7 Mile Run

It's a weird thing when you set out for a run and you have a goal to do 7 miles. As I approached my 2nd mile my legs were burning and my mind was saying "turn back"! I fought through it and kept right on running. As I was approaching mile 3 again my mind was saying "turn around now and you have a good solid 6 miler", but I kept going anyway. As I approached the half way mark I finally started to feel better and instead of turning around on what would be a normal 7 mile out and back run I kept going. I ended up following a different route home and when all was said and done I finished with 7.75 miles! I love it when that happens!!

Recovery Run

Last night I headed out for a very easy "Recovery Run"! I heard different views on how much time you should take off after a race to properly recover. I have some goals set for my monthly mileage that I'm a little behind on and wanted to get something in. So I headed out for a 7 mile run but took it very easy. I have a nice hill right outside my door that starts my run off and last night I took it easy going up the hill, I ran the first third of the hill and then walked the rest.

The rest of the run was a combination of an easy 10 - 10 1/2 min/mile pace and brisk walking. It was a nice evening and I was definately feeling it in my legs so I just enjoyed myself and took it really easy. I finished the 7 miles in about 1:20 which gave me an average pace over 11 min/mile which is fine by me. The important thing was to get out there and get the legs moving again and log some more miles for the month. Mission accomplished.

PF Changs Rock n' Roll Half Marathon

I figure I better update my progress here. Sunday I ran in the PF Changs Rock n' Roll Half-Marathon. I usually run the full and infact I've never done just a half ever but I felt like I couldn't go out there and do the full in a time that I would be happy with so I went with the half.

I estimated a time around 2 hours and so I got put into corral 6. I knew a couple people that were in corral 5 so I jumped corrals to try and find them. I never ended up finding them but decided to stay in that corral anyway. The first thing that I noticed about the half was how many people there were. My gosh, it was crowded. When you run the fulls there is 6000-8000 people and it spaces out pretty quickly. The half, however, was crowded the whole way.

My goal was to keep to 9 min/mile pace or slightly faster. Shortly after the start I noticed the pacer holding the 1:52 sign. I knew that if I kept with them I would make my goal so I fell into a good pace keeping the 1:52 pacer in sight. My first 5 mile splits were 8:22, 8:27, 8:24, 8:18 and 8:22. I found my family just before the 6 mile mark and pulled over to say hi and shed my outer layer. I figured a little family attention is always good, it costs you 30 seconds but they're out there cheering for you and it's the least you could do right? So my split on mile 6 was like 9:40 (maybe I took longer than 30 seconds)! Mile 7 and 8 I was right back in the 8:20's. Between mile 9 and 10 we say our first mild incline. Nothing too major but enough to see my spilts go up to 8:53 and 8:51 respectively. On mile 11 I produced a 9:00 split but the finish line was just a couple miles away and I knew I had enough to finish strong. I picked up my pace a little and had an 8:30 and 8:40 on mile 12 and 13.

My chip time was 1:54:02 which gave me a pace of 8:40/mile. Another interesting stat that I would love to hear some comments on was my average and max heartrate. For the run I had an average heartrate of 181 and a max of 194. Now I know that I've always ran with a higher heartrate then most people that I've asked but this one seems even higher than normal for me. I mean yes I want to bring that down and I know it will come down with some weight loss and more training. But I'm amazed that I can keep that heartrate up there for nearly 2 hours. Anyway, I'm happy that I chose to do the half-marathon and I'm happy with my time.

Broke out the bike and dusted it off!

Today was the day I had planned to break out the bike and head out for my first ride since my last triathlon back in June of 2008. So how do I break it in? I go for a 50 miler! I haven't done a 50 miler since I was in Jr. High and our Pathfinders (think boy scouts done through a church group) would do these Bike-A-Thons where we would get sponsors and then ride 50 miles to raise money for our group so we could go on campouts.

We have a really good bike path that runs from Corona where I live all the way to the beach around Huntington (about 60 miles one way). If I park down where the bike path starts then there is no street lights to stop for or vehicle traffic, just a straight shot with a couple bridges to cross over the riverbed but that's it. Anyway, my plan today was to do about 50 miles so I headed out from my house which gave me about 11 miles of hills before I reached the flat bike trail. I wastn't sure that I was going to takle the hills on the back end of my ride or call my wife to come pick me up at the bike trail.

