race no matter what.

With a several tenths of a mile to go, I get a text from wife with words of encouragement. Right then, I stepped it up. I really started to press down hard to gain some speed. At one point, my app was telling that I was about to be finished with the half marathon and I sped even faster – weaving in and out between the runners in my way. And what I thought was a finish line was nothing more than a freaking banner. I was wondering why no was stopping and starting cursing as I still had about a 1/3 of mile to go.

Finally, when I headed into the homestretch, I saw the crowds cheering us on even more. I saw the grand stands which meant the finish line was close. And as soon as I saw the banner, I went balls to the wall and ran my heart out. I did not want to finish this race by just walking in. I wanted to end on a high note. Again, I was weaving between the runners. I wanted to yell, “Rabbit coming through!!!” I still don’t know why I was channeling Bugs Bunny but none of it mattered when I crossed the line. That’s when I all came to a head and started to cry into my towel. Not that I’m afraid to cry but I did not want to share this moment with anyone. I kept walking with my head down to regain my composure. By this time, my phone’s power was down to 2% and could not get through to my with. Eventually, we found each other and hugged her as hard as I could. While I would have loved to have my kids there, my wife made up for it. I called up my mom to let me know that I was ok and that I did complete the race. She started to cry and told me how proud she was of me.

From that moment on, I had to make our way back to the car, head home, rest, and go to my daughter’s birthday party. After that, I had to finish another library homework assignment which was due. By the time, everyone was home and in bed, I had been up for about 30 hours straight. And I still went to work the next day.

What is in store for me in the future? Well, this past Tuesday, I registered to run the ING next year but for the full marathon. I will be running during the last couple semesters for school but not training as hard until August. From that point on, I will be in full training mode for 2014. Yesterday, I ran again during lunch because I just had to… again. I started to think about another future goal. When I turn 50 which will be in less than 5 years. I want to prepare myself for the full Iron Man Triathlon. This was another spectacle that I watched growing up which I never thought about doing myself. Now, that has all changed. I’ll keep you posted along the way.

1 Day to Go!!!

Last Tuesday was my last training run and promised myself that was it. The rest of the week, I had to take it easy and work on my stretching and just plain walking. Well, I felt in trouble last saturday and didn’t think much of it. Each night after that I had the worst night of sleep due to my sinuses being inflamed. This got progressively worse until thursday, I had to call out from work. I did manage to get to work on Friday but only because I was feeling cabin fever just the one day plus I had to pick up my runner’s tag. I felt better last night and slept almost completely through without having to prop myself to a sitting position or have a sneezing attack. I woke up really rested and more alert in days and this was before my morning coffee.

Zoom to my lunch and I decided to do about a 30 minute run and test out the Jog.FM app on my phone. I wanted to know what I would be dealing with before my run and I am so glad I did. I read the reviews ahead of time and not all was glowing about Jog. Regardless, I did not see a another app where I could program the time/beats I wanted the song to match. For example, I want to run 10:30 per mile (10 mins. 30 secs.), I programmed this and the songs are played accordingly. The other apps would find music to match the speed that I was running. This is okay but what I notice is my speed will vary and drop off depending how long I was running. I want the opposite and need to keep at a steady beat. The problem with Jog was that every time I opened up the app, it had to scan the music on the phone. Mind you, this is not a long process but it was annoying each time. It wasn’t as if I added new music to my iPhone, I would understand if this was the case but this constant update needs to be corrected.

My next gripe has to do with how the app runs meaning this app has to be on top over all others. Since the iPhone 4S can run multiple apps at the same time, somehow when I run my Nike+ app and Jog together, unless Jog is on top, after the song plays the Nike+ app will pause my workout suddenly. When I put Jog on top, I did not have the same problem except I could not see my running time. While I have a watch, I don’t want to be constantly looking at my watch and/or switching apps during the run to see how far I ran, speed and run time. This is something I will not be fumbling with as this proves to be more of a distraction and a pain in the ass to manage on the fly. At one point, I had to slow down my pace to avoid the wheezing I started to feel in my chest. I did change the pace to 11:00 per mile but again, I had to fumble in the process and not focus at the task at hand or rather under foot. I just think I’ll leave this app for training only. I’ll deal with my own pacing during the race.

In about 12+ hours, I will take my first steps into a much larger world. I am looking forward to completing this challenge and then focusing on finishing my coursework.

