Parting Ways

So it wasn't too long ago that I moved to Texas. I moved here on a sultry summer day in August of 2007. I had a whole two weeks off of work before I began the rest of my adult life. These two weeks were very interesting. Moving to a new city is always a challenge, especially when you don't know anyone. I mean anyone. The only person I knew was my ex-girlfriend, who was part of the reason why I moved here. Needless to say we were exactly dating when I moved here, but that is besides the point. I made a decision as an adult and decided to stick with it and see where it took me. Making this decision was easy at first. However after I broke up with my girlfriend, I can't say that I didn't question the decision I had made.

Overwhelming, small, unknown, and intense are the words that come to mind when I think about the first few weeks here in Dallas. I was a 23 year kid/man living for the first time in a city where I knew no one. I went to college in a different city, but prior to moving I knew a few people. When I moved to Dallas, I knew no one. I moved to this city with nothing more than the clothes in my closet, my bike, my running shoes, and my goggles. I had no furniture, bed, or anything what so ever. I was busy the first few weeks, fitting out my bedroom, living room, and kitchen with all the appropriate accouterments that a 23 year should have living in a big city. I for once was able to make things the way I wanted them.

Every day I rose and had tons of stuff to do. I always managed to squeeze in a run, swim, or a bike ride at some point. Despite the many tasks I even had time to sit by the pool every day too, have a beer or 2 or 10. This is where I first met some great people. One hot Saturday afternoon, after running in the morning obviously, I was sitting poolside with a beer and a book. Oh just saying that makes me want to be on vacation. Poolside with a beer and a book, say it with me: "Beer and a Book". Back to the story. I am very skeptical person and can sometimes judge too quickly. As I am reading, I hear the all too familiar gate crashing and latch catching. This noise was synonymous with a new guest in the pool area. My eyes peak up from my Jimmy Buffett novel and I peer through my dark sunglasses at 3 lovely young ladies with a cooler and a Jam Box. They looked ready to party. I thought to myself, what do we have here.

When you move to a big a city where you don't know anyone, you can't be shy or reclusive. You just have to throw it all out there and see what happens. These 3 girls obviously saw me as well. They promptly asked me if I wanted to play drinking games with them. I am sure I responded with something along the lines "Does the Pope wear a white hat?" 

The lab relay race / chugging contest drinking games gave way to the beginning of a wonderful friendship with Audrey, Yvette, and Andrea They would soon become my closest friends in Dallas. Audrey and Yvette lived together and Andrea lived with her fiance Mike. Whenever I didn't have anything to do I would call those girls and see what they were up too. I viewed them as such good friends I even flew to California for Andrea and Mike's wedding. I soon met all of their friends from college and everyone was always so welcoming and friendly. So many times when you meet new people they can be arrogant and not friendly. These folks weren't like that at all. Audrey and all of her friends soon made Dallas feel like a small place.

I soon grew a real close relationship with Audrey and Yvette. They were almost always together. We all shared stories about our past and were around for each other through some important points in each others lives. I won't share some of the things that happened in these girls lives but I will share some of my stories. For me one of the most meaningful things that Audrey and Yvette did for me was to come with me to Austin, Texas when I ran my first marathon. For anyone who reads this blog, you know I run a bunch and do triathlons. Anyways, I told these girls about it and they organized and group and next thing you know we were leaving town on Friday afternoon.

The entire trip was a blast. I achieved that day something I used to think was never possible. I ran 26.2 miles. It was the biggest accomplishment of my life at that point. I was ecstatic to have some close friends cheering me on at mile 20 of the race and then waiting for me at the finish line. It is really something special when you know people are waiting for you at the finish line of a long race. Its motivation to finish. It was really special for me to have someone else to share this moment with. I have done so many races where I am alone in a different city and I feel great for finishing and all the hard work pays off, but its different when you can share it with close friends who have seen the effort you put forth. 

