Well I had a bike, and now I don't.
This statement really saddens me. Biking had become my new favorite thing. I literally could have been happy riding my bike everyday. It is such a good workout and it is just fun. I would ride my bike to work and accomplish two things at once, a commute and exercise. Now that the weather has become so nice, and not 107 degrees everyday, I feel like I should be taking every chance I have to ride, if I had a bike.
Okay so I am making this out to be a really sob story, but in all honesty It was my choice, and I think a very good choice. I had purchased a road bike from Walmart not too long ago and it really ignited a passion in me to ride. When I decided on getting into road biking my wife and I had decided to by a less expensive bike to make sure I was going to really enjoy it, to make sure I was really going to commit to it. I have a tendency of getting really excited about things and eventually letting that fade away. It was a very smart move, but after a little while the handlebars kept coming loose and I figured there must be a crack in the tube. I thought my next step was to take it to a bike shop, until I talked to a friend at my church. He said this one thing to me, "You should try a higher quality bike, when you try it out you will understand the difference."
Uh oh....now I was thinking. My bike was ok, but it had its flaws. I had spent $160 on it, and more than likely it was going to cost around $100 to fix it, was it worth it? Or should I test ride a different bike and really see the difference, even though I really don't have the money for a $700+ bike . . . or so I thought. I few years back I had another one of those passions, and so I bought something, a Taylor Guitar. I used it for a while, and some other people had used it at the church, but the other day I looked at it in my office and thought, there is my new bike. WIth that my wife had a great idea, instead of taking my current bike to a shop, and then trying to sell it, and making virtually no money, let's just take it back to Walmart. It is still returnable, it broke, so why not. So we did.
After that decision my family and I went shopping, and I asked if they would drop me off at the bike shop while they went to the mall. I knew they had no interest in being there, and I could take my time. I walked in to that store, looking at all the racks of bikes. Glancing at all the price tags, $1299, $799, $2499, $4999. . .wow. These were some nice bikes. I talked to one of the guys there for a while, explaining where I was at and what I was looking for. It just so happened that they did not have an entry level bike in my size, so he asked if I wanted to ride a $1299 bike. It seemed a little convenient, kinda like when you are watching one of those shows where people are buying houses and the relator always shows them a house 50 thousand dollars out of their price range, but I wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to ride. He put some pedals on the bike and tuned it up and let me go.
I pedaled that thing just once and realized the difference. With its light aluminum frame, carbon fork, carbon seat post and sport tires it flew around that parking lot. On top of all of that was the real treat, the Shimano Tiagra/105 shifters and components. That bike was so smooth, and at that point I understood what I wanted in a bike.
Now all I have to have is patience. Easier said than done I think. I am waiting on my guitar to sell, so I can buy a bike. I have been missing it a lot, but it will come. I am a person that believes in God, and his perfect timing, even in the small things. So here I wait, doing what I can, training like I can.
I know this seems a little trivial, wanting a new bike, but its fun and kind of important to me. Working out is important, and my goals are important to me. What type of things get you excited to reach your goals or to work out? What may seem trivial to other people but is important to you?
And if you want to buy a guitar let me know :)
http://tulsa.craigslist.org/msg/3217885834.html
Friday, August 24, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The difference a day makes
Lately I've been having a hard time "finding my stride", if you will. After the 10k run I was feeling great. I felt like I could keep going strong and conquer anything, but lately I have been feeling like I haven't been able to do a darn thing.
Right after the race I got a sinus infection. Usually this is a very frequent occurrence, but since having sinus surgery last december this is only my second. Sinus infections usually wipe me out for one or two days, and then I can start getting rid of all the junk that it produces, which has been the norm here as well. The only problem is after running a 10k and feeling like you can do anything, well you usually try. The Monday after my race I decided I was going to go for a good run (running usually clears up the sinuses anyway), and so I set out. My wife told me, "don't go far", because she knew I still needed to recover from my 10k, so I decided to set my personal best for the 5k.
It wasn't the recovery she thought I needed, but I again felt like I could do anything. I started running, mile one is just getting real good and warmed up and I hit a PR of 7'43". I kept going hard, at mile 2 I was at a 8'21", a significant loss, but I was struggling now. I found it really hard to breathe. All of the junk in my throat and nose wouldn't let me get deep breathes. It was painful, I wasn't very happy but I knew my limits and I had to walk. It was only about a 20 second walk but it gave me enough energy to finish the 5k. The last mile was at a 9'07". Those weren't exactly the splits I was going for, and not exactly the nice run I wanted, but I finished with a time of 25:59.....beating my PR by more than 2 minutes. Needless to say I was in pain, but very happy.
