What is it going to take?

My weight loss has stalled and my training is non-existent. How do I find my motivation? Literally I have not run for about 3 weeks, and it is not something I am proud of. I feel like it should be there. I watch videos online and I cannot wait to get out on the road, but as I set everything out for my intended run/walk the next morning I have trouble rolling my fat can out of bed or leaving the draw of the couch as I get home from work. Luckily my weight loss is at a stand still and I have not gained any weight but I still have not lost anymore. I am down about 32 pounds to 268. I will continue to rummage the closet and the other nooks and crannies of my house to find my motivation. I will keep you posted.

One the other hand I have less than one month til I crew for my friend and his dad at the laurel highlands ultra. This is my first time crewing and it should be fun. I think I have most of my stuff together for them and myself as we come down to the wire. I will be posting a race report from a crew stand point and we will be running the last eight miles in to the end together.

Everybody knows its spring again

How can you not love the onset of warmer weather. The last few weeks have been tough with my workouts. I was having trouble finding where I left my motivation but I found it. Anyway I was really starting to feel down about my running and that I was making no progress. The problem was not in my body but in my head. I am finally getting use to shutting off my brain as to what I am doing. As I learn this technique( I am far from mastering it) my runs have gotten much better.

winter training?

I do not know if you want to call what I do as training. I took some time off from running through the months of November and January but then I had a friend that has been running hardcore for the last 18 months or so tell me that he was going to retry the Laurel highlands ultra this June and I am going to crew for him and his dad. I have been studying up on how to crew for someone and it sounds a lot like being a nurse, feed them,encourage them, don't let them quit or give up, take care of their needs and let them do the hard work. In this case it is running and not healing. I have started training indoors and have started using a run/walk program that is helping me get over the mental issues I have of running indoors. I have the hardest time running on the treadmill. But with the hocking hills Indian run coming up in September, I need to get moving. I plan on running a 20K. so a little less then a half marathon. But this is my graduation to trail running. Should be interesting. Til next time I will have more.

Timberland Trail Running Commercial

Indulgence: 1000 Miles Under the Colorado Sky Full Trailer

Tony Krupicka and Chris Wawrousek talk about the evolution of NB Minimus

Tony Krupicka and Chris Wawrousek talk about the evolution of NB Minimus

Bucket list

Tonight I was sitting at my home desk listening to the monotone lull of an online class lecture via podcast. Well I couldn't handle looking at PowerPoint slides anymore so I started creating my ultra running bucket list. The nice thing about a bucket list is that you can add to it anytime. It doesn't have a deadline, well unless you account for what you accomplished by the time your dead, like something that you have at work or for school. But for me it is still a big step for me to put all of the races and runs on one sheet and this gives me something to cross off and see the progress that I am aiming for. For the next year I had hoped to run a 50 K trail run but I dont know how that will work with me trying to get into a nurse practitioner program.

As for my training and exercising in general I have been doing a lot of varying in what I do. The nice part is the clothes that I wear are fitting a lot better. I have not gotten much faster in my running but I can tell that I am in much better shape. I rode my bike to work one day and I was not sore and I was able to bike home that night with out being sore. I was able to tell that my heart rate stayed much lower than it had in the past. But for this week my goal is to increase my run time and in turn the distance that I am running.

Just to let you know that my goal is to post about once a week from now on. Other random thoughts that I have out there are I will be doing some gear reviews about some of the gear that I have been using and how it fits us bigger guys. If anyone has anything special that they would like for me to review and tryout let me know and I will see what I can do. Til next time...