Day of Rest

Sunday we took for family time and rest. I have to go out of town today but I am packing my skates. I really hope to be able to get an hour in tonight but we will see.

Houston Warmup!

I wasn't able to skate Houston but I attended and took some pictures. This is one of my favorites!

Skate #1

11.17.11 Skate #1 I got in about an hour of skating. I use a skate app that monitors route, distances and speeds. So in that hour I completed 3.2 miles but my average speed was 5.4 mph. I had my son along on his bike and that slowed down the speed and actual miles. So I am very encouraged by the session. I am far from the 14mph average I need to complete the Marathon in 2 hours but it was a good pace to start.

I mentioned I had had two surgeries in the past 2 months, one of them was 3 weeks ago and  it hasn't completely healed so my wife was against me starting this now but I assured her it would be fine. I have a 3 inch opening on my tailbone, so she is afraid it will rip if I fall. I told her there is little chance I will fall I have skated plenty in my life. Well as they say 'famous last words'. Yeah you know whats going about five minutes in to the first skate and I bit it. It was a steep down hill and the little trail was narrow so when I tried to cut to stop the paving was a little damp, I couldn't hold the edges and down I went. I didn't hit my tailbone so no problem with my surgery recovery but I took a pretty good shot on my hip, knee and elbow. Nothing to bad some good bruising but mainly just a good 'I told you so' form my wife. I am not sore from the skate but I am a little sore form the fall.

Running Total

Hours 1
Miles 3.2
Falls 1 

Logistics :)

The town I live in is small so there isn't a paved trail around the lake or park type of place for me to practice. So I will be mixing street skates with some time in a local skating rink. I won't ever be able to get up to speed in the rink, so the rink skates will be used mainly just to put hours in on my skates and to work on stamina. Even though it won't be at race type of speeds three hours of skating, I hope, will still work to build the muscle memory.

I am using three different sets of skates for this one is a pair of K2 Radical 100's that I bought in '06, they haven't seen many miles yet, I will use them for the actual races and street skates. I also will use a pair of Bauer recreational street skates and a pair of Bauer hockey skates. The last two are going to be mainly for the rink skates. At some point in the year I will have to buy some new whels and bearings, I'm sure, but for now I think I am good for skates.

In preparing for the Houston Marathon I hope to skate the half marathon at Texas Road Rash in Austin in April. There may be a conflict with a wedding that weekend but even if I have to drive through the night to get there I plan to skate.

The Beginning

Today starts my journey. I don't know yet how many hundreds of miles I will get to put on my skates in the next year but the number that matters is 28.2. That is the number of miles in the 2012 Houston Inline Marathon and that is the amount I will train to be able to complete next November.  

For the stats, I will check my weight once a week. (I hope to reach 180lbs by the time of the marathon next November) My weight starting Day 1 is 226b lbs. I will lose 46 lbs on this journey!


Let the FUN begin!