Illness

The inspiration / drive to work out still has not returned. Of course the illness from a couple weeks ago I though was improving did not. In fact it has not improved so much, I am on antibiotics now.  Although different than previous illnesses, It is about the worst one I have had in the last 10 years. Hopefully it will all be over before thanksgiving.

Wall & Zombies

Workout Wall
I have hit another snag in getting 'race ready'  these last couple weeks.  The illness returned making it very difficult to work out or be active in any way with out being made physically ill.  Add to that an increased work load & class load with the passing of my boss at work (increasing work load even more). All this combined to bring me down to only 3 total work out days the last 2 weeks.  I have a lack of energy/desire to move forward.  But I also know that time will strill keep passing & I need to get in gear.

Now that all of that seems to be behind me (other than school which will continue through May) I am hoping come Tuesday I will be able to get running again.  I will say in an effort to be better trained and to make up for the upper body deficit experienced at the Toro Loco I have added to my regimen.  Now instead of just jogging on the treadmill for a distance, I jog 1/2 mile, then its burpee time (9 in 90 seconds) followed by a short walk before jogging the rest of the next 1/2 mile.   Once the running portion of the workout is completed, the number of burpees done = number of situps to complete.  I am hoping in time he burpees will increase during my breaks, in a perfect world to 30 & get right back to the jog. meanwhile overall distance will increase weekly as well.

One source of inspiration is a blog I just came across this week "Live the Tough Life" This is a blog by an Arizona gentleman named  Christopher Rutz who is part of a racing team and the current points leader w/ 2012 Spartan Race Points series, he has also started guest posting on their blog as well.  His time & dedication to "a high level of fitness" (something he has been working on for over 20 years) is an inspiration. Of course it also serves as a reminder that what I am trying to do will take much more time than the one year this had planned for.  Especially when I have 'life' constantly trying to get in the way of these goals.


ZombieBuffet
This past weekend I volunteered at a racing event called he ZombieBuffet 5k.  I had been under the impression it was a zombie obstacle race, in the vein of Run for your lives, but it turned out to be a 5k + zombies.

In any case it was interesting to see a race from the other side for once. From working at registration, to finish line to water stations. It was a bit of an eye opener in both the what to do/not to do on the working side of it.  But also to see a race & its participants in more ways than just as they passed by while on the course.  

Sure there were issues but overall things ran fairly smoothly for a 1st time in AZ race.

Still it was nice to get outdoors & meet some new people in a race related way with out having to hurt myself too much.

Baseline Accomplished

So having completed the Toro Loco, and having had a couple days to think about my performance,  I have a good idea where I stand w/ getting ready for my Trifecta and I have a long way to go.


Running - Although I can USE the treadmill for a long time (ie occasionally jog non stop for up to 45 min equating to 3.5 miles) that does not translate well to the real world. For the TLC I only made it about .53 miles before slowing to walk to rest.  Granted the dirt we were on was so loose one left 3/4 inch deep footprints where they walked, in a very sandy consistency for the first 2 miles of the route.  Starting the race with this just exhausted me.  Temperature also worked against me (as did my pants - more later).  So I REALLY needed water before the 1st obstacle.  At home on the treadmill I rarely drink until the workout is finished with no ill effects.  The solution for this will be longer workouts on the treadmill at more of an angle combined with 'real world' runnign, as much as I am not thrilled with that.

Note the footprints, very loose dirt not the easiest to run in.

Attire - In this race, as in the last one I wore pants (BDUs specifically).  My logic being, wit the crawling that tends to happen, either in dirt or 'mud'  my knees get pretty scraped up.  By using pants I have some level of protection.  Clearly they were unnecessary for this event where there were no crawling obstacles at all. The added weight & airflow restriction more than likely worked to make me warmer & more tired. Maybe I need to experiment with more of a knee length version.


Music - Although very useful on the treadmill. But not so much on the race.  If you happen to go with people, its a distraction and something else to carry around. Even with out people around, while making the videos the cord gets in the way camera visually & audibly due to the short cord. I plan on keeping this for the Super & Beast but need to rethink how it is used especially the track order.


