Slapdbassmon's Blog About Losing Weight and Training for a Half-Marathon

pre-training training

slapdbassmon — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:04:52 +0000

Last night I bought Galloway’s book on marathon running. My race is October 2, so I am going to start my mile logs on Memorial Day weekend. I figure that’s the unofficial start to Summer, and I plan on spending pretty much my whole summer running. Sounds like a plan to me. I’m getting excited.

Nashville

slapdbassmon — Wed, 04 May 2011 22:14:57 +0000

Well, I ran my 6th half this past weekend. It was actually probably my worst race yet. I had been dealing with a little bit of a chest cold in the days leading up to the race, so I had been taking nyquil and dayquil. First of all, the race was HUGE…30k people. That’s too many, bro. I was in a middle to back corral and I didn’t cross the start line until about 30 minutes after the first gun.

I can usually tell how a race is going to go by the way I feel after about three miles. I felt weak and tired. I just didn’t have it in me. My 5k time was okay (for me) – 33 minutes. I like to start at about an 11 minute pace. Around mile 7, my right knee just started hurting, so I ended up walking in spots where I hadn’t planned. ( I had planned to take little walk breaks at miles 4 – 7 – 10, but I didn’t stick with my plan very well at all. My 10 mile time was about 2:08, so I was still making it okay around my normal times, but the last three miles were just impossible for me. I ended up walking the majority of the last 3 miles and finished in 3:02. I was pretty disappointed.

BUT!… I had a lot of fun and got to see a great tour of a great city. My wife and I had an awesome time in Nashville. I got to see my wife cheer me on at miles 2 and 10. I tried to run hard for her, but I just didn’t have the juice this time. The upside (other than a great vacation) was that I feel motivated to train harder. I was looking around at the people who were finishing beside me and I thought, “I have put in more work than I am reflecting. this is my 6th race and I have logged a lot of training time. I want my results to reflect that.”

Fired up and ready to go onward!

T minus 3 Days

slapdbassmon — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:46:35 +0000

Did some leg weights and abs on Monday. Took it easy yesterday. I’m feeling pretty decent for the race. I’ve got a pretty steady base of 5 miles and I’m planning on breaking the run into 3 mile kicks. Looking forward to it…

10 days until Nashville

slapdbassmon — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:43:13 +0000

Today I did legs and abs on the weights and ran 5k on the tread. My time was 30:10. My top speed was 8.0 mph or about 7:30/mile. I held that for about 30 seconds…insert laughter.

the Rites of Spring

slapdbassmon — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:30:53 +0000

This past week I did 5 miles on Tuesday, 5 miles on Thursday, and 5 miles on Saturday. My last weigh in was 233, which is the lowest I’ve been in a while. Yesterday I did about 4 miles of walking, so I’m taking today off. I’ve got two weeks until Nashville and I’m a little nervous.

Friday. Pollen.

slapdbassmon — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:49:40 +0000

Tuesday did a two mile “speed run.” Time 19.28. Insert laughter here.

Yesterday I did 4 miles uphill on the treadmill.

Have not eaten that well the past few days.

New Adventure

slapdbassmon — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:40:17 +0000

Feel really good this morning. Today is day 5 of my training regimen. I haven’t eaten any meat or drank any alcohol since the start of the month. Last night I made myself hit the gym and do my abs and legs for thirty minutes. I ran by the grocery store and made a caesar salad with vegan “buffalo wings,” which are actually pretty tasty. Today I am supposed to run 3 miles for speed. Basically, I just do a 5k on the treadmill. My recent times have been the following:

Week 1 5k 31:58

Week 2 5K 31:28

The pollen count has been out of control around here so I have been confined to running indoors, which doesn’t really bother me because I actually probably prefer the treadmill (which most people find weird). I’m excited about keeping this blog as a way to keep me honest.

Full Marathon

slapdbassmon — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:07:29 +0000

I haven’t visited this for a while. Long story short… I have run a total of 5 half-marathons in the past two years, and I have another one in Nashville coming up at the end of this month. The big news is that I have signed up for a FULL marathon on October. I have become a full-fledged novice runner! My times are not that great by most people’s standards, but to me, it’s all about me completing these tasks. I ran the Vulcan Half in Birmingham back in February and came in at 2:34, which is an all time best. I am hoping to finish below 2:30 for the first time in Nashville.

I would love to say that I have made all this progress in weight loss and have a six pack, etc. ,but truth be told… I am still a fat ass. I really just don’t watch what I eat very well. I like to drink beer and I like to eat cheeseburgers. Sue me. However, my wife has begun cooking a lot of vegan meals and I am trying to get serious about my health. I want to be back under 200 pounds and have a 34 inch waist again. I don’t think that is too much to ask for. I am 34 years old, not 54. I’ve decided that I need to be accountable and need to log in to keep myself accountable. Just now I was thinking about going to have a happy hour beer, but I started reading Runner’s World online and got my little kick of motivation. Besides, today I am just supposed to do weight training on my legs and abs. Shouldn’t be more than 30 minutes at the gym.

Here I go…

I Did It

slapdbassmon — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:33:57 +0000

Thanksgiving morning my wife dropped me off at the check in point, I got in the big gate with the other 5,000 people, and then I started to run. And I ran. And I ran. And I walked. And I ran. And I walked. And I ran.

And I finished. I had really grown tired of training the last few weeks and began to question how much I was actually enjoying this whole attempt at a half-marathon. My knee started giving me troubles the last two weeks before the race, and it hurt me a lot during the race, but when I crossed the finish line dripping sweat and covered with salt all over my face and saw my wife cheering me on… it felt good.

It felt really good.

It felt good enough that I’m already thinking about how I’m going to train for my next one.

T minus 14 days

slapdbassmon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:51:41 +0000

Weighed for the first time in a while.

245.8

Gut 44″

I am tempted to beat myself up for failing to really lose any weight on this journey, but I’m gonna try to be 239 by race day.