I Like New Things

I went for a swim yesterday and it wasn't all that good. I did about 3 laps and I couldn't breathe so I had to stop. I would go two more laps and couldn't breathe. Not sure if I was just tired or hungry but it wasn't a good swim. I'm going to have to step up the swim if I want to finish at a decent time for the Caveman Sprint Tri. I was looking at the results for last years Caveman Sprint Tri for the Clydesdale 1-39 group and I definitely need to improve my swim and run.

I'm improving on my weight but I don't think I'll be below 200 before next week. I've lost 11 pounds since I started writing this blog. I started at 226 and I'm now 215.


On another note I just ordered some new aerobars since I don't have a Tri bike. They're some Profile Design T2 Plus.

Click on me to enlarge

Rock and Roll Half Marathon

Here are some pics from the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. What a small world that we live in that out of 14,000 people I finished right in front of my girlfriend's coworker(in black) without even knowing it.

Starting Line

Almost there

A few more meters

Last bit of encouragement

Gotta finish

Finally

2:37:01

What a sense of accomplishment

On another note...

I haven't updated my training or anything for that matter in a while. It's not that I'm not training but I keep forgetting to update it. I guess I also forgot to mention that I signed up for the Rock and Roll half marathon. Well that was yesterday.

I started off fairly good and was going strong up to mile 2 when we hit a hill and started getting shin splints. I bought some compression sleeves and they helped a lot because the shin splints only lasted about half a mile. Without them they usually last about 2+ miles. I got all the way up to the hill but had to walk and catch my breath. A friend of mine came back to get me so that was encouragement and I kept running. I continued on to mile 5 where I encountered another hill and I wasn't too happy about it. Again I had to take a break from running and walked for about two minutes.

After the hill on mile 5 I lost my energy so I took some sports beans. Unfortunately I didn't have any water to take with them and my stomach starting cramping up. That lasted all the way to the end and was not too pleasant. I lost feeling on my legs at mile 6 and my knee started popping so I slowed down until it stopped popping which was about three minutes.

At mile 9 the 2:30 pacer caught up to me and I ran with her until mile 11. As I was running all I kept thinking is that I was half her age and she was talking and running like it was nothing while I'm barely keeping up with her and running out of breath. At mile 11 I couldn't take it anymore and I started walking. Not sure how long I walked for but it seemed like forever. I started running again until I hit mile 12 and walked for a second until someone came from behind and said "we're almost there you can do it". It's funny how a random person can encourage you to keep going. After about a minute I heard the crowd cheering and knew the end was near.

Finally I went around a turn and saw the finish line. That was the best sight I had seen all day. I sprinted across it and finished at 2:37:01. I was shooting for 2:30 but I'll take whatever time as long as I finished.

As I'm writing this I can help to think how much I'm hurting and that this is only a third of what a half Ironman is. I have a lot of training if I want to complete that.