Distance/Time - My time was approx  1 hr 38 min. 
BUt distance, that is an issue.  The race billed itself as a 10k aka 6.2 miles.
Looking at Google Earth, however it comes up as ~5.76 miles - Close to  a half mile difference in length. For my calculations I will err on the side of caution and use the shorter distance. Certainly due to the conversion of photos to a curved surface may cause some discrepancy. I saw some between the billed Spartan Race distance & measured route using the Google too. Of course there is a possibility that the race itself was not accurately measured, using what I saw from obstacle completion & general event management this is completely plausible. 

The TLC 10k race route.

Using this lower value for calculating minutes per mile puts my pace at 17.01 minutes per mile.   Almost as bad as the 1st warrior dash I basically walked through. Sure this distance was almost 2x as much, and I have learned from running at the track my mile times increase with every additional mile after the first one, but all in all pretty poor results as I see it.  When you consider that the Spartan Races will have obstacles with penalties, tack on another 3-4 min per obstacle I fail and ~25 obstacles for the BEAST that equates to a possible 100 penalty minutes + ~222 min for the race = FIVE and a half hours to complete at this pace. 

Granted if Google Earth is off and the race was indeed 6.2 miles then my minutes per mile is improved to 15.81 & it will only be 5 hours for BEAST completion.  Wow.  Definitely need to work on better time.


Upper Body - I know I should not have, but I have neglected my upper body during these last couple months.  I wanted to work on running stamina & losing weight.   Bad idea.  With more upper body I may have completed some of these obstacles I failed AND with Spartan will succeed & miss those possible penalty minutes doing burpees.  Not to mention how much more doing burpees will tire me and that it will take longer to complete them as I progress. One plan it to hit a rock gym a couple times before the 3 races, this will help w/ the upper body AND give me a bit more experience when it comes to the horizontal wall obstacle, possibly saving 30 burpees.  


To sum up I have A LOT of work ahead of me.  starting with more/ faster treadmil times planned.  More hiking & some running outdoors to boost that endurance.  And of course adding burpees  & upper body to the workouts.  

145 days will go by pretty fast with work school & misc holidays impeding workouts.  Hopefully I will be in better position come the Sprint.

Meanwhile the next thing on the calendar is volunteering at a race, the zombie buffet 5k in one month, who knows maybe I will be chosen to be a zombie & get to run some of it. 

Book Review

On my vacation I took some time to read the SpartanRace book they published. 

Joe Desena & Andy Weinberg

You'll Know At The Finish Line
A Spartan Guide To The Sport Of Obstacle Racing
Spartan Press 2012
404 pages FREE
ISBN-13:978-0615675183

Yup that looks fun 

I have to say it has its good point and bad points. 

First of all the book is FREE and is available for e-readers or in PDF format from the Spartan Race website so the price is great & the different format options are very nice.  I read the PDF version which I had some issues with. Being a PDF having the page size be 3.54 x 4.72 inches seemed very odd.  By using this format the PDF itself (in times new roman) seems to be oddly formatted when it comes to reading, from sentence & page breaks to the edge to edge text it is very distracting.  I Was reading this while travelling on both a net-book & on a home PC. But this is personal preference from a guy writing a random blog written in veranda for the most part. Still I would have preferred it in Word or similar format where I could adjust it more to what I like. It is possible a kindle version would have been easier on my eyes as well.

This is original size

The book itself has many sections to it with the history of obstacle racing , with a time line, to their philosophy, detailed information on training ideas and specifically for their events.  Each of the 10 chapters ends with stories from & about some of the folks who have helped in the events as well as just participated in them with some amazing stories of personal achievement.  To me these items were the most fascinating part of the book. To read about how much people are able to overcome & endure in their lives & translate it to these events, or to use the events to inspire them to change their lives is very remarkable.

