What ever it takes!

I'm not going to be able to do justice for this post, but I realized that today is a very special day for me as far as running goes.  Exactly 2 years ago this day May 1st 2009 I remember jogging on a hotel treadmill in Cancun Mexico, I had just signed up for the St. George marathon (didn't know if I was in or not yet) and then and there it hit me, I weighed close to 250 lbs, could hardly run 2 -3 miles without stopping and I realized that wasn't how I wanted to spend the rest of my life and that the St. George marathon was going to be my goal to change my life.  I also saw that Ryan Jonson from my work had just ran the Boston Marathon in 3:04 and St. George in like 2:47, I'd never known anyone that could run a marathon in than 3 hours and was totally amazed, at that point, that was my goal, run a marathon in under 3:00, crazy huh, who can do that? Funny how relative everything is...  Nothing else really overly dramatic happend that day, I just remember that being the day I had a complete mindset change.  I went and copied a marathon schedule out of a book onto my calander and started following it every day religiously, I'm positive I didn't miss a single workout to the tee from what the book told me to do for the entire cycle. 

Looking back I'm really amazed I have gotten to the point I'm at now in 2 years, I've learned a lot, suffered through a lot of pain and disapointment but I'm very excited about what running has done for me and how it has changed my life.  When people tell me I should just take time off from running to heal my injuries the concept doesn't even make sense to me, I'm surprised it has only been 2 years, it seems like I have been doing this my whole life.

Well, turns out, I didn't get in to St. George that year, I didn't get into St. George last year now finally I'm garanteed a spot.  I'm at the point now where St. George doesn't seem as mystical to me as it did back then, but the symbolism is very great for me.  I really want to figure everything out and have a great race this year.  Every other race I may do leading up is stirctly a training run, I just want to make sure I do everything just right.  I'm probably setting myself up for another huge upset if something happens but I wanted to set the stage.

15 minute elliptical trainer warm up, 9 mile run, followed by another 15 minute elliptical cool down.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	6:50	6:50		152	157
2	13:29	6:39		158	161
3	20:04	6:35		161	163
4	26:34	6:30		161	164
5	33:00	6:26		164	166
6	39:22	6:22		166	167
7	45:56	6:34		165	166
8	52:23	6:27		166	168
9	58:30	6:16		168	169
Total	58:43	6:31		162	169

 

15 minutes on the ARC trainer, 8.5 mile run starting out slow, 15 minutes on the ARC again and then some leg strengthening exercises.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	7:50	7:50		140	164
2	15:19	7:29		147	150
3	22:38	7:19		151	153
4	29:40	7:02		155	158
5	36:33	6:53		159	162
6	43:12	6:39		162	165
7	49:43	6:31		164	166
8	56:27	6:44		163	165
8.5	59:42	6:30		164	166
Total	59:47	7:02		155	166

 

1600 meter swim in 32 minutes and then 8 miles on the treadmill, the swim took a lot more out of me than I thought swimming did, which is good cause that's what I'm trying to do, simulate longer runs without completely pounding my leg to death but I just never really got comfortable running, I was all over the place, couldn't find a pace that felt good so instead of going the intended 9 I quit and 8. :(

 

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	7:01	7:01		148	154
2	13:54	6:53		155	157
3	20:42	6:48		158	159
4	27:25	6:43		159	162
5	34:13	6:48		158	161
6	41:12	6:59		149	156
7	47:58	6:46		156	160
8	54:41	6:43		157	160
Total	55:01	6:51		155	162

I'm trying to loose about 10 -15 more lbs so I'm on a new diet that I created myself, I used to make peanut butter and honey sandwiches at work but I decided to ditch the bread and just eat  3 - 4 spoon fulls of peanut butter and honey every few hours, I also eat a couple of oranges or apples throughout the day.  Seems to be working,  I've lost 3 lbs so far.  That's just my day time diet, when I get home at night all bets are off and I just eat what ever the wife has prepared for dinner.

5 very slow miles from my office for lunch, about 1 mile up Big Cottonwood Canyon and back.  8:03/mile pace.  Here are some people that are faster than I was.

5:00 am---

Apparently I over did it yesterday,  1 hour on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights.  I brought my bike to work today, planning on going on a ride for lunch.  I haven't been on a bike in 2 years, should be interesting.

12:00 pm---

That was awesome!  Last time I rode my bike I weighed 70 lbs more and wasn't anywhere close to the fitness (obviously) that I am now.  It was amazingly easy, I felt like I was just flying up every hill.  I rode with my best friend whom I also work with, he used to just kill me going up hills when we used to ride to work together 4 years ago.  Today, he had nuthin on me :)   18 miles along Wasatch Blvd out and back.

That settles it, next year, St. George Iron Man.

Saving myself for a long run tomorrow hopefully, so 1 hour on the elliptical again.  Taking the day off to finish some projects around the house before I leave for Istanbul on Sunday.  Should be interesting running there, on my last day there my plan is to run in 3 different continents in the same day.  Asia, Europe, North America.  To bad I don't have a layover in Africa!!

I may try and go on a bike ride this afternoon if I can get through my hunnydo list.

Well, I guess that answered that question.  Unless I decided to do it just as a slow long training run, UVM is off.  If anyone needs a 3:15 pacer I may be good for that.  Very slow, very miserable run this morning, which is to bad cause it was an absolutely beautiful morning.  Ryan was a great sport and stayed with me the entire way.

16.5 miles in 2:07:00  ~7:40/mile avg pace.