2013 Garmin Half Marathon Race Report

"If there is one place that war doesn't belong, it's here. For 1200 years, from 776 BC to 393 AD, your fellow Olympians laid down their arms to take part in these games. They understood there was more honor in outrunning a man than in killing him. I hope the competition will resume, and if it does then you must not think that running, or throwing, or jumping is frivolous. The games were once your fellow Olympian's answer to war. Competition, not conquest. Now they must be your answer." -- Bill Bowerman (from the film Without Limits)

Well, I'd have to say this was one of the two most emotional weeks leading up to a race that I have ever had. The other would be when we lost our Husky Dakota just days before I ran the 2011 Pilgrim Pacer Marathon. This time it was a strange but emotional week. It all started the Saturday one week before race day. I had been targeting a sub-2 hour finish for this event. The Saturday before the race I was scheduled for a 10 miler with 6 miles at race pace. As soon as I started everything from my hips down hurt. Hamstrings, knees, calves, shins, ankles, feet, everything. Not exactly a confidence builder. I called the great Dr. Jared Wisner on Monday morning and let him now I needed some ART ASAP. We scheduled an appointment for 4:00 after I got off work and another for 4:30 Thursday for one more treatment before the big race.

Well, just a couple hours before my appointment things got way worse. It had been a pretty normal morning at work, except keeping up with my friends posting about how the elite runners were fairing at the Boston Marathon. I've never been a huge fan of that event like everyone else, so I wasn't watching the online stream like many of my friends were. A couple hours after the elite runners had finished a strange post came across my Facebook news feed. I don't even remember who posted it first, but they said something short like "What? Explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon?" What in the world could that possibly mean? People do weird things at the finish lines of races and people make strange comments about the weird things others do, so I really didn't think much of it. I just assumed someone did something strange to celebrate their finish and that comment was a joke about it so I just continued about my business.

Nothing else was said for several more minutes. Then one of the news sites posted something about how two explosions had shaken the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Wait, what?? Can this be serious?? I quickly went to MSNBC.com and sure enough they were live streaming news that there had been two explosions at the finish line of the most famous race in the US, possibly the world. I immediately started to panic. Between local friends, the HCR Facebook group, and Marathon Maniacs, I knew a lot of runners there. Were they all okay? Were their friends and families that had gone with them to cheer them on okay? Were all the other runners, spectators and volunteers okay? Then they showed a video of the explosions. They looked pretty bad, so I had to assume there some pretty severe injuries and probably some deaths, but everything on the news was unconfirmed.

This was a day where Facebook was a huge help. There were runners checking in and letting people know they and their families were okay. Every time one of my friends or fellow Maniacs posted a weight was lifted off my shoulders. It was a long few hours of worry. Eventually I headed of to Jared's office for my ART appointment. He had qualified for Boston, but was unable to go because just weeks before the race his wife had given birth to their first child. I told him I was extremely glad he had been unable to go. We shared with one another our mutual feeling on the events of the day, then got on with my ART session. As usual, Jared does amazing work and I felt 1000% times better when I left this office.

When I got home, I caught up on the news I had missed during my appt. Finally my last Maniac friend had checked in. Just Although I was very upset about those injured or killed, there was a natural sigh of relief when I knew all my friends were safe. So many thoughts and emotions to sort out. I really didn't know what to do other than run, so I put my Husky Katya's harness on her and we went for a short run together. We ran 3.44 miles in 32:22 for a 9:23 pace, but Boston is all I could think about. The run was great, physically I felt good and mentally/emotionally it helped settle me down a little. Having Katya with me helped too. That crazy puppy always reminds me that you just have to enjoy life as best you can just like she does. The next morning I did some yoga and that was the extent of my physical exercise for the week before race day. I wanted to rest up and let things heal, so I didn't do anything but some stretching here and there.

Just as emotions were settling down a little from Boston, word of another tragedy came in. There was an explosion at a fertiliser plant in the small town of West, TX that (as of the writing of this report) caused 35 confirmed deaths (mostly first responders) and upwards of 170+ injuries. The blast was felt by a friend of mine living in Fort Worth nearly 70 miles away. It's just hard to fathom what the people of this small town must be going through. By all reports, this is the type of town where everyone knows everyone. So in an accident like this with so many casualties and injuries, imagine knowing every single one of them. I just can't imagine. Although I do not have the person connection to this that I did to the Boston bombing, my heart sank. Hard to fathom so much devastation.

