A little stroll through Indy...

Well as I stated in my last post... my 2012 race season is going to be concluded with the Chicago Marathon. For some odd reason (still don't know why) I decided to do the marathon several months ago. I guess I was just bored with half marathons and wanted to push my body even harder and further.

Well tonight I completed my furthest run ever, 15 miles. To date, my furthest run has only been 13.1 miles then the race was over. But since I'll be running 26.2, I figured it might be a good idea to go a little further than 13 miles. I did a 13 mile run last week and felt great afterwards so I didn't think 15 would be too bad. Plus, I had Lauren riding along as my sherpa again this time to provide water and candy that us endurance athletes call "gels". Having a personal sherpa to ride next to you is amazing. It provides a real world scenario because they act as an "aid station", just like the ones in a race.

I mapped out the route I wanted to go using Livestrong.com. I use this website for all of my running/cycling routes. For some reason I find it the easiest to navigate, I prefer to keep things simple so this is the best around for keeping things simple. Anyways... the route would take us down the canal towpath (my 2nd favorite running route), through the Butler University campus and finally to Crown Hill Cemetery (1st favorite place to run). Most people are a little creeped out by the idea of running through a cemetery but I love it. Its quite, smooth, shaded and has a wicked hill in the corner of it that leads up to James Whitcomb Riley's tomb which also happens to be the highest point in Indianapolis.

Lauren took this photo atop Riley's tomb

I won't bore you with the details of the run because it basically went like this: I ran down a path, passed an old man who was spitting at geese, passed some hippies throwing rocks at a pole, up a hill, past some gravestones, took a few sips of water and did it all over again. That's it. My goal time was 2 hours, and I finished in 2 hours. 8 min/mile pace. Thats my goal pace for Chicago, which will put me at 3:30:00

After tonight's run, I am more confident than ever in being able to achieve my 3:30 goal time for Chicago. Especially considering this was 2 miles further than I've ever ran. I realize its still 11 miles short of a marathon, and I also know the "real" marathon doesn't start until around mile 22, but after a couple more of these sort of workouts, I should be more than prepared. I also wasn't plagued with many injury "tweaks" as I call them. My calf strain is completely gone, the pain in my foot didn't slow me down and my right knee wasn't bad either. TMI ALERT: The only thing I want to figure out is why I fart so much on the run! I did have beans at lunch but even take those out of the equation and I'm very gassy on the run. Don't worry though, it never "materializes" anything. This was also the longest run in my new New Balance 1400's. Besides the anticipated foot soreness from running for 2 hours, my feet felt great in them. I'll live and die by this shoe.

Well I got home, drank some chocolate milk, rolled out my thighs using The Stick, made some dinner and kicked my feet up. I'm now finally in bed, after applying more ice to my knees than what sunk the Titanic and feeling great. Special thanks to Lauren for playing sherpa again, I'm 100% certain the run wouldn't have gone as well without her!

I finally made it happen...

I'm finally making this blog thing happen... after close to two years of hinting on the idea of writing my own I finally just decided to make it happen. I don't know exactly how it's going to go but I know I wanna give it a shot. I'm hoping that I will be able to use this blog as a marketing tool for myself as well as a training blog. I want to share my experiences and tips as a triathlete who's trying to take his passion to the next level. I've been doing triathlons for about 3 years now and I just completed my first half-ironman in Racine this summer and even though there are a lot of kinks I need to work out, I caught the bug. I would like to get a couple of half irons under my belt and a few personal things in order before I make the jump to a full ironman, which I will do someday. I was about 45 minutes off of being competitive for my age group in Racine so I know its possible. Thats my goal. My goal is to qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas someday. I won't ever win, it simply isn't in the cards I was dealt, but I would like to be competitive for my age group. 

One big factor to me writing this blog is because there's an elite team I want to be a part of, Wattie, Ink. It's a sports management company started by Sean Watkins. He was instrumental in starting the career of triathlon superstar Heather Jackson and also represents Ben Hoffman, Joe Gambles and Lesley Paterson. I recently started communicating with some of the elite team via Twitter, Facebook and e-mail and I've never met a group of people who's as passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic about the sport of triathlon as that group is. I've been serious about triathlon for the past 2 years but always did everything on my own. I would train with a partner or group once in a while but never had any structure or accountability when it came to my training, I want that to change. I want to be a part of a group or team thats as passionate about triathlon as I am. I wanna ROCK THE W!!!! in 2013!!

My race season will end in about 6 weeks with the Chicago Marathon. I'm then going to re-evaluate my 2013 race and training schedule. My lack of structure when it came to training constantly led to many injuries, mostly running. Leading up to my first half Ironman, Racine 70.3, I could hardly run due to a foot injury and that led to a 2 hour half marathon where I should've ran about a 1:30-1:45 half marathon. And even during my marathon training, I've strained my calf, still have runners knee and my foot still flairs up once in a while. I know that I have the ability to be competitive but I KNOW that my lack of structure and injuries prevent me from taking a podium position. 

Since this is my first post, I don't wanna blabber too much, I'll get more into marathon training and my plans for next season in future posts. But for now...I'm signing off. I've got a big day tomorrow; church, Lauren's cousins birthday and then a 15 mile run. 

Sorry for being a bit random and choppy... Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo is on in the background and its a bit distracting.