Tar Heel 10 miler was a huge success, even if I am late in posting about it. I made the 10 miles in 1:17:45 which is a 7:45 pace, well beyond my expectations.

Have had a few 100 mile bike rides... am up to running 50 miles+ per week, and am helping out with my schools Cross Country team, which is great speed work. It is interesting work with athletes coming from a track background, where for the last year I've just gone for distance and duration with speed a non-priority. What I find is I get outpaced on the hills and I'm sure my students could outrun me, but my recovery time is excellent. A 2 minute break and I am good as new. Should be important for the Iron Man.

Well, I broke the 10% rule this week, which is generally that you should only increase your milage by 10% -- say from 10 miles to 11 miles, or 30 miles to 33 miles. I jumped from 9 miles to 33 miles. Knees are doing ok, to which I give credit to cheap patella support bands, but I've been a bit worn out so I think my body is protesting on a deeper metabolic level. I shall heed its warning.

Nice photo of my local trail.

From Drop Box

Bolin Creek Trail in chapel hill, NC. Neat blur effect on the shot. Taken while running.

The hardest run...

...is the one that hurt your ego. Running a marathon slower than intended can be a downer for some, but for me it was still a joy to finish. However, there is a training day in my regiment that I simply could not do --- run for one hour in heart zone 1 (i.e... VERY VERY SLOWLY). Not just slowly like I am out of shape, but jog more slowly than some people are walking. Maybe if I am in better shape I can move at some reasonable speed with my heart rate under 110 or so, but for now, that workout is impossible.

Why was it hard? I am somewhat embarrassed to be running that slowly, but as long as I can out-move people walking their strollers I don't feel too silly. Perhaps it is the paradox of some training routines that I need to get better used to. I still did a similar workout... just in heart rate zone 2. That was still much slower than I like, but it was very easy to maintain for 60+ minutes and I felt great afterward. I will do my utmost to follow this plan for at least 1 month.

April 10th -- Tarheel 10 Miler. Confirmed.
Goal: 8:00 pace
Realistic Goal: 8:30 pace
What will happen: 9:15 pace.

Two great days. Offroad running and on road biking.

Not a terribly fast run, but I ran in my crazy Vibram shoes and ran on mountain bike trails... This was extremely satisfying. I really enjoy dodging rocks, roots, and jumping over streams. The Vibrams made it a lot more personal... especially when stepping on sharp rocks. Finished the day by wading in bolin creek to cool off my feet and knees and clean the mud of my shoes. Good day!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/27627746


Sunday I had my first decent bike ride on my new Triathlon bike. After about 15 minutes I finally had the aero position down fairly comfortably. I'm still not in the best shape, but the 2nd half I was over 20mph most of the time and enjoyed passing many road bikes. Another good day!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/27627730

*Actually* In the training now

The running and the biking regiments have officially commenced. I'm getting out a few times a week with the running and spending at least 20 minutes a day on the bike trainer getting used to Aero position; I think I have been too far forward on the bike and that has been making things more difficult than I would like. I'm looking forward to the time when I can spend over an hour in the position without too much discomfort.

Certainly the biggest, and most welcomed, upset to the training has been the teaching. After all, I picked the Ironman goal due to all the energy I was unable to spend on teaching. Finding a balance was not something I thought I would have to do, but now I am giving it my best shot. Whether or not I will *still* be teaching in one month is unclear right now.

Back in the training

I ran 5 miles yesterday, which felt great.... no pain in the knee at all. I started a new job that had an absurd backlog of work to do which left me little time for fun. Now that is behind me the true training begins!

Just need to to last more than 30 minutes on those aerobars.

Illness!

Alas, I have been sick with two different ailments for the past two weeks. Fortunately I have not planned to start hard training until after holiday visits with family, so on January 1st my pursuits will still begin in earnest. Also, please click on my sponsors to support the cause. Thank you and happy holidays!

Finding a training plan...

The amount of material out there on diet and training for this type of thing is immense and extremely diverse -- and common logic need not apply for dieting. One ultramarathoner swears by a totally vegan diet, while Micheal Phelps eats an absurd amount of eggs and meat. One of the original great Olympians, back in the original games, apparently ate an entire cow heart every day (source unavailable). Conventional wisdom is out the window when 7,000+ calories are burned per day.

Exercise plans seem a little more straightforward. I have done P90X, learned Chirunning when I started that, and am focusing on Total Immersion swimming technique. Perhaps its because of great experiences with Yoga, but I like the holistic approaches to these things.

I can't rightly afford a coach, so I'm going with the next best thing for the training: my Garmin 305 gps watch. I can sync it up with plans over at trainingpeaks.com . For no particular reason I've decided to go with Joe Friel's base building plan (hes written the current go-to book on IM distance triathlons). It seems like a good starting place to me.

Charity Spotlight: DWB.

Overview of the program:

Awesome Gear Spotlight: Black Diamond Sprinter

The best headlamp I've ever used by a large margin. Light, rechargeable, and has an awesome rear blinker. Most importantly it doesn't bob up and down at all while running -- it feels just like wearing a head band. The only downside is it needs an outlet to charge. While it can run for 20+ hours on a low power setting, it wouldn't be that great camping. For night running, however, its awesome (if a little pricey).

So it begins!

So, four months ago I had never run more than one mile, and one month ago I ran my first Marathon!
Here is the battle data:OBX 2009.
I was hoping for a sub 5:00 time, but I overtrained (obviously) and got knee trouble. January 1st, 2010 I'll build up slow en route to Ironman Louisville.

This is a bit out of character for someone like me. I'm generally a rather sedentary person, not at all type-A, usually spending my time playing video games and watching shows like Battlestar and The Tudors. Professionally I am a High School Science Teacher, but cutbacks are deep, and with that taken away I needed something new to throw energy at, and to make a difference while doing it.

So without further ado I've set up some charity sites:

For Doctor's Without Borders

For Chapel Hill Public Schools

($1.50 of your donation goes to credit card processing fees, the rest goes straight to the charity -- Janus is awesome).

Please donate. It is for a good cause, and I could get a free t-shirt out of it! I'm hoping to raise as much money as I've spent on my training efforts. Standing by the student union in of UNC in war garb (spandex, swimming cap, etc) has yet to happen, but it will if needed.