Couch To 5K: 8-2

Another good 28ish minute run. I say 28ish because it looks like the Ullrey's podcast stops you a bit short of 28, I noticed it when I looked down at my stopwatch and had 15 seconds left to run after having walked a bit.

No big deal. I'll just pay more attention to the walk on the next run.

Left calf was a bit wonky. Who knows... I wasn't as hydrated today as I've been normally and I think I felt that a bit. Felt really good though.

Couch To 5K: 8-1

Great 28 minute run! Toby was a pain in the butt, but the run itself was great. My body seemed like it wanted to play, good temperature... everything was good. It actually felt better than Sundays 25 minute run. That's probably typical thinking about it. First run of the week is the best, middle run sucks, last run is better...

Marathon club at work had it's kick off meeting yesterday, and after it and a good discussion with Val about me trying to control things that don't need controlling or analyzing, I'm going to modify my schedule so that I can make the Monday group run at lunch. They start next Monday at 30 minutes, which dovetails nicely with week 9 of Couch To 5K. We'll see how the rest of the training plan meshes with the one I have in my head for the rest of the year, when we get to that point.

Demon Red Robin

I'm never eating Red Robin again... Apparently this healthy eating thing has started to kick in for my body, and it reacts violently to being abused.

I've been doing my best for the last 2 months or so to watch what I eat. Most of my meals don't exceed 700 calories (most are closer to 550) and I have good balance of macronutrients.

My father-in-law was in town on Friday and we all decided to get takeout. I had a craving and went with a Red Robin Royal burger. One of my all time favorite heart attacks on a plate. I purposely didn't look up nutrition information because I really didn't want to know, and honestly I didn't think it could be much worse than a Whopper with Cheese, can it?

So, we get our food, come home and chow down. About an hour after we eat (burger, plus about 3/4 of a side of steak fries), I'm really uncomfortable. Bloated, and nauseous. It's pretty obvious it was the burger, so I go upstairs and check the nutrition.

1200 CALORIES!!! 82 grams of fat. And that's just for the burger. The fries were 390 calories and another 17 grams of fat. Holy fucking crap! Thank god we forgot the chocolate shakes... (I didn't even look them up, it's just too depressing.)

Admittedly, the stress from dealing with my dad could explain most of the rest of the weekend. A nap each day, overall feelings of exhaustion., etc. It doesn't explain the constant feeling of nausea on Saturday, and the chronic diarrhea all weekend. I think 100 grams of fat in 20 minutes does that.

Sorry for the rant at my stupidity. I really just needed to kick myself in public for this one, so I can stay on track, and realize it's not a treat if your body rejects it. :)

Couch To 5K: 7-3

Ahhh... much better. All of my body parts seemed to work this time. I was a little slower than I thought I should be (I know I'm only supposed to be running for time, but when you run the same rout, it's easy to compare.), but I think that was because I haven't eaten well all weekend. Not feeling well, thanks to the Demon Red Robin (a following post :)), which is why I did this run on Sunday night and not Saturday morning.

Despite some very valid initial fears I also managed to finish the run without crapping all over myself or throwing up. As I say that it makes me sound sicker than I am. I'm not that bad, and I really didn't want to flummox up the schedule next week, since I don't want to skip any runs. I need them to be able to make the race in a few weeks.

A thought on the run: I'm getting waaaayyyy ahead of myself, but... If you only run one marathon a year, what do most people run for 'maintenance' mileage wise? I was thinking if I ran 5,5,5,10 or something like that (Let a boy dream. :)) that would keep a good solid base.

Couch to 5K: 7-2

Well, that was unpleasant. I don't think my lower legs did any work on that run. I managed to bang out all 25 minutes, but I started cold and didn't warm up for a long time (even after my warmup) and even warming up didn't make a difference. I felt like my calves were just hanging out for the ride. The don't all have to be good runs, right. :) Good or bad, they need to get run though.

I'm getting better about picking clothes for runs I think. it was 45ish, so sweats and a LS DriFit. I could have used some really light gloves, and if the DriFit were a bit thicker it wouldn't have broken my heart, but it was better than hauling around a sweat soaked sweatshirt.

Couch To 5K: 7-1

Good run with Toby. I think I accidentally managed to run closer to 29 minutes than the 25 allotted, thanks to some operator error with my iPod. Could have kept running so I think that's a good sign.

Last run and this run my lower legs really had problems down shifting to the walk, they kept wanting to run (it's the only way I can describe it) they kind of snapped forward when I was walking.. .

My knee pain fears were all for naught. Some normal twinges, etc... but the ghostly patello-femoral pain I thought I was having disappeared, and turned out to be nothing.

I read an interesting post about fitness somewhere and they were talking about wanting to lift weights because running didn't tone... I was like huh, then what's making the difference in my body? :) I haven't lost that much weight or run that far but I can already see and feel differences. I have dimples on the insides of my knees again when I sit. I can see definition around my knees. I can feel the muscles in my back working when I walk and move. I guess there are advantages to having dropped the ball on push ups and sit ups this month, I know that all of the changes I feel are from running. It's certainly motivating.

