2009 Redesigns

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

Oh yeah... Winter scares me not.

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

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

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

Originally submitted at REI

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

Teva Cord Stretch Cap - '07 Closeout

My favorite hat

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

 

5out of 5

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

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

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!!!!

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

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

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

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

Who's got little muscles? I do!

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"

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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!!

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

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

......I've had enough

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Back to running

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

Here's a shot of me at the race

Half Marathon Complete!

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

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

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 :)

Confidence....waining...

I went out for my last long run before the race, and only made it 4 miles. After 4 miles I had noticable pain in the right calf. I've been massaging and stretching, and it feels better, but still. I'm wondering how I should finish out this taper. Take it easy, run a bunch, I don't know. What's more important, keeping up a running base, or getting a good rest? I'm going to seek advice on the forums and we'll see.

Nothing like a shot to the confidence with less than a week until race day.

Sucks.

In the taper, so far so good

I'm tapering this week and next. Here's the current plan:

Saturday: 8 miles
Monday: 4 Miles
Wednesday: 3 Miles
Thursday: 2 Miles
Sunday: RACE

Ok screw calorie counting

Whether I eat healthy or not, I can never get a handle on calories unless I eat only boxed food and weigh and measure everything.

Yesterday I know I had 200ish calories for breakfast and 600ish for lunch. Then I think I had 1100ish for dinner. So 1900ish on the day. That's a fine number, but was it 1840? or 1950? or 1925? It doesn't really matter, but if I'm not exact then what's the point? I good just as easily decide under 2000 is a "good" day and over is a "bad" day, and just put good or bad on the log. It'd be just as accurate, and a WHOLE lot easier.

Grr...

On a plus note, I'm down a couple pounds this week. We'll see if it holds. I really think after the race I will be able to run daily, which will help greatly. At this point, being 2 weeks out from the race, that is the sole concern. I'll start worrying about weight loss and whatnot on May 5th. For now, I need energy, and I need to not be injured.

Counting Calories is tough

A lot of places don't post calorie counts. There are quite a few ???? days in my log; some of those are really high calories, some aren't. I may eat very healthy one day, but can't button it down to a calorie count.

I guess it doesn't matter because I'm still not losing weight. Hopefully I'm getting close to the land of daily runs. I really need the daily calorie burn. After the race I'm thinking I'll start 4 mile dailies and see how it goes.

On a plus note, I made it through a 10-miler on Saturday. That puts me fairly confident for the race in 2 weeks.

8 Miler Done!

Woot! I made it 8 miles on Saturday. It was VERY tough. Diet be damned, I need to eat carbs on Friday night or these long Saturday runs won't work. It's not like I didn't burn 1400 calories on the run anyway.

2 Saturdays left until the race. I'm 50/50 on the confidence. 8 was DAMNED tough. 5 more on top of that would probably not have been doable. We'll see. For those reading this that are scheduled to be my cheering section, at this point I'm still planning to run it. I'm shooting for 10 miles this saturday. If I get that done, I'd say the race is on. If not, then I'll assess during the following week.

Sorry to be so wishy washy, but I'm VERY unsure of my abilities at this point. I have a good run, and the race is ON! I have a bad run, and I start to think maybe not...

Ok, we're doing 10-day average weights

I will now report a 10-day average weight. If I'm losing weight, this will always show a little high, but at least it will absorb some of the daily fluctuations.

My first 10-day average is 194.15. Not what I wanted to see, but oh well. I wanted to "kick it in gear" this year, and so far I've managed to gain 4 pounds. That's the wrong direction yo!

I'll keep you posted.

Calorie Tracking

It's way too cumbersome to update this blog all the time with my calories per meal. I'm going to keep that data on my own (in a little notebook) and just add my daily totals to the workout/calorie tracker at the bottom of the blog.