But I do have a couple more criticisms of the work, which it is clearly stated i the first time the authors have done anything like this, and approached it by just diving in & seeing what happens.  Andy & Joe both wrote the book and it is obvious.  Paragraphs may start with "Joe:" or "Andy:" as if the book is the result of an interview.  In many cases a section will be mostly written by only one individual with their name at the start. Having someone edit the book in a way to massage their viewpoints together may have had a better flow.

Of course in reading the book, although I have done one Spartan Race, and intend to do more. I realize the book is not meant for me to be its audience.  Chapter 5 is all about training for the Spartan Sprint a 3+ mile obstacle course . On one hand they mention how the distance is good for everyone beginners on up.  Then go on to say work up to a five mile run at a moderate pace before attempting the Sprint.  Clearly these two items are not the same in my book. I see a  'beginner' as someone just getting off the couch and in to getting in shape/running/obstacle races to not someone who can already run five miles as a precursor to training for a 3.5 mile race. Yet further in the chapter they make it abundantly clear this is not for beginners. An 8 week workout regimen to train for the event starts on day 1 with jogging 3 miles after a 10 minute warmup and also includes: push ups, pull ups, crunches, and an additional 2 miles of running. From there it just gets more intense.  

So although great information on history, proposed rules for making these kinds of events more 'official' and some good workouts are included along with those outstanding personal stories.  I think They should go back to the drawing board for a second release & make the book & some of its contents more user friendly to the new Spartan Race initiate.

ToroLoco Video

Video of the race is up.

Now you can hear me complain with normal sarcasm, bitchynies, via annotations & a chipmunk voice.

ToroLoco Clusterf*ck

I know the title is a bit harsh. But this was an event in desperate need of MANY things.

Ready to start

Lets start with what was done right.  

The Bibs.  (I think).  
As I dont have my official time yet, I am not sure if they worked. But the Bibs themselves had strips built in to them & were more sturdy than tyvek bibs. So no need for a 'chit' to attach to laces & turn in for recording time.  That was nice.  

Lack of real mud.
most mud was trudging through calf high water/mud.  So easy to clean up from.
**not necessarily a 'right' thing, just nice after the difficulties to not have to wait in lines for showers.

OK and that is it.

Lets talk about the things that need improvement.

Registration.
I am an anomaly.  I was a part of no race.  When I registered they were taking registrations for weeks, yet there was no space to select which race to join (5k Leisurely Longhorn or 10k Raging Bull) I had to email them.  They fixed it for others but me I was part of "Unknown Event".

Parking.  
The car parkers did not have a clue, and people were being parked in such a way they were being blocked in.

Check in.
There were 3 lines, for different parts of the alphabet. Course the signs indicating what part of the alphabet were obscured as they were at knee height, so one person in line & you had no idea where to go.

Most everything

Event Grounds
This event is for people & dogs, but the day started out with  - only a few porta johns & no water areas for dogs. The drinks, those not from the food trucks, were stored outside & then moved to iced coolers, so after a while only not so cold drinks.  (and no Cola or diet, Beer, Beer, Beer, 7-up & water were the options).  The registration, free snacks, store, volunteer check in weer all one tent, making it hard to figure out where to go & get around.  The changing areas were hidden off to the side along with the cleaning area.

Everything not under the 1 tent.

Food arrives

Race Start
So the race was to start the first heat at 8am.   They left more like 8:15 per my phone & watch.
Realizing this I was happy to be in the 8:30 heat, as I feared by later starting heats would be way off with times.

Race Course.
Not a well designed course a few times we wandered aimlessly wondering if we were even still on the right path.  the 5k people were to follow green flags, 10k orange.  I rarely saw any orange flags.

Race Obstacles part 1
You will see when the video is posted this was a difficult course for short folks.  It was not meant for short people at all.  There were several obstacles that were basically get from point A to point B using upper body (rings, ropes, etc.) If you were not tall enough or could not jump high enough you could not even get started let alone make it through.   Just rehanging a few items with 3 inches more rope would have made a world of difference to many of those I encountered on the course.

