January 13, 2013
Today, I want to pay homage to a few people who have done some amazing feats of endurance. My little 15 minutes a day for a year pales in comparison and is actually quite pathetic in relation to these masters of endurance. I'm a master of being pathetic next to them. Honestly, I should just quit right now I'm so pathetic.
But, I won't. I'll revel in my patheticness! Everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm starting here. So screw you and your judgemental attidute (did I just tell myself to screw off? I got problems...)
So, lets take a look at some of these amazing people. I'm going to skip over the people who run marathons in just over two hours like Haile Gebrselassie's marathon record of 2:04:36 and those amazing cyclist who complete the Tour de France (even if I juiced for a year, took EPO, had 100 blood transfusions and put a motor on my bike, I couldn't do what they do). This is for those few who went past the bounds of what humans should be capable of and passed over into superhuman territory...at least as far as I am concerned.
I'll start with someone I actually trained with in Hawaii. Chet the Jet Blanton. He temporarily had the world record for Ironman races in one year. I believe it was 27. However, 20 of them were at one time. A double decca Ironman. That's 48 miles of swimming, 2,240 miles on the bike, and 524 miles of running. He did this over a month's time taking small sleeping breaks in between bouts of amazing endurance.
How about Dean Karnaze who ran 350 miles nonstop! He ran for 80 straight hours! This guy has run the Badwater race four times (the toughest endurance race in the world) and he ran 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states! Yeah...insane.
A word or two about the Badwater race. It is insane. It is a 135 mile race, which is already bad enough. Add to that, you run from the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere, Bad Water, Death Valley, to the highest point in the contiguous US, Mt. Whitney. On top of the 13,000 feet worth of ascent, there are the 130°F (55°C) temperatures to deal with. It gets so hot, the runners have to run on the white lines on the side of the road so their shoes don't melt! MELT!
Then, there is Mark Covert who has run at least one mile every day since July 23, 1968. He has run over 136,000 miles throughout his life.
In 2013, from August 28 - October 2, a few insane individuals will attempt one of three races:
- One Ironman Triathlon daily * 30 days
- One Ironman Triathlon daily * 20 days
- One Ironman Triathlon daily * 10 days
There are plenty more of these if you look around. Humans are pushing the limits of human capability every day. This blog is my small attempt. So today, I ran a whopping 35 minutes! Can you believe it! (I'm going to start on that pathetic rant again...)
Here are my numbers for the day:
Time: 35:00
Distance: 3.48 miles
Pace: 10:04/m
Max Pace: 6:16/m
Calories: 452
Avg HR: 138
Max HR: 159
My goal was to stay in my aerobic zone, and for the most part, I did. The spike in my heart rate and speed was due to the drills I do before most runs, excluding my short 15 minute runs. I warm up for about 10 minutes, then I do butt kickers, high knees, sideways cross overs, skipping and then last but not least, strides. These drills are great dynamic stretches (as opposed to static stretching like touching your toes and holding for 30 seconds) and they loosen you up for longer runs or speedwork.
Then I finished out my run after the drills. It was a bit hot today (about 80) and I ran around 12:00pm, so the heat was a factor. I tried to keep in my aerobic zone, but my heart had other plans. I had to keep on slowing down until I finally stopped (well, I ran into a neighbor, Mike McCain, and we chatted for a while). I finished off my run and now I am off to spend the day with the family.
Hope you enjoyed my little endurance history lesson. Until next time,
Run for life!
My goal was to stay in my aerobic zone, and for the most part, I did. The spike in my heart rate and speed was due to the drills I do before most runs, excluding my short 15 minute runs. I warm up for about 10 minutes, then I do butt kickers, high knees, sideways cross overs, skipping and then last but not least, strides. These drills are great dynamic stretches (as opposed to static stretching like touching your toes and holding for 30 seconds) and they loosen you up for longer runs or speedwork.
Then I finished out my run after the drills. It was a bit hot today (about 80) and I ran around 12:00pm, so the heat was a factor. I tried to keep in my aerobic zone, but my heart had other plans. I had to keep on slowing down until I finally stopped (well, I ran into a neighbor, Mike McCain, and we chatted for a while). I finished off my run and now I am off to spend the day with the family.
Hope you enjoyed my little endurance history lesson. Until next time,
Run for life!
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