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New Gear, No Excuses!

Where the hell do I start!? 

I guess we'll start almost one year ago today, it was then that I had a realization.  If I stayed on my current path, where a poutine on the daily wasn't unusual,  I had a very real possibility of not being there to walk my daughter down the aisle.  This for whatever reason REALLY struck a chord, and it was something that was absolutely within my control, but where the hell do I start!?  I don't know when it changed, but one of the most critical things that had to change was my justification for treating my body like a dumpster.  Why live long, when I can live happy?  I found immense joy in consuming all things terrible.  Fast food? Yes please.  Want to upsize this, poutine that, extra patty there?  You know I do!  Alcohol?  Give me whiskey!!!!!  I did enjoy running, but that wasn't sustainable with my current life style.  The quick jogs between my truck and a building when it was raining felt... natural.  Just not natural enough to strive for, but maybe my realization triggered something.  Either subconsciously, or maybe I had some type of eerie foreshadowing, because shortly after my realization my digestive system decided to punish me into submission.  After many tests, more appointments, even more medications, the search continues for what is/was happening to me.  In fact I have two doctors appointments tomorrow. 

I went from a very unhealthy 270lb "big guy", to a 200lb guy with "an athletic build" (thank you to the very nice gentleman that said that to me yesterday).  The weight loss happened over 6 months, the "build" has been going on for the last 4 months or so.  The critical justification for treating my body so badly had come to bite me in the ass.  I couldn't eat anything without being in immense pain, and even drinking clear fluids left me in a moderate amount of pain.  My life was misery, I withdrew from almost everything.  It took everything I had just to go to work and not spend the day dry heaving.  I was on anti nausea meds around the clock, several antacids, and pain meds.  I was losing a battle with depression that I had no idea I had been fighting.  I guess at some point I found my bottom, from there it was time to rebuild.  It was time for a new foundation of a core life motto.  Live long, and find joy in all things.  You know what's tasty?  Salads, if you let them.  You know what's better than a quick jog in the rain? Crushing your goals!  When I first started I was doing 5k in about 35 minutes, but I desperately wanted to do my first official 5k in under half an hour.  I had a vision, I would very cooly tell my wife "I'll see you in half an hour" and then do that!  That was my drive, I was going to do it.  Every run brought me closer to that vision, the beginning of May my time was hovering just above the 34 minute mark.  Within a month I was at 30:34.  With a month to go I was going to hit my goal!

That's great John, but what's after that?  I toyed with the idea of a half marathon in 2020.  Ya, that's great, nice and slow... Eff that.  Associate with some like minded individuals, and you'll get encouragement in spades!  FULL marathon by 2020! Register for Detroit's half this week.  There, it's down in black and white.  Now I'm accountable, no backing down.  

This blog is where I'm going to jot down my thoughts and motivations on my quest for a marathon... Scratch that, my quest for a better life.  I have no plans of stopping at a marathon. 

I'll often jump between current runs and bike rides, and other things that inspire me.  This is a place for me to try and make sense of it all, so if it doesn't make sense to you, know that I'm still trying to figure it all out myself.  So with a little light shed on some  of my motivations, let's talk about today's run!

After an amazing Father's Day, I was ready to REALLY tackle my 5k.  I got an amazing pair of new running shoes, that are actually for running... Weird.  My current runners were several years old, so I could easily justify slowing down... I can't... keep going... my shoes suck!  Well not any more!  Something that REALLY bothered me and pulled focus off of my last run was my ear bud kept falling out.  So I dusted off my old Amazon fire sale wireless earbuds that go around the ear, and charged them up.  Another thing that slowed me up was my right calf got SUPER sore, so I applied a sample of Kinetic Tape that I got years ago thinking I'd never have a need for it.  Then last but not least, breathing.  Man!  Running and not getting winded?  Tough work!  So today I thought I should focus on breathing early on.  Well there it is, all the things that gave me an excuse to slow down were gone.  New Gear, no excuses! 

This was the best run I've had, all of my road blocks were gone.  I felt great, my legs felt great... Until somewhere during kilometer 3 the went tingly, which still was better than being sore!  Breathing was an early issue that I then remembered to focus on.  I am very proud to say that I didn't slow down today.  I pushed through and CRUSHED last week's PR today.  New time to beat 26:52! Feeling great for my first real race in two weeks. Looking forward to a long easy run on Wednesday.

Today is a great day!  










*obligatory post-run pic
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