Its that time of year again...

This one will be very very short.

Only 206 more days to train and get ready for the hardest thing I've done to date.

GAME ON

That little voice inside...

I was talking to a friend today about mental barriers and breaking them.  She was explaining that once she got past the mental part...the mental you...that little part saying that's it, that's far enough, that's enough "pain", she was able to over double her distance.
     This is her original quote, "I remember a long while back i was saying i was physically unable to run more than 2 miles my whole life and you convinced me it was a mental block and I believed you and you were right! I am up to running 5 miles with not being tired after."

I've been in that exact situation so many times, on so many different things, and it still bugs me a lot...that's why if you know me, you know I will start a lot of projects and follow through with very few of them.  I remember back when I first started exercising,  I would go out and try and run a mile...then 2, then 3.  I never got beyond 3.  I thought my limit was 3 miles and I would be doomed to running 3 miles in about 30 minutes.  I limited my runs to 3 miles for over a year.  Coming from my background, I was happy about that progress though.

One day I went out and tried to do 4...the next time was 5...then 6 (that was about as far as I could go at the time), but I felt great and more importantly IT felt great.  I got over that "wall," that mental block...that little voice saying, "ok we're done here."
With that said, I had to get over it again this past weekend and will again next weekend.  Last weekend I ran 17 miles in about 3:00.  That is my longest run by just about 3.5 miles and it was hard.  It hurt, I wanted to stop, and it was amazing.  Next weekend I want to step it up a bit and go for 20...and we'll see how it goes.

Here's a little motivation I like to use...
Edit: That message was originally from the TCU Baseball campaign, I just liked that video better...

Moving forward...Looking to 2014.

So as this year wraps up and the race season is just starting to warm up for me, I look forward to next year, 2014.

Next year will be the biggest year for me in terms of athletics in my life.  I am signed up for IRONMAN Lake Placid.  Next July 27, starting at 7AM, I will be participating in IM Lake Placid with a little over 2000 of my closest competitors.  This is going to be the biggest challenge I have ever taken on.  While I admit academics were difficult, I find the training for this type of event even more mentally draining, along with the physical requirements.  You are out there for 12+ hours of constant exertion, the only breaks you get are the ones you allow yourself.  I signed up for the race ready package which was a nice chunk of my "bonus" (read all of it) but it included the IM Syracuse 70.3 and IM Lake Placid and guaranteed entry to Lake Placid. Here we go...

Along with these races, I just finished the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon in Philly this past weekend.  It was a rough race for me.  I don't think I am in the shape I needed to be...I was slow.  I ran a 2:06:59...over 10 minutes slower than the Philly half last year.  I will note I did roll my ankle a week before this race so that may have contributed...but still, no excuse.  Now all my training has to move to the Philly Marathon. I need a full under my belt before really looking toward the IM.

Training for this full will be tough as between now and the race I have a few other events going on.  I have the MS bike ride, City to the Shore.  That ride is 75 miles on both Saturday and Sunday, September 28, and 29.  Those 2 days also happen to be the 2 days prior to Laurie and I leaving for Italy for 2 weeks.  That is going to be one hell of a trip!  I can't wait, even if its terrible for our training!

With that, I need to start working out my training for the rest of this year and then the start of IM training.  I need to get my distances up, times down, and overall fitness to Ironman levels.

Here's to Mike Reilly saying, "Kevin Johnson, you are an Ironman!", hopefully sometime before midnight!

2012, the year of quite a few milestones. (Part 1)

As 2012 comes to a close and race season ends, I reflect on the progress I have made this year.  It has been a big year for me as it was also my first year as a triathlete.  I competed in 3 triathlons this year, throughout the year,  one in May, and 2 in September.  I also competed in the aforementioned AC half marathon, a tough mudder, another broad st run, and the Philadelphia Half Marathon.

Lets look at this chronologically...I will keep these fairly short as there are a few to address.

Start 2012, we already addressed the April 1, 2012 AC April Fools Half Marathon that I ran with my girl friend, who has been great with dealing with all of this and has even participated a number of these events with me!

Next on the agenda was the 8 day stretch with 3 races.  May 5, 6 and 12 all had races, and it was going to be a great 8 days!

May 5th, my first Triathlon.  The Devilman sprint in Cumberland County, New Jersey.  It consisted of a 0.4 mile swim in a ceder lake, followed by a 20.5 mile ride, and then a 4 mile run.  Anyone of these events is enough for most people's daily workout so doing all 3 was a nice challenge.  Prior to this my swimming was lacking and I had only had my road bike for 2 months to train on (I didn't even get my water bottle holder on my bike before the race!!!).  Let's start with the swim.  It was cold, it was dirty, and the ground was slimy...all in all it was a long 18:37 of flailing my arms about in what was supposed to be a freestyle motion to propel me through the water... It was not a pretty swim at all.  Follow that up with my 1:11:10, 20.5 mile bike ride, I was well behind that of the average triathlete.  Finally the 4 mile run, something I was most familiar with, I finished that in a nice 36:48, my best rank of the day at 131.  In the end I finished in 166/234, with me looking like this running down the final stretch.

Though I will say, as my first tri, it was amazing.  Everyone there was very supportive, answering my questions, reassuring me that I will be fine.  Jeff, Laurie's brother, was also there doing the 50 lite in preparation for his 2012 goals and was also fielding my questions along with his friend and triathlete Chris.  They were great with helping me set up my transition area, remarking on what I need to remember when moving from event to the next and overall very supportive in my endeavors as a triathlete.