I knew the rest of the week I needed to really take it easy, especially if I couldn't breathe, but on friday I felt great and decided that I should go for a nice run. No expectations or anything. This is when my attitude went from "I can do anything" to "I can do nothing." I set out for the run, half a mile in I was great. At .75 miles here it was again, I still couldn't breathe. I ran until I finished mile 1 with a decent pace of 8'38", but I had to stop, I had to walk, I had to breath. My next mile was a mixture of very short runs with long walks in between. I just couldn't do it. That day I ran 2.52 miles at a 26:12, slower than my 5k. Now I am not saying those paces are necessarily bad, I mean I would have loved that pace when I was running 2 years ago, but I know what I can do now, and it was way more than this.
So ever since that run I haven't felt like doing anything, or let me rephrase that, I haven't felt like I am able to do anything. There has been no drive, no passion, no want. But even with all of that you have to find your motivation somewhere, and I did, in my wife. My wife is not a morning person in the slightest, but for the past couple weeks she has been waking up at 4:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to work out with a group of girls. Not only that but during our girls nap times she has been doing another hour long workout. I came home from work on Monday and she was finishing up her afternoon workout and I thought to myself, "what have I done today?" At that point her actions motivated me. I am training, I have a goal and if I ever want to get there I have to take the next steps.
So this morning I woke up early and did an insanity workout, and it just about killed me. I will be doing insanity until I feel I can run again (really soon) and until I get a new bike (I'll blog about this soon too). I have to do something, and this is definitely a good something for me to do. Today I find myself motivated again. I am ready to train, ready to take the next step towards my goal, so here we go, Ironman Me!.
Right after the race I got a sinus infection. Usually this is a very frequent occurrence, but since having sinus surgery last december this is only my second. Sinus infections usually wipe me out for one or two days, and then I can start getting rid of all the junk that it produces, which has been the norm here as well. The only problem is after running a 10k and feeling like you can do anything, well you usually try. The Monday after my race I decided I was going to go for a good run (running usually clears up the sinuses anyway), and so I set out. My wife told me, "don't go far", because she knew I still needed to recover from my 10k, so I decided to set my personal best for the 5k.
I knew the rest of the week I needed to really take it easy, especially if I couldn't breathe, but on friday I felt great and decided that I should go for a nice run. No expectations or anything. This is when my attitude went from "I can do anything" to "I can do nothing." I set out for the run, half a mile in I was great. At .75 miles here it was again, I still couldn't breathe. I ran until I finished mile 1 with a decent pace of 8'38", but I had to stop, I had to walk, I had to breath. My next mile was a mixture of very short runs with long walks in between. I just couldn't do it. That day I ran 2.52 miles at a 26:12, slower than my 5k. Now I am not saying those paces are necessarily bad, I mean I would have loved that pace when I was running 2 years ago, but I know what I can do now, and it was way more than this.So ever since that run I haven't felt like doing anything, or let me rephrase that, I haven't felt like I am able to do anything. There has been no drive, no passion, no want. But even with all of that you have to find your motivation somewhere, and I did, in my wife. My wife is not a morning person in the slightest, but for the past couple weeks she has been waking up at 4:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to work out with a group of girls. Not only that but during our girls nap times she has been doing another hour long workout. I came home from work on Monday and she was finishing up her afternoon workout and I thought to myself, "what have I done today?" At that point her actions motivated me. I am training, I have a goal and if I ever want to get there I have to take the next steps.
So this morning I woke up early and did an insanity workout, and it just about killed me. I will be doing insanity until I feel I can run again (really soon) and until I get a new bike (I'll blog about this soon too). I have to do something, and this is definitely a good something for me to do. Today I find myself motivated again. I am ready to train, ready to take the next step towards my goal, so here we go, Ironman Me!.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
My farthest run ever
My farthest run ever.
Yesterday was my 10k race, and it was great. Races are always great. You feel rejuvenated, confident and excited after a race, like you have actual done something. Leading up to the race on the other hand is a different story.
