It was a great week of training getting ready for "The Ache" race tomorrow. Now I am willing to admit that I earn a living as a software developer building mainly database driven and eCommerce web sites. I've been an IT guy for about 10 years now, and it's fun to volunteer and donate my time as an IT consultant to some small non-profits when I can. So I volunteered to rebuild the http://www.achearoundthelake.org/ site after talking with the organizers (Katie and Scarlette) and having my own personal failure to register online. They clearly needed some help and I was glad to donate to their cause. This race benefits a hospital, and with 2 kids I spend about 14 grand a year on health care costs. So I'm all for helping the hospitals keep costs down. But that's why I keep posting links back to the race web site and encouraging others to sign up. It helps the search engine placement. In the process, I have also gotten to be close friends with both Katie and Scarlette. That was unexpected and extremely pleasant. Katie is going to help us get through the marathon training plan!
On the training front, I got in a great run of 5 miles in 55 mins on the treadmill tuesday as it was raining heavily here. Then wednesday I got in a great cross training workout at the gym. It was late and I had the kids in the nursery, so I only did about 20 minutes of weights and 30 mins on the stationary bike. Then yesterday was a solid 45 mins on the eliptical machine. Between the three workouts, the machines told me I burned over 2000 calories plus what I lost on the weights. So I'm really pleased about the mid-week training. Since tuesday was the only day with impact, my knees and ankles should be fresh for the race tomorrow.
Today's a rest day for Wifey too. She normally hits the gym mon - fri before the kids get up and then doesn't run on the weekends. But she slept in yesterday to "taper?" before the 5 mile race tomorrow after running 4.88 miles on the treadmill wednesday. I can chuckle at this because I'm confident she will make me look slow at the race anyway.
As promised, here's a before picture:
This was May 31st 2007 while we were in the hospital waiting for our second daughter to be born. I was about 230 lbs with my winter coat (beard) on, and seeing this picture is one of the biggest motivators to keep becoming more healthy.
Just look at the size of that belly! Looks like I'm the one about to give birth.
Having girl #2 caused me to make some very drastic life changes. I was still smoking then. In July 2007 I sold my business and took a job working for a company out of Atlanta so that I could work from home and keep up with the kids more. Wifey is a long time SAHM, so we're both always here and rarely leave. Those changes led to less stress, which allowed me to stop smoking in December and kicked off this whole triathlon infatuation. Now I'm determined to get and stay healthy, and this picture has become quite motivational when those cravings get too bad.
Hopefully I'll have an after picture of me crossing the finish line at the race tomorrow. I say hopefully because I don't know which one of us will have the camera. It could end up being staged. I'm pretty confident we'll both be able to cover the 5 miles.
And thanks for all of the encouraging comments! That really means a lot to me.
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