The Largest Marathoner

It's Been an Even Longer While

2013-02-13T20:11:00.003-06:00

Well, it has been a while since I've posted something on here, but I think the time has come to get this party started again.

1st off, I would like people to notice that I've got a donation link below. It's for the Sioux City Noon Sertoma group, which I am a member of. Even though I recently moved to Sioux Falls, I am still a member. They are hosting a walk to support children's hearing initiatives. So if you like helping children or if you like helping people that have trouble with hearing please click the link below.

Next up. I have a goal.

I would like to run a marathon in Las Vegas this December.

There it is. I've got a ton of work to do. My conditioning has dropped way off, and I've become injury prone, so I need to work on this carefully and consistently. I am back up to about 2.5 miles twice a week as of this post. I plan to gradually increase the mileage while mixing in weight training on off days in order to build up my endurance. If you see me out and about ask me how I'm doing and scold me if you find out I'm slacking.

I mean it.

Well that's it for now. Donations....Encouragement....Thanks.

Click Here to Donate

It's Been Awhile

2012-08-05T17:53:00.001-05:00

Almost two months and I haven't updated anything.

Well, this weekend I ran the Mayhem Run. It was a 5K with some obstacles and mud tossed in. It was a fun little race in Stone State Park. The difficulty level was about half of the difficulty of the Gladiator Assault Challenge, but that was a good thing because my training has been very spotty lately.

Speaking of spotty training getting up for 5 A.M. workouts during the week has become almost a foreign concept lately and it has been very hot in the afternoons so any running I do then inevitable gets shortened. I need to figure out how to start getting up every day again. The knee issue also flared up one more time.

Up coming racing events that I am planning to run are the Corporate Cup 10k in Omaha and the Broken Toe Trail run in Stone State Park again. Looking forward to those. I just need to get better at putting in the work.

317.4

4th Dam to Dam

2012-06-10T18:43:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was my fourth Dam to Dam 20k. I'm happy to say I finished the race again. My time was 2:51:40, which unfortunately is my slowest time of the four finishes. This is a trend that I intend to work hard to reverse during the next year.

In the week since the Dam to Dam race it seemed my body was telling me it needed some rest after a pretty intense couple of weeks that included the D2D and Gladiator Assault Challenge. I know this because my ankle hurt for 2 days immediately after the race, then after one pain free day my right knee decided to start hurting, and that still hasn't stopped. Although it feels much better now than it did Wednesday.

I can't think of anything that triggered the knee pain directly, so the theory has been that it was some sort of delayed over use injury. I've never experienced that before, so if you have let me know, just for some reassurance that this kind of thing actually does happen.

Going forward, I need to get my KOSAMA attendance back up to 6 days per week. In addition to that I want to get a run in 3 days per week. My plan is to start back a ground zero for the runs. I want to start slow and rebuild my base mileage until I get to 15 to 20 miles per week, and then I want to sustain that indefinitely. Then when specific races come up I can tune the running sessions for speed work and tempo based on the distance.

So that's it for now. I promise I'm still working on the mid year assessment if your waiting to here about it.I'll leave you with this picture that almost exactly sums up this past week of recovery for me.

more motivational posters from Runner world here.

320.2

Mud, Sweat, and Beers

2012-05-26T11:33:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the Gladiator Assault Challenge at Seven Oaks in Boone, Iowa. I hadn't done an obstacle course run yet and this one just happened to pop up in Iowa, so I was really excited about it.

This is the group before the race.

The Gladiator Assault challenge was billed as a 5.3 mile course with 30 obstacles and a guarantee that we would get muddy. Well it lived up to that, and then some. My first thoughts were, I've run farther than that before, how hard could it be. I severely under estimated the difficulty of this challenge.

The course was set on a ski hill with some nice wooded single track mountain biking paths on the back side of the ski slopes. The first thing you do is walk up the ski slope to get to the start line, so the huffing and puffing and sweating started before the race even began for me. Then our start time came and back down the ski slope we ran, at the bottom was a series of mud pits to jump in and then climb out of. We're maybe a quarter of a mile into the race and we're all soaked head to toe with mud and water, and I'm already exhausted from pulling my weight out of the mud pits.

