I realized today that my fall marathon is closer than I thought. I am slightly behind in my training. Nothing to really worry about, but I need to up the mileage more than the recommended ten percent increase without causing any sort of injury, and that’s always hard.

My regular nightly runs have been 3.5 to 4 miles, but tonight, I upped that to 5.5 twice this week.

The week is huge for me; I am leaving for vacation in a couple of hours and hope to put in some serious, serious training. Something has changed in me, because I am really looking forward to it.

This will be the last real chance to prepare for the New York Tri. I’m feeling confident about the run and bike course, but the swim still has me nervous. That’s why I’ll be doing a number of intensive swim workouts in the ocean while I am on vacation. I need to get comfortable both in the open water, and in the wet suit. The only way to do that is to put in the time.

See you all in a week!

I realized today that my fall marathon is closer than I thought. I am slightly behind in my training. Nothing to really worry about, but I need to up the mileage more than the recommended ten percent increase without causing any sort of injury, and that’s always hard.

My regular nightly runs have been 3.5 to 4 miles, but tonight, I upped that to 5.5 tonight and will hopefully do the same again either tomorrow or Friday.

Next week is a huge week for me; I will be on vacation and hope to put in some serious, serious training. Something has changed in me, because I am really looking forward to it.

I have a number of people or things I Google at random intervals. “Rem Koolhas”, “fixed gear bike” “Amartya Sen” and “Devine Madness Ultra-marathon”

Devine Madness is an ultra-marathon running group often labeled a cult. One of their members died after running a forty eight hour long footrace for which the group received a lot of really bad press. They pretty much went into hiding after that to regroup. Well, now there is a major series of articles on them in a New Mexico paper.

Endurance sports nerds can read about the freakiest of the freaky long distance runners here. (you have to watch a stupid ad first.)

Hello, and welcome to Sean Version 2.0

By way of introduction:

Sean v1.0 had a mildly successful run. I swam in high school with the semi seriousness of a teenage boy, and then didn’t do anything as far as exercise other ride my bike to a punk rock show.

Then, I found myself almost thirty and almost two hundred pounds. I was trying to get into law school and trying to get my health in order. I began building Sean v1.5. I ran a number of short races, a 5k here, a ten miler there. Last year I ran the New York City Marathon, finishing it in a down right sad 5:45:00.

I half-assed the training for the marathon. There’s no other way to put it. Then I trained, biking swimming and running in a half assed way for another year until last month, when I did my first ever open water swim, the liberty swim. I didn’t train well for that one either, and had to give up about half way through finishing the race by disembarking from a FDNY boat.

After that, I said enough. From now on, I am going to take this whole process a heck of a lot more seriously.

Here is where I will record the beta testing of Sean 2.0, the new improved Sean who continues in the race through the hyperventilation, and takes the risks that lead to better rewards. This Sean knows that I will have to be methodical and stubborn if I am to get what I want. I know that sounds cheesy, but that is why I am doing this, to prove to myself that I can build a better me.

What this will be about:

This blog will be a place to record my training, weight loss, and goals. It may also contain the occasional thought about the physical or my life outside of training. We’ll see. I hope to make it interesting, or as interesting as a blog about a back of the pack endurance athlete’s struggles with training can be.

The Current Situation:

I lead a pretty busy life. Currently I work a more than full time job and am getting ready to move to Washington D.C. to begin law school in September.

I am training for two races: the New York Triathlon, on July 16^th and the Hartford Marathon on October 14^th.

Goals:

First goal is to lose five pounds by the NYT on July 16^th, then finish that race. Just finish, thanks.

After that, I hope to lose five more pounds between July 16^th and the Hartford Marathon on October 14^th then, finish Hartford in four and a half hours.

Check back for the regular updates. All beta testing involves set backs, and bugs found, but the basic model here is good so I am sure we’ll come out with an improved version.

Weekly Totals Number 1

I plan on doing an introductory post soon, but for now, here’s the weekly update:

Total numbers

Swim: 2301 yards in 50 minutes

Bike: 26 miles in 1:45:00 for an average pace of 14.86 MPH

Run: 10.5 in 1:45:00 for an average pace of 10:00 MPH

Core: none.

This is the chart from my workouts this week. This is about what it should look like at as far as distribution. I just wish the numbers were bigger. Trouble at work put a real damper on exercise this week.

I leave for the beach on Friday, and the next week should be serious. I’ll keep you updated.

Weight: 190

Goals from last week:

None.

Goals for next week:

Sleep at least eight hours a night.

Do at least two open water swims

Stretch everyday.

Finish Volume One of Braudel’s Civilization and Capitalism.

Begin making core conditioning part of my weekly workout plan.

Is this thing on?