Couch To 5K: 6-3

Didn't run in Colorado. Just no time. I'm hoping that a little over two days of almost continuous movement count for something. After some debate, I decided to skip the day 2 run and stay on schedule and do day 3. I was able to do it without feeling like I was killing myself, but I've got some pain around my right knee. Might be related to hauling boxes of books down 2 flights of stairs, so we'll see how things look in Tuesday after I ice it, etc...

I really needed this run, after dealing with my dad. It also made me feel like I really could finish my first race in a month, even if I'm really slow. I finished this run thinking: "I could do another 10, slowly, but I could do it..."

Couch To 5K: 6-1

Finally. Run Day! I'm only 5 weeks down on this program and already I'm back to jonesing for runs. This thing with my dad has me really stressed out (I'll rant about that later) and needing to run. But I'm trying to trust the program and go slowly.

Good run. Podcast tunes aren't as peepy as last week, but only really needed it for the timing. Felt really good!

Couch To 5K: 5-3

20 continuous minutes!!!!

Ignoring the warmup and cooldown, the 20 minute run was almost exactly 2 miles. Which works out to a 10 minute mile (obviously). Makes me feel better about how I have been running. I hope I can keep this as my base pace and get better from here.

Toby was an ass, I don't know if he's going to run with me much more. He went for 4 squirrels total on the warmup and cooldown and I think he may have tweaked my back a bit. It only hurt on the last part of the run, so it was either that or the fact I wasn't getting good arm movement with the leash, or both I suppose.

Couch To 5K: 5-2

Halfway Done with Couch TO 5K!!!! 8 continuous minutes...!!!

Saturday is 20 minutes... I'm looking forward to it. When I start walking I can feel myself start tightening up a bit, so it will be good to just run.

A head wind out and a tailwind back....

May be running in Colorado next week since I didn't go this week.

Couch To 5K: 5-1

Finally a run started like I remember runs starting, feeling good and being freeing.

The first run this week is 5r/3w/5r/3w/5r. The first run felt great. The second run was a bit more work, and as is normal for me the last 5 was tough. I have trouble keeping pace on an out and back, so I probably pushed a little hard on the last five.

Since Saturday it's been really nice, I haven't had any knee or leg pain at all. I noticed my shoes are fitting better too. I think my body and my shoes all needed 25 miles or so to break back in and get things working properly. I'm feeling some post run twinges, but nothing that I don't expect.

Couch To 5K: 4-3

Whooo! Another week down.

Ran this Saturday morning. A little later that I would have liked, but I'm pretty exhausted from dealing with my dad, and was waiting on the phone call to tell me he made it to detox. Instead I get a call that he has played another game and is head to the hospital for 'back pain'. We'll see what how that goes.

I was pretty hacked off at my dad and the family in Colorado. It made the run really necessary. Being able to think about 'nothing', and do something for me was really healthy for my metal state.

I think I am getting in better shape. My knees don't hurt as badly as they have in the last few weeks, and I think I just feel better the day after a run. Even adding a neighbors birthday party and Val and My first 'night out' with friends since Kaitlyn was born.

Monthly Weigh In

Had Val do my monthly weigh in this morning. And since I didn't post any starting stats, here they are as well. Motivating, and will keep me working on this fitness thing I think. :)

	01 Jan	01 Feb
Neck	16.25	16.25
Waist	44.75	43.25
Bodyfat%	33.5	31.5
Weight	208	200

(start weight may have been closer to 206, but still.. :))

The goals for this month are to pay more attention to macronutrients, not just caloric intake, and get those more in sync. Fat tends to be high, and protein tends to be low, so I need to start playing with things to get things more in sync. Also figure out how to spread my meals a bit better so I'm not as hungry (and thus wanting to snack.)

More consistent and better stretching before and after runs, and on non run days.

Also, to start doing something for upper body and core. I think at this point it's just going to be push-up/sit-up pyramids (1 pu, 1su, 2 pu, 2su, etc ; up to 10 then back down )

You know, this healthy lifestyle thing sure takes the fun out of junk food! :) I splurged and had a Chocolate Bar (donut type) this evening (after I walked the 1.7 miles round trip to get it). Holy fricking jeebus...510 calories?!?! A freaking Snickers bar is better for me than that!!!

On a non running/fitness note. This day pretty much sucked. Val woke me up at about 5:45 asking, "Did Toby fart or did he have an accident?" After a few minutes we were both like "Welp, it hasn't gone away, we'd better find it and deal with him..." So we wander around the house trying not to wake up Kaitlyn, and I find the pool of waste left by a 110 pound dog with explosive diarrhea. With my foot.

And just to make the day even better. My dad who lost his wife a few months ago and has crawled back into a bottle, and has been having issues all week. Called and decided he needed help. After a few hours of stressful phone calls, coordinating with care facilities, my step-brother and a drunk dad,my step brother gets to his place to help him out and he's just sober enough to start thinking he doesn't need help any more.

I think we've got him going to detox tomorrow, and them maybe rehab a week later. We'll see if he does it, or if I have to beat him about the head and shoulders to get him to go in the morning. Better that than the intervention option I suppose. Holy crap those are expensive, as well as potentially problematic for the family if the don't work.

I'm trying to rant without boring you with all the details. Thanks. :)

I really needed to run tonight, but I'm not deviating from the plan, I went for the walk instead. Yay me, I guess...