What I learned training for and finishing my first marathon.

I am still working on a full race report but wanted to share this post.

In no particular order.

• I couldn’t have done the training if not for a very supportive wife.
• I couldn’t have done the training if not for a great running partner (Lou).
• The half marathon may be the perfect running distance.
• I will do more marathons and get better at it.
• Don’t forget to put vaseline on your nipples. Ouch.
• Running a marathon at 6 feet tall 255 pounds is not ideal.
• Especially when I went from 330 pounds to 217 pounds over the last few years.
• Marathon training alone will not cause weight loss.
• The plan that got me to lose the weight in the first place still holds true – Diet AND Exercise. Calories in vs. Calories out. It is that simple.
• The half marathon may be the perfect running distance.
• Avoiding hill training is NOT a good idea.
• Avoiding speed training is NOT a good idea.
• Walking about 6 miles with the family the day before a marathon is NOT a good idea.
• Don’t try anything new on race day. I have been told/read this over 100 times and I didn’t listen.
• I never felt like I wouldn’t finish the race.
• I never had thoughts it would be my last marathon. Even after crossing the finish line.
• The half marathon may be the perfect running distance.
• Thinking I didn’t need to take in electrolytes was a bad idea.
• I thought I handled the mental aspect OK. But there is plenty of room for improvement.
• HTFU.
• It was a great experience running this race with Lou.
• Lou could have ran under 5 hours but stuck with me the whole way.
• I look forward to training with and running with him in many more races.
• If I can do this so can YOU.
• It’s not easy but it is worth the sacrifice.
• I have great supportive friends and family.
• And I thought of you all throughout the day.
• The half marathon may be the perfect running distance.
• Having my name on my shirt was great.
• Marine Corps Marathon is a great marathon. I highly recommend it.
• Follow your marathon training plan as best you can.
• Regardless of what time you finish, as long as you finish you are a marathoner in my mind.
• My GPS had the course at 26.6 miles and Lou's GPS had 26.75 miles.
• Lou did make more pit stops to the woods then I did.
• Did I mention that the half marathon may be the perfect running distance?
• I have muscle pains in my legs today.
• It hurts SO good.

The 20 miler Run/Bike/Run version

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. Thomas A. Edison



So yesterdays 20 miler didn't go as planned. Lou and I meet at our normal spot at our normal time. What I didn't do so normal is what I think did me in at about mile 10. As I was driving to meet Lou I stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got 2 plain bagels and proceeded to devour them in about 5 minutes. The run was starting just 10 minutes later. We started out fine, the first 6 miles went as planned, then the miles started slowing. Slow would have been fine but then around mile 10 I was starting to bonk (I assume it was a bonk - never happened).

Our long runs have been we run about 12 miles and end up at my house to refuel. Then head back to our cars which are parked about 6.5 miles from my house. Yesterdays plan was to be at my house at 13.5 miles so we could refuel and just head back to the cars (no loops to make sure we get the miles in). But I told Lou I was not feeling good so maybe we should get to my house earlier and see how I feel for the rest of the run. Told Lou to go ahead and we would meet at my house. He got to my house with 11.2 miles done and I was at 10.8 done.

At this point I knew if I continued with the run it would be a run walk for me. Now I wouldn't mind but Lou just got a transfer and is now doing MCM with me so I didn't think it was fair to him. So I decided at that point I was going to just jump on my mountain bike and ride with him until he finished. We did this for the next 3-4 miles. Now I start to feel better and I can see he is starting to slow and the expression on his face told me he was in trouble. At this point we are on the bike path that goes through my town Williamstown NJ. So I decide I was going to drop the bike in the woods (hope that it was still there when I came back for it later). Found a spot, dropped the bike, and started running again with Lou. I felt great at this point but he was hurting. Lou had some oral surgery on Thursday so his diet and hydration was not the best the few days leading up to the run.

