Updates!

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. I’m bad like that. I’d like to be better, but first I need to get this blog up to speed. This’ll be a recap of the last six months and I’ll probably make some blog posts about specific things that’ll be more in depth.

My last post on here was back in May. My training from that point on was pretty spotty. I got my swimming up to 1.5 miles in under an hour (40-minute miles) near the beginning of June and at that point I didn’t swim again until my Half IronMan (yay, training!?). I slowly got my running up to about 16 miles (maintaining around 11-minute miles), but didn’t get any higher than that. My biking I struggled with, getting in a 40-mile ride, then struggling to improve on that until when going out for a 50-mile ride on a nice cool day (in Florida, if the high is only 70, it’s a cool day), I managed to push to a 61-mile ride. I only needed 56-miles for the HIM, so I considered that accomplished. And I did it much faster than I expected.

So what took all my time up? Well, at the end of June into the first few days of July, I spent 12 days hiking on the Appalachian Trail in Central Virginia. I covered 144 miles along with a friend (the husband of one the ladies at work). The trip had it’s ups and downs (literal and figurative), with day 6 being the day that absolutely sucked the life out of me and felt miserable and day 7 being the day where everything suddenly fell into place.

After returning from that trip, I went skydiving for the first time down at the Space Coast. I had hoped to see Kennedy Space Center, but the clouds in the East blocked the view – damn. I did pretty well up until the last 300 feet or so when I suddenly started feeling faint and ill. Once we landed, I caught my breath for a few minutes and felt better, albeit tired and soaked in a cool sweat. Fear of heights be damned, I did it!

A couple weeks later, I took my bike down to a buddies house on the back of my car and after we had a nice ride, while driving home my bike rack came loose and fell off my car. I lost a wheel and the rest of the bike dragged behind my car for about a mile, starting at 70 miles per hour until I could pull all the way over and stop on the side of the road. My bike was pretty much totaled. So I retired the Schwinn hybrid and got a road bike – an Orbea Avant! My speed instantly went from around 13mph average on long rides to 15.5mph on long rides.

In August I turned 29 and my buddy took me on a helicopter ride and the Orlando Eye before we met up with some other friends at the bar(s) to celebrate.

In October I went to Canada for work. I spent a few days working in Guelph, Ontario, then spent a couple days vacationing – one in Niagara Falls, and one in Toronto. I got to Toronto the day of their first playoff game in however many years and the city was electric. I stayed the night and flew home the next day, the day of Game 2. Toronto lost both games.

A couple weeks later I was back on a plane, this time to Washington D.C. to run my first big race of the year – the Marine Corps Marathon! I flew up on Friday and spent the day touring around and picking up my packet. I used the bikeshare program in D.C., so I could just rent a bike and then return it to another kiosk area. If I was on the bike less than 30 minutes, I didn’t have to pay for the ride, just the initial three-day pass. Saturday I did more touring, had a big pasta lunch (with leftovers for an early dinner) and got ready for the next day.

Sunday I walked the two miles to the race start, where it was cold (low 50s?) and rainy. Once we started, I kept moving to stay warm, same as when I did Chicago in 2014. I stuck with the people around me, adjusting my pace to theirs. Normally when I run, I sprint for a minute, then walk for a minute. It works great for me, but it’s not so great when you’re surrounded by tens-of-thousands of people. MCM was extremely crowded, so I made sure to pace myself off the other people. It worked well. I PRed on pretty much all of my split times. Once I hit mile 18, I started feeling it. Then the bridge came around mile 20 and I was really feeling it. I think the heat was starting to kick in. Even at only about high 60s, I still get warm when running. At that point I was just fighting to make it to each water station. My goal was to finish in under 5:00:00 and I was on pace for it until about mile 18-20. Even then, if I stuck to 12-minute miles, I thought I might be able to sprint the finish and get close. At about mile 23, I crashed. The next two miles were really slow. I tried picking it up near the end and did fairly well. I sprinted the last .1 miles, but the end was a very steep uphill climb and the cramping kicked in quickly. I finished in 5:06:07 – a PR!

I had hoped to be faster, but I knew I still had one more marathon this year to hit sub-5 in. It took about half an hour to walk with the crowd down the mile-long stretch to get out of the finish area. Once out, I found a bike-share kiosk and grabbed a bike for the 3-mile trek back to the hotel. I toured more of the city before leaving Monday afternoon.

The next weekend I didn’t have an event, so I went on a short training run and pulled a muscle in my foot.

The weekend after that I did Tough Mudder with two friends. Early on my shorts started falling down whenever I ran, then they got wet and started falling down when I walked. At the first water station, I took them off and threw them by the trash can and just ran in my underwear – Dat Ass! I had a good time, was completing most of the obstacles, but the pulled muscle in my foot was hurting if I ran. On the monkey bars, I made it almost all the way across until when reaching from a swinging bar to a straight pipe, I couldn’t make the transition. I got my left hand on it, but couldn’t match because of the reach and my bad shoulder. I felt my shoulder pop as I tried and fell into the water.

