At Our Pace

So, I'm sitting home alone tonight with Seth while Amy and the other kids are out.  Seth's happy with a PBJ and some cheese poofs, but what do I eat?

A quick scan of the fridge turns up a raw skinless boneless chicken breast, a tortilla, and some cheese.

IT'S QUESADILLA NIGHT!

To get a start on training for next year's race (and maybe some events in between...who knows), Hoyt, Drew and myself decided to start hitting some weights.  Being that none of us has really been a weightlifter in any points of our lives, we decided the Nautilus equipment at our local YMCA would be the way to go.  That way, we wouldn't be in any danger of hurting ourselves if something went badly.  Drew, seizing the lead on getting us started, called the YMCA and scheduled an appointment for us for Saturday morning at 7am for a Nautilus orientation.

We've made it a year.  Small goals have come and gone, some met, others not, but they all paled in comparison to the big goal.  The Great Race.  We finished it, both teams.  You can see our results here, and hey...neither of our teams came in last overall!  So bonus points for that.

I had a plan for the race.  I was going to basically run the same type of training run that I had been doing for the last 3 weeks.  3 minutes of a good running pace, 3 minutes of walking, 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, lather, rinse and repeat.  I was fully confident I could do that without a problem.  I had run a really great feeling training run Friday morning, following this pattern.  When I finished that run, I felt I could have run for another hour.  I really felt good about it.

“I'm fat.   Really fat. Not just a little fat. I'm very fat.

The Great Race is over.  And we won!!! 

Today is Friday, August 6th.  2 Days until Race day.  It's been a helluva ride so far.  AoP will be putting two teams into the race.  Team McKinley (tag# 550) consists of Amy, Kathy L*, and Tara W*.  Team Everest (tag# 551) is Steph, Drew, and Jason.  Hoyt unfortunately is still rehabbing from a really nasty looking leg injury, so he's out for this year.  

So I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce Kathy L and Tara W as members of the AoP Auxiliary.  They're taking up spots for us so that we can have our two full teams.

Well.  One week to go and I think I am ready.  I managed to get out on my bike yesterday and went for about an hour and a half.... and I did the short bike course  here in Auburn NY for the Great Race.  The Race itself is not until next Sunday, the 8th; I wanted to make sure I could do it.

I'm here today to talk about one of the foremost obstacles I've had to getting out and running.

My thighs.

Yup.  I'm a big dude, as we've covered here before.  Being a big dude has certain drawbacks.  One of those being large thighs.  Thighs that, for about 3 inches from my...um..."man place", rub together when walking or running.  Normally this isn't a big deal.  Unless it's a warm day or I'm walking or running a long way.

It's been hot lately.

Hot and moist.

Anyone that knows me even moderately well is familiar with my intolerance of heat.  I'm like some prissy-ass houseplant that only does well in 70-72 degree farenheit temperatures with 60% relative humidity.

The last couple weeks have seen daily 90 degree temperatures and 380% humidity or some crap like that.  I hardly want to get out of bed on these days, much less go for an outdoor run.  When you wake up at 6am and it's already 83 degrees outside, that pretty much destroys your interest in running.