Fat to 5k

Closing Up Shop

2007-10-30T13:57:00.000-04:00

When I started walk/running I thought it would take forever to be able to run. I thought it would take a long time before I would be able to actually run a 5k. I figured that by the time that rolled around I would be thin. I've focused more on the running than the actual weight loss, trusting that the one would bring the other. So far that has been the best decision I've ever made. There are two reasons I started this blog. The first, I couldn't find many blogs about weight loss and running that started when the individual did. It seems most people who lose weight by running start their blogs well after the fact. What I was looking for was to be able to see more of the ups and downs and days in and days out of the process. The second, was so that I could have a log of my progress. If I were to run into problems or what have you, I wanted to have something to point to and say well that's what I've been doing. So what I'm trying to say is that Fat To 5k is over. I did the 5k. I'll leave this blog up in case anyone else might need to see what it was like for me to go through this. Here's a couple pics from my exercise log.

Overall stats and a graph of the last month of runs leading up to the race.

An overall graph first walk to race.

If you want to keep up with me in the future I've started a new blog where I'll be logging my progress in pursuit of a half marathon.

Bertha Vos Costume Classic II

2007-10-29T10:26:00.000-04:00

Friday Evening
If you haven't read the last post, go do that now. Ok, so I got a call from my runner friends and as predicted, they will not be able to attend. A little while later I gave the race director a call and found out that late registrants were welcome and the race was in fact rain or shine. So this was really going to be it. Nervous energy was now copious. We had to run some errands so it was a little after 7:00 before I could run. Since it was so late I was stuck on the treadmill. I decided to scale back the walk to .25 mile cause I still hadn't gotten anything ready for the race yet. I walked that in 5:00 and then ran a mile in 15:04, slow even for me. I wasn't trying to go slow, it's just that I run slower on the mill, odd I know. Afterwards I felt better though. It served to burn off a little of that anticipation shake I was developing.

Saturday - Race Day!
I slept well. That run last night really calmed me down. Unfortunately I am not a naturally organized individual. That means I woke up at 6:45 with the intention of leaving in an hour, having to get two children ready to go and not yet having packed myself. It all went well though. I through my gloves, headband, watch, and a spare change of clothes in a bag and I was packed. Got the kids ready and ended up leaving for the race only 10 minutes later than plan.

I knew the race was going to be small, but showing up 5 minutes after registration was supposed to open, I did not expect to be the only people there. So my wife and I waited in the car and debated whether we were in the right place. A minute or so later two car fulls of cross country runners (they had CC stickers on there cars) showed up and started getting ready. I got out of the car to ask them where the registration desk was and all of sudden I could see down the large hill where we were parked. The barricades and decorations told me the race was going to be at the adjacent building at the bottom of the hill. I asked to make sure and they said it was down there. The parking lot of the building the race was at was all blocked off so we the racers had to park next door, up this hill. I wasted no time in getting down to register with the hopes that I would be early enough to get a shirt. I registered without a problem. The space on the entry for t-shirt only went up to XL. Not really my size, but that's ok soon enough I'll be able to fit. So the lady takes my form and money. Then she says, "Oh it looks like we ran out of XL, Large is all we have, do you still want one?" I said sure, knowing full well that I will have to run for another year before I have even a chance at wearing this. I checked out where the start would be and looked at a course map, just a simple out and back. Back up the hill to the car with a half hour before race time, nerves ablaze. Checked out the shirt, it's pretty cool. Race name on the front graphic on the back definitely something I would wear, if it ever fits. We sat in the car and tried to distract me for the next fifteen minutes. Finally it was 9:15, race start was 9:30, I figured I should do a little warm up. So I got my watch, gloves and headband on and my pants off. Boy I just realized it's a little cold this morning, like under 50 F. No matter, I'll warm up once I'm running. So I ran along the parking lot driveway to the road and around a corner to where the start was, ie the long way, maybe 1/4 mile. This is when I notice how slow I really am. Other folks running longer warm ups are a lot faster than me. They pass me giving off a breeze, like I could draft behind them or something. No matter, I get to the spot and the wife is there camera in hand under an umbrella. Oh yeah did I mention it was raining, great day for a first race. The next ten minutes took forever. People kept showing up, but I could tell that unless a bus pulled up in a second this was going to be a very small field of entrants. It was mostly young people with their parents. I saw a short bald man come line up and felt better about not looking like I belonged. I figured he might be someone I could run with. A couple people had heeded the call of the race director and actually dressed in costume (the race was the Bertha Vos Costume Classic II). Batman, Minnie Mouse and a clown were the most obvious, but a couple people also wore wigs. Since there was a child's mile race about an hour after this one a lot of people had their kids there also dressed up. (My oldest is far too young for that, so when we saw what the weather was like we sent her to grandmas.) Finally the race was going to begin. I lined up in the back. I told my wife to comeback to the finish line after 45 minutes and I should be close. The air horn went off, and we were racing. I couldn't find bald man, oh well maybe I'll catch up to him. There were no bib numbers and they weren't keeping track of your time unless you finished in the top few. They had a big clock at the starting line so I hit my watch when I passed it and made a mental note that I'd have to remember to stop it when I passed the clock again, my timing would be my business. The course was dedicated to the northbound lane of the road. There were cones setup in the center to separate us from traffic which was shared both ways in the southbound lane. The pack ahead of me disappeared pretty quickly, but that was ok as I planned on being last. I ended up going back and forth with a couple groups. The first was a dad with 3 kids. One kid wanted to run fast and the two others wanted to go slower. The dad kept going between. He'd tell the two behind me, "Ok lets run up to that guy (me)." Then I'd hear them catch up to me then they would start walking and he'd keep running up to the one ahead of me. Then he'd fall back to check on the other two and repeat the process. Oddly enough the one out front and one of the kids behind ended up stopping at the 1/2 mile mark where their mom was cheering them on. The Dad and daughter left racing ended up passing me and finished a good ten minutes ahead. The second group was Minnie Mouse and her daughter. They were run/walking or is it run/dragging if you walk faster than your kid and hold hands? Anyway they stayed mostly ahead of me till the halfway point. They stopped to talk to the woman dressed as a witch who was turning people around and that's when I pounced. I stayed ahead of them for the rest of the race, but only because the kid was gassed, definitely a year to early for her on this event. I did end up seeing bald guy, it was about 13 minutes in or so, he was all alone heading back, and he was flying. I told him good pace, but I think he was going too fast to hear me. My wife said he finished in 19:??, so much for judging that book by it's cover. I congratulated the top 5 or 6 racers as they passed me. I got a few responses and a few people encouraged me while I was running. There weren't any official water stops, but a lady had set out a folding chair at the side of the road with cups of water on it, I thought that was nice. There were 3 volunteers and one cop along the course making sure people didn't turn down side roads and shouting encouragements. The guy at the 2 mile mark had his car stereo blasting really loud which gave me a little boost. The course was on a very windy road. So after every curve I kept expecting to see the finish. There was a guy who walked out of driveway to check his mail and he yelled to me that I was doing well and he had just started running 4 weeks ago. I yelled back I was 3 months in, that felt good. Then all of sudden I was there. I could see the clock it looked like 42:?? I tried to run faster but it was up a slight incline and I was already going as fast as I could. I finished in 44:05, a default PR, and a minute faster than I expected. I also completed my biggest goal for this whole thing in running the whole way, which seems like a forgone conclusion but deserves celebration. I was indeed the last person to finish running, the ten or so people that finished after me were all walkers. Immediately after my wife had a water and an apple waiting for me. Even though I was soaked the water was what I wanted most. I tried to sip it but it was gone quick and she went off to get me another. I did some stretches and then drank some more water and we were out of there. I noticed as I was walking back to the car that my nipples really hurt. I figured it was from being out in the cold for an hour. As the day wore on though I learned that I was a victim of nipple chafing. I wore my long sleeve tech shirt, but I didn't wear my compression shirt underneath which is what I had done when I ran in the rain previously. So I learned an important lesson, rain = compression shirt. I was in pain all weekend, but it was a small price to pay. On our way home we stopped at a couple stores and that was good to get out to the car and walk around a bit. I'm glad that I found the race, but I have no interest in running it next year. The people were nice, but I think what I'm looking for is something more race like or official. Something that feels more like an event.

Letting it all hang out before the race. Why be self conscience, so what if I'm 320+lbs and I'm going to run. You can see the barricade blocking the parking lot entrance in background.

I'm the red blob in the center. Minnie Mouse is on the left and the clock is on the right.

Coming in for the finish. The clock and me aren't really in sinc since I started in the back of the pack. You can see the cones they used to separate the racers from the traffic.

The End Is Nigh

2007-10-26T14:01:00.000-04:00

Wednesday
I ran 2.5 miles today. It was a real solid run. With a mile left my mp3 player died. At least this time it wasn't my time piece. I rolled it up and stuffed it in my pocket. I was already in a pretty good rhythm, but I was amazed that after a minute or two it was like my groove had swallowed me. I've been running with music thinking that I needed the distraction. Now I wonder if it's been holding me back. I've never been so in tune with how tight it feels to run down the road. Muscles moving in unison, feet hitting the pavement, breathing in and out. Relentless. That's kind of how it felt. To look back on it now, I don't remember any effort. Next time I run I'm going without the music again. We'll see if I got lucky or if I've been missing out. I finished that last mile in near record pace at 13:16 bringing my total time to 36:20.