No matter how long I continue to run, or do triathlons, I will always remember finishing my first marathon. I will never forget the weekend that surrounded that race and the long car ride home, in which Audrey drove my car because I couldn't move my legs. 

I write this post with great despondency, for as of last weekend Audrey has moved back to her home to go back to school. Its great for her to be going back to school to pursue a passion of hers, but its sad to see one of my closest friends leave. I will never forget Audrey. We shared many great times together. She will always have a special place in my life and I hope that I get to see her again soon. 

Cheers Audrey, I'll miss seeing you!

A smoking gun

Cigarettes

cigarette (French "small cigar", from cigar + -ette) is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other additives,[1] then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 120 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter). The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder for the purpose of inhalation of its smoke from the other (usually filtered) end, which is inserted in the mouth.

That description, as taken from Wikipedia, is what I used to smoke. I smoked cigarettes. It may seem hard to imagine, but I did. I think I smoked a cigarette for the first time when I was in the 6th grade. I was busted smoking cigarettes with some folks at my Junior High when I was in the 7th grade. I smoked all thru high school and for 4 years in College. When I began to run to loose weight this running slowly turned into a hobby. The summer of 2006, I ran my first 5k race. It was a time of 24:24. I was very pleased. This race helped to spur me to all of the things I have done today and will do in the future.  It was that summer that I really began to get serious with my running. I was to the point where I would run between 15 - 20 miles per week. I talked with a few people about running a half marathon and they encouraged me to do it. The individuals name Fernando Rodriguez a co-worker of mine at Turner Universal in Nashville, encouraged me to do so. He indicated that I was already running enough each week to be ready for one. 

That summer I lived in an apartment with two of my Fraternity Brothers in Nashville. Every weekend we would go out party and drink at the bars. Every weekend I would end up buying a pack of cigarettes at the bar smoking them while I was drunk and waking up in the morning and feeling absolutely horrible. I couldn't breathe, smelled like smoke, and had horrible taste in my mouth. The thing was I wouldn't smoke at all during the week ever. It disgusted me to smell it, or touch them, but yet my drunkenness would take over at a bar and I would end up buying a pack smoking some and having the rest left over.

I was sick and tired of it. I decided one night sight on seen while in Chicago, visiting my friends from high school to quit smoking forever and dedicate myself to my running. This is when it happened. No more cigarettes for me from that point on.

When I look at major things that I have done that have impacted my life, quitting smoking was and is possibly the best thing I have ever done. Cigarettes are a horrible thing and do nothing for you but slowly kill you. I don't like to preach to others about not smoking, because it's their decision to smoke. I quit when I was ready and when I felt the need to quit. Ever since then my life has been better. It was easy to do, every time for like the next year I would be in a bar drinking, because that's the only time I ever wanted a cigarette was when I was drunk, I would simply remind myself that I was a runner (not yet a triathlete). How many people in the running community smoke cigarettes? ZERO, hopefully. If were to cave and smoke a cigarette, I would be a hypocrite, because of all the benefits that I got from running and preached about, would be washed away by the cigarette. So its been over 2 years since a cigarette has touched my lips, and not a day goes by where I don't think about how I am so happy that I quit smoking. Like I said before it was one of the best things I have ever done in my entire life. 

The reason for this post was something recently happened here in Dallas that I am very ecstatic about. They Dallas City Council banned smoking in all bars and establishments. This is great, because it will not only help the health of all people, but many people won't be lured into smoking. I am so happy about the smoking ban and can't wait to go out to a bar and not smell like smoke when I come home.

