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February 13, 2010 04:14:24
Posted By gregwagner
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This has been a bizarre and hefty winter for most people on the East coast, my mid-Atlantic area in particular. I went into this winter psyched to sign up for the Boston Marathon and looking forward to some hardcore training. I want to finish first again. I left my job to not only guarantee that I can get proper training in, but to get this speaking career of mine launched, and hopefully sell my book in the process.
But as I said, this winter season has put a big kibosh on my preparation. I can probably count the number of quality runs I have gotten in the past month on my two hands. With the most prestigious marathon just over 2 months away, I knew this wasn’t going to cut it.
I have been biking hardcore in the gym for the past month as my only alternative source of training until this ice and snow melts away. My legs feel great, so I know I’m getting stronger. There are 2 major realizations I have come to now that my training has forcibly been altered.
- I miss running. I miss running with a heated passion. It has taken me longer to build back my stamina after being away from running for almost all of 2009, but nothing compares to running outside, conquering an endless hill and then sprinting back home to finish the course. It’s exhilarating and it’s something that I am actually able to do. Not everyone can say they can run even 5 miles. I can, and I have found that pride again. Now I miss being able to do it, despite how monotonous it may be day in and day out. The fact that I can do it trumps all.
- I miss being fat. Well…fatter. Reason being, well…I no longer have a butt. My legs feel great after a hard bike. I can easily go back and ride just as intensely the next day. Heck, I could probably go for hours on any given day, except for the fact that my darn ass gets numbingly sore from sitting on this shaped plastic pad. The reason I stop biking is not because my legs are exhausted, but because my butt just cannot stay seated any longer.
Being forced to bike has magnified my desire to run. I always wanted to be thin, but what I wouldn’t give for some more padding on my gluteus maximus. I resorted today to bringing a bath towel from home, folding it and putting on the seat in hopes that my butt would stop aching. …I lasted an hour.
Granted, an hour is about the length of my daily marathon run, but I wouldn’t even be able to move without looking like I had a flaming wedgie up my butt. Yeah…that’s exactly how I looked after riding for 2 hours on Wednesday. I tried just sitting on the seat on Thursday and that fire blazed right up.
Hopefully the towel spared me a bit of this embarrassing pain and I can work up to at least a two-hour bike ride by the time I leave for Florida on Thursday. It’s my only hope, especially considering the amount of calories I burn. As much as an inch of padding would probably relieve my butt, I don’t even want to imagine how many calories I would have to consume to bring it back.
Five days to Florida. Gosh…running cannot come any sooner.
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February 11, 2010 05:33:44
Posted By gregwagner
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Gutcheck…GO!!! (Beginning just after 9 AM)
Porch, sidewalk to driveway, driveway, both side of the sidewalk, the deck AND the steps of the deck all done and shoveled before noon. Exactly.
Another day trapped inside. I’m still not running, and actually considering flying to Florida to get a week of training in by staying with my Aunt. Regardless, this was still going to be a successful training day. …I’d say 3 hours of shoveling got me off to a great start.
I got in and took a short rest, while everyone else was either still shoveling or just starting. I decided to duplicate the pushup routine I outlined in the “snOMG” post, located below.
See, I figured shoveling all that in 3 hours replaced doing 25 push-ups every minute for an hour. It was tiring, so after resting for a little bit, I did my 100 push-ups and took a short rest before going into my 2 sets of 100-50-25-15-10/9-8/7/6-5/4/3/2/1.
Yeah…I’m crazy, but I prefer to say that I’m motivated. You wonder why I’m going to dominate come April. Well…you’ve been reading about the days I live. And if you have been reading, today was easy. It’s gonna hurt going back to the gym after being off since Monday…ugh!!!
Oh yeah, in other related news…The plow only just went down my street about an hour ago and threw hardened, packed snow back into our driveway. That’s Maryland in 2010 for ya. I’ll let you know when I’m able to run again. Chances are my next run in Maryland will be running away from the flood that is going to engulf my yard and neighborhood once the first 40+ degree day happens. God help me if it gets over 50…
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February 10, 2010 04:52:55
Posted By gregwagner
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I woke up today to see that all my shoveling I did over the weekend had been for naught. It snowed across the entire night and was going to stop at 2 pm.
But, of course it isn't going to stop at 2 and has been pushed until 4. Now they are saying that the storm may retrograde back a bit and it won't stop until 7. Needless to say...I don't believe them.