Thursday
I did my weights routine, it was uneventful.

Friday Mid-Morning
It's all happening fast. Tuesday I got an email from Jeff about how he really wanted to hook me up with a race. He may live a few states away but he's wiz on the ole intertrons and he had some good ideas for locals I should contact. I did my best to reassure him that there were none close enough and I was fine waiting till next year. That evening after talking to my wife about it I showed her Jeff's email. Apparently he was able to convey something that I had previously been unable to relay. On Thursday she told me that we could try doing a race down state this fall, if there was one available and we could get someone to watch our youngest. It took all of 30 minutes to find and decide on attending this race. There aren't a lot of choices this time of year, but this one is close to some friends of ours *who just happen to be runners*. So I sent them an invite. This morning I got a positive reply from them, they sound down. For some reason though I thought I should go peruse the runmichigan calendar one more time. That's when I found it. Williamsburg.

For some reason it never clicked before. Last night my wife was talking about doctors in Williamsburg. I told her it was close to Traverse City (which is about 45 min away from us).

So right there it was staring me in the face, a race in Williamsburg. Tomorrow! I called my wife, she was surprised but ready to go. I called my friends. They will have to confer and get back to me tonight. If they are in it will be a hell of a drive for them as they live 2 hours south of us. The one thing I didn't see on the race information page was about late registrants, they had nothing. So I emailed the race director. Still waiting for a reply, but I have her phone number so I can call this evening. That brings us to now, anticipation and excitement are at Christmas time levels. Not sure if I'll be running by myself or what, but I'll be there. It's supposed to rain so I hope they don't cancel. I'm planning on moving my walk a mile run a mile to this evening as opposed to running 2.5 miles the day before my first 5k.

Incredible... absolutely incredible.

What's Up Doc?

2007-10-25T15:10:00.000-04:00

Monday
I did my weights routine, nothing eventful happened.

Tuesday
I decided to increase my mileage. So I added a half mile to my easy run and it went well. There was a wicked head wind I had to run into for the middle mile. I was surprised to find that I had run the first 1.5 miles in 22:37, I had been expecting closer to 24:00. The last mile was quick as usual anymore with 14:07, bringing the 2.5 mile time to 36:44, a good 3 minutes faster than I hoped. I wasn't even sure if I was going to add the extra mileage today. I had originally planned to add it last Friday, but the day was so rotten with rain and cold I figured I'd wait see if I could get a nice day to do it this week.

Afterward I had an appointment with my doctor. The last time I saw him was the middle of August. At that point I'd been walk/running for a couple weeks and I was down about 10 pounds. I think this time he was a little surprised that I had stuck with it, but very pleased. Originally one of the things that had propelled me to start being more active was his insistence that I should go on a weight loss pill. I very much was not interested in taking whatever legal form of speed he wanted to put me on, so I figured that enough was enough and I should get this going on my own. When he saw what I had started in August he agreed that I wouldn't have to go on the pill if I kept this up. Personally I don't think he thought I would, that is why he scheduled this appointment, to check up on me and see if I backslid. So of course the weight loss pill is officially out of the question now.

Weekend Blog Dump + Weigh In

2007-10-22T15:06:00.000-04:00

Thursday
I did my weights routine, it was uneventful.

Friday
I ran 2 miles this afternoon. A more concerted effort was made to start slow and consequently I had a much better time in both respects. I finished the first mile in 15:35 and the second in 14:21, making this the first time I have ever run 2 miles in under 30 minutes (29:56 for the mathematically impaired). It was a little rainy out, but it didn't bother me once I was wet.

Saturday
Since last week's "1.8 mile walk then run light day" turned out to be only a 26 minute workout I decided to increase today's to 2 miles. This marked the first time I had walked a whole mile with no running since the beginning of August. No surprise I was much faster today with a 17:51. My run after that went really well again. The wind was at my back and pretty effortlessly I PRed again with a 13:04. I've been thinking a lot about changing things up a bit and moving my XT/rest days so that this workout could be turned into an all running one. My thinking is that if I move the XT/rest days to Tuesday and Friday that would actually fit my life a little easier through the winter. So we will see how that goes and what happens to the light day. I think I'm going to add a little workout schedule on the right so that it will be easier to keep track. Oh look at that I did it and it's there.

Sunday
I did my long run this morning. It ended up being 4.31 miles. The route was one of the first routes I ever mapped out on runningahead. It goes around the section I live in, section 17. In case you are not familiar, in the legal description of your property it indicates what section, township, and range your property is located in. Populated sections of land typically have at least roads on each side. Sections are typically 1 mile by 1 mile squares. To get around my section it's a bit longer because the north line goes through a small lake, as you can see below.
Because sections are numbered in such an odd backwards snaking pattern I numbered all the surrounding ones out on the above picture to make it a little easier to understand. There are typically 36 sections to a township. At least this is how Michigan is divided below the county level. The road that slashes at an angle through section 17 is M-115. It is known among most northern michiganders as our answer to the German autobahn. Stray deer and cops appear to be the only thing that can slow people down there and that's only temporary. Heck, their corpses litter the road where even they fail. So I was really lucky to get to cross this road twice on today's run. As most cases the apprehension was worse than the deed. The first crossing I only had to slow down for a second and then I got across fine. The second time I sprinted across because the cars were closing in but there was enough time to make it. It definitely didn't make finishing my run any easier (the sprint), but I only had about .6 miles left so it wasn't that bad. I finished the whole thing in 1:06:52 with no walking.

Monday Morning
I weighed 320.6 lbs this morning. That is a loss of 5.2 lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss to 46.4 lbs. It was nice to break out of that rotten routine of gaining a little weight back every other week. Knock on wood that is behind me.

Faster Than The Speed Of Me

2007-10-18T14:40:00.000-04:00

Monday
I did my weights routine, it was uneventful.

Tuesday
I ran my tar chip 2 mile route this afternoon. It was the first time that I have ran in the rain. As Vanilla says it's not the running while being wet that is the problem with running in the rain it's just the initial getting wet that sucks. Even that though wasn't bad compared to what I did to myself. In an effort to be faster I went out faster than I normally do. I knew that I screwed up about a little over a tenth of mile in, but because a school bus was going to stop right about where I was going to be I had to keep up the pace for another tenth of a mile in some odd vanity fartlek type of fashion. I was pretty tired after this, so I slowed down, but it didn't really give me any relief. I hit the mile mark at 15:25, which is the best time ever for my first mile on this course since I started keeping track. The second mile sucked almost as much as the first. My head was telling me to walk but thankfully my tired legs were far too stubborn. I finished soaked to the bone with 15:22 making my total time 30:47, another 2 mile PR. Though the times look good now, I don't ever want to do this to myself again. I like starting slow and getting faster. I like finding my groove and feeling like I could run forever. I like to feel like I'm floating down the road. None of these things happened today.

Wednesday
I ran 2 miles on the Pheasant Ridge loop in town yesterday afternoon. The weather was much more docile today. I made the mistake of leaving my compression shirt at home. I usually just wear it as a body bra under whatever cotton shirt I have on. This meant that I would have to run outside with out jiggle protection for the first time ever, oh and lets throw in a bit of an audience too. There aren't as many people out and about in the residential neighborhood that I run through as there could be, but there's always one or two. And one or two is more than I see in my own neighborhood out in B.F.E. I'm exaggerating though because I wasn't nearly as self conscience once I started. At one point I think I may have made an old lady's day. I had just passed a mile at 14:59 (not that impressive because the first mile is mostly downhill) when I saw an old woman up ahead walking on the sidewalk across the street from me. Immediately I was like, 'alright I'm going to pass this lady.' Try as I might it took almost a tenth of mile to catch up to her and then another tenth to finally pass her. She was probably thinking that she's pretty spry since she was keeping up with somebody running especially with her dragging a leg and walking with that walker. I finished with 15:46 making a total of 30:45, yet another 2 mile PR. I still started a little fast today, so on Friday I'm going to have to make a more concerted effort to start slow.

Weekend Blog Dump + Weigh In

2007-10-15T14:54:00.000-04:00

Thursday
I did my weights routine and it was uneventful.

