All Aboard! Get on the Training Train!

Wow, it has been an intense week of training for me.  Last Friday, Jennifer and I decided to brave the elements and go running in the snow.  It was 13 degrees outside and snowing pretty hard.  We layered up, so the cold wasn't too bad, but it was pretty rough to find solid ground as we slipped around on the roads.  Our cheeks were pretty red when we got back, and I even had a frozen and frosted goatee when we were through!  I'm glad Hal Higdon only had us running 3 miles, but it was well worth the effort.  It's such a blessing to have a wife that is tough enough to train in any conditions!

We rested on Saturday, but were ready to go on Sunday.  It's pretty funny to look on my weight chart to see how much I've lost since December 26.  You can totally see the weekends!  I seem to eat more and exercise less on the weekends, but I bet that's how most people are too.  As long as the weight keeps dropping off...  This morning I was 192lbs. which means that I've lost 18.4 lbs and only have 2 lbs to go before I register for the Steelhead Ironman 70.3!  Be looking for a picture of the scale the day that happens!!!  Tell me what you think of my chart.  My good buddy, Josh Woods, made it for himself and shared it with me.

My Weight Chart

Sunday morning was a shocker!  I took my dog, Maglee, out to do her business, but it was -9 degrees!  BRRRRR!  I looked at the weather forecast and saw that it was supposed to warm up to 18, so we waited to do our first "long" run until the afternoon.  Sunday was so beautiful!  The sun was out and shining so brightly.  It made the 18 feel more like 25 or 30 degrees.  Nick and I ran our 5 miles with a goal of 10 minute miles.  We ended up averaging 9:53/mile.  The goal is to up the speed every week by 10 seconds or so to get to our sub-9 minute mile which should put us under 2 hours for the Holy Half.  Jennifer did her run separately and met up with a friend to finish it.

Monday and Tuesday, I rode my trainer which was AWESOME!  It feels good to use slightly different muscles.  Also on Tuesday, Jenn and I did another 3 miler.  It was at a pretty easy pace, but it follows the schedule...

This morning, I had my first "Tempo" run.  I am defining that as my hopeful "race pace."  I was supposed to go 30 minutes, and I was shooting to average 9 minute miles.  Well, it went really, really well!  I felt great the whole time and even averaged 8:34 over 3.45 miles!  That was a nice surprise.  Hopefully, I'll just keep getting faster.  I know there are a lot of people, and even GIRLS, that could run circles around me, but as long as I finish the race at the goal I'm aiming for, I'll be cool with that.

The greatest piece of equipment that I have right now is this sweet baby:

It helps me so much to stay on target for my runs.  Jennifer and I have enjoyed it, and it has really helped us train.  Right now, we're looking at getting a Garmin Forerunner 205 so that each of us can have one when we train at the same time but at different speeds.

Tomorrow is another short run, and then it's on to 6 miles on Sunday!!!  Hopefully you'll see 190lbs pretty soon too!

Ice Road Runners...

Yesterday was the first day of training for the Holy Half.  Good Ole Hal Higdon had us running 3 miles as a start, so that's what we did.  Nick, the guy I'm running with, and Taryn, his wife were troopers and piled on the clothes to run with Jenn and me.  It was the first time we had all run together, but it worked out well.  We started at the front of Andrews University but were soon on the roads around the school.  There is a ton of snow on the ground and there were quite a few icy spots on the roads.  After about a mile and a half, Nick and I picked up the pace a bit and ran together for awhile.  It felt REALLY good to be running again!     It was the hottest day of the week at 34 degrees, so tonight's run will be even colder.  I usually like the cold because I don't overheat.

Tonight's run is going to be some intervals.  I'm pretty excited about that, so pray that we don't blow out an ankle on the ice!

Training Time!

Well, I'm 12 weeks away from the Holy Half Marathon.  Jennifer and I had success last time with one of Hal Higdon's training plans, so I went online and found another plan that might challenge me a bit more this time.  Here it is:

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	5 x 400 5-K pace	3 m run + strength	Rest	3 m run	5 m run
2	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	30 min tempo	3 m run + strength	Rest	3 m pace	6 m run
3	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	6 x 400 5-K pace	3 m run + strength	Rest	Rest	5-K Race
4	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	35 min tempo	3 m run + strength	Rest	3 m run	7 m run
5	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	7 x 400 5-K pace	3 m run + strength	Rest	3 m pace	8 m run
6	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	40 min tempo	3 m run + strength	Rest or easy run	Rest	10-K Race
7	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	8 x 400 5-K pace	3 m run + strength	Rest	4 m pace	9 m run
8	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	40 min tempo	3 m run + strength	Rest	5 m pace	10 m run
9	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	9 x 400 5-K pace	3 m run + strength	Rest or easy run	Rest	15-K Race
10	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	45 min tempo	3 m run + strength	Rest	5 m pace	11 m run
11	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	10 x 400 5-K pace	3 m run + strength	Rest	3 m pace	12 m run
12	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	30 min tempo	2 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Marathon

I think that I will adjust the schedule a bit.  For instance, because I go to church on Saturday, I want to reserve that day for rest.  I'll either skip those workouts or just do them on another day.  I may switch up the runs with cross-training once in awhile to keep up with my bike.  I'm pretty stoked about the speed training days that are scheduled.  There is a track here at Andrews University where I'm a student that I can use for those.