I knew there was no way I was getting out of this house today anyway, but seriously, how is a guy supposed to train for a marathon if he cant even get to the gym to bike? I'm still going to run a 3:30 marathon on April 19th, but I may be doing that without running any distance longer than 15 miles during training. We just had two feet of snow piled up on top of 3 feet of snow that has been dispersed off of sidewalks and driveways and has not had a single second to melt. I could be buried in here for a LONG time...
Training schedule for today:
- Woke up and did my 100 push-ups
- An hour or so later, did 2 sets of 100 followed by double sets of 50, 25, 15, 10-9 (together), 8-7-6, 5-4-3-2-1 and then one final push-up all the way to the floor for good measure
- And now that I can't even get outside to shovel today, the plan is to do 25 push-ups every minute for an hour.
1 push-up burns 2 calories. 25 push-ups for an hour totals 1500 push-ups. Burning 3000 calories has got to be a benefit for me. Even when you are trapped inside your house, there is so much productivity to be done. I burned 4000 calories without even leaving my bedroom.
I burned 4000 calories in under 2 hours. That still leaves how many other hours in the day to try and find something to do in the day? I'm already bored...thank somebody I have this hour of push-ups to stimulate my mind for now. Just remind me never to do anything that could throw me in prison. This confinement is mind-numbing--kinda like a marathon...interesting
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February 8, 2010 09:32:28
Posted By gregwagner
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As I wrote about, my area got hit with 30 inches of snow that I shoveled in 2 hours time. Turns out that one day of cross-training is going to become a repeated cycle because my area is going to be hit with 10-20 additional inches of snow starting tomorrow at noon.
The streets in my community still have not been cleared. I think my road has become more of a main road, so we get priority to the rest of the community. Most of my route is dominated by ice or slick slush. I could probably hold my own going uphill, but I’m not risking a faceplant on a downhill while running on asphalt. There was no point in trying to run today with worsened conditions that tomorrow will bring.
It never even broke freezing today. This isn’t going to be clearing for at least a week or two…but it’s February 8th. I’ll be lucky if I can start running outside by February 20th. What do I do? Yes…I know my answer to that question is run. That would be stupid if you looked outside. Heck, just look at the pictures I posted. Things haven’t changed that much.
Now, if I can’t run I have to work my legs somehow. I lift at the gym, but weight training is not going to increase my stamina. I can’t run on treadmills (not at any speed over 5 mph at least). So I only have one option left…bring on the bike!!!
I biked for 2 hours today. If I can bike six days a week for 2 hours at a time, I would only imagine that would have a positive turnaround in my running conditioning. After all, biking isolates my legs. My legs are my weak point as I run.
That’s the longest I ever biked for, and oddly enough, I don’t feel sore. I definitely felt it while I was pedaling absolutely nowhere for 120 minutes, but I felt great as soon as I was able to walk around. I can’t even describe how much better I feel after soaking in a bath.
As dominant as I strive to be, not even I can control the weather. I may have overcome more barriers than anyone imagined possible, but for some reason I know I can’t run on ice repeatedly without eventually biting the dust.
Who knows how much it is going to snow. Who knows how many runs I will successfully be able to get in this month. I’m doing all I can. It’s absolutely boring to ride the bike for so long, but it’s guaranteed to isolate and strengthen my entire lower body aerobically. I know that I know how to run 8-minute miles. I just don’t have the stamina yet. With that in mind, it doesn’t matter how I get the stamina as long as I can last 26.2 miles. For now, my solution is the bike. If 2 hours (or at least 40 miles) a day doesn’t prepare me to run 26.2 miles, I have no reason stepping foot on that starting line in Hopkinton on April 19th.
Start your engines. Day one is in the books…but the pedaling has only just begun.
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February 7, 2010 11:48:26
Posted By gregwagner
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This is what I woke up to Saturday morning...
We didn't have plows cleaning our streets. The county brought in freakin' bulldozers!!!
Suiting up for the heavyweight matchup-- Greg (217 pounds) vs. The Blizzard (weight unknown)
The 15 x 30 foot deck buried by a 3 foot high block of snow.
Yeah...the roof above the deck got an extension...of snow. (Looks like a curl on some Hawaiian wave...Cowabunga anyone?!)
If the canyon behind me leading to the sidewalk is any indication...I am the winner by knockout. ...It took a few rounds though.
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