Un-fat That Ass!

September and I'm back to cutting

2009-09-01T12:17:00.001-07:00

Back down to 1800ish calories. I put on 26 pounds in August. Maybe... oh... half or less of that was muscle. Time to cut again and get that fat down. Fun fun. Bye bye food.

August Picture Is Up

2009-08-01T05:52:00.001-07:00

It looks slighty better than July. Not much progress. In my defense, only half the month involved workouts, and hardly any of it involved diet. September's picture should be better.

Ahh.. .freaking out a bit

2009-07-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

I completed my first week of "power lifting" and I feel like I've been worked over with a baseball bat. That's the good news. Sore muscles means growing muscles.

Here's the bad news:
This new plan has me scared shitless. I went from eating 1800 calories a day to eating 3000. The idea is, I haven't lost a pound in over a year, and the fitness guru guy I'm working with says it's because my body has finally adapted to 1800 calories, and that is now my "normal" calorie intake. It's no longer considered a "deficit" by my body. So his plan is to jack my calories up, and have me start power lifting. The idea is to pack on a bunch of muscle (and some fat), and then switch back to the deficit and start cutting fat again.

So far? All I notice is I'm fatter. I'm freaking out. I've gained 6 pounds or so in the last two weeks. I'm supposed to think it was at least half muscle, but it looks a lot like fat in my face and gut.

We'll see. I will try to stick with it for at least the first 8 week cycle.

I feel so much better about this new approach

2009-07-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

Alright. Here's a reality check.

Why am I doing this?

Fact:
Before when I was 250 and quite a bit fatter, I had zero health problems. No high blood pressure. No high cholesterol. Nothing.

So to get right down to it. I'm doing this purely for two reasons:
1) Physical Appearance
2) Physical Ability

That's it! So why would I weigh myself? I don't care what I weigh. I only care about looks and abilities. So abilities is an easy one. Can I run further and lift heavier things than I could the month before? Easy to check. Looks are a little tougher. I'm taking monthly photos, and we'll see if there's a difference.

This makes much more sense. Weight be damned. Muscle bound football players who have amazing physical abilities and amazing bodies are all 250+ pounds and "obses" according to BMI.

If I end this journey as a muscled up guy who can run a marathon, then I win.

And for some motivation, here's me at my buddy's wedding a few weeks back. I actually think I look pretty decent!

Doing things differently for a bit

2009-07-15T07:31:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to manage burn-out, so I'm going to stop with the daily weighings and stop with the log tracking.

I'm doing a test run of my new plan this week and getting all my lifting weights figured out. I'm doing a lot of lifts I've never done, and so I'm establishing a baseline.

I'll be doing monthly pictures for now instead of weights and charts. I'm worrying FAR too much about what the scale says, and not nearly enough about what really matters. I gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 3 pounds of fat, the scale says I gained two pounds, and then I feel like a failure. That is a crappy way to do things. So screw the scale for now. Screw the log. I know if I'm eating right and hitting my workouts. For now, I don't need the accountability, and don't want the overhead of messing with the chart.

I'll most that picture in my post down to a permanent spot, and then post up monthly pictures and we'll see if there's a change.

I think I have my muscles ready to go

2009-07-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

I hope to start my new plan on Monday. I spent this week getting my body used to being pushed again. I think I'm ready to go. This new plan makes SOOO much more sense to me. I hope I get results out of it.

I've sucked so much ass in the last month it makes me cry

2009-07-06T13:08:00.001-07:00

194 bitches. That's right. 194. I was 194 this morning. I'm damn near back to last year's weight. It's freaking AMAZING how quick it goes. In about 6 weeks I put on 10 pounds, can't run for shit, can't lift for shit, and look like this:

That's some bullshit. I mean, that ain't a BAD body, but it is WAY worse than it was 6 weeks ago.

So I start a new plan today. I have this week to re-aclimate myself to strenuous workouts and dietting, and then next week it's ON! I wasn't going to post this horrible picture, but I have to be honest with everyone. You can't get anywhere if you're in denial about where you're starting from. I mean, even at my current state I'm 56 pounds down from where I started. I'll get this. It just takes more dedication.

The two-week void

2009-06-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

Alright I'm not even going to attempt to fill the chart in for these last two weeks. I was on vacation. I was eating crap most of the time, but sometimes I ate really well. I did a bunch of hiking some days, and other days sat on my ass all day. So I can't even say it was just two solid weeks of red days. I'll just leave it blank and start tracking again on Sunday.

I'm freaking 10 pounds heavier than I was a month ago. This blows so bad.

Ahh..

2009-06-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

Back from vacation, and I brought a few things back with me.
1) A nice calm mind.
2) A renewed sense of purpose for getting in shape
3) About 10 extra pounds :)

So, as with all things, the first day weighing in after eating like a mad man is super super heavy. This morning I was 195.1. So... I'd guess my actual weight right now is around 188-189 or so. I will be a good boy from now on and get some serious work done before Kalahari and Myrtle Beach.

I've changed a little bit of my direction as well. I now desire strength over running. I know that I will never be a super fast runner, and will never be a race winner. I'm quite happy being able to comfortably cover the distance. I need to get up to full marathon, but I don't see a need in shaving 10 seconds off my 5k time. I competed for the first time at my last 3k. What I mean by this is, I never knew anyone running who was similar in ability to myself, so I was only ever competing against my own personal records. At the 3k, a friend was running who was right around my same ability. I edged him out to beat him by like 20 or 30 seconds, and really took no joy in it. I've always known that I'm not a competitive person, but I was a little shocked that I didn't care about beating him. I guess that just goes to show myself that getting faster and winning races wouldn't really matter to me. I'm happy to get out and run. I really don't care how fast I do it.

Now strength on the other hand, I could use. I would REALLY like to be extremely strong. I think my body is better built for strength than speed anyway. Running has been a constant pain inducer for me. I have more troubles with running pain than anyone else I know. I have some friends that are already up to running half marathons after less than a year of running, and are pain free. It took me years to get up to that, and I still have sore legs after simple 4 mile runs. I still can't run back to back days. It's really rather annoying. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to drop running. I'm just shifting my focus a little. Lifting has always been something I did on my off days because I couldn't run two days in a row. Now I want to have the mindset that running is the cardio I get on my off days because you're not supposed to lift two days in a row. I found myself going through the motions on my lift days, and not working as hard as I could. I want to change that for now.

So... look for me to get a lot stronger, and talk about lifting more than running. That's all.

Stay tuned!

Just throwing a post up

2009-06-09T05:54:00.000-07:00

Just letting everyone know I'm still here. I'm not posting as much, but I still fill out my chart at the bottom of the blog every day.

I did a 3K the other day. I turned a better time than I expected. 13:34. It was only good enough for 8th in my age group, but I'm sure I can get faster. I was 20 seconds off 5th place and a medal.

Cathy ran it as well. It was her first race ever. He best training time was 24:00. She turned a 21:15 at the race! I couldn't be prouder.