Before I go any further about my ride I need to note that not only did I have to dust off my bike but I also had some rust when it came to preparing for my ride and a couple mistakes on the ride itself. First of all, I was all ready to head out the door when I noticed that my Garmin was almost out of battery. Do I take off without it or wait an hour or so for it to charge up? I wait! Instead of taking off by 10am I end up getting out the door closer to noon.

The first half of my ride went well, but it was here where I encountered my 2nd mistake and this one was a mental mistake. I had convinced myself the whole time I was heading out on my out and back course that I was heading into a slight headwind. I was averaging about 18mph and I just figured that if there wasn't a headwind I would be doing closer to 20mph. When I reached the turn-around point about 29 miles into my ride I noticed that I now was heading back into a pretty steady headwind. On the flat trail I was averaging about 15mph and getting pretty frustraded with myself.

My third mistake came after I called my wife at the turn-around. I stopped my Garmin and no I didn't have it set for Auto-stop/start. I forgot to start it back up when I started up again and didn't notice it for about 5-6 miles. So now add the frustration that I'm not going to get an accurate measurement of this ride.

My legs started aching about 40 miles into the ride and was wondering if my calf was going to cramp up on me. My butt was starting to numb up and I was seeing my speed drop down into the 12-13mph range. I finish the ride and my wife was there waiting for me and my numbers looked like this. 47 miles in about 3 hours which gave me an average of about 15.5mph. My HR averaged 157 bpm.

I guess you could say that my last mistake was heading out for a 50 mile ride after 6 months with my bike parked in the garage. On the other had, I made it and my time was only about 20-25 minutes more than I was hoping I would do. My legs feel fine, my butt might be sore for another day but all in all I'm grateful that I got my first ride back out of the way.

Day Three

This is the third day in a row that I got myself out the door for a run. I really didn't feel like doing it today, but we've all been through that before. For the most part my pace was about the same as yesterday. I did 6.52 miles today in 1:00:50, which gives me a 9:20/mile pace. I have just under 20 miles for the last three days and I'm well on my way for my goal of 100 miles in January.

I'm also trying to decide whether to run in the PF Changs Rock n' Roll Marathon or Half Marathon coming up in 2 weeks in Phoenix, AZ. I've run the last two years and would hate to miss a year when I could have a nice consecutive streak going but I just don't feel ready to do the full at this point. I don't know but I need to decide here pretty soon. If I run the PF Changs or not I still would like to get in the LA Marathon or the San Diego Rock n' Roll in May.

I need to hit the triathlon calenders online and find maybe some shorter distance ones to do late spring.

Good day today!

This morning I woke up and headed out to the gym to get some laps in. I knew it was going to be difficult having not swam since June 6 months ago. Also my back has been hurting when I wake up in the mornings and I definately felt it in the pool this morning. Having said all that, I got 1500m done in 43:48. Not too happy with the time but I know it will improve.

This evening I took off on another run and did 6.5 miles in 1:00:40, took about 4 minutes off of yesterdays run time. I just felt a lot better out there tonight so I pushed the pace a little faster. Another interesting note was that my average HR was 163 tonight at the faster pace where it was 166 yesterday.

So two pretty good days to start off the New Year!! Tomorrow I plan to do a longer run.

New Year and New Motivation

January 1, 2009 - The start of a new year and I hope the start of more consistant workouts. Today didn't start off too good. I had a lot of family over and I just found it hard to do anything constructive at all. Then I got into watching a few football games including the Rose Bowl with USC in which they won!!

Finally in the evening I laced up the running shoes and heading out for an easy run. Completed 6.35 miles in about 1:04:00. Tomorrow I plan on hitting the pool for some laps.

Ford Ironman Arizona 2009

I'm officially registered for the Ford Ironman Arizona 2009 which will be held on November 22, 2009 in Tempe, AZ. I'm totally excited and confident that I will be ready for this race. I have done 8 triathlons and 5 marathons up until now but this will be my first Ironman distance triathlon.