The next element of the race is to run right back up the ski slope. Well some people ran, most walked up the steep hills, I don't know what you call what I did, but I made it. Then we got to the fire, where we ran through a chute with some burning hay. A tip for anyone planning to do a race like this. Don't do what I did at the fire obstacle, which was breathe normally. Hold your Breath!

So the race continued on like this for another 4.5 miles or so. There was plenty more mud, barbed wire, cargo nets, balance beams, hills with ropes, walls, and hurdles along the way. After about 2 hours and plenty of help and encouragement from the group and other racers, we completed the Gladiator Assault Challenge. And it was awesome. They were literally pouring beers in the finishing chute, which was way cool. It was one of the most physically demanding things I've done in my life. I can't wait for the next one, but I've got a lot of training to do.

The group post race full of mud.

Drake Relays 8k

2012-05-03T19:27:00.001-05:00

The Drake Relays 8k race went quite well. I set a new PR of 56:18 with help of my good friend Kelsey. I think we pushed each other just enough. Then we after everybody finished, some people in the group ran the half marathon, we went down to the Hessen House and started drinking German beer like all good runners.

Picture of the group post race

The Drake Relays race is a really fun one. It's well put together and I really like the distance for an early spring race. I hear that they're bumping it up to a 10k for next year, so I'll have to make sure I'm ready for the extra 1.2 miles next.

That's about it for now. Get ready for the next post though, because it will be an assessment of how well my progress has gone in the 1st third of 2012. I've been dreading writing that one because I haven't quite done everything I've wanted to do.

Spring Thaw - Quick Update

2012-04-12T18:55:00.001-05:00

The Spring Thaw was held this past Saturday. It was a windy one, but fun, and I got to see a lot of familiar faces.

Here is a race calendar update after the recently completed Spring Thaw 5k.

Sunday March 11th, @ 9:00 A.M. was the Blarney Stone 5k in South Sioux City, NE.

Result: Finished: 1st in Age Group Male 25 to 29, TIME 34:13

Saturday April 7th, @ 10:00 A.M. was the Spring Thaw 5k in Sioux City, IA.

Result: Finished: 13 out of 13 in Age Group Male 25 to 29, TIME 35:28

Saturday April 28th, @ 8:00 A.M. is the Drake Relays 8k in Des Moines, IA.
Saturday May 19th, @ 10:20 A.M. is the Gladiator Assault Challenge in Boone, IA.
Saturday June 2nd @ 7:00 A.M. is the Dam to Dam 20k in Des Moines, IA.

That's it for now, but I will have to do an update on the 1st quarter of 2012 progress soon.

Bringin Home the Hardware

2012-03-11T17:42:00.002-05:00

I know what you're thinking. "Is he really gonna start bragging about some participant ribbon from a 5k," right. Well not exactly. I took home an age group winner award today, and damnit, I'm proud of myself even if I was the only Male 25 to 29 years old. Check the picture out below, it's actually a pretty cool little trophy.

My Bad Ass Trophy

So I've finished the first race of the 2012 spring season. The Blarney Stone 5k in South Sioux City, IA.

My unofficial finish time was a solid 34:13. That turns out to be just over an 11 minute mile split, which is faster than what I've been training at. So I guess that means I should train harder right. I will try.

Peace Out

Race Calendar

2012-02-26T15:49:00.003-06:00

This will just be a quick update, but here is a list of races for the spring that I'm planning to run.

Sunday March 11th, @ 9:00 A.M. is the Blarney Stone 5k in South Sioux City, NE.
Saturday April 28th, @ 8:00 A.M. is the Drake Relays 8k in Des Moines, IA.
Saturday May 19th, @ 10:20 A.M. is the Gladiator Assault Challenge in Boone, IA.
Saturday June 2nd @ 7:00 A.M. is the Dam to Dam 20k in Des Moines, IA.

I think I will try and keep this list updated and perhaps even post my results as the races happen.

Well that's it for now. See I told you it'd be quick. Now back to training.

Tough Mudder anyone?

2012-02-06T19:03:00.001-06:00

Yet another health oriented undertaking started recently. The Live Healthy Iowa 100 Day Challenge. Me and several co-workers will be competing against teams across Iowa to increase our fitness levels. Go Team!