Race Obstacles part 2
Several obstacles were completely unattended, or even incomplete. There was a set of 4 ropes on the course, no one around & no point to them. Should we go up? maybe rope to rope?  Who knows.  How about the slack-rope over dirt, no water or mud just the ground. So where does one 'start' & 'finish'?  There was a trench we were not sure was still part of the race (due to the aforementioned lack of markings) that had been started water, had been added & some logs & then abandoned, as it was another place no one was around.  I am glad no one I saw got hurt as it would have been difficult to attain aid.

Erika took this pic of one of their staff, the zip line was too slack, and the  pulleys kept getting stuck. She tried to help & her hair got all caught up in it.

Im sure with out thinking too hard I could find more to complain about.  I really had no intention of just ripping on the race, it was a good charity & a good idea. I know from experience it is hard to put on an event, especially the first time.  Things will go wrong. Especially when one is in an 'outlying area' with few facilities. But one also need to think more about what they are doing, that people will have different wants/needs/objectives and that all people are different so sometimes it takes a fresh eye to spot issues that one has become blind to in the planning stages.  

I did get to run a race & get some ideas how to better plan for my upcoming Spartan Trifecta. I met some nice people, and got some exercise (and eegees).

After coming down the slide.

Time behind me is from the 8am heat so a bit misleading. as I was 1:37

But that said, will I do this event again - no.

**UPDATE 9/16**
Apparently this was the second time this event was run, and per some participants this incomplete course w/ bad planning was 100% better than the spring version. (and that they purge negative comments from their FaceBook page)
Makes me wonder how bad that one was.  

ToroLoco minus 1 day

Tomorrow is the ToroLoco Challenge.

Since coming back & planning on getting in shape, I have gotten sick and overworked; consequently I am no where near where I had planned on being physically 3 months ago.

But I signed up & paid my money, so I will do it.

One thing that will make this event different is I will be running it alone.

This is the only race I will have done alone other than my attempt at the Spartan Race over 7 months ago. So what my finishing time is will be all on me.  No "I was waiting on other people." or "There was a line at the obstacle." excuses.

I am happy that someone noticed I was losing weight today, combining with the weigh in on Monday at 183lbs does put me in good spirits.  

IF, and this is a big IF, all goes well Id like to finish around 90 minutes.
But we will see..

In the meantime, here is a look in to my training regimen from this past week.

Yeah I kinda did that. 

And a look at the course as it is listed on their website.

I really just wanted to play on the zip line.

So tomorrow 6.2 miles of being stupid.

Stay tuned..

Back to the Grind

I have returned from my Canadian adventure, and have to say I had a great time. Food was excellent, wedding was picture perfect, and I even learned a bit about myself.

First of all I may be doing better than I give myself credit for.  Today (Sunday) I weighed myself.  This is something I decided to do every 2 weeks, so I have an idea where I am, but not too often I get discouraged.  I weighed in at 185lbs - the lightest I have seen on a scale in over 5 years.  This was a bit of a shock, knowing what ALL I had to eat and drink while in Quebec, from the social event the night before, cocktail hour & open bar the day of the wedding, including cake, 4 course meal and candy station at the wedding topped off with a beer festival on Sunday. I felt I took in way more calories than I used walking around town.  

One thing about Quebec, if you are in the old part of town it is all one big hill, waking up to this after a day on planes actually made me wish I had brought shoes I could work out in. It could be that even though I hate the idea of working out, after nearly 2 months of hitting the treadmill daily it is finally part of my routine enough I look forward to it in some deranged way?  

Although the shoes were not present, I did do a fair amount of walking around the area, at least 7.5 miles from what I have been able to decipher.  Oh and when say hill I mean HILL.

Each image was taken on a walk, from the right most near the water, going up the hill (the left most not even at the top)

Where I live I am pretty sure the general altitude change can be measured in inches over the miles (8 feet over 4 miles to be a bit more precise) , but it seems within a quarter mile the difference there was about 250 feet.