Half done

2009-05-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

I finished another half marathon yesterday. My goal was to complete it in under 2 hours. My last half was 2:14, so 2:00 was a ton of improvement. I hit the last mile at like 1:53. That didn't leave me much time so I sucked it up and damn near came to a full-out sprint for that last mile. I crossed the finish line at 1:59:11. Goal attained!

Now on to the long-standing goal of getting in shape. Cathy and I are going to try to hit hard starting this week. Wish us luck.

12 Miles done, no problem for the half

2009-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Did 12 miles on Sunday. Expect that I was coughing my lungs out the whole time because I'm still sick, it was a pretty decent run. I figure if I can turn 12 miles in 2 hours while hacking up a lung, I should be able to finish the half marathon in about the same amount of time. So, I'm shooting for 2 hours on the nose. That would shave 14 mins off my last half. I'll have to hold a 9:09 pace. Which, with walk breaks at water stops, needs to be more like a 9 flat. That shouldn't be a problem, but we'll see. Unfortunately with this race being so early in the summer, I haven't had a chance to acclimate to the heat. If it's all of a sudden in the 80's, it may slow me down quite a bit. Of course the race is quite early in the morning, so hopefully it will be fine. I like to run at 50-60 degrees.

On the lifting front, I'm almost back to 100%. My elbow is still a little sore, but it's not bad. I've started my once a week heavy lift. Not to sound like I'm bragging, but I'm way stronger than I thought I was. I normally was curling 20's. So for my heavy day I started with 25's, no problem. On to 30's, no problem. On to 35's, there I was feeling it. 35's? That's almost double what I was curling on my light days. I had no idea I could curl 35's. So now yesterday I went back to my light day, and 20 all of a sudden felt really light. I can already see how this 1 heavy day a week is going to increase my overall lifting weight. I still can't bench to save my butt, but I'm working on it.

April Results

2009-05-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

Well... the bad news is I ended the month at 186 average. The good news is my daily weight today was 184.

My grade ends up being:
Lunch: 45% F
Dinner: 35% F
Exercise: 67% D

Total: 49% F

Hoorah! F!

May has to be better.

Last week

2009-04-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Was better than the week before, but it still needs to get better.

The good news is I did 10 very comfortable miles on Sunday. I should be just fine for the half marathon in 3 weeks.

OK. . It's on like Tron

2009-04-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

IT'S ON!

8 Miles yesterday. It wasn't fun. Of course, I was running in a decent downpour of rain the whole time.

I'm back to ???.?? for 10-day average weight. I only have like 3 weigh-ins in the last 10 days so I can't take an average. I'll started weighing daily again this morning. I'll have a new 10-day just in time for my May 1 milestone. At this point, I don't assume I'll even make it back to my April 1 weight, but we'll see.

I really am going to try to get back to it

2009-04-17T08:29:00.003-07:00

I really am.

How about I start this Sunday. Fresh week. Fresh effort.

Changing up my lifting

2009-04-14T07:32:00.001-07:00

I had a long talk with a VERY strong friend of mine at the gym. He was benchpressing 335 just before we started talking.

So I asked him "How the hell do I get that strong?????" After he was done laughing, we starting talking. He had remembered that I was doing this whole light weight/perfect form thing. He said that doing that was great for sculpting my body and building sizeable muscles. He had noticed that in the last 3 months I was noticeably more cut and had much larger arms. He said strength, however, requires going heavy. So we put together a little different routine. It's not too different as far as what lifts I do, but the weight and reps are quite different.

Now I will have 2 routines.
Routine 1:
Heavy weight, 4-6 reps, 3 sets.

Routine 2:
Light weight, reps to failure, 4-5 sets.

I'll do Routine 1 once a week, and Routine 2 twice a week. This way I should have best of both worlds. We both agreed that looking and feeling good is more important, but I want to be strong as well.

My goal is to someday press 315. That magical 315. 6 plates on the bar. I'm a LOOOONG way off.

Alright. Time to get back to it.

2009-04-13T07:02:00.001-07:00

Fun time's over. Motivation or not, it's time to get serious again.

I did good on exercising last week, but still pooched the diet. Gotta be better this week.

I've lost motivation

2009-04-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

It happens. I'm completely unmotivated to keep going. It's low tide for me. When this happens, I just try to hang on until the motivation returns. No need to encourage me, it won't help. I will try my damndest to get the spark back this month, but we'll see. I'm doing the workout stuff, but the diet is just not there. At some point, you get sick of eating bird food for too many months in a row.

Blah... depressed.

First days back SUCK

2009-04-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

First days back suck.

First day back to running: 4 miles and ankle pain.
First day back to lifting: HA! suck.

Hopefully second day back will be better.

A bad week

2009-04-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

In more ways than one. I'm sure most anyone who knows me is aware of what happened last week, so I'm not going to talk about it here. Needless to say, I had a solid red week. I've paid for it on the scale as well. I was 186.3 this morning, which is 3+ pounds over my 10-day average from April 1. I have a solid week of missed weights, so I'm going to wait the 10 days until I have a new 10-day average to report. I'm back on the wagon now. I think April's A grade is shot, but I'll try for a B.

Woooo look at all that Red!

2009-03-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

That's pretty. I like red. Red is both tasty, and doesn't wear me out. I can't say the same for green. Green makes me hungry and tired. I like Red better.

So I'm 182.79 this morning. I am confident I'll stay under 183.0 and beat my April 1 goal.

I'm back on the wagon now with a renewed sense of dedication. I enjoyed my hiatus, but now it's time to get back to work. I have a half marathon in 7 weeks or so. I'm also T-minus 26 weeks until Myrtle Beach. Half a year. I expect to be in damned good shape by then. I'm not sure about weight, so I think I'm going to let the weight goals go. When I was 230ish I set a goal of 170. Now that I'm closing in on 180, I can say for sure that I have more than 10 pounds to lose, so 170 isn't low enough. Maybe 160? Looking at my body now, I would think 22.79 pounds off is probably about right. It may be a little low though. 165 might be right. Basically, I don't know. I've never been in shape, so I have no idea.

So... I think for April I'm going to start a new goal program. Instead of weight loss goals, I'm going to go with green consistency. March is completely shot. Assuming I'm good today and tomorrow, it's looking like I'll have:
Lunch: 77
Dinner: 74
Workouts: 65
Total: 72, so a C for the month.

Since I'll have no other goal, I'd like to get an A for April.

Stay Tuned!

March can kiss my ass

2009-03-26T11:51:00.001-07:00

Yep... kiss it. Screw it, I don't care LOL! I'm hitting my weight goal for April, so I really don't care about March's grade.

I'll be back on the wagon in April.

Took a last red day yesterday

2009-03-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Took one more red day yesterday. I think I'm up to working out again, but Cathy is sick now and I decided to spend the evening with her.