I've decided to amend my race goals to include a Tough Mudder, which is a 10-12 mile race that includes a bunch of different obstacles. The races were developed by British special forces guys and they look pretty intense. There is going to be a new tough mudder race in Omaha starting some time in 2013. I've already pre-registered and I'm now recruiting teammates. So if you're interested let me know.

On the list of races for this year already are some of my classics. There is the Drake Relays 8k in April. the Dam to Dam 20k is the 1st week of June. Hopefully the Sioux City Marathon and Half-Marathon will return in October this year. Then there is also the Corporate Cup 10k in Omaha.

Dam to Dam team 2010

As far as training goes, I've taken advantage of this unusually dry and warm winter and have put in a couple 5k's outside. Kosama is still going, however getting out of bed for a 5 A.M. workout has been getting a little more difficult. I don't know if that is like Seasonal Affective Disorder or what, but I need to get back to going every day, instead of just 3 days a week.

Happy Birthday to ME!

2012-01-11T20:27:00.000-06:00

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for all the happy birthday wishes, both on facebook and in person. It's great to know that all these people want to wish me a good day. And just so you all know, it was a damn good day, even for a Monday.

I will say that I definitely broke my eat healthy resolution on Monday January 9th. My mom took me out to Mexican food at La Fiesta Chara here in the SUX. It was delicious, but I ate appetizers, I cleaned my entire plate, and I finished my Mom's dinner when she couldn't finish it. Sorry Wubbus.

Despite all of that, I did go to Kosama that morning and show some noobs what was up. We have an absolutely enormous class joining us Alumni this session at 5 A.M. It's pretty crazy, but it was still an amazing workout.

Now, we move in to the plan for the rest of the week and next month or so. Since the weather around here has been ridiculously amazing, I am planning to run 6 miles this weekend her in SUX. It might be colder finally but the snow is still going to hold off, i believe. In addition to that there will be the usual Kosama workouts at 5 A.M. Monday thru Friday.

In other news, It will be Kipper's birthday tomorrow the 12th of January. For those that don't know Kipper is my little brown Dachshund, a.k.a. Wiener dog, a.k.a Honey Badger Killer. So for this event we will be going to PetCo on Hamilton Boulevard at approximately 5:15 P.M. tomorrow (Thursday). If you're around, join us, it will be epic.

I promise to have lots of pictures in the next post, so I can make up for the lack of pictures this time around.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T15:52:00.000-06:00

I had my 8 week KOSAMA post assessment today and there were some very interesting results. I'll start with the good ones. My waist measured 3 inches smaller and my chest was 1/2 an inch smaller. I'm pretty happy with that and I can't wait to see how much more progress I'll have in 8 more weeks. Next my bicep measurement stayed the same un-flexed and increased by 3/4 of inch flexed, so the guns are starting to look pretty ripped. The number of push-ups I did went from 14 to 24 and the number of sit-ups in 60 seconds went from 19 to 44. So I'm definitely seeing big gains in strength too.

Now on to the slightly disappointing results. The big one was my weight didn't come down at all. Still about 311 pounds. My chin-ups were still 0, and I was only able to hang with my elbows at 90 degrees for 2 seconds. What can I say, I'm a big guy, chin-ups are hard, I'll keep working. My wall sit time went down for some odd reason. I think maybe I just didn't quite have my feet positioned correctly so my quads fatigued too quickly. Who knows, try again in 8 weeks.

Now, since it is New Year's Eve, I'm going to list some goals and resolutions for the next eight weeks and for the entire year.

Next 8 week assessment:
1. Weight = under 300 lbs.
2. Waist = lose another 3 inches.
3. Push-ups = do 30 without stopping
4. Sit-ups = do 54 in 60 seconds
5. Chin-ups = hang for 5 seconds. I would like to say 1 chin-up, but I don't think that's quite within range yet.
6. Wall sit = 2 minutes

2012 goals
1. Eat Healthier
2. Drink just a little bit less beer.
3. I'll leave this one open for reader comments, so post your suggestions below and I'll determine from those what to put in the 3rd goal slot.

