Give it a Tri

Two weeks ago I completed my first triathlon event. Thanks to my more than encouraging wife, I decided about 2 months ago that I wanted to give the sport a tri. So I thought about what I would do to start training, not really having any kind of knowledge besides that of my friend who is into the sport I just literally jumped in.

I started swimming 1-2 times a week, biking when I could and of course I was already running on a regular basis. I invested in some basic triathlon equipment and told myself I would do it. Having ran marathons and multiple 5Ks, 10Ks, and even a 15K I figured I was where I needed to be cardiovascular wise.....until I hit the pool, my lung capacity was not where I thought it was.

After doing several weeks of training and preparing myself mentally the day came. I remember stepping outside that Saturday morning and realizing it was about 58 degrees, my first thought was...."I wonder how cold the lake is?"

After completely the event, I was sold on the sport. To all the triathletes out there you are true athletes. I look forward to my next event. And I look forward to training for it as well.

Fall is officially here and the weather is great to be out training in, so lace up, layer up and head outdoors.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall......

"Absence makes the heart grown fonder" isn't that how the phrase goes when you haven't seen someone for a long time or maybe it is when you are trying to avoid someone and that is what you tell them when you run into them at the supermarket...I am not sure.

Anyways I was informed by my beautiful, pregnant wife that I have not posted in a while and I needed to. So here we are in the last week of Summer, thank God....I am so ready for the changing of the seasons, and not just the weather but the changing of seasons in life. I am not sure about you and your life but it always seems like the changing of the weather seasons usually brings a change of season in my life.

Fall is quickly approaching as in this weekend, this is my favorite time of year leading up to the Christmas season. I love the changing of colors in the trees, the leaves that change from solid green, to yellow, to gold, to orange, to brown and then fall on the ground and whirl around in the wind. More than the colors changing I love the smells of fall. It seems like there is a natural smell to the changing of the plant life around us.

More than all that I enjoy running during this time of year. I can add a few more layers on in the morning due to the cooler temps, I can see my breath as I breathe. I can even smell frequent fireplaces burning, and it makes the morning ,post-run, coffee all the more tasty. I also feel more energized throughout the day considering I didn't sweat out half of my body weight before the sun came up.

What do you enjoy about the Fall Season?

Pace, Patience, & Pattern

In reading several articles as well as other premier runner blogs, I have learned that to be consistent with your results means you have to be disciplined. I am bothered that so many people who aspire to lose weight and change their health expect things to drastically change overnight. Just think about it this way, there is no way you could have got that big promotion at work just for showing up on the second day of the job. There is no way you could graduate college with a bachelors degree but just filling out the entrance application. It takes time and discipline.

When training for a race you typically want to establish a finishing time goal. I have met so many people who tell me their goal is to finish, well I agree but I also know deep down they too have a specific time they are shooting for. Second to achieve that time you must establish your pace, this refers to the amount of time you need to run each leg or the race. If you are wanting to run a 5k in 24 minutes, then you want to aim for just under a 8 minute mile, you get the idea. It takes patience to train for a race, don't' expect yourself to be able to go out on the first day and meet your race goal and if you can, then you need to bump your race goal up tremendously. Last of all you need to establish a pattern with your workouts so that your body can start to adjust to all the changing that you are doing to it.

This can be applied to any type of workout that you are participating in, whether it is biking, walking, yoga, pilates...etc. Whatever you are implementing into your life to reestablish your fitness take into consideration these factors and keep having fun! It's worth it.

Yoga anyone?

"Who would ever do yoga?" "I mean only crazy people who like to hum to themselves do that" that is exactly what I used to say to myself when I first heard of yoga and definitely when I first saw people who were doing yoga. "You do all these hmmm's and bend and shape your body, why would you do that?"

I have to say that I have changed my thinking of yoga. I actually did yoga this morning and strongly recommend it to all runners who aren't doing yoga. I am probably one of the few runners who hasn't been doing yoga. I promise it is weird at first but it will definitely improve your flexibility and your overall posture and body strength.