The good news is, I hit my goal 10-day average of 183.0 today. Now... I have to hold it for 6 days :)

Two more days of red

2009-03-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

I was sick as a dog though, so it's not my fault. I'm pretty sure I had food poisoning. It was kinda fun though. According to the scale, I lost just over 5 pounds in 1 day!! Yes I know, that's not even close to real, but it was still kinda neat to see :) I've had two days in a row at 181. We'll see what my weight is after a couple days of eating again.

This is why I had so many reds last week

2009-03-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

My nice new 2009 Subaru Forester! Between my car dying, buying this one, and the associated stress... ya, like 6 reds in 3 days. awesome.

BUT! I was 182.8 this morning. Lowest single day yet!

So far so good

2009-03-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

I was 182.9 this morning. If that continues I'll be under 183 for April 1.

If I hit 180 I get to think about shaving my goatee. I tried when I was 195ish and it was WAY too soon. That goatee hides a lot of neck and chin :)

I would like to not have it though. Hopefully 180 will mean my neck is skinny enough that I won't look fat without it. We'll see. Worst case, it takes me about 4 days to grow it back :)

Yay a 5 red week

2009-03-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

Yay! Most likely pissed away my A for March. Yay! I couldn't help a lot of it. I had a VERY interesting end of last week. My car died Wednesday. I had a concert Thursday night. Had to spend all day Friday buying a new car. Cathy's birthday was on Friday so we went to dinner. Cathy's mom did a birthday thing on Saturday. On and on and on.

BUT! I had my three lowest weights Saturday, Sunday and Today. Today's was the lowest yet, 183.1. My average now is 184.57. I'm still very much on track to hit 183 by April 1. I may even be below that if I keep my current pace up.

Red meal, Rest night

2009-03-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

My car died (again) last night, so I was in the shop all night. That meant red dinner and no workout. The workout is still green because I plan to workout on Friday, so last night would just become my once a week rest. If I miss Friday as well, then last night will become Red.

Stupid car. Screws up my mobility, my money, my workouts, etc....

Week 1 in the bag, and I got an A!

2009-03-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah. First week of March and I pulled a 90%. I can basically do 2 cheats a week and still get an A. I think I should be able to hit all the workouts, so that would leave me 1 cheat lunch and 1 cheat dinner. Actually, Cathy and I are trying to avoid cheats altogether. I'm finally starting to show some real progress again, and that makes me happier than pizza.

My average is 186.4 right now, but that's due to some pesky 188's hanging around from last week. I was 184.9 on Sunday morning and 184.0 this morning. I am very much on track to hit my goal of 183 by April. Actually, I should be able to beat that goal. I would need to start hitting 183 by mid month to make it. That means I roughly have 1 week to get my daily weight down another pound. Should be doable. Either way, I'm wearing 32x30 jeans today ;)

Report Card

2009-03-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

Alrighty here's my new thing. I'm doing report cards for the month. I'm going a standard 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 for A, B, C, D, F. Only have 3 classes; Lunches, Dinners, Workouts.

January:

New weight loss: 7.85 pounds
Green Lunch %: 89% = B
Green Dinner %: 71% = C
Workout %: 96% = A

Net %: 85% = B

February

Net weight loss: 4.25 pounds
Green Lunch %: 79% = C
Green Dinner %: 61% = D
Workout %: 75% = C

Net %: 72% = C

I sucked in February.... March better be better.

Goal Achieved!

2009-03-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

Ya baby. I wanted to hit 188 for 3/1. I hit 187.8! Nice....

So, how about 5 more for March? Let's say 183 for 4/1?

Skipped workout

2009-02-25T06:15:00.002-08:00

I didn't want to. I was working until 11:30

Had my lowest weight this year though. 187.8

1 week left.

2009-02-23T06:33:00.000-08:00

1 week left in February. I'd REALLY like to be at 188 for March, but I don't think it's going to happen. That would mean I'd have to start turning 187's for the next 5 days. Nope... not gonna happen.

I had a great run on Sunday. It was 6" deep snow most of the way. I felt like Rocky from Rocky 4.

I could really go for some Jello Pudding Pops

2009-02-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

Ya see.. You gotta zip zop some jello pudding pops.

OK Fun Week is Over!

2009-02-16T06:15:00.000-08:00

Fun week's over. Back to the grind.

I'm 2 weeks in and 2 pounds down for Feb. I really want to get another 2 pounds off before March, but I'm not sure it's possible. We'll see.

Expect lots of Green this week.

This is a very colorful week!

2009-02-13T08:24:00.001-08:00

Looks like a stoplight. Nice. Much prettier than all green. All green is boring.

OK you know what?

2009-02-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

Screw this week.

If I make it through this week without strangling someone, it's a win.

It's only Wednesday, and so far:
My 61" television exploded
My production system at work crashed
My production system at work crashed again
My car blew up
I couldn't get reservations at the restaraunt my wife wanted to go to Valentine's Day

I really couldn't care less about diet and exercise this week. You know what? I registered my lowest single day weight this year today. 189.7. I assumed I'd gain weight this week. If I can even show a little progress this week, then it's a major win.

Why or why did I give up boxing? I could really stand to pummel the crap out of a heavy bag right now, lol.

Had me a good 'ol fashioned pity party

2009-02-10T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday sucked, bad. Big depression day. Meals sucked. Workout sucked. Ya.

I'm good now though, and back at it. I REALLY want to get my average into the 180's by March. Like I always say on this thing "it should be possible". Getting it done, however, is a LOT tougher.

To all you newbies losing like 10 pounds a month, ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS! The road becomes a LOT slower and tougher as you get closer to the end. It's like having a super steep hill in the last 2 miles. Just when you're running out of steam, they throw the hill at you. Most tumble back down, and put all the weight back on. The strong push through and see it to the end.

I'm trying to be strong.

What a nice day Sunday!

2009-02-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

I got out for a nice 6-miler. It was the first time in months I've been able to run without a balaclava, knit hat, and spikes. MAN I was like lightning. I didn't realize how much weight those spikes add, and how much bounce they remove. I felt like someone was pushing my foot forward every time I took a stride. I'd say those cleats must be coming close to doubling the weight of my shoes. The downside is, the snow actually cushions your foot fall quite nicely, so now it's back to rock solid concrete.

So I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I'm doing another half marathon in May with 2 buddies (Steph and Joey) who have taken up running. I've heard Steph is up to 6-miles already. With 3+ months to go, I'm sure she'll make it. I haven't heard Joey though.

I was going to be all cool and tell them that I'll run at their pace to make sure they stay on that pace. With the progress Steph is making, she's going to have to slow down to wait for me! That's no good. I'm going to have to get some more runs in, lol. I'm supposed to be Mr. Running-Guy who's been running for a couple years now.

Nah it's cool. I'm just THRILLED that I'm not the only one trying to get in shape. For a couple years there I was alllll alone. Now my wife, my cousin, and at least 4 friends are all on the quest too. Awesome!

