Pressed but not crushed...

It has been 22 days since I updated this here fine blog, and for all my devoted reader, that must have been hard for you to deal with. I recently read there are 3 main reasons ministers leave the ministry. #1 is conflict with people in the church, leaders, ect. #2 is lack of friends, lack of support and lack of pay. #3 is building projects. I can totally understand why ministers take off after building projects. We aren't even building a new building, we just added a new parking lot, added classroom space and expanded our sanctuary...but it has been crazy. I don't think "day off" will be in my vocab until after Easter when this is all done.

I set the goal of doing my second ever marathon back in November when I was tipping the scale at 232. About 4 weeks ago I was doing really well, looking forward to cruising through 26 miles. But I kinda got derailed by life. Last week I was in California for a conference, only to race home and work on the building all day Saturday. Today I should go out for a run, but I just have stuff to do here.

On the bright side, I have the mileage built up to finish the marathon, and today I weigned in at 216.2 my lowest in almost a year. I know if I get myself to the starting line next Saturday I will be able to get to the finish line... Maybe I can still get there.

I'm skipping lunch and going for a run!

-Fat Ironman

God is Good, All the time

This Blog hasn't been overtly religious in nature, but today I am just really overcome with how good God is. Even without all of the reasons I have for my faith, some of the best are when the Bible was right about stuff long ago that we are still just figuring out. God told the Israelites about 4000 years ago that they should have a day of rest every seven days. He told them to rest the land from farming every seven years, and that every 50th year was a year of Jubilee, where they feasted and generally took it easy for the year!

About 20 years ago endurance athletes started to understand periodization, and the importance of taking the volume and intensity of training down significantly every few weeks. I have read that many times pro triathletes don't perform their best at the ironman in October because they hit it too hard in January. I read on 1997 Ironman champ Heather Fuhr's website that she has to get out of shape in December to really get back into shape. Even superstars like Fuhr, one of the best runners in ironman racing, have to have a time of rest. It shouldn't be a surprise. God told us all about that back in 1446 B.C.




Why all this, well this week is a "recovery" week where I am taking it a bit easy before I hit it hard for 3 weeks and then begin my marathon taper. I have been kinda sleeping in and I have been riding the beautiful Felt s32 and doing some swimming. God knew what he was talking about and still does, because I am feeling better.

I posted a couple of pictures of how I looked at my last real triathlon, the '04 US Half Triathlon Championships. That was me at 208 or so. I still have 10 lbs to lose to get back to that point, and then I have about 30-35 to lose before ironday. I have been eating a bit better, lots more fruit and veggies, lots of tuna sandwiches, and broth based soups. Hopefully the scale will reward me.

Time for me to get out of here!
God is Good!
-Matt

To du or not to du

I was just reading over my last post, and I must say to all my readers, (ha!) forgive me, I have a penchant for whining. Life really is good. Friday morning I rolled out of bed and got ready to head out on my big 20 mile excursion. Things started pretty well, but I didn't feel fast of light on my feet at the beginning. Still I managed miles in the 10:3o range, which is right where I want to be for the marathon. Life was fun for miles 2-11 but then things got a bit painful. Mile 12 was bearable, as were 13 and 14. At 15 I knew I was going to have a painful finish. 16 and 17 were difficult and the last 3 were just not much fun at all. My calculations were a bit off, and so I got home and my GPS said I had only gone 19.57...I guess I could have run another .22 out and .22 back, but I was beat so I just went inside. I walked the whole last quarter of a mile so there was no real need for a cool

Sadly, that was my best 20ish mile run ever. I didn't fear that death was approaching like I did on my 20 miler in May of '04, and I have recovered pretty quickly. This week is a "recovery" week where I am going to take down the mileage a bit before the last big push to marathon Saturday.

This Saturday I am still up in the air about doing the off-road duathlon that I did last year. It was lots of fun, but my mountain bike has a problem with the shifters and I don't want to pay the money to get it fixed. these are some pictures of me and my bike and my muddy, bloody legs after last year. Good Times!

The depths

Today I have bottomed out motivationally, physically, mentally, and energy-wise. I am soo tired today, I can't concentrate, and I haven't done much in the way of productive work. I know what the problem is, but I currently don't have the will power to fix it.

There are the nagging aches and pains that I'm afraid are previews of upcoming full blown injuries. I have these pains on the inside front of my lower legs that don't go away when I run and I am afraid are more than just sore muscles. If I have a serious injury now my marathon hopes could be over for a while and this whole ironman train might come screeching to a halt. If ironman doesn't happen this year, it might not ever happen, because soon it will be kids and other family stuff taking up enough time that I'll be lucky to do a training run or two a week. Not that those days will be bad, I can't wait to have kids, but I don't think toddlers and 5 hour bike rides go together.

I know I have been eating miserably lately. Though I have no motivation, I do have a lot of work to do, or at least a lot of time that I have to be here at the office. That translates into meals eaten out of a sack instead of good-for-me stuff. I know I could make better choices, like I said I know what the problem is.

Today's eating:
3 life savers
12 potato chips
1 footlong sub sandwich
lots of diet coke with lime
1 package of little chocolate donuts
1 quart (that's right, quart!) chocolate milk

Now that's discipline!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a 20 mile training run. A huge mountain to climb even if I'm feeling well and healthy, but my runs this week (all 8 miles of them) have been lethargic and uninspired. If it was just lethargy, I'd feel confident that I could finish tomorrow with just lots of guts, but if my body is on the verge of injury, I'd hate to push right over the edge to injury. I just don't know.

It's almost 5, choir practice starts in a bit and I'm not ready for tonight. Except for all of that I'm doing great.

Last week's run mileage total - 30.19 miles - lifetime record for me
This week's run mileage total (mon-wed) - 8.06 miles
Weight still at 220

-Fat ironman