Although I ran the half, I still joined my Marathon Maniac
family for the group photo. I love this club so much!

Thursday I had my second appointment with Jared and again, it was great! After that I was feeling pretty close to 100%. My hamstring on my right leg and my calf were a little tight when I woke up Friday, so I just tried to stretch them out during the day. I went to get my packet and got back home for dinner with Kristy. I felt good and confident. I really felt like I would be able to pull off the sub-2 hour finish. I got my stuff ready for the race. I went with my Mizuno Breath Thermo shirt to keep worm under my Team RWB shirt to honor the Team RWB members who ran in to help victims in Boston. I had my race bib on the front right of my shorts and special Boston memorial bibs on the back of my shirt and front left of my shorts. I would need some tights as it was set to be around 26* windchill at the start, some Injinji socks and my red Saucony Kinvara 2's. I like the Kinvaras, but I really need to get a pair of Mizuno EVO Cursoris, SO much better! Oh well, you go with what you've got and what you trained in. I was ready.

As I laid in bed trying to go to sleep I mentally ran through my race. I imagined myself finishing with the 1:55 pace group as planned. I knew it would be tough, especially after looking at the per mile splits on my pace band. My plan was to run with the 1:55 pace group. My training plan was actually designed for a 1:48 finish and I had no trouble at all with the paces in training, so I felt dropping to a 1:55 after that training would be a near sure-thing. My biggest concern was the weather. It was going to be COLD. For those of you that know me, you know that I hate cold. Well, my lungs hate cold even more thanks to my cold-induced asthma, so I was worried. The forecast had it 32* with a 26* windchill at the start warming up to 35* with a 28* windchill by my projected finish. Better remember to bring my inhaler! At the race start I met up with my Marathon Maniac family. Even though I was running the half, I always love meeting up with my fellow Maniacs and getting in on the picture. Always a super-fun group to be around!

After the picture I headed over to the start area and found the 1:55 pace group. As I've said before, I love the Smart Pace pacers. They run on the philosophy I wish I could manage to do without them. Start slow, run strong through the middle, then hang on for a strong finish. They have two pacers for each group, one will run out front, just slightly ahead of pace and the other hangs at the back right on target pace. My plan was to pretty much stay right between the two of them. The first pacer was Ben S. He was a little bit chill. He offered encouragement and a little conversation, but wasn't overly loud or chatty. He stayed out front. The other pacer was Brandon S. He was a little louder, very talkative and very encouraging. The perfect pacer to have at the back. It was easy to always know exactly how far in front of him I was because I could always hear him. I know this might all sound like criticism, but I really liked him, they were both excellent pacers and perfect for their perspective roles with the group. I knew these two could help get me the finish I wanted.

The horn was sounded and off we went!! I was full of nervous energy, so as always my body wanted to sprint out of the gates as fast as I could! Some day maybe I'll actually learn how to pace myself!! I just got on Ben's heals and stuck with him. We started out perfectly. It's nice when you actually start a race slow of goal pace to warm up, then as you increase your pace it doesn't seem as difficult. Even as we were getting into the faster paces I never felt like I was struggling to keep up. Just running along right between my pacers. My friend Shauna from the Olathe Running Club caught up with me and wished me luck, I said thanks, but by the time I turned to say something else to her she was gone. I guess I was just a little too slow for speedy!

The Olathe Running Club aid station crew were great!

I run this event every year and every year I'm happy when I get to the Olathe Running Club aid station. It's always great to see a friendly face during a race. With this year's course change they were at about 2 miles or so into the course in downtown Olathe. It was great to get so many smiles and words of encouragement from my friends. I was feeling really great at that point, so I had plenty of smiles and hellos to give in return.