The Plan

2011-12-18T16:35:00.001-06:00

Okay, so my ultimate goal is to lose a whole bunch of weight. How am I going to do it you may be asking, well please read on to find out. Also, keep in mind that this whole weight loss plan is sort of flexible. I'm not (at least not yet) restricting myself to a super strict diet program. My hope is to get into a groove where I can consistently lose weight til I get to a point where I feel good and then I can maintain that weight with the same dietary and exercise program that I've been doing previously.

So without further ado, the current plan that I have to lose weight. My plan involves a lot of exercise, since that seems to be easier for me to do than watching what I eat. Although, I WILL TRY to watch what I eat from time to time.

I joined KOSAMA as a way of keeping my activity level very high for an extended period of time. I believe that KOSAMA is a better way to get me to exercise daily, because it is a group class and people will notice when I don't make it to class, so that is a great motivator. Also, they offer a class every week day at 5 A.M. which allows meet to get my exercise in for the day, while keeping my afternoons completely open. So I am able to run errands right after work, or meet up with friends or do anything social really after work, and I've already worked out. It's great.

So how is that KOSAMA going, you might ask. Well I've been doing the class for 6 weeks now. I've only missed 4 classes during that time period, so I'm sticking with it pretty well in my mind. And just as a side note, 3 of those missed classes were due to being out of town for the Whiley-Riley wedding, which was great. I haven't lost a whole lot of weight so far, but I can tell that there are differences in the way my pants fit, and in the way that my arms look, and several other indicators that I'm in better shape than I was.

I'm confident that I will see some drastic increases in weight loss when the holidays settle down. I know that the holiday eating from Thanksgiving and the buildup to Christmas have kept a few more pounds on than I would've liked, but if I hadn't been doing all that exercise, I could have gained weight instead of being down.

The ultimate plan going forward here is to continue to push the exercise envelope. I haven't done any straight up running in the last six weeks, but I'm thinking I can add the running exercise to the routine a few days a week while I continue to do KOSAMA daily. That way I'll burn even more calories and I'll also be training for that 26.2 mile run I want to do.

I'd like to take this opportunity to ask anyone out there reading this to suggest a good 1st time marathon. Please make any suggestions in the comments section.

Goals

2011-12-13T21:02:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I'm probably not the largest marathoner ever. As a matter of fact, I have yet to complete an actual marathon, but it's a goal of mine.

I am a runner though. I could probably be classified as a recreational clydesdale. I've been running since October 2008, which is about six years after I graduated high school, where I was a football player for 4 years among numerous other activities that kept me in pretty good shape. October 2008 is also a mere 10 months after I graduated from Iowa State University, where I had some of the greatest times of my life and met some of the best people in the world, but I also exercised very rarely and my weight ballooned to well over 300 lbs. That's another goal to lose a whole bunch of weight.

So back to October 2008 when I started running. I started because of my uncle Dave Poe, who is a very athletic man. He has run a large number of long distance runs, which includes at least 2 attempts at 100 mile runs. I'll have to do more research on that and inform you later as to the exact history of my uncles running career. But in October 2008, Uncle Dave came to Sioux City, IA for a visit and to run in the Siouxland Marathon/1/2 Marathon. I was recruited to be a motivational pace setter for the last 1.5 miles, which was much to my surprise, having never run more than 1 mile in my entire life before that. Needless to say, I don't often back down when proposed with a challenge like that, so I did it. And when I crossed that finish line with my Uncle, I...was...Hooked!

I decided to start running right there. I wanted to lose weight and run marathons and compete with all the other runners. It's been a little over 3 years now, and I still haven't completed the marathon goal, but I have completed a 1/2 marathon, three 20k's, three 10k's, two 8k's, six 5k's, and one 7 miler known as the Living History Farms Cross Country Race (that was a hell of time). During all of that, I didn't lose much weight, but I have learned a lot about healthy eating, and I think I'm close to pulling it all together and making my lifestyle totally healthy. I've also recently joined KOSAMA, which I love, and I believe will help a great deal with the goal of eventually running a marathon.

Me and some friends after finishing our 20k at Dam to Dam

So, that is a brief history of my quest to becoming fitter and healthier and happier. I plan to continue write about my continued progress toward the marathon goal and other goals and my life in general, so stay tuned, this could get interesting.