D-Day and H-Hour appoaches!

A very brief update for those that have been wondering "What's Greg been up to?" and "Is he ready for his first race of the year?".  The answer comes this Sunday, April 28th!

Despite high hopes for getting my weight into the 170s, alas it didn't happen.  I'll probably hit the start line on Sunday morning at 185.  There is good and bad to that.  The bad is relatively clear in that I didn't reach that stretch goal of dropping below 180 by the end of April.  I have to be honest in saying that I clearly wasn't as disciplined as when I first undertook a weight loss effort back in 2008.  That being said I started this effort from quite a different place than the first time around.  In 2008 I started my weight loss effort from around 225 pounds and at one time pushed myself down to 179 (just in advance of the honeymoon with my new wife :) - positioned me well to let all the rules go for that 2-week period!).  In 2013, I started weight loss from a starting point of 200 pounds and as I've said now sit at 185. 

The good of where I sit now weight-wise is that I don't believe I've ever run a race at anything below 190 and maybe not even below 195 pounds.  So I should be better positioned from a weight standpoint to give myself a good chance at a personal best half-marathon time come Sunday.

On the training side, I have to say that I believe the quality of my run training (and bike training) has been better than it was when I was preparing for my Ironman competitions.  Maybe no surprise.  I've learned a lot about myself, my capabilities and how much more I can do since I completed my last Ironman Canada in 2011. 

So everything should be set up for my personal goal of a sub 2-hour half-marathon performance this Sunday...except for the weather??  As perhaps most of us in North America might be able to attest to, this year winter was not particularly nice nor has it been all that excited about releasing its grip on our part of the world.  We've continued to have relatively cold temps through to this week and even fits of snow thrown in for good measure.  As I have checked out the course of the race I've not been very impressed to see patches of snow and ice on the course.  Been keeping a wary eye on forecasted race day temp as well - it appears that I will start the race at near 0 degrees Celsius and likely not get much beyond 5 degrees by the time I'm finished.  Neither temp or course condition seem particularly conducive to achieving a personal best. 

I will still give it my best, push myself to a performance I believe I am capable of.

Wish me luck!