Friday
I ran 2 miles this afternoon and boy was it cold. I never did check what the temp was but it felt downright frigid for the first 15 minutes or so. I did have an inkling that the temp would be a problem so I wore a long sleeve cotton shirt for the first time. My hands were what ended up suffering the most though. It looks like I will have to invest in some kind of running glove. I tried start out quick and the cold definitely helped that happen. I hit the 1 mile mark at 16:19 which is probably the fastest I've ever ran the first mile. I ended up finishing in 31:14, making my second mile 14:55.
Saturday
Today I had a bit of a shopping spree before I ran. I've been looking at watches at a few different places. While ebay had a fine selection, the price was about the same as our local Wal-mart. I ended up getting a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch today. I've been timing my runs with the stopwatch on my mp3 player. While it is perfectly adequate for overall time, it's not as ideal as I had originally hoped. The display is fine for seeing the minutes, but for some reason the seconds are printed very very small. There is also no split/lap memory capability with it. Anyway the new watch has 100 lap memory that I can store in multiple workouts. It also has a 9 setting interval timer which may come in handy if I ever do speed work. Eventually I'd like to get a Garmin GPS watch, but for now it something I can't afford. I also purchased a long sleeve tech shirt, which I will give a try to on tomorrow's long run. I totally forgot that I needed some gloves, luckily as we were headed to the grocery portion of the store wal-mart was nice enough to clog an isle with a giant crate of tiny cotton stretch gloves. They were only a $1.47 for two pair. This has to be a first that their isle clogging ways have actually benefited me. On to the run, the watch and the gloves worked great today. It was very windy today and maybe one degree warmer. I walked the .8 miles into a fierce wind and was still faster than last week at 13:20. My run back was greatly aided by said wind, blowing me in at 13:33, another mile PR.

Sunday
Today was a beautiful day for a run. Low-50's overcast and almost no wind. I realize that this may sound depressing to some, but fall has always been my favorite time of year. Summer is nice and all, but it's always been too hot for me. Being fat, I sweat at the slightest provocation. God forbid I should have to turn my head or nod, you'd think I just went swimming in my clothes. Fall though, supplies temps that I can totally get down with. Take today for example, probably the second least amount of sweat I've ever expelled on a run (first being yesterday), but I ran 3.82 miles in 59:47, the furthest and longest I have ever run. I managed to run and drink through both of my water areas, so that was a plus. Overall I felt really strong. The total distance surprised me a bit, I didn't know I could do that. The new shirt is definitely a a good purchase for cooler temps, I'm going to have to get at least one more and maybe a pair of the workout pants too.

Monday Morning
I weighed 325.8 lbs this morning. That is a loss of 4.2 lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss to 41.2 lbs. The pattern of one week big loss, one week small gain, isn't especially satisfying, but at least overall I'm still losing.

Week Long Blog Dump

2007-10-11T09:28:00.000-04:00

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.

Stand By

2007-10-09T07:23:00.000-04:00

Work is being aggressive as opposed to it's normal passive when it comes to time. I have been sticking to my schedule as far as running. I should be all updated in a day or two.

I've Upped My Standards, So Up Yours!

2007-10-04T10:12:00.002-04:00

I upped my miles last night. It seems like I have been doing 1.8 mile courses for a long time, but looking at my logs I've only ran them 7 times. I guess I just wanted a more even number, so I ran the extra .2 miles that I normally skip. It went fine as usual, and I finished in 34:16 with no walk breaks.
Using these old USGS satellite photos you can't actually see my house or a couple of my neighbor's houses as they weren't built yet. I begin and end at the same point, the old route didn't have a portion where I went east (right).
This blog has been included in the Top 100 Health and Wellness Blogs for NOEDb: Nursing Online Education Database. The numbers for rankings are categorized more than ranked. This blog is at #52. Of note, number's 28, 53, & 55 are all blogs that I read and enjoy daily. There are lots of other interesting blogs there. Unfortunately three of the most inspirational blogs that I've come across aren't on the list. I sent an email to the list makers to let them know of their oversight. So if you are new to weight loss blogs and looking for some inspiration and advice, don't miss these three:
http://formerlyfatrunningguy.blogspot.com/
http://obrats.blogspot.com/
http://patsrunning.blogspot.com/

Pheasant Ridge

2007-10-03T10:36:00.000-04:00

Monday
I did my freetrainers.com routine. I added one set of 10 lb pectoral raises and did more crunches. It was uneventful.

Tuesday
I ran in town yesterday after work. Since my previous route was so hilly I tried a different route. This one had me using the street behind my mothers house instead of the street she lives on. The topography is a little more gentle there. The route overall is either flat or slightly downhill for the first mile. Then it circles back and is either flat or slightly uphill. I finished in 29:27 without a single walk break. It ended up being a good route that I will use in the future.
(I didn't know runningahead had two different options for satellite photography for their course mapping feature. I had tried to use it before and there were too many clouds to get a good view plus you couldn't zoom in nearly enough. Anyway today I found the USGS satellite option and that works great. Even though the picture is a good ten years old, you get the gist of the area. The part where it looks like I ran through a field is all roads and modulars/trailers now.)
One odd thing I noticed when I was running through the subdivision/trailer park is the lack of people. All the lawns were mowed and there was a car in almost every driveway, but that place was a ghost town. There were a couple kids playing on bikes in one spot, an old man walking on the sidewalk in another, and a new roof going on at one of the modulars in the back, otherwise it was empty. All the shades in all the windows were drawn. I used to think I was in the minority when I would come home and just watch TV all night. Apparently I was more average than I suspected.

Weekend Blog Dump + Weigh In

2007-10-01T15:10:00.001-04:00

Thursday
I did my freetrainers.com routine. I changed my bicep curls to standing on one leg curls. It was uneventful.

Friday
I doubted my ability to run the entire distance again today. It seems like big accomplishments are closely followed by set backs. So when I went out today I told myself I'd just do what I could, fully expecting all the while to hit the wall before the 1 mile mark. The 1 mile mark came and went though, the wall was nowhere in sight. I felt myself in the groove again and it's weird how easy it all feels once I'm there. It almost feels like it would be more work to walk. A tough thing to describe here. Anyway I finished in 28:56. With how fast the run felt I was expecting a better time, but time really doesn't matter. I just hope I can keep finding my groove when I'm out running.

Saturday
The plan was to do my mile run and then round out the 30 minutes with walking just to get a light day in before my long run tomorrow. Things did not go as planned for once. Instead my wife and kids and I and another family drove north 20 minutes to the High Rollaways. It is a spot not many people know about, and I can't even find a link about it right now. It's a place that you can drive to and you end up in a small parking lot about 700 feet or so away from a cliff that borders the Manistee river about 500 feet below. It is entirely wooded and there is a nicely groomed 1/4 mile stretch of trail pretty close to the edge of cliff. The draw though is the veiw out, you can see for several miles with a 180 degree span. In the fall it's pretty breathtaking. Unfortunately for this trip the colors weren't quite popping yet for northern Michigan standards. The nicely groomed trail meets up with an adequate trail on both ends that goes several miles in both directions. Our plan was to hike south on the adequate trail for a half hour or so then turn around come back and have a picnic at the High Rollaways. We brought our stroller for our 5 month old, which turned out to be not as bad as an idea as it may sound. I pushed it most of the way and though the tree roots tried to stop me, they failed miserably. I don't know how far we went on the trail but we were out there for a good hour. The picnic went well and a good time was had by all. When we got home I intended to follow through with the plan, but then all of sudden I didn't. I caught the couch bug instead and soon found myself asleep to the sound of a tuckered out family and college football in the background.

Sunday
I ran my long run a little after 10:00 am. The plan was for it to be 54 minutes long. I looked at several routes and thought I had one planned that was 3.156 miles. I figured based upon past long runs that the increase in distance would match the increase in time. Today's route had me going east and then going back west and by my house before I turned east again to get home. Because of this I was able to leave water at the end of the driveway so I had some water at what I thought was the 1.3 mile mark. The run went really well. I liked the route a lot. Almost a third of it is on a dirt road and that is definitely softer than the tar and chip over asphalt I'm on for the rest. I found my groove very early and ended up finishing in 53:27 and my feet never gave me even a whisper of trouble. I was pretty happy with this until I went online to map the distance to put it into my runningahead log. That's when I found out it was actually 3 miles, not 3.156. I know this might seem like quibbling, but I liked the idea that I had completed a 5k distance. No matter though, next Sunday will be an hour and that will for sure be longer than a 5k.

Monday Morning
I weighed 328.6 lbs this morning. That is a loss of 7.6 lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss to 38.4 lbs. I think my scale might be manic depressive. It's digital, but it gets stuck on certain numbers some times. I will weigh the exact same weight for 3 days straight and then it will just drop me 6 lbs. I feel thinner this morning and the affirmation from the scale feels good (even if it is a little bi-polar).

Actually, I Run

2007-09-27T14:56:00.000-04:00

So if you've read this site before then you may know I've already declared that I run. Todays announcement then may seem like a reiteration, but it's more like a 'no really'. Last night I ran the whole 1.8 miles without taking a single walk break. I started out a little slower than normal, unintentionally, it just happened. I didn't know I was going slower until the 1 mile mark when I looked at the time and saw 17:??. I picked up the pace a bit when I saw that but I was in such a good rhythm I already knew that it was important that I finish without walking. So it took me 30:53 to run the whole thing, but that doesn't matter. What matters is I ran the last 1.3 miles or so in such a good rhythm I was almost sorry that I didn't have a longer run on the schedule. My left foot started to fall asleep near the end, but was fine about 5 minutes afterward. I didn't mention it yesterday, but near the end of Tuesday's run both feet were falling asleep. I attribute this usually to when I'm pushing myself, but I'm starting to think it may have to do with how I lace my shoes. If it persists I've found some different lacing methods to try.

