Category: life

One More Week/Lent

So, the legs are feeling much, much better after a week with a total of 2 miles run.

My natural inclination, of course, is to strap on the sneakers and resume 20 miles/week, ’cause I’m dumb that way.

The weather is conspiring against me, too, with today through Thursday expected to be in the mid-40’s F (high-single digits Metric) after a long, long time of cold weather. Man, it’s nice out.

Instead – I’m holding firm and I’ve decided to give myself another  week of rest. This morning, woke up, forgot to stretch while getting out of bed, and was doing the morning business before I realized that I’d gotten up without discomfort. Again, this would be an indication that I should go do something dumb, like 10 miles on Jamestown on the ride home, but I’m fighting them urges.

Another week of rest…

Which translates to time on the stationary bike in the Gym, resuming Pilates (I hope), and hopefully getting in the pool for the first time in 2007.

Went to the church’s weekly men’s prayer breakfast this morning – good times spiritually, and also cycling-ly. Lots of bikers at St Andrew. So, keeping the running in check may not be as detrimental to overall fitness as I fear. Hopefully I can turn it into a weekly ride…

Lent: Jon’s  got me thinking again, and reviewing my past entries show that giving up fast-food for Lent is extremely effective from a weight loss perspective, and pretty effective from a deprivation perspective (I love me some Taco Bell). It’ll also make good with my lovely wife, who is continually urging me to “Take my darn lunch” on a budgetary basis.

So, fast food it is.

I’m going to make a couple of other ground-rules:

1) Fast food is defined as “crappy fast food”. Exceptions will be given, on a rare basis for:

  • Subway, provided it’s 6″, whole wheat, no cheese, no random pressed meats (salami, bologna, pepperoni)
  • Wendy’s salads, provided I get non-breaded chicken and don’t eat the tasty sprinkles

2) Included in fast food are things like:

  • Grinders, especially those from Jim’s Deli, which are the culinary equivalent of high-grade heroin – a thrill to eat, but so, so bad…
  • Any form of greasy burger from a chain resturant or “pub”.
  • Hot Wings
  • And the killer – the weekly dose of Domino’s. I will make a tasty spinach salad to accompany our weekly date with Tom Bergeron and AFV.

I think I’m pretty serious about this: I’ve been stalled, weight and fitness, since the last time I really dug down and reformed my eating habits. Plus, it’s all in support of a culture I’m viewing as increasingly toxic, not necessarily nutritionally, but socially, and I want to work on setting a better example for the boys.

So

So, it’s been more or less a week since I’ve worked out, and the legs are getting worse rather than better. Is it possible that the treadmill is my problem? Man, I hope so…

Anyway, I’m still pretty dedicated to the idea that I’ll start back with 10 miles/week, building to 20 miles/week in about 12 weeks, and supplemented with cross training. I’ve been stretching, and the worst of the PF pain seems to have switched legs.

Hope everyone has a great long weekend! We’ve got our first Blue and Gold dinner with the Cub Scouts this weekend.

Crow Sandwich, Crow Pie, Crow Gumbo, Crow Po-Boys…

So, way back when, I bragged:

I completely blew the 10%/week thing, but haven’t really suffered any physical ill-effects. So, I’m standing by my theory that the mileage increase guidelines are not at all meant for folks who aren’t currently running more than 15-20 miles/week.

I’ve been resting since the first weekend in February, and the Plantar Fascitis seems to be getting somewhat better. Stretching helps, as does riding the exercise bike instead of running. So, I think what I need to do is to re-evaluate goals – not try to get up to 35 miles/week for a long while, and possibly pass on a fall marathon in favor of continuing to get stronger. We’ll see.

I think for next week (starting the 19th) that I’m going to have to pull back to 10 miles/week running, and stick by the 10% rule until I’m back up to 25 – as in actually stick to the plan I had in Nov/December. I will, however, supplement the crap out of it with cycling and swimming.

So yes, consider me chasened. A humble Billy, with his bounce taken away for a while.

At least until I’ve got heated seats…

Six Miles to Go!

Another 3 on the treadmill this lunch-time, plus my attempt to follow the Jared-from-Connecticut diet and I’m feeling good: Only 4 miles to go to hit 80 on the Nike+ for the month, and 84 real miles for the month!

I’ll be honest, I’m kind of amazed that

  1. I’m going to make it; and
  2. I’m not in the slightest burned out.

It was a bit tough the third week of the month, but I think that just proves the old “21 days and it’s a habit” saw.

One of the things that’s helped me is getting over my phobia of the gym, and having a gym available to me both near the house and another one near the office. Plus, having an unbelievably supportive wife always helps.

