It's been a while since i posted, I wish i could say i was so busy working out i haven't had the time to work, but i cant. After the great race i set my sights on the pgh 10 miler. Then I found out i couldn't get the day after the race off of work. I work a very active job, i deliver for FedEx ground, i can walk from 6 - 10 miles a day carrying up to 150lbs packages. Just getting in and out off the truck is 300 stairs up and 300 down. I had to work the day after the great race and it was a sufferfest. I can't do that to myself again. It was tough receiving the bad news, It put me into a mini funk. I didnt work out for 2 weeks, i had every excuse to not from soreness to car problems and everything in between. 2 weeks was the longest break i took since i started this journey in late January. . During that time i thought of a new game plan. I figured out what my goals should be this winter. I have 1 run left this year, which i will talk about later, then im in a offseason for races. Since this is my 1st year in training in a long long time, it will be my first offseason in as long. I think this will be my biggest test yet. I dont have anything to train for. So it is very important for me to stay focused and on track. During the break i self-evaluated my strengths and weaknesses. I will use this past years lessons learned to tweek my workouts to work on weaknesses. And now goal 1, is to get stronger.  My upper body strength is ok, but it needs to be a lot stronger. I also want to do functional strength training, like kettle bells. So from now till january. i do just the opposite as to what i have been trying all year, i try to gain weight. need 10-15 lbs of muscle. I need to get stronger to do all the obstacles, period.

The last run i have on my list is a fundraiser run for childrens hospital. Shaun Bryne and Chris Smith are hosting a 24 hour run. From 5:00 pm sat. nov.1 to 5:00 pm nov 2 at least 1 person will be running or walking around the track at the Woodland Hills High School track. here is a facebook link for more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/716166078463036/
and if you would like to sponsor me and make a donation
 https://www.givetochildrens.org/24HourRun
and the guy im carrying Zach, found the photo on the tough mudder website. i love this picture. it made my day. it sums up how far i came this year. here is a before photo. yikes i look horrible

the great race recap.

This was my first Great Race, and i couldnt be happier with my experience. This course a 10k, its on the fast side, because you loss a few hundred feet of elevation. It still has its challenges. you start off on a good climb from Frick park to Sq.Hill, then the course goes downhill into Oakland. On my way down forbes around cmu, i felt a pinch on the elbow, it was my friend jeni. She is good runner and didnt take long before she was out of my sights. At that point i was feeling really good. i was running the race with my cousin jordan. We both had a goal of 10 min miles. We are very large men. He estimated his weight at 263 on race day. And i was at 254. He is a mountain of muscles, very, very strong. I smoked him in the first 10 k i ever ran, it was also my first race ever. It was the week before the pgh marathon, on the montour trail. That being said i knew he was coming for vengence, we are super competitive with each other. At mile 2 i increased the pace. Jordan kept me from running to fast and i would be thanking him later. We came out of Oakland and a band playing on the side of the road started into "happy". And i was...until we turned the corner and the music faded and i seen a sea of color, climbing a huge hill, up the BLVD of the Allies past Duquesne University. This is when i learned a valuable lesson on energy management. After the climb i was spent. I had used up all the reserves.i was running on fumes. As we got into the city i got a burst of adrenaline and picked up the pace, jordan pushed hard and i couldnt keep his pace. I finished with a 1:01.15. my goal was 10 min miles i ran, 9:51 miles. I did really good i think. I didnt respect  this race and train proper for it. most of the last 2 months ive half assed training. But thats all over. Next up, the 10 miler.

Saturday September 20th 5 30am.

My alarm goes off, I get up and turn it off. Then it hits me, its race day. Today i am doing the gladiator rock n run. http://gladiatorrocknrun.com/ I pick up my friend shuan byrne, We are running the race together. In Obstacle races sometimes you need teamwork to get through. this was my 2nd obstacle race and shauns 1st. We are rookies. The race went great. Im hooked on the obstacle races. They are a ton of fun. anyway.......Shaun wanted to do the 8 oclock time slot so we could be in the competitive heat. we arrived on time, checked out what we could see of the course. and lined up.. and here comes the adrenaline rush.and the realization that (no offense to shaun he is a marathon runner man) we weresh out of water. these people were serious. These guys had 6 packs and im.... well.... fat. The race went well. We finished under my goal of 1 hour. its a 5k race with 17 obstacles. Turned out we didnt need teamwork in this race. Having a partner does help in the motivational department. lots of fun obstacles in this race. Some not so fun. Like Gladiator burpees, that burpees with cinder blocks. The lunges carrying  a tire uphill then back down were on that list as well. The slip n slide was dare i say epic. I bet i was going 40 mph. it was fast enough to give me a 2 in egg on my forearm after bumping it on the way down. I had a blast and cant wait till next year to do more of these races. 

Hi my name is Tom McQuade jr. And this is my fitness journey blog. i call it a fitness journey, well, because it is  quite a journey. With peaks and valleys, and twists and turns. I will start from the beginning. I started playing  football at age 6. And as i got older i picked up more sports such as baseball, basketball, rugby. My whole childhood i was active with sports. I was always the big kid, still am. I am 6'3" and weigh 250 lbs. Im what i call a fat fit guy. Well of course i hope to drop the first part and have done a lot of that this year. So, after i graduated high school, i had no more sports in my life. I went to school and worked, i didn't have time to play games. As i got older, i got even more busy with life. I work 50-60 hours a week, i am a father and a husband. So time is very limited for me, and excuses are easy to find. After high school i had excuses, i rinsed and repeated for 12 years. I let my self go. I got up to 295 lbs. For the last 2 years i beat myself up mentally about my weight. I knew i had to do something about it. But doing it is harder than thinking about it, so i didn't do anything but think about it.when i took my job at fedex i weighed 295 lbs. And in that 2 years of thinking about it i lost 10 lbs. by moving so much. On jan 12 i was 284 lbs and i  bought a gym pass....