IRONMAN........ I on my way to earn this title

This is a Journal to my trials and tribulations of my journey to conquer the 140.6 miles of pain and mental anguish.

So, I plan to journal daily.. if you want to be apart of this journey.. follow by blog.. You will see the up and down days of training for an event.. hopefully it will be something that can inspire you to do something crazy.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

First run since half..

It was a gorgeous day today.. I was going back and forth about running.. I had a minor headache, and i was leaning towards not running.  But i was watching rocky and it motivated me to get outside..

The run todays wasnt a piece of cake by far.. First mile i felt good.. To goood.. Started feelinh some muscle tightness.. I.T bands and tibalis posterior were starting to act up.. I typical pains first run after a race i guess..
So i stopped and stretched for a couple minutes.. 

On restart, tried finding a steady pace and rolling with it.. 

All done and home.. Feeling pretty good that i ran.. Thanks rocky.. I would have puss'd out if wasnt for you.

Monday, November 21, 2011

A Lot has happened

Ok, so its been a bit since i posted on here.. i can no longer access this from my work computer..
so i have to update when i remember too..

Ok..  So Freedom Half Marathon..  wow what a death march... on nov 13th downtown norfolk held its first half marathon..  OH MAN, was it a day of mental toughness..  Why was it tough... LETS SEE..
my longest run all year was 6.2 miles and that was to weeks prior to this event..  My longest training run was 5.5 miles.. lol  Crazy I know!!!!. This was an event i had to complete whether running or crawling i was determined to finish.

OK, the race...
The race start... I felt pretty good..  first two miles were sub 19 mins.. feeling pretty good.. coming up on mile 3... first climb.. oh shit..  shorten my stride and picked up cadence.. it was a breeze... 3 mile mark.. 28:49... wow im feeling great.. Mile 4 came went.. Mile 5 was at the top of the 2nd.. this proved to be a little tough.. i started to get stomach cramps, so i slowed down until they eased up.. which never happened.. so around the bend.. i see mile 6.. im like excited.. i was under an hour.. whoooo hooooo.. 59 mins..  then everything went down hill..  all i could this was oh shit.. i blew my load.. how am i gonna finish this.. i was hungry and i had to pee.. i saw the first aid tent and porta johns.. so i pulled off the course to drain the main vein.. such relief. (this was new to me.. i never had to use rest room while races.. so i knew i was in trouble.) so mile 7, i adopted walk 40 seconds at the beginning of each mile.. My I.T. bands started to tighten up.  the short walk became quiet a relief..  I met up with a guy from gym.. he was struggling like i was.. we paired up and decided we were gonna finish this no matter what.
Mile 8 and 9.. were ok. i had company. we both were struggling.. so mile 10..  game changer.. tallest bridge yet for the course. Mike and i talked... we decided to give it a shot and try to run it..  we started the climb.. i started to pull away from mike... i almost made it to top but my I.T. bands were screaming like a chick in a scary movie.. holy shit.. we walk for a couple steps and ran down the bridge.. so we continued running.. mile 11 came.. walk break.. man was that needed.. this was the beginning of the longest 2.1 miles ever..  the death march began..  my body felt like it was being beat by a pissed off lil league baseball team because they didn't have cookies after the game.  Mile 12.. getting close.. i tried to keep the running going.. legs didnt want to move...

so the home stretch.. passed my 13..  a hot little blonde came by and said come almost there.. at that point.. I decided i wasnt going to be chicked at the finish line.. so i forgot about the pain and gave all i had to finish... i could get a full stride because muscles were tight and i was cramping..

I didn't get chicked.. but i felt like death was near when i crossed the finishline.  the rest of the day was full of sleep and eating.. oh yea and football..

All healed by Tues.. no pain, minor aches is all..

started strength training. so winter maintenance has begun.. whooo hooooooooo





Tuesday, November 8, 2011

back to the grind

Yesterday.. i got back to pounding the pavement..  Felt really good..
I didnt have any congestion in my chest.. i think the cold for the most part is gone, thankfully

so, i think im good to turn it up..

I have a half marathon on sun.. its gonna hurt but i will finish it.  I wont PR at this race maybe next half i will..  Im doing this event mainly because its in my backyard so to speak.. i can walk to the start line..

and its the first half in downtown norfolk.. whooo hoooooo.. i get another medal..

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Decent run

I had pretty decent run on thursday.. I wanted to type this fri.. Damn computer at work suck. My blogger crashes everytime i try to open it..

But to the run

4 miler felt good actually..  Still having some breathing issues. So im not comoletely over the cold. I have a cough and a stuffy nose.. Little chest congestion..  First 2 miles were great.. HR was steady.. I was around 165. 3 mile is decided to push the pace. Do some intervals.. 30 sec on, 1 min recovery.. HR on intervals hung around 174. 

Great run though.

I got off late fri, so i didnt have a chance to run. I had to work at the gym at 6.

Sat, wanted to run.. I had a hungry headache i discovered later.. I thought it was a caffiene headache.  I guess i didnt take in enough calories this morning before work and lunch time..

All better now.. Hope to get a run in tomorrow.. 5 or 6 miler..

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Tuesday...

I had to get a workout in before I had to go work at the gym.  I chose to swim and bike..

Swim was a little tough, but i got through it. I swam maybe 1000 meters.. Stroke needs some work, and i also need to spend more time in the pool. I thinking attending masters swim at another YMCA or try to start one at my Y..

After swim, i went up to do some pedaling.. I did random hills, level 15 for resistence. My highest watt output was 471 watts, HR was 153.  My average HR was 110 for the entire 30 min session on the bike.

Good training day, no complaints.

Need to get running though. I have a half marathon next week.. Crazy i know.. Another slow race on a platter..

Back to training...

Typically the firat run bbs after a race really sucks.. Monday held true.. Lol I just bought a new watch, so it was a great time to test that out.  I bought a polar rs100. I hope to use this to help find efficency zones while training.

The 2 miler on monday felt like death. Legs were heavy feeling. I made a mental note to slow down and get it down.. It worked for most part. I was a little humid out and I had some congestion in my chest. Which made breathing a bear..

All in all.. Ok day.

Wicked 10K

So, on the 29th i ran a  10k. I didnt have any expectations for this event.. Given that I was fighting a cold and training consistency wasnt the best..

Race started at 0800.. I ran with a past girlfriend/training partner. It was good she was there. She kept my pace undercontrol. If she wasnt around i would have bolted and gassed myself so i could wasnt have finshed race running.

Im a little dissappointed in the time.. Considering last year I PR'd. Running a 55:07.. This year I crossed the line in a whopping 1:02.. WTH!!!! So im cant motivated now to get my ass in gear.