There we go

2009-02-04T05:48:00.001-08:00

Back down to the 191's for my 10-day average. Nice.

GAH!

2009-02-03T04:23:00.000-08:00

A bad weight day and it pulled my average up. BOOOOOO.

The lax weekend is OVER. Time to get busy. If I weigh in tomorrow what I was before the weekend, my average will drop into the 191's.

January Results

2009-02-02T07:37:00.000-08:00

Starting Weight = 199.9 lbs
Ending Weight = 192.05 lbs

Net loss = 7.85 lbs
Not bad at all.

I don't have the metrics, but I've lost size in the fat spots and gained size in the muscle spots. So that's good as well.

Plans for February:
I'm going to hold my long runs at 6 miles until it gets a little warmer. It's very incovenient to carry water in the winter, and 6 miles is about as far as I'd like to go without water. Plus, it's tough to run over ice and snow, which fatigues me faster than normal. So 6 miles is the limit for the rest of winter.

I'm going to continue on my improved diet. That has been doing wonders for me. I only missed 1 day of exercise in January, so I'd like to keep that up.

All in all, I'm feeling better, looking better, etc... I'm still very much on track for my 2009 goal of having a beach body by the time I go to Myrtle Beach in September.

Stay Tuned!

Changing it up a little

2009-01-26T06:02:00.000-08:00

At this point, I need more fat loss and less muscle build.

So instead of 3 days cardio, 3 days lifting, I'm doing 6 days cardio 6 days lifting. So instead of my normal lift day of a little over an hour, I'm going to do half an hour of cardio and half an hour of lifting. I'm going to split up my full body routine into 3 partial bodies: Legs/Shoulder/Abs, Biceps/Back/Abs, Triceps/Chest/Abs. I'll do each partial twice a week.

Hopefully with the 3 extra half hour cardio sessions I'll see some more weight loss. I actually have a large amount of muscle already. There's just so much fat on top that it's hard to see. Priority one should be to get the fat off. I'll build a bunch of muscle on top after that.

A red lunch

2009-01-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

We had our team lunch at Harry Carry's. I'm taking it as red, but it wasn't that bad. Here's what I had:
5 pieces of the table bread and butter (it's my weakness)
A good helping of calamari
Pan-seared Salmon on a small bed of mashed potatoes and spinach.
Water

Not horrible by any means, but way over my targetted 400 calorie lunch. I was considering going yellow, and could probably justify it. That just screws me in the end though. I justify why it was yellow instead of red, and then a week from now when I haven't lost much weight I look back at my log and wonder why. I'd rather take a red, and lose more weight than expected than take a yellow and lose less.

Either way, I still weighed in under my average this morning.

BAH!

2009-01-14T05:56:00.000-08:00

An accidental yellow dinner. I fully intended to have a green dinner. I had NO IDEA that my peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches were 500 calories apiece. Blew my mind. 100 a piece for the bread, 200 for the peanut butter and 100 for the jelly. WOW! I had two of them. There goes 1000 calories. Plus another 400 of things I won't talk about and I end up with a 1400 calorie dinner. It was still only 600 over my goal dinner amount, so it's only yellow, but still.

The run sucked too. My treadmill tears my legs up. I need to replace the belt. It slips too much and jacks your knees up.

Week 1 in the bag

2009-01-12T06:04:00.000-08:00

Not bad.

One red dinner. One yellow lunch. No skipped workouts.

My official starting weight for 2009 is 197.55. That's not horrible. I was 191ish before I started packing on pounds in November/December. My lowest ever average was 188. My lowest single day was 184. So.. the goal is to be comfortably in the 180's come spring. Then comfortably in the 170's by summer.

A green rest day?

2009-01-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

Yep. The 1 day of rest every week is part of the plan. It's not a skipped day, so I'm not making it red. On the other hand, my weekly cheat meal is not necessary, and so it will still be red.

Tried my new workout for the first time last night

2009-01-08T05:46:00.001-08:00

WOW! OK, first things first, you need to be secure in your manhood to do this workout. The first thing I had to do was cut all the weight I was lifting in half or more. We're talking I'm down to 40 pound curls, 115 bench, 20 pound shrugs (I was shrugging 80!!), etc...

Now, you need to do PERFECT form. That's the kicker. There will be nobody else at the gym doing perfect form. When curling, for example, you hold your dumbbells flat against your leg. Now curl one arm up without bending your knees, swaying your back, or moving your head. Keep the ENTIRE rest of your body relaxed except the bicep. This way, nothing is helping the bicep pull the weight up. Raise the weight until it's at about a 45 degree upward angle (any higher and you're resting), pause for a second, and then slower lower it back down until your arm is straight again. Nobody else will be doing it like that. They all will be swinging their hips, bending their knees, coming all the way up and then only like 75% of the way back down, etc... Alternate hands until you are so fatigued that you break form. Don't bother counting reps, they don't matter. Just go until you can't maintain perfect form. Then IMMEDIATELY turn your hands inward so you're holding the dumbbell like a beer mug and start over. These are called Hammer Curls. Do these the same way, coming up to a 45 degree angle and then ALL the way back down. Do these until you can't hold perfect form. That's one set. Now rest 30 seconds and go again. Do 4-5 sets. Even with just 20 pound dumbbells, you will be FRIED after 4 sets.

I have a number of these lifts to make up the routine. I did it for the first time last night. I had to skip 5 lifts due to time, and I'm still sore today. WOW!

I expect to see some progress out of this routine.

My first non-green of 2009 :(

2009-01-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

We went to Houlihans last night :( It was really good though.

Disclaimer! I didn't do THAT bad. I had a little calimari, some chicken tortilla soup, a chicken ceaser salad, and half of one of the little desert shot things. It wasn't a green dinner, but it wasn't pizza hut either. I'm marking it as a yellow day. A yellow day is when I didn't eat super healthy, but I didn't eat super bad.

It should break down like this:
Green days = weight loss
Yellow days = weight maintain
Red days = weight gain

Yesterday was surely not a weight GAIN day, so it's yellow.

2009 Redesigns

2008-12-29T07:35:00.001-08:00

OK.. first off. We're not talking about my weight. It's gone to crap, and I accept that.

I'm READY for 2009. I'm charged, I'm motivated, I'm ready to go.

Changes for 2009. I'm back to doing perfect pushups. They rip you up like no other.

I'm going to try to get some cardio on my lift days.

I'm going to track my lunches and dinners on the blog. I have a "lunch" and "dinner" spot for each day that I will turn green if I was good, and red if I was bad. At least this way if I don't lose any weight I'll be able to see all the red and not have to wonder why.

2008 was a trial and error year. I learned how to lift. I learned how to run outside in winter. etc...

2009 is a PRODUCTION year damn it. I want to see some progress.

Stay tuned. I'll report my sad weight on 1/14, after I have 10 days of January weight.

Picture of my 4-seasonness

2008-12-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah... Winter scares me not.

It's official, I'm a 4-season runner!