We ran down Northgate and curved around where it become 119th and turned up Ridgeview. The new course includes "the hill" from the ORC Saturday morning runs. It's not a killer hill, but it's tough. I like to be a little extra conservative on hills, so I dropped back a little slower than the group. I kept them close enough that I would easily be able to catch up after the hills, I just didn't want to spike my heart rate too much here. I felt good running them and was keeping a pretty decent pace. As I got to the left turn from Ridgeview onto 127th I remembered the climb that would be the overpass over I-35. Forgot about that one, apparently I underestimated the hills of this course change!

No worries, I'd just continue to take it easy on the hill and catch up with the group that was just a little out in front of me. Well, maybe my body had some other plans. As I was heading up the overpass my right hamstring knotted up. It had felt good all day, but all the sudden it was bad. My fellow runners will understand this inner dialogue I had with myself. At first my brain said, "hey, it's just a knotted up hamstring, you can push through and still get your sub-2!" Then my brain said, "um, you start training for the Redman 70.3 on Monday, maybe you shouldn't risk injury right before you start training for your biggest goal event of the year." Good point. I decided to slow it down. If my hamstring would loosen back up then I could just push to stay in front of the 2 hour group, if not then I would just take whatever I got an stay healthy for my upcoming training.

I continued on and my hamstring didn't seem to be getting any worse. Unfortunately it also wasn't getting better and it was definitely changing my form. So after 6 1/2 miles of easily keeping up with the planned pace I was falling well behind. I felt like I still had a decent chance of keeping ahead of the 2 hour group, though. Well, as often happens when part of you hurts, at about the 9 mile mark as we turned onto Indian Creek Trail I noticed my left knee getting tight and starting to bother me. Add insult to injury, I heard the 2 hour pace group just a little behind me. I spent the next mile trying to stay ahead of them, but the further I got at that pace the tighter my hamstring and knee. Completely frustrated, I gave in to the fact that sub-2 was not worth hurting myself. But I REALLY wanted a sub-2. That mile trying to stay ahead of the 2-hour group really had my knee and hamstring on fire, though. I decided the last 5k was just going to have to be a run/walk. I was crushed. The only thing that kept my spirits up a little bit was that during this last 3.1 miles I had several people comment to me about my Team RWB shirt. It was very encouraging to have people who had heard about the group offer their words of encouragement. Each time I would give it my best to smile and say thank you, but a smile was hard to come by. I was really disappointed that my goal was out of reach.

Sheri, Sara & me after we'd all finished our races

I got to the finish line in 2:04:16 officially. 13.14 miles in 2:04:16 (9:31 avg pace). Certainly nothing to be ashamed of, that is a fairly solid time for a half, but rather than a PR and a sub-2 it is my second slowest road half marathon. I was a little crushed. My spirits lifted a little, though, when I spotted my friends Sheri & Sara! Sheri had planned last year for this to be her first half, but it didn't work out so she had run the 5k instead. Sara, on the other hand, I had NO idea was going to be there. I assumed she had just come to support Sheri. Nope, she had run her first 5k!! That lifted my spirits BIG TIME! I get very excited when someone runs their first anything, but especially their first race ever! She kept thinking it was funny that I ran 13.1 miles and was disappointed and she ran 3.1 and I was thrilled. I guess it's all about perspective! I was just excited to find out another friend was jumping on the running bandwagon! We have plenty of room, so the more the merrier!

After we chatted for a while (and of course had a beer), we all left and I headed over to my mother-in-law's house. She lives about a block from the race start/finish, so she normally come to see me finish at this race but she was a little under the weather so I went to check on her instead. I chatted with her for a bit, then headed home to take care of the dogs and take a quick shower. Then I grabbed a couple slices of pizza from Casey's and headed out to Clinton Lake to volunteer at the Free State Trail Run. At the start/finish line there I met up with RD Ben, Coco, Mel, Amber and Terri. Mel and Amber had run the half marathon at Free State. I loaded up a couple jugs of water in my car and headed over to the Epic Ultras aid station to help Eric out. I saw so many of my friends kicking ass. I hate to list any because I know I'll miss some and feel like an ass, but there are a couple that need to be mentioned. Emily Royal won first place female in the 40 mile (her first race of that distance ever), Erica Carper won 3rd place female in the 40 mile, and Danny Loental crushed his first 100k! After volunteering, me, Kristy and our friends Nina, Jill, Scott, Christy, Ron and Bobbie met up at Johnny's Tavern for a couple beers and burgers. It was great to catch up with some good friends to wrap up an interesting week.

