EPTAfter I stopped playing starcraft in 2010, running mainly has took most of my time. I have a natural addictive personality or competitive in that i wanna be the best that i can be. Back when I played SC:BW competitively I just wanted to push myself to be as best as I possibly can. Now the same motivation drives me to be the best runner/triathlete that I possibly can until I am limited by genetics.
+ Show Spoiler [my history as a runner] +
So a little history about me as an athlete: I first started running a sophomore in high school. I am not gifted by any standard. I think my first mile as a freshman in HS was something like an 8:30mile or 9min mile. Then as a sophomore, i decided I needed to do some extracurricular activities for my college resume so i picked up running, I woulda done another sport but I was so bad at team sports I didnt wanna embarrass myself.
So I did 1 year of cross country and 1 season of track. I didnt run my junior or senior year. I think my PR's for my 5k was like 23min, and PR for mile for track i remember vividly was a 6:14. So after 2 years of minimal activity. I ran XC in college NAIA. I ran 3 years of XC, and 2 years of track.
So I did 1 year of cross country and 1 season of track. I didnt run my junior or senior year. I think my PR's for my 5k was like 23min, and PR for mile for track i remember vividly was a 6:14. So after 2 years of minimal activity. I ran XC in college NAIA. I ran 3 years of XC, and 2 years of track.
After I developed a slight aerobic base from 1 year in cross country in high school, I've noticed that I always gravitated longer distance as opposed to the short and fast.
So anyways, as I got into college, I did my first half marathon. Back then 13.1miles i thought was LONG, and had doubts if i would even finish.... and I did finish, i definitely felt pretty weak after finishing my first half at 1:48. My time i thought wasn't too impressive at the time, but that half marathon was like a gateway drug for me to endurance sports. Like marijuana.
At the time, when i was a freshman in HS, the half marathon took everything out of me but i wanted to challenge myself more, and wanted to keep pushing my body. As a result, I trained and trained.
One year went by fast, and after many long runs, longest of 17 at the time, I then found myself standing at the starting line of my first marathon. I told myself that the goal is to just finish without walking and under 4 hours. This will probably be a race I'll never forget, I had never felt so much "gnawing pain" in my life up until this moment. At mile 22-26.2 my legs felt like they were stabbed by knives with each step. Nevertheless, I finished crushing my goal of 4 hours, Got 3:30. Was absolutely ecstatic at the time, and already thought about my next marathon.
After my first marathon, i definitely knew i wanted to do another one. But something else captivated me-triathlons. I've heard of the ironman race since i was in HS, and began pondering If i could ever do something like that. When i just finished my first half-marathon, no one thought I could run an entire marathon without walking. My parents doubted me, and most of my friends had doubts that I would finish, heck, even i doubted myself. But somehow I did finish, no idea how, it was like something took control of my body during the race and I had no conscious control. Looking back, my first half-marathon felt brutal, and there was no way I could do that distance TWICE without stopping. I think part of my motivation was to prove myself that I could do it, I didn't really care that other people didnt think I could, but was glad to be able to prove them wrong
. Eventually I set my eyes on the boston marathon, which I needed a sup 3:05 to qualify for my age group, which i did qualify for on my 3rd marathon with a time of 3:03. So while making a detour from my marathon racing, I had fascination with triathlons as well. I went balls to the walls and purchased my first road bike, and all the accessories with it which ended up costing my roughly ~2000$. The summer of my sophomore year, I began riding and found a new obsession-Triathlons. I was also a noob in swimming, but picked that up as well during that summer. At the time all I wanted to do was complete a full ironman (For those that don't know an Ironman is a 2.4mile swim in open waters, 112mile bike, and a 26.2mi marathon off the bike all under 17hours. ) which means jogging the marathon not walking it. As I layed out my blueprint to meet that goal, I obviously had to enter my first half ironman which is half the total distance so 1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, and 13.1mi run. I finished the race without walking, but not with a very good time. I had a panic attack in the swim, swam off course and my swim time was 1 hour which is HORRIBLE. The bike course was extremely hilly and I only averagd 16mph, 56 miles with 3000feet of elevation, and on top of that I had to run 13.1miles after. I finished with a time of 6 hours 30mins. Not very happy, but it was my first, so i took it.