Doubler Hills

2007-09-26T15:14:00.000-04:00

Monday
I did my freetrainers.com routine. I added some triceps lifts. It was uneventful.

Tuesday
I ran in town this afternoon. I'm calling the route the Doubler Hills 1.83 miler, as it begins with a wickedly large hill and ends with a shorter steeper hill. I made a big mistake in the beginning when I ran up that first hill. Even though the ensuing 2/3 of a mile was a gradual downhill I was out of breath and very tired. I never did get into a rhythm. I walked up the last hill. I finished in 30:39 with walk breaks totaling 6:00. So I know for next time that I should just walk up the first hill. I'm also looking at different routes in that area that may be less hilly while I'm still getting used to running outside.

Weekend Blog Dump + Weigh In

2007-09-24T10:28:00.000-04:00

Friday
I did my Tar Chip 1.8 miler this afternoon. The wind was against me both ways, not really sure how that worked. I felt slower than last time, I pushed myself to take the same walk breaks. I finished in 28:14, which validates my guessed time from Wednesday.

Saturday
I ran on the treadmill today. It's not that it's bad, it's just that running outside is more fun. It was my light day so I was working on my mile again. This time I played with the speed as I ran. As I felt stronger I would up the speed a little and when I felt weaker I would take it down. At one point I was at 4.0 mph but I ended up running most of the time at 3.8 mph. In the last tenth of a mile I started upping the speed again. When I hit the mile mark I was at 4.2 mph and a time of 15:36. I know I can do better as my average mile time for running outside is in this neighborhood. If this week goes well I will be doing my mile outside next Saturday. The only reason I didn't do it this week is I wasn't sure how my body would feel after running outside for 3 days in a row. So far (knock on wood) I haven't felt much in the way of bad affects from running outside.

Sunday
I ran my long run mid-morning today. Since the target is 48 minutes, the plan for today was to run in one direction down my road for 24 minutes and then turn around and head home. In most of the reading I've done the recommendation has been to have hydration on runs longer than 45 minutes. Since this was my first time doing this I decided I should probably take the advice. So I filled up a throw away water bottle and drove down the road to my normal turn around spot and threw it in a roadside bush. It ended up working out really well. I ran to the water spot, took a walk break and sipped a little water, and then through the water across the road so I could pick it up on my way back. As time got close to 24 minutes I started looking for a landmark that might be visible on a satellite photo. I was in luck there was an old tree line bordering a farm field ahead. It ended up taking me an extra 10 seconds to get there, but it was worth being able to see what this distance would be with one of the online pedometer mappers. Luckily no one trash picked my water while I went down the road as it was there when I came back about 10-15 minutes later. I probably looked pretty funny to the car waiting at the cross road for me to run by. All he saw was a big guy struggling to run down the road. I can imagine him telling the story to someone, "So I pull up to the stop sign and I see this Walrus struggling down the road. I look again thinking Mary spiked my coffee this morning and it wasn't a walrus at all it was just an escaped shut-in who was attempting to run. It looked like he was going to have a damn heart attack right there and then all of a sudden the desperate fatty picked up someones discarded water bottle from the side of the road and he starts to drink out of it, crazy S.O.B.!" Oh well it's not such a bad thing to be the inspiration for a humorous story. I finished the run in 48:32 having only taken 4 walk breaks totaling about 6 minutes. After using runningahead (and my car as back up) to measure the distance I found out it was 2.8 miles. So that felt really good to have covered such a distance. My left foot was the only thing that suffered poorly from the run. I gave it a good rub a couple times through out the day, but by bedtime it still felt a little crampy on the outside edge.

Monday Morning
I weighed 336.2 lbs this morning. That is an increase of 2.4 lbs from last week. Disheartening. I know that the scale doesn't measure my level of fitness. I know that the scale also doesn't measure the effort I put into getting said fitness. Looking back for the error in my ways I see two dietary mistakes. Saturday I didn't eat dinner till 8:00 pm which is far too late, and Sunday I had a second helping of taco salad that I didn't need. At this point I'm focusing on the John Bingham quote, "Progress isn't always linear." I'm not falling off the horse. The scale is welcome to feel like a failure but I'm not choosing that for me. I ran 2.8 miles on Sunday, 2 months ago I couldn't run at all. Also on the good side my left foot felt fine this morning.

Status, The Quo

2007-09-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

I measured out where a mile is on what I'm calling my 'Tar Chip 1.8 miler'. Since it was a cross train day I did my modified freetrainers.com workout. Ever since I ran that first day I ran outside I've been mapping out different courses around town. It's fun to see the different places I can run now that I'm free of the treadmill. Barring a foot of snow or horrific injury I will be running one run in town next week.

Running With A Judo Head

2007-09-20T11:45:00.000-04:00

Well I ran outside again last night. I knew it would probably be a good run when my mp3 player's battery died on the second song of the run. See my only means for keeping time is on the stopwatch that is in my mp3 player. So I figured that I'd probably end up with a run that I'd really like to know what my time was. I got into a good rhythm early. I easily ran past the point where I took my first walk break yesterday. Every time doubt crept into my head I did a body inventory to evaluate my pain, there was none. So I just kept pushing myself. I told myself I'd just run to the next mailbox or power pole, but then I wouldn't stop, I'd just tell myself ok now the next one. I felt really strong when I ran past the mile point (which is still just an estimation, I have to actually measure it tonight). The thought that finally made me walk was that I might be progressing a little too fast on the outdoors running. I don't want to be injured just for the sake of one great run. So I eventually took a minute walk break, and then another on the little hill near the end. So 1.8 miles traveled with only 2 minutes worth of walk breaks, I call that damn fine. Since yesterday it took me 29:12 to do the same course with six walk breaks, I know I was faster than that today. Between my wife and I we estimate it took about 28 minutes, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was even faster. Oh well I'm just really happy at the quality of run at this point. My lower thighs, right above my knee, were tight last night. This morning they are still a little tight. Luckily today is a rest day, it looks like the schedule is serving me well. I'm really looking forward to Friday's run, I'm charging my mp3 player as I type this. I'm unsure how I will do my short and long days this weekend. At this point I don't really want to go back to the treadmill.

Anbody Need A Treadmill?

2007-09-19T14:18:00.000-04:00

I ran outside. It was liberating. Here are some things that I learned.

1. I run faster outside.
2. Small rolling slopes don't really look like hills when you are running on them, but your legs know the difference between them and a treadmill.
3. The gravel on the side of the road might look like a better running lane, but those weeds growing in it make it a lot tougher than just running on the asphalt.
4. Seeing the mile marker down the road is not the same as knowing exactly how far you have come.
5. A compression shirt is like a body bra for a fat guy, it doesn't eliminate the jiggle it just controls it.
6. The sun is hot.
7. A breeze at your back in the last 5 minutes of a run can feel like a real blessing.
8. Nothing beats seeing the endpoint of your run and being able to run faster to it.

I probably learned more than just those things, but that is all I can think of right now. I finished my 1.8 mile course in 29:12. I wasn't even trying to run faster, at least until the final 300 feet or so. Let's put it this way, I know my next run will be outside.

Excuse Denial

2007-09-18T10:36:00.000-04:00

Despite the presence of so many excuses I did get in a cross training workout last night. I've said before that I am reading, Running For Mortals. Well it has so good info on running related exercising. I took a couple of the authors exercises that I could do and added it to the paired down routine that I got from freetrainers.com. Still no luck in finding an exercise bike. It seems that craigslist for northern Michigan isn't all that active in that regard. I've also been perusing the local scandal sheet's classified section without luck. So far the weather looks good for tonight to be the first run outside. The only thing going against me at this point would be the heat, though it has been cold it is supposed to be a windy 82 today. I'll probably just remind myself of what Pat goes through and suck it up.

Weekend Blog Dump + Weigh In

2007-09-17T09:48:00.000-04:00

Friday
I was supposed to do a weight workout tonight, but that didn't happen. I could post a few different excuses, but it just didn't happen so the excuses don't really matter. I did however buy a digital scale, I'm not sure whether this is good or bad. I really disliked our old scale as it was always inaccurate. I'm not even sure if it was supposed to give an accurate weight to a person my size as it is a dial scale and I made it go around twice. At least the new one will be accurate as long as I am under 350 lbs.

Saturday
I broke my mile PR today, 16:40, I had the treadmill set at 3.6 mph. It's not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but it's good for me. My feet hurt during the run, but I attribute that to the 5 minutes of walking I did at the start. I thought a longer warm-up might be helpful but at this point not much good comes from walking before I run on the treadmill unless I am drop dead tired. I finished out my 30 minutes with just walking to keep it light so I wouldn't be too spent for tomorrows long day.