Moving on to the next day...the 2012 Broad St Run in Philadelphia.  Laurie was doing this with some of her Co-workers and I had signed up for this because I figured it was a nice 10miler (Even though I am not that big of a fan) to use a training run.  I started the race with Laurie, after feeling a little sluggish from the day before, but as I got going to loosened up a bit and was able to push it.  I ran, if I recall correctly, the first 6 miles with Laurie at a nice 10ish min/mile pace and then pushed a little harder for the last 4 miles, finishing in 1:33:40.  That is nearly 40 minutes less than the year before on a 10 mile course.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic!

Fast forward 6 days now to May 12, and the Pocono Tough Mudder at Pocono Manor.  This event was strictly fun.  For those who don't know, the Tough Mudder is a 10-14 mile obstacle course with "military grade" obstacles that you must navigate in order to get to the finish.  This event was great!  I loved it.  At this point in time I was getting fairly strong from rock climbing a few times a week so the climbing aspects of that were "easy" for me and then the running I was in shape from all the previous events.  It was so much fun!  And here is a picture of one of the obstacles...me carrying a nice big log.

For now I think that is enough as the rest of the race season all happened in September and November... But that is also where I finished some awesome starting goals and where it really gets going...

It all started in June of 2005...

Back in June of 2005 I had just finished my freshman year.  A year that was full of parties, booze, and just in general a lot of nothing good for me.  Once I left school and moved home for my first co-op I quickly realized how bad I had gotten.

Going out shopping for dress pants for work, I needed to buy a 42. A forty F'n two! No longer was I in the the 38 size that I had gotten use to and accepted as the smallest I would ever be, I was a 42" waist!  I realized right then and there that I needed to change.  I realized this as a 19 year old kid.  I weighed myself that week and was amazed to see a number right around 275lbs on the scale.  I didn't feel 275lbs, or about 25lbs more than I started that freshman year.

Sometime during freshman year (2004-2005)

My freshman 25 were bad.  Drinking and eating and then drinking some more.  Now, before someone gets the wrong idea, I do not have a problem with going out and partying like its 1999, but seriously, take care of yourself as well.
My first attempt at getting in shape got me down from the 275 I was to about 210 in just less then a year.  I went from what you see above to this.   

I felt great, and I did it all by waking up four mornings a week and going for a 30 min elliptical session or running.  My diet got better since I was living at home but that was not difficult.  I had 3 meals a day, 2 snacks, and exercised. And you know what?  I really started to enjoy exercising.  I did a couple 5k's.  My times weren't great, but I really enjoyed them.  The more I ran outside, the more I enjoyed it.  Then after I moved back to school, it started to go downhill slightly.  It wasn't fast, it was very very slow.

Fast forward a few years...all the way to 2009.  My weight had crept up to a pretty bad 230lbs.  I was back to being fairly sedentary, drinking a lot, and eating not great foods again.  I was in grad school, pretty busy and just not doing any real sort of exercising.  That is until a friend of mine, in spring/summer of 2010, told me sign up for the Philadelphia Half Marathon with her.  For those of you who are new to this, a half marathon is 13.1(!!!!!!!!!!!) miles!  That was only 10 miles more than any other race I had ever run, haha.  I said to myself, I need to get back in shape, this will help be motivation.  I signed up, paid my ~$100 registration fee, and trained...for a week.  I trained very sporadically throughout the time I had and ran a maximum distance of 6 miles prior to the day of!

Half Marathon 1: I woke up the morning of, it was about 45 degrees  outside and I was nervous as anything!  Fortunately for me, I lived right outside of the starting line for the race, or else I would not have gone.  I would have missed one of the most amazing moments of my life.  This race, that person, and the feeling I got are what I attribute my turn-around to.  It was one of the most awakening moments of my life.  The energy, feeling, and just in general sense of accomplishment are things I cannot describe.  I was not prepared, I was scared and I didn't think I could do it.  I did it!  I "ran" the entire thing at 12:14min/mile with the exception of 1 hill around 9 miles in.   I did my first half in 2:40:31.  I didn't care, I was flying so high!

Immediately following this race I started looking for more.  When my friend Shane mentioned to me about Broad st in May 2011, I signed up without thinking twice.  I should have thought twice since it was on my birthday but who really cares.  I had started P90x with the intention of "killing" broad st, but this was all prior to pulling a muscle in my back.  I did it in March while doing some strength training as part of P90x, my form wasn't great.  This injury is what I attribute my even worse paced Broad St. run time at 2:10:44, or 13:04min/mile.

After Broad St., I got serious, real serious.  I had just finished grad school, started my new job in Allentown and had a more stable schedule.  Running.  Running became a part time job.  I would run after work on occasion, when I lived at home, when I moved out to, I ran daily.  I ran 3-5 miles at least 4 times a week. On Fridays when I got done early I would log even more.  Saturdays started getting serious as well with 8-10 mile runs.

I had signed up for the Rock N' Roll half marathon on Sept 16, 2011 as a follow up the Philly half in 2010.  I felt much better going in after actually doing some real running.  My time showed it.  I finished RNR with a 2:23:00.  That is over 17 minutes faster in less than a year.  Fast forward another 2 months to 11/19/11, the Philly Half Marathon.  I finished that with a new personal record (PR) at 2:01:34.  In 1 year, one short year, I took of nearly 40 minutes from time.  I went from a 12:14min/mile average to a 9:16min/mile average.  I worked hard and it showed.  I should also note here that I had a goal of 2:00:00 but missed it by 1:34 and now have to run another half to get there.

While I had planned to get that sub 2:00:00 mark in AC on the April Fools Half Marathon, a few things happened that made me not want to do it.  First off, my sister who was supposed to run with us bailed so my girlfriend decided to take her spot, thankfully! We were able to run a nice race and finish in 2:10:17, which was still a good time, averaging just over 10:00min/mile.


And this was all just the warm-up...