Looking back through my log on Nike+, I completely blew the 10%/week thing, but haven’t really suffered any physical ill-effects. So, I’m standing by my theory that the mileage increase guidelines are not at all meant for folks who aren’t currently running more than 15-20 miles/week. If you ask me (and you shouldn’t – I’m not a doctor, and this is my opinion only) Run whatever you can, folks, when you’re coming off of the couch – the health benefits of getting off of your butt far outweigh any risks.

I still need to worry much, much more about weight – it’s still inching up, despite the step increase in mileage. But, we’re looking long term – short term (3 month) goal is still to maintain 20 mile/week base with stretch goal to increase to 25 mile/week base. Mid-term (6 month) goal is to get my weight down to 155-160 (~20 to 15 lbs loss) and train for an October marathon (4 hour time goal). Long-term (1 year) goal is to begin to get faster.

Claim the small victories and continue to press onward.

Weekly Update

Hey, so I haven’t been writing much lately.

But I have been running – how great is that?

As of yesterday, I’m sitting at like 64 miles for the month on Nike+, which means upwards of 68 miles running total – completely within the range of hitting 80+ miles for the month.

The legs are feeling good, and I’ve been doing calisthenics again – got the pullup bar, and situps. Still cannot bring myself to do pushups regularly. Dunno why, guess I need Marines shouting at me to truly get me motivated to push the earth off its axis.

It’s way cold up here today. I kind of blew it this week – there were two or three GREAT, sunny, and warm(ish) days this week, but I sat on the treadmill. Shame, shame – sure, but I’m all about getting in the habit of getting in the daily run – we’ll worry about quality later in the year.

The garage is my next big project – the basement is clean, the workshop is in order, and if I can get the garage under control, things are  very, very good.

He’s not dead, Gym

In advance I’ve got to apologize to the woman who was doing crunches almost the entire time on the rowing machine – I did not mean to stare – I was looking at the TV in proximity to you. And, by all means, continue what it is you’re doing – it is working wonderfully.

In the spirit of my 2007 resolutions, I did not take my rest day lightly. At lunch, I headed down to the gym, and gutted out 2878 meters (15 minutes) on the rowing machine, and a quick 10 minutes of intervals (40 seconds spinning easy at 90 RPM, 40 seconds hard at 105-115 RPM) on the stationary bike. Plus some stretching, and the before-mentioned sightseeing (Again, I apologize.) All-in-all, a very effective cardio workout.

Though, the part that impresses me most is that I ended up with a blister on my left hand – clearly, life has been way too easy for me.

Susan in Dallas (not to be confused with Susie in Virginia) turned me on to Traineo – not quite sure what it does, but I think I’m going to give it a go as a public way to commit to weight-loss. It’s full of all kinds of Ajax-y goodness.

A couple of personal notes this evening:

First, I did a quick “StrenghtsFinder” profile today at the behest of my boss. it’s based off of the book “Now, Discover Your Strengths” – won’t link to it as I think they’ve got enough press. I don’t place a whole lot of stock in any of the “pop” leadership/management books, but the guy I’m working for does, and I think he’s a pretty sharp guy. So, I clicked through the survey, being as honest as I could be.

No huge shocks – my five strengths came out as

  • Learner
  • Ideation
  • Activator
  • Woo
  • Responsibility

Actually, the “Woo” kind of took me for a loop – I did not think that I had much in the way of people skills at all, but “Woo” makes sense – I’m all about selling people on wild ideas, ‘specially if I’m convincing them that they should be the ones really taking the risks.

“Learner” was a no-brainer – show me something I’m not at least conversant in, and I can show you a credit-card charge later that week for an O’Reilly book on the subject. “Ideation” – likewise, let me read the book, and I’m hatching all sorts of “what-if” plans.

“Activator” – if there’s a group sitting on its duff, I’m incredibly impatient. Do something, don’t just sit there. And “Responsibility” – well, the description said that:

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution.

Wow – talk about the story of my freakin’ life. Actually, this was a relief to me to read – even though I’m not a planner and have no real skills at execution once a project is started, my dad drilling into me “Ultimately, all you have is your name” seems to have stuck.

Now, to re-examine myself and see how to build on my strengths…

Second, I went and watched the first three quarters of the BCS game. I was on the OSU bandwagon, as it turns out that my wife’s Grandfather is not only an OSU grad, but an Engineer (I knew about the engineer part, but not the OSU part). I would have cried, but I got to watch it with a couple of friends in the Harp and Hound in downtown Mystic. There are few things better than a winter’s evening in a 200 year old pub where you can actually carry on a conversation and watch football.

Lastly, a huge and belated happy birthday to my little brother, Doc. He’s a good man.

Two Days of True Love

Inspiration for this is the third part of this post here; I have severe doubts that I can ever wax so eloquently again.