Looking Back

So today I was reviewing my splits from my PR half marathon race last year at the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon. I ran a personal best of 1:33:33. That equates to an average pace of 7:08 per mile. I however didn't run 7:08 per mile. I did what is called negative splitting. The first 5 miles were in 7:36 pace, after 8 mile marker my pace was at 7:19. Then for the next 5.1 miles I ran at a pace to get me to 7:08 per mile. This morning I had a tempo run on my schedule. I ran 5.5 miles at a 7:19 average pace. I again ran negative splits on this run. I had an average HR of 163 and a peak of 188. It is amazing what the body can do. Every race I have ever done and set a PR I have had negative splits. It can be hard to control yourself and not tear out of the starting blocks but once you have mastered this you can begin to set PR's. I still think my time for that half marathon is outstanding, and I probably won't be breaking it any time soon. Unless that is my goal for the season.

On another note, I attended my first Hot Yoga class on Tuesday evening and plan to attend another one tonight. It was invigorating. The classroom temperature is set to 98.6 degrees with 60% humidity. The class is 90 minutes long. I was drenched in sweat after the class. I like the class format a lot better than my Yoga DVD's too. Its not cheap but I think after the introductory period is up I will be a regular and sign up for the unlimited classes per month. It costs $109.00, but will be worth its weight in gold in terms of increasing my flexibility and heat acclimatization. One of my beliefs about flexibility is that it is AS important as the actual training. For example, you could have the strongest heart, legs, arms, but what good are they if you can move them through a full range of motion. If you are trying to race in endurance sports and can't touch your feet without bending your legs..... you should skip a workout and do some Yoga. In my honest opinion, running one less day and doing yoga will make you a better runner hands down. Have a good day everyone.

Post the results

Okay so I tested last night and as I said I would post the results. My coach pushed me pretty hard. He said he was very impressed with my VO2 max on the bike because it was very high, however a high VO2 max does not necessarily mean that you an excellent athlete. Its all about becoming more efficient on how you burn fat and prolonging the time before you stop burning fat and start burning carbs. I pleased with the results and feel they will aid in my training greatly. Here is a great example why. This past Saturday I had a 15 mile run schedule. My goal was to go out and run the 15 miles and keep my heart rate in the steady state zone. If you look at the first picture you can see the interpretation of the data and my corresponding heart rate zones. The steady state is 151 - 159. My goal was to keep the HR between this zone. At one point in the run about 11 miles in I felt really strong and wanted to pick up the pace. I began to do so and my HR jumped. I had to slow down significantly to keep it below 159. What this is saying is that my Rate of Perceived Exertion doesn't correspond to what my actual fat usage is doing. I felt like I had plenty of gas in the tank, when in reality I really don't. This is what the scientific testing told my coaches and why they established my zones. The reason for keeping the HR below 159 is that past this point I begin to burn carbs and not fat. So on all of my long runs, I will now keep my HR below 159. Only on my tempo runs will I let it rise above that rate. Cool stuff.





The results are as shown in the pictures below:

Testing the limits

Today is going to be a big day. This evening I will be meeting with my coach for my first Ironman race. His name is Todd Codish. He is a great guy to work with and an indispensable asset. I will be completing metabolic testing with him tonight. Metabolic testing is a testing procedure that will gauge how my body uses fat as a fuel for exercise. Even in elite and extremely lean athletes, fat is an almost unlimited supply of fuel. Not the case with carbohydrates, your body can only hold so much carbs. The goal of the testing is to find the rate and heart rate zones at which you are currently burning fat while cycling and running, in an effort to increase that rate of fat burn. If you can push the level and burn fat better, it will take you longer to BONK or run out of fuel. In an Ironman distance race you need to be able to last close to 12 hours of continuous vigorous exercise. This takes some science and practice. I am excited to see how the results turn out because I had this testing completed last February of 2008. So almost a year later, during that year I have accomplished many new PR's and pushed myself further than I ever had in the past. I suspect that once complete all of my data will exceed that of last year. If it doesn't, then that means my training methods of the past year were ineffective. Its important to establish this baseline as it will guide my coach Todd in creating an effective program that will prepare me for the Ironman Wisconsin.  So here are some links to visit about metabolic testing. I will post the results from this year and last year for comparison when I get them. Wish me luck.

Metabolic Testing Site #1

Really good Site that describes the process