So for the next 5-6 miles we did some run/walking to get this run over with. Bottom line we didn't have a successful 20 miler. The reason I am not too worried is we had a great 19 miler two weeks ago. So the plan calls for 12 next weekend, 8 miles the next weekend and then the MCM. But I am either going to attempt 20 again this Saturday with Lou (not sure he wants to do it), or jump into the LBI 18 miler on Sunday without Lou.

So I guess I have officially un-retired from blogging.

I think this blog has run its course.

Not really sure if I will resume blogging or not. Started this blog to document training and share my life altering experience (weight loss and being active). Would love to think that I have inspired a person or two to change their life but honestly this blog has not been real inspiring in a long, long time (if ever at all).

I will take a few days to figure out what I want to do but the once a month post really is not doing myself or anyone else for that matter any good. I can be found on twitter and facebook. I think I liked the fact that when I started this blog no one knew me. Now I feel like I have to be more careful of what I say to not offend others (family and friends). And my wife took a new position in Sept. as an administrator in a local school district so I have to be mindful of what I write about her as well.

I for sure will continue to follow all the blogs I currently follow (and add new ones). I don't comment that much any more but I do read them.

5/14/2009 Food Diary

Total Calories: 1596 kcal
	Fat(g)	Carbs(g)	Prot(g)	KCals
	35.47	239.29	86.9	1596
Breakfast
110 g Egg White	0.19	0.8	11.99	57
28 g weight watchers cheese	8.39	0.54	6.62	104
1 serving weight watchers rye	1.5	19	5	90
Lunch
Cafe Steamers Sesame Chicken	6.00	50.00	17.00	330
Dinner
3 FF Sweet Onion Sauce	-	27.00	-	120
1 serving Footlong Roast Beef	10.00	90.00	38.00	580
Other
1 Uncrustables 10am	9.00	25.00	7.00	210
1 medium banana 8:45 pm	0.39	26.95	1.29	105

Workout was 3 mile run on treadmill at 9pm.. Was not feeling it tonight. Not sure if it is the major calorie cut or just too late to start running. I was not tracking before this week but I was eating between 2500 - 3500 (bad calories, cookies and such).

5/13/2009 Food Diary

Total Calories: 1570 kcal	Fat(g)	Carbs(g)	Prot(g)	KCals
	36.43	224.71	103.53	1570
Breakfast
1 serving kashi go lean crunch	3	37	9	190
1/2 cup milk 2%	2.4	5.71	4.03	61
1 small box raisins	0.2	34.05	1.32	129
Lunch
1 serving Cafe Steamers chicken red pepper	5.00	30.00	20.00	250
Dinner
5 oz , boneless, cooked Chicken Breast	10.94	-	41.89	276
1 serving Rotini Pasta	1.00	42.00	7.00	200
2 servings Simply Steam Garden Vegetable Medley	1.00	22.00	4.00	100
Other
1 medium Bananas 4pm	0.39	26.95	1.29	105
1 serving Peanut Butter 9:30pm after walk	11.00	8.00	10.00	169
1 serving weight watchers rye 9:30pm after walk	1.50	19.00	5.00	90

As far as exercise for yesterday. I walked on the treadmill for one hour. I did this with the treadmill set to a 7% incline and covered 3.25 miles.

My Biggest Loser Finale Recap

My Biggest Loser Finale Thoughts. I will try to be quick and to the point.

I was really looking forward to this seasons finale. More so then any of the other seasons.

Knowing this was going to be a 3 hour episode with MANY commercials I chose to utilize the DVR. I ran on my treadmill until about 9pm. Took a quick shower and started watching at about 9:15. This worked out great going through the commercials and I will admit I didn’t watch the stuff about the last contestant for the next season (shot me). While you are at it you can shot me for fast forwarding through the Pounds for Pounds segment.

Mike and Ron came out and Mike was voted America’s choice to be in the top 3 joining Helen and Tara. So Ron will be competing for the $100K. The eliminated contestants then came out to compete for $100,000.

