#project war

[pendoodlelum]

one of them dies

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i’m combat ready

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its game time

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mouths

[kevdoeslife-blog-blog]

Fresh week - Fresh start...

Last week an easy week - It was a very busy work week and after running 21.1k in gravel, I let my legs rest. I went out for a run on Wednesday for 8k then Sunday for 14k.

I didn't log a lot of mileage last week - and I feel kind of bad about it. Also, I've been eating terribly for the past couple of months. It's time for a fresh start.

Ben brought out the scale, so will I. Starting tomorrow morning, I'll weigh in every day and start being accountable for what I do every day. What started this? Well - I had a discussion with my cousin Karl.

Karl always was a big source of motivation to me. He's a natural born athlete - He can stop doing any type of exercise for 7 months, pick up running, and run a 21 minute 5k the next week. One of my goal is to keep up with him. I've been working hard at it, but I can do better. If I want to win a race, be an Ironman, be considered an athlete, I'll have to put the work in.

I have 20 pounds left to reach my ultimate goal - And I'm confident that I can drop lower too. So we made a deal; I get down to 190 by February and he runs the Ottawa full marathon with me, Tony, Chris and hopefully a couple of peeps from the Internets in May.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get a gym membership and I will step it up to the next level with strength training. It'll help my endurance and since I didn't really lift weights and all since I started this journey, it'll probably help me burn more fat too.

Eating-wise, I'm back to making some food every Sunday for the week. That will help me make better decisions and hit that target.

No more excuses.

That is all.

[kevdoeslife-blog-blog]

Project WAR / Run4Jake campaign

Sunday, I ran 13.1 miles (21.1k) on not-so-amazing terrain. It was uneven and ENTIRELY gravel. My feet still hurt. My IT band rubbed on my bursa a lot and I can feel it inflamed a bit. Being smart about it, I decided to take Monday and today off, to relieve a bit of the inflammation and to prevent injury. Instead, I decided to book a massage today, which was amazing. (I fell asleep too - and woke myself up to the sound of me breathing loud. *embarrassing*)

Tomorrow, back to training - An easy 5-6 miles on my lunch break is in order. If I want to win a race, I need to work extra hard, right?

Last night, Kelly surprised me to a MASSIVE bunch of Apple Cinnamon cookies that she baked for my work to help my Team Diabetes fundraising campaign. They were amazingly tasty, and people at work ate them all! I had a donation box up for people that wanted to contribute and so far, we raised $47! WOOHOO!

I want to take this to the next level. I shall need the help of you, Tumblrs. I know a couple of fundraising masters are on here, mangosteele, 6n6challenge, robindoesrunning, runwithrach & runlong.

Mango did some photoshopping stuff, did the burrito mile along with a bunch of cool stuff. I'm good at photoshopping stuff and am willing to put myself through anything to help the cause. He raised an insane amount of money for St-Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

Abel (6n6challenge) ran one marathon a month for 6 months for the leukemia and lymphoma society, and is an established BADASS.

Robin has an awesome accent that Tridad cannot comprehend, recently finished a HALF-IRONMAN, and a pure BADASS at heart. She organized a sweet raffle for donations.

Rachel & Dustin organized the Tumblr even of the year in Conway with the Soaring Wings Race. They are both incredibly involved in the running world and they are training for ultras.

It's time to kick this into high-gear. What do you all think? Ideas?

It could be a video of me doing something crazy, (other than setting myself on fire, been there - done that... not going to happen again.. got the gif to prove it.) an idea you think would help me raise money, anything... speak up!

If you don't have an idea but you wish to contribute - Click here!

[kevdoeslife-blog-blog]

Project WAR - This week in training

No, I am not going to take over the world (yet) and summon war as a project, this is only the acronym for "Win A Race".

Last week, I decided that I wanted to slowly work my way into winning a local race by 2013. It's a pretty crazy goal, I know, but I work hard towards the things I want and I know that I can get it done. Every week, I will post my training, how I did, what I want to accomplish for the next week. Also, tomorrow is going to be the 4th weekend in a row that I run a half-marathon distance. It's getting colder by the day here and I will try my best to keep that on the training schedule as long as I can.

This week started with a lot of soreness. Sunday was my 21.1k (13.1 miles), totally unprepared and it was a totally different deal. When you get ready for a race, you get pumped, you eat a lot of carbs, you hydrate properly, and you have good stuff like gels with you while you run... I ate a bit of carbs, didn't hydrate properly and had no gels. That resulted into major soreness - But I also PR'ed.

Best half-marathon time before Sunday was the Sunday before for the 9runrun half where I almost broke the 2 hour mark and came in at 2:04. Last Sunday, I beat my PB by shaving 2 minutes and came in at 2:02. Despite the lack of preparation, I consider this a good thing. Also, my body will eventually adapt to the distance every week and it'll get easier (and I'll get faster, right?)

Monday was Halloween - I worked from home since Kelly had a doctor appointment mid-day and then we were going trick or treating as a family with Madzilla, Kelly's mom, grand-mother and sisters. Unfortunately, Maddox started being feverish, then became VERY feverish so we ended up at the ER instead. Went back home later that night with a very sick and tired little man, no trick or treatin', but it was definitely for the best.

Tuesday, I went for a 8k run. It was slower than usual, since I could still feel my legs being sore from Sunday, but I managed doing it in 48 minutes.

Wednesday was an awesome run day. One of my colleagues proposed that we went running in the trails close to work. I never ran in trails before other than for the Spartan Race but accepted the challenge, you cannot know what it's like without doing it, right? Well - It was simply amazing. Hilly, beautiful and definitely on the list of things to do more often. And the hills were serious, too. Definitely will try to do that once or twice a week. It came down to 6k, and it took 35 minutes. (Yeah, like I said, HILLS - and we stopped at the top of the trail for 2-3 minutes deciding which path we were taking back)

Thursday/Friday, I was sick - I caught a lighter version of what Maddox had, but I guess my system killed it quickly since I feel like a BOSS today. Being sick, I decided to skip the runs, I don't think that running while your body battles a virus is a good idea.

Today, I'm extremely tired - I ended up working really late last night. I will try and hydrate a lot today and get ready for tomorrow's long run.

I guess week 1 of project WAR wasn't that much of a success. However, it's only starting. I WILL win a race.