Training for a Belt Buckle

I did some long slow walking today.  It felt good to be moving.

Just to provide some starting history (more to follow)....

A year or so ago I decided to try and become a 'runner' instead of a walker who occasionally runs.  I have never had speed, but hoped to get faster as I got more comfortable with running.  In 2006 I went through a divorce and my daughter got married and moved to Italy.  Living alone was quite an adjustment (my son was staying with his father then) and I put on quite a bit of weight dealing with depression and eating out all the time.

In 2007, I was some pictures of myself after running the Ogden Marathon and realized I was actually overweight and needed to do something about it. In July, I joined a personal training gym.  I was at 34% bodyfat and 170 pounds.  I thought I was used to working hard, but found out that I was just used to training a lot and not working to my potential (I'm still working on that). I didn't notice much difference after 1 week of training when I did the Deseret News Marathon, but in the end of August ran the Park City Marathon with my running buddy, Leslie.  My goal was to try and run 100 steps, walk 100 steps the entire race - my longest distance doing this before was about 14 miles.  Not only did I accomplish that (including some killer uphills), but about mile 20 I got a second wind and started pushing harder. When I finished, I had lots of energy left and realized the training was paying off.

The first week in October was the St. George Marathon.  My previous marathon best was 5 hours 47 minutes and I wanted to PR the race and break 5:40.  My dream marathon race back then was a 5:30.  Well, I battled food poisoning the entire race and spent a lot of time in the portapotties, but ended up finishing in 5:24 and was so proud of myself. 

I am back to exercising now.  I took 3 weeks off to recover from some major surgery and have been given the go ahead to exercise as long as I don't overdo it (which is hard for me to judge).

Tonight I went to the gym and did an hour of lower body weights.  Then I did a slow 1 mile on the treadmill. It felt good to be running again.  I felt like I needed a girdle because my insides were a bit tender - but am proud to have gotten in a good workout.

I am hoping the three week layoff provided my legs a long needed recovery from the past 4 years of marathons and constant training.

Today I got up early and headed to Wolf Mountain for the first in a series of Xterra races put on by Striders.  The race director, another injured runner and myself hitched a ride up the mountain on a 4 wheel drive cart and set up the aid station. It was available at 2 miles and again at 5.25 miles. The race was a 10K.  The weather was cool and overcast with occasional rain.  The course was very muddy.  We were setup at the bottom of 1 mile of downhill switchbacks and the runners had to make a sharp right at the bottom without crashing into us - which was fun in the mud.

After most of the runners had passed us twice, I volunteered to police the first two miles of the course in reverse and pick up the course markers.  I didn't realize the first mile was literally uphill, but walked it slowly and felt pretty good. I ran the last mile (slowly) downhill and overall felt pretty good.  My arms were tired from carrying all the stakes and clothes I found along the way.

I talked to the race directors and am going to be the sweeper/course cleanup on the remaining races. They will provide me a backpack to load the stakes into which will help.  That way I can get some trail runs in without paying race fees or worrying about going fast as I continue to recover.  My friend Leslie might come along and help me with my duties.