Weekend Blog Dump + Weigh In

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.

Weekend Blog Dump + Weigh In

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).