2 Days to Go!!!

Two benefits of working on the beach is being able to run during my lunch and the 2nd is being really close to the Miami Beach Convention Center. Today, I have picked up my racing packet which not only confirms that I will be racing this coming sunday but more importantly, this long-term goal will soon become a reality. While I am extremely excited about achieving something new in my life, I came down with a cold the other day. I was lucky enough to have remained this healthy for so long as everyone else in my family had been ill weeks ago but the timing really sucked. Since the cold is primarily in my head, it has not spread down to my chest. This has been an ongoing problem since I started to train. I can run at varying speeds with a clear chest but if I have congestion, I have to stay at a slower speed as not to aggravate the problem. But, as I cough, it’s clear and not a trace of anything problematic.

Tonight and tomorrow, I looking forward to carb-ing up and see how this will affect me for my run. Also tomorrow, while not a training day, I do need to test out a music app and see how well I can use it for my run. The app I had chosen is called Jog.FM. I heard about this app back in 2011 and wanted to explore the pre-program beats per minute with running. I have seen other which were fine but they sync music based on how fast you are going. What I want and need is my music to keep me up at a certain speed. I am looking at a pace of 10:30/mile and looking to be done in 2 1/2 hours. This may or may not work for me as I am planning on taking a 1 minute walk break every 15 minutes. Regardless, as long as I can finish, I will be extremely happy and proud of what I have been able to do and overcome. Come next year, I am planning on running again for the ING but for the full marathon course. Below, is a video of the racing course but of the full run only. As I mentioned in the earlier entry, this video looks exactly how I had my pre-visual dream.

If you want to track me online for this link:
http://www.racemyrace.com/hosted/ingmiami_half.php

My pre-visual dream

Yesterday, I drove around the ING half marathon route to prepare myself mentally for my upcoming race. I took things easy over the weekend as I did not want to overwork myself; besides I had to deal with homework. Now, the good thing about what I did was know what I needed to do and expect along the race route. Almost right from the beginning, I have a tremendous incline to deal before I can run the race on my time. At mile 3, there is another incline, not a severe, but another point of attack. I have practiced several times to increase my speed at certain times for such an occassion and I’m hoping this will payoff big time.

Last night, I went to bed and dreamt about this course. I literally felt the course running through my head. Along the way, I remembered looking around at the sites à la virtual reality. I know this will help me to run a better race especially when I can visual myself doing that task. Now, having done this, I did not sleep restfully. This is not what I need with only a few days before my big day. My big thing coming up is to get my running music in order. I am looking at several apps to help in this matter and will likely write about it. I’ll keep you posted.

Run, Runner!!!!

One week from tomorrow, I am going to do something beyond anything I’ve ever done. Yes, it’s been a long while since I last wrote an entry on my blog but I’ve been busy; if not busier. Things are progressing great at my library branch which is an outlook on how I get up in the morning. While the commute stinks, I am able to be the same librarian I was way before the layoff ever occurred. I am that person on staff who is reliable, dependable and a go to person when there’s a problem or situation that arises. In the middle of all this, I have still managed to keep up with my half marathon training regiment.

Around a year ago, when the ING Marathon was going on, I decided to walk 13.1 miles. I wasn’t looking to run since I did not have the stamina but walking was something I was accustom to. 3+ hours later, I was in pain, stiff and sore but I did it. I didn’t think about running until my depression sunk in even more in the coming weeks. I had started to C25K (Couch to 5k) app once before but I had to do something with my time since I was not working nor going to school. Doing the app the first time around, I was not exactly physically fit but I was one step closer towards improving my health.

I did C25K a second time and noticed that I was able to hold my own and actually improved on my earlier times. It wasn’t until the end of the 2nd go around, where I noticed I was coming close to the 3 mile mark. At the end of C25K, you are asked to run for 30 minutes straight with a 5 minute warmup and cool down. When I pushed myself, I think in March, I did my first 5k even though it was more than 30 minutes. From that moment on, I was hooked. This is not to say I was a runner from that point on but I was becoming one. From there, I think a month or two, I did a 10k. I started to think  about doing a half marathon and the ING was going to be here I would do this.

Flash forward, next week will be my ultimate test in my phsyical abilities and endurance. While I have come close to running 13.1 miles, I was just short 1/2 a mile, I can see myself at the finish line. Today’s run was fair but then again, I am harder on myself for feeling not as strong or fast in my run as I should be. Then again, I have other things taking up my time and energy so try to juggle so many things has been a challenge.

I am looking foward to completing this challenge that I personally sought for myself and who knows where the future may lie but a full marathon may not be out of the question. Having said this, I have 3 classes left before completing and then I’ll be free to do more agressive training. After a year of rock bottom nothingness, I am happy to be where I am today. I’ll keep you guys posted on my progress this week as far as my training and preparation.