Thursday, October 11, 2007

Week Long Blog Dump

Thursday
I did my weights routine. I'm not calling it the freetrainer.com routine anymore as I only got 3 of the exercises from that site.

Friday
I ran my 2 mile home route again tonight. This was the first time I had ever started running in the rain. It ended up stopping about .2 miles in, then it got really hot and humid. I must have started slow as I checked the time at the mile mark it was 17:30ish. I tried to pick up the pace at that point, but didn't really feel like I was going any faster. To my suprise when I finished the time was 33:06 with no walk breaks. That meant the second mile was a ridiculous negative split of 15:30ish. I have been thinking all along that though the course is relatively flat or slightly rolling slopes, that the far end of the road is a little higher in elevation than the one closer to my house. Later that evening my wife and I celebrated our five year anniversary at Outback Steakhouse. It's not the most unique place ever, but the food is really good. We usually do most of our celebration dinners there, as it is our favorite. Though it was a chance to eat a good 10,000 calories, I'm sure I was much closer to 1,000. FYI you can get the loaded cheese fries appetizer in a half order and not eat them all, old me never knew either of these things were possible.

Saturday
I did my light day today. Instead running and walking on the treadmill I decided to take it outside. Taking what I think I figured out yesterday about our local geography, the plan was to walk .8 miles down the road and then run the last mile back. When I made it to the start of the run I was surprised to see the time was 14:32, which means there isn't a whole lot of time difference between me walking and running. Anyway I started way too fast, after the first .1 mile I was feeling rotten and already second guessing this idea. I struggled through the run only to be surprised when I made it to my driveway in 14:05, which is a great mile PR for me. The whole time I was doing the run I thought I'd never do this again, but the success was undeniable so I'm sure I'll do it next weekend. Later that evening we had friends come up from down state and I had an opportunity to sabotage my weight loss again, this time with several beers. I'm not upset at myself because I know that if I take every opportunity I have to drink a few beers at the end of the year it'll only add up to 10 or 15 occasions.

Sunday
I did my long run today. It wasn't easy considering the excesses of last night. But before that we went up to the High Rollaways again. This time I was armed with a camera so what follows is a bit of fall from northern Michigan.
These first two are the area closest to where you park. The view there is good, but if you walk down the trail a bit to the deck the view is even better.

Said Trail. It is very nice like this for the .25 mile portion between the parking area and the deck. It continues on in both directions but is not nearly as well manicured.

Said Deck

The view isn't as colorful as years passed, but this will probably be as good as it gets this year. By the time the rest of the leaves change, what is colorful now will be on the ground. I put this picture together from two pictures I took while standing on the deck as that is easier than figuring out my camera's panorama feature.

Ok, on to the run. This was probably the toughest run I have done in a long time. By the time I ran it was about 3 hours since I had eaten breakfast which in retrospect is bit long for what I had in store. In the first 39 minutes I only took one minute long walk break and that was when I picked up water going back by my driveway which is about the 1.2 mile mark. Anyway after 39 minutes I was headed home but my body just felt like it had nothing left. My mind said run, but my legs just wouldn't. So ended up taking 5 more minute long walk breaks on the way back. I finished 3.27 miles in 56:14 with 6 minutes of walking, which is odd because I thought I had it timed to be done in 60 minutes. So I guess next week I will take a crack at trying to run for 60 minutes again.

Monday
I weighed 330 lbs this morning, considering my scales and I behavior it wasn't bad news at all. It's an increase but I wasn't good with my caloric intake on Friday or Saturday evening, so I'm not surprised. I was at a conference for work today and had a real opportunity to pig out. Luckily I stuck to my mantra of food as fuel and ate really well. A side salad and a reasonably sized self assembled sandwich. I skipped the desert table entirely (loaded with about 15 kinds of cheese cake) which made me feel really strong until I was out of the room, then I wanted to go back in bad, but I didn't. Later in the day I did my weights routine.

Tuesday
I was back in town this afternoon to run 2 miles. I used the same course as last Tuesday, but when I was in the subdivision I went around an extra block rather than just sticking to the outside loop to get the extra .2 miles. The run wasn't bad considering the wind. The whole course is very open so on a windy day like today it turns me into a sail. Luckily the wind was against me for the downhill and with me for the uphill. It was much cooler, which definitely helps out a lot. I finished in 31:58 with no walk breaks, no pains, and the fastest time I've ever done two miles.

Wednesday
I ran 2 miles yesterday evening. It looked like it was going to rain the whole time, but right before I started the rain stopped. It was the coldest it's been in a long time so I decided to try running with a long sleeve shirt over my compression shirt. It was helpful in the beginning, I don't think it took anything away from my running. I tried to start out a little quicker than I normally do, knowing full well that no matter what I would probably run the second mile faster. I didn't feel my groove until about .8 miles or so, but I knew I would run the whole thing even before I found my groove. I finished the first mile in 16:34 which is better than being over 17 minutes. The second mile took 15:03 making for a total time of 31:37, being the second day in a row that I've run my fastest two miles ever. I broke 100 miles today. I remember when I started I thought it would take forever to get to 100 miles. Now that I'm here it doesn't feel like a milestone. I just look at my 10 miles per week average and wonder when that's going to start climbing.

4 comments:

TNTcoach Ken said...

Dude, you are doing fantastic. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day. Like I tell the team, we're on a journey.

Jeff said...

Nice workout week.

Wanna impress your coworkers when you're traveling? Hit the gym at the hotel or go a couple of miles outside.

Way to skip the cheesecake -- always a tough miss.

Pat said...

I remembered hitting 100 miles. I had a special post on my blog and said I would do something special each 100 miles. Now, I don't even realize when I reach those milestones. But, 1000 is fast approaching. I'll have to think of something special. You're making great progress. enjoy all those PR's and milestones and remember bigger and better things await.

The pics are great. I'm jealous. I'd love to run up there.

Marathoner in Training said...

That is some great running and looks like you are on your way to a new life style. I came across your blog from Pat. We are both in the Biggest looser competition. Keep it up.