Background

So, we’re almost a whole week into our 2006 Holiday Family Fun Fest – two kids, a nonstop flight from Hartford to Houston, a compact rental car that gets crappier mileage than my ’91 Jeep Cherokee did, and life is good.

We flew out on the morning of Christmas Eve, and trying to be clever figured that it’d be easier on us all to spend the night in a hotel near Hartford and wake up at 5 to make a 7:30 flight than it would be to sleep in Mystic and wake up at 3:45 for an hour’s drive and a 7:30 flight.

Wrong-O, moosebreath.

Turns out that the kiddos really, really think hotels are cool, plus the opportunity to sleep in the same bed just means that it’s that much easier to keep each other up. Nate woke up about 2 AM, and didn’t go back to sleep until we were in the car in Houston.

Christmas Eve in Houston was good – Jake completely passed out during the Christmas Eve service, and I lugged my 6-year-old son out to the car despite the congregation having done a HUGE production of “Joy to the World” including an orchestra, full choir and organ with him passed out on the pew.

Christmas Morning we did presents at Missy’s ma’s house, and then dragged out to the Texas Hill Country to spend the afternoon with my folks, and my granny. I am a bad grandson – my grandmother is the absolute sweetest woman on the face of the earth, and I don’t call her nearly enough. That must change soon.

Anyways, my brother and his wife were here. Missy and I got the spare guest room the first night, which coincidentally has the bed my wife bought out of college as her first piece of real furniture – an Ikea “Sven”, if you’re interested. Great sleeping, for what it’s worth…

The morning of the 26th, we headed over to some friends of my folks. Their house is RIGHT on Canyon Lake, about 3 miles from the ‘rents. My brother, Missy, and I ran over there. There are some days when running is just the greatest and most natural thing that one could be doing. This was one of those days – a bluebird sky as big as south Texas, gentle breeze, perfect temperature, no humidity – nothing better in the world.

Two Days of True Love

The way back was when I realized (again) that I’d married well – Missy and I ran back – my baby brother wussed out – something about needing to get back and take a shower, but i’m guessing it was more pain from the dearth of hills to run in Norman, OK(lohoma, where the winds come whipping ‘cross the plains!, and the waving wheat, it sure smells sweet, and the something’s fresh before the rain!)

But it was a great run – Missy’s gotten quick over the last year, and runs 8:30s like clockwork. There’s a couple of great hills between the lake and my folks, but we took ’em in stride. But running with the wife is my absolute favorite – we can talk, or we can run – there’s not much needed than just the chance to be together.

Wednesday, we slacked off – but to our defense, we did go walking at the San Antonio Zoo. Mitigating that was a late lunch at Tomatillos’, which, if you’re ever in San Antonio, should be on your short list of places to gorge.

Today though – left before breakfast so we couldn’t blow it off again. Missy had to turn back, but waved me on – sometimes just getting out the door is the most important part.

Epilogue

It looks like 2006 is going to end well. 2007 – I’ll put out a goals post in the near future, but the short list looks like:
1. More cross training
2. Lose the belly
3. Marathon! again.

Technorati Tags: ,

Tryptophan Hangover

Actually, I think I’m suffering from turkey induced euphoria.

Thanksgiving was insanely satisfying. I took off on Wednesday afternoon, and didn’t go back to work until Monday. There were no commitments for the kiddos, no travel to be had, and, after Thursday, absolutely fabulous weather.

Missy and I ran the Mystic YMCA Turkey Trot and dip. I dipped, and we finished the not quite three miles in just over 22 minutes, which was quicker than 8 minute miles, surprising both of us. I dipped, and we ran into some folks who I’d known when I taught Sub School, and who I’d run into out on the Left Coast. Good times.

Saturday, we headed down to watch Santa head in on the tugboat, as is the tradition. The weather was absolutely fabulous, which stank, ’cause Santa is supposed to show up on a cold, cloudy winter day, instead of a beautiful bluebird Indian Summer day. But, I salvaged it by running home, hitting 5+ miles for the first time in a while. Legs felt good, etc.

I haven’t been quite sticking to the build-up schedule to hit 20 miles a week by New Year, but I am not too worried. I’ll likely continue to try to hit those goals – I don’t think that going from my 10 or so miles/week to 20 miles/week (a load I’d carried in the past) will be impossible. If I were advising someone starting out, I’d likely advise them to revise the goals. But, as I’ve shown time and time again, it just isn’t going to happen.

Anyway, we’re about three weeks away from days getting longer again – I cannot wait.

And, I apologize for the light blogging lately – work is getting increasingly interesting, life at home is wonderful, and I’ve discovered that I do much better with regular sleep.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,