Getting Your Hands Dirty...and Catching Up

A few weeks ago, I discussed getting back on track and how a schedule brings structure and happiness in one's life (I also discussed the beauty and excitement of chaos....I am human).  Now, it's been 6 weeks since I started seriously training for the season and things are starting to get hairy.  You get to realize (or at least percieve) that you don't have as much time as you think you do before races.  My first race is April 21 at Rutgers Busch Campus.  I am running a half marathon along my sister, who is a first timer to the long distance realm, which is very exciting for me because she always had more determination than myself. 

Anyway, 6 weeks ago, I thought I had all the time in the world but then on Thursday, I quickly realized the half marathon is only a month a way and the longest distance I have ran is 10 miles.  To compound things, I have a half ironman two weeks after the half marathon and I haven't even started biking outside.  The longest bike trainer session: two hours ( I average a 2:45 bike ride for the 56 mile bike distance in a half ironman).  Needless to say, I need to get my hands dirty.

So this weekend, I ran 13.1 miles on Saturday and biked 44 miles on Sunday.  My greatest fear in doing this was over training (The biggest NO-NO in any type of distance training) or pushing myself into an injury.  The truth though, is I feel great.  Of course, a little sore but I feel my muscles getting stronger (an extraordinary feeling).  Today, I could have ran and swam but decided to give myself proper rest to set up this weeks training regiment.  The point is, you have to push yourself outside of your comfort level.

Fast Forward:
I was planning on posting this a few weeks ago but life gets in the way sometimes (Translation: I got lazy in my very busy schedule...no excuses though...DGL...Don't Get Lazy) but looking at this post now, one day removed from the half marathon, one week removed from the Terror at Boston (I had a few running friends who ran), it's time to catch up. 

Crazy quick tangent side story-- A colleague's daughter's boyfriend was running in the Boston Marathon. At some point, she was standing right by the 8 year old who passed in the bombing, waiting for her significant other to finish.  One hour before the bomb hit, she was on the same side of the bombing; however, and thankfully, she went to the other side to get a better angle of the finish. She took a few pictures to capture her boyfriend's fantastic accomplishment of finishing the most prestigious and historic marathon on the planet..  Her boyfriend finished around 3:35 (Congratulations) and got out of the area MINUTES before the bombs went off.  They got home safely and immediately drove home once the chaos ensued.  Then, once the daughter saw the initial shots of the Russian brothers caught on the security cameras, she scrolled through her photos and found BOTH of them in a few of her pictures.  She discovered she caught the younger brother still holding the black bag.  The family sent the photos to the FBI and might have been an integral part of catching the terrible people who did this.  Truly incredible stuff!

I know this story maybe hard to believe but my colleague is not an individual to lie or even sensationalize things.  He told me the story this morning and could barely believe it myself, but I trust him and hope you can believe this incredible story.

I am going to post something later this week reflecting on Boston...stay tuned

Back to Fast Forward:
To start this season off,  I ran the half marathon at Rutgers University on April 21 with my sister, Tiffany.  This was her first half marathon and she blew the doors off.  She did it in just over 2 hours (2:03 to be exact) and did a lot better than she thought.  She is now thinking about doing a full marathon by the end of the year and I couldn't be more proud of her.  She has demonstrated consistent discipline and determination to get herself to this level.  Now, it is up to her in where she wants to take this.  I hope she goes further.

Myself, I set a PR of 1:33 (7:08min/mi) and ran a pretty well executed race.  I was looking to complete the race in time of 1:35 but I didn't want to kill myself.  I have a half ironman in two weeks and have to continue my training (54 mile bike ride tomorrow).  I started off with a 7:50 mile and slowly, or quickly, got myself down to 6:45 by the last mile.  I could have pushed a little bit more to break a 7 minute mile but with a race in two weeks, I had to be smart.  Overall, it was a great experience and a splendid confidence booster.  Now, it is up to me to build on this brief success and take myself to the next level.

Let's GO!!!