I have a long way to go, my last race was 6 months ago and since then I've put on about 15 pounds. As of this morning I was 220 pounds and I want to drop down to 180 pounds before next November. So I have 343 days and 40 pounds to lose and a lot of swimming, biking and running to do. I will be using P90X as my strength training program along with my work in the specific disciplines.

Nutrition is also going to have to be changed up a lot. Basically sticking to mostly whole foods with lots of veggies, chicken and fish. No soda, no fastfood, limited sweets and baked goodies, no alcohol.

I'll be posting my daily workouts and nutition log. I would love if anyone who reads this could give me some input as I embark on this major task ahead of me. I'll also be posting a Day 1 picture since my body will probably be going through a dramatic physical transformation during the next 300+ days.

Day 1 starts tomorrow with an easy paced 6 mile run followed later in the day with P90X Chest & Back.

Until tomorrow, Good night!

Today's The Day!!

FIGHTING THE TREND OF OBESITY

Zoot Sprint Triathlon

They called this "Arizona's Hottest Triathlon!", I would of named it "Arizona's Hilliest Sprint Triathlon!" Now, I know I'm new to the whole triathlon thing. This was only my 2nd race, but I've been a spectator at a half dozen other races and this course had more ups and downs then Britney and Paris combined. All kidding aside, despite the hills which I haven't prepared for at all this was a beautiful day and a great sprint race.

Set the alarm for 4:30am, already had everything ready to go so I sat down to some hot oatmeal, vitamins and water. Woke the family up at 5am, got the kids dressed and in the car by 5:20am. We had packed them a breakfast to go the night before. Got to the venue at 6am and it was looking like it was going to be a beautiful day. Plenty of room in the transition area, I got marked and laid everything out. This took a little different planning then the last race being that it was a point-to-point race. All running gear had to be put into a transition #2 bag to be shuttled over to transition #2 by the race directors.

I entered the water about 5 minutes before the 7am start time. About 50 percent of the participants looked to have wetsuits on, I won't be buying a wetsuit until I really need one. The water felt great, my only warm up was the 100 meters or so to get over to the starting bouy. The gun went off sharply at 7am and we were off. I tried to start off on the outside again but there was still a little contact with some people up until the first turn about 200 meters into the swim. The rest of the swim went much like my olympic tri 3 weeks ago. Kept to the freestyle for most of the swim, used breast stroke to get my bearings every once in a while. I tried to draft off of other swimmers, follow their bubbles so to speak, but many times their pace was different and so I found myself moving to the outside with nothing but open water in front of me. I came out of the water a looked at the clock, 22 minutes. This would make my pace just slightly faster than my first race. Transition #1 went faster than the previous race as well, by the time I got onto the bike the clock read 25:54.

The bike started out with a large climb away from the lake and out to the park entrance. I haven't done much biking at all let alone any type of hill training. This race had about 6 climbs where I was fortunate to average about 9 miles per hour. Of course there were a number of downhills as well where my speed was reading about 35-37 miles per hour. No problems with the bike and I pulled into Transition #2 with a bike leg of 46:48 averaging 18.3 mph. T2 was less than a minute given that I don't have cycling shoes yet and already had my running shoes on. Plus they took our bikes and racked them for us, so all I did was take my helmit off and put a hat on and off I went.

I guess another thing I didn't know going into this race was that 2/3 of the run portion was going to be a trail run with softball sized rockes that you had to navigate all the while climbing more hills! I was feeling good though and I was passing quite a few people. At mile 2 we got back onto the pavement and the course threw one more hill at us. I finished the 5k run in 26:27 which gave me a total race time of 1:39:09. I was pleased with this time given the toughness of the hills. I ranked 63/121 in the men's division and 9/19 in the men's 35-39 age group and 88/237 overall.

I think that was my last tri until the fall, I was thinking about doing the Timex Triathlon in Tempe and then maybe going for the Soma in October. I'll keep up with my training, I'm still trying to drop 10-15 pounds to get down to about 185.

Here's some pics from the Tempe International

Coming out of the water at 34:49 for 1500 meters

1:18:19 Time for the 40k bike

59:20 for the 10k and a finish time of 2:57:57!

