I Need A Physical Challenge… So Let’s Go For A Run

I’ve been searching for something challenging to do for a while now. I have a void that needs to be filled and I’m currently writing this after getting my ass kicked (that’s the nice way of putting it) running just a single mile on an indoor track at a… wait for it… 9:25/mile pace.

I don’t consider myself out of shape but that was a very humbling experience and it made me realize, I have found my new challenge.

For some reason, I like taking on things that will take me 6-18 months to be able to do. In 2016 it was qualifying for the drug-tested national powerlifting meet in Orlando. In 2017 it was writing and self-publishing a book, in 2018 a blog, 2019-2021 a successful YouTube channel, since then I have been entirely consumed by work. Which has been a major challenge in itself getting to know a new role. But now I need something new.

I have tested a couple of different things but either I don’t enjoy them, don’t have easy access to do it, or it isn’t enough of a challenge. What it has come back to multiple times is just running. Running is f*&cking hard. It is honestly the worst and that is what I want to do. So like any logical person, I bought myself a new pair of Hokas, a Garmin Forerunner 255, and went on the first run of many.

What’s the end goal here? Well, the obvious choice is to run a marathon. I’ve been advised to do a half marathon first but honestly, that sounds boring so we’re going to go for a full. Which one? Well, I’ve given myself until 11/1/2023 to pick and sign up for one.

This blog post is going to be the first of many. The cool thing about using a Garmin watch paired with Strava is that I can track everything and share it with you. Weight, miles, pace, etc. I will share it all.

To start let’s go over a couple of things:

Starting weight: 201.2
Starting miles/week: 1
Starting pace: 9:25/mile

In the next post, I’ll give you an update on how things are going, with screenshots straight from the apps. I’ll also talk about what I’m shooting for pace-wise and what the true end goal for all of this is. Until then I’m going to take my fat ass on another run, wish me luck.

10/4/2023

I’m writing this post as my legs are currently throbbing from a 5-mile run last night at a 10:00/mile pace. Holy shit, I’m out of shape and it feels great. The feeling I felt after finishing those 5 miles made me feel great, it’s a drug in itself. I know this pain will pass with some active recovery, stretching, food, and most importantly sleep. Then I’m going to do it all again.

From what I’ve read, if you are training for any sort of endurance race, it is to get miles in. I thought it was a slow build at your marathon pace but that seems to be the opposite of what I should be doing. Good to know.

The biggest thing I want to work on right now (besides getting miles in) is finding a flow to run in. One that my mind doesn’t wander like crazy and I start thinking about the pain or how much longer I have to go. Putting my body into autopilot is what I’m thinking.

Currently stats as of 10/4/2023

Average weight: 200lbs
Miles last week: 11.4
Total miles run so far: 19.4
Average Pace: 9:40/mile

Overall I’m happy, let’s keep going.

10/22/2023

Another couple of weeks have gone by and here is where we are at. Yesterday I did my first race of the running prep and well, it went not great. It was a simple 5k run and I went into it feeling ready but after the first half mile, I knew I didn’t have it in me. Below are the stats from the run:

So while an 8:16 per mile isn’t terrible seeing the total time over 25 minutes is quite disappointing. What does this tell me? Well, I need to be running more! This seems obvious but what I’ve come to realize is that I have severely underestimated the amount of work I need to put in to make a marathon happen in the early spring.

To give myself some credit I have only been running for the last 4 weeks. What this means is that I also severely overestimated my base fitness level. I was extremely out of shape (and still am) and that was also reflected in the Dexa scan I did a couple of weeks ago. We’ll talk about that in the next update. Below are my stats for the last 4 weeks.

At first glance what I’m pretty happy about is seeing that I’ve run almost 46 miles. If you had told me I could do that 4 weeks ago I would have laughed. The other two things that stick out that I want to improve on are average weekly miles and long run distances. Weekly miles need to be around 15 miles per week if not higher for November if I have any hope of doing a marathon in the spring. I also need to add in some longer slower runs.

Saying all of that here’s what we are looking to do over the next 4 weeks:

Average weekly miles: 15
Longest run: 10 miles
Pace: Don’t care about pace, need to build endurance

Let’s get back to work.

