Fridays, Stress from work...and RELIEF.

 Work has been a bit nutty the past couple days. I was majorly stressed out from being slammed for two days in a row, putting in a 15 hour day yesterday, and 11 today. I needed some relief, and my first thought was to go home and have a beer! But, there is time for that later and I am making some strides in my life (literally) again, chasing some weird dream I had to try and become an Ironman. Shifting time and priorities has to occur, without incurring a penalty on the family time. So beer drinking takes a back seat for now, and making my life better after being diagnosed with cancer is priority one. Getting fit and working oxygen into muscles and tissue can only help, and healthier eating habits

 So I get home, get me and my son into running clothes, and we go out for a 40 minute excursion around the neighborhoods. It was 89f when I left the house, and sunny still. Summer is here, but I am not ducking the daylight, after all, I am going to have to face the brutal Texas heat and humidity in one of the toughest events a man can challenge himself with, no time to start being a chickenshit now.

 I feel better after just 4 runs than I thought, and I can run (well, jog) almost the whole time. Still, after not running for a year, I need to take it easy, so I will drop any pretense of ego I was feeling and stick to shorter stuff for a few weeks. The kidney surgery area feels pretty good and has no pain. I find myself dreaming of longer runs, and thinking about when I am going to start learning to swim the unique style required for triathlons. Not to mention I am planning on going to Austin and finding a tri-bike this month. I think the bike will be my easiest part of this deal.

Day 3:

 Took a run last night with my 13yr old. We only went just shy of 3 miles, my quads were pretty sore from the previous 2 days, so we took it easy. Once warmed up I actually felt better than the day before though, and this morning my soreness is lessened. My son was more fit than me from a season of soccer playing, he said I was going SLOOOOOOOOOW. What a little jerk :-)

 Learning to swim tri-style...probably gonna be the hardest discipline to learn. Getting out of the water in a reasonable time seems a loooooooong ways away.

 Biking: most likely gonna be my easiest once I am getting fit. I have long, strong legs and these should suit me well for a bike ride of 6-7 hours. Not scary at all, just a loooooooong boring ride. Probably going to be very hot so this is going to set the tone for the run coming up afterwards, it will be incredibly important to hold back here.

 Running (or wallowing in a daze) the marathon: Going to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life most likely. It seems impossible right now that my legs are going to be able to carry me 26.2 after the previouse bike ride!

 But to be sure, thousands and thousands have accomplished this before me, and I suspect I will find some inner strength along the way from family and friends.

 To infinity, and beyond!

The Fire Is Lit.

And oh boy, do my legs know it :-) My legs are asking me, "Just what do you think you are doing?" So I said "shut up legs". I have strong legs and they weren't bad, but my wind...weak.

I went out for 3.2 miles and actually managed to jog fast for a half mile before I was breathing real heavy, walked for a minute, then I would just run slow and easy for 2-3 minutes and walk for just over a minute until my heart rate dropped. Rinse and repeat. It's a start, just barely.

The worst part was my belly squishing out the sides of my compression underskins hahaha. That too, shall pass, eventually. My goal for race day: 185-190 lbs. That's only about 33lbs away, so that's pretty close I guess, for now.

I will go out again tomorrow for a leg stretcher, slow jog. For now, I plan on a 5 day a week easy schedule, short ones, just to get my legs active again and wake up/shake up everything. And to test my kidney (or lack of) surgery recovery level, feels pretty good though.