Morning Walks Going Well

I've started morning walks this week. So far, so good. I'm shooting for a 30 min walk in the morning, then either an hour walk or a 30 min walk plus Gym in the evening. Gotta hit 170lbs by July 1st 2008!!!!!!!!

The plan for the rest of the year

Alrighty.... I'm off running until January. I will gearing up a walking routine to prepare my legs better than I've prepared them in the past. This will also be a time for me to get back to the gym 6ish days a week. My goal is to be under 190 by January 1, and be up to walking 1 hour 6 days a week. Hopefully this will make for a good start to running injury-free.

I have very much been slacking in the exercise department due to so many injuries and needed rest days. On our vacation, Cathy and I got a nice wake-up call as to how badly out of shape we were. First off, trail hiking about killed us. The biggest thing, however, was when we stopped at one of her childhood playgrounds and tried to do the monkey bars. HAHAHA Oh my God I could barely hold my own weight by one hand, let alone swing across the bars. I then watch those fools on Ninja Warrior who are going through entire courses where they're hanging at times from only their finger tips and think, "Man!!! I have a long way to go."

Hopefully I've stabilized my weight enough over the past couple months that I can start dropping again. My goal is now, as it always is this time of year, to be in the best shape I can be in by the family reunion in July. I would LOVE to be down to 170 by then. It's only 22ish pounds in 8 months; it should be achievable. That's what, 2.75 lbs a month? Or a little over a half lb a week? There is no reason I can't reach that goal.

Stay tuned!!!

Picture from the race

Here's a shot of me at the race.

Race Report

So I ran the Run for the Bear 5k on Sunday. I would say I had a good run. I was still plauged by a side stitch that actually caused me to have to take a 15 second walk break. I managed to come in at 26:05 (adjusted down 3 seconds to account for starting 3 seconds back from the start line). That's 10 seconds off my PR. The rationalization, however, is that this course was hilly, and had a hairpin turn-around. My last race was won by a guy who ran it in 17:33. This race was won by a guy who ran it in 18:45 or something. I think that if this course was a minute slower, and I was only 10 seconds over my PR, that on a flat course I would have shattered that PR. This was my last race this year. I will tell you all this much, I WILL be destroying that PR next year. I want to get down to a 20ish minute 5k. I'm going to be logging a lot of miles this winter both outside and on the dreadmill.

Thanks again to the family for coming to support me. I hope your first small race experience was fun. It's not all that exciting, but when you get up to something like the Chicago Marathon where there's 1.2 million spectators, it's a lot more fun.

Oh...and I clocked in at my lowest body fat percentage yet today. 19.3! I'm .3% off being "average"!!!!