Im Not Quite Used To This

I'm very careful not to over-inflate what it is I do, or what it is Ive been able to accomplish with my running/fitness/weight loss. Ive lost over 110 pounds, Ive run a marathon, Ive completely changed my lifestyle. These are all really big deals, but I still consider myself something of a beginner in all of this. Most of that comes from the amount of time in which Ive accomplished these things and made these changes. I still haven't even been living this way for a year yet, although my one year "anniversary" is right around the corner. That combined with constantly taking on brand new challenges I think keeps me in a state of feeling like a beginner, and frank, I don't think that's a bad thing. I have started, however, to discover something that I didn't expect, and frankly, its pretty exciting. When training for a marathon, conservation is a key word. Start slow, save energy, make sure you have enough, don't push. Of course this is completely sound advice and strategy for someone like me who doesn't know what the heck it takes to finish a marathon. But now that Ive started this triathlon training, where yes, a certain amount of conservation is still the name of the game, its not the ONLY name of the game. Threes also the PUSH part of the game. This is a new part of the game for me, and I like it. Since Ive started this training, about six weeks ago, Ive been running so much faster than I have ever run in the past. I was always a solid 11:00-12:00 per mile, mid-back to back of the pack runner, and this served me very well in attempting to gain endurance and lasting strength for marathoning. I always looked at the fast people, the 8:00-9:00 milers as some sort of mythical creature, and those freakish 7:00 and lower milers, well, I still don't find those people to be human. Whats cool is that for the last couple of weeks Ive been able to run in that 9:00-9:30 minute per mile category. At first I thought it was just a "feeling good and I busted out a really fast 3 miles," event, but Ive now done 3 slightly longer runs, 5, 6 and 8 miles, all right around 9:10-9:20 pace. Ive even been able to hold this pace, and dare I say go even a little faster on some of my transition runs of 2-3 miles, directly after hopping off the bike after a ride or spin session. In fact this morning I ran an 8:37 mile after riding 20 miles in some really unpleasant weather, but that's what happens when you ride, converse and then run with a former semi professional triathlete, and I'm sure if I asked her, she was taking it easy :) So whats my point? My point is that I'm finding it so cool to be able to push my body and for it to respond. I think for all these months that Ive been marathon training, I was afraid to push too hard, and rightfully so, because of the threat of injury, or not being able to finish, because I was such a beginner. But now it looks like Ive actually built enough of a base that I'm able to put my body through some paces and see some results. If any of this sounds elementary, you've probably never been the fat guy who never thought you COULD do this kind of thing, much less would. I'm so excited to see what the rest of this training season has to offer. I'm right on track for the Olympic distance triathlon in April, and then its on to 70.3 and Ironman. Still find that hard to type sometimes, but its getting a little easier, and a whole lot more fun.

My New Challenge

Ive been meaning to write about this for the last couple of weeks, but just haven't had the chance. After finishing the Houston Marathon, I experienced what I hear lots of marathon runners experience, which is post marathon depression. I had been building to that day for over 8 months, and it was everything I had ever hoped it would be. It was the culmination of all of my hard work, fatigue, struggle, triumph, defeat and joy, all wrapped into one package. But then after a couple of days I felt so empty. I felt like I had nothing in the background to always think about like I had with the marathon. Luckily I had already decided what was going to take the marathon's place, triathlon.

I'm lucky in that after running the marathon, I had now been at least mildly experienced in all three areas of triathlon. I had been on a swim team when I was a teenager, I rode the MS150 just a couple years ago, and now I had run a marathon. I just had to stick all three together. I set my sights on the Lone Star Triathlon in April, but then the next decision, what distance to do. In triathlon there are basically 4 distances, Sprint, Olympic, 1/2 Iron Man and Iron Man. My first inclination was to start at the bottom with the sprint, and work my way up if I got into it. I planned to buy a book and set up a training plan since I felt I could have the self discipline to train on my own. I am sooooo glad I was wrong about that. I think I would have had the discipline, but the training Im getting now with my triathlon group is so many light years beyond what I could have gotten from a book, its hard to imagine doing it without them. Theres a dedicated triathlon store near me in town called Tri On The Run, and they have a group training program for the traithlon I was wanting to do. After talking with the coaches, they were pretty convinced that with my level of fitness, and more importantly my level of commitment and the time I had to devote to it, that I could actually go ahead and do the olympic distance. So the triathlon I will be doing is a 1500 yd swim (.9 miles)followed by a 25 mile bike followed by a 6.2 mile run.

So far the training is going fantastic. My swim stroke seems to still be lodged down in my muscle memory (how I dont know) and Im really enjoying cycling again, and of course, Im still madly in love with running. So I guess this blog wont just be a fat man running anymore, it will be a fat man swimming, biking and running!