SPEED BUMPS!

The past two weeks have been rough training wise.  My runs have been limited due to the weather as well as work.  Two weeks ago I only got a single run in during the week as the Thermometer was reading single digits and we had another snow storm.  I was however able to get out that weekend and get in my longest run to date, a 15 miler.  The run was good with the exception of all the ice from the rainstorm the day before and sub freezing temperatures.  I took a spill at mile 6 however no one saw me so it wasn’t too embarrassing. 

I am thinking I should start getting used to these falls if I want to run Ultras!  This past week I got the luxury of traveling to Tulsa, OK for work.  I got one good treadmill workout in however that was all as I despise the treadmill.  Rather than getting back to Jersey on Friday ready to run, I was instead sick and decided to take the weekend off as I didn’t want to further complicate things.  Luckily though I was able to maintain my weight through the limited training.  I am however still running at much too heavy of a weight.  If I ever expect my legs to hold up for an ultra it is imperative that I shed some pounds.  I am planning on really fine tuning the eating next week (That is of course after Valentine’s Day Dinner with my lovely wife).  This past week while sitting sick in front of the computer, I found a race to add to my schedule, the Turkey Swamp 50K.  This should fit nicely into my race prep as the race occurs in August, about 2 months shy of the CanLake 50M.  It’s going to be a hot one, however that will also have some added benefits as I am still undecided on whether to attempt Umstead 100M in April or the Keys 100M in May.

12/28/2010 - 225.4 lbs
01/10/2011 - 224.0
01/16/2011 - 220.6
01/23/2011 - 219.2
01/31/2011 - 223.2
02/07/2011 - 220.0
02/14/2011 - 220.2

TEMPTATION!

It has been a rough couple of weeks.  I have gotten some descent miles in however I have had a bunch of counter-productive encounters with my old pal, junk food!  We go way back!  I caved last week and paid the price by putting a few pounds back on.  It’s funny how hard it is to lose them and how easy it is to slap them right back on.  First off, my job doesn’t do me any favors.  I work at a public accounting firm and it doesn’t get any more sedentary than that!  Right off the bat, I am sitting for at least 8 hours of my day.  The physical demands that my job require is a walk to the third floor to check my mailbox.  That’s about it.  At least I use the stairs and not the elevator!  To make matters worse, there is always a fully stocked snack drawer, leftover cookies etc from meetings and the occasional free lunches!  I am constantly surrounded by temptation.  I have gotten into a decent habit of bringing in my lunch however I caved in when they ordered pizza for the people who actually showed up in the snowstorm last week.  That led to a downward spiral that reached its climax this weekend! (A Pepperidge Farm Cake & Fruit Snack binge!!!) 

The snow hasn’t helped either! This past week, either the temperature has been reading single digits or we were in the midst of yet another storm dropping 18”s of snow!  My New Years Day 5K was rescheduled for the second time.  This winter has been out of control and we still have 2 months to go!  I do not belong to a gym and I do not own a treadmill. (Only place to fit it would be in the basement and the ceiling is too low, I would constantly hit my head)  I had to improvise, so this past weekend I took my first newbie shot at back to back “long-runs”.  I put in 12 miles on Saturday and another 8 miles on Sunday.  As expected, I was running on tired legs on Sunday but it was some much needed experience if I am going to follow through on my 50 & 100 mile race goals.  This week it’s time to get back on track which will be difficult yet again as we are dealing with an Ice Storm which will again limit my weekday running!  Any questions, comments, suggestions are always welcome and greatly appreciated!  Give me a shout at both twitter and dailymile at the following:

http://twitter.com/MWest815

http://www.dailymile.com/people/MartyW4

12/28/2010 – 225.4 lbs

01/10/2011 – 224.0 lbs

01/16/2011 – 220.6 lbs

01/23/2011 – 219.2 lbs

01/31/2011 – 223.2 lbs (OUCH!!!)