So it's been almost a year now that i picked up my bike and bought a gym membership just for the pool. Looking back exactly a year ago, I've came a long way in my cycling, swimming, and even running. I have my next half ironman at racine wisconsin, and I feel extremely confident that I can break 5 hours, somewhere around the 4:50 range which would be a 90min PR. But granted this course is a lot flatter. So the next thing I'm eyeing on is the half ironman world championship, which means I'll have to finish top 2-5% of my age group. I don't thnk I'll qualify this race in 2 weeks, but I feel confident that I can place top 10 of my age group.
So if you've read my entire blog up to this point, my entire athletic career revolved around me slowly expanding my goals, and I slowly creep my way to expanding my goals as I become fitter as an athlete, and achieving goals that I had doubts in.
Yesterday, while browsing forums I read something that I believe is possible for me to achieve. Qualifying for the ironman world championships in Kona hawaii. The only ironman race broadcasted on TV: NBC. I've thought about trying to qualify for this race before, and thought it was impossible, but all of that changed yesterday where I completely flipped around my beliefs. There are countless age groupers trying to qualify for this race, and in order to do so, you must place top 2-5% of your age group. There were some general benchmarks set in order to have a chance to qualify for kona, and after reviewing those benchmarks, I feel that I can hit them all with a couple more years of training. To put it short, generally you'd have to go under a 10 hour ironman, and around 9:30 for a flat course. For those that don't know, those are INCREDIBLY fast times as an age grouper.
As a result of my years as a beginner runner/triathlete, I've learned quite a few important life lessons, and thoroughly gone through those experiences. Some of them are.
-I am stronger than I think and other people think.
-Consistency is more important than anything in reaching a goal. I don't have talent, but do have an addictive personality that compensates for my lack of talent.
-Race day performance is often times not determined by your efforts in the race, but the last 3-6month leading up the race.
My training schedule is pretty crazy, but I think a lot of competitive age group triathletes are similar. So a standard month of training is roughly laid out like this
week 1- 20-23hours
week2- 20-23 hours
week3 - 20-23 hours
week4 - recovery week 14-18hours.
All the recorded times does not include stopping at stoplights, commuting to the pool, or putting my laces on and taking a shower, preparing for workout..etc. They are strictly training time.
During non-recovery weeks, I average about ~190-230miles cycling, 30-40miles running, and 10k-14k in the pool, with 1-3hours of strength/core training. I would never admit this to anyone that are NOT endurance athletes in real life, I'd be labeled as insane!
The only obstacle that could get in my way of qualifying for kona is if i get in a serious relationship, and my future wife/gf opposes my training in which case I would probably stop because I do value family more than this. But since I just go to school and train 20+ hours a week I probably won't meet any girls anytime soon.... Or if i fall off my bike and ruin my career.
I know this sounds close to obsession but I'm so devoted to trying to achieve this I plan on working part time as a pharmacist after i graduate (yes i'm in pharmacy school), I'll only be making ~50k instead of 90-100k, but it'll be enough to support my needs.
Asides from selfish goals of trying to qualify for this prestigious race, I also do this so I can inspire people around me to be more active, I would also like to train and maybe raise awareness for child obesity or something along the lines of that, or a health issue that I'm passionate about. I would also like to be either a cross country or triathlon coach sometimes in the far future, so I need to start building my resume, especially if i dont have the talent to run 16min 5k's off of 2 years of training, heck i can't even run a 17min 5k, nevermind 16mins.
Anyways, thanks for reading, and again, I generally don't like talking about myself too much, but I was just so excited about my next 10 years of training and trying to qualify for ironman world championships I couldn't hold it in!
