I made it to Phoenix yesterday mid-morning. I get a good vibe from it and i already feel my journey here will be a great one. It’s time to get back on the grind. Today i am trying to get adjusted to the changes in time, climate, and whatever else is giving me this splitting headache right now. I have a race in a couple weeks and I will do my best to make it across the finish line. I can say this, Phoenix will be a great place to train. Unfortunately, my family is not here with me yet so while I am here by myself it will be wake up, train, work, eat properly, skype, and sleep. I really think being out of my comfort zone will help me stay focused. I can’t say I like being out of my comfort zone but sometimes thatis just the way it is. Tomorrow will be the first day I test out my new course that I have mapped out. It will need to be early morning though because it is already pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit out here.

I had a great workout today, I am quite tired right now but it was great nonetheless. The weather is great here finally, a little cool but pretty awesome. It makes workouts extremely comfortable. I’m just trying to take each day one at a time instead of looking ahead to the races. If I take care of business now on race day everything will take care of itself. I’m feeling pretty confident right now (that’s happened before). I have my new camera and I should have my video ready from last week to put up and then right after it I will have a new video from this week. I’m looking forward to getting back to the videos. They help me stay on track for the week. I don’t think I will be skipping out on those anymore. I have to say when I started all of this I thought it would be a lot easier than it is. It really isn’t, it’s a lot harder than I ever expected. My goals are going to be tough to reach but in the end I will have earned it all.

I have been off all week and I don’t officially go back to work until I move to Phoenix on the 27th of April. I have to say that this comes as a blessing because after last Sunday. I have been afforded the time to try to figure out what happened. The biggest thing that will happen is I will be working harder making sure I eat properly all of the time, etc… I didn’t expect to barely get started on Sunday before things went wrong but we won’t dwell on it but we will learn from it. I was feeling very confident before the race so I may not have that same confidence come May 2ndbut as soon as I see mile 1 I will know I am okay, I never made it there last week. I did wait around at the finish andwatch some people finish their races, it was pretty cool. I saw a guy finish his half in 1:06:58, wow. I may never have a time like that but it made me hungrier to get the job done. In my opinion this month leading up to the next race is make or break time for me. As long as I keep at it, I will be okay.

Today’s race didn’t go as planned. Like a few months ago I went out early. I am not injured or anything like that I just didn’t get it done. As I sat there after I stopped I thought about what happened and I came to this conclusion, I need to be more consistent. i need to be more consistent with the training and more consistent with my diet. more consistency in these two areas is going to get me across the finish line. To me the unbearable pain early in the race means I need to lose more weight. That is what I started this for so that is what will happen. It looks like from here on out I will be able to do my runs outside so that will be a big help in preparing me for the rest of my runs this year. I can say I am disappointed today but I am only disappointed in myself. I think after Disney I felt sorry for myself and that hurt my training and diet over the last few months. I don’t feel sorry for myself today. I have my next race on May 2nd in Prescott, Arizona. I will be working extremely hard to make that one go as planned. we shot a video today before and after the race. I didn’t want to run from the video like I did after Disney. It is done in a different format so it may not be until Wednesday before I can get it posted, but it will be posted. I’m going back to the videos to keep me consistent. We will go back to the weekly weigh-ins. I learned a great lesson today. Six more races, no more setbacks.

Life has been busy for a little while now. This weekend will get a little busier but at least it will be quite a stress reliever. I’m a couple hours from heading over to Dearborn, Michigan for the Martian half Marathon. I’m not too nervous about it but I still have that “weird” feeling. I’m not sure if I will always have this feeling before races or if I will get used to them and it will just be like any other day. I am not quite sure which I would prefer. If I don’t have that feeling, do I care anymore? If I do, am I confident enough? Either way,Sunday should be a great day. I’ll need to check the weather because it is still pretty cold in my part of the country so I am assuming it may be chilly in Michigan. I’m not taking my laptop so I wont blog again until late Sunday night when I get back home but I’m sure you will be able to find my time through their website until then. It’s time to finish up getting ready. At 7:00 am Sunday morning, Martian half Marathon it is.