So in the end, I got more exercise than planned, and am still ahead. So today I decided to abuse myself. Now that I have class and have no time on Mondays to work out, today was to be a long day on the treadmill.  The treadmill had other ideas. I had set it for 13.1 miles. The goal to be able to propel myself that distance either walking or jogging, just to see how long it took, and to have a baseline for upcoming events, especially the Toro Loco in a couple weeks.  The treadmill apparently has a cap of 99 minutes, after that you are done - workout completed. Sure I could have reset it & gone the rest of the distance. And, sometime in the future will do that. But today I heeded the treadmill & stopped there.  I had jogged 7.7 miles in that time, a new distance record for me & although tired, was not as exhausted as I thought I would have been.  

Maybe, I am succeeding in the working out & getting in shape. MAYBE I will be able to complete the events I have on my plate.  We will see.

VACATION!!!

I made it.  I have survived working out to make it to my vacation.  No more workouts for the next 5 days.  Sure I will completely destroy all the work I have done in a matter of 1 weekend but it will be worth it.

(Instead of the over used leaving on  jet plane, I think I will celebrate w/ some Fletch)

In the last 30 days I have worked out 27 of them, totaling 82 miles or 12,300 calories.

The next few days will be spent eating junk food, wedding cake, Quebec red tailed deer & what ever else Canadians eat while celebrating the wedding of a dear friend.  oh and drinking lots of alcohol too, as I wont be driving anywhere and sure as hell don't understand Quebecois. (Its bad enough you guys speak French, but to have it be a version of French you cant find online to learn, that is just plain rude)

Unfortunately, once I return my life will become even more hellish with the addition of a college course sucking up one work out day & being less than 30 days from the Toro Loco Challenge. 

This is why it is called an act of stupidity.

So....

First of all , the back pain has been subsiding, albeit slowly.  Hopefully I will be back at 100% for my trip to Canada next weekend. Just in time to make other bad decisions.

But I woke up today w/ pain in my left shin.  Now I had noticed some tenderness there a couple days ago after a work out, and attributed it to just over use. I have been on the treadmill in some capacity for 13 days in a row starting July 27. Yesterday due to my mom being in town & staying in the room it is kept I did not workout. It was kind of strange, maybe I am getting used to it being part of my routine, as much as I hate doing it. Thus I find it odd that today I have the pain,it makes more sense to me if I had been exerting myself, however I had not.  Guess it is something else to keep an eye on.

In other news the Arizona Republic had an article today about 'mud runs'  It was mostly an ad for a particular event, and to help tout an article they plan on doing on their 'team'  and looking for people to join it.  Still it is nice to see them taking notice and having the list of upcoming events. I am also amused that being a newspaper & having access to researchers, they do not list 4 events that I do on my Arizona races page that are occurring later this year. This includes the November event Erika is participating in that already has over 1000 people signed up for it and the October event I am volunteering with.

Finally, for any people interested, the founders of Spartan Race have published an ebook (FREE), it deals with history, training, rules and articles on some amazing people, I hope I have the time to read it this weekend.  Being self published it is not the most refined in look, but may have some useful info. Stay tuned.

Ouch

I hurt. Specifically my lower back hurts. It is my fault. But I fear this will effect me more than I'd like.

Some background:

In Arizona a few years back we got rid of pretty much the last of the old blue laws concerning alcohol sales. Sunday Aug 1, 2010 was the first day you could purchase alcohol before 10am in Arizona on a Sunday.  Although not a big drinker, I started the "Annual Beer & Doughnut Run".  The first Sunday in August at 6am begins a ride around town which includes buying breakfast & alcohol, just because you can.  Today was the 3rd annual  Beer & Doughnut Run (and also International Beer Day).

In preparation for this I ran a lot yesterday, 6 miles in 80 minutes.  The fastest & longest I have run since beginning this. I felt pretty good about it & the approx 906 calories burned.  

This morning all went well w/ the ride.  Ride - check.  Beer - check. Doughnuts - check. But the place I got the doughnuts was across town, and I was bringing stuff home.  it did not fit on the bike well, and to avoid crushing the spoils, I put the ill-fitting box in a backpack & rode home, sitting in an odd manor. So odd in fact that knew something was going wrong while riding, as i felt every bump in the road. But being an idiot I pressed on. I was in a lot of pain when I got off the bike, all in the lower back.