A few obstacles later, I was 15 feet in the air, running off the platform, jumping, and grabbing onto a swinging bar. My shoulder dislocated as soon as my body weight came down. I let go and fell into the water, then swam one-armed over to the netting to get out of the water. I had to pop my shoulder back in before I could pull myself out. I continued on, but was pretty distraught having spent the last three and a half years strengthening my shoulder after surgery. I skipped an obstacle that required the use of only arms (no legs!?). Then came a surprise obstacle, the quarterpipe, my favorite. I gave it a go and with some help, I was able to get up it with only one arm. Overall I was very disappointed in Tough Mudder. It’s never been the best, but it’s never been as disappointed at this time around.

One week later I was doing my 70.3 triathlon – the Rocketman Triathlon. I was just hoping to finish in under the 8 hour cutoff since a pulled muscle in my foot and a dislocated shoulder weren’t very useful in a triathlon. Luckily the wind favored me in the swim and I completed 1.2 miles in under 25 minutes (in normal conditions, it would take me 48 minutes pacing myself, maybe 40 going hard). I started the bike into a headwind though, which sucked, and my knee was instantly on fire for some reason. I’ve had an injured knee for a while, but it’s never been this bad and never so immediately. But I did the smart (read: not smart) thing and just ignored it. The headwind was annoying, but the crosswinds got kind of dangerous. Fortunately, for every good headwind, there’s a good tailwind. I was getting slowed down to 11mph at some points into the wind, but coming out of it, I could cruise at 24mph no problem. The rough road did do a number on my ass though and I had to keep standing on one leg and coasting to let my ass take a rest. The last 7 miles or so were with a tailwind and on a nice (read: not nearly reduced to rubble) road, so I cruised in between 20-25mph the whole way. The run started into a headwind as well, so I conserved my energy and speed-walked most of it, especially when the wind was gusting, and ran sparingly. Once I got the tailwind, I did my normal 1-minute run, 1-minute walk the whole way back. Having a tailwind is nice, but it was getting hot and the wind was no longer cooling me off. I finished in just under six and a half hours. My run pace was my fasted half-marathon split ever and I’m convinced that it wasn’t a full 13.1, but since I didn’t bring my phone to gps track me, I have no idea. My bike odometer read 56.0 as I dismounted, so I know that was perfect. Guess I’ll never know.

The next week was an easy week – just a 5K. I wanted to get under 28:00. I had run a 5K at the end of May and finished in 28:05, just 5 seconds away from my goal! I went out strong on this 5K and didn’t stop until the halfway point. I walked for a minute, then ran again. I stopped to walk one more time a little past the 2-mile marker when I reached a decent uphill. Once I reached the top of the hill, I ran the rest of the way to the finish. I wanted to walk more, but I knew I was cutting it close on my goal. When I turned onto the last road, I sped up. Then when I saw the three-mile marker, I sprinted to the finish. 27:36 finish time! Success! My buddy who had run the Tough Mudder with me also ran and placed 3rd in his age group in the 24-minute range.

The next weekend was the Space Coast Marathon. Again my buddy joined me to run – his first marathon. I was hoping for a sub-5 hour run, but the head and humidity worried me. I started out strong in the pre-dawn hour. By mile 3 my feet were both completely numb, but I regained feeling around mile 4. Since I couldn’t feel my feet, I was pretty sure I wasn’t running with proper form, but I wanted my time! By mile 11.5 I was exhausted, so I turned on my Spotify playlist that I was planning on using for the second half. The 5-hour pacer caught up to me, so I ran harder and stayed ahead for a few minutes before he finally passed me along with the 5-hour group. Then the other 5-hour pacer caught up and I ran with them for a bit, but by 12.5 miles, they were way ahead of me and I was sucking wind and throwing up in my mouth repeatedly. My biggest mistake was realized when the song “Crash and Burn” by Thomas Rhett played just as I watched the 5-hour pace group fade from view.

“So I guess it’s over baby, deja vu again.
who’d have thought that time don’t stop and somehow girl the world keeps spinning.
And I guess I’ve turned myself into a solitary man
Ain’t like I’m the only one that’s in the shoes that I am.

Do you hear that, I’m right back at the sound of lonely calling.
Do you hear that, that’s where I’m at. That’s the sound of teardrops falling down.
A slamming door and a lesson learned, I let another lover crash and burn.”

Replace the ‘lover’ with my goal for the race and you have my exact feelings in that moment. A marathon is a tough physical exercise, but it’s more than 50% mental. If you can stay mentally positive, you can still do well on a bad day. If you let the bad thoughts creep in, especially that early, you can make a good day very bad. I walked across the half-marathon marker and didn’t run again until the next water station where I drank about 2 cups of gatorade, 3 cups of water, and dumped another cup on my head. My split time for the half? 2:31:xx. Right on pace to finish in a PR. But I let the pace runner get in my head and make me feel like I was too far behind on my goal.

Later I watched the 5:15 pacer and the 5:30 pacer pass me. Each time I swore, but I didn’t have the energy to run harder. Once I hit the second turn-around point and headed back north towards the finish, I felt the headwind blowing on me. I had just run the last 13 miles with a tailwind – no wonder I felt like I was in a sauna. After a couple miles, I was able to run more. I went from doing 15-minute miles down to 13-minute miles. All because the wind was cooling me off. I finished around 5:42. I let the pacer get in my head and I didn’t keep myself cool. Lesson learned.