Race Schedule

It’s been two weeks of training and my legs are beginning to cooperate again.  Got in my first “long-run”, a big bad 7-miler!  (Can you feel the sarcasm?)  Baby steps!  Last thing I want is to do too much too soon and get myself injured.  Hopefully within a few months, this past week’s “Long-Run” will be a normal base day of training for me. 

So I have recently settled on some races.  I have two key “building” races that I will be using on my way to Umstead 2012.  First is the NJ Marathon which I will be running on May 1^st.  This is run on roads and is extremely flat so it will not be specific to Umstead however it’s a nice spring marathon and the timing seemed to fit.  My second test leading up to Umstead 2012 will be the Can Lake 50M.  This is held Columbus Day weekend so hopefully the wife and I can make a mini vacation out of it.  The Elevation profile is nothing too crazy, but it should still be challenging.  I have to start working on that hill training as well as walking those inclines.  I am really excited about these races because they give me some shorter term goals and will keep me motivated and focused throughout this long training process.  I do not have a specific training plan for the Marathon.  I will just continue to add to my base mileage while increasing my long run. (I am not trying to qualify for Boston!) For the 50M however, I am thinking about using the Santa Clarita Runner’s program.  The program can be found on their website and it basically generates a plan based on the race date and length of the race.   It is pretty plain and simple.  There isn’t any specified speed or tempo work, just a mileage guide.

In between these two races I will also be running some shorter races that I can utilize as some added motivation as well as a gauge for my performance and progress.  A week after the NJ Marathon in May I will be running back to back 10Ks however I am going to use these as easy training runs because I do not want to do too much following the marathon.  The first race I will participate in is the Newport 10K which is a local race that I enjoy running in and they always give away a pretty decent Tech Tee!  Then, the following day, I will be running part of the North Face Endurance Challenge series.    I will be running the 10K at Bear Mountain.  The reason I am doing this one is in support of a couple of my co-workers.  They are both getting back into running so we all chose this race as a goal.  Hopefully they will get to enjoy running as much as I do and stick with it.  I like to take any chance that I can get to help open someone else up to the world of running.  I stand by the idea that after a run, you will always feel better than you did before.

Now for the weight stuff...  I dropped a few pounds last week which is good.  No specific diet, just cleaning it up and watching my portions!  I feel even the smallest of weight loss improves my ability to run a great deal.

12/28/2010 – 225.4 lbs

01/10/2011 – 224.0 lbs

01/16/2011 – 220.6 lbs

Thanks for dropping by.  Feel free to follow my training at both twitter and dailymile at the following:

http://twitter.com/MWest815

http://www.dailymile.com/people/MartyW4

Week One in the Books

Well week one is in the books and it was a crazy one.  It’s tough getting used to waking up early (especially in winter) however I feel so much better when I get my runs in during the morning.  I even get a chance to eat breakfast, imagine that!  I will start off with a couple of rants as they relate to my first week of training.  I am not a negative person and it usually takes a lot to rub me the wrong way however I do have some pet peeves!  My first pet peeve is winter themed, especially since we had about a foot of snow a week ago and are expecting another foot tomorrow!  I can’t stand it when people do not shovel their sidewalks.  I love getting halfway down a block and having to turn around & backtrack because someone was too lazy to clean their sidewalk.  I’m not talking about the day of a storm either; I am talking 3 days later!  Come on.  Another one of my pet peeves is being stopped mid run by someone who needs driving directions.  This drives me nuts!  I understand you are lost and need help but they never seem to realize that I am in the middle of a workout.  “Oh he can stop, he’s just jogging!”  I bring this one up in particular because of a funny story to kick off my first run of the year.  I was getting in some miles in the park when I was stopped by a woman who was a caretaker for an elderly man.  She had apparently showed up for work and lo and behold her “patient” was not there.  Normally I can’t stand getting stopped mid run (as mentioned before) but in this case I felt bad.  Unfortunately, I was not able to help her out as I could not recall seeing her patient during my run.  Hopefully she was able to find him somewhere in the park.  Not sure how far he would have gotten…  

Running in general was good this week.  I got in 4 decent runs.  I could have done more however I was unexpectedly sent up to Boston for work this past weekend and was unable to run long.  I am feeling good although I am in the process of brushing off a lot of cobwebs.  I would classify my motivation as average as I love being out on the run however it’s been tough getting out of my warm bed in the mornings.  Hopefully a few more weeks of dragging myself out of bed early and it will become habit.  For this week I am looking to run a few 3 to 4 milers with a weekend long run of about 6-8 miles with an easy recovery run on Sunday.