The race showed me that I certainly can sub-2, that gives me confidence that the plans I laid out for the year are working. I may not have hit my goal, but I know know for a fact that I can. Normally I wait for race pics to be available to write my report, but I wanted to get this one down today. Once the pics are up I will update this post to include them. Thanks for all of your support, I love having so many awesome friends that love to encourage and inspire me!

PTO Day Solo Triathlon

What a great day! I decided to take a vacation day after a week and a half by my self at work. There are only two of us on my team, so if one takes vacation, the other is left to hold the fort alone. No big deal for a few days, but after a week and a half of it I was tired and more than a little grumpy. Friday the 29th is Good Friday which is a company holiday and Thursday was supposed to be amazing weather, so I decided to take Thursday off as a vacation day to get a nice four day weekend.

My training plan had me doing a two hour bike ride Wednesday night, then an hour swim and 5 mile run on Thursday. I decided to detour that plan a little bit. The forecast said it would be in the mid-50s for the high, not great, but certainly exciting after the crappy weather we've been having. I wanted a little more time outdoors on my day off than just a 5 mile run. I decided to change my Wednesday ride to a short, VERY light 30 min ride, then do a full triathlon on Thursday. Sure, I've done a few other indoor workouts that involved all three sports, but this would be mostly outdoors and I planned to put some real effort into it. The last several months of multi-sport training has been my first serious stab at training for more than the running portion, so I wanted to see where I am at with it.

Swim - Obviously, since all the lakes are still closed and near freezing, I would have to do my swim in the pool at the Olathe YMCA. I really can't wait to start open water swimming in a couple months. I got to the pool and started my swim just before 1:00 pm. The plan was to do 2,000 yards as fast as I could. I knew that would be a challenge, the only way I have done those type of long yards fast is to do ladder drills rather than a straight swim. This would definitely helps show me where I'm at with my swimming. I did the 2,000 yards in 41:58 (2:08 min/100 yd) which ties it for my fastest swim I've ever done! I felt proud and good when I got out of the pool. It took a lot of effort, but I'd reached my goal.

Transition (Swim to Bike) - Having swam indoors made the transition take quite a bit longer than would be ideal. I had to go from the pool to the locker room to put on my clothes for the rest of the "event". The high was only supposed to be in the mid-50s, so I put on my bike shorts, a pair of very light weight tights and a thin long sleeved compression shirt. I thought I'd need them to keep warm on the bike since mid-50s is pretty cool when you're moving fast. I then had to head outside and take my bike off it's rack where it was locked up and get my cycling shoes on. All together, this transition took about 15 min.

Bike - This is the first time I've ever done a multi-sport workout where the bike was by far the most enjoyable for me! As many of you already know, about a month ago I finally got a real road bike. I got a 2013 Specialized Allez Sport that I have named Minuet. This bike is an absolute joy to ride, but due to the weather we've been having I've only gotten to take her outside a couple times. Hitting the roads with Minuet is so fun! As I started my ride the sun was out strong and it was already in the low 60s, warmer than the projected high. Luckily I like warm weather since I had the thin tights and compression shirt on. I was warm, but not TOO warm. As I left the YMCA parking lot, I headed south on Lone Elm and headed down to 175th St. I took a left (east) on 175th. It was a smooth, fairly fast ride down 175th. Once I got to Quivira, I took another left (north) toward 151st. At first, it was easy and mostly downhill. Then it turned up hill and worked me pretty hard. The last couple miles on Quivira were the hardest of the ride by far. I was keeping my pace up, though, and overall feeling good about my ride. I turned left again (west) onto 151st and was worried. I've never ridden on busy roads before. I usually ride in Gardner (where there is no such thing as traffic) or on trails. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised. Almost all cars gave me ample space and I felt pretty safe most of the time. I was still moving pretty well. I followed 151st back to Lone Elm, took a left (south) and was right back to the YMCA. It ended up being 18.91 miles in 1:12:37 (15.6 mph avg). I feel really good about this ride and  it was SO much fun! Over the last month I have really come to love cycling.

