The Latest

True my plan I went and ran my own personal half marathon this morning. I’m annoyed and frustrated that the real race was cancelled, but I’m glad I went through with my personal race. I trained all summer for this and it would have seemed wrong not to cap it off with the last run.

I had set a goal to run a pace of 9:45, but recent training runs showed I could probably go faster. Based on my heart rate and how I felt in the first mile I decided to try to keep things just a little bit under 9:30 a mile.

Since I had to keep myself motivated I set my watch to auto-lap every mile, and turned 13.1 miles into 13 individual mile runs, plus a little more. I find this a lot easier to handle mentally. I ran based on my heart rate and average pace for each mile. It worked; my average pace was 9:23 a mile, and my slowest mile was 9:30. In fact I’m impressed with how consistent I managed to be: only two mile splits out of 13 were not between 9:20 and 9:30 a mile, and they were 9:13 and 9:17. It helped that I chose a course that is nearly completely flat.

And until about mile 10 my heart rate and breathing stayed consistent as well. After that I got progressively more tired, but had plenty left to finish. It helped that I had 2 liters of water and a bunch of fuel with me (Clif gels and blocks), so I didn’t ever feel like I didn’t have enough energy. Really the only real threat to my run was my left knee, which started to hurt on the outside after 9 miles and got progressively stiffer until the end.

In the end I finished at 13.12 miles in 2:03:13. 25 minutes faster than the half marathon I ran in March. I’m thrilled with my time and with how I feel. I wish, really wish, that this run had been the race I signed up for. I’d love to have an actual official time, even though I know it would have been 1 to 2 minutes slower to account for the difference between distance ran and the measured course (last half was 0.19 miles over GPS distance, last two 10ks were 0.1 miles over).

I trained so hard, and I’ve improved so much since this spring. I’ll run a timed half marathon in the spring, whether here or back in Iowa. Maybe then I’ll break 2 hours!

— Steve

Another month gone already. 2014 is going by quickly.

I did well this month, even with a couple stressful weeks and the extra eating that comes with it. I dropped another 5 pounds and—fingers crossed—am under 200 pounds for good. I ran just under 100 miles and rode my bikes nearly 300. Fall is here, and it’s a great time to be outside.

Running

Unfortunately the half-marathon I have been training for all summer (all those miles didn’t come from nowhere) was cancelled just 2 weeks before the race. I spent some time looking for a new race in October, but nothing will work out. I was offered discounted entry to a Denver race on October 19, but I’ll be in Iowa that day. The Des Moines half marathon is also on the 19th, but I’m planning to spend the 18th eating and drinking and staying up late with friends. I don’t think signing up for a race the day after is a good idea.

So here’s my plan. I’ll run my half marathon on October 5 as planned. It won’t be sanctioned. The course won’t be accurately measured. It won’t be professionally timed. There won’t be water stops. I won’t be running with 1,000 other people. I’ll just have my hydration pack, a few gels, my GPS watch, and a target pace. It’s not what I wanted or planned, but I’ve trained too hard and too long to not run at all. Sunday morning I’m heading to the Highline Canal. I’ll run south until the halfway point, then run back north until I’m done. The canal is dead flat, which will make this easier than the last half marathon, and I plan to beat my old time by 20 minutes.

The planned route is simple enough. From Hampden south to Orchard road is about 6.6 miles on the trail. Double that for an out and back run and you get 13.2. A half marathon is 13.1. I’ll definitely post the route and how I did. I might look into live tracking, but I don’t know if anyone would be interested.

After this I’ll take a week off entirely. Then I’ll have a week of just easy running. Don’t expect a lot of miles in October.

Cycling

I’ve been lazy, and so my Trek is still broken. I had a minor crash on the 4th of July that bent the derailer hanger, and the rear wheel ate itself and the rear derailer a few miles later. The bike itself is an easy fix. I just need to clean it up, make sure the derailer hanger is straight, and install the replacement derailer I bought. But the wheel is still in bad shape, and that’s the real issue. The hub is beat up from the accident but it seems mechanically OK. The cassette is perfect. But I broke or ruined so many spokes that I basically have to rebuild the wheel, and that sounds like a lot of work. I plan to pull it apart, measure the spokes, and order replacements but it feels like a low priority. Maybe I’ll get to it in October. Maybe not.

Instead I started September with a lot of miles on my single speed Schwinn. I also pulled my Redline 925 off the wall, cleaned it up, and started riding that to work. And midway through the month I saw that the Raleigh Tamland “gravel bike” I had been eyeing was on sale at the local shop and they had my size in stock. It may be a gravel race bike by marketing, but I see a stable, fast, Reynolds 631 steel road bike with clearance for big tires and fenders too. Even with its huge 40mm tires it rolls fast on pavement and it can really fly off pavement. It even handles smooth singletrack just fine, though it bogs down in the sand. I’ve only had it two weeks, but I’m really happy. It feels like I could ride it almost anywhere. I may even keep the saddle.

Now if I could only get the plastic pedals it came with off. I’m having no luck at all, and may just take it into the shop.

— Steve

Two weeks ago I wrote that I weighed in below 200 pounds for the first time in almost six years. That was just one scale measurement, and the moving average to I use to smooth out the variation in day to day measurements is what I consider my “real weight”. When I report how much weight I lost in one of my monthly goal updates it is the difference between the moving average at the end of the month and at the end of the previous month.

But by its nature this average lags behind my daily measurements, and it took a little while to catch up. Yesterday, two weeks after my first weigh in below 200 pounds, the average caught up. I’m under 200 by every measure I use.

And this morning I recorded the single lowest weight of my adult life. I still have a ways to go, but my hard work is paying off.

— Steve

August is ending and so again I’ve summarized my progress on my 2014 goals. August was a good month for me. My little sister got married, I hit my 600 mile running goal, and I finally got below 200 pounds. I also brewed a batch of beer and bottled another. And I plan to bottle one more batch before the weekend is over. I packed a lot in.

With four months to go I am confident I’ll make my cycling goal before year’s end. I’m doubtful make my weight goal, but I’m thrilled with my recent progress. I noticed that I hit 104 miles running in both July and August. Fun, but I beat last month by three tenths of a mile. So there.

— Steve

I set some ambitious goals this year, and I completed one already by running 600 miles so far this year. I’m about 350 cycling miles away from achieving my second goal, which shouldn’t be a problem.

I’ve had a harder time with my third goal. I wanted to lose 40 pounds, which would take me from 215 pounds down to 175. I would finally no longer be overweight. I knew it would be hard, but I still underestimated just how hard. I got to 205 fairly quickly, and then basically stalled. Several demoralizing months later though I made the right changes and the trend is downward again. And today was the first time in many years that the first number on the scale was a 1—even if it was 199.9. It will still be a few weeks before the trend line catches up, and since weight moves around by a few pounds a day I know I will bounce back above 200 for a while.

But as motivation seeing a weight below 200 pounds is a big deal for me. And I know that if I keep working that will become permanent.

— Steve