Monday, March 31, 2008

Monthly Weigh In - March

Despite all my worries about Easter, March turned out to be a fantastic month as far as weight loss went. Down another 7.5 pounds, for a grand total of 22 so far this year.

01 Jan 01 Feb 01 Mar 31 Mar
Neck 16.25 16.25 15.75 15.375
Waist 44.75 43.25 41.5 39.5
Bodyfat% 33.5 31.5 30.1 27.3
Weight 208 200 193.5 186

Moved the weigh-in to the end of the month so I can start the next month fresh.

Had my cardiologist appt, got clearance to run the marathon (no surprise there).
The best part is that my standing BP was 106/70, so I get to halve my blood pressure meds. If I lose the rest of the weight and keep running by my next appt (4 months) he'll take me off completely. We talked through the cholesterol numbers, and apparently the lowered triglycerides mean I'm processing sugars, etc. better now that I'm running. The HDL, LDL changes are just because, well... the tests can vary. We are going to try some Niacin to see if that will pump up my good cholesterol though.

HH5210 mod: 3-1

3 miles in 32:29 (10:09/mile)

Good run, on what turned out to be a beautiful day. My boss still had some problems, but I felt pretty good for a two in a row run.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

HH5210 mod: 2-3

3.5 miles in 34:39 (9:54/mile).

This was one of those runs that doesn't seem like it's going to happen.  I slept in on Saturday, and then watched Kaitlyn while Val went and did some work.  By the time she got back and we all got settled, it started to hail and snow...  In the Everett, at the end of March.  We ended up getting 6 inches.  As we discovered when we went out today, just up the road had melted off by 2:00.  We still have multiple inches outside.  

I finally ended up running at about 5 so I could do it in the daylight since I was running in the bike lane, trying to stay out of the snow on the sidewalks.  The extra half mile didn't seem too bad, but I'm going to have to do back to back days again since I procrastinated on Saturday, and I've missed the last couple of group runs.

I took a blood test for my cholesterol last week and got the results back on Friday.  Down 14 points (from my medicated value), and my triglycerides are way down (like 8o points) to 69 or so, but my HDL and LDL (good and bad) went up for bad and down for good.  Grrrr.....  I'm seeing the doc tomorrow, so
we'll see what he has to say.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Bonus Run

3 miles in 32:14. Probably would have been around 31:00 but we stopped to try and diagnose my boss's foot numbness problems for a few minutes.

I hadn't intended to run 2 days in a row, but after I finished yesterdays run our Club Coordinator sent out a meeting request for a run after our 'class' this week. We had Eric Sach, the spouse of one of our other Coordinators, and a hardcore runner and owner of a running store, came in to give us a talk about shoe selection and training.

Wow! So much useful information, so little time. An the education continues on into the run. He just watched me run for a few seconds and asked if I had right knee pain (I do a little after some runs, just some tightness in knee). Apparently my right foot is externally rotated when I run (i.e. points out) and that is putting the stress on my knee. I ran in my ASICS and he wasn't thrilled with the support they were offering (they gave me shin pain as well, so they may burn somewhere) which is when it is lower shin, has to do with pronation (high is something else, need to remember). I tried my Sauconys on and ran for a few seconds when we got back, he said they were a little better, but he really need to do some before and after with the treadmill and videotape. I may have to drive down during lunch next week. Hope I don;t need new shoes.

Also stressed the need for a HR monitor. I'm, probably running too fast during training. This run was a bit slower and I was able to hold a conversation better than I do when I run with just my boss. This was fun group run because it wasn't just the 2 of us, so there were some conversations going on all around. I don't mind running with my boss, but I do enjoy running by myself on Saturdays, just to help clear my head. I think the biggest difference for me, beyond running partner was finishing Couch To 5K and going to mileage. Then I don;t worry about time, I just run till I know I need to turn around, and then run some more. It means I can concentrate on technique, etc instead of listening for queues or watching the clock, which is just depressing. Oh, he also suggested shorter strides and increased foot turnover. Going to have to practice that, it feels odd.

Now the big question is: Do I run tomorrow to stay on track, or do I just enjoy 2 days off before I do my first mileage increase run in the HH5210 plan (3.5 miles). Hmmmm...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

HH5210 mod: 2-1

3 miles in 29:22.

What looked like a really brisk day turned out to be passable. At least till the turn around, anyway. Then we got a head wind, and drizzle. My boss had the same foot problem as usual, but he has changed shoes and that seems to have helped. It didn't kick in till a couple hundred yards later than normal.

Ran in the ASCIS since the new cheap insoles seemed OK when walking. They ran pretty well. I could feel the difference in arch support. We'll try it again and see how things do. I did notice after we stopped that the spot that was bothering my on my left foot, that I was attributing to the SuperFeet, was still there a little. Just a bump, just behind the ball of my foot, pinky to side. Hmmm..

Monday, March 24, 2008

Post Easter Ramblings

No running today.  Just posting to keep ahead of things.  :)

I'm always lousy at these meme things. I always overthink them. The best one I could come up with after being tagged for the bio in 6 or less by MomOf3 at Run Like The Wind, was 'Not much of a rebel". I'm the white sheep of my family, and when I like my routines and rules. That's why I have a running plan for the whole year. :) I'm working on it though. Kids seem to teach flexibility. I do like what Pieces of Me came up with though. (It's never to late to change).