Transition (Bike to Run) - Again, transition took much longer than I'd prefer since I had to get into my car to change shoes, take off my compression shirt, load & lock my bike back up. At this point, the temps were near 70, so there was no way I could manage with my arms covered, but I cold deal with the thin tights since they don't give much warmth anyway. Transition took about 9 minutes.

Run - Oh, boy. Ouch. I've done a few indoor bricks this year (bike trainer to treadmill), but that just does not compare to the difficulty of an outdoor brick. I'd almost forgotten how that feels since it's been since around late-August or early-September since I last did an outdoor brick. As soon as I started I knew it was going to be hard. My legs did NOT want to move. I wasn't 1/4 mile in when I started thinking about cutting my 5 mile run down to 3 miles, maybe even 2. I headed out from the YMCA parking lot, through the Olathe Medical Center campus around to 151st St and headed east to Ridgeview. My legs never loosened up, but it didn't take long for me to remember that cutting it short would do me no good. I needed to finish what I'd started. I was moving fairly slow, fighting to stay just a fraction faster than a 10:00 mile. Then, with about a mile to go, I decided I need to try to get close to my goal pace. My training plan had called for a 9:48 and I was just under 10:00, so I needed to pick it up. I started running faster and it was tough! I managed a 9:13 for the last mile! It ended up totaling 5 miles in 48:52 (9:46 avg pace)! Not great and much harder than I'd like, but I'll improve once I can start doing more outdoor bricks.

Overall, it was a great afternoon. It taught me a lot. I need to work on transitions. Sure, it should take longer given all I had to do with an indoor swim and having my bike on my rack. But it still took me longer than it should. I also learned I can swim faster than I think. I need to start working on swimming faster now that I have the confidence that I can. I learned that cycling can be the fun part rather than the section I have to do if I want to do triathlons. In total (including transitions), I logged 25.05 miles in 3:07:27. An absolutely perfect way to spend a vacation day! Thanks to the weather for a warm, sunny day! It make me VERY happy!!

Aggieville St. Pat's Day Races Report (2 Mile & 10k)

What a day these races were! This is a very awesome event, so I was happy to be back. I ran it in 2011, missed 2012 when I decided to do a marathon in Lincoln, but decided to come back this year. This is a great event for me for a couple reason. First, it is in Manhattan, KS, one of my favorite cities in the world! It's kind of small, but I like it that way, and it is home to the great Kansas State University. Unfortunately, I had so much fun living there that I was only at the school for 3 years, but living there is such a great memory for me. I would happily move back to Manhattan in a heart beat given the chance! Also, how many events can I run a 2 mile race, rest for 30 minutes, then run a 10k race and all for the lowly price of $25?!?!

I was signed up for the 2 mile & 10k and my wife, Kristy was signed up for the 10k. This has been a target even for me this year. I've been training all year to get stronger and faster, so a chance to throw down race-effort 2 miles and 10ks met with my goals. It was a relatively cold morning, low 40's with a cold 12-15 mph wind out of the north. Not horrible, but I knew my inhaler would be getting a workout! Kristy & I got there fairly early expecting long lines at race-day packet pickup, but we got there so early there were no lines. I got my shirt & my two bibs (#1024 for the 2 Mile & #1023 for the 10k). Once we got our bibs, we went and sat in the car for a bit since it was cold out.

The 2 Mile was set to start at 10:00, so a little before I got out there and lined up toward the front. I had a few different goals for the day. First, PR both races. My 2 Mile PR was 15:09 from this event in '11 and my 10k PR was 55:03 from the Lenexa Freedom Run 10k in '11. My other goal was sub-15 min for the 2 mile & sub-51 min for the 10k. In 2011 I had come in 5th in my age group in the 2 Mile, so it would be nice to medal again as well, but hitting my goal time would easily accomplish that. The gun went off and we were running. I felt like I was at a dead sprint! I flew through my first mile fairly easily, but started to really feel it in my second mile. I didn't lose much time, but my pace was inconsistant. I came huffing across the finish line and my Garmin said 14:46.