The next weekend I did the OUC Half Marathon. All week I had been nursing my toenail that was ripping off, but on race day I was able to ignore it and just run. I ran the entire race, only walking one minute at each water station. Most of the water stations I took a drink and dumped water on my head to stay cool (lesson learned, remember?). I PRed on my half-marathon time with a 2:25 time. Though my MCM half marathon split was 2:24, so I can do better. The OUC Half had about 6 miles of running on bricks, which felt absolutely horrible.

The next weekend was Battlefrog (this past weekend). I went out with my buddy again and we took it easy due to my shoulder and his knee that gave out on him at the half  marathon. I failed a few obstacles when I felt my shoulder pulling out and gave up, and I also skipped the ones that were obviously upper-body intensive. The entire event was an upper-body workout and I hope to be improved the next time I run a battlefrog. The next OCR I have planned is Warrior Dash in February and that course has almost no shoulder-intensive obstacles. I think I might be able to complete everything on that course.

This weekend I have a 5K and hope to PR again. I might also sign up for the Mount Dora Half Marathon, but that depends how I feel. The I have a 1-mile beer run the following weekend (the day after Christmas). Ever since I did Relay for Life in 2013, I’ve wanted to bunny-hop a 1 mile race. I’m going to attempt it while drinking beer. We’ll see how that goes.

I’ve set goals for next year, which is to run a marathon every month next year and also start hitting states that I haven’t run in yet. I have:
Museum of Aviation Marathon – January – Georgia
Rock N Roll New Orleans – February – Louisiana
Shamrock Marathon – March – Virginia
Boston Marathon – April – Massachusetts (I just got offered a spot on a charity team today!)
Smoky Mountain Relay – April (Not a marathon)
Shires of Vermont – May – Vermont
Grandma’s Marathon – June – Minnesota
Fort William Marathon – July – Scotland
Rock N Roll Dublin Half Marathon – August 7th (my 30th birthday!)
ET Full Moon 51K – August – Nevada
Air Force Marathon – September – Ohio (waiting for registration to open)
Newport Marathon – October – Rhode Island
Great Floridian Triathlon 140.6 – October – Florida
Space Coast Marathon – November – Florida (waiting for registration to open)
Rocket City Marathon – December – Alabama (waiting for registration to open)

Plus I’m going to have several smaller races sprinkled in (I have a 5K the day before Grandma’s, an 8K the day before Shamrock, and a sprint triathlon in June, July, August, and September).

Today I got an email offering a spot to run in the Boston Marathon for the Franklin Park Coalition, so I accepted that and it should be official in a couple days. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally get to run in my hometown (well, actually I’m from South Easton, Mass, but close enough!) I also found out today that my sister has breast cancer, so that was a knock off the ole high horse. She lives in Mass, so I’ll get to see her in April when I’m up there, then maybe May when I hit Vermont, and definitely October when I hit Rhode Island. Family’s more important anyway. But for now, that’s where I’m at. I’ll try and be more consistent with this blog from here on out. #12MonthsOfMarathons2016 !

Marathon -22 Weeks and Triathlon -25 Weeks

With the Marine Corps Marathon 22 weeks away and the Rocketman Half-Ironman Triathlon 25 weeks away, I stepped up my training this week and completed several of my goals.

My goals for the week were:

• 1 mile swim under 40 minutes.
  • OR
• 1.5 mile swim

 

• 8 mile run at 11:30 pace AND 35 mile bike ride at 12.5 mph.
  • OR
• 10 mile run at 11:30 pace AND 30 mile bike ride at 13 mph

 

On Monday after work, I headed down to Wekiva Springs State Park and swam laps. Each lap is 200 meters, so eight laps would be a mile. After the seventh lap, I was just behind my pace, so I sprinted the eighth lap and completed one mile in 39:35 (goal one complete). I continued on, going slow on the ninth mile to counter the sprint and did another sprint on lap twelve to finish 1.5 miles in 1:00:45. (goal two complete).

On Tuesday I went for a bike ride at lunch and completed a 17.75 mile ride at 13.6 mph, which is higher than I normally get while riding since I have to constantly stop at streetlights and stop signs.

On Wednesday I went out for a run at lunch. I walked a mile to warm up, then sprinted a mile in 8:09, a new personal best! I took another mile of walking and sprinted mile four in 7:52 (another new personal best!) My previous best one-mile split time was 8:21, so I dropped it by almost 30 seconds.

On Thursday I was supposed to have a rest day, but I got bored and took a quick bike ride, doing 8 miles at 14.7 mph.

On Friday I headed back to Wekiva to try and get my 1.5 mile time under an hour. Each lap was stronger than Monday and I completed one mile in 39:00 without having to sprint. Then I finished my 1.5 mile with a sprint in 59:13. I guess I can’t use that as next week’s goal anymore.

