JustKev.in  •  From Lazyman to Ironman, one inactive guy's journey to triathlete (and everything else under his beer helmet.)
January 5th, 2010 | 1 views | 3 Comments »

Happy New Year!

Okay, so I am late with this post, but I have been enjoying the time with my family over the holidays and things have been hectic!

I will take some ideas from Melissa for an “end of year” post and reflect back on 2009 and then focus on what I am planning for 2010.

Family Changes

2009 marked the 3rd birthday of my oldest daughter, Mia.  She is a wonderful girl who has me completely wrapped around her fingers.  The year also marked the 1st birthday of my youngest, Sadie.  She is an independent spirit who will be giving Mia hell in the coming years, I am sure.  Parents turn the other cheek when it is payback, you know.  My wife, Jenn, and I celebrated our 5 year Anniversary.  My sister, Jenny, and her husband, Chuck,  had their first baby, a boy named Cai and he is so adorable!  See Melissa’s post on her experience being there with them.

Weight Loss

In the beginning of 2009, I started my weight loss journey.  At the peak, I had lost about 40 pounds, but have slipped off since.  During marathon training I actually saw a weight gain, which I have heard can happen.  For the entire year, I lost about 30 pounds.

Running/Triathlon

In January 2009, I could not run a mile.  I started the Couch 2 5K program from PodRunner Intervals and ran my first 5K with Melissa in February.  I was hooked.  I went on to run a 4.1 mile race in April, my first triathlon in May, a 10K in June, off-road triathlon in July, international distance triathlon in August, a 211 mile relay run in the mountains of North Carolina in September and a Marathon in December.

Hiking/Camping

2009 was a bit of a slow year in this department.  I did manage to make the MitchellWinter trip with Melissa, Jeff and Chris.  I also got up to the Linville Gorge for a weekend with Andrew and Chad.  I was able to incorporate camping before a couple of triathlons.  I hope that as the kids get older, I will be able to take them places that I haven’t yet been able to.

Special Places

You have followed some of my new special places this year, and I appreciate you all bearing with my strange sense of humor!

2010

I hope to continue the weight loss journey in 2010 and to increase my physical ability.  I have already signed up for 4 triathlons including a Half Ironman in November.  This will be my biggest physical challenge of my life and I have a long way to get prepared for it.  I also look forward to another year of milestones with my wonderful girls and my beautiful wife!

Categories: Hiking/Camping, Introduction, Random Thoughts, Triathlon Training, Weight Management, marathon training, mitchell winter
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June 21st, 2009 | 0 views | No Comments »

Happy Father’s Day

I had every reason to skip my workouts this weekend.  Yesterday, I travelled to Greenville, SC with Mia, my Dad and Melissa to visit Jenny and Chuck.  We left pretty much first thing in the morning and I let Jenn get a run in before we left.  Melissa and I had tentatively planned to run while we were in Greenville, but the temperature was to flirt with 100 degrees and it would be the hottest part of the day when we would have had time to run – nap time.  Plus, Chuck had said he wanted to get a round of disc golf in with me and after not playing for several months, I was looking forward to that.

We ended up going to play the game of disc golf since it was so hot.  It was a lot of fun and I shot 12 over and Chuck (semi-professional if you ask me) shot 6 under.  Now you may say 12 over is really bad, but I haven’t thrown a disc in 3 months and even then I usually was happy with bogey golf, or 18 over playing 18 holes.  So I was pleased with a 12 over score, especially since this is rated an “intermediate-advanced level course” and a “difficult par 54″ on the PDGA website.  We played at Century Park Disc Golf Course in Greer, SC.  I greatly enjoyed the course and would recommend it to anyone in the area.

Mia and I didn’t get back home until about 7:00, just in time to see Sadie before she went to bed.  We couldn’t get Mia to sleep until a little after 9:oo as she was wound up from the busy day.  I was too tired after all of that to do anything but sit and watch some TV.

Jenn had to work 12 hours on Sunday, so she went to bed early.  I stayed up just a little bit and watched some of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, as aired on PBS a few months ago.  I decided that I would wake up early enough to get a run in before Jenn had to leave for work at 6:00.  This meant I had to wake up at 4:45 at the latest to do that.  I wanted to run 6 miles and knew that I would need at least 1:15 to get ready and run that distance.  So I went to bed.

I woke up at about 4:50 and threw on clothes, stretched, went to the bathroom and leashed up Althea.  We told Diego goodbye and we headed out.  I decided that since there was not much traffic at 5:00 on Sunday morning that we would run down the normally busy road that has no sidewalks (seriously, come on Town of Fort Mill, get with the program and put sidewalks and bike lanes in!) and run through the town.  It seems that the majority of cars that are out this early on Sundays are police officers.  At least I could wave one down if I had a problem!