Me & my friend Katie before the 10k

They had computers by the finish line that you could look up your place in your age group, but when I entered my bib number I only got my name. The RD was right there, so I grabbed him and asked about it. He checked the backup data and found my results, he had them at 14:37 (7:17 avg pace)! That put me in 3rd place in my age group and a massive new PR! After that I found my friend Katie & her husband Brandon. Katie was running the 10k, shooting for a PR, and Brandon was going to run his first "official" (race) 10k. They are great people & getting to know them has been a nice benefit of this blog (I met Katie after she read my report from the Pilgrim Pacer Marathon in 2011 where she had run her first 1/2). Katie also had her boss there (whom she described as "super-fast") to be her pacer to help get her to a 51 min finish.

The race started and off we went! My lungs were on fire with the cold air and such a max effort in the 2 Mile, so within the first 1/4 mile I was kind of struggling. I decided rather than hanging with Katie & her pacer, I would drop back a little and let my body settle in, then if I felt good I'd try to catch back up. I really didn't think my body could hold that effort for the full race. As we ran through campus I was starting to settle in, but then we turned onto Denison Ave. This was the stretch that nearly killed me! 1 1/3 miles directly into that cold, strong wind with lungs already on fire. I was struggling bad. I lost a ton of time just trying to make it to the turn around. Katie was doing awesome, I saw her and her pacer as they were headed back having made the turn long before me.

Once I finally made the turn I felt a little better. I could breathe a little easier without that wind hitting me in the face. I made a decent amount of time back heading back down Denison and back through campus. Once we got through the park, it was just one short stretch to the finish line. I wanted to sprint to the finish since I knew several people were coming to pass me, but my body just didn't have anythink left. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't make my legs move faster. I may not have finished as strong as I'd like and I may have missed my 51 min goal, but I was proud to have PR'ed with a 53:54. Kristy had her second fastest 10k ever, Katie finished around 50:30, so she beat her goal, Brandon finished a few minutes behind me with a 59 & change, beating his goal!

My medal for placing 3rd in my age group

After the races were over and everyone was heading their own way, I went over to the awards ceremony since I had placed 3rd in my age group in the 2 Mile. I met a nice lady while I waited who owns a floral shop in downtown Manhattan and she had placed 4th in her age group. As they went through the awards I was getting excited. This was only my 4th time getting an award and the first time that the race had an actual podium! Yes, I made it onto a podium at a race! How cool is that?? I got my award, a very nice medal, then Kristy and I went to the car and changed out of our running clothes so we could warm up. We went over to the Rock-a-belly Deli for lunch, but with the St. Pat's parade that day all of Aggieville was packed and there was no way we would be getting a table.

We decided to leave and go to the Little Apple Brewing Co. instead. The day's special was a Memphis pulled pork sandwich. That was probably the greatest sandwich I'de ever eaten! It was so tender I barely had to chew, the meat practically melted in my mouth! I also enjoyed a Bison Brown Ale.Kristy had a wrap of some sort. It was an EXCELLENT lunch! After that we headed over to the Manhattan Running Company. They had taken over directing the race this year and did an outstanding job, they also have a wonderful store. We bought a couple shirts, then headed back over to Aggieville to shop for some new K-State gear. It was an excellent day. I reached my goal of two new PRs, broke my goal in the 2 Mile, came close to my goal in the 10k, got a 3rd place award, had an amazing lunch with my wonderful wife, got to see some good friends, got some new K-State gear. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

My New Diet...

I recently started a 21 Day Food Logging Challenge on Facebook to help myself & others start keeping an eye on what & how much we eat. For me personally, I have found that logging what I eat, along with how many calories makes me more conscious of doing a better job of eating healthier. I wanted to write a post to clarify what I am doing. I like to keep things pretty simple so that it can be a true lifestyle change, so here's what I'm doing.

I've said it a hundred times, I do not like & I do not do diets. Period. I don't believe diets work long term. How can you truly base a lifestyle change on eliminating things you really love to eat? Eventually the desire to eat those things will return, overwhelm you & your diet is ruined. Why? I just don't see why you would want to permanently give up something you enjoy so much. So, I incorporate that philosophy in my "diet". I don't know if anyone has already coined this term (I'm sure they have, but I'll use it anyway), but I like to call my diet the "everything in moderation diet". Like carbs? Eat them. Like cheeseburgers? Eat them. Like chocolate cake? Have some.

