Four weeks later....

I can not believe that it has been about four weeks since I last had an entry. A lot had happened in that time span. I won't bore you with all the details but there are three incidents that are worthy of mention before I continue to write about my day to day week to week experiences on training.

First, four weeks ago I went on a kayaking trip in Jupiter, Florida down the Loxahatchee River. It was a gruelling trip, where for four hours I evaded submerged logs , tree limbs that were trying to knock me off the kayak, and the illusive presence of alligators and turtle and frogs on the river. It was hard for me to go through a lot of the obstacles and if it were not for the accompaniment of some buddies I would have never made it over some of the downed trees. I got over one obstacle, I became confident and went ahead. Not the right thing to do. As I turned the corner, the current got stronger and pulled me close to a very big limb. In a second I was being knocked off the kayak and into the water. I had my eyes open as I hit the water and saw myself submerge into the river. I started to sink and I could see the kayak going over me. My thought was to kick and go up. I broke the surface. My kayak was going down the river and I was in the river without a paddle. One leg got entangled in some roots and one leg was pulled by the current in front of my body. I kind of had a life jacket on, but since it was not fasten it was doing more damage then helping. I grab onto the limb that knocked me into the river. For a few seconds, I thought how easy it would be to just let go and to end it all there. No more pain, no more battle no more hiding , no more pretending, no more masks that we all tend to wear. But I held on, my buddies after a few more minutes came around the bend and rescued me. We continued on to the nearest stop and got picked up by the park ranger. Thank God I was ok, just my side and ego were bruised. Needles to say I did not train that week.

Second,instance was not a bad one. I got invited to accompany my friend, Barbara, to a wedding in New York. We had a great time at the wedding , and then we went into New York City. The first day we aer walking around, sightseeing and I notice that there is going to be a race the next day. It is the MS Walk in NYC. I inquire and find out that the 10K is a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and back. So of course we did it. What an experience. After we climbed the Statute of Liberty to the crown and up and down numerous staircases to the subway. My knee hurts again. I for got the brace I usually wear on that knee. I come back, Knee hurts, no training for week two.

The third thing that I did was the annual Emmaus retreat at my church, St. Gregory's. What an experience, God really worked through His Holy Spirit touching countless lives. I am tired, need to rest , knee still hurts so take another week off.

That brings me to yesterday. A new season starts for Friends in Training (FIT);my marathon training group. I was excited to get out there and start the training again. We had a great turnout. Started my group with some running and a lot of walking, we kept a 14:50 minute per mile pace. It was a good start. Today, I went out with my training partner and friend, Nancy. We did over 5 miles. I have entered into the path once again. I thank you all the played a part in these last four weeks. I could not be here if it not had been for the parts you all played in.

The pictures at the beginning are of the river that gave me a new outlook of life, the Brooklyn Bridge and the group that I shared the retreat with. Enjoy your life, share your love with another this week. And continue on the path....

THE SCOND WEEK AND I FEEL LIKE I JUST STARTED....

Welcome to week 2, here I am on W2D3 and the best I can say is that I at least finished it. Not at a great pace, not with the best form but I got out there 3 days and did the required 5 minutes warm up, and 20 minutes of repeating 1 1/2 minutes running, and 2 minutes walking with a 5 minutes cool down which I ran part of too.

Well my running seemed like jogging and sometimes I felt I was running in place,but it was cool and I went out and I kept telling myself I was stupid, but I did it.

You know I have found that with the best intentions life seem to get in the way sometimes. You either don't sleep well, or you sleep too much. You have a bad day at work or you have a great day and you want to celebrate. You eat too much or eat too little. You are worried about this or that, stressed about life. Bottom line all things that you can possibly change or not, but things that have to be set aside for a few minutes a day to take care of yourself. I saw all the excuses this week and I feel into their trap. But in the end , I still did what I had to do.

This week coming up, I don't know what it will hold. I don't know if I will go to Week 3 or repeat Week 2; but I know that I will do something. I will be one step closer to my goal, and I will try to enjoy the journey as I go along. Enjoy your journey.

One of my friends, Alex P, shared a quote with me after reading the blog and I was touched enough by it that I decided to add it on here. After getting her permission , she tells me that she found in a very special place; inside the wrapping of a candy bar. I always knew that hidden truths are to be found in unexpected places. Here is the quote written by Anonymous: "ONE'S BEST SUCCESS COMES AFTER ONE'S GREATEST DISAPPOINTMENTS".

Well here I sit and I completed W1D3 of this new program. I did D2 a couple days ago and I was faster then D1. I actually felt that I could do another day this week. So here I come to D3, I decided to do it with my friend and training partner,Nancy. We met early in the morning downtown in Ft Lauderdale. She really wasn't sure what we were doing, but she has started the same program too. It was cool and we started to run after the 5 minute warm up. Completed the time allocated and felt strong, well at least I was upright.

I look forward to next week. Well i have some trepidation, but it is good that I am concerned , that way I will try that much harder to complete it. The crazier part of the whole morning was that after our training we did a 5K, yes exactly the race we were training for. OK we did not run all of it, but we did 30 seconds running , 1 minute walking for most of the race, and we finished it, Nancy and I in 40:04 with a pace of 12:54 officially. Not to shabby.