We turned around at about 5:30 because I knew I had to be back by 6:00 so Jenn could leave for work.  This cut the distance to 5 miles, but it still felt great and around mile 4 I felt the “runner’s high” but it didn’t last very long.  Those of you that have run a good bit probably know what I am talking about.  It is kind of a fuzzy feeling, but I like the feeling and I take it as my body’s way of saying, “thanks for all the exercise, now I can live a little longer!”

Here are the stats as recorded by the Forerunner GPS.

Now I get to enjoy my Father’s Day with my two girls.  I only wish that I didn’t have to work tomorrow and that Jenn could spend the day with us too.  Oh well, not everything is perfect, but it is close.

Categories: Disc Golf, Triathlon Training
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June 18th, 2009 | 0 views | 6 Comments »

Another Humid Morning

I was able to force myself out of bed at 5:00 again this morning.  I was disappointed in this because I needed to get up no later than 4:45 to get the run in that I wanted to.  My wife had to leave the house for work at 5:55, so I needed to be back home by then in case the girls woke up.

I did my usual routine: toilet, clothes, shoes, stretch.  Then I went to see the dogs and let Diego in the house and got the leash on Althea.  This always takes longer than you would think.  After a 5 minute warm up walk, I started running at 5:31.  This meant it was going to be a shorter run than I wanted.  So I decided to try to run a fast pace.

The idea was all well and good, but then I started to think about the weather man I heard on TV while I was stretching.  “It is already warm at 71 degrees and it is much more humid than this time yesterday.  When you walk outside this morning it will be like a slap in the face.”  I thought, “shit, just what I need!” 

So I decided to do the best with what I had and I ran 2.35 miles in about 21 minutes.  That comes to a pace of 8:57/mile.  Not a bad pace, but certainly not my best.  You can see all the stats here.

I will attempt the swim at 5:30 tomorrow morning and then bike to/from work.  I am looking forward to that.  This Saturday Mia and I are traveling with my dad and Melissa to see our sister, Jenny, and her husband, Chuck.  I am super excited about this because I haven’t seen my dad in quite some time (my parents live in Dallas, TX) and it has been several weeks since I have seen Jenny and Chuck. 

Jenny is 8 months pregnant and completed her first marathon with Chuck last December (while she was pregnant by the way).  We ran in a race together with Melissa and although she was pregnant she still smoked us.  See Melissa’s blog post about that race here.  I wonder if I could beat her now?  She is the one who used to trick me into exercising with her when we were kids.  “Come on, race me!  I will give you a head start and a sticker when we finish!”  She would still beat me and I think you owe me some stickers Jenny.  It wasn’t until high school when I started running track that I could beat her at a short sprint.  By this time she was running much farther than me, but I have to hold on to something, right?  Maybe we can run a marathon (or at least the Cooper River Bridge run 10K) together next year and I can see how far I’ve come.  Melissa, Jenny how about a little sibling rivalry next year?

Categories: Triathlon Training
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May 17th, 2009 | 0 views | 1 Comment »

Sunday Morning Workout

I ran 13.1 miles (half marathon distance) this morning for the first time.  I did it with my dog, Althea and my sister, Melissa.  I am super excited and can’t wait to go farther!  I never thought for a second that I would be as excited about running as I am right now.  And it seems to be growing as I up the distance.

Check out the run here.

Rewind about a year.  My brother in law, Chuck, and my sister, Jenny, were about to start training for a marathon.  Whenever the topic of running came up, I was always the guy who said, “You know, I ran 2 miles once.  And hated every step.”  That is truly how I felt.  I ran track in high school, just because that was the only team I could get on and the coaches trained us so hard that it took every ounce of fun out of it.  I compare that to reading.  When you are in school, the teachers have you read these “classics” for the curriculum.  I am sure these are great works of literature, but if you aren’t interested in reading that (what typical high school kid is), then you won’t get what the author intended its readership to get.  This is why I hated to read until a few years ago when I actually read something I enjoyed.  Running is a lot like that.  When you do it for fun and exercise, and you see improvements and results, then it is fun.  Not being able to walk up the stairs after track practice is not fun.

I was the guy who commented on my sister’s blog last April when she said that “Next year, I pledge to run the whole way – not walk! – and do it in less than an hour. Oh, and we’re dragging my brother along too, whether he knows it or not …” and I commented, “Wait a second… don’t you guys know that I HATE running???”  Read it here for proof!

So, I now have to eat crow.  I was completely wrong in my opinion of running.  It is hard at times, yes, but when you do it because you want to get into shape and improve your health and fitness, it can be wonderful!

My next event is the Lake Wylie Splash Dash 10K.  My goal will be to complete in less than 1 hour.  You may think “10K, in 1 hour?  That’s not that fast.”  But this course is very hilly, so I will be happy with 1 hour!  Until then, I need more workouts.  It is back to swimming this week after taking a week off after the triathlon.

Categories: Triathlon Training
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