2008-12-08T05:57:00.000-08:00

I went for my first winter run yesterday. 17 degrees out with a windchill making it feel like 4 degrees. I did 3 miles. It was awesome. The only thing that got cold was my stomach, and it was nothing I couldn't deal with. I do need to wait for my traction doomahickies I have coming though. I slipped 6 times, nearly falling twice. These traction thingies clamp to the bottom of your shoe and have little metal studs all over. They're supposed to help quite a bit.

I'll have Cathy snap a picture next time I go out. I think I look like a biker gang member from the year 2323. Head to toe is covered except the smallest little piece of skin on my forehead.

Blog woes

2008-12-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well... Between work, vacations, etc... etc... etc...
This blog is getting cumbersome to fill out. I'm going to try to get better.

I'm back from vacation and up a few pounds. Time to get back to the gym. I got all sorts of cold weather running gear so hopefully I can run outside and avoid the dreadmill. The treadmill gave me a nasty case of ITBS a couple weeks back. I'm looking forward to not having knee pain.

So the fat front isn't looking so rosey, but the muscle front is doing quite nicely. I have noticable increases in both strength and size.

Stay tuned. Cathy and I would still love to do an all inclusive resort trip next year. We're not going to jump the gun though. No beach body, no beach.

My Review of Teva Cord Stretch Cap - '07 Closeout

2008-12-02T09:06:00.001-08:00

Originally submitted at REI

This Teva cap is soft and comfortable, and requires little or no break-in time.

My favorite hat

By Noshtero from Chicago, IL on 12/2/2008

Sizing: Feels true to size

Pros: Rugged, Stylish, Good Protection from the Sun

Best Uses: Travel, Casual Wear

Describe Yourself: Casual Adventurer

This is by far my favorite hat. The major things I dislike about hats is the gap in the back for sizing, and the fact that sweat discolors them. No problems on this hat. The material is thick enough that sweat doesn't soak through. It fits great. It's not the same old hat you see everyone wearing. I love it. I own a few in different colors.

(legalese)

Back and back to it

2008-11-17T06:21:00.000-08:00

1 week of no weights.
1 week of no exercise
1 week of eating horribly

awesome.

But, I'm back to it starting today. My 10-day weight is wrong, so I'm blanking it until I have a new average. I have 3 days reported since being back, so next Monday I'll update my 10-day.

Just to be clear

2008-11-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

Just to be clear on the benchpress stat. That's not my 1-rep max. That's the weight I do my sets at. So that 125 is what I lift when I do my routine, which is:
1 set of 12 reps
1 set of 10 reps
1 set of 8 reps
1 set of 6 reps

Without a spotter, I'm not going to try to figure out my 1-rep max.

Just thought I should clarify that.

Tokens for Toys!!!!

2008-10-29T09:54:00.001-07:00

I have a new program!

OK... so I like toys. Knives, video games, etc...and I'm always looking for ways to push myself on this weight loss quest. Enter TOKENS FOR TOYS! A token is worth $2 towards a toy. I get a token whenever I make a good health decision. So if I do Subway for lunch instead of Taco Bell, I get a token. If I go for a run, I get a token. If I go lift at the gym I get a token. I save up tokens at $2 a pop to buy toys.

I think it sounds like fun. It will A) force me to eat better and workout more and B) stem the flow of me buying toys.

Cathy let me buy on credit but I have to do it sparingly. Like, I can't buy another knife while I'm still paying for the first. That sort of thing. The exception is if I find an awesome deal on something I'll most likely buy later anyway. I'm allowed to take advantage of the deal and use more credit.

New benchmark

2008-10-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

After reading about some guys on a forum I post on benching anywhere from 260 to 315 or so, I've become depressed that I currently bench 125. I am convinced I'm using all arm to do it, and very little chest. I read an article on proper form and it said things like:
Keep your feet firmly pressed into the floor.
Sqeeze your shoulder blades together to form a natural arc in your back

OK.... my "bench press" is me laying with my back flat on a bench, legs dangled out to the sides, and force the weight up with my arms. My chest doesn't feel worked at all. I'm pretty sure my form sucks. I can preacher curl 80 lbs, but only bench press 125. That's not exactly proportional.

So... I'm marking 125 as my new personal record for bench press. We'll see where it goes. I've only been lifting regularly for a few weeks. I realize most of these guys have either been really muscular in the past, or have been lifting their whole lives. I'm neither. I've been really fat in the past, and never lifted a day in my life until about 3 weeks ago.

Ok I think I'm almost ready to start again

2008-10-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

I'm back on the diet.
I'm almost ready to start exercising again. I have the last traces of some health issues that I hope are done today, and then I'm good to go.

My weight for starting back at it is 191.5. That's not horrible considering my average when I stopped was around 188.

Cathy and I are going to try to reduce the number of cheat meals we do. We've been sliding down the slippery slope, and having more and more cheat meals each week. We were up to at least one cheat meal during the week, and then cheats galore on the weekend. Well...with 7 days in the week, pissing away 3 of them means you're about half on half off. Now couple that with the fact the cheat days and good days do not even come close to offsetting each other, and it's no surprise that we've either gained or maintained weight.

Hurdles:
Cathy needs to get better at running on her non-trainer days. 2 days with a trainer is not enough to lose any weight. She needs at least 4 days of cardio as well.
I need to stay healthy. I'm pretty good about not skipping workouts due to being lazy. I do, however, have a tendency to beat my body up too much and then have to take a few days off to recover. That's no good. I never gain any momentum. It's like I'm trying to win a race by flooring it up to 100 miles an hour and then blowing out a tire and having to change it. Meanwhile the competition is putting along at a steady 60 miles an hour, and kicking my ass. As much as it pains me, I think "slow and steady" may actually be the key to winning this race. Getting buff is not about kicking ass one day in the gym. It's about being in the gym 3 days a week EVERY WEEK.

I'll keep you posted.

Mystery Weight

2008-10-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

I'll let you know in 10-days when I have a new 10-day average.

Who's got little muscles? I do!

2008-09-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

HA! Look at them little biceps! I have officially graduated from "tube arms" to "baby bump biceps"! Woot!

Next step, "big ass huge biceps".

Just "Gym"

2008-09-30T06:12:00.000-07:00

No more "Gym arms/chest" or "gym back/shoulders". I've started doing full body workouts three times a week instead of third body workouts. I didn't like that I was only hitting each muscle group once a week. I tried it for the first time last night and made it almost halfway through. That's not too bad considering I haven't lifted in 2 weeks. I hope by next week I'll be able to do the whole thing. My muscles held out last night, but when I started doing squats I got really lightheaded/dizzy and felt like I was going to be sick. The heart was racing FAST, so I decided that was enough. If I remember right, I usually get similar reactions whenever I start back after a long time off. It's like the body is in shock from being forced to work so hard. It should go away soon enough, probably 1 or 2 more workouts.

