The longer road to Ironman

Been a while but I think that moving is a reasonable excuse.

So the running is getting better because my asthma seems to be more manageable at the moment. I am still way behind on my training for the summer and will likely drop back to the 1/2 marathon training program to help me get caught up.

I have significantly stepped up my midweek training program by adding multiple spin classes in each week in addition to my weekend runs. If I keep that up for a few weeks then I should really start to see some major improvements. My weight is being very stubborn and not responding in the way it normally does to diet and exercise changes but the addition of spin should push it over the edge.

Sorry for the shortness of this but we are still recovering from the move so i am forced to write this on my lunch break at work. Hopefully I will be able to write a more complete update this weekend.

Not sure why it is so much harder to get going this time. I mean this is nothing compared to training for Ironman. I guess I am older, more over weight, my asthma is worse, I am married and have more family responsibility. I doubt it is any of those but maybe a little of all of them.

I am still struggling to keep up with the mid-week runs. I am either too exhausted from work or too over whelmed with my asthma to get quality runs in. My long runs are still fine, slower then I ever thought I would run but fine.

My new plan is to take some of the pressure of my running and just focus on doing anything during the week. Maybe let myself off the hook for that Wednesday run and go for an easy ride or a long hilly walk. Maybe without the performance pressures, I will be able to get some base building in and get enough momentum to get over the starting hurdle.

I am feeling a little bit tired and burned out at work... not really interested in doing much of anything work related. Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up and nap. Oh well.

Things are still going well on the running front. I did my Thursday run and although I am still running slower then ever, I am still running. My Saturday run with the team went OK. I ran with the 13min/mile group who were much closer to 15min/mile but I wasn't about to complain.

They are still VERY disorganized and I hear that from everyone who used to do TNT. We are not organized and there is little to no communication on how things go. I wasn't sure if I needed to bring all of my gear over to the lecture on Saturday or if there would be time to swap before we started. In fact, even the pace coaches didn't seem to know whether they were going give us time for a quick potty break and gear swap or just take off. It seemed like a decision made on the spot. Lovely. Not to mention the nagging I am getting from other TNT people I see on the trail about our group learning to share the trail and leave some room for others.

As much as I am complaining, the team is huge help. It has kept me motivated and running. I have a goal, a plan, and I am moving.

Just over a week into my new training regiment and I am still going strong (which is more then I can say for some of my previous attempts). The schedule this week involved running Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday for about 25 minutes each. My work schedule kept me from running Monday but I did Tuesday and I am going today and I did a cross training workout on Monday. I will likely end up being 1 run short this week but I am very comfortable with that. Until my body gets used to running again, it is probably better to take it slow. My knees are not hurting exactly but I can feel that they are taking a beating.

I have also dropped about 3 pounds in the last 10 days. Some of that is likely water weight but I will take what i can get. I really need to drop another 15-20 pounds before the miles start to get too long.

Summary, things are still looking good.

So obviously my life has gotten busier since becoming married and starting a wonderful jointed life. Also the economy has created a lot more job stress and longer hours. That being said, I have still totally and completely failed and getting myself motivated again. The post below was about accountability, if I had to write down my failures then I would be more likely to stick to my plan... unless of course I just skipped out on writing anything at all.

Well this year I have to do better.

My wife and I are expecting our first child in October and we are very excited about it! I expect that after October, I will be busy and tired and that I need to make any major life changes now and get them locked in before that day. To that end, I have joined a running group. TNT was the best thing that ever happened to me fitness wise. I am learning that I really struggle to motivate on my own. With a social group to support me and a group of people expecting me to be out there running with them, I find that I follow through better.

Enter San Jose Fit! It appears to be very similar to the old TNT run team except it is much larger (TNT was a larger organization and they divided the teams up into regions to keep the size manageable), less variety in the run locations, not quite the same organization (and that is purely based upon 1 workout - I fully expect to find that they are organized as the season progresses), and no fundraising requirements. I loved the fundraising with TNT but I am happy to leave it behind this year. It also helps since it is actually very likely that I will not do an event this year. All of the great races are around October/November and I have no plans to abandon my wife and new born to go and run a race and then recover. Maybe in the Spring I will race again. Kaiser 1/2 is in February :-)

OK, so I have started running again and the extra weight is a nightmare! I have never been in a serious running program this heavy (275 right now) and it just plain sucks. You wouldn't think that 15 lbs more or less would matter at my size but it really does. I really need to peel some of this off before the miles start to scale up.

Anyway, today's run. 2 miles - 29:10. Pretty sad but you have to start somewhere.

Test post from my phone

After IMC, things went bad in a hurry. I didn't understand it for a while but I fell into a depression and managed to add like 40 pounds in 6 months (didn't know that was possible). Since then I have taken off about 30 of the pounds and improved my diet significantly, gotten married, and started work on my certification as a personal trainer.

What I have not done is train. I haven't been in the water since Canada and have logged maybe 200 miles on the bike and 20 miles of running (which amounts to nothing over 2 years).

There were lots of false starts on training but there were always distractions (and by distractions I mean excuses) that kept me from following through. That is very confusing to me because I actually like training (well, not swimming but the rest) and can't figure out why I can't get any traction. i think my problem is the scope. I am so used to thinking like someone training for Ironman that I can't seem to get comfortable with a schedule of 3 hours a week of training (which is where I should be starting after all of this time off).

Anyway, this blog is now going to be my honest sounding board for how I am doing and how i am feeling. When I cheat on my nutrition plan then it will be here and when I bail on my training plan then I confess it here. My wife says that I need to be less hard on myself and give myself more room for misses (and she is smarter then me and has a PhD is Psych) but I feel that knowing that I have to write down my misses will help me to stay true to my gaols. If that doesn't work then I will revisit the plan later but lets see how it goes.

So I have finally digested the season and all of its good and bad points... I think.

My plans for this year:
1) I am applying to be a Mentor for the TNT Winter tri season. That would mean a trip to Kona in April for Lavaman in addition to helping a bunch of first time triathletes experience this wonderful sport of ours. The competition for these mentor spots is very tough so I will be sure to let you know how that goes.

2) Wildflower Long course. I don't actually want to do this race this year but after dropping out on the olympic distance swim 2 years ago and missing the bike cut last year, I feel I have unfinished business there.

3) Mid summer I hope to do the Aids Lifecycle, a 7 day, roughly 540 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. 7 long days in the saddle can only help my cycling and if i can squeeze off some running in between legs then that would be wonderful tri training.

4) We'll see how the season goes, but I am currently sitting on a Canada slot for 2008. Who knows where I will be in 11 months but i learned a lot this year and who knows how i will feel next August. Maybe another try at Canada next year is in the cards :-)