Monday, September 15, 2008

Let the GAMES Begin!

Well, it's been a LONG road to get to this point, but now I have a new gift that was given to me recently. The gift of time. It was a sad day this past weekend when we had to close down our business. We had poured four years of blood, sweat and tears into that venture to only see sales dwindle down to the point at which we were forced to make the difficult decision of closing our doors. Probably the most difficult part of all was all of the friends that we had met along the way. Many of whom are part of my running group. We've enjoyed countless hours of coffee talk post our long runs. That will just have to shift somewhere else, but with all the sadness of having to make those decisions comes the silver linings. I get more time to focus on something that was starting to take a back seat. And that's my health. Since my push to the New York City Marathon, and running probably one of the most fun marathons I've ever ran, I started to put running to the side. My weight increased to well over 200 pounds, ans I was getting FAT! And I'm not talking PHAT.....You know...the spare tire kind. Those extra 20-30 pounds made running unbearable.

Well, I had to make a change in that department, stop eating so doggon much, and switch my diet over to the Nutrisystems plan. And what do ya know....I'm 16 pounds lighter after the first go around, and running isn't as hard as it was 6 weeks ago. And just in time to start gearing up for my next challenge, and probably my toughest one yet. Work on qualifying for the Boston Marathon!

I know, yer saying, that's freakin NUTZ.....I haven't even bested 4 hours yet, how do you expect to get 3:15 min marathon when you have NEVER broken 4 HOURs??? We'll I've asked myself that very question. !) lack of commitment to the training plan. A lot of that had to do with that business we owned. Working the engineering day job and coffee house by night, my days were already jam packed. And here I am trying to fit in marathon training program. Not sure I was thinking too clearly, but now I know where my major failures were. It's miles on feet (or lack thereof). I always found the reason to not get the long run in. I worked late and closed the coffee house. I had to get up early to leave work so that I could make the bank by 4. You name it, the coffee house was my crutch. Well, that crutch has been smashed over a pile of bricks, and there is NO excuse! You heard it here first. No missed group workouts. No missed long tempo runs.

It's time to git 'er done. Today was the first day, and I did my scheduled 3 mile run. They will gradually work into 3 speed sessions, one recovery workout, a mid week long run of 10-12 miles, and a Sunday long run getting up to 22 miles.

So look out Boston, the Kid's plotting his course to the girls Welsley and I WILL make it there!

No comments: