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.