I'm not reporting weight until it stabilizes. I was 197.3 on Sunday, 195.5 on Monday, and 193.0 today. I figure towards the end of this week, or early next week, I should be good to start reporting again. I'm guessing it's going to stabilize near 191-192, but we'll see. That would mean I only gained 3-4 pounds on vacation, which would be nice. 3 pounds is 11,500 extra calories. That's VERY easy to do when you eat vacation meals for 10 days (plus a crap load of beer).

Stay tuned! I will be a buff boy yet!

Back

2008-09-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

Well. Back from vacation. We won't talk about diets. I can say I ran a couple days, and hiked a LOT, so I did get some exercise.

Back to the grind now. I got a nice wake-up call about how far I have to go still. Let's just say, I'd better damn well have a lot more muscle and a lot less fat next time I have to go to the water park with all my friends.

5K on Saturday

2008-09-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

I ran the Rock Valley College run for Upward Bound on Saturday. Wow, that was a ghetto race. No official track, just run three laps around the campus. It turned out to be 3.52 miles, not 3.1 miles. There was no timing. If you didn't have a watch, you were out of luck to know how long it took you. It was non-competitive, so no places were recorded. I do happen to know I took third overall, but only because I was first out of the gate, and I know 2 people passed me.

I did turn an un-official PR of 25:47, down from 25:55.

It was fun. Lots of my friends ran it as well.

The bad news

2008-09-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Well.. after working out 9 times in the last 6 weeks, coupled with pissing away my diet every chance I got, I've managed to put back on 6 pounds. So my big massive push to lose weight before vacation became me burning out a little and gaining a bunch of weight instead. That doesn't make me real happy.

I'm back up to 190.7, and I have a renewed drive again. You should start seeing a LOT fewer blank days in the log starting today. Cathy and I are also going to do our damndest to stick with 1, and only 1 cheat meal each week. We've been slipping back into the mode where we do well during the week, and then screw it all up over the weekend.

Stay tuned.

Just call me Mr. Jelly Legs

2008-08-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

I did the legs workout from my plan for the first time last night. I have to say it's interesting trying to walk around with my legs continually buckling underneath me. I think Mr. Jelly Legs is probably the right name. Oh well. The first night is always the roughest.

I really think if I can stick with this workout plan for 6 months I'll be ripped up pretty good. I have the dedication to running down, but I can't seem to get in the swing of lifting. So far so good this week. Day 1 in the books. We'll see what Wednesday holds. I'm supposed to do chest/arms that day.

Ok. Monday Morning. Back to it.

2008-08-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Back to the workout. I had a VERY bad body image weekend. I felt quite fat, and was not happy about it.

Hopefully my run of bad luck with workouts is over. Between being sick, being busy with reunion planning, and working an extra 2-3 hours at work every day over the last 2 weeks, I haven't hardly worked out at all.

I'm in the gym tonight. I gotta get back on track.

Ok... I swear I'm going to get back to workouts next week.

2008-08-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

I just have TOO much going on right now to workout. I've been staying very late every day at work. I'm getting things done for the reunion this weekend. My band is giving our first show in 3 weeks. On and on.

I have a race on September 6th, which, incidentally is the morning of our band show. Then vacation is 2 weeks after that. I'm getting the weight down nicely. I'm into the 184's. I have put on a decent amount of extra muscle. I think at this point I'm going to have to try to maintain the muscle and keep dropping the fat. I don't think I'll be able to trade fat for muscle for too much longer. That luxury only works at the beginning. After your initial jump, then it becomes a physics problem. You need a calorie deficit to lose fat, but a calorie surplus to build muscle. Well... those can't co-exist.

On a side note, Cathy is doing well in her weight loss also. Don't tell anyone.... but she's running the race with me on September 6th. It will be her first 5k. I'm WAY excited for her!

Man this week has sucked for working out

2008-08-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

Just too damned busy. I thought with Cathy out of town I'd have more free time. Then it turns out to be the week from hell at work, and I've been staying a couple hours late each night.

I hope to get to the gym tonight. It's arms/chest night, which is my favorite.

Incidentally..... I weighed in at 185.3 this morning. My lowest yet. It pulled my 10-day down to 186.36. I think I should be able to get that average to 185ish for the reunion. We'll see....

I really need a new "after" picture.

So sore....

2008-08-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. This lifting routine is fierce. Here's an example day. This is the chest and arms day:

Chest-
Bench Press - 4 sets - 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
Incline Press - 4 sets - 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
Dumbbell Flies - 3 sets - 12, 12, 12 reps

Biceps-
Standing Barbell Curl - 4 sets - 10, 10, 8, 6 reps
Preacher Curls - 3 sets - 12, 10, 10

Triceps-
Close-grip Bench Press - 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
Cable Pull Downs - 10, 8, 8 reps

Abs-
Incline Crunches - 4 sets - 20, 20, 20, 20 reps

Thats... umm.. 316 reps! My arms feel like jelly today lol. If I can manage to keep this routine up for a few months I should see some massive progress. I hope the body hold out :)

I need to report a new average weight, but being gone for a week means I only have 2 days in the 10 day average. It's 186.6 right now, but I think they may go up a bit. We'll see.

New Workout Plan

2008-08-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Well, at the advice of my survival trainer, who also happens to be a former MMA fighter and now judges MMA competitions, I have a new lifting routine.

I actually lift weights now... not just my body. Weights are heavier, it sucks :)

Night one was back and shoulders, and I did OK.

Back from the wilderness

2008-08-04T13:49:00.001-07:00

Hey all. I'm back from the wilderness. It went really well. I'll start my training again today. I'm still shooting at the reunion end of the month, and the vacation end of September.

A nice break

2008-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't exercise at all this weekend. I had my nieces up for a visit. I was active since we went bowling, hoofed around a mall, and went geocaching. I didn't do any dedicated exercise though. It was a much needed break. I'll hit it this week, but I'm not going nuts since I leave for my training on Saturday. I really don't need to be sore and worn out going into the training. I'll need my body working as well as it can.

Bummed

2008-07-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

MAN! So I wake up the morning of the 5k I'm signed up to run with a friend who specifically asked me to run it with them. I live about an hour and a half away from the run, so 3 hours round trip. The forecast for the area where the run was said 100% chance of thunderstorms during the run hours. That usually means the run is cancelled. They'll usually still run in rain, but not in a t-storm due to the lightning and hail risk. So the race organization page said NOTHING! Nothing at all. Nothing about the race being cancelled, nothing about the race still being on. So I got to choose to risk driving 3 hours to find out it's cancelled, or risk missing the race. I chose to risk missing the race. Guess what....

Everybody from the town that I knew went. No rain. The race went on as scheduled, and one of them even placed in her division. I am PISSED! I mean, we all know damn well that if I had driven the hour and a half to get there, it surely would have rained and been cancelled, so they all thanked me for not coming :)

Sucks! And no lesson learned because you know if I bank on it not being cancelled and drive next time, it'll be cancelled and I'll have wasted 3 hours worth of gas. I think the moral of the story is to try my best to run closeby races where I can afford to go check if it's still on.