There are many great ways to find out about yoga, I recommend going to runnersworld.com and learning about runners yoga. I have been doing the Yoga DVD from P90X but it is pretty tough and time intensive.

so get out your old workout tights and ditch those shoes for some barefoot yoga!!! it's worth it I promise.

let me know what you think?

Not Feeling it....

I am sure we all have days when you wake up at 4:30am to the sound of your dog throwing up and you realize you have to get up in a few minutes to go run? What? that hasn't happened to you....well that is how our morning started off this morning. Luckily the dog did not throw up but was just coughing heavily. (There is a point I promise)

This morning as I was getting up preparing for a speed workout. I was definitely not feeling it, I was tired, had a lot on my mind concerning work and just not feeling it. Well I kissed Megan good bye for the day and headed out on my mile warm up. Got to the track to do my speed work and it was closed to the public, so I was even more upset and even considered heading back home. I didn't.

I fought through and decided to do the same workout I did on Monday and actually finished with a great workout. So my point today is even though you may wake up and your mind is telling you "Stay in bed" get your butt out of bed and surprise yourself. The hot weather will soon be fading away and the morning runs will be sublime.

Ran 5.15 miles in 39:55

Never too old to run in the sprinkler.

As a kid I remember specifically one summer day, my brother and I were stuck at home to entertain ourselves. It was a very hot & sticky day, we didn't' want to be stuck indoors and we as any other young kid knew that the solution to our entertainment involved "Water". Now we did not have a swimming pool, unless you want to count our 10K gallon feeding trough. So we decided to set up our slip-n-slide. Yes all was right in the world! So we played and played in that slip-n-slide until we had made a nice mud patch in our neighbors yard....needless to say mom and dad weren't so happy. The next day we were signed up for day camps..haha

This morning as I was out on my short run, even though it was a much cooler morning than usual I was still quite hot and sweaty. I happen to run upon a restaurant that was watering their grass. The side walk that I was running on happen to be drenched with water and I was noticing the path of the sprinklers were going to cover me with water as I kept running, all of a sudden those memories of growing up during the summer came back to me. I ran through those sprinklers, got a little wet, cooled down and continued on my way.

August is hot!! If you are out running in it I recommend detouring off your planned route to find some yards being watered. Staying cool and hydrated is very important. I also recommend running early in the mornings. If you do decide to run through a sprinkler, be careful not to soak your shoes, you definitely don't want to get blisters......oh and don't wake up your neighbors!

have fun and keep running!!

My alarm clock is ringing and I can't move...

Have you ever been so sore that you can't hardly move in the mornings. Or you know your feet are on the ground but you can't really feel them. Or how about when your alarm clock is sounding off, screaming at you to get out of bed but for some reason you can't really move your body to turn it off? That was me this morning!

As the alarm was going off, luckily it was music so not so annoying, I tried to lift my arm up to turn off the alarm but for some reason it would not budge. See usually I have no problem turning off the alarm pretty much the instant it begins, not today. Long story short, I managed to work my way to turning off the alarm, woke Megan up and we shuffled our way out of bed. This morning I had a tempo run that I needed to perform and I was dragging at the start.

Shortly after Megan left to head to the coffee shop I headed out on my 5 mile tempo run. Starting was rough, I was stiff and sore, and well I will just admit still asleep. Today I had a hand-held water bottle to keep me cool (Thanks Bill!!) and I used it quite a bit to splash me down and to wake me up.

My run ended well, I got the time that I needed, and ended the workout with a nice cool quarter mile walk back home. My advice today is ice down your knees, thighs, and calf muscles shortly after you complete your workout. I know the ice is painful but just think of the nasty heat outside. I promise if you do ice for 15-20 minutes your recovery will be so much better. As you can tell I did not ice two days ago and it bit me in the butt today.

Keep up the good work!!

God is Good!!