August 22 - Records and Insults

August has gotten off to a fast start, so to speak.  In the span of 7 days I beat my own personal record in the 3 mile, the 3.2 mile and the 13.26 mile.  As a matter of fact, I CRUSHED those records.  It feels tremendous to see the hard work paying off.  I've been making a habit of running with some pretty awesome folks in some pretty awesome places so far this month.  I've run with the living softball legend Chris (freak) Nix through Tanglewood and through the downtown streets of Wi Sa.  I've run with 3 of the legendary Herd icons, Rose Ket, Sac and Hien "Clutch" Lewis.  SAC and Clutch are also in the process of training for their very own 1/2 marathon, have mercy!
Today's weird scene comes from the prestigious Salem Park in Wi Sa where some fellas thought it would be crazy cool and funny to stop their car in the middle of a high traffic area and yell "Run Fat Boys Run" at us whilst almost causing an accident with the SUV directly behind them.   As Freak Nix so eloquently put it..next play.
The next few weeks see a substantial increase in mileage as we build to the final 20 miler in Mid October.  This weekend will be a 14 mile run in the heart of North Myrtle Beach.  If I can get somebody to come pick me up, I'm going to just run from the condo to Ripleys I think.

 I'm ready.  I hurt...am tired...sore...delusional and other words, but I got this.  Fat boy got this.
Here are some pictures from Sundays run through Jonesville/Elkin.  Also, this is the run that saw the demise of my iphone 4 as it lay shattered on the hard concrete.

1st Week of August - About Eliminating Doubt

The 1st week of August is in the book which means LESS THAN 3 MONTHS TO GO BEFORE GAMEDAY!  July sucked so bad, but August is starting out pretty dang tremendous.  Its still hot, but I'm feeling so much better both mentally and physically.  This month I have signed up for a 1/2 Marathon in October as part of the training regimen.  In hindsight, probably not the greatest idea as the track is all roots and sticks and leaves.  Whatever.  I pwn.  I like to look back on weird things that happen during my runs.  Tonight, August 7th was the semi finals of the women's beach volleyball olympic tournament thing.  To celebrate this, a girl decided to dress up like Misty May Traenor and walk slowly around the elkin track...in the dark spots...at 9:30 at night.   I dont even know what to say.

Lets Run.

July- Minimal Progress is still Progress

Oh the wonderful month of July.  I guess July marked the 1/2 way point of the training depending on how you look at it.  As awesome as I felt on the final run of June, the big 15 miler, I felt equally as BAD in July.  I mean I hate to blame stuff that is out of my control on what seems to be an entire month of regression, but I'm going to anyway.  July saw 11 days of 100+ degree temperatures.  The humidity was awful.  And on top of that, I obtained a sinus infection and a double ear infection.  Enough complaining though!   I did manage to log 97.23 miles this month and I stuck to the plan.  Well actually, I said screw the plan the last half of the month and started adding mileage to it.   Once I started adding mileage to the plan I actually started doing a little better.   July also saw a brand new pair of pumped up kicks, courtesy of Fleet Feet.  The Asics are nice, but they def. do not feel as awesome as the Brooks I had until mid July.  I'll probably roll Asics until Marathon day, then bust back out the Brooks for the big day.  July saw me hit a wall as far as weight loss goes.  I entered the month at 171 lbs and ended the month at 171 lbs.  I was crazy hungry this month though.  I cant complain too much, as I'm still down 50 lbs since last December.   July saw an EPIC fundraiser at Foothills!  We raised about 800 bucks that day for the Team Timmons and Team Swaim Think Pink Rocks charity for a Cure for breast cancer!  With a company match, we are still a combined 1600 short, although Team Timmons has raised about 2K more than Team Swaim.  Kudos to him.  Great effort indeed!  If you are reading this and feel sorry for me due to my lack of funds raised, fix that by clicking HERE 
This month on the trails I saw some pretty crazy stuff, not least of all the Elkin PD pulling his car behind mine and getting out to chase down a perp on foot.   I was also befriended by a Pitbull (everywhere? Everywhere!) in Jonesville that I was initially confident that he was going to eat my face.
Up next:  August.   Game day is in sights.  Only 3 short months remain.  I'm getting pretty dang nervous.  Actually, I am VERY dang nervous.  Nervous enough to have nightmares about the horrible possibilities of game day in November.   3 Months.  Lets do this.

July 1. /end program

After approx 6 months of grueling, painful, hot, cold, up, down, etc... runs, I have completed my pre training schedule.  I've had some awful runs and some great runs.  I've learned a lot, saw a lot, sweat a lot, but mostly, I've run a lot.  Since December 16, I've put in dang near 400 miles.   At times I honestly thought that there would be NO WAY I can make this happen, but as I wound down my last run of this pre training schedule I've never felt more confident.  In this post I'm going to put some best and worst of's of the last 6 months, along with some lessons learned.

Pre Run:  Prayer and 5 minutes of stretching

Worst Run: June 23rd 8 mile.  This started out with me backing into my mom's car. I was chased and bit on the shoe by a dog.  I tripped over the broken concret.  I had to walk TWICE.  I ran into a phone pole.  I was run off the road by a van.  I got started 3 hours later than normal and ran in the heat of the day.