On Saturday I went for my first long-run since the Chicago Marathon last year. I was aiming for a 11:30 pace over 10 miles, but my first two miles were both just over 11:00. My third, fourth, and fifth miles were all under 11:00. I gave a little bit extra in mile eight to complete my eight-mile time at 10:52 pace (goal 3 complete), and after a 12:00 ninth mile, I finished the tenth in under 11:00 to get a ten-mile pace of 11:02 (goal four complete).

On Sunday I went for a bike ride. I played it by ear instead of mapping out a route since I was still sore from Saturday. I ended up only doing 13.55 miles (I thought the route I was taking would be 20+ easy) in just over an hour. Didn’t complete my biking goal for the week, but that wasn’t my highest priority anyway.

 

All in all, it was a successful week. It would have been nice if I could have biked 40 miles, but it’d also be nice if I had a million dollars, so I’ll take what I can for now. P.S. If you have an extra million dollars laying around that you’re not using, I’d be happy to take it off your hands.

Triathlon and Marathon Training

I’ve signed up for four races later in the year, all happening in a six-week span.

• Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th.
• Tough Mudder Central Florida on November 7th
• Rocketman Half Ironman Triathlon on November 15th
• Space Coast Marathon on November 29th

As biking has always been my worst sport of the three, I began focusing on that even as early as January. I now regularly bike to and from work (a two-mile stretch each way). I frequently bike during lunch – 12 to 15 miles. I’ve also knocked out three 30-mile rides on the weekend, which are becoming pretty easy to complete at this point.

Running has become my weakest spot recently as I haven’t run more than 5.3 miles since running the Chicago Marathon last October. I’m also trying to do my runs at a faster pace (11:00-11:30) than I did during my last training stretch (12:00).

I’ve always been good at swimming and even not doing long swims in over a year, it only took a few trips to the local spring to get back up to a mile at just below my usual pace.

 

The past week has been pretty slow since I’ve been sick, but I was able to complete:

Monday – 12.6 mile bike ride in an hour.

Tuesday – 13.2 mile bike ride in an hour.

Wednesday – 4.6 mile run in 54 minutes.

Friday – 1 mile swim in 41 minutes.

Saturday – 25.1 mile bike ride (actually about 23.1 mile bike and 2 walking) in 2 hours, 37 minutes.

 

Next week hopefully I can knock out this illness and get back on track. Goals for next week:

• 1 mile swim under 40 minutes.
  • OR
• 1.5 mile swim

 

• 8 mile run at 11:30 pace AND 35 mile bike ride at 12.5 mph.
  • OR
• 10 mile run at 11:30 pace AND 30 mile bike ride at 13 mph

New Year Resolutions – 2015

Twenty-fourteen was a good year – I got a lot of things done and even completed seven (and a half?) goals that I set. Now it’s time to set some goals for 2015.

Travel:

1. Go to New England

My family is in New England and I haven’t seen them in a couple years, so my number one goal this year is to go see my family and enjoy the New England atmosphere. Hopefully I can go up earlier in the year and get some skiing in as well, since I haven’t done that in years.

2. Go to a State I’ve Never Been To

And by never been to, I’m a little slack on this. When I was a kid we moved from Massachusetts to Florida and drove through several states along the way – but I was nine and we didn’t really stop there. I’ve also bounced through a few airports, but those shouldn’t count. As long as I haven’t visited somewhere in my adult life for several days, I’ll accept the state.

3. Go to a Country I’ve Never Been To

I’d prefer somewhere in Europe, I’ve especially wanted to visit Ireland for a while. Although after that flight to and from Africa, maybe something less distant would be preferable.

 

Running:

4. Run a 5K Under 28 Minutes

My personal best is 28:15 a couple years ago. I know I can break that 28-minute mark. I only need to run 9-minute miles pretty much.

5. Run a Marathon Under 5:05:00

My personal best was the Chicago Marathon at 5:11:45. I barely trained for that marathon and when I did train it went horribly. My pace was extremely fast the first half of the Chicago Marathon, so if I can prevent myself from burning out, I should be able to complete this.

6. Run a Half-Ironman Triathlon

I was working my way up the triathlon ladder and then I faded out. My swimming and running should both be adequate at this point, it’s just the biking that does me in. It doesn’t help that my first ride in several months ended with a busted cable on my front derailleur. Most of my other cables are rusted as well – a repair is definitely in order.

7. Run 1000 Miles in 2015

It’s only 2.74 miles a day… every day… for a whole year.  Of course, if I run a marathon, then that covers nine days worth of running, so… maybe this won’t be so bad?

 

Sports:

8. Go to a New England Revolution Game

Last year one of the goals I didn’t fully achieve was to see my sports teams play when they came to town. I did catch the Bruins, but that was it. This year, I just want to see the Revs for the first time and since Orlando is in the MLS now, I should get my opportunity.

9. Go Diving Somewhere New

I’m thinking the Keys. It’s been on the list for a while, but it’s making it’s way to the top. I definitely want to see some shipwrecks as those are my favorite dives.

 

 

As for a tenth goal, I haven’t come up with one yet, but I’m sure I’ll have many smaller goals throughout the year, so I’m not too concerned.

2014 Resolutions Recap

When 2014 started, I had set ten goals for myself. Now that the year is over, it’s time to review how well I did at completing them.

1: Run at Least Two Marathons

I was originally planning to go for two marathons in 2014, a 50K in 2015, two 50Ks in 2016, and a 50-miler in 2017. Instead, I knocked out a 50K in February, a 50-miler in May, and still completed two marathons in June and October. On top of that, I ran a trail marathon (Masters of All Terrain in June) in the blazing heat, a trail 50K (Bandit Ultra Trail Run) in California, up and down mountains, and the Chicago Marathon in October, one of the six World Marathon Majors. I call this goal Beyond Achieved.

2: Complete an Olympic-Distance Triathlon

This one was completed back in March when I completed the Greater Cleremont Triathlon. I did better than I thought I would and was hoping to work up to a Half-Ironman Triathlon, but other things got in the way and I didn’t ride my bike for a while. Now it’s got some issues that need repairing before I can start training again. But nonetheless, this goal was easily Achieved.

3: Get Scuba Certified for Nitrox and Advanced Open Water

I got my Nitrox Certification in January and my Advanced Open Water Certification a couple days into February. I followed it up by getting Rescue Diver Certified in July, but blew out my shoulder during the class – an injury I still haven’t recovered from. I think Rescue Diver is as far as I’m going to go with my certifications, especially with how expensive scuba diving is, but I did have some great dives this year, including diving with sharks and diving in Zanzibar. This goal was Beyond Achieved.

4: Go to Burning Man

I quickly decided that I wasn’t going to be able to complete this in 2014 and it wasn’t high on my priority list anyway, so I scratched it. That’s the beauty of having 10 goals for the year and have some very difficult goals is that I can feel perfectly fine in scrapping a few. Therefore, I must mark this goal as Retracted.

5: Go Hiking

The goal was to hike a long trail – the John Muir Trail, the Appalachian Trail, or Mount Kilimanjaro. Well, I completed Mount Kilimanjaro on November 15th (summiting on the 14th) after a 6-day trek. I still need to do a write-up on this hike, but I did post pictures. However, even without the write-up, it’s still Achieved.

6: Travel Outside the Country

Like I just said above, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in November. If you don’t know, Mount Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania. And if you don’t know, Tanzania is in Africa. And if you still don’t know, Tanzania is another country and Africa is another continent. I also took a trip to the Bahamas for a day for scuba diving, but does that really count? Africa however took 35 hours to fly to and 40 hours to fly home from. I got to travel through Paris and Amsterdam, but never left either airport. The flights out, climbing Kilimanjaro, and most of the flights home I was by myself, which got lonely at times. I was so excited when I finally met up with the rest of our group for the safaris and I was also excited when I got home and could talk to people again. International Travel? Achieved.

7: See My Sports Teams Play Live

This didn’t go as well as some of the other goals. I saw the Bruins play in Tampa in the early part of the year, but that was it. The Celtics suck so bad, it’s not worth the money (and I hate the NBA anyway). The Red Sox had a crappy year and I didn’t make it to Tampa for a game. The closest the Patriots came was Miami, but that was Week 1 of the season. If they came to Miami later in the season I might have gone. Or if they came to Tampa or Jacksonville. Next year won’t be much better, but the New England Revolution will be down to play Orlando now that Orlando is in the MLS. For 2014, I have to mark it as Partially Achieved.

8: Write Something

Erm… So I didn’t even bother posted in this blog for most of the year. I guess I’ll mark this one down as a Failure.

9: Meet New People

I met so many new people this year. I made some friends at karaoke, I made some new scuba diving friends, and I got to meet a lot of people in my travels from Africa to Chicago. I also got into online dating and had a few dates (and some no-shows). I’d say this goal was Achieved.

10: Find Something New and Jump Right In

This was really more of an abstract idea in my mind. I started going to karaoke regularly, which kind of qualified, though it wasn’t completely spontaneous. Traveling around the world was also a big jump, but again not spontaneous. One spontaneous action that I definitely remember from this year however was going to Universal and riding Dr Doom for the first time. A friend of mine convinced me to get an annual pass and we went with some of his other friends. I had never ridden Dr Doom or any ride like it due to my fear of heights. When asked if I would ride it, I said yes and hopped right on. My palms were sweaty and I was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, but I did it. And then I did it a second time a month later, though I was still shaking like a leaf. Any way you cut it – Achieved.

So there we have it, 2014 contained one Failure, one Retracted goal, one that was Partially Achieved, and seven that I completed successfully (and sometimes went even farther). I’d consider that a successful year.

Great Clermont Triathlon (Olympic/International Distance)

Today I woke up at 4:30 this morning to drive an hour away to Clermont to participate in the Great Clermont Triathlon. It was my second ever triathlon, the first being the Beat the Heat Sprint Triathlon I completed last November, and my first at the International Distance. The triathlon included a 1500 meter swim, 40k bike, and 10k run. Two weeks ago I rode my bike 40k and followed it up with a 10k run just to prepare myself. That training ride and run was excruciatingly painful, especially my knee, but today I actually felt pretty good.