11/12/2023

This post isn’t to talk about the goals I set out for the next 4 weeks. More on that at the end of the week ;). This post is about 2 big things I did on this whole series of becoming a (less shitty) runner.

First up we got a DEXA scan done! Now if you don’t know a DEXA scan is a way to get a starting point of where I am body composition-wise. It’s a form of X-ray that gives you a load of information like weight in every area of your body down to the bone, fat, muscle, etc. The whole point of getting a scan was to see where I’m at and then I’ll get another one at the end of the year and then another before the marathon. More on that part in a bit…

I’ve been getting DEXA scans for years, actually almost 10 years now. It started in college when I was helping a friend out with a study he was doing and I continued it as I got into powerlifting. It was another data point to see if I was making progress. The last time I got a DEXA scan was 1/26/2016 so almost 7.5 years ago… that’s a long time.

To save some of the boring parts I’m going to make a table comparing the two time periods in my life. I’ll then expand on this table in a later writing to make the comparison easy.

	1/26/2016	10/05/2023
Weight (lbs)	201.1	201.9
Body Fat %	11.3%	18.5%
Fat (lbs)	33.30	47.32
Lean Mass (lbs)	159.38	146.13
BMC (lbs)	8.39	8.40
Fat Free (lbs)	167.76	154.54

As you can see by this chart something (not so) shocking stands out. When I was 21 I was in great shape. I was lean with 7% less body fat and had over 13 more lbs of muscle on me at the same weight as I am now. When I first saw these results I didn’t react great to them. But then I remembered what my routine was like back then. I trained hard and my diet was strict, except for the partying on the weekend. My go-to meal was 2 cups of egg whites and 12 ounces of chicken with hot sauce on it. That’s not a joke, I ate that every day for months if not years. Wasn’t the best point in my life but we can talk about that later.

After I got over myself I realized that again this is just a data point and I will be doing another scan around Christmas time and then again before the marathon.

The Marathon

I’ve committed to a marathon. Still on the fence about whether it’s a good idea or if I’m going to get the shit beat out of me but regardless on March 3rd, 2024 I’m running the Napa Valley Marathon. This means I have roughly 16 weeks to figure out how to run a marathon.

I chose this race for a couple of different reasons.

it’s a net downhill race that doesn’t have a ton of hills.
The weather should be decent. Maybe slightly cold but I shouldn’t have to worry about snow.
It’s the right time of year. We have plans that will make training incredibly hard after April so this is the time to do it or don’t.
It’ll be a nice vacation. My cousin is also going to run with me and taking her, my wife, and the baby on a trip for a couple of days to explore Napa will be a good getaway.

Again, I have no idea if this is a good idea or not but all I’m going to do is keep trying to pound miles and get in the best shape I possibly can. Knocked out 4.1 miles tonight in anticipation of my big 10-mile run this weekend. Let’s see if we can get it done!

The First 10 Mile Run 11/18/2023

Well, we did it.

The first attempt and successful completion of a 10-mile continuous run and let me tell you it absolutely sucked. Below is the stats for the run which I’m quite happy with because the goal was to just complete it. Feel what 10 miles even feels like. I didn’t have a single care about my pace because I think that will come with time.

This is just another brick in the building of this marathon prep and I have a feeling when I attempt this run again, probably in 4 weeks or so, I’ll end up smashing the time.

Let’s keep hammering.

First half (on a treadmill) 12/27/2023

Well, I ran my first half marathon and yes, I cheated while doing it on a treadmill watching college basketball. It’s insane how a distraction can make something so much easier. Proving yet again, this whole damn thing is a mental challenge. Dare I say the stamina was there and that part was easy?

The first thing I learned from doing this half was that I need to figure out the nutrition side of running. When I was done I went to take a hot shower and my hands and feet could not warm up. They were cold and no matter what I did I couldn’t figure it out.

Cue electrolytes.

No, I didn’t supplement any food for this 2+ hour run and my body was drained. I’m not glad I did this but I also am.

It proved to me that I need to figure out some sort of nutrition if I’m going to last over 3 hours. Since then I’ve ordered a couple of different gels. One is the BPN Go Gel and the other is a honey-flavored one with caffeine in it. I plan to alternate these every 4-5 files for the marathon. Not sure if that’s a good plan? What I do know is I need to start eating these things while I’m running to see if they make me sick or not.

