Day 5 (31 Day Transformation)

After taking a break, I knew that today was going to be a tough day for me.

Here's what I did:

8.77 miles in 1:06:16 (7:33 min/miles)
19 pull ups
3.5 mile walk
50 push ups
1:20 of cycling
20 minutes on the stair master (121 floors and 2.52 miles)

The run that I did was in the morning, and at first, I was running on the slower side... but eventually, I became interested in what my cadence was in running, and realized that it was way too slow and stepped it up to 180 steps per minute.  Instantly, my pace quickened and my average went down from about an 8:34 pace for the first two miles to where it ended up as.

The rest of the workout was done at night, and I almost managed to get my 20th pull up... but stuck with 19.  I went with the 3.5 mile walk because I wanted to work on walking fast (that way, walking at a normal pace seems THAT much more easier).  Push ups were good, but the hour and twenty on the stationary bike... really killed my butt.  I was already tired, this being the end of the day, but I still forced myself to go on the stair master and walk at an average of 97 steps/min and pushed myself for that 20 minutes.

I don't know what tomorrow has store for me, but here's me hoping it's not going to be too bad.  Feeling pretty lazy~ but I need to make sure I don't give up and instead push myself forward.  Transformation doesn't happen by itself.  It takes effort.

Day 4 (31 Day Transformation)

Since yesterday was suppose to be my break day... and I didn't follow my plan, today was my break day... in fact, I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  This also means that tomorrow is going to be one... interesting day.  Kind of sad that I didn't do anything because I really wanted to do some sort of training... but hey, it's the first week.  Pushing myself too much will end up with me getting hurt.  Tomorrow's post is definitely going to be a workout that's going to take as much time as one would work in a day... we'll see (and I'll see) what's going to happen tomorrow...

so excited...

not

Day 3 (31 Day Transformation)

So the original plan was to take an easy day at the gym today, but... you know how plans get ruined by the member of the opposite sex.  Saw a pretty girl, decided that I'd stay a little longer than my original plan.  Here's my workout for the day:

18 pull ups
1.25 miles of walking
42 push ups
5 miles in 35:19 (a 7:04 min/mile average... but I did start from about 8 and went up to 6 min/mile)
400 calf raises
15 minutes of solid stretching
10 minutes of sauna time

I did go quite fast on the treadmill, however, I decided that it would be best if I stayed off the stationary bicycle as well as the stair master, and let my body (somewhat) recover.  Tomorrow, being the 4th of July... I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do for a work out... but we'll see what happens.  3 days done, 4 weeks to go.

Day 2 (31 Day Transformation)

Today was a little bit tougher for me because I worked at a summer day camp.  During this time, I would be walking a lot, playing tag and other various games with the kids... so basically, when I was done, I was a little tired before starting my workout.  Here's what I did for my July 2 workout:

17 pull ups
5 miles in 37:43 (on a treadmill...)
1.5 mile walk
40 push ups
200 calf raises
1 hour and 10 minutes of cycling
50 minutes of the stair master (5.37 miles or 258 floors)
50 minutes of pool running

I definitely felt the difference and my legs feel pretty tired... lets see what tomorrow is going to do with my legs... should I work out or should I take a break... we'll find out for sure tomorrow.

Day 1 (31 Day Transformation)

So since I'm training for the Leadville 100, I decided that the month of July, I would start with the transformation of my body into becoming a beast.  I have a goal in mind, and in 31 days, I plan on achieving that goal.  The next 30 days will be just a list of what I do to get myself to where I want to be.  I'm hoping that in 31 days, I'll become a beast that could crush the Leadville 100... here's what I did today:

4.03 mile run in 31:55 (7:55 min/mile)
1.6 mile walk
14 pull ups
60 minutes of cycling
35 push ups
45 minutes of stair master (209 floors... 4.36 miles)
45 minutes of pool running

Seems like a good beginning.  Let's see what tomorrow brings.

How Little Things Pile Up

My roommate... well... lets say that he has a lot of hair... and with a lot of hair... well... lets say that it clogs up the drain over time.  My hair, on the other hand, is pretty short, so it doesn't do that much damage.  Now taking showers is an important part of both of our lives, and over time, there's a good bit of his hair in the drain.  Since it's not my hair... I just let it go and have my roommate deal with the hair.  However, instead of throwing it away in the trash, he has this... interesting habit of... putting it on the side of the bath and even on the wall.  For the first few months, I surrendered and got toilet paper and took them off.  However, this time, I decided that I would do my best to ignore that and let the bath wall grow a beard.  It wasn't the best idea ever... but it sure did make the bath a lot more hairier.

