Sole to Pavement

So last weekend was my Salt to Saint bike race. It was a race from downtown Salt Lake to Saint George, Utah. We were a four man team and the total distance was about 412 miles. We each had about 6 legs of roughly 17 miles each leg, I ended up riding about 120 miles altogether. The race was a blast and we ended up doing pretty well considering how much a couple of our teammates trained. The point of this blog entry however, is to announce that after months of not running (due to my bike training) today I got out and ran just under 3 miles. It felt really good to run and I'd forgotten how much i love it, there's just something about running that feels so good...not quite sure what it is.
On October 23rd I have an Olympic tri coming up in Lake Powell and I really need to continue running and really need to hit the pool too. Swimming is going to be particularly interesting since i haven't swam at all since July and that was very sporadic then. There's a good chance I'll just drown but regardless I'm excited to start getting in shape and put together some kind of a plan.
I'm also getting really excited about Hood to Coast 2011. I realize that i might not get to do it because there's a chance we won't get drawn but I'm just excited to sign up for it! The team is slowly coming together and it seems like everyone is starting to get excited for it...I can't wait, the mother of all running relays!
I'll try to post more often on here, it really helps me to stay motivated when I know someone is reading about my workouts. So just to check in i guess: today I ran 2.8 miles and plan on doing a very light jog tonight with Janna (my 7 month pregnant wife).

So this is what has been happening

Its been a while since I last wrote on here, but don't fret I'm not out of shape and wheezing at the tops of staircases. I've been riding my bike a lot lately and I've started p90x again. My team didn't get drawn for the Lotoja race but we've signed up and already got in to another race called the Salt to Saint, its a rely style race from Salt Lake City to St. George. I'm pretty excited about it and it should be a lot of fun. Apart from my 40-60 mile rides I do several times a week I'll occasionally run or swim and I'm staying in decent shape.
Anyway, its bed time...I'll try to keep this updated more.

What have I done?!

So I signed up for a bike race that will be in September if our team gets drawn...its the Lotoja (click on the link to learn more). Its a 206 mile one day bike race from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole,WY. I'm not even close to being ready for it and its going to be a struggle to get there by the beginning of September but I'm in the lottery so we'll have to wait and see.

I'm In

Just a quick post to let everyone know that Janna and I are in for the Spudman. So come the end of July we'll be doing a race with a 1.5k swim, 40k bike, then a 10k run....its gonna be good!

Game On!

So I've been trying to get back in shape and get re-motivated and all that good stuff; well last night i think I took some great steps in getting there. For the next 89 days I'll be doing P90X while trying to prepare for a number of races as well. The P90X pretty much kicked my butt and I'm already really really sore 12 hours after the fact...not really looking forward to today's workout. I am really excited to see the results though and lose some weight and have to carry less during my races.
Speaking of races I'm thinking about doing 6 races this season. Last year I only got in 3 but it being my first year I think that was okay. I did the Stansberry Sprint, the Spudman, and the Telos Turkey Sprint. If you remember I also managed to get hurt last year and that really kind of screwed up my training. I'm hoping that P90X will get me strong enough and help me avoid injury this year. So the races that I'm thinking about doing are the Lake to Lake 50 mile relay run, Telos Timp Sprint, Cache Valley Classic Tri, Echo Tri, Spudman, Lotoja (bike race), and maybe the Provo Tri to replace anything if missed or in place of the Echo . I'm already registered for the Spudman but its a lottery so I'll have to wait and see, and I already have a team for the Lake to Lake relay.
Lake To Lake
Running through St. George I'll be doing a 50 mile running race with Janna, Blake and Aubree Vogt, and Brady Thomas. We all have 2 legs, each leg averaging about 5 miles. Race day is March 6th and I'm not going to be in peak shape yet. I know I can run 5 miles no problem but its going to be slow and I'm going to be dead after my second run. We just barely got our team together and are registering within the next couple of days, we're just gathering money now.
So there is my season outlook so far, good chance some of it will change...Lotoja is no walk in the park, I'll need to be ready to actually consider it but now I've got some serious motivation and races to actually train for...wish me luck.

I hate being sick...and out of shape

Yesterday since we did not have school I took it upon myself to get in a really good workout. I woke up feeling pretty sick and knew it was going to be a rough day, my head was pounding and my nose was totally plugged. After finding some way to motivate myself I went to the gym and got all warmed up and hopped in the pool for a workout I had made for myself. I wanted to know how I was doing as far as being ready for the swim portion of a sprint tri. I did an 800 meter time trial that in all reality kicked my trash. I know Stephanie would laugh but I went a 12:33. That's definitely not my best but I think its an ok start for the season. All together my workout was only 1750 m long, for me right now, this was sufficient to kick my butt and I was dead when I got home. I had told Janna that I would go running with her in the evening though and so I managed to gather some energy from somewhere to get out and run in the 36 degree weather. I was feeling horrible before we even started and after one mile of our four mile run I knew I was in trouble. I could hardly breathe due to all the crap in my lungs and I was so tired from swimming that Janna immediately left me in her dust. I finally caught her at just before three miles but right then we hit a hill and I was done for, she seriously took off and by the time we finished I could hardly even see her (the last mile is a straight stretch). With about a half mile to go I was doing the old man shuffle just kind of sliding my feet along the pavement and I was actually wheezing. I spent the rest of the night trying to recover and I haven't felt that crappy in a long time. I was able to take some comfort in the fact that my best time on that run did kick the crap out of Janna's time but it still sucked.

Motivation is Key

Without a doubt motivation is the number one force when it comes to getting anything done concerned with workouts. Unfortunately this is also probably my weakest link. I don't really have a problem with finishing workouts or even finding time to do them but its the lack of motivation or drive that really makes it hard for me, and I'd imagine for most runners too. Today I was searching for some motivation and instead came across this:
Running Rules of Thumb

1. If you see a porta potty with no line, use it. Even if you don't need to.
2. If you have to ask yourself, Does this driver see me? The answer is no.
3. If you have to ask yourself, Are these shorts too short? The answer is yes.
4. 1 glazed doughnut = 2 miles
5. You rarely regret the runs you do; you almost always regret the runs you skip.
6. Not everyone who looks fast really is, and not everyone who looks slow really is.
7. Nobody has ever watched Chariots of Fire from beginning to end. Not even the people who made it.
8. You can never have too many safety pins on your gym bag.
9. Running any given route in the rain makes you feel 50 percent more hard-core than covering the same route on a sunny day.
10. If you care even a little about being called a jogger versus a runner, you're a runner.
-taken from Runnersworld.com and an article by Mark Remy

Oddly enough this actually served as motivation for me; I remembered that I am some sort of runner and that this simple fact sets me apart from the rest and makes me better. How do those rules do that? I get them and laughed at them, so I can see that I'm not your average idiot who never runs or does workouts. In short I can draw motivation from that cause I realize that unless I get outside and actually do something I will become one of them.
Motivation can come from anything...we just have to think it through and get ourselves there.