Eat what you like, just do it in moderation. Get it? So here's how I'll actually implement that into my daily life. I am using MyFitnessPal to log my foods to keep track of what I eat & to help me plan ahead. While I am working to lose weight my target calories per day will be 2,400. This forces me to make sure I am eating relatively healthy, low calorie foods so that I can eat enough to not be hungry. On top of that, I will give myself one "cheat meal" eat week. This meal will be my opportunity to, without guilt, eat a little above my calorie goal, maybe something like a cheeseburger, some good dessert, something along those lines. This is important because it allows me to continue to eat the foods I love and still meet my goals.

Also, if something comes up outside of my cheat meal (a coworker brings in cupcakes, I go out for a couple beers, etc) I will enjoy it and not feel guilty. This gives me the chance to take part in social events without "I can't, I'm on a diet." This is a pitfall for a lot of people. They go out with their friends, have more calories than they should, feel discouraged & give up. Why? Shouldn't you still be able to have fun & enjoy life all while getting healthier? I don't see why you can't as long as you don't do this too often. I don't want to give up all the things I enjoy & I don't see a reason to. I will simply track it & make sure that I don't go overboard too often.

Moderation. So the majority of the time I will concentrate on eating healthy foods, but I will not deny myself the enjoyment of splurging from time to time. I think that is the key to success. This has worked for me in the past. In 2009/2010, I lost almost 50 lbs in about 8 months doing basically this same thing. I was always satisfied, I never felt like I was sacrificing something. The problem I ran into was my own self pity. I broke my foot during my first full marathon and was not allowed to workout at all for 2 full months. My first problem was not adjusting my calorie intake to take into account the sudden lack of exercise. My second problem was that I tried to fill the gap left by not working out with food. Moderation went out the window & I was back to little more than cheeseburgers, fries, candy, etc. Once I was given clearance to get back to working out I never adjusted back to moderating my diet. This time I won't make that mistake. This time I will remember what happened when I was injured and how it has effected me for so long now. This time I will make it a true lifestyle change that I will continue with. I learned lessons, I now have more knowledge. Everything in moderation, that will be my mantra. I hope you all also find or have found something that will work well for you. Best of success to you all in hitting your goals, whatever they may be, and I hope you find happiness along the way!

Jay's Virtual Duathlon (Day 54 of 100 Days Challenge)

Day 54 of the challenge represented by Randy White (#54)

My friend Jay (fellow Trail Nerd & Mud Babe) decided to set up a virtual indoor duathlon and invited me. I definitely thought it would be a fun way to do today's training. I really hope she sees this so she doesn't think I ditched her just because I'm not on Facebook right now. If you know Jay send her a message with a link so she can read this & if you are Jay and are reading this, leave me a comment and let me know you saw it and how your virtual duathlon went! First of all, I need to wrap up yesterday since I didn't post at all what I did. Yesterday ended up being an unwanted rest day. I tried to got to the YMCA after work for a long swim, but they closed early because of "bad weather." Didn't make sense since the snow from the day before had mostly melted from the streets and parking lot and the sun was out, but whatever. So all I ended up doing was 30 min of push ups, crunches, squats & stretching before bed to get the minimum to keep the challenge streak going.

Okay, on to Jay's duathlon! If I remember right, she set it up as a 5k run + 20k bike + 5k run. I needed more than that for my training, so I adjusted a little bit and made it longer for my version. Here's how it went piece-by-piece:

1. Run #1 - I got to the YMCA when they opened and got on the treadmill for run #1; official start time was 7:03am. I started out with a nice, easy treadmill run. 4.5 miles in 43:33 (9:41 avg pace). I felt good and wanted to go faster, but I wanted to take it easy since I had a long way to go. Transition from run to bike was 4:49.
2. Cycle - My normal Saturday spin class at the YMCA was the cycle portion of the virtual duathlon. Figures it would be such a tough class today! Almost entirely high resistance sprints & long, sustained high resistance climbs. My calculator I built to estimate my spin class mileage had it at 23.04 miles in 1:00:27 (22.9 mph avg). Very tough class & lots of sweating! Transition from cycle to run was 4:01.
3. Run #2 - Very strong run to finish off the virtual duathlon. Did a progressive run with a strong negative split. 4.5 miles in 42:23 (9:23 avg pace). First 2.25 @ 9:41, next 2 miles @ 9:14, last 0.25 mile at 8:34. Strong finish to what was a fun & interesting way to do today's training.