Sunday
I was a little disappointed in my initial endurance today. I was not able to keep my initial run segment going for longer than 11 minutes which is much lower than the last few days. I didn't slip into the 90 seconds walk 90 seconds run though until about 27:00 so that helped me run for 29:00 out of 42:00 total. My right foot fell asleep at about the 18:00 mark and I wasn't sure if I could continue, somehow I pushed through it and around the 33:00 mark it woke up. I've read on the Runner's World Beginner Forum about other people that have this happen and it goes away like this, so it may just be a feature of my long runs until my body gets used to them. Felt good when I was done, having covered 2.256 miles. It'll be distance PR Sunday for the next few in row as I continue add time each week until I get up to an hour.

Monday Morning
I weighed in this morning with 333.8 lbs bringing my total weight loss to 33.2 lbs. I figure I might as well post a weigh-in once a week now that I have a reliable scale.

Rest Days Are My Friend

2007-09-14T15:13:00.000-04:00

Another good run last night. It was a little tougher, but certainly not what I would call too difficult. I picked a different album and decided to run for six songs since I knew the songs were a little shorter. Oddly enough when I got to that point it was 21:36 so I ended up just doing the exact same routine as last night. This is encouraging to me to see that it is possible to put two of these workouts back to back. Which provides a perfect time to mention that I finally got my other running book that I ordered the same time as The Courage To Start. The new book is Running For Mortals. It is co-written by the same author as the first book, John Bingham. There is some rehashing so far, but it is a little more about what I would call the mechanics of running rather than the encouragement/ideology. I just finished reading about how slow muscles and bones grow, which is the big reason the authors advocate rest days (6-12 weeks for muscles and 6-12 MONTHS for bones). So armed with this new knowledge I will definitely be incorporating more rest days into my plan. My hang up with the rest days has been that I didn't feel like I was pushing myself enough to deserve them and I liked so much the post workout glow. Both of those I've found, are unacceptable reasons to skip the rest days. So anyway I kind of covered the plan for the future in my last post, but barring any pain/scheduling conflict I think my 7 day plan will contain 3 30 minute run days, 2 rest days, 1 long run, and a 1 mile run with walk after to round out 30 minutes. That should be enough to work me out without injuring me. Also I am giving next Tuesday a stern look and an unfriendly gesture, as it MAY be the first time I try running outdoors.

I Run

2007-09-13T09:44:00.000-04:00

In thinking about the mental aspect of running, I realized that my goal for my routine hasn't been clear and straight forward for some time. I've been trying to run for more time, but I've been unwilling to slow down because I didn't want to sacrifice my mileage. At this stage of the game I need to throw the mileage expectations right out the window, and if I don't care about that then speed can follow it out too.

Now that the goal was/is all cleared up, I can focus on what's important. Running, that's what I'm trying to do here. Sure I want all the great benefits of running, but first and foremost I want to run. That brings me back to last Saturday, I ran for 17 minutes straight. I quit because it was a mile. I watched the time and distance slowly tick away to a mile. As I got closer to the goal my crazy brain told me that was a long way and I should be really tired. Learning from that experience I may have now found the most important tool for running on a treadmill for me. A towel. Securely placed over the treadmill display, it blocks out all the negative sub-consciousness that comes from knowing exactly how far I've come in what amount of time.

Last night I told myself that I was going to run for five songs on the album I was listening to. After that I'd check the display and see where I was. I started by doing a two minute warm-up walk. Then I set the treadmill to 3.5 mph (my most comfortable running pace) and I just ran. My legs did tighten up a little, but they didn't hurt during those five songs. My feet never hurt during those five songs. I'm sure having a rest day before trying this helped, but I think not taking walk breaks helped too. Somewhere in the middle of the 4th song I really wanted to look at the display. I kept doing a body inventory and confirming to myself that I was not in pain and that I could do this. I told myself that as long as I had been running for longer than 17 minutes I would take a little walk break after the fifth song. When that song ended I pulled the towel off and the timer read 21:52. I ran to 22:00 minutes and then took my walk break. I had run for twenty minutes straight! My walk break was two minutes then I ran for two minutes, took another two minute walk break, and finally ran the last two minutes. I finished with 24 minutes running out of 30! To me this isn't run/walking, this is running. Only taking two, two minute walk breaks with a two minute warm-up, now that is huge for me (pun intended).

So this is what I want to do now, I just want to run. Obviously I want to get rid of all the walk breaks and run for thirty minutes straight. At this point I can't imagine that I am more than a week from that goal though. My plan is to do the same thing tonight, run without the treadmill display and see where that gets me again. Depending on the level of discomfort it should tell me whether I can run back to back days or if I need to incorporate more rest days for now. If I can only run every other day then so be it, I'll take the progress with lack of injury over the over training any day. So if tonight goes well then I will probably do a rest day Friday, then another crack at the mile on Saturday with just a minor speed increase (like .1 mph), then the long run on Sunday which will be for 42 minutes this week, and finally a rest day on Monday. Boy do I like to plan.

Athletically Mental

2007-09-12T14:46:00.000-04:00

I took my rest day yesterday. I tried to do the routine from freetrainers.com, but it clearly assumed I was a lot more fit than I actually am. I changed the push-ups to knee push-ups. I did the bicep curls and the side laterals with 10 lb hand weights, which in terms of the former was probably not enough and the later way too much. The only other thing on the list that I could physically complete were crunches. After about 20 minutes my arms were quivering and shaking so I abandoned the workout about 2/3 through. I will probably try it again the next time I have a rest day, but next time I won't be so ambitious with the side laterals and the 10 lb weights, I think that is what killed me.

I've been thinking a lot about my routine and last Saturday when I ran a mile. I like my routine cause it makes for a pretty even workout. Though I really like the feeling I got from running the whole time last Saturday even if it was only for 17 minutes. I'm thinking that one of the toughest thing about my workouts is all the walking. There is a great thread about the mental aspects of running on the Runners World Beginner Forums. I've long thought that my physical abilities were limited by my own perception of capability. Not that I want to lift a thousand pounds or fly to the moon, goals I know to be absurd. I just wonder if I'm ready to be running for 30 minutes straight and it's my head that is holding me back. I know that the more walk breaks I take the more I want to take them, so there has to be some credence to all of this.

The Detriment of the Youth Benefit

2007-09-11T11:16:00.000-04:00

When I planned the long run on Sunday, my instincts told me that Monday would probably have to be a rest day. So yesterday I tried to find an online resource for at home exercise routines. I am reluctant to have a rest day where I just do nothing. I did find one at freetrainers.com but I wasn't exceptionally confident in it. So I ended up on the treadmill instead and it only took about five minutes to learn my lesson. Long days prefer to be followed by light days. I didn't let my error stop me though, luckily I have the ignorance of youth on my side. I pushed through my aching legs and upped my routine to 18 minutes running out of 30. I felt better than the last time I did 18. I know that today will have to be a rest day. Not sure what I will come up with for a cross-training activity, but I've got the rest of the day to figure it out.

I haven't mentioned much about my diet changes. Jeff of Formerly Fat Running Guy was curious so I figured I'd post something about that for the record. My three biggest problems in my diet were overeating, late night mass quantity sugar snacking, and a complete lack of vegetables. I was lucky I didn't have to fight the pop demon too as I am a water addict. I had been eating about a cup of oatmeal with 2 spoons of brown sugar and cinnamon for breakfast for well over a year so that was covered already. Lunches have always been either leftovers or a can of soup (steak and potato 360 cal. +-). I did have to stop eating from the break room chocolate box but this was easier than expected with my keeping 100 cal snack packs at my desk to kill the random urges. To conquer my big three, I did a number of things. First I started making steamed broccoli or cauliflower with all of our dinners. I make more than we eat so I can take it to work for some of my lunches. I also switched us off of tater tots and started making packaged hash brown patties. The hash brown patties aren't any healthier, but they are a lot easier to make less of. When I first started I was eating two with each dinner, but now I just eat one. I make pork now as well as chicken and beef, so that helps to have another meat to rotate in. Just this past week I actually bought fish instead of steak for our grilling we do every Saturday. For the late night snacking I bought green apples and grapes and for a month or so I ate those when I needed a late night snack. Slowly though that urge to eat late has curbed itself. I also have some 60 cal pudding snacks if I need something sweet, but it's taking me about three weeks to make it through a package. Basically I didn't want to jump into anything too shocking that I could rebel against. I just took (and am taking) baby steps toward less food or healthier food. Rather than cut off a certain food I just eat less the worse it is for me. That means that sometimes I am strong enough to turn down my mother-in-laws donuts and ice cream and sometimes I just have a small piece of birthday cake. I want to be able to make better decisions, because I think that will stick longer. It may not be the fastest way to lose weight, but I know it will work in the long run.

Weekend O' PR's

2007-09-10T10:26:00.000-04:00

Friday
An uneventful run. I stayed on course and did the same plan as yesterday. I am totally sold on this routine. For me it just feels right. I know I get a good workout and just when I need a break it shifts back to 90 seconds walking and 90 seconds running, which is cake at this point.

