From XL to XTERRA

Seven weeks into our training and I am feeling great! It’s hard to believe that all of the hard work that we have been doing is finally paying off. Last week I ran faster in the Jingle Bells 5K Fun Run than I ever have in my entire life. Unless my watch was broken or the battery was slow, I ran from the Fishing Base in Garapan to AJ’s Restaurant in 23:30.

John wasn’t able to make it to the event, so I had to go solo. And even though I knew it was a fun run, I was on a mission to see what my legs and lungs could do when there wasn’t a swim or a bike before hand. Well, that and the fact that there were a few people in attendance that knew about our training.

I was energized at the start, and I felt a rush every time I passed someone along the sidewalk (I know it’s not a race), and I was determined to finish the run like a champ. The pace was a little faster than I was used to, but the thing that kept me going was all of those people that I passed. I couldn’t let them see me stop for a breather, or pass me when I needed a break.

It would’ve been tough to hear someone say “Hey, you’ve been training for XTERRA and I’m doing better than you when I’m drinking a beer.”

I felt that I had something to prove to myself, and any potential naysayer, so it was all running, all the time. I couldn’t believe that I finished at that clip, and when I looked at my watch, I was in disbelief. The last time I did a 5K fun run I finished in 38 minutes and change.

John also had a measure of success this past week, as he completed one of the longest and most intense jungle runs during the 20th Birthday of the Saipan Hash House Harriers. There are few words to describe the harrowing trail run from last Saturday, and while even the most well-conditioned hasher was exhausted at the finish, John was “stoked” to have finished the incredible jungle adventure (For more information about running the hash, go to www.huffypuffy.com for a quick education).

Since experiencing an early success, it was easy to sit back and rest on the old laurels a couple of days ago. John is losing weight and feeling great, and I felt so far ahead of where I thought I’d be at this point, that I had a big juicy steak–fully equipped with mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and mahi-mahi sashimi.

While I didn’t go for any of the sweets offered during dessert, it is difficult to dodge the grub during the holiday season. I’ve heard that the occasional reward is okay during training, so I was quick to pick up the steak, but the next day I went back to the non-restaurant stuff.

John and I have both been pretty good about the lost poundage, and it seems that every time we turn around we are hearing about the weight that we’ve lost. I was even shocked to hear one of my friends say that they thought that I had lost too much—but rest assured that I am not the next after-school special in the making.

While our training has been going smoothly, we have hit a bit of a snag. Patting each other on the back for a job well done is fine, but we have begun to think that we have earned a pause from the almighty training regimen that we have so diligently tried to maintain.

We’ve called in sick, sore and tired before, and we’ve even had a “bad alarm clock morning,” but through occasional days off that are outside our scheduled day off, we have managed to shed some flab while increasing our endurance.

The only problem is that after a few successes and a few well wishes, we have begun to believe our own hype. This is not good, as we have admitted to taking an extra break here and there along the way.

Well, we needed to get a little dose of reality, so I dug out last year’s results from the XTERRA Saipan Championships. It was easy to get a little excited when we figured out that we can swim about as fast as the guys in the middle of the pack, and with three and a half months left to train.

The reality settled in when we took a look at the bike times. The difference between the top finisher in my age group and the last was over an hour, and there was an even bigger gap in the run.

After realizing that we will be swimming somewhere between a half hour to 45 minutes, biking somewhere between two and two and a half hours, followed by an hour and a half or so of running through the jungle, the reality began to settle in.

Yep, we’ve still got our work cut out for us, and within the next three and a half months our behinds need to be on a bike and in the jungle.