From the Desk of Dr. Len
The Colony Half Marathon 2014
Dr. Len Lopez – Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Let me first say, I have never ran a marathon or half marathon before. I’ve never ran a 10K, and have only ran about five 5K’s in the past 7 years, so my chances of completing a half marathon, according to my wife is CRAZY.
Well, I’m happy to say, I did it!
I did have some doubts if I could do it – but I completed The 2014 Colony Half Marathon in 2 hours and 27 minutes. Not bad according to others, especially when you consider I hadn’t trained for it. I decided to do the run the race three days prior to the start, and the biggest reason my wife and others thought I was crazy is that I haven’t ran more than 3 miles in over 40 years. More exactly I can only remember running 6 miles, once, when I was in high school….so you can see why I had my doubters.
But there is something to be said about training smarter – not longer or harder! I do run, jog, walk about twice a week – if I’m lucky. But when I do get a chance to run, I usually do some type of interval running. I’l still occasionally do a straight jog or aerobic run, but I make sure I stay below my aerobic threshold, and build up my aerobic capacity. This is why heart rate monitors are a must!
That’s the biggest reason I think I was able to succeed in running the half marathon – and also the biggest exercise mistake I see others do. They aren’t expanding their aerobic capacity. They’re not building up their MaxVO2.
I’ll share more about my training routine in the weeks to come, but keep this in mind, the reason I don’t do lots of endurance training is that I have no reason to. I’m not a marine and I don’t competing in these competitions very often. My goal is to keep and add as much muscle on my body and lose as much body fat as I can for a father of three young kids. Thus short, high intensity, burst training and interval running is what I do to stay in shape.
That being said, thank you to all the volunteers, sponsors, The Colony Police department and the organizers of the event, who put this event on, it was great. You all did a wonderful job. The libations were great and very much needed after a depleting race like this.
My ONLY downfall is that my recovery is harder on me and my family than the actual race. My knees weren’t used to that kind of pounding, nor the tendons of my calves. I’m swallowing as much proteolytic enzymes, fish oils, tumeric, magnesium, good protein, and Epsom salt baths, but when you abuse your body like never before – it will keep screaming at you for 72 hours.