The first group trying for $100K was Jerry, Estella, Nicole, and Damien. They all put up great numbers. I personally thought Jerry, and Estella looked older than there real age. However they are much healthier now. Nicole looked incredible, Damien is well on his way, and hopefully he will continue his weight loss.

Next up was Carla, Joelle, Filipe and Sione. Again they all looked great (from where they were). The ladies have some work to do still. The guys put up some great numbers, I hope their “culture” (their word not mine) doesn’t bring them back to where they were.

To be honest I am very fuzzy as to the order of the next 11 people to get on the scale. Ron was last that I do remember. But quickly on the 11 (in reverse order of % of weight loss).

· David – What can you say he is obviously not into it.
· Aubrey – Probably doing the best she can with her work load. I am not a big fan of the no time excuse but with 5 kids it must be hard. Not sure how much support he gets from her husband.
· Laura – I actually thought she looked better than the scale said she did.
· Daniel – Love this kid. I hope he continues to do well. Lost 142 pounds so far and is going in the right direction.
· Blaine – Looked good, fellow Clydesdale runner and triathlete. Sounds like he and his cousin are working hard.
· Cathy – To be honest nothing stood out to me.
· Shannon – See Cathy notes.
· Mandi – Is doing a great job. Hopefully she can inspire her sister and other family members.
· Dane – See Blaine notes.
· Ron – Lost a ton of weight (192 pounds) but it was not enough to over take Jerry for the 100K.
· Kristin – Is doing a phenomenal job but I really didn’t care for her choice of outfit and hair. Lost to Jerry by 6 pounds.

And now for the BIG 3. No pun intended (ok pun intended).

They all looked incredible. But although I was hoping Tara would win, I knew when I saw the 3 that Helen would win. You can just tell that she worked her ass off. I am sure the other 2 worked out like crazy also but Helen just look amazingly fit. I can't recall from past seasons what the top 3 contestants lost percentage wise but these 3 seemed to be very high. Helen lost 54.47% of her body weight, followed by Mike at 53.35% and Tara 52.72% (slacker). I wouldn't be surprised if Helen put on 10 pounds from last night just from drinking water over the last few hours.

All and all I really enjoyed the show. I find it very inspirational and I hope it inspires me to re-lose about 30 pounds and then an additional 20 or so.

The only problem with watching on DVR was that I had my lap top and was following past contestants and others from the East Coast on Twitter. Like passing an accident while driving I didn't want to look but I had to keep checking the Twitter updates. Even Ali was posting during commercial breaks. I think I ended about 15 minutes after the show ended. So it took me about 2 hours to watch the 3 hour finale.

Here is my post with the final percentages of all the contestants.

Yesterday's food journal

Not sure how this will copy and paste, but I will try it. I am using http://www.fatsecret.com/. I found the application for my Blackberry and liked it so much I decided to also use the website. It is a free site and if you are looking to track your food and exercise it looks like a great site so far.



This was from 5/12/2009

Total Calories: 1501
	Fat(g)	Carbs(g)	Prot(g)	KCals
Daily Totals	38.93	208.71	93.53	1501
Breakfast
1 serving kashi go lean crunch	3.00	37.00	9.00	190.00
1/2 cup milk 2%	2.40	5.71	4.03	61.00
1 small box raisins	0.20	34.05	1.32	129.00
Lunch
1 serving cafe steamers chicken	5.00	30.00	20.00	250
Dinner
5 oz boneless, cooked Chicken Breast	10.94	-	41.89	276
1 serving Rotini Pasta	1.00	42.00	7.00	200
Snacks / Other
1 medium Bananas	0.39	26.95	1.29	105
1 serving life savers	-	15.00	-	60
1 serving Lightly Salted Dry Roasted Peanuts	14.00	5.00	7.00	160
1 serving Sugar Free Creme Brulee Rice Pudding	2.00	13.00	2.00	70

On the exercise side I ran 4 miles on the treadmill last night.