Much easier *thumbs up*

My weight is officially TBD until April 15

I'm running a 15 day floating average program for my weight now. The day to day fluxuations are killing me, so I'm going to run this program to neutralize them. After I get my first 15 day average, I'll will start updating my weight based on that.

Ignore my running guy progress bar for now too.

Stay tuned.

Ok, time to count calories to figure out the problem. Perhaps I'm missing a lot of calories or something

I'll put a weekly diet counter thingy on here and fill it out every day.

Ya know... I don't think I can take advise from anyone on weight loss,

because everyone has a different opinion.

For everyone I find that says "Eat more, you're in starvation mode" I can find another that says "You're just on a Plataea, increase your exercise or cut more calories".

Drives me batty, man!

I just started lifting. I running longer distances now. I'm going to see where this takes me in the month of April.

Weight Loss Woes

So I'm told that the reason I haven't lost any weight in the last 8 months is that I'm not eating enough, however damned counter-intuitive that seems.

Everyday I do
Breakfast - 360 Calories
Lunch - Around 500 Calories
Dinner - Around 800 Calories

For a total of 1660.

I guess I'm supposed to be getting more like 2200. I'm going to try
Breakfast - Around 600 Calories
Lunch - Around 1000 Calories
Dinner - Around 600 Calories

We'll see if that's the secret. I REALLY want the scale to be in the 180's. It pisses me off so bad that I got down to 190 on the button, and can't get 189 to show up.

I'm also increasing my exercise now that I'm lifting and running longer distances.

I still have 20 pounds left to meet my goal of 170, and only have 4.5 months left to do it. Whatever I'm doing now obviously isn't working, so I'll "suspend judgement" for 1 month to see if it breaks this losing streak.

The Quest Continues

The quest to be blister free continues. I have reblistered the left arch over the old one.. fantastic.

Here's something I noticed though. When I land on my right foot, it's a solid landing. When I land on my left foot, my foot rolls over the arch until the toes touch down. It almost feels like the arch is too high in the left foot and is preventing my heel and toes from touching at the same time. I kind of "teeter totter" across the arch. Basically...I'm trying to figure out why my left foot is plauged with arch blisters, but my right foot has never had a problem. Something is different between them. I'm going to remold my left insole tonight and see if that helps.

This is freaking annoying, that's for sure.

Up to 6 miles

The eyelet skipping helped quite a bit. The blister area still got hot around 6 miles though. I should say that the blister is not fully healed, which I'm sure makes it more sensitive. A fully healed blister, and a little looser lacing, and I think I'm all set.

I also GU'd for the first time. Wow, that's interesting stuff. I had chocolate. It's basically about twice as thick as peanut butter, and tastes like chocolate pudding (sort of). You swish a big gloop of this stuff in your mouth, take a big swig of water, swish it around until you can swallow it, and do it again until the packet is empty. It definitely gives you a boost of energy.

5 weeks until the race. I'm looking good at this point (knock on wood).

Up to 3.5 Miles before the blister blows up

A new culprit, perhaps... I think the hard material used to form the Asics logo on the side of the shoe is pulling tight and causing problems. The side of the shoe is nice stretchy mesh, but those Asics lines have no stretch to them, and pull taught. After 3.5 miles yesterday, I had a very specific area of the foot that felt blisterish. I stuck my finger in the shoe, and low and behold, I was dead on one of those lines. I'm going to try skipping the lacing hole associated with that line and see if that does it. I'm going to do mole padding for Saturday as well. We'll see. After this Saturday, I'll have 5 weeks left. One of those at least has to be a taper week, so I have 4 weeks of training. I better peak in the 3rd week, which means I better be up to at least 10 miles on April 19th. If the blister would freaking cooperate with me, I swear I can do it. We'll see.....

Oh.. and the perfect pushups.

I feel I was cheating on my perfect pushups, and was not, in fact, doing them "perfect". I'm starting them up again as part of my lifting routine, but I'm doing a true 2-second allllll the way down and allllll the way back up perfect pushup.