Total time for Jay's Virtual Indoor Duathlon was 2:35:13 for 4.5 mile run + 23.04 mile cycle + 4.5 mile run including transitions. It was a very fun way to mix up my training for the day, so thanks to Jay for this one!

Of course, thanks to the YMCA closing yesterday I wasn't done yet. I did a 1 mile cool down walk on the treadmill after I finished my second run in 15:00 so that I could do the swim I missed. After that I hopped in the pool for a long swim & what do you know... a new longest swim ever! No warm up was needed after all I'd already done so I just started swimming and ended up with 3,500 yards (1.99 miles) in 1:18:13 (2:14/100yd). It was a really good, easy effort swim, but as usual, after about 2000yd lap swimming gets very boring & mentally challenging. Sp that makes the overall day's total 35.03 miles & 4:08:26. Another strong Saturday in the books!

Day 52 of the 100 Days Challenge (AKA Winter Storm Q)



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Well, what an interesting day! Last night we had Winter Storm Q (yes, they actually named this storm Q, not me) bearing down on us. The predicitons were grim. 10-15 inches of snow plus sleet and possibly even the dreaded freezing rain. Okay, sounds bad, sure, but I've been living in Kansas almost my entire life. I know how this work. 10-15 inches predicted = 2 inches actualy; 2 inches predicted = 10-15 inches actual. No biggie. I was more concerned with the possibility of freezing rain. With freezing rain comes very trecherous roads and often, power outages. It wasn't predicted to start until around midnight last night, so I went to bed not sure what I was going to wake up to find.

I woke up to not much really. I got up at 6:15 am and it had just started to snow. It wasn't snowing terribly hard, but steady, and there was just a light dusting on the ground. Okay, this storm was WAY over predicted, right? Well, not so fast. Just a few minutes later, as I was feeding my dogs & cats, I saw a flash of light at the window followed by a load crack of thunder. Hmmm, okay. They say thunder snow is pretty crazy so I went and looked out the window. Right as I got there, BOOM, another crack of thunder. The snow was coming down so hard I could barely see across the street and I already couldn't see the ground anymore. Maybe this storm was exactly what they thought it would be.

By about noon or 1 pm I had 10-14 inches of snow. Great. Good thing I got permission to work from home, no way I could get here if I had left. On a good note, the dogs sure had a good time! Especially Katya, I had to yell at her to get her back inside every time I let her out. She definitely has the cold weather Husky blood in her! So that of course led me to workout #1 of the day:

1. The only good thing about this winter storm is that they named it after one of my favorite Star Trek: TNG characters, Q. I had to shovel the deck to get the door open and for the dogs to be able to get out & of course I had to shovel the driveway as well. 2:29:07 of hard, cold work. It was 25* with a 19* windchill & snowed off & on while I was shoveling.
2. I must say, after 2 1/2 hours of shoveling who knows how much snow, I strongly considered skipping this run. So before I had a chance to talk myself out of it, I pulled out the treadmill & did my run. I didn't really enjoy it, but I got it done & I'm proud of that. Sometimes you just have to suck it up & get it done. 4 mile Easy Run in 38:40 (9:40 avg pace).

That all adds up to 3:07:47 of working out, and yas, I really am counting shoveling snow for 2 1/2 hours as cross training. I think that's fair considering that 1 cubic foot of snow weighs between 5-25 lbs depending on how wet the snow is; shoveling an entire driveway and deck covered in 10-14 inches of snow is a lot of weight to move. Yep, strength training! That wraps up day #52 of the 100 Days Chalenge & consecutive day #53. Bonus pics...