BOOOOO!!!

8:55

2008-07-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

8:55 to complete the time trial for the first week. The pushups were killer. I was down to doing 2 or 3 before needing another break when I got into the 40's. Jumping jacks are cake, I could do those all day. I am surely sore as all get out. I suppose that's a good thing.

Not looking forward to tonight...

2008-07-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight is my first mid-week Belly Off. Mid-week means I get to do the timed test; my first one. The timed test is how this program measures progress beyond weight loss. After all, the goal is not just to lose weight, but also to become stronger. So, the timed test is a crap-load of reps of different exercises, done as fast as you can while keeping proper form. You time yourself, and try to better the time each week. Here's the test:

50 Jumping Jacks
50 Prisoner Squats
50 Mountain Climbers
50 Crunches
50 Pushups

Doesn't that sound like FUN?!?! I'm estimating it will take me 4.3 hours the first time LOL!

I'll report back tomorrow. You know, as with all trackable stats, I'm going to put up a chart on the blog. Stay tuned!

SORE!

2008-07-08T05:41:00.000-07:00

Good Lord... I did Day 1 of the new "Belly Off" plan. WOW! I can't believe how incredibly sore I am after doing a series of lifts that only used my own body weight! I couldn't even complete one of the supersets. I was supposed to do 10 Bulgarian Squats on each leg, and then 12 T-pushups. A Bulgarian sqaut is where you put one foot on a bench behind you, and then do one legged sqauts. 10 each side. Then a T-pushup is where you do a regular pushup, but at the top of the push you turn your body to the right and point your hand straight up in the air so you look like a sideways "T". One pushup T'd to the right, then one pushup T'd to the left, that counts as 1 rep. 12 reps. OMG! Here I'll just type it out so you can see how crap this superset is:
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Right Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
Bulgarian Squat Left Leg
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left
T-Pushup Right
T-Pushup Left

Ok that's one Superset. Take a minute break inbetween doing THREE of those supersets. Then grab a gulp of water because you have 2 more supersets of different exercises that you will be doing 3 sets each of.

Rob is SORE! But man, if it continues like this I have no doubt I'll see results.

Stay tuned.

P.S. 5K trail race this Saturday!

First night of speed work

2008-07-02T05:40:00.000-07:00

WOW! That's some tough stuff. I did half mile out and backs. I ran the half mile out at 10MPH, and the back at 6MPH. Man...if you've never run at a 6 min/mi pace, that is FAST when you're as short as I am. At least it's fast for me.

Incedentally, I weighed in at 186.6 this morning. The 10-day average is a blessing and a curse. It sucks up the strange days where I'm 2 pounds heavy due to food in the system, but since my trend is losing weight, the 10-day average is always higher than my daily weight :( So I was 186.6 today, but my 10-day average is 187.9. It's all good though.

I'm starting my "Belly-Off" workout plan on Monday. It's an 8 week plan that should help a lot with my squishy torso. I've got dynamite legs (obviously, with all this running) and pretty decent arms. My chest, abs, sides, and back, however, are all pretty squishy. This Belly-Off plan has lots and lots of core stuff. We'll see how it goes. It has an eating plan associated that I will be following as well.

Say it with me now "170 for the reunion".... "170 for the reunion". I have 2 months left and 16 pounds to go.

My current After picture is quite old

2008-06-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

I need to get a new "After" picture posted. I was about 200 in that picture of me in the kitchen. I'm 12 pounds lighter now. Stay tuned. Maybe I'll give ya'll a muscle man shot ;)

Back to work

2008-06-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, my cold is almost gone, so it's back to work for me. Nothing tonight due to band practice, but Saturday I'm back at it. I'm floating around 187.5ish most days (10-day is still 189 due to some 191's 8-10 days ago). I REALLY would love to hit 170 for the reunion. I'll be happy with anything in the 170's, however.

Oh.. and I'm starting speed work again next week. My 5k times SUCK right now because I've been doing so much long slow distance (LSD) running that I've lost a lot of speed. So now I'll do 1 LSD on the weekend, and then some speed work during the week. I have another 5k on July 12th that I would like to do well on. It's a trail race, which means I should be a little quicker.

Damn it!

2008-06-25T12:15:00.001-07:00

My survival course just got cancelled. The camp manager's daughter is in the hospital. Obviously I don't blame anyone, but it still sucks for me. I'm getting a phone call in an hour to chat about possible reschedule times, but I'm not so sure anything will work for me. We'll see. That is a BUMMER let me tell you.

Winding down

2008-06-25T06:18:00.000-07:00

I going to wind down a little bit at the end of the week here. I leave for my 8-day survival training on Friday, and I really don't need to have sore legs.

I will be very interested to see what my weight does over the 8 days.

Boom! Average weight is under 190. 189.9!

2008-06-23T06:03:00.001-07:00

In an effort to get the average weight down, I did a nice 12-miler on Sunday. I found out I'm MUCH stronger than when I ran the half marry back in May. I was holding to a 9-min pace for most of the 12 miles. At that rate I would finish a half marry in around 1:58:00, which shaves 17ish mins off my last time.

I need to take it a little easy this week since I go to my 8-day survival course on Friday. I'm stoked. 8 days of living in the woods and learning all sorts of survival training. I think it will be FUN! It also might be a nice weight loss period. I expect to be working very hard, and not eating much. I mean...if you ever watch Survivorman, Les loses like 10 pounds per week :) It's water weight mostly... but still! In case my Mom is reading this, "Don't worry mommy. I promise I'll eat enough to keep my energy up so I stay safe" (obligitory disclaimer).

This week will probably be:
Mon: Gym
Tues: 6-8 Miles
Weds: Gym
Thurs: 6-8 Miles

Jogging Stroller

2008-06-20T04:50:00.001-07:00

Wow... that's hard work. I pushed the jogging stroller with my neice Alexis in it for 4 miles and it was TOUGH! Alexis was cute though. For the first mile or so she was chattering and clapping and having a great time. Then she zonked out for the last 3 miles. She's going to have to get her endurance up if she wants to keep jogging with me :) I went back out after dropping her off with hopes of doing another 4 miles. HA! I made it 2 and that was almost not doable. I didn't realize how much harder it is to push that stroller. It's stuff you don't think about that saps your energy. I can't take as long of strides, I can't swing one arm because I'm holding the stroller (I refuse to do like some people and let the stroller free roll in front of me, and instead always keep one hand on it). I also have to do a combination of popping the front wheel up and then quickly lifting the back wheels up when I go off or onto a new section of sidewalk or Alexis gets a brain-jarring jolt. It really works you hard!

Oh... and I weighed in at 189.1 today. It's unofficial since I track a 10-day average, but hopefully the average will be below 190 very soon.

I'm a geocacher!

2008-06-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

I got one! Woot!

