The Mental Commitment

I have been going at it now for over two months, and I have made significant gains in my training. I can run 6 miles straight, and I have lost 22lbs of body fat; my clothes dont fit anymore, and my neighbors think I am extreme.

I have purchased books on training for triathlons, and am learning great forms for strength training for each of the three events. I have created a weekly schedule and am working hard to follow it, yet sometimes, at the end of the day, I still ask myself if I have made progress.

So much of exercising is mental, its not even funny. This month I have decided to, sort of, back off from pushing myself to "break records" in my training, and really focus on my foundation.

I am not flexible. I have never really been all that flexible, and I realize the importance of it. So this month, I am incorporating 1 hour of stretching into my workout, nearly every day (5 of the 7 days). I already can feel a difference in my flexibility, which tells me I have a long way to go still.

Another aspect of training I have added, is walking. 3 days a week, I plan to just go walking. It sounds kind of silly to walk, when I am already running at distances greater than I expect to run in a race next year, but walking is good for me. It works different muscles, and it improves your run. It helps me burn fat, which is currently my main target.

As I have started to properly build my foundation, my mind seems to be under attack, from itself... again. I had my wife take some photos of me, so that I can see my progress. Needless to say, it got me down. Its amazing how this could happen, I mean, I am doing really well, but my mind seems to forget that.

My wife took photos of herself, months ago, when she first set out to lose weight. We took some new ones the other night, and compared them to before. We saw some really good changes. I guess this is what brought me down, I dont have "real" before photos. I remember at the time thinking that I should take them, but alas, I never did... and now I am beating myself up over it, literally.

Its kind of strange, but on some days, when I feel I have really pushed myself and worked hard, when I get into bed at night, those are the nights my mind tries to tell me I am at a loss. I cant really explain it, other than it really does feel like a war. I strike hard in the morning, afternoon and evening, but come bed time, my enemy seeks revenge.

It is depressing to believe you are doing really well, and then hear yourself tell you that you aren't. I really wish I could pin point where this negativity comes from and move on with it, but I am struggling with it.

I can admit however, that in the morning, God has renewed me, and I am ready to fight another day. Sometimes I start a little later than I want to, but I start. The commitment is still here, because I am willing to fight for it, and I am not ready to give up on it just yet.

End of June Stats

So June has come and gone, and I dont feel like I have actually trained all that much. Maybe its because I still havent started my swim, maybe its because I have made new changes to my exercise schedule, maybe its a little of everything.

The big exercise events of the month have been in the last week really. I ran for 6 miles straight, no breaks, no slowing down. I prepped for the run, and anticipated running for more than my normal routine 3.1 miles, but wasn't sure how far I would actually go. I ran the 3.1, and planned on 4 miles, but when I hit 4 miles, I still felt good, so I figured I would continue. Once I hit my normal turn around, I considered running the full 6 miles. Knowing that was a big task, I decided on just running to the house, and see how I felt, if I felt good, I would continue.

When I could see our mailbox, I started to evaluate the situation. It was sprinkling, but tapering off; the wind was gusty, but I have ran in worse, and my body was holding up fine. I knew that the rain was going to start again, and remembered seeing thunderstorm warnings on the news. If I stopped at the mailbox, it would have been 5.6 miles, which is still a huge increase from 3.1 miles... The problem was that I wouldn't have been content, I wanted to see what I could do.

I ran past the mailbox, down to the stop sign, and made my final turn back towards home. I picked up pace a bit, and started to grin. I now knew I would complete it, I had raised the bar. I havent been out running since Monday, but I plan on it tomorrow.

My second big accomplishment this month has been creating an actual schedule for my exercising. This has been difficult, mainly due to work, however we now have a hard copy schedule for work. This has allowed me to design a pretty good workout, based around what I need to work on, and give myself enough time to recover; as well as set times to eat (a big priority).

I am happy with my numbers this month, especially when I look back at the beginning of the month, and recognize I just started running this month. I started our excited that I could run 1.5 miles without stopping, and 30 days later, I am able to run 6 miles without stopping. If I didnt record my exercises, I would feel depressed. Even now its difficult knowing I havent ran in the last 2 days. In fact today, I didnt even get out and walk today!

All in all, this month stats are:
Run: 33.8 miles
Bike: 73.9 miles
Elliptical: 20.2 miles

To recap last month, I had:
Run total: 0 miles
Elliptical total: 38.55 miles
Bike total: 57.6 miles

I dont think I will track my elliptical stats anymore, as I am changing the way I log my info. I have joined a free website, called BeginnerTriathlete.com, where I can log all my info for free. Its pretty easy to use, and is more convenient than writing down everything. The site has some other great info as well. If you want to look at my profile, you will have to register on the site, my username is Layneh.

End of June is Coming too Soon

Wow, two more days in the month of June, I cannot believe it. It seems like just yesterday that I was posting my May stats.

I am still getting used to the new bike, however I must say that I love riding it. I am not 100% comfortable on it yet, but the thrill is all good. Aero position is coming along quite well, I am still a little shaky going around turns though. I am also surprised at the amount of vibrations it picks up from the road. Coming from a mountain bike, where I feel very little, to a tri bike where its like I feel every crack, it can be a little nerve racking.

When I was getting fit, I remember a video getting played, from a cycling race in Belgium. These guys were riding on cobblestone for part of the race. While I didn't think much of it at the time, looking back, holy crap! Its amazing these guys could even see straight after all that!

I have two more days to run, and in all honesty, the running is getting me frustrated. My runs recently have been horrible. I ran today, and felt good heading out, my legs didnt cramp up, I made sure to hydrate, but at about mile 1 (thats right, mile one...) muscles in my legs stopped working. I know now what was happening, well, I believe I do that is. I have never really warmed up before running. I shut the door behind me, and hit the ground running... literally.

This is where I see the utmost value in having a coach. Its the stupid things that I do, that an experienced athlete could point out and tell me it was dumb, before actually doing it. Knowing this mistake has assisted in other ways though. Amy had a great run today, she made sure to warm up before her run, after hearing of my pains. I have learned my lesson, and plan warm ups in the future. I also need to work on stretching, thats another area that I heve never liked doing.

All in all, I am happy with my stats in cycling this month, but do feel disappointed with my run. I was really hoping to beat my milage from last month. In a way, I guess I have, because last month I didnt run. I considered the elliptical my run, but totalled 37 or 38 miles, thats somethign I wont be beating this month, well, it will be close..

I will post my totals at the end of the month, and we shall see what my run totals turn out to be.