I got there early to pick up my packet, prepare all my stuff, and get my gear set up at the transition area. My thought going in was that it would take me about forty minutes to complete the swim, two hours for the bike ride, and an hour and a quarter to complete the run. Adding in time for the transitions, I figured it would take about four hours to complete the whole thing.

It was still pre-dawn when I stripped down to my tri-shorts (compression shorts with some padding for the biking portion) and headed to the beach where we would start the swim. The first major difference between this race and my last triathlon was that this one was taking place in a calm freshwater lake, as opposed to the ten-foot waves wreaking havoc on Daytona Beach last November. The first wave was off at 7:30 – the collegiate males. The collegiate females started three minutes later, followed by the age-group females at 7:40. Finally at 7:45 my group – age-group males under 45 – started and I jogged into the cool water until I was deep enough to start swimming.

The swim was a little crowded and there was quite a bit of bumping for the first four-hundred meters. After that, everyone started spacing out a bit. Halfway through the swim, I caught up with the slower women and shortly after, the men-over-forty-five group caught up with me, including one who swam right into me and pushed me under the water – asshole. As I swam back towards shore, I kept drifting off to the side and had to keep swimming back to correct my positioning until I started looking ahead every six or eight strokes to keep on track.

Eventually I made it back to the shallows and as soon as I felt the sand brush my fingertips, I stood up and high-stepped my way through the timing gate.

Swim Time:  30:20

I walked most of the way to the transition area to help slow my breathing down. Once I got to my bike at the back of the transition area, I quickly dried my face so my sunglasses wouldn’t get wet or fogged. I rubbed down to get any excess water off my body and feet and threw on my shorts, shirt, socks, and shoes. I put on my helmet and glasses, made sure my transition spot was tidy, grabbed my bike, and headed back out.

Transition 1 Time:  05:15

Best of Times, Worst of Times

I had planned to execute a twenty-mile-plus long run today to get back on track and start training for a fifty-kilometer ultramarathon. I had wanted to try an ultramarathon ever since completing the Space Coast Marathon, but I wasn’t anticipating on trying it anytime soon. After hanging out with a friend from California and falling for her, I thought if I could train hard and get up my distance, that I would be able to head out to Los Angeles and complete an ultramarathon there, using it as an excuse to go and see her.

I found an ultramarathon just outside Los Angeles in Simi Valley, the Bandit Ultra Trail Run, taking place on February 16^th – just enough time to train as long as I hadn’t lost too much in my month off from running. I planned to get up early this morning to get a start on the day before the eighty-plus degree weather hit mid-day. I was rudely awakened at two-thirty this morning to the howling of a cat and after many attempts to shut it up failed, I finally left my bed at two-fifty reserved to the fact that I was not falling back to sleep anytime soon. I grabbed a pop-tart and some milk and ate while browsing the internet.

I started popping acetaminophen and ibuprofen at four, every fifteen minutes (two pills each, one pill at a time). I left the house just before five this morning and started my run, taking my phone with me because I figured I would probably burn out at some point and may need to call in a pick-up. As I was running out of my neighborhood, I saw a truck hauling ass through the development and later saw the gate to the development looked like it had been crashed – my paranoia was already taking over as it usually does when I’m tired.

I made it through the first few miles with little problems, but after mile four, I started running down a long path with no lights except for around the occasional road crossings. To make matters worse, much of the path had woods just off the trail on one side and sometimes both sides – woods that I had seen a bear in a few months back and woods near where a woman and her dog were attacked by a bear about a month ago. I spent most of the morning peering intently into the brush looking for shapes other than my own shadow. At one point, as I neared a road and was staring into a tuft of shrubbery, my phone suddenly chimed “six miles” and I nearly jumped straight out of my shorts.

To calm the paranoia and to alert any bears to my existence (they’re more scared of you…) I kept talking to myself and singing to myself, eventually talking to myself about how crazy I was and how paranoid I was. As I heard rustling in the bushed, I would chat with the unknown entity “hello, if you’re a bear please don’t kill me, I like bears, I’m a friend to bears.” As dawn neared, I had one final encounter as I passed a small animal, perhaps a opossum or armadillo that bolted as I stepped a couple feet away from it and scared the shit out of me.

Once the sun rose, my paranoia subsided, but without the constant adrenaline rushes, running became much more difficult and without the need to talk to myself, I wasn’t as distracted either. I had to go to take a crap pretty bad, but without toilet paper, I wasn’t willing to go in the woods, so I kept pushing until I reached a restroom on the trail around ten miles in. As I saw the restroom, I skipped my rest break and made my way all the way to the gate – which was locked. I continued on and reached my turn-around point just after first light, eleven and a half miles in. On the way back, I stopped in a park that had restrooms but found that they weren’t open until eight – it was only seven-thirty. Not only did I have to use the restroom now, but my compression shorts, which had begun to pill after their latest wash, had decided to rub me raw and I was looking to remove them.