This is Cathy's and my new hobby. It's fun. We went to the ice cream social for the Geocachers of Northern Illinois (GONIL) and met some nice people who are going to help us get started.

Hoorah for Hiking + Electronics + Exercise!

Weight Loss!!

2008-06-11T05:50:00.001-07:00

I'm finally moving down again. I'm around 191ish right now. I will surely be in the 180's by the reunion. I could possibly be down to the 170's. I doubt I'll hit the goal of 170 on the button, but I'll settle for "in the 170's". Hopefully that doesn't mean 179.9

Stay Tuned.

Nevermind

2008-06-09T06:30:00.001-07:00

Legs are fine; no point in going to the doctor. A stress fracture still hurts 2 days later.

......I've had enough

2008-06-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

I'll go to the doctor. I was just fine dealing with the pain, but I'm losing so much sleep that I'm back to nodding off at work and when I'm driving. Dangerous.... Time to go to the doctor.

I lied

2008-06-02T19:11:00.001-07:00

What I meant to say was "I'll take it easy on running in June". I can't quit for June altogether, or I start from scratch in July. I'm just going to be stupid and run every day or when it hurts. Sore legs = eliptical/bike.

Vacation from running

2008-05-29T06:43:00.001-07:00

I need my legs in top shape for my wilderness trip, so no running until July. I'll be living at the gym.

4 a day

2008-05-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

I've been doing 4 miles a day, and I seem to be handling it ok. I'm going to try to bump a couple to 6. Maybe I'll do 6-4-6-4-6-4 for 30 miles.

Legs... poor sore legs.

2008-05-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

Three days in a row and my legs are SORE. We'll see if I can handle tonight; I'm shooting for another 4-miler. I really want to get to this schedule:
Mon - 4 miles
Tues - 6 miles
Wed - 4 miles
Thurs - 6 miles
Fri - off
Sat - 10 miles
Sun - x-train (probably bike)

That'd be a nice 30 mile week.

Camping trip is done, back to weight loss

2008-05-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

Ok... so I'm coming out of the camping trip with a large number of my upper body muscles all screwed up. I can't move me head much.... my arm still hurts... you know how it goes.

The worst news... I'm WAY up in weight. I weighed in at 198.6 this morning. OMG! I'm sure that's not true weight gain, but still, being that I have no weights for the weekend, my 10-day average is now 195.5! Time to run... no weight lifting. RUN! I need to burn this butt off quick-like. I have 14 weeks until the reunion, and now 25.5 pounds to go.

Racers... start your engines! Don't expect to see many blank days in my log for the next few months.

First run done

2008-05-13T08:03:00.001-07:00

Not too bad. 4-miler. All's well.

Back to running

2008-05-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Today starts my return to running. I took a full week off, and just did walking on anywhere from 0 to 9 incline on the treadmill. The legs feel good and strong, so I'm hitting it tonight. I'll let you know how it goes :)

Race Picture

2008-05-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of me at the race

Half Marathon Complete!

2008-05-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the race report:

Well, I completed the Great Western Half Marathon yesterday, and I'm contemplating sawing my legs off today First, a little background. I ran 3 5k's last year, and those were my first 3 races. I decided to jump right to a half marathon this year. My longest run to date was 10 miles, and I did that once. I was shooting for a 2:25:00 finish, with walk breaks every mile.

So race day morning. I got up and enjoyed a special treat of two blueberry muffins with the struessel stuff on top. Awesome. I got to the race about 45 mins before gun and did some walking/stretching. I picked up my race packet and was happy to see a very nice technical shirt instead of cotton.

5 mins to gun: I lined up towards the back to avoid the rush as much as possible.

Gun: And we're off! With 800 runners, it was more of a brisk walk for the first 1/4 mile or so. No complaints here!

Miles 1-3: I felt wonderful. I skipped all my planned walk breaks. I skipped the first water station. I found a nice group of runners that were cruising at around a 10:30 pace, so I nestled in behind them.

Mile 4-5: I was getting a little thirsty here so I walked through the water station at 4.5.

Mile 6-7: I had a pack of beans and walked through the water station at the turn around at 6.55. I had a slight twinge in the left knee around mile 6, but the walk helped that go away nicely. Time at the halfway point was 1:15:00

Mile 7-8: The music dies... I forgot to charge my mp3 player, and all went silent just after mile 7. I've never run without music, so it was interesting to go the last 6 miles with no tunes. Listening to other runners ended up being FAR more entertaining than music. I passed one lady wearing head phones who was trying to sing along between frantic exhaustion breaths. So I got to listen to "It's just....huff...huff.... You and me.....huff...huff...huff.... You're.... hufff...huff... All I need" Absolutely Hilarious! Good for her for staying in the zone though. Who cares what others think. One more water stop here.

Miles 8-9: Another water stop, another pack of beans. Magic beans baby, let me tell you I love those little things. I felt really good here, so I picked the pace up to around 9:00 or so.

Miles 10-11: Last water stop, I've walked through 5 in total. Much better than my planned 13 walk breaks (one every mile). Last pack of beans, and time for the push to the finish.

Mile 12: Still feeling ok. I slowed up to run with a guy who was noticably hobbling and needed some encouragement. Used my carried amphipod water for the first time. I could have made it without it, but since it was there, why not?

Mile 13: The wall. It wasn't an endurance wall, but right around mile 13 both of my arches exploded. I attribute it to the fact that mile 13 was concrete and uphill, where the majority of the race was crushed limestone trail, and much softer. Of course my family was waiting around the end of the race to take tons of pictures of me. I was like "why couldn't ya'll have been at mile 12 when I was still kicking ***?" They caught me looking the worst I looked the entire race! It's all good though.

End of the race: My finishing time was 2:14:50. Just over 10 minutes faster than my goal time. I also only walked 5 times, instead of 13. I carried a water bottle in my amphipod, but only needed it once at mile 12. I actually could have done the whole race on just the provided water stations. That's good to know, but I wasn't going to take chances on my first long race.

All in all it was a good race. Today I have, on a scale of 1-10, 3 pain in the arches, 5 pain in the knees, and 7 pain in the quads. The quads are just sore and need to be stretched. Same for the arches. I'm not too sure about the knees, but I'll know more in a couple days. I'm hoping they're just sore as well.

I think the rest of this year will be increasing my weekend long runs, and speeding up my 5k time. Then I'll shoot for a marathon next year!

Second to last taper run

2008-04-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

I did 4 miles at race pace yesterday. It felt really good. Not too much leg pain, just a little pins and needles here and there. Energy felt good. I have 1 more run on Thursday, and then the race is Sunday.

Cathy is a miracle worker

2008-04-29T06:08:00.001-07:00

Man... wifey worked on my calves yesterday and I feel soooo loose today. She's got some freaky knot radar or something and zooms right in on each knot in my muscle. Then she makes me cry a bit. Then the muscle feels awesome!

I told her if she can keep my legs in top working condition until Sunday, I'll let her share in the victory of finishing the race :)