Saturday
My wife and I took our oldest daughter (2) to the John Ball Park Zoo today with some friends, so I wasn't sure what I'd be able to do as far as a workout goes. I also had planned to do a longer total workout tomorrow. The zoo was about 2 hours of walking and it is on the side of a hill, so the stroller made it extra fun. We got home in the afternoon and I took a little siesta. I did my best not to actually fall asleep knowing that would spell demise for my pending workout. I was able to rise from the dead at some point and summon enough energy/wakefullness to get ready to run. My plan was two-fold: 1. See how far I could run, no walk breaks; 2. Attempt to run as much of a mile as possible. I am so slow I often question the value of a warm-up for me at this point in my training. I decided the best way to help myself complete my goals would be to bump my speed down from 3.7 mph to 3.5 mph and cut out my usual 90 second warm-up walk. The first .4 miles where the toughest just because I knew how disappointed I would be in myself if I were to take a walk break then (Having completed this distance in straight running about two weeks ago when I tried something similar). It was tough on my body, but it was probably tougher on my mind. Somewhere after .5 miles I got the feeling that I could actually pull it off and that is all I really needed to do it. 17:08 from starting I had RUN a mile. I know it's slow, but I ran the whole thing which felt like a giant PR. For the first time in my life I ran a mile. Even when I was young and I would run in gym class I never actually RAN a whole mile, there were always walk breaks. I was on such a cloud afterward that I wasn't even upset about Michigan losing.

Sunday
Last night we ended up drinking with some friends so I wasn't sure how today would work. After being awake for a few hours though I felt fine and decided today would be ok to try the long workout idea. My plan, as I put in an earlier entry, is to add 6 minutes to my long run each week until I get it up to about an hour. It was a little daunting going into this since 30 minutes usually takes about all I have. I decided to bump my speed down from 3.7 mph to 3.5 mph just to give myself the best opportunity to finish. I think the biggest help is that I do have an excel spreadsheet of all the times printed out and taped on the treadmill, so I could tell myself that I only had x amount of run breaks left. I ended up finishing fine, I even thought to myself that I could have done more if I had to. My mileage for the day ended up being an obvious PR of 1.89 miles with 20:30 running out of 36 minutes. Oh and I've started calling my run segments run breaks, just as a little psychological warfare. I was really happy with how yesterday and today went together. I think it is important to go a little easier before the longer day. As I have yet to find a cross-training activity, I think the mile run is good for an easy day. I can either work on adding speed or a tenth of mile and have it contain some kind of progression but still not make me fatigued for the following day. Ideally I can find a used exercise bike here in the next couple weeks to make me feel better about taking running rest days.

Foot Stop Failing Me

2007-09-07T14:42:00.000-04:00

A tough run last night. I upped my running to 17:30 out of 30 minutes. I do not enjoy running those 2 minute segments but I feel good when I get done. My right foot feel asleep again at about the 24:00 mark. I know it is not the shoes though cause about a minute after I was off the treadmill, while I still had the shoes on, the feeling came back. My feet don't feel constricted at all in the new shoes so I'm sure it is just my body trying to slow me down. I still have to remind myself that I am a very big individual. No matter how much heart and determination I pour into this sport (Wow John Bingham is starting to sink in, I called this a sport) my body needs time to adapt. To paraphrase Mr. Bingham,it didn't take me three days to get out of shape so I shouldn't plan on getting back in shape in three days.

A Free Agent Foot

2007-09-06T11:44:00.000-04:00

Well I have new shoes. I went to the closest local branch of the Running Fit Store. There I was helped by a very knowledgeable runner named Jeff. Now I know when I walk I put all my weight on the outside of my feet so I thought that made me supinator but, Jeff took one look at my feet and said I was a pronator. He watched me walk to confirm that my feet do roll in. He had me try on a Brooks brand shoe first because it is better for pronators. It felt very sturdy, but not exceptionally cushioned. I went outside and ran on the sidewalk a little. When I came back he had me try on a pair of Saucony's that were also supposed to be made to stabilize pronators. They were more cushioned in the ball of my foot. When I went outside to run with them I could feel the arch support was too far back in the shoe and it felt like it was hitting my heel. When I came back I told him I really liked the cushion on the Saucony but the arch was totally in the wrong spot for me. We tried different insoles and no insoles but neither of those fixed the problem. Then he had me try on some New Balance 1061's. They are neutral cushioned shoes so they won't help control pronation, but Jeff said that I may not be overpronating so I may not need that feature. I ran in them and they felt good. They feel similar to my everyday Adidas Ozweego's that I have been wearing, with one big difference, the NB 1061's are a wide shoe. Jeff told me that anytime your feet fall asleep it means your shoes are too narrow/tight. So anyway the NB 1061 is an expensive shoe so I asked if Jeff had anything that would fit similar and be a little cheaper. He said that since they fit well that he would take 10% off if that would seal the deal. I said sure and that's how I paid $99+tax for these bad boys.Miraculously enough the new shoes weren't the only new thing I tried during tonight's run. Back in August my wife and I happened to be going by a Nike Outlet store. I had just started the whole running thing and I was curious what they might have for that. I ended up buying a pair of compression shorts (which I overpayed for, much cheaper at Wal Mart) and a pair of Fit Dry running shorts with a sewn in underwear liner. The largest size they had in the Fit Dry shorts was XL. I tried them on when I got home and they fit, but they were a little tight. So I threw them in the drawer and figured I'd get to them at some point. Well the day before I neglected to do my laundry so those shorts were the last thing I hadn't sweated all over yet. They fit much better now, my wife thinks they still look a little tight though. The fabric is a little stretchy so she is right, but they are very comfortable. Now having run in all of my clothes I can say without a doubt they are the most comfortable thing to run in. When I race I will wear these. The shoes also felt good. No feet falling asleep, so that's good. My right foot did have a small dull ache in the ball of the foot, but I'm chalking that up to just getting used to the shoes.

The routine was the same as yesterday. Fingers crossed but this schedule seems to really suit me. I am tired after running the 4 two minute run 1 minute walk sets, but by the time I'm done with the whole 30 minutes I feel really good. I'm still reading The Courage To Start, and I came across some ideas last night for how to create a long run. The basic idea is on par with what I've been doing so if it seems overly obvious forgive me but I had to read it to know what to do. The idea is that you add a small amount of time to one run each week until you have one long run of whatever time length you want. Then if you want to increase your other workout times increase them one at a time by the same time increment at a rate of one each week. My plan is to introduce my long run on Sunday. I am going to add 6 minutes to it each week until I get it up to an hour. This should help me slowly get used to being on my feet for longer periods of time. If it all works out my first hour long workout should be on October 7. I'm not sure what I will do at that point as far as my normal routines go. I also have to think about when I am going to try and incorporate some outdoor running. Ideally I will get some time in before snow flies, but I don't want to rush it as I know it will be harder on my body than the treadmill has been and will require more rest days.

Mark Me Down For 50

2007-09-05T11:43:00.000-04:00

Well I passed by my first month this past weekend and I never really looked back. When I started I couldn't run. It took six days of walking before I could even think of putting in some running. On that seventh day that I finally ran I managed a whole two minutes out of 30. Fast forward to today, a little over a month, and I ran 17 minutes out of 30. I no longer have to stretch my shirts out for them to fit. I just put them on and they fit. I have been stretching my t-shirts out for years to feel comfortable in them. Not stretching my shirts is crazy. My pants feel a lot more loose, like I should probably wear a belt. I've slimmed down into size XL shorts from 2 or 3 X's depending on brand. I have a lot more energy. My wife has noticed me helping out more around the house. According to my jury-rigged scale that I assume is still 12 lbs off, I have lost a total of 25 lbs so far. Last but not least, today I passed the 50 mile mark.

The actual workout today felt good. I had a slight pain above my right ankle as I left work. It went away a couple minutes in, so that was a relief. The foot pain I've been having was almost non-existent, but my legs hurt a little. I finally figured out how to progress my workouts without killing myself. My plan is to just augment the 90 second walk, 90 second run routine. Today my first 4 run segments I ran 2 minutes and the following walks were 1 minute. I will just keep converting an extra run/walk every couple of days or so. That should keep me from advancing too fast. Then once I am all two minute running segments and one minute walk breaks and feeling good, I will eliminate one walk break at a time until I can run the whole 30 minutes. If by some miracle I can continue on this pace then somewhere near the end of the month I should be able to run the whole thing.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately to derive inspiration and to see how other people have come from being sedentary to active. One of my favorites is Pat's Note to Self. One of the many things I've found while perusing his pages is the book The Courage To Start. I am only about 80 pages in right now, but it's definitely an excellent first book to read. A lot of useful information on how to deal with wrapping your head around the fact that you are a runner if you run. I probably need to reread the part about progress not being linear after I've gone and written the second paragraph today.

The plan is to head to the running store after work this afternoon. with any luck my run tonight should be more comfortable.

Long Weekend + Holiday Blog Dump

2007-09-04T11:15:00.000-04:00

Thursday
I planned a rest day for today since the last three days have been so tough and tomorrow I would be switching to a morning workout. So I ended up mowing 2/3 of the yard and that went well. I would have done the whole thing, but the grass is still suffering from our drought in the other 1/3 of the yard. I wasn't winded at all like I used to get and my head was the only thing that got overly sweaty.