It's way harder.

Take my max set record back down to 20.

Plan... uh.... F for the blister

Plans A-E haven't worked, so this is plan F. Since my insole is one of those heat molding types, I've heated the inside arch edge with a lighter and curled it outward towards the edge of the shoe. This way, instead of the insole curving up on the arch, and ending with the edge of the insole facing up, it instead curves up, and then in the last 1/4" or so curves back down so the edge ends up facing to the side. I ran my finger around the inside of the shoe and I don't feel an edge at all. Hopefully this does it.

I'm also now using Wrightsock Blister socks. These are dual layer socks so the two layers rub together to reduce the friction transferred to your foot. I'm also using Blistershield powder. It looks and feels like flour. You pour 1 tsp of it in each sock, shake it around, and it coats the inside. The powder is almost friction free, and doesn't absorb water thereby acting like an antiperspirant.

We'll see tonight.

Hmm

2 miles in and the blister area started to get hot again. I called it at 2 miles so as to not make the blister worse again. I think I have a sharp edge on my insole or something. I'll ask the running forum for advice. I may try mole padding to put some cushion on that spot. We'll see. I lift tonight, and hopefully run again Wednesday.

I'm running tonight!

I'm taping up the foot and running, damn it :)

I'll do 5-6 miles or so.

Just my luck

Hoorah... the blister final starts to look good, and I catch a cold.

Hopefully I'll be healthy by Saturday and can run.

Almost... Almost...

The blister is almost healed. I plan to start to the gym tomorrow. It may be lifting if the blister is completely there, but if it is, 5 mile run.

Going nuts!

Day three of no exercise, and it's taking it's toll.
I don't like the weight... I don't like the energy level... I don't like seeing precious training days roll past.

I have a secret though.... I'm secretly planning to still run the half mary on May 4th. shhhhh.....

I ran 6 miles comfortably (except this damn blister!). With 7+ weeks left, I know I can make 13.1. I have a game plan for blister prevention, as soon as this one is healed.

It looks a lot better now. Most of the redness around it is gone. The body of it is split in half, with half being a deep blood red, half being almost white. I'd like to think the deep red part is slowly fading, but it's hard to tell. I did take a picture of it on Tuesday. I'll have to compare it to now.

I had yogurt come out of my foot

ewww.....

I had a bad blister that I decided to run 3 miles on anyway. Stupid... I know.

I got home and saw that it looked massively infected. I had a 2-3 inch red border all the way around it. I poked it, excepting typical yellowish tinted puss to flow out.

Nope.

Key Lime Pie Yogurt. That's what it was. A nice yellowish green, and as thick as yogurt. I had to, sort of, "squeeze" it out of the blister like you would a packet of ketchup.

It's all good though. I cut all the dead skin off with my trusty Swiss Army Knife, doused it a few times in hydrogen peroxide, slapped some ointment on, and bandaged it up. It hurts still, but it's WAY better than it was last night.

6 Miler DONE!

Oh ya... and that's 6 miles on the dreadmill damn it, which I equate to 47ish miles on the road :)

I do have a gigantic blister to show for my efforts. Get me some wood to knock on quick, but based on how I felt running essentially half a half marathon on the treadmill, I think the half mary might be doable after all.

NO JINXING IT! We'll see how it goes when I can finally get outside. Come on spring!

Designed my lifting routine

I got my lifting routine put together. I'm going to try to start doing an alternating run/lift schedule with Friday's off. I hope to see some body composition changes over the next 10-15 pounds.

No half mary for me

I'm calling the half marathon. Too much work needs to be done before my legs can take it. I'm starting a lifting routine instead. I'll hopefully go:
Mon: Lift
Tues: Run
Wed: Lift
Thurs:Run
Fri: Off
Sat: Lift
Sun: Run

We'll see.

SON OF A BITCH!

Post deleted.....

.....

First incomplete run. I was scheduled for 3.5 miles, but after about 2.5 I developed a sharp pain in my right medial shin. I made it to 3 miles, but that last half mile smelled like injury, so I called it.

.5 miles down... no biggie. If the run tonight is pain-free I'm ok. It's a short one, so I should be ok.

First 2 weeks done

2 weeks done, and I'm feeling good. This week starts the increases in distance. I'll be going from a 3-2-3-4 week to a 3.5-2-2.5-5 week, so an extra 2 miles this week.

Should be doable. The legs feel great. I do have blisters on both feet, but I can handle that.

I'm really feeling good about this one. I think I should be able to make it.

Perfect Pushups Break

Taking a break from perfect pushups. I'll start it up next week again. My right shoulder is a little sore.

Running is going well. I'm into the second week now.

Week 1 in the books

So far so good.

Pardon my french

But this is the shit!!!! I picked this up on close out and WOW! I ran with it last night at the gym. I may have looked a little "enthusiastic" but whatever, it worked and it's fantastic. I can carry 70 ounces of water on my back and not even know it. Screw little 20 ounce bottles flopping around on a waist pack.

First run on Soles

They feel great! I could have run much farther. I don't want to jinx anything, but these insoles might be the ticket.

Deep breath......

First run of training is tonight. I got my heat molded Soles in the shoes now. They feel great. I hope the perform as well as they feel....

Deep breath.... I won't get injured again.... I'm going to complete my training and run the half marathon.

Training Starts Today!

First day of training. I started the morning off with a nice Yoga routine. I'll do an easy hour on the rec-bike at the gym. I also started cycle 5 of perfect pushups. I'm at 31 max set. The goal is a 50 max set.

I want to make it through the next 12 weeks, run the half, and then start an alternating running/lifting workout. I have a lot of loose skin on the mid-section from the fat loss. I need to start tightening that up with lifting. I can't lift and train for the half at the same time, however, because it will kill me. So I'll do the half now, and start lifting in May.

Wish me luck!!!

NO INJURIES!! *Cross fingers*

The Half Marathon Plan

The training plan is up. I've incorporated it into my log so it's easier to follow. The perscribed activity is in blue. When the day comes, I'll turn it green if I did it, red if I didn't. I'll fill in Monday, Friday, and Saturday with whatever I do on those days.

This should get me up to running the Half in May. We'll see.

Switching up the running, and new stretch goal!

I need to start increasing my distance, so I'm going to go to a longer run every other day format. I'm going to set them on my off day for pushups. So it will go run, pushups/gym, run, pushups/gym, etc...

I'm starting it today with most likely a 2.5 mile run. I want to get to comfortable 3's soon (5K). I'd like to get some races in this spring, and ultimately run a half this summer.

I also have a new stretch goal. The original goal of "in shape by the family reunion" is still intact. The new stretch goal is "in shape by when I leave for my survival training". I'm taking a 7-day survival training course in the Michigan wilderness at the end of June. That should be about 1 month before the reunion. I'd like to get in shape by then. If not, then I have 1 month to sprint before the reunion.

I'll keep you posted.

Updates

Cycle 4 of perfect pushups starts today. My new 1-set max is 28, which is 3 up from last time. That's still better than 10% increase, so I'll take it. The pushups are really working. My chest and arms look noticably different. I've got 17.25" arms right now, which is the biggest I've ever had. I also have noticably more strength and endurance.

Cathy had her second personal trainer session. She received quite the ass kicking, which is exactly what we're paying for. The trainer isn't cheap, but for your money you get
A) personalized workouts that change on a weekly basis
B) way more workout for your time because the trainer pushes you through the workout and sets all the machines up
C) a workout partner, which allows you to do more things than you could do solo. Cathy's most effective activity involves tossing a medicine ball back and forth, which she can't do without a partner.
D) encouragement that you're doing well and making progress. That's a big one. Going to the gym alone and working out in silence has amazingly negative effects on your motivation. You start to get into the mindset of "hoorah... I get to go run on the treadmill again. Why the hell am I doing this again?" The trainer keeps it fun and interesting for you.