To sum it up, it was disgusting.

Little by little, hair clogged up the drains.  Little by little, the hair went to the wall.  Little by little, my will to 'force' him to clean up the mess was being shaken.  It seemed to me like the wall of the bath was changing color because of the amount of hair on it and I'm sure it would have kept going if his girlfriend had not come...

Now I'm not sure who exactly put the hair off, but after his girlfriend got through using the shower, I went in to take mine and lo and behold, there was a white bath tub.  It was nice... but I wonder if there was a lesson learned or if it was just a phase.

Whether it be hair, or clothes... or anything else, when things pile up, it doesn't start so bad.  It just ends up that way.

Funny thing is... it can be a good thing or a bad thing.  When you exercise every day, the little you do each day piles up and makes a big difference over time.  When you lay around on the couch and don't do anything... it also makes a big difference over time.  Whatever you do, when you make it a part of your lifestyle, it affects who you become.

I'm hoping to add a little bit of mileage to what I do almost daily, and my goal by the end of July is to be able to run a marathon every day for a week.  If I'm able to get to that point in my training, I would feel a lot more comfortable with the Leadville 100.  Running well in a regional race is completely different than running well in a national race.  I'm hoping that I would get myself leveled up to where I need to be to compete with the elite runners and take just a few steps closer to running well.

My goal for Leadville is to get top 20.  Looking at last year's time, I need to be able to run a little under 13 minutes per mile.  Looking at what I've done in the past week, I believe that currently, I'm right on track to being able to run where I need to in this race.  The only factor that I haven't fully been able to calculate is the altitude.  I'm not sure how the altitude is going to affect me... but I'm sure it's going to be tough.  Hopefully, the next several weeks, I'll be able to exponentially grow and  little by little, take myself to the next level... and become a beast.

Recovering

It's been 2 weeks since I ran the 24 hour race in Asheville NC, and I haven't blogged about that race yet... Currently, I'm waiting for the information to be written down and sent to me from one of my friends that was at the race timing every little thing that went on.  Once I figure that out, I figure I'll be able to write a little blog about the amazing experience I've had.

The short version of the race is this.  I ran long and hard, ran 102.3 miles and finished 1st overall.  I started doing the 5 min run 1 min walk for the first... 16 hours and then after that, I got too exhausted so I ran more and rested more when I finished a loop.  Funny thing is that after the race, I slept, and within 2 days, I was back on my feet playing tag at a summer day camp that I work at.  In 5 days, I did my first run which was 5.38 miles, the next day running 5.32, took a break the next day, then ran 5.79 miles, 6.29 miles, break, and the day before yesterday, ran 6.04 miles.  Yesterday, I was a little tired from spending the week doing housing projects and watching Man of Steel (which was pretty nice, I thought... especially because I didn't expect anything from it, haha) but today... after blogging, I plan on going out for a run.

The first two days of running, the top of my right foot hurt.  I'm not sure exactly what the cause of it was, but it was because of that pain that I decided that I would turn around and make my way back home.  The pace I was going on the first two days of running was 9:19 and 9:15 min/mile so I wasn't going too fast... but I felt like running on the road was still a little too much after the 102.3 miles endeavor.  After the break, my right foot hasn't hurt me and so I was able to run a little faster, at a little over 8 min/mile, but I still don't want to hurt myself and made it my goal to only work on building myself up in distance, so that when I go to Leadville to run that 100 miler, I would be more prepared.

Recovery can be a pain, but at the same time, it's something that your body needs and so we have to go through with it and let the body take it's course.  Recovery slows down if you don't rest, and so rest IS important.  However, resting too much can be detrimental.  In doing that, your body might get acclimated to the resting state and in turn, you won't just fully recover, but also build a bad habit.  Since running has begun to be a lifestyle for me, it hasn't been too much of a problem when I occasionally take two days off in a row, but 5 days in a row... my mind was affected by that and I enjoyed taking that break from running.  Let's hope that the next couple of weeks I continue my training plan and get to where I need to be for the race in August.