Friday
I dialed back my workout today like I had previously mentioned. I went with the 90 seconds walk and 90 seconds run, I ended up modifying a couple of the segments to be 2:00 minutes running and 1:00 minute walking to make a total of 16:00 minutes running out of 30:00 minutes total. I really didn't want to do this, but the past few days have been so difficult that I had to do something. It turned out that this was exactly what I needed. I felt great afterwards and that is the best birthday present I could give myself. Did I mention that today was my birthday? Also my wife got me some running socks and a couple compression dri-fit T-shirts. The T-shirt was very tight, but that is supposed to be how it fits. As I started running I thought it was odd that my head felt so hot, it took a few minutes to realize that it wasn't that my head was hot, it was that my body was colder. As I said before the run was good, my legs didn't hurt at all. They did tighten up about the 21:00 mark, but that went away in the next 90 second walk break. The only thing that wasn't completely perfect was my feet hurt. It is probably time for some fitted running shoes. I have been doing all my running on a pair of Adidas Ozweego running shoes that felt comfortable for walking about 6 months ago when I bought them to be my everyday shoes.

Saturday
Couldn't get up early enough to get a morning run in, but luckily some time opened up later in the day. Another good 16 of 30 minuter, felt really strong throughout. My feet hurt about the same as yesterday, but I am mentally strong enough at this point to ignore it until I can get some new shoes. I used my new mp3 player that I got from my mom for my birthday yesterday. It is a Creative Zen Stone Plus. It's smaller in size and capacity than my 20 gb Creative that I've been using, but I will be able to use it for outside running. As an added bonus it has a stopwatch on it so that should be helpful until I can save up enough for a Garmin.

Sunday
I was feeling a little lethargic today and NBC was playing some of the Track and Field World Championship footage from the past week. They had the womens marathon on, absolutely incredible! I swear at the half way those women were averaging 6 minute miles. It turned out to be a pretty motivating thing to watch, cause after I saw the Kenyan win I headed right down stairs to do my run/walking. I ran a little longer today at 16:30 for 30:00. The pain in both feet was still there, but at this point I expect it to be there until I get new shoes. I don't suspect it to be an injury of any kind because it only shows up after 7-10 minutes of working out and it's gone by about 10 minutes after.

Monday
I kept up the 16:30 pace today. I've been working the numbers lately and boy is it confusing. If I stick to 90 second walk breaks and up all of my running to 2:00 each I end up with 4:00 left over and only 16:00 of running. Before I ran today I thought I might step up again, but after all the math I just decided to do the same thing as yesterday. I look forward to the time when I will no longer have to time things out and I can just be a little more free to go run. I felt good and strong throughout. The foot pain took a little longer to start, but it's there as expected. I know I can't get to the running store Tuesday, but maybe Wednesday.

My Avatar

2007-08-30T12:04:00.001-04:00

I need to post this to host it.

The Precipice Of The Backslide

2007-08-30T08:16:00.000-04:00

One of the worst and toughest workouts last night and I even decreased the intended difficulty. I knew things were going to be tough in the first 90 seconds of running. My legs felt like I had already been running for 10 minutes. I gutted out the normal routine for the first 10 minutes but after that I had to modify my walking to be extra slow (2 mph) just to recoup something for the runs. I did as planned and slowed my runs down for the last 4 segments which I'm sure helped but I didn't feel it. Of course because of all the extra slowness my mileage was the lowest it's been since last week, down to 1.56 miles. I have a planned rest/mow the lawn day today, then Friday and Saturday I should be on mornings. I think I am going to go backwards to the 15 minute running routine, as I blame all the trouble lately on my trying to increase my running time when I wasn't ready. I got so excited that day I ran 16 minutes and I didn't want to go backwards then so I upped myself to 18 minutes and it's been all trouble since. Anyway the 15 minute routine calls for 90 seconds walking and 90 seconds running, which sounds like cake compared to 60 seconds I've been walking. With this routine I think I may be able to incorporate some odd 2 minute run segments in here and there so that I slowly progress to 18 rather just jumping up again.

A Reprieve At The End

2007-08-29T08:58:00.000-04:00

Another 18 minutes of running last night. It really kicked my butt, in a good way though. So far I have been adamant about sticking to my running speed on the treadmill because I didn't want to sacrifice my mileage. Anyway somewhere around the 20:00 mark I felt like it was getting easier to run. Then I looked down at the display and realized that I had been running at 3.5 mph instead of 3.7 mph. I changed it and gutted out the rest of the workout expecting my mileage to really be off at the end. I was surprised though to find that I finished with 1.644 miles only 3 thousandths off yesterday. So I did some thinking and some math and I came up with a new idea. From now on for my last 4 runs, which amounts to about 6 minutes, I am going to run at the slower pace. My logic is that if I were running outside there would be no way I would keep up the 3.7 mph pace when I'm so drained. I don't think I need to retreat my whole workout to the slower speed because my body doesn't get bad until the 20:00 range. Also the past couple runs I have had a slight chafing issue on my inner thighs so I think I'm going to start using my compression shorts that I bought a couple weeks ago.

Improvement? No Vacancy

2007-08-28T12:02:00.000-04:00

Well running after a rest day certainly didn't seem any easier. I'm sure the difficulty I had was not related to the rest day, but rather my unhealthy addiction to increasing the amount of time I run. It was tough but I made my 18 minutes of running. Somewhere around the 21:00 mark my whole right foot was asleep, but I persevered. About 30 minutes after I was done I felt fine. The morning after I feel fine. I think my right foot is just my body trying to slow me down. Ideally I don't want to slide backwards, my current routine of 60 seconds walk and 90 seconds run is difficult, but I've proven I can do it. So I will do my best to stick with it knowing full well that it will get a little easier every time I complete it just like all my other routines. My legs and feet want to be what is holding me back, but my brain and self doubt feel a lot more powerful.

Weekend Blog Dump

2007-08-27T08:52:00.000-04:00

Friday
I needed a good day today and boy did I get one. My previous workout had been 90 seconds walking and 60 seconds running. Unfortunately the only thing I could think about all day was, "I wonder how far I could run if I just kept running." My plan when I got home was to do my normal workout and then maybe tomorrow try run as far as I could thing. Well after I talked to my wife I was even more anxious about seeing how far I could go, so I just said the heck with it and went for it. I did my mini warm up of 90 seconds walking and then I ran... for 6.5 minutes straight. I know it may seem insignifigant if you've been running for awhile, but I doubt I have ever in my life run that long continuously. At 3.7 mph that amounted to .4 miles! Anyway after I walked for a little I decided I'd run again but of course by this time my stamina was pretty low so I only lasted 90 seconds. Now for my normal workouts I have printed out from excel (yes, I'm a nerd) the exact times of when I'm supposed to do what. So I ended up walking till the 11:30 mark and from there I ran and just stayed on my normal routine. When my 30 minutes was up I had ran for 16 minutes and a total distance of 1.616 miles. Before today I considered what I was doing as walk/running, because a majority of my time was spent walking, but 16 minutes running is definitely run/walking. I know these hurdles I keep clearing are all in my head, but they make me feel like I'm really accomplishing something.

Saturday
I bought some new workout shorts today and had a bit of a surprise. I am no longer a 2XL short size. I put them on when I got home and they were far too loose, almost nothing holding them on! So those have to go back to the store. I felt a little bit tired today after yesterdays big jump to 16 minutes running, but I want to keep progressing so I went for another PR today. Doing the math for my workouts, to keep things even I have a 15 minute running formula and an 18 minute running formula. Since yesterday's 16 minute routine was unconventional I decided that I was ready for the 18 minuter. This would be 60 seconds walking and 90 seconds running. Well it didn't take too long to figure out just how wrong I was. By the 16:00 mark I was absolutely dead on my feet, so I walked through that run mark and stayed on routine for the rest. Then at the 28:00 mark I ran for the last 2 minutes. I finished with 17 minutes of running. Not the PR I was shooting for, but still a PR. I think the biggest lesson I learned today was to listen to my body and watch my past performance. If I wake up a little sore the day after doing something I've never been able to do then there is no shame in taking a rest day.

Sunday
I woke up sore today and decided to learn my lesson so I declared a rest day. After 25 days in a row of working out I felt very guilty doing this. I hope that with this rest day I will be able to come back Monday even stronger. Also I returned the shorts from yesterday and got the XL size which was $2 cheaper (another bonus)! I almost forgot to mention that I did run out to our mailbox and back today which is only about 500 - 600 feet, but still it marks the first time I've run outside in years. I will definitely need an adjustment period when I switch to outside running as with just that short distance I could feel it in my knees and feet that I was doing something more strenuous.

What is the prize?

2007-08-24T14:24:00.000-04:00

Last night was another good workout. I can't help but wonder how far I could run if I just started running and didn't stop. I may try that this weekend. I'm torn on one hand I want to work the different walk/run regimens and progress slowly. On the other hand though I read about people who do it differently and they just go out and run and I wonder if I would be better suited for that type of workout. I think it may just be that I want to have been running for longer than I have. Patience is the key.