Cathy and I have all sorts of physical-type activities we want to do, and for the first time I really think we're on the road to being able to do them.

One catch....... with Cathy having a trainer, she's going to start catching up to me and eventually passing me on the road to physical fitness. I'm going to have to step my game up. I haven't lost any weight in 6 months. I've maintained, which is good, but I better start losing again or I'm going to be in trouble.

That's all for now.

An interesting new way of doing the gym

Ok, time goals don't work for me. The whole "I'm going to go do 30 mins on the bike" doesn't work. The new plan is to have the machines at the gym tell me I burned calories equal to whatever my dinner was that night. So last night I had a 700 calorie dinner. At the gym, I did my 20 Run(2 miles) and the treadmill claimed I burned 340 calories. So that meant I needed 360 burned on the stationary bike. It took me 41 minutes. If I eat less, I don't have to work out as much. It should keep me in steady weight loss. We'll see. At least it means I do varied amounts of cardio nightly, and not the same thing for the same amount of time every day, which gets boring and burns you out.

The land of 20 Run(2 miles)

You're going to see a lot of those... I've decided to keep doing 20 min(2 mile) runs until I can do it without discomfort. I could just wait until it doesn't hurt, but increasing at that point will probably lead to injury. I'm supplimenting the cardio with station bike work, so no worries on weight loss impact.

Finishing the ramp up

Ya know you just can't start gung ho on a new year's workout/eat right plan because you burn out. I've been ramping up the exercise with 2 mile runs this week, and have been trying to eat better off and on.

My weight is not 193.5, as the blog says, but I haven't updated it yet because it's in constant flux. I'll be eating right and exercising regularly starting Monday morning. After that week, I'll do a weigh-in and post my correct weight and body fat%. I think I'm around 195ish after the holidays, but I'm just not sure.

Stay tuned.

New Logs

The new logs are easier to read I think...if nothing else they're MUCH easier for me to maintain. I just fill in the little boxes.

I'm getting a slow start, but I have good excuses. Cathy and I are waiting on new MP3 players to show up before we can go to the gym. We fear if we go to the gym now, and it's utterly boring, that we will burn out faster.

That, and with my layoff from running, the feet need to ramp up again. I'm reading a new book called "Explosive Running" that has some very good insight into proper running form, and training for running. It basically says that the old method of training was to run more... and then run more... and then run more... and eventually you get strong and can run as much as you want. I tried this, and found that at the some level of running, every time, I would get injured. If I remember right it was around the 4 mile mark. Whenever I would ramp up to running 4 miles, I would screw my legs up. This book says the problem with the "just run more" theory is that running does not build strength in the legs. So what happens is you run more and more, your cadio keeps increasing, your tolerance to the shock of running increases, but your strength doesn't increase. Then logically there comes a point where your cardio takes you past what you have strength for, and you get injured. For me, it was 4 miles. This book is going to put me on a routine of strength building exercises specifically targetted at the mechanics of running. This should be really good for me, because I was a little worried about what strength training I would be doing at the gym. I'm on this Perfect Pushups plan, and so I can't very well go to the gym and lift on top of that. Hopefully I'll be able to do leg stuff at the gym, upper body stuff at home with perfect pushups, lots of cardio, and have all my bases covered.

We'll see....

Welcome to 2008

Ok everyone.... Time to kick it into gear!

Things I want to accomplish this year:
1) Get in shape for real. No more piddling around losing a pound every 3 months. I want to be in SHAPE. Not average... not low fat. I want rock hard abs. I want endurance for days. I want big arms.

2) Run! I want to get up to running for real. No more running a 5k and then being out for a month recovering. I want to run a half marathon this year

My new logs for 2008 are up. There better not be very many blanks in them as the weeks go by.
I'll keep you posted.