I trekked on for many more miles, constantly finding spots to remove my shorts and just wear my outer layer, but other runners and bikers kept being on the path as I passed these changing spots. Finally after a few miles, I was able to strip my shorts and wear just my looser shorts. A few miles later I found a trash bin and bid farewell to a pair of shorts that had faired me well through marathon training (and my marathon too), manning swimming trips in springs, and several diving excursions. I began wearing down near the home stretch due to having no energy and no food – I hadn’t eaten in almost six hours.

I finally made it home and texted my buddy to see what he was up to. I put my phone back in my pocket to do my final minute run and when I pulled my phone back out, I had pocket-dialed him, so we agreed to head out to Wekiva Springs State Park for a quick dip. I grabbed some Oreos to eat, along with some milk and orange juice, and waited for my buddy to pick me up. We headed out to Wekiva for only an hour, but the cool seventy-two degree water felt really good on my sore joints and muscles.

Once I got back home, it was on to step two of my plan, so I verified the date and location of the ultramarathon and spent a long time drafting up the perfect text to provide information while conveying nonchalance. As usual, I started focusing on all the negative consequences that could come from the text and started to panic. A friend messaged me on Facebook to ask me about my GoPro and how I use it when I go diving, so once I finished chatting with her, I took the opportunity to send the text before I got myself worked up again.

“G’mornin. Not sure if it’s obvious, but I like you. I’m lookin’ to run a 50k and there’s one near you on Feb 16. If I come that way would you want to hang out before or after?”

After eleven agonizing minutes of expecting the worst, I finally got a reply.

“Morning! I’d be happy to see you 🙂 I should disclose that I am seeing someone out here. Not sure if that impacts your decision or not. If you come I will 100% come support you in your race.”

We sent a few more texts back and forth about the race and its location, but I had already gotten the answer to what I really wanted to know. Of course, I only have myself to blame – I should have known she’d already be in a relationship. I always get myself emotionally invested in things I have no business getting emotionally invested in. I do it every year with my sports teams and I always get hung up on one girl. I doubt I’ll ever learn from my mistakes, though I’m not sure I should. With the good comes the bad and it’d be boring to never take risks – I may just need to limit how much I invest.

I had to get out of the house to get some fresh air (even though I had already run 22.75 miles and swam for an hour), so I hopped on my bike to go for a ride. I got an alert on my phone just before I left that someone had commented on a post made by Paul, the owner of the local scuba shop. I rode down to the shopping plaza that has the gym I go to along with Seminole Scuba. I stopped in to Seminole Scuba and chatted with Paul and his wife, Kristen Shepard, for an hour about the time they spent living in Africa and their trips going back there.

I had read on their site about Paul living on Mount Kilimanjaro, and since that’s been one of my short-term bucket-list items, I had wanted to pick his brain on it. They have a trip this November to Africa for diving and said they could organize a Kilimanjaro climb for me prior to if I wanted. With all the stories and information, I left the shop and rode back home with more stuff to think about. The trip piqued my interest, but would require the willingness to take a large financial hit and also miss the 2014 Space Coast Marathon, which I had been looking forward to.

I’m also stuck in limbo at work as to whether a new position will be open to me or not and with a limited number of PTO days, I may need to resort to drastic measures to ensure a proper work-life balance. But for now, it’s the divisional round of the playoffs and I have to stay up until almost midnight tonight to see the Patriots game through. It’s been a long day.

Back to the Grind

After completing Tough Mudder last November, I started slacking on going to the gym – ending the year with only a couple more workouts over two months. Once I completed the Beat the Heat Sprint Triathlon, I seriously reduced my swimming and biking. And once I finished running the Space Coast Marathon and OUC Half Marathon, I didn’t run again the rest of the year. I also pigged out on cookies, pies, and holiday feasts over the final month of the year. But now it’s 2014.

I started the year committed to doing squats and increasing my leg strength – something I put off while I was training for my marathon due to my knee issues. I’ve now reached eighty squats and am doing them with relative ease – sets of twenty with less than a minute’s rest between sets. I’ve already been to the gym three times this year, though one day was only a few quick workouts after my shoulder gave out during the bench press. I have yet to do a swim yet this year, unless you include scuba diving, and I haven’t completed a bike ride this year, which I really do need to work on.

I did my first run of the year yesterday – a five mile run at lunch, which I immediately followed with my squats before my legs tightened up. I plan on going hard and fast on the running and am targeting a 20-22 miler this weekend. If I complete that, I can shoot for a 26+ miler in two weeks, then take two weeks to rest and do a 50K Ultramarathon (31 miles). I’ve been looking at ultramarathons for a few weeks now, for a new challenge, but it also presented itself as a chance to visit other parts of the country… like Los Angeles… where there’s a girl I’d like to spend a little more time with. Hopefully that motivation will be enough to get me through 20+ miles this weekend, especially after playing soccer for two hours tomorrow.

No pain, no gain. I hope.

New Year’s Resolutions

So 2013 is gone… well, it’s almost gone anyway. While I’ve only completed four of my ten goals that I set in August to complete before I turn 28 next August, I still feel like setting more goals for 2014. I’m going to try not to duplicate any uncompleted goals from my other list, but I may if I feel I need to.

