3 Events in 8 Months

So I left off last week with my PB for a 5k on Thursday. It was a pretty awesome feeling. Friday brought me to the pool for my first round of laps in over 15 years. I knew I would be rusty but that isn't what my first concern. The injury that started this whole journey is what I was worried about, my right shoulder.  I have had zero issues with it since I finished my rehab but in my mind this was the final test of it.  My shoulder did just fine.  I had full range of motion, no pain, and not even a click or pop. The only bad part was that the swim wore me out quickly, and quickly might even be an understatement! The only way I am going to get better is by, you guessed it, swim more! So the schedule gets moved around again and I am going to swim 2-3 days a week. I have heard that swimming in the one event you see progress in the quickest and I hope that is true! Ended up with 45 miles this week but didn't get a long run in. Going to do something about that next week.

8 Months and Counting 

The 17th of this month makes 8 months that I have been on this journey.  Started out as a fat, one good armed beast that smoked like a chimney and now I am not sure exactly how I perceive myself.  I look at the mileage and workouts I do and think I have earned the title of athlete, but then I look at how much further I have to go till my goal and I still can't call myself a triathlete. So I guess we will go with calling myself a triathlete in training. I had to go out last week and get started purchasing a winter wardrobe.  I have managed to get myself down from a waist size 46 down to a 40, and I could have went smaller but had some issues fitting the family jewels and/or my thighs with most pairs of jeans that were a size 38. The skinny jeans look and the nut huggers are not an option for this guy! Last winter I started replacing my 3XLT size shirts with 4XLT due to the fact they were tight around my gut. This weekend I bought all my shirts XLT, this by far shocked me the most.  I have not been that size since before I met my wife!

 

Was going back through some pictures and thought I would share some of them to show my progress. These are about as close to a time line as I can get. Unfortunately I was aware of my size enough that a picture of me at my largest is not available. I made sure that I was behind the camera or not around when the pictures happened.

-Mike

The two pics above was my first race.  The scale was what I weighed the morning of the race.  It was my goal to be below 300 pounds by this race.  I was very proud of myself but still knew I was big. This picture confirmed that fact to me.







This was my second 5K (left) and even though I ran it faster than the first I missed my time goal and was not very happy about it.  The next week I started my training for an 8k. The second pic (right)was my first long run over 3.1 miles.  I was amazed that I could run that far or that fast.





















The left pic is me in my shorts that I just bought at the beginning of the summer.  They are a size 40 and are getting big.  Was hopeful that meant size 38 for jeans but apparently all this running has given me "thunder thighs"! The right pic is just a couple of weeks old and shows me with the last pair of jeans I kept from last year.  As you can see they are not going to work for this year! And while I see the progress in this picture my attention is more fixed on the fact that there is still a gut that needs to be gone by next summer.

This is me at the Rock n Roll half Marathon 85 pounds lighter than when I started this journey.  Was quite nervous as it was an extremely hot and humid day for my first half marathon, but hung in there and finished.