One of the best parts of the race was that I got to see a lot of my friends, people that have encouraged me through my ups and downs of this past training. Debbie, terry and Aaron and Luke were there. I ran some of the route with Eddie and Sophia. Got some brown sugar from Audrey. In all it was a great time. I look forward to this season and anticipate great things in the future.

Continue to smile, enjoy the training and take it one day at a time.

One small step..

One small step for me , one giant leap for my ego. Well I did it. Did what you might ask? Well I started the c25k program. I won't bore you with all the details but basically it i a program that gets you from the couch and no activity to running a 5K in 30 minutes. the program is 9 weeks long. After debating with myself on the pros and cons of it, I decided to challenge myself to at least start and hopefully complete the program.

Well,I decided this yesterday, so I had 24 hours to try to talk myself out of it.All day today I kept telling myself all the bad things: I did not sleep well, I keep worrying about all the things in life I can not change.It is going to be too warm, I will be tired from a day at work, it might rain. I got out of work and I decided that at least I was going to try it. The worse that could happen would be that I would not be able to complete my first day. I came home, changed and headed out the door. I warmed up for 5 minutes and I started into the program. At each turn I kept thinking that my knee was going to start hurting, I was going to be more thirsty then I was. But I came prepared; I had water, I had a knee brace on and I completed my time of 20 minutes and then I cooled down for 5 minutes.

I got home and I felt good that I had accomplished it. And I felt that I would be able to do it all over again in 2 days. Well at least hopefully with less anxiety leading up to it.

I completed W1D1. Don't worry I won't bore you with a daily account of my adventure, just a weekly recap. And I leave you with this thought : it is better to start something and possibly fail then not to start it at all and not know your true potential.

It's another NEW beginning....

Here I go again, and again. It has been a while since I have written on this blog, but as I feel that I am ready to start another chapter in my life, I want to once again chronicle the accomplishments and any low points of this journey.

It has been close to a year I guess since I wrote so I would like to summarize the time away. It was a challenging time where I dealt with frustrations and a major burnout. I over trained and I paid the price because I nearly dreaded each workout and each race. I had a good year in that I felt I continued to touch some peoples' lives as I worked as an assistant coach for FIT, but it was frustrating because I really did not feel I was accomplishing anything for myself. I trained and trained for Goofy and I failed to finish the full marathon so I felt like the whole year was a failure. Thanks to the people in my life such as Drew, Nancy, Barbara and Shari I feel that I learned tons from the experience and will be able to help others too because of it.

So, here I am ready to start. This week I begin the c25k program. I will try to stick with it so that I can grow and challenge myself to accomplish what I thought was beyond my reach. I will train differently and will concentrate on eating right to lose the unnecessary weight. I hope you stay tune so you also can experience the new thrills of this trip.

All good things must come to an end,but somehow they continue...

Well I did it. I finished and finished more then I ever expected. In four weeks, I did four half marathons and some training in between. Last weekend was the last half marathon , it being the inaugural Princess half marathon in Disney. The race was a women's race , there being over 6000 women, and 197 brave males, I being one of them. It was a lot of fun, and I got a lot of attention from the spectators and some of the runners. It was a good race to end the season with, because it was definitely out of he ordinary and out of my "box". It was just symbolic how this whole experience has been out of the ordinary for me; and I have certainly stepped out of my comfort zone in training and doing these races.

I have reached the end of another year and I am happy to say that I surpassed my goal for the year. I trained and raced for close to 1187 miles. I did nine half marathons, a couple of 15K's and two full marathons. I have lost some weight, met great people, have forged friendships in sweat and endurance. I would not trade these months for anything. I could thank a lot of people, but you know who you are already. And realistically this blog is about ME. Just kidding , I could not have done it without each of you.

As the days go by, I am already planning on new adventures ahead. Will I run more and get faster? Will I train for a triathlon? Will I go to Greece? Join the 50 state marathon club? As the months go by, I hope to share all of these experiences with you. I will continue to write this blog, but starting in April I hope to do a weekly entry. I hope that you will join me in my journey. I am open to suggestions, so make a comment. Enjoy life and look to the final reward.

Time flies when....

Here I am almost two months since my last entry. I thought it would be a week and I would have entered something, but life got in the way. After Disney, I did the Miami half marathon, then it was a time of hectic anticipation and preparation. My friend, Barbara has had some health issues, but she thank God has been able to complete several more half marathons. Now she will complete her last one this weekend before her anticipated surgery. May God be with you, Barbara. Nancy has been plugging along with me. We completed Miami and then two weeks later did a virtual half marathon for breast cancer, and the week later did A1A. She is doing some 5K's but I did the inaugural 13.1 marathon in Miami Beach, with my godson, Drew. It was a fun weekend but a grueling race with the four bridges we tackled on the Julia Tuttle causeway. And now I prepare for the Princess half marathon in Disney this weekend.
I have completed over 1100 miles this year, I have gotten faster and I am more secure in my training. Without the encouragement of Barbara, the patience of Nancy as she trains with me week in and week out, I could not have done it. And now lately I have the challenge of Drew always being faster then me. I look forward to the end of this period, but I look forward to the new challenges that the new training season will bring.
I will have an entry soon after the weekend, because the end draws near. Enjoy the journey.