I talked with my good friend, Nick Clark, who is running this half-marathon with me, and we haven't really decided on the time that we're shooting for.  I would love to do it under two hours, but I guess since I'm a pretty slow runner, that may be pushing it a little bit.  I guess we'll see how the training goes...

Tonight, Jenn and I are going for our first run of the training.  She's pretty awesome about sticking with a training plan no matter what the weather is, no matter how tired she is, no matter what!  I'm hoping to do many of the runs with her and for sure some of the long runs.  I'm so blessed to have such a cool wife!  Check out her blog: www.calimaysdaze.blogspot.com

Holy Half-Marathon

As the pounds drop off, (by the way, I'm below the 200 mark now), I'm looking ahead to my first event of the year, the Holy Half-Marathon.  It's down at Notre Dame in South Bend, IN.  It's a perfect race for me because it is close--only 30 minutes from my house, and it's a really nice course.  The course winds its way around campus and by all the different buildings.  It's a 6.5 mile course, so we do two laps.  Because this half-marathon is so close, a whole bunch of my friends will be running it with me.  And, of course, my awesome wife, Jennifer, will run it too.  It may be the cheapest half-marathon you've heard of at $25.  I think that's for all the college kids that are so close by that don't have a bunch of extra dough!  Jennifer has talked about starting our training about 12 weeks away from the run which is on April 10, 2011.  That should be fun.  I'm looking forward to lacing up the ole running shoes and going for a run more than a 5k.  Those long runs are so rewarding!  I'll post our training plan so you can see what it looks like.

Cruisin' for Losin'

Just over a week ago, I was floating on the Norwegian Sky cruise ship out to the Bahamas.  It was so much fun!  Jennifer and I had been on a cruise before, but now it was with the whole family, Dad, Mom, Sister, Brother-in-law, and of course the two of us.  We had a blast.

Pretzel Roll

The ONLY bad part to the trip was this little guy...












These pretzel rolls were amazing!  They were available almost all the time, and there was always plenty of them with a little butter to go along.  I ate enough for 10 people.  When we finally got back to Michigan, I stepped on the scale to find out that the pretzel rolls had stayed with me!  I was 210.4 lbs!  That's the highest I've been in awhile.  So, starting last Sunday, I've really been on the Cruise to Lose.  I just stepped on the scale tonight, and it reads 202 lbs.  That's 8.4 lbs in a week...not bad!  I've been eating two meals a day that are about half the size that I normally eat.  Then, I have exercised at least once a day and several times twice a day except for Saturday.  My goal is to eventually be at 175 lbs by August 14 in time for the Steelhead Half-Ironman!  A closer challenge is to make it to 190 lbs.  Once I reach that mark, I'll register for Steelhead 70.3.  Here's a link to my weight chart that keeps me motivated.  Hopefully this "Cruise" won't end any time soon!

It's just the Beginning!

Well, here is the first post of many posts about my journey of exercise and health.  Actually, that sounds really boring, but if you're reading this, you either share in the same passion to use your body the way God created it to be used, or you're family.  This blog will serve as an online journal of my endeavors to reach goals and complete events that I might not be able to without motivation.  Thanks for your support!

It's January 2, 2011, and I'm stoked about this year.  It's going to be AWESOME!  I have set the bar pretty high on my list of hopeful achievements.  They include running events, biking events, and a half-ironman as the paramount event of the year.  I'll share more about them in a later post.

This journey is an ongoing journey that started when my wife, Jennifer, challenged me to.  She had completed a couple triathlons with her mother, Kathy, and I felt left out.  So, I signed up for my first one.  It was just a sprint triathlon in Maryville, TN called the Foothills Sprint Triathlon on Memorial day in 2009.  I finished 6th in my age group and way in the middle of the pack overall.  Here's the link to the results. It didn't matter to me, because it was my first, and all I wanted to do was finish.  In fact, the race was just the prize for all the work that went into the training!

In August 2009, Jennifer and I did  the Quintana Roo/Sport's Barn Sprint Triathlon in Chattanooga, TN.  It was another benchmark "high" for motivating me to do events.  My results weren't shocking, and in fact, I was pretty much average as I finished 20th in my age group out of 56 and 149th overall.  Here are the results.

Then on Thanksgiving day, 2009, Jennifer and I completed our first half-marathon in Atlanta, GA.  I enjoyed the run with my wife at her pace.  It was pretty cold, but we thought it was a blast.  Here are my results.  I am so blessed to have a wife that motivates and strives to achieve goals too!

2010 was a pretty crazy year.  I don't have too much to show as far as events except for a duathlon that I completed with my dad in Savannah, GA.  It was pretty short, 1 mile run, 13.1 mile ride, and then a 5k.  But, I did finish first overall.  It's really not that impressive because there weren't that many people there. But I did get a plaque and bragging rights.

Since then, we've moved to Berrien Springs, MI so I can complete my Masters of Divinity at Andrews University.  I haven't done any events since the move, but I did fulfill one of my New Years Resolutions for 2010 by riding 1000 miles on my bike!  Many of them have been on the trainer since it's so cold up here.

2011 is going to be a great year, and I look forward to all the different challenges it will bring!

 Let the training begin!