What a Difference a Year Makes

One year ago today I began my training program for 2015 and oh the difference a year makes. That day I started off with a 2.5 mile run averaging 14:27 min/mi

April 28, 2015 Training Run

This morning I put in an easy 3 miles before work and averaged 10:45 min/mi.Also, I've already run more then 218 miles this year.

April 28, 2016 Training Run

Looking back at the long term progress that I make helps to keep me motivated and moving forward. It is hard to get caught up in the numbers and compare training runs from week to week doesn't always show my true progress. When I zoom out and look at the big picture, it is much easier to see.

A year ago I would have never imagined being able to run this fast, and it really makes me think about what I will be able to do a year from now.

First Race of the Year

This past Sunday I ran in my first race of the year. It was the Great Plains 10K put on by the KC Running company. I was pleasantly surprised to find out at packet pickup that there would be a very small field of between 150 and 180 runners. The race started and ended at Gray's Lake and the race director described it as a lollipop course (an out and back with a loop at the end). The course was extremely flat and ran up one side of the Des Moines River and back the other side before crossing the river again and heading back the same path we went out on.

I got to the start line plenty early and did something that I never before envisioned doing, I ran 3/4 of a mile to warm up. I didn't really set a solid goal, but was hoping to average under 10:30 min/mi. My first mile was 10:24 and I was happy that I didn't go out to strong. Each mile after that was a little faster then the previous. I finished in 1:04:06 which is around a 10:20 min/mi average.

This race did a lot to boost my confidence as a runner. For the first time I was the one passing other runners late in the race instead of losing steam myself. I finished in front of a lot of decent runners, many who looked more like runners then I do. It just goes to show how hard work and dedication can pay off. It was a great start to the season and I look forward to the rest that the year has to offer. Next up is the Dam to Dam half marathon on the first Saturday of June.

Guest Post: Jealousy is Bad for your Health!

I have had the opportunity to watch Patrick make great strides towards his health goals.  Celebrating milestones, personal records and new clothing sizes.  I am very proud of him and admire the dedication it takes to get such amazing results.  But.....there is a side of me that gets terribly jealous of his success.  This dreadful jealousy turns into a cycle of self sabotage for me and I am working hard to get rid of it all together.  It seems to me that the sacrifices he makes somehow come easily to him and that all of the hours of exercise are completely effortless....this is far from the truth.  He works very hard for each pound, minute and drop of sweat.  When I see him attaining his goals and I am stuck at a weight plateau I often avoid a workout or have a tragically poor eating day instead of getting re-motivated to aim higher.  I am going to work on being more self-aware and conscious of when this is happening and attempt to make healthier decisions.  My other poor choice is to over-do exercise when my body has not trained for long distances or extreme exertion.  This morning I ran 7 miles after not having run since last weekend.  This might sound like a great job...and I kicked some major butt....but this is why I don't stick with exercising or running.  I do big, grand workouts instead of steadily training to improve my stamina, health and muscles.  I hit new personal records for my 1K, 5K, 10K and longest run.  I hope to be more consistent with my running with Patrick's help and new knowledge of best running practices.  I am trying to decide if I am going to run a half marathon this fall....just can't commit yet.

Sunday Morning Run

- Erin

Long Bike Ride and Excessive Weight Loss

So when I stepped on the scale yesterday, I was extremely excited to see a 7.2 lb weight loss for the week. That excitement quickly turned into a bit of concern once I realized what it meant. Although weight loss is my goal for the year, I am also training for several races. 6 months ago this weight loss would have been perfectly acceptable, but at that time I was tipping the scale at around 300 lbs. Now that I am down to 250, 7 lbs is a lot higher percentage of weight. Typically, I aim to lose 2 - 3 lbs a week. I have read enough about training to know the importance of fueling my body properly for all of the running, swimming, and biking that I do, and I am aware that losing 7 lbs means that I did not take in enough calories this week. At times it is a challenge to balance the requirements of training with the goal of losing weight, but I do as well as I can and make adjustments when necessary. Of course there is good news in all of this, as I now only have 5 lbs to lose to reach my goal weight in 3 weeks!

The other story of the weekend was a short trip up to Ankeny with one of my coworkers. We rode a little over 20 miles on the high trestle trail and it was a lot of fun to ride with someone else. The ride was a tough one as the wind was at our back on the way out and picked up as we rode. The 10 miles back to the truck was directly into a stiff 20 mph wind. It is safe to say that both of us will sleep well tonight. I am happy to say that so far I haven't been experiencing any issues that seem to affect many new bicycle riders (namely a sore bottom side).

Tomorrow starts my first race week of the year. It comes at the perfect time as my body will have some extra time to rest throughout the week. Also, I'm very excited to see what I can do at the Great Plains 10K next Sunday.

Breaking Records

I'm happy to say that I had another fantastic day of training. Better yet, it was unexpected as I have had a long and grueling week so far. To start off, I put in 1,250 yards at the pool over lunch and was able to break my previous 1,000 yard PR (set on Tuesday) by 2 minutes finishing in 25 minutes. A few months ago I couldn't swim more then 1 length of the pool (25 yards) without having to stop to catch my breath, now I do a minimum of 20 laps (40 pool lengths) each trip to the pool.

If that wasn't exciting enough, I was feeling great as I set out on my 4 mile run tonight and decided to push it the last mile to see what I could do. I ended up running a 1 mile PR of 9:27 (previous was 9:49) and a 5K PR of 31:03 (previous was 31:13). Once again, it is hard to believe that just a year ago I was averaging around 14:00 min/mi on training runs that were half the distance.