I don't know why this always happens, but every race I have run I have never actually trained or prepped for. I always slack off, and then race day comes, I race (probably not as well as I could if I would have trained), and then I am encouraged and then I do really good for a while afterwards; maybe I just need race more! This week training went ok, I had a wonderful 5.3 mike run where I crushed all off my PR times. I still didn't eat right or train as much, but things are changing. I have to get ready for my main race of the year, the duathlon, my first multisport race. So nutrition is picking up and has a plan, and training is kicking into high gear.
Anyway back to the race. The race was fun, like every race, and odd, let me explain. First of all the race had a start time of 8:15 pm, a night race. It felt really weird waiting around all day for a race. Usually you wake up early and race, and you feel great the rest of the day, yesterday I didn't know what to do with myself. But eventually when ended up leaving about 6pm and headed to Joplin. An hour there and we are ready to go. We drive through these tiny streets in this neighborhood until we drive up on a bunch of cars parked all the way up and down the street and we figure, "this must be the place." We find a spot, go get our registration packets, pin on our numbers, take a couple pictures and start getting warmed up.
A little before race start we find our spot near the start, the gun sounds and off we go with only one goal, keep the feet moving until we cross the finish line. The 10k racers started a little before the 5kers and at the beginning we crammed 60 people and a 5 foot wide gravel path. After a couple hundred yards it widened a little and the field stated to disperse, and we started to get comfortable. Mile one was great, mile 2 was good, and then mile 3 for me seemed to go on, and on, and on. It was about this time it started getting really dark with the trees hanging overhead. You started to lose sight of the ground and just kept running, waiting and looking in the distance for the turn around. I knew once I reached the turn around I would be on my way back, and nothing could stop me then.
We hit the turn around and reached mile 4, and then it started getting pitch black. The only thing you could see where the little glow stick lanterns on the ground and the ones on my wrist, but we kept moving forward. It was around 4.5 miles my wife told me her knees were hurting pretty bad and asked if we could walk for a second, I said of course, and we walked for about 2 seconds until she said, "well that isn't making them feel any better, we might as well be running!" I was very proud of her for pushing through the pain and running her best and farthest race.
We continued on and at about mile 5.5 you could tell our legs were tired. We were swerving all over the track in the pitch black, but we knew the end was just up the road and this was the farthest we had ever run. We came up on the finish and were cheered on by some glow stick covered people as we ran across the finish line. What an accomplishment. We finished with a time of 1:10:17, without taking a break or walking. 2 years ago I thought running 3 miles was the most ridiculous thing ever, and now a half marathon doesn't seem so bad.
A few things I learned from this run.
-I don't like waiting all day for a race
-don't wear Nike frees on a gravel trail (I didn't, my wife did)
-your body can do way more than your mind thinks it can
- always thank God for when he brings in cool weather and it's not 106 degrees
At the finish line with my best friend, training partner, and wife
Some get beer after a race, I get ice cream
Yesterday was my 10k race, and it was great. Races are always great. You feel rejuvenated, confident and excited after a race, like you have actual done something. Leading up to the race on the other hand is a different story.
I don't know why this always happens, but every race I have run I have never actually trained or prepped for. I always slack off, and then race day comes, I race (probably not as well as I could if I would have trained), and then I am encouraged and then I do really good for a while afterwards; maybe I just need race more! This week training went ok, I had a wonderful 5.3 mike run where I crushed all off my PR times. I still didn't eat right or train as much, but things are changing. I have to get ready for my main race of the year, the duathlon, my first multisport race. So nutrition is picking up and has a plan, and training is kicking into high gear.
Anyway back to the race. The race was fun, like every race, and odd, let me explain. First of all the race had a start time of 8:15 pm, a night race. It felt really weird waiting around all day for a race. Usually you wake up early and race, and you feel great the rest of the day, yesterday I didn't know what to do with myself. But eventually when ended up leaving about 6pm and headed to Joplin. An hour there and we are ready to go. We drive through these tiny streets in this neighborhood until we drive up on a bunch of cars parked all the way up and down the street and we figure, "this must be the place." We find a spot, go get our registration packets, pin on our numbers, take a couple pictures and start getting warmed up.
A little before race start we find our spot near the start, the gun sounds and off we go with only one goal, keep the feet moving until we cross the finish line. The 10k racers started a little before the 5kers and at the beginning we crammed 60 people and a 5 foot wide gravel path. After a couple hundred yards it widened a little and the field stated to disperse, and we started to get comfortable. Mile one was great, mile 2 was good, and then mile 3 for me seemed to go on, and on, and on. It was about this time it started getting really dark with the trees hanging overhead. You started to lose sight of the ground and just kept running, waiting and looking in the distance for the turn around. I knew once I reached the turn around I would be on my way back, and nothing could stop me then.