Needless to say it has not been the fun day I had planned, and I am hoping I am not doing as bad tomorrow, but only time will tell.  I did work out a very little today to try & stay limber and because I recently read that with injuries like this the best thing may be to use them not to baby them.

We will see......

30 days

333 days 14 hours and 9 minutes.  That is what I have left.

Time seems to be passing much faster than I'd like to get ready for this event.

In some respects things are going very well. In 30 days I have been on the treadmill 20 of them. I logged over 49 miles, representing just under 7100 calories burned in 11 hours & 24 minutes.  All are good numbers.  Even today I did my longest run 4.66 miles in 60 minutes. Still I have concerns.

I need to work on upper body more than I do, and I intend to, but not quite yet.

First I think I need to get my diet in order.  And I hate that. 

I really want to lose weight, but I also dont want to give up food I like. Sure the reason I got here was every day burgers, large fries, sodas & foot long subs. And I have cut that down, but still I have not made the progress I would have liked to with my weight. My weight last week was 191, higher than when I started all this July 1. So a little depressing.  Sure one could say I am building muscle. Although I doubt really I have put on that much of it.

No, I think it is still my diet.  I came across two different articles this week, both basically saying the same thing. You cant work off bad diet.

That is a depressing concept.  Even though I am working out, and eating at least OK, I am still taking in too much soda & chips & other 'bad' foods so I am having a negative impact.

August, with some exceptions (like a trip & a wedding), will be spent doing what I am doing now exercise wise but also attempting to get my calorie consumption in a bit more order.  Hopefully it helps, so I can move on to more upper body strength, and then w/ the cooler weather combining it all in one program so I can achieve my goal of beating the spartan beast in June.

333 days 13 hours and 55 minutes. 

Week 3

So this is a little late. in part because I dont have much to say.


Although I did achieve a major goal this past week. I was on the treadmill at a jogging pace for 3.5 miles. It was exhausting, but it is the first of many milestones to cross to be ready for the 12.1 mile race coming up in June.


Additionally I think I am back on target (for a couple weeks) with my workouts. Week 3 saw me complete 9.58 miles in 131 minutes to burn 1353 calories.  Week 1 saw me on the treadmill longer by 15 minutes but due to the lower speeds I only burned 1100 calories.


All in all Id say good progress.

Week 2 & slacking off

So, 2 weeks in & I think I am doing OK.  I will admit I am in the process of slacking off for several days in a row. The last time I used the treadmill was Wednesday (Its also when I stopped the Burpee Challenge).  The reasoning for the break was the reason I started this endeavor - I'm old, or getting older.  This weekend I turned 40.  Part of the celebrating meant not being at home & trying to relax and NOT working out.


I knew going in to this I'd be taking this time off, but it will be one of only a couple anomalies where I dont workout for several days over the course of the coming year. (And at 4 days in a row, the longest) .


As such, on Monday it begins again.  Although I will most likely not make up the Burpee Challenge days I missed, I will pick up from what my current number should be and doing more exercising. Like trying to figure out a way to do the 'Hobie Hop' with out hurting myself.


On a plus note I have made progress, Pants that were 'comfortable' as a Large are now a slightly snug Medium.  And since July 1, if the scale is to be believed I have lost 3 lbs.

End of week 1 & Shoes

Week 1
So 1 week done and I am still alive. July 1 to July 7 I had gone 9.85 miles on the treadmill. 
(14.23 if you include the test mentioned below) 


Pretty much the most I have walked/run/jogged in just about ever in a week. 
 Granted the vacation we took in Portland earlier this year we walked significantly more than that, but it was walking & lots of stops, and lots of eating. 


FYI the treadmill issues were erlated to poor installation by the guys.  But the warranty people were very nice & came out Friday & repaired it to a point were it could be used. We should have it back up to 100% by Wednesday, providing the parts get in at a decent time.