Record Breaking Run

First Back to Back Workout

The weather was gorgeous today! I decided that it was time to try putting a bike ride and run together and see how it went. I drove into Clive and started with a 12 mile bike ride on trails that were new to me and there were a lot more hills then I expected. It took me awhile to navigate the trails, but I think I figured it out by the end of the ride. 

Bike Ride

After getting back to the truck, I changed shoes, put on my Garmin watch, secured my bike, and after a few drinks of water and an energy gel I was off on my run. My run tonight was a 50 minute tempo run, so I knew that I wouldn't be breaking any records. Even with 25 minutes of light running, I averaged under 11 minutes per mile and was very happy with it.

Run

I'm not going to lie, it was quite hard to do both, but it was a lot of fun. I'm glad that I have a few months left to put all of this together.

Breaking Personal Records and Running WITHOUT Gale Force Winds

I have had today circled on my training calendar since putting it together back in December. Today is the first time that I have run a 10K or longer since the Des Moines Half Marathon back in October. Going into the run, I knew that I was going to break my previous 10K PR, but I didn't know by how much. It ended up being a great day for a run as the high winds that have become the norm over the past couple of weeks broke allowing me to run much more consistently.

Today's Run

My previous 10K PR was 1:15:48, today I was able to shatter that by nearly 11 minutes, turning in a 1:04:53. Better yet, because it was a training run, I was only running about 85% so I would say I feel very ready for the Great Plains 10K in 2 weeks!

Update on the Week and Deciding on a New Challenge

The theme of the past 2 weeks has been wind, wind, and more wind! I am really getting sick of running and biking in all of this wind. That being said, I actually have had a good couple weeks of running and I'm looking forward to my 7 mile long run this weekend. My first race is 2 weeks from Sunday and I am completely ready to kick off my racing season. Another highlight of the week was the delivery of my road bike by my parents. Now I just need to find time to get it into the bike shop for new tubes, tires and a tune up.

I did want to share a story from yesterday. As usual, I went to the pool over lunch and put in 1,250 yards, as I was leaving the pool it started to pour down rain. Within a few minutes the rain stopped, the sun came out followed quickly by dark clouds and more rain. This pattern lasted for several hours and ended up postponing my planned 4 mile run after work. With a busy evening and more potential for rain (not to mention the strong winds) I decided to run on the treadmill. If you have read my blogs before, you know how much I hate running long distances on a treadmill.

After the run, as per usual on a swim/run day for me, I was exhausted and looking forward to an hour of relaxation before heading to bed for the evening. That relaxation was quickly disrupted when my wife, Erin, came downstairs from putting our oldest daughter to bed and invited me to join her in the gym for a circuit workout that she had gotten from the gym teacher at school. I was not thrilled, but really enjoy spending time with my wife, so I got a dry shirt and headed downstairs. A little less then an hour later, I was lying on the basement floor dripping with sweat and so exhausted that I couldn't imagine standing up. That circuit showed me that no matter how far I have come, there is always room for improvement. Although I was crabby with Erin about the workout, I really appreciate all she does to push me and encourage me.

That workout was just one example of how Erin has encouraged me. Another example is alluded to by the second portion of the blog title, "Deciding on a New Challenge." Over spring break, Erin joined me at the pool for one of my lunch time swims. As we were leaving, she commented several times on how far I had come since she last swam with me over Christmas break and how comfortable I look in the water. Not too long after that joint trip to the pool, Erin began making passing comments about how maybe I should have signed up for the Olympic distance triathlon instead of the sprint distance. After several weeks of consideration, and long discussions with my wife, I have decided to do just that. The sprint distance triathlon included 400 meter swim, 20 kilometer bike ride and 5 kilometer run while the Olympic distance includes a 1.5 kilometer swim, 40 kilometer bike ride and 10 kilometer run.

My progress during the late winter and early spring has been better then expected and I am looking forward to the new challenge. I am going to have a lot of fun this spring and summer training for this triathlon, which is now only 149 days away.

Mental and Physical Struggles

Most of my blog posts to this point have focused on my success and accomplishments, but this one won't be. Strength training (and namely weight lifting) has never been my favorite thing but until a few weeks ago, I had consistently been following a weight lifting program that incorporated about 20 minutes of weight lifting either 3 or 4 times a week. A few weeks ago I just lost all motivation for it and I still haven't figured it out. 

A lot of things have been going through my head. Is the rest of my training taking up too much of my time and energy? Is it okay that I back off on my weight training for awhile? Should I switch something up like trying to lift on my light training days or earlier in the day? 

For now I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but all other aspects of my training have been going so well that I'm not getting worried yet. 

Reaching Another Milestone

Oh the difference a year can make. The weight may not be coming off at warp speed anymore, but I still think that losing 10 lbs in a little over a month is acceptable progress. This morning I broke the 260 lb barrier that I have been battling for about 3 weeks as I weighed in at 259 lbs. Coincidentally, a solo picture of me showed up in my Facebook memories for the day so I was able to put a side by side comparison together from last year to this year.

Over the past couple of weeks I have really started to feel more like an athlete. I am amazed every day at what my body and mind are capable of. I feel more alive now then I have ever felt and I continue to attack everyday in the hopes of continually improving myself and my fitness level. When I go for a run, I'm not just a fat guy that is out running, I am a runner. In all honesty, it wasn't that long ago that I was still doubting myself. I would think things like "I wonder how long I can actually keep this up" or I would worry about having a bad day and how that might ruin everything that I have done. At this point though, I can't ever imagine stopping, it is just too much fun for me.