Best Run: June 15 10 mile.  Wow I was busting tail on this one.  I ran on a Friday (not normal) and at night (not normal) and pretty much exclusively up hill (not normal) but somehow I managed to average a 10 minute per mile pace.  This was awesome and the day before I left for a 2 day bus trip to see 2 Braves Game.

Most Heard Statement:  26 miles?  You think you can do that?

2nd most Heard Statement:  I wish you put as much effort into this house as you are this training!!! (touche'   I will, just hang with me for a bit long.  It'll be all over soon, I promise)

Best Advice:  Dont over do it.  You dang idiot

Worst Advice:  Shoes dont matter.   Ok that was some bad advice.  ALL Gear matters!!  Srsly, if you dont have good shoes and a moisture wicking shirt, you wont be able to do this in this crazy 300 degree heat.  Or at least I cant.  

Most Awesome Place that I ran:  Las Vegas Nevada!  Sure, it was on a treadmill...but it was in Las Vegas.  Come on, thats awesome

Pre Run Meal:  Usually just a banana and some Gatorade

Worst Weather to Run in:  1:  Wind.  2: Heat

Most Extremen Weather I ran in:  35-40 mile per hour gusts, torrential downpour, extreme lightening all in the same run. 

Craziest things I saw:  The Pothead family.   A close 2nd would be the skunk that ran for about 1/2 mile with me.

Worst place I ran:  Jonesville track. That thing is awful.  

Most Run Course:  From FBC Jonesville, zig zag through downtown, up to 268, down by Lowes and the Hosipital, zig zag again through downtown and back up to Church

Best Pump Up Song:  All the Things that I've done by The Killers

Best Pump Up Group:  The Black Keys.   EVERYTHING gets me going

Well thats it I guess.  Over the next 7 days I will be "taking it easy" as I'm on vacation.  After that, its the OFFICIAL training plan for the 2012 New York Marathon.  One thing that needs to be said and realized is this:  

Philippians 4:13

New International Version (NIV)

¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.


Amen to that.  NO WAY I could do this without God.  


LETS GO!!!!

June 11. Its been some kinda week

WOW!  Talk about a chaotic week.  My pre training was cut a bit short last week due to a business trip to Las Vegas!  That trip has def. inspired me to try to get the spouse to run the full marathon out there next December, but thats a thought for a different day.  Over the last week or so I've put in some decent miles and broken a few barriers such as a sub 9 mi average over 4 miles.  That was awesome!
As far as everything else goes, its a bit of a rut time right now.  I'm tired.  I'm sore.  I'm burnt out a little.  That said, i'm still 100% focused on the goal and thats to get in shape to run 26.2 miles in under 5 hours and 15 minutes.  Nothing eventful has been happening on my runs...staying around elkin/jonesville, bla bla bla.  I can literally feel myself getting stronger though, so thats a plus.  One thing is for certain, its going to be very important to stay hydrated in the coming months.
Fundraising has GOT to pick up.  I'm getting the big denial on my febale attempts lately.  I'm only at 455 bucks.  That SUCKS for me.  A Foothills fundraiser is coming up though, maybe we'll score some bucks.
Here was my last "long" run this past saturday.  I didnt eat breakfast.  Otherwise this time would have been MUCH better.

Distance: 10.22 mi Time: 1:48:43 Avg Pace 10:38 min/mi Activity Type: Running

Calories: 1,255 C Elevation Gain: 1,200 ft Event Type: Training Course: --

May 29. Some Rest and Running

I literally could not lift my legs the day after the 13.2 miles on Sunday so I took an unscheduled day off.  Have mercy I needed that.  I can only imagine how my body is going to feel on nov 5 if it hurt this bad after 13.2.  Well I got my run back on monday and busted off a 4.5 mile run.  I hurt pretty bad but I finished it in a respectable (by my standards) time.  Today, tuesday was a "speed" run along with my 1st weekly 5 mile run.  I wanted to impress so I did break off a nice solid pace and finished it in about 48ish minutes.  This was an obstacle.  Overcoming a fair amount of pain and mental exhaustion.  Its still May.  The race is in November.  Ugh.

Distance:	5.00 mi
Time:	47:33
Avg Pace:	9:30 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	353 ft
Calories:	626 C

May 26. Lets just do a half real quick

Sleeping on the couch doesnt provide much comfort for a long run the next day, but that was the case as I seem to wake everyone up at 5:00am otherwise.  Well that sucked, because everyone was up anyway.  Whatever.  My goal today was to just frikin run.  I didnt care how far how long or how far, I just wanted to run.  Today I saw an awesome dude in my youth group going to graduation.  Just a great kid.  I didnt see much else, other than the same group leaving for carowinds.  I had no gummy gu's today.  I only had some gatorade and a banana before the run but have mercy the energy was limitless.  I'm pretty sure I could have run another 10-15 miles before I just passed out, but I stopped. I stopped at 13.19.  Thats a 1/2 dang marathon.  I can put a 13.1 sticker on my car now, no?    2 months ahead of schedule.  Not to shabby for a 220 lb dude who couldnt run a 5k in under 46 minutes 5 months ago.  I think I'm going to start tapering these runs off a little now.  I've gained the confidence I CAN do this, now I just need to keep the feet and knees able.

Distance:	13.19 mi
Time:	2:24:59
Avg Pace:	10:55 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	899 ft
Calories:	1,498 C