Here we Go

I am going to attempt to blog my journey for my first Ultra Marathon. I have signed up for The Labor Of Love 50 mile run that will be held in Lovell Canyon Las Vegas on April 19th.
In 2003 I had enough of being heavy and was tired of being a 3 pack a day smoker and started my weight loss journey. It only took about 6 months to take of a little over 80 pounds and if I were going to keep this off I needed to find some goals to reach for. It was then that I discovered the Sprint Triathlon and 2004 is when that new adventure started. By 2007 I was doing my first Ironman and since I have no completed 3 Ironmans, 21 Half Ironmans, 3 stand alone marathons but I havent had a chance to train solely for a marathon they have been mixed into my tri training mostly by accident. I was accepted in the lottery for Nike Womens Marathon in San Fran and also one year was accepted into NYC marathon so I couldnt not do them! I also did Myrtle Beach Marathon as that year I was training for an early season 60K as my first Ultra but due to injury was unable to do this. It was a good thing cause the weather at that 60K I found out was horrid. I had some friends who frequently run 100 mile runs plan to do this one as well and due to the weather they opted out. Things happed for a reason!
So alittle more about me. 2009 Was my last Ironman...after that Ironman I did a half marathon 2 weeks later and then The Nike Womens Marathon in San Fran a couple weeks after that. I was signed up to do the Beach to Battleship Full Distance Ironman as well just another short weeks later and then my knee started giving me fits that I couldnt take any longer. I decided against the Beach to Battleship and ended up having my knee scoped only to have the Dr preform 3 mirco fracture do to 3 of the 4 compartments cartilage being extremely worn. There is pretty much no cartilage left on the articular cartilage which is under the patella. After the surgery and during recovery I was told it didnt look good for running again and I would be need a partial knee replacement in a matter of a couple years, I then went to several other Dr's looking for an answer I would be satisfied with. This didnt happen until Dr number 5.......he didnt actually tell me what I wanted to hear but atleast he didnt tell me NOT to run. He did say that he didnt see a knee replacement as quickly as the others suggested but he did suggest to prolong it that if I were running 6 miles 3 or 4 days a week I should maybe cut back to 3 miles a couple days a week.......so that tells me ok....its time to do an Ultra! LOL Since starting this crazy obsession with swimming biking and running, Ultras have just drawn me in. I figure if I dont attempt it now then maybe just maybe I never will. The new knee is inevitable so I will continue until I just cant take it any longer. So now not only dealing with the knee issues a year ago my Plantar Facitis started acting up and after months upon months of no relief 24/7 I went to the Dr. We tried rest, ASTYM therapy, custom orthodics and then a foot specialist. Upon going to the foot specialist not only did I have acute Plantar Facitis the pain I was experiencing 24/7 is actually called Tarsal Tunnel. Similar to that of Carpel Tunnel in the hand....a nerve entraps the area around the ankle. Only solution is surgery to remove the entrapment since all other therapy's had failed. I was scheduled for surgery July 21st of this year and after more research about the recovery time and the actual percentage rate of fixing it I opted out. Instead I decided to lose the 20 some pounds I had put on since knee surgery at the end of 2009. Believe it or not this is helping!! I am currently down 30 pounds so I am at my lightest ever and I do want to continue as I believe the less weight I have on my body the longer I will keep my joints. I also wont lose any muscle mass during this process.
So here I begin this wonderful journey for 2012! I will do 2 marathons in March for training the 50 mile Ultra in April and then start training for Ironman number 4 which will be Wisconsin on September 9th. I tell myself after this I will stick with half marathons, and half ironmans but then that other voice tells me 5 Ironmans sounds much cooler then 4....100 miles sounds cooler then 50....so we will see what happens.