I'm looking to continue training hard, I'd like to lose another 10-15 pounds (currently I'm at 203, 1 year ago I was at 240!), I'm going to pick out a sprint distance here in the next month to race in and then set myself up for an olympic distance triathlon in the fall. I would really like to cut 15-20 minutes off of my next olympic distance. I'm confident I can shave 5 minutes off of each of the 3 stages as well as some time off of my T1 (I had a 4:09).

Tempe International Triathlon Competed!

Yesterday I finished my first official triathlon! I'm very happy, and I finished close to what I had expected. The water was 77 degrees so wetsuits were allowed, however, I hadn't purchased a wetsuit yet so I was going without regardless. The temp was fine, it was a deep water start and when the gun went off I tried to select a path that was clear of anybody else. I kept pretty much to the outside of everyone and only a couple times did I come close to anyone at all. The swim looked very intimidating, I hadn't done any open water swims and it looked like such a long way. I guess it's just hard to compare a 1500m loop to 30 laps in my gyms pool. I used some breast stroke here and there to get my bearings and get a good breath after sucking in some water. I exited the water and looked at my watch as I ran to the transition area and it had just hit 35 minutes. T1 was kind of slow, just over 4 minutes, but I have wimpy feet and so I rinsed the grass off of them and toweled them off before putting on my socks and shoes.

I started out on the bike and was trying to get going and was frustrated because I couldn't get my computer to show my speed. I couldn't read the display and eventually just forgot about it and tried to concentrate on my riding. The bike route was a loop to be completed 4 times, I hadn't previewed it at all so it was all new to me. There was a slight climb about half way through the loop but it was short and it had a nice long downslope on the backside of it. All in all the bike portion was pretty easy, the only thing I had difficulty on was getting my fluid replacement. I noticed alot of people with bottles up by there aerobars with a long straws, I definately need this. I had two bottles on my bike, it was just difficult getting drinks while on the go. I need to practice that some more to get more comfortable. I finished the 4th loop and pulled into the transition area and figured that I spent under 1 hour and 20 minutes on the bike.

T2 was a quick one, i think only a little over a minute. I grabbed an energy drink out of my bag and took off on the run. The temp had started to climb and I was feeling it. It was definately in the mid 90's already and I as sucking down the liquids but was feeling upset to my stomache also. I finished off my bottle by the 2nd aid station and started drinking the water they had. Even though my running is my strongest discipline I felt overheated and just not running good. I started walking at the aid stations just long enough to get my water and dump some on my head and then I would pick it up again. My pace was just slower than I had hoped and I knew that my 10k was going to be in the upper 50s. The roar of the crowd as I neared the finished pumped me up and I really tried to push myself the last quarter mile. I crossed the finish line relieved it was over and stopped my timer on my watch it read 2 hours and 58 minutes. This was about 13 minutes over what I had hoped to do but for my first but altogether not too bad. I know a few places where I can make some quick improvements and then of course with some more all around training I would like to see my times on the Olympic distance under 2 hours 30 minutes. I've been looking online for a good sprint distance triathlon in the area to do in the next month or so, but my next major Olympic distance might be the Las Vegas Triathlon in the fall. We'll see! But for now, I'll keep training like a madman. No pictures yet but I'll post some soon.

Tempe International Triathlon 2007

Sunday, May 20, 2007 will be my first official Triathlon! I signed up for the Olympic Distance Tri which consists of a 1500m Swim (approx. 30 laps in 25m pool), 40K Bike (approx. 24.8 miles) and a 10K Run (6.2 miles). Am I ready for it? As ready as I'm going to be for now. I've started a new strength program using the P90X program from Tony Horton. Awesome, Awesome workouts! On top of that I've been swimming down at the gym twice a week, running 7 mile runs in 1 hour about twice a week, and biking (or spin class) about once per week. It's not about finishing for me, I want to do well. Which for me means finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack, maybe top 25 in my age group out of approx. 50. I would be happy with that. I've crunched the numbers quite a bit, but it's hard to say what I'll finish in with this being my first. I would like to think I'll be somewhere around the 2:30 to 2:40 range. I've printed out checklist to make sure I have all the gear, I'll be going without a wetsuit but with our temps being in the low 100's the last couple weeks I'm not to concerned about that. Anyway, I'll be sure to post how I did and then we will go from there in terms of what my next race will be and when. So wish me luck!