Scale Differential

2007-08-23T15:20:00.000-04:00

Went to the doctor yesterday and he seems to approve of my new leaf turned. One thing that was disappointing though was my weight loss. I was expecting to be at 348 instead I was at 353 which means my scale at home is off by 12 lbs, at least now I know. With the timing of the evening working as it was I had to eat before I worked out which is how I used to do it, but is certainly something to avoid. Walking fatigue didn't kick in till about the 21 minute mark. My right foot did fall asleep on me by the end again, but this time I think it was because my shoes were tied too tight.

Fixing Broken Fixes

2007-08-22T11:19:00.000-04:00

Well the treadmill did it's thing again last night. So that scratched the idea that it was a sweat related problem as I have been sticking to my running like a normal person routine. On the bright side I was able to up my workout to 90 seconds walking and 60 seconds running which put me at 12 minutes running out of the total 30 and 1.55 miles so another PR. That means that after over a week of walking and two weeks of incoperating running in, I am finally at the beginning level of the Couch to 5k program at www.coolrunning.com. I know I need to be more patient with my progress, I'm working on it. The results from tieing my shoes tighter were almost negligible. After I was done I immediately called my father in-law who knows what he's doing when it comes to electricity. With him talking my unexperienced self through it over the phone I was able to shut off the power in the basement, pull out the outlet and determine that is of the insufficient 15 amp variety. So then he brought me a 20 amp GFI outlet and I replaced it. The circuit breaker that our basement is on is 15 amp, which means if anything pops in the future it will be at the circuit breaker. So if that happens then we know we will have to replace that as well. It just feels good to know for sure that we have the problem under control, also not being a handy individual it feels good to now know how to install electrical outlets.

Sloppy Feet

2007-08-21T10:55:00.000-04:00

Stuck to my routine last night. I felt comfortable and confident through the first 15 minutes. After that my legs and feet really started to hurt. When I run I try to concentrate on keeping my breathing even and striking the ground first with my heel. Lately as I get in the later part of my workouts I've been feeling like I just can't make my feet do it. I think part of the problem has been that my shoes are too loose. Being a fat lazy guy I've never tied my shoes every time they come on and off. I am in the habit of slipping them on and off, thus they are somewhat loose. I know that it can be problematic to have them tied too tight, so at work today I am trying to get used to them tied a little tighter. That and I am turning over a new leaf of actually tieing them when I put them on. Assuming I keep this up I should probably get a pair of dedicated running shoes instead of just using the running shoes I wear everyday.

Weekend Blog Dump

2007-08-20T10:42:00.000-04:00

Thursday
Finally today I got back to the 1.5 mile mark, to be exact 1.516 miles. To do it I had to up my running speed from 3.5mph to 3.7mph. Tough going though, my legs wanted to revolt earlier than usual, but I pushed through that noise. My only real concern when I up my level of activity is that I will be able to sustain it in future workouts. I'd hate to go too far and have to go backwards. Slow steady improvement is the best thing for my psyche at this point, doubt is the enemy. I'm taking tomorrow off of work to do something fun so that means my workout will be in the morning instead of my usual time of after work.

Friday
Wow early exercising is certainly not an easy thing to wrap my head around. Got up at the planned 6:30 am time which was actually sleeping in compared to my work get up time of 5:40 am. Felt tired though. About 12 minutes into the workout the ground fault circuit interrupt popped on our wall outlet that the treadmill is plugged into in the basement. It has done this to me once before and is very annoying as I have to stop and go over to the outlet and push a button and then go back to the treadmill and get it going again. I'm not sure why it does this, after the last time I switched to the top plug and it has been a week and a half without an interruption. Not sure what the fix for this will be, I guess I could handle it if it just did it once every two weeks or so. On the bright side I kept up the 1.5 mile pace.

Saturday
Tough going today. I would call this the first time I really didn't want to exercise. I pushed the workout as late as I could cause I just didn't want to do it. The treadmill did it's shut off thing again today. This time it was about 9 miles in. My thinking is that we may just need to have the ground fault circuit interrupt taken off this outlet. I can't keep this exercising up with the treadmill shutting off. A disappointing day even with a 1.5 mile finish.

Sunday
Fixes and firsts were what I needed today. I might as well just go through it as it occurred. After my first set of walking and running I noticed my hands felt sticky holding onto the handle/heart rate monitor (probably from all the sweat I constantly sweat onto them). So I took them off one at a time to wipe them on my shirt. When I took off my left hand one of the silver heart rate monitor panels stuck to my hand and came off the handle. There was a little wire hooked to it so it could only come off about an inch or so. Almost immediately everything clicked and I knew why the machine had been shutting off on me. All of my sweat must have been running under that panel and then running down the wire to a point where it would short out just enough to trip the ground fault circuit interrupt. I was immediately torn, I solved my problem, but how the hell was I going to fix it? I needed those handles to run, or so I thought. About this time my second minute of running came up so I tried to run like a normal person without holding on... and miracle of miracles I didn't fall over. Now I didn't have the most secure stride in the world, but I did it. So then it was on to walking and wow I could do that without holding on as well. So for the rest of the workout I did it like normal person. I had to catch myself a time or two, but that didn't shake my new found confidence and this will be my new routine. I ended up finishing with a new PR in distance for 30 minutes, 1.52 miles. My legs didn't get really painfully tired until about the 20 minute mark so that is better than it has been. I had one other small first, at one point I got into my groove and ran for a minute and 5 seconds. I know this seems a bit ridiculous to mention, but every little step counts when it comes to motivation.

One-Third There

2007-08-16T09:58:00.000-04:00

Last night I changed up my routine and was able to squeeze a lot more running out. I started out with two minutes of walking and one minute of running and then I just repeated that 10 times. That means 10 minutes of running! Very exciting stuff. I remember last week I thought I'd be stuck on 6 minutes forever, but now 10 whole minutes. The one disappointment is that I still didn't get to a mile and a half (got to 1.484 miles). I was able to get to it only once before when I walked the whole 30 minutes at a 3mph speed. Since I've started incorporating the running in my workouts, my legs seem to have even less tolerance for faster walking speeds, as 2.7mph is all I can handle for any duration. I am grateful for the treadmill though because I know I wouldn't walk as fast if I wasn't walking on it. Oddly enough I feel like I'd run faster outside. I assume because of my body shape I can't seem to swing my arms when I run on the treadmill. When I do swing my arms I become really unstable and I feel like I'm going to fall over. Instead I have to hold onto the heart rate monitor handles on the front console. I'm blaming this on my body shape for now, but if someday I'm smaller and this is still the case I'll blame it on the narrowness of the treadmill's belt.

Forty Five Second Groove

2007-08-15T09:17:00.000-04:00

No problems last night relating from the night before when the top of my right foot fell asleep. Continued the 7, 1 minute segments of running. I kept all my walking at 2.7 mph and I'm still running at 3.5 mph.

One thing I did differently for a distraction during last night's workout was that I used my MP3 player as opposed to the laptop with a movie playing. It worked so well that I will be doing this from now on. Not really sure why, but as I have started running the movie option has just been wearing really thin.

The best part about last night was for once I finally found my groove. It was on my fourth or fifth minute of running. I started running and I was just comfortable, incredible. After 45 seconds I wondered how long I had been going and I looked down at the treadmill and saw I still had 15 more seconds to run and all comfort immediately vanished. I was back to reality and 15 more seconds felt like a lifetime. So I learned an important lesson, if I ever find that groove again I'm just going to let it take me as far as it can, no clocks, no time limits, just run comfortable and let the chips fall where they may.

To begin somewhere...

2007-08-14T14:04:00.001-04:00

Not really sure how much back story is really necessary. I am fat and I don't want to be anymore. That sounds good for now.

The last week or so I have been exercising, with a goal. That is new, both parts equally. I would like to run a 5k. Not walk. I found a place that logs workouts, www.runningahead.com, so I'm keeping track of what I'm doing.

During last nights 30 minute walk/run on the treadmill I ran for 7 minutes which was good. I have been just trying sprinkle in 1 minute run segments so far and for the past 4 days I was stuck at 6 minutes. So anyway last night I decided to try 90 second running segments. So I started with 1 minute walking and then 90 seconds running, then 90 seconds walking, then 90 seconds running. Which if you are not doing the math is 3 minutes worth of running in the first 5:30 of the workout. Before it was usually taking me 8 minutes to get to 3 minutes running. The problem was that at 5:30 I was hurting something awful in my legs. So I dropped my speed to 2.5 mph from 2.7 mph. For the rest of the time I sprinkled in 4 more 1 minute run segments. It's odd though cause when I walk my legs hurt but my breathing is fine, and when I run my legs feel fine and my lungs go on strike in seconds. The worst was at the end, the top of my right foot fell asleep. When I was done and doing my stretches I could feel some of my toes were asleep as well. It took more than 30 minutes before they felt anything close to normal. So it will be interesting to see if that will become a thing or if it was just a consequence of my pushing too much at the beginning. Thusly tonight I will go back to just 1 minute running segments and try to get in 7.