Time to get back to work.

100 Mile Month 2/1/2024

We are in the home stretch of pounding pavement and we crossed 100 miles total for the month. Crazy to look back at the beginning of this blog post and see how much I struggled to do just a single mile but here we are. What makes me even happier is that I did this while still having a bender weekend with the boys in Colorado. You can see this by the orange line being flat for almost a week.

I know I’m going to regret saying this but my stamina is there to complete a marathon. It’s still going to be one of the hardeset things I’ve ever done or ever do in my life but I now know with 100% certainty I can do it.

The hard part now is being able to do it at a certain pace. I’ve now recalibrated my goal and want to be able to complete the marathon in sub-4 hours. This is just over a 9-minute pace for all of those beautiful 26.2 miles.

I’ve kept this pace before for over 15 miles but that was on a treadmill which I’m quickly figuring out is much easier to run on for me as it cushions the bottom of my feet even more. No matter, I’m pumped for this thing and think I will crush it. This weekend I’ll put a test to myself and try to go 10 miles plus at a 9-minute pace.

This will either boost my confidence or put it into the trash. We shall see!

Currently stats as of 10/4/2023

Average weight: 194lbs
Miles last week: 34.2
Total miles run so far: 304.5
Average Pace: 9:05/mile

Let’s get back to work!

3 Days Out 2/29/2024

Well. we finally made it and are officially 3 days out from either completing my first marathon or getting wrecked by it. I’m nervous, excited, and a little scared but there’s nothing to it but to do it now.

Last night I went for my last run and it felt fantastic. Honestly, I was a little surprised at how easy it felt and my body, specifically my blisters, held up through it all. Here’s some of the stats:

Looking at this last run compared to my first couple of runs is hilarious. Who would have thought that 4 months ago I could cruise for 8+ miles? I didn’t.

Now, I’m going to take the next couple of days to relax, eat lots of food, hit the sauna, and just try not to think about the beating to come. I’m excited to see how my body and mind react in the setting of hundreds of other runners with the same goal. Add in aid stations every 2’ish miles and a pacer group that I’m going to run with and I think it’ll be a good time (once it’s done).

I’m not sure if I’ll hit my new goal of going sub 4 hours or will blow up completely either way I’m good.

The next blog post will be post-run so if you don’t hear from me please send help 🙂

We Did It!

We got the job done. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fun at the time but gah damn we got the job done and I’m still pumpd about it. I have an all-new respect for anyone who runs. I don’t care if it’s a couple of miles or an ultramarathon. Running sucks, it’s boring, and it’s hard. If you can do it then you’re cool in my book.

I won’t wait any longer here’s my stats from the run:

The official time was 4 hours 30 minutes and 18 seconds.

I’m happy about this but also not happy. Mixed feelings because I would have loved to be sub 4 hours but it just wasn’t in the cards for me that day. I hit a wall that I’d never hit before (that was the whole point of this challenge) and it was a constant fight.

The run started off perfectly with me hitting my goal of running around a 9:20-9:30 pace for the first 5-7 miles. I was then going to ride down to around a 9:15 pace for the first half of the marathon. After that, the plan was to kick it up to about 8:50-9:00 pace. I did this until mile 18 where I made a mistake that I think cost me my time. I shouldn’t call it a mistake because I didn’t know it was going to happen but I stopped at an aid station to drink water.

There had been many aid stations before but at each of those I would just throw water in my mouth and keep going. This was the first one where I truly stopped to drink water and electrolytes. After I was re-hydrated I couldn’t get it going again. My legs felt like blocks of concrete, my blisters started popping (gross but true), and I just couldn’t get down to the pace I wanted to.

I had hit the wall.

To be fair I should have known this was coming. I’ve read enough about marathons and watched way too many YouTube videos to know I was going to hit this point but damn did it surprise me.

After that, I just did what I had to do to finish. It was a mixture of run, job, and walk. I didn’t want to walk the whole time but I gave in and did.

Overall, I’m happy. I’m glad I did it and I have this weird desire that I can’t ignore to do another one. When I was thinking about what I wanted to do to push myself back in October of 2023 my first thought was to sign up for a half Ironman. Looking back I’m glad I didn’t do that!

I don’t think this will be my last run though… Thanks for reading!