travis' brain dump

So, I figured I’d at least get one post in every month in 2012. That being said… it’s January 31st. I think for a while there I was shunning technology a lot. Crawling into my little hole and trying to ignore electronics for a while seemed like a fitting thing to do with all the workload I was under for so long. It’s been really nice to have the last couple of months be somewhat “normal”, if there is such a thing. I rolled into 2012 with some cool tech toys… upgraded my failing HTC G2 with a nice Samsung Galaxy S2, scored myself a Transformer Prime and I’ve been on a rampage of updating things the last few days on the backend of my servers. Feels good to be back in the saddle again. I may even pick up some lightweight development projects for android along the way if I can keep this up.

So, 2012… a new year and lots of things to do. Fitness, major revamp of that project in order this year. I haven’t gained any weight back but I’ve been in this maintenance mode for all too long. It’s quite pathetic and I need to bust out of the plateau and just finish the job. I only have about 10-15 lbs to go out of my journey, why just settle now? 215 is right around the corner and is taunting me. Still, where I’m at is quite the departure from the 270 I started at. *shudder* Aside from the obvious non-resolution, I’ve decided this year to spend some time getting some things in order in my life… the typical gambit of things… doing more family stuff, finances, future goal setting/planning, etc… etc… I figure I’ll get it all figured out just in time for the 12/21/12 apocalypse… *laughs* whatever. Top on my list of things to do, be a little more focus on who I should be… This blog is probably going to turn into the most bi-polar representation of my psychological state that anyone has ever seen trying to meet that goal. Should be fun from an observers point of view though so stay tuned!

With that… I need to go to bed.

Wow…

And that’s all I have to say about that… It’s been a little over 24 hours since completion and I’m still feeling like I just got done. If there was ever a course on the planet that could make you feel every ounce of just how out of shape you could possibly be, this is it. Blistered, burned, bruised, scratched and cramped should about sum it up… Major thanks out to Randy and Nef for dragging me through that last bit… I never would have made it without them. All in all not too shabby… I do have to admit, I skipped a couple obstacles – I had to… Mostly due to pure exhaustion and a throbbing pain in my hand/arm from having it stepped on in the cargo net, but hey… that’s part of the game right? 20/25 obstacles is still OK in my book when you look at the scope of what that course is like. Next year I must best it though.

I do have to say though… I’ve never experienced anything like that before and the training I did to prepare for it was GROSSLY INADEQUATE. There will definitely be MAJOR changes to what I do to prepare for it, should I decide to submit myself to that kind of torture again. Two things on my list… hill running and cold water treatment. Those are the two things I need to focus on because traversing 4200+ vertical feet of Beaver Creek on foot is no joke nor is swimming through sub 40 degree water. I quite honestly thought I was going to collapse from the shock of that alone.

I still don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to do electricity though… That particular obstacle I had no physical reason to skip, that was all a solid wuss move. Electrical current is just something I can’t purposely subject myself to. lol

Props out to anyone who tried that event yesterday, bigger props to anyone who finished and ultimate respect to all those who completed all the obstacles and finished. Amazing.

Soo… I ran my third Bolder Boulder today and successfully shaved off another 11 minutes from last year and came in at 1:03:32! So in total from the first time I ran the race I’ve shaved off 17 minutes and 25 seconds. Next year I think I’ll break that one hour barrier and see just how far under I can go. I probably would have come really close to that one hour mark but I drank too much water before the race and  had to stop at bout the 6k mark and hit a roadside port-o-pottie, lol.

Here’s the results from today… not too impressive overall but I’m well pleased!

Running Activity 6.51 mi | RunKeeper.

overall place: 18472/49208
division: M32
division place: 323 out of 497
gender place: 11221 out of 22348

mile 1: 00:09:44.80

mile 2: 00:09:47.22

mile 3: 00:10:39.53

mile 4: 00:10:18.56

mile 5: 00:10:08.29

mile 6: 00:10:54.11

net time: 01:03:31.48

pace: 10:13 (based on net time)

Next stop… Tough Mudder Colorado… Just 25 days and counting!

Tough Mudder… for those that know what it is, you know what I’m talkin’ about… For those that don’t? Well, it’s 8-10 miles of obstacles of rock, water, tubes, walls, wood, fire, electricity and yep, you guessed it, mud.

What am I thinking? Honestly, I’m not quite sure, LOL.

I got drafted by Randy to join in this, sure to be, adventure at the end of June…  Am I ready for it? No way what so ever! What does that mean? Yep, you guessed it… intense training. Am I nervous? You bet!

Training starts tomorrow and boy I can’t wait… *face palm* Surely I’d have picked a better day to start than the day after DST begins eh? *rolls eyes* It’s about 18:30 right now and I’m feeling as thought it’s going to be hard to go to sleep tonight… only to turn around have to get up at the equivalent of 2:45 (3:45 DST) to start working out. For the record… I don’t give a rats rear end about the stupid reasons behind DST. It’s dumb, and it kills people. (I’m actually not being dramatic, read: Is Daylight Saving Time bad for your health?) Regardless, I will be up at the crack of dawn sweating to the P90X blues, working during the day and then taking on another interval training in the afternoons before dinner and slipping into a coma due to exhaustion, er going to bed. What better way to lose weight right? I’m actually doing pretty good.

I finally got rid of my “work related weight gain” that I acquired last summer due to insane hours and lack of working out for 3 months and the subsequent 2 months of recovery I needed after. *NOT* doing that again. Only 15lbs from goal weight overall! Of course, after I finish up with this I have no idea what I will weigh… In other news, along the way I’ll be hitting up a couple 10k’s if all goes well. The Bolder Boulder is a must but if I’m training for the Tough Mudder, you can bet I’m going to decimate my time from last year. Last year I came in at 1:14:50. I’m looking for sub one hour this year. While I don’t know for sure if I’ll land in the upper 40′s, I will be breaking the hour barrier and at least be in the mid to upper 50′s. (personal goal setting at it’s finest!)

Here’s to hoping I don’t hit the snooze button tomorrow!!!