Starting weight @ 12/28/2010 – 225.4 lbs

Current weight @ 01/10/2010 – 224.0 lbs

Happy New Year

So my race plan was already altered and I am not even a week in!    Not a big deal though.  The CNJRR Hangover 5K was rescheduled due to snow & ice.  It will now be run on January 30th so I will have a month before my first race of the year.  Speaking of races, I also signed up for the NJ Marathon which will be run on May 1st.  With my ultimate goal of a 100-miler in Spring 2012 my thoughts are to get in the NJ Marathon in early May, a posible 50K this summer, a 50 Miler in fall (Late 2011, will also act as my Umstead Qualifier) leaving me an additional 4-5 months to prepare for my first 100.  Thoughts for a 50 Miler are the following: Can Lake 50M, Tussey MoutainBack, or the JFK 50M.

Thats the easy part, now for the running.  Getting back into the swing of things hasn't been that easy.  I am carrying around WAY to much weight and it is probably not a good thing.  Part of my journey is going to be getting back to a healthy weight, somewhere in the 180-190 range.  I am not going to turn to a specific "diet" as I always seem to derail on those things.  Rather, I am going to get myself back into healthy eating habits, eliminating all the junk food and just being conscious of what I put in my body.

My starting stats as of December 28, 2010:
Weight         - 225.4 lbs
Body Fat % -   30.7 %

I will be updating my workouts on daily mile so check me out at http://www.dailymile.com/people/MartyW4#ref=tophd and feel free to "friend" me.

The Beginning

New Years day I will begin a 15 month long journey in which I will build myself up in hopes to run the Umstead 100 Mile Endurance Run in 2012.  Being a “runner”, I have always been intrigued by going long.  Long gone are my days of 20 minute 5K’s and at this point in time I probably could not even go out and run a solid half marathon.  I have completed two marathons a few years back and have since let myself go.  I don’t want this to turn into one of those New Year Resolution things as those seem to always be doomed to failure.  This will be more of a change of lifestyle rather than a quick fix as I set out to rid myself of my bad habits and form new ones which will aid me on my path to run 100 miles.

Why Umstead?

Through my reading, this seems to be a good race for beginners.  I like the fact that it is a loop course.  I do not have easy access to trails and a lot of my daily miles will be run on pavement.  The loop course lessens the chance of me getting lost out in the woods, especially at night which is one of my biggest concerns!  Also, the timing is nice as the weather shouldn’t be too extreme (either hot or cold) in early April in NC. 

The Plan

The plan is to use 2011 to work my way up the distance ladder through various races throughout the year.  It all starts with a “Hangover 5K” on New Year’s Day which I can assure you will be very unimpressive!  From there, I am looking to run various races as short term goals as I build up to 100 miles.  Being I live in the Northeast, some races I might plan to target are as follows:  Running with the Devil 6-Hour, Mountain Madness 50K, Vermont 50M, NYC Marathon.  These are all in the 2^nd half of 2011 so I might try to get in a spring marathon, possibly the NJ Marathon in early May.  The progression would look like this: Spring Marathon, Summer 6-Hour Race, Fall 50M (Maybe I will try and find a winter 100K).  This should have me up to speed for my ultimate goal in 2012.

Going forward I will be tracking my mileage, weight, Body Fat (Using a scale, not an exact number however it will be consistent) as well as posting my progress on this 15 month adventure.  You can also follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mwest815 for daily updates on my training.