1: Run at Least Two Marathons

First on this list is similar to the first on the last list, except I’ve upped the ante – two marathons. Now that I’ve completed the Space Coast Marathon, I intend to complete that marathon again, but I’d also like to try my hand at another new marathon. Which one, I haven’t decided. I’ve heard lots of good things about the Disney Marathon, but it’s already booked. Maybe I’ll shoot for something later in the year.

2: Complete an Olympic-Distance Triathlon

I completed my first Triathlon this year – the Beat the Heat Sprint Triathlon. Now I need to up the distance and aim for the Olympic level – 1500m swim, 40k bike, and 10k run. The biking portion is my current downfall, though I had most of my trouble in the sprint with the swim, though the waves were about ten feet tall and relentless, so perhaps I’ll have better luck next time.

3: Get Scuba Certified for Nitrox and Advanced Open Water

Last November I spent two weeks getting PADI Open Water Diver Certified. In January, I plan to get certified to use Nitrox (higher concentration of Oxygen to Nitrogen than regular air). On the first weekend of February, I plan to get my Advanced Open Water Diver Certification, including night diving, wreck diving, and deep diving. That should open up a whole new world of adventures, though I’ve already dropped almost two grand on the classes and equipment. The Advanced class also falls on Super Bowl Weekend – a sad thought indeed, especially if either of my teams are in the Super Bowl, the Patriots and the Panthers.

4: Go to Burning Man

I’ve always thought about going to Burning Man, but recently the thought has had a deeper imprint on my mind. All the artistic talent on display and the free-spirit vibe of the whole event sounds like an exciting time.

5: Go Hiking

Here’s where I cheat a little and combine some previous goals. The goal here is to complete at least one hiking adventure bucket-list item. This could be a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, which would take four to six months, a thru-hike of the John Muir Trail, which would take about three weeks, or maybe just Climb Mount Kilimanjaro, which would take a little over a week.

2013 in Review

As 2013 winds down and I look back on it, it has turned out to be an extremely productive year. The year didn’t start off that different than the previous years other than my regular trips to the gym to work out. I had never been a fan of the gym – I don’t like crowds and I always preferred to do any workouts at home, though I don’t have any weights and was limited to bodyweight exercises. A group of friends at work play soccer on Thursdays and in the spring, we decided to add a second day of soccer on Mondays. I played both days most weeks from New Year’s to Memorial Day.

One thing I tried to do more this year was take chances and opportunities. I liken it to the movie Yes Man where Jim Carrey’s character says yes to anything that comes his way, though I was les liberal with my acceptances. In February I agreed to be team captain of our company’s Relay for Life team. We hadn’t fielded a team in 2012 and our team in 2011 was small, so I was hoping to get a good bounce-back. We rolled through several fundraisers – one a week – for two months until the night of the Relay. We ended up raising around $4500 in two months’ time with a sizable team of almost twenty walkers. It was exhausting and I swore that I would not be captaining again in 2014, though I did write up all my thoughts on the process – what worked, what didn’t, and thoughts for next year – to be given to the next captain.

On February 13^th, I took the day off work to spend the day at the movie theatre watching a Die Hard marathon before a late-night premiere of the new movie, A Good Day to Die Hard. I had never seen the first three movies on the big screen, so it was worth the admission just for that experience, as Die Hard is my favorite movie. The new movie was pretty bad – it made an okay action movie, mostly forgettable, but it was a horrible Die Hard movie. I wouldn’t see any other Hollywood movies in theatres this year, but I did see Mile… Mile and a Half at the Athen’s Theatre in Deland, where I would also see All Shook Up and The King is Back, and I also saw Appalachian Impressions.

Also in February and March, a coworker asked if I wanted to canoe down Rock Springs Run, which we did four times over about five or six weeks, culminating in an overnight camping trip at the Otter Campsite along the run. This led to many weekends hanging out and many new experiences throughout the year.

In early February, I had gotten an email about the Space Coast Marathon and how they were planning to do a five-year event with medals celebrating the space shuttles. I immediately signed up for the marathon, figuring I had a whole year to get ready for it. I had always wanted to do a marathon and a flat Florida course seemed like a good start. I wouldn’t actually start training for several months though.

In late April I started running shorter races, the Healthy Heart 10K, the Run for the Trees 5K, the Seminole High School Spirit 5K, the Rescue Run 5K, the Lake Mary 5K, and The Nude Run 5K. A friend had told me about the Healthy Heart 10K, happening just down the street from where I live and I had only run one 10K previously, so I jumped on it. The Run for the Trees 5K was one I had run before, but you get a tree for completing it, so I had specifically looked it up online in order to run it again. It also runs through private communities that have very nice scenery. The Rescue Run 5K is one that happens in the park next to where I work and our company sponsors a team every year, so I competed in it for the third or fourth time. The Seminole High School Spirit 5K runs through my old high school and the parking lot of my old middle school, so it was a nostalgic race for me and also culminated in my fastest 5K ever. The Lake Mary 5K was another race close by that took place near the library I go to, so it was a familiar area. I decided to do the Nude Run 5K while looking for races with something exciting to offer, as opposed to the mundane show up and run 5K.