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How NOT to train for a half-marathon

Chicago Half Marathon

Chicago Half Marathon

This past Sunday, I decided to run the Chicago half-marathon.  I’ve always wanted to see how hard it would be so I just signed up.  Sometimes you have to try something out to see if you can do it.  I’m not going to lie, it’s hard.  Below was my training schedule for the half marathon:

  • Run 3 miles once before
  • Run 5 miles once before
  • Run 6 miles a week before the race

Yep, that’s it!  I thought to myself on the 6 mile run, “it’s only double this length so it shouldn’t be too hard.” Boy, was I wrong.  During the actual race, the first 7-9 miles were not bad.  It’s miles 10-13 that really kills you.  My body was breaking down and motivation to run the last 3 miles was disappearing.  Many times in life, this analogy can be translated to other problems you face.

  1. The most difficult part of an obstacle is just to do it.  Sometimes you have to put all excuses aside and just do it.  The moon will never align and the timing will never be perfect.  JUST DO IT.
  2. Once you start, you realize it’s not that bad just like the first 7-9 miles of my race.  This is about the time that you realize you should have done this all along and it’s really not that difficult.
  3. The end of obstacle is where the true test comes in.  Mile 10-13 were extremely difficult for me.  I did get some motivation from couple of the bands playing but I was thinking about walking the rest of the way.  When the going gets tough, many people will just flake out.  The only reason I got through this was the strong support system.  It was weird.  As you can see from the picture below, my name is included on my tag.  People on the side would shout your name and encourage you.  This, couple along with the other runners, was the motivation I needed to finish the race.  When you’re approaching the end stretch of an obstacle, you need a strong support system.  I will try to look for support systems and encouragements for my other obstacles from now on.

Would I do it again?  Maybe.  Could I do a full marathon?  I’m not really sure.  My legs were gone for the next two day.  I’ll consider it for next year.  I might just end up signing up and forcing myself to do it.

This is how confident I was in my ability to run the race.

This is how confident I was in my ability to run the race.

Not a bad run for no training

Not a bad run for no training

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This post was written by Jay on September 18, 2009

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The China Study - pescetarian for a month

I recently finished reading The China Study and decided to become pescetarian for the month of September.  If you know me at all, this is an extremely difficult challenge for me because I sure love my meat.  The book recommends being a pure vegan but I don’t think I can give up seafood and meat in one sitting.  I’m doing a modified version in which I will eat no animal protein (not counting fish - that’s an argument for another day).  I will not be eating any meat (beef, chicken, lamb, pork, buffalo, or whatever floats your boat) and I will not be taking in any animal related substance such as eggs, dairy, cheese, yogurt, etc..   I’m not going to be super picky and cut out anything that contains eggs as many vegetarian entrees contain eggs but I will try to avoid eating it if it includes a large portion of the items I’m avoiding.

The China Study

The China Study

Brief facts about “The China Study” (If you haven’t realized yet, I love to bullet point items):

  • The China Study is named after a study based in China in which people from all different regions have completely different health
  • Meat and milk are the real carcinogens and cause of high cholesterol which leads to heart problems, obesity, diabetes, etc..
  • The least actives Chinese take in more calories daily compared to normal active Americans and still have less health problems and weigh less
  • Those in China who eat the least amount of processed vegetables, fruit and grains, have the fewest affluence-related health problems
  • To sum up, a vegetable and whole food diet without meat will lead to better health.  It’s more complicated than this but you’ll have to read the book to find out
Why I’m doing this:
  • One, I just want to challenge myself.  Sometimes you don’t know what you can accomplish until you try.  Giving up meat is one of the hardest things I can think of so I just did it.
  • Two, after this month is up, I want to try and incorporate more vegetables and whole foods into my diet.  A majority of my current meals are composed of meat and I would like to see that cut back and replaced with vegetables and whole foods.
  • Three, I like to see how systems work.  I like to see how one thing causes the effect of another.  I believe most results can be traced back to the cause.  Thus, I would like to see if putting healthier food into my body will lead to a better result (ie. weight, energy, etc).  I originally wanted to keep track of my vital stats such as weight, cholesterol, etc but it wouldn’t be accurate since I’ve been trying to train for my half marathon next week.  (By the way, I signed up for the half-marathon a few months back because I always wanted to do one and just decided to do it.)
Day 4 of my Diet
I’m feeling pretty good.  I’m a little tired today and craving meats just a little bit.  I do feel a bit lighter overall (not necessarily from weight) but the opposite of that heavy feeling.  We’ll see how I feel after a few more days on this diet though.  I’ll try to update regularly during this process.

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This post was written by Jay on September 4, 2009

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