Reassessment and Planning

There is a Jesuit saying – "Without Refection There is not Learning". This is one of the few useful tidbits I picked up from paying Loyola College $40K for an "Executive MBA".

I have been back to "normal" training for two months – time to do some assessing of where I am and where I need to go. On the positive side:

• I have lost slightly over 13 pound
  
• I paced the last 14 miles of the Baltimore Marathon with only 3 weeks of running
  
• I completed the Marine Corp and Harrisburg Marathon with little effort
  
• I have engaged a swim coach to help me with the return to the water.
  
• I had a superior VO2 Max test (more on this later, once I figure out what all the numbers mean)
  
• I hired a personal trainer to kick my ass into shape
  
• Over the past 2 months, I am averaging 5.5 hours a day working out
  
• I am far in the lead of my company's Shape up the Nation competition
  

On the work needed side of the equation:

• My current weight is still way too much. I am carrying 173 pounds on a 5-10 frame. According to the numbers measured at the gym, I am 24.9% fat! Obviously, this is far too much for me to be carrying on a 100 mile run or an IM Tri. The Trainer has set an intermediate goal of 156 pounds which would be still a whopping 18% FAT. Being an over achiever I want to be in the single digits by Louisville IM. Diet will be real important and beer and booze will be a off the menu … I will only drink post races (I need my Scotch) and while in Vegas … I need to sin in Sin City. …. I wonder if Hammer has considered a beer flavored version of Heed.
  
• I have always found that the best things for you are the most unpleasant… The best tasting foods are usually the worst things on the menu… taking the stairs is better than the elevator … Running a marathon on Sunday beats watching football on the boob tube. In grad school I begged my way into the hardest classes outside my major to challenge myself. I need to put this philosophy to work and put more effort into the swim.
  
• I need to start lifting more. Once again this is something I don't like to do but it needs to be done.
  
• The VO2 testing revealed that I am a very efficient runner. But … I shut down the test just when I reached the Aerobic Threshold. This is a sign that I run in the comfort zone but when things get painful I quit. Sounds like the answer to my failures at Umstead in the past two years. I need to work out harder. Longer workouts provide only marginal gains since these are just doing more of the same. It took the VO2 Max testing for me to realize that I can't improve by just doing more of the same thing. Starting today pain will be my friend.