Week 6 Update: Trail Running for Real + Toes in Sight!

 Fat Guys Find Out Trail Running is Hard!

Michigan Trails are Gorgeous in October

So it turns out the trail running is really hard! Pat and I are fortunate to live pretty close to some great trails to train on. Upper Macatawa Natural Area has some great mountain biking trails that are going to be our house of pain on this journey. It was very different running to the trails we did at Mackinac Island SwimRun with a lot more ups and downs, technical parts, roots, and leaves everywhere. Man was it beautiful. My friend Dan who is a very experienced backpacker and trail runner took us out to show us the ropes. It was a huge test for me as I'm just getting comfortable with a few miles on the road, but was going to throw caution to the wind. My buddy Cody joined us as well for the suffering. And boy did we suffer!

Buffaloes and Trail Guru Dan

We found a bike randomly tossed on top of a tree stump. Probably one of the Low Tide Boyz's old rides! We aren't ready to toss our bikes just yet, but as you can see from the pics we did a lot of sweating! I was pleased to see my work on my smaller muscles groups paid off as I didn't really have the aches and pains in my hips, glutes, shoulders and such that I typically do. My ankles also held up much better than expected. My cardio is WAY behind which held me back from Dan and Pat. I've got a lot more work to do than Pat here!

Another Triathlete Ditching his Bike for SwimRun

Cody and I had a rough intro!

What a great time! We will be back. Wondering what these are going to be like in the snowy days we will need to be training in. How much worse can it get? LOL

Its Not a Competition Pat

    The weight loss for both of us continues to go well. We have both dieted many many times to lose weight. You don't lose 80-100 pounds all at once and then keep it off forever. I refer to the 20-30 pounds I'm trying to lose as my "old friend". I've met him many times and will probably meet him again. I've been able to make the 225 range my new normal over the past decade and Pat 200ish. But we go up and down depending on what our goals are. I've done both my Ironman races at 227-228 when I meant to be 205. I just have never timed my weight with my race which I'm trying to do here. Pat did Ironman Lake Placid at 217 and typically races at 185 these days. We are both trying to be in a nice spot for Lake James. We don't want to sacrifice too much strength/muscle for weight loss as its not as critical in SwimRun as it is when you throw the bike in to a triathlon. 

Weight	Skav	Pat
Start: 9/5/22	244.8	212
Today: 10/24/22	233.2	197.4
Week Gain (Loss)	(4.3)	(0.6)
Total Gain (Loss)	(11.6)	(14)
Goal for Lake James 4/23/22	215	185
To Goal:	(18.2)	(13)

The game is getting tighter....and lighter...

Get the coffee in because the work sucks!

Skav