Yesterday I did a 1 hour test, to see how far I could get in 60 minutes. I think this will be a good baseline test to do every couple weeks to see if I have any improvement.  The baseline test put me at 4.3 miles in 60 minutes.  SIGNIFICANTLY better than I had done in any event.  Of course due to injuries I mostly walked through events, plus when I am running I know I will be held up by exhaustion & obstacles.  Still it would be nice to get that to a 5mph average or more for the races, so that I am not out there for 3 hours when trying to complete my 12 mile race.


Shoes
I had purchased for this endeavour a pair of Saucony shoes over the internet at a decent price. (thanks Zappos) Before the purchase we went to a local sotr to be fitted & determine what shoes would be best for me.  I really would have liked to support the local guys & bought there, but  the color schemes they had were hideous.  I went home & was lucky to find that last years colors were not near as bad. I had asked in the store if they could have gotten other models of shoe, and they said no, so I made my purchase online.   What is with all the use of silver? Let alone neon colors.  


here is an example of this years Saucony offerings:

ok the grey/black/yellow is not THAT offensive. But check out the orange ones. 
I am a simple man.  My running shorts are black, shirt- black, socks -black. Yet when I look for shoes my options seem to be more of the 'which power ranger do you wanna be' variety. And to make matters worse, it seems the average shoe lifespan is 300-500 miles from what I have read. Meaning at the aforementioned 9.8 miles/ week I will definitely go through one pair of shoes before my races are completed & be on a second pair.  And that is IF I don't run further than I did during my first week of training. Sure the treadmill is probably not as bad on them but It will mean in a few months I will have to spend more money so I can dress like a happy clown for my races.  


Good thing I know where they sell black Krylon.

Several Items

OK a few things of note for this post.


1) So last night I decided to try & see how far I could go on the treadmill in 70 minutes.  I was hoping for 5 miles, as it seems my previous uses of it had me at a 4.3 avg mph.  It was at 4.4 when something went wrong.  I had upped the speed at times faster than i hd it before & had been on it longer than ever. Judging by the sound/feel, I have think the belt has slipped, probably part of a break in period. Normally I would pull it apart & diagnose the issues.  But as it is under warranty we will see what happens when I get the call back on it tomorrow from the service dept.


2) Today the email came about the Spartan Beast I have been waiting on.  The wonderful world of the Discount Code. 30% off on the Utah Beast.  Of course the first heats are already sold out.  Clearly they picked a good place for the race as only a few days after posting the date and a year away heats are selling out.  I have now signed up officially & updated the image at the top of this blog to represent that. 


3) In reading about this past Utah Beast, from Dirt in Your Skirt, it seems the folks at Spartan Race HQ are changing things up.  Target shooting was included in this past race, along with the traditional spear throw. I am a little apprehensive about this but mostly because it is something I have not done in a race before. 


4) Current work out status.  Today was day 4 of the Burpee Challenge, and to make up for the lack of treadmill I did go for walk. Just as well, several days in a row on it has put me in a bit of pain in the shin/ankle area & last thing I want is a repeat of the issues that plagued me when i originally signed up fr my first event.

Current treadmill only totals since July 1
8.75 miles
1070 calories
4.3 mph average


Not a bad start, but would like to get back on it tomorrow.

Time

I dont plan on posting daily. I just do not believe I have the time or enough witticisms to keep anyone interested if I did that. The plan is to post periodically over the next year, generally when I hit a milestone, do something interesting or have a comment I want to make.


A quick note. In a previous life I worked at seasonal events dealing with volunteers, marketing & promotion.  It mean working pretty much everyday for 2-3 months. Sure there were 'days off' like the time I had to be up & on site for a TV appearance at 4am (until 9am), on the first day off in weeks.  In consideration of this my boss said he handled some of the leg work. But mistakes were made & I had a black eye for a passport photo later that day due to an irate person who was unaware of the noise that would be produced.