We hit the turn around and reached mile 4, and then it started getting pitch black. The only thing you could see where the little glow stick lanterns on the ground and the ones on my wrist, but we kept moving forward. It was around 4.5 miles my wife told me her knees were hurting pretty bad and asked if we could walk for a second, I said of course, and we walked for about 2 seconds until she said, "well that isn't making them feel any better, we might as well be running!" I was very proud of her for pushing through the pain and running her best and farthest race.
We continued on and at about mile 5.5 you could tell our legs were tired. We were swerving all over the track in the pitch black, but we knew the end was just up the road and this was the farthest we had ever run. We came up on the finish and were cheered on by some glow stick covered people as we ran across the finish line. What an accomplishment. We finished with a time of 1:10:17, without taking a break or walking. 2 years ago I thought running 3 miles was the most ridiculous thing ever, and now a half marathon doesn't seem so bad.
A few things I learned from this run.
-I don't like waiting all day for a race
-don't wear Nike frees on a gravel trail (I didn't, my wife did)
-your body can do way more than your mind thinks it can
- always thank God for when he brings in cool weather and it's not 106 degrees
Monday, August 6, 2012
This week > last week
Week one training for my new journey started off ok....and then went down hill. Last week was a strange week. We just got back in town after a week long vacation in the mountains where we did nothing and ate way too much. My week of work was crazy busy trying to catch up on what I had missed and trying to get ready for the new sermon series. Then at the end of the week my oldest daughter (3 years old) and my wife got sick....and in turn I got sick. So with all of that, this is how my week looked.
Training: Nutrition:
Mon: 4 mile run. Way too much
Tues: 8.4 mile bike. Way too much
Wed: Jungle gym xt/ stairs. Way too much
Thur: N/A. Way too much
Fri: N/A. Nothing (sick)
Sat: N/A. Not much
Sun: 7 mile bike. Way too much
As you can see it wasn't exactly the week that I wanted getting ready for my 10k, especially with nutrition, but after I type it up I am proud; it is way more than I was doing before. The weird thing about it all is that even though the week crazy I don't blame it on that. The truth is that I really badly want to be a triathlete, but I am having a hard time getting motivation to eat right and to do my daily workouts. Most mornings I intend to wake up early and run, but my bed is so comfortable. There has been no motivation to overcome my comfort. Even as I sit here writing this blog, it is because I decided my bed looked comfy while the kids nap instead of a workout. In the end you have to push through, or fail, and I am not ready to fail, so here is my plan.
Just yesterday I asked a friend to help train me. He is an insanely fit healthy person who has run races from 5 milers to 50 milers. He said we would come up with something, so until then here is my schedule for the week.
Monday: little swim while boating - 3 mile run evening
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: strength and core work (Jungle Gym XT)
Thursday: 5 mile morning run
Friday: 3 mile morning run
Saturday: 10k race
I will let you know how training went and how the 10k was after the race.
Training: Nutrition:
Mon: 4 mile run. Way too much
Tues: 8.4 mile bike. Way too much
Wed: Jungle gym xt/ stairs. Way too much
Thur: N/A. Way too much
Fri: N/A. Nothing (sick)
Sat: N/A. Not much
Sun: 7 mile bike. Way too much
As you can see it wasn't exactly the week that I wanted getting ready for my 10k, especially with nutrition, but after I type it up I am proud; it is way more than I was doing before. The weird thing about it all is that even though the week crazy I don't blame it on that. The truth is that I really badly want to be a triathlete, but I am having a hard time getting motivation to eat right and to do my daily workouts. Most mornings I intend to wake up early and run, but my bed is so comfortable. There has been no motivation to overcome my comfort. Even as I sit here writing this blog, it is because I decided my bed looked comfy while the kids nap instead of a workout. In the end you have to push through, or fail, and I am not ready to fail, so here is my plan.
Just yesterday I asked a friend to help train me. He is an insanely fit healthy person who has run races from 5 milers to 50 milers. He said we would come up with something, so until then here is my schedule for the week.
Monday: little swim while boating - 3 mile run evening
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: strength and core work (Jungle Gym XT)
Thursday: 5 mile morning run
Friday: 3 mile morning run
Saturday: 10k race
I will let you know how training went and how the 10k was after the race.
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