When I quit that job I though about all the free time I would have to do other things.  But I had not realized that working on an event had advantages.  Like with all the walking I did daily I did not gain weight from all the fast food I ate (only thing I usually had time for). So I went to an office job, supposed to be 8-5 M-F. And it was, at first. As time passed I gained more responsibility and the small company I worked for became smaller & I did more.  Fast forward to today. The office that had 5 people in it has 2.  The 11 people working from home is now 6.  My day starts at 5am, generally I am done by 5pm depending on daylight savings time & deadlines.  But I am also customer support, web development & more, so not necessarily true.


I have had desires to work out more in the past but 'life' gets in the way. More often than not that life is one spent sitting at a desk doing items for work.I envy people like Chris Davis, who have coworkers & a boss that will allow him the time off to accomplish his goals. 


I know in time I will get better, stronger, faster & can do more with the time I have. But I read the Spartan Race Workouts of the Day and wonder how people have time for it all.  I recall seeing a video once w/ the Spartan Race founders Joe & Andy (and you can correct me on this) where they felt people were getting soft and that was part of the reason for the races. I dont disagree.  But I also can see where that being soft has come from multiple reasons, when one works 2 jobs to make ends meet, or has to work & go to school, and cant afford to buy healthy foods it takes its toll on a person.  When the get home exhausted going for a run or doing squats or burpees is not usually high on a priority list especially when one has kids to care for, meals to prep, bills to pay, etc.


Yes you have to make the decision & set goals & work towards them. This is my plan. But it would also be nice to have more time to put towards those goals.  

Day 1

Training day 1.


So last week in preparation of this we purchased a treadmill.  between Erika & I wanting to get in better shape, needing to work on speed & endurance and of course i being about 2 degrees cooler than the sun outside it seemed like the best possible purchase for the endeavor. Over the last week I have used ti a lot more than I thought I would.  but of course today is the Day 1.


I was surprised to see I am weighing just under191 lbs. Recently I weighed just under 200.  That was about the time I had gotten the news from my doctor about the high cholesterol, vitamin deficiencies and other ailments that made me really consider doing this to get in to a better shape.


In addition to trying to use the treadmill most days of the week at least to walk a bit, I have also instituted a version of the 100 day burpee challenge.  So far so good.  1 down.


Treadmill today was 30 min @ about a 4 mpg average. not too bad.


I have also signed up for my 'other race'  called the ToroLocoChallenge, it will be in September and I think a good gauge to see where I am after a few months of getting ready for my Spartan Races.


AS for the Spartan race next June 29, it looms in the back of my head.  A 12.1 mile race was run there yesterday & I looked at the results.  Sure my goal is to complete it, but I WOULD like a decent time too. The average completion time for this race was 3 hours & 5 min, this is just better than the time it took me to complete the shorter Spartan Race I was in back in February.  I have a ways to go.

Preface

So a long time ago I saw a video on the web about an event in the UK called the ToughGuy. In spite of it being an outdoor/active sort of thing I was drawn to it & wanted to participate. I know That may never happen so I have decided to do the next best thing and participate in local obstacle races in the U.S.  Dear reader please note I am an out of shape computer geek who is more versed in Halo than in real any kind of physical activity. (I actually failed basic PE in high school)


in 2011 I signed up for an event called the Warrior Dash in Florence, AZ.  Summarily I injured myself & hobbled through it against doctor's orders.  Later I walked an event called the Mad Mud Run w/ my girlfriend.  Early in 2012 I signed up for an event called the Spartan Race, thinking it was similar. it was not.  instead of 3.5 miles it was over 8 miles. Obstacles were harder & failure meant calisthenics.  Still, once again injured, I completed the course in about the longest time posted.


Well I have decided 2013 WILL be different. Not only will I be in better shape in my 40th year, I intend to complete 3 spartan races, a 3.5 mile, a 8 mile & a 12.1 mile - called the Trifecta if one can complete this in 12 months. Due to the locations of the races & money constraints I will be doing them all in 6 months.


This blog will follow my training & thought processes as I try to get in shape & complete these 3 events (and one additional) in the next 364 days.