Having a motivation issue tonight, which is why no run...  I'll run tomorrow which will still keep me on schedule, but I just don't feel like doing it tonight.  Part of it is that this was a bad food weekend, and that's affected my motivation a bit.  

Val and I went on a date on Saturday and ate a PF Changs before we went and saw Mamma Mia (really cool musical!), and now looking at nutritional information, we didn't do as well as I thought.  Then Easter Lunch/dinner wasn't great either calorie wise.  What the hell am I going to do with 6 extra pounds of ham and half a cheesecake?  Was a really nice Easter with family, though.

Combine all those excuses with a day spent at home with Kaitlyn, who has a fever of unknown origin and thus can't go to day care, and I'm going to finish typing and go to bed.  :)  

I did get some generic 'sports' inserts from Fred Meyer and put them into the ASCIS.  They're really comfortable, and the odd support the Super Feet were providing my left foot is gone, so it might be progress.  Fortunately these aren't my primary shoes.  My Sauconys are my main running shoes.  But I paid money for these and they're gonna work, dammit.  :)  I probably need to caompare the inserts to the onw in my Sauconys, but I'm loathe to mess witha combination that works, and probably jinx myself.  I'll wanser back by RoadRunner in a few days and let the pros who sold me the damn shoes figure it out.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

HH5210 mod: 1-3

3 miles in 28:02. I need to back it off and stay slow probably, but I only felt like I was pushing the last 1/2 mile or so, so I just ran.

Thought I had my ASICS solved, but I walked in them last night and the gave me some shin pain. I'll play with them one more time, then they are going to some deserving charity or something.

Wasn't sure about this run since I really don't like morning runs, but obviously despite the fact I was feeling sluggish, I ran pretty well. A little shin (probably from the ASICS on the walk last night) and some knee tightness.

Now, off to prepare for Easter and Grandparents... :) Happy Easter everyone.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

HH5210 mod: 1-2

3 miles in 28:55.

Tuesdays run I still has some calf soreness from the race. Today I just felt really good. I noticed some tightness in side of my right knee, but that might have been a fluke. Now that I put the SuperFeet in my ASICS and they seem to be behaving, I might take them out for a run and see if I feel differently.

It's interesting to see that in just the month I've been running up Westlake to see how many more runners are coming out. Even with today being chilly and windy there were more runners out.

One nice thing about running with your boss; you know he's not wandering by your office looking for you. :) We have an unofficial rule about not discussing work issues during the run, which seems to be working so far.

And answering a comment in an earlier post (since I'm not sure if people get notified if I comment to reply to them): I'm only 'officially' doing the runs for HH5210. I walk the dog between 1 and 3 miles depending on mood and if I ran, etc. most of the week, so I classify that as cross training. No strength training so far. I might start doing some sets of pushups and situps, but that's it.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

HH5210 mod: 1-1

3 miles in 30:12.
My boss had the same foot going numb problem that he's had before at mile 2.5 so I ran it in and then walked back for him.

This is the first week of my modified Hal Higdon 5K to 10K plan. This week calls for all 3 mile runs, so it's going to be a nice transition to running for distance not for time. Next week adds an additional 1/2 mile on Saturday, so 4 more 3 mile runs. Then we just add 1/2 mile intervals till I'm theoretically ready for a 10K on Mothers Day weekend.

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to set as the run goal for this stage. I think the 8K Beat the Bridge the next weekend is getting the most votes right now.

Monday, March 17, 2008

O'ficial Results for St Pats Dash

Race Summary:
number of finishers: 8296
number of females: 4387
number of males: 3900
average time: 00:34:43

Me:
overall place: 3854 out of 8296
division place: 396 out of 647
gender place: 2384 out of 3900
time: 33:01
I'll do better next year. At least I'm better than the average. :)

Just for the record, I weighed myself before and was down to 190.

I'm starting to feel it a little bit. Maybe I did push a little. My calves and butt are a bit sore. Nothing that doesn't work itself out pretty fast, but sitting in front of a computer for a few hours makes me look odd as I walk through the halls at work.

Oh, and I got a second set of SuperFeet insoles and my ASICS seem to be becomeing well-behaved shoes. :)

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Race Report: St. Patrick's Day Dash

Whoo Hoo!!! First race!!! 3.58 miles in 33:03 (33:02.44 actually, but that's anal even for me. :)) Works out to a 9:14 pace! (I've been at 10 or slower the last few weeks, so...whoooo!).

And now for what is an overly long and excessively detailed race report.

Packet Pickup
Obviously, I've never done this before. Got there a bit too early and hung around with some other overachievers. They finally opened the doors into the conference room they were set up in about 5 minutes early. Big room, with the waves divvied up on each wall, with multiple lists of names and bib numbers for each wave so we didn't bottleneck there. I am bib number 3985. They provided stickies and pens so we could write down our bib numbers then go get our envelopes, and then our shirts. I couldn't remember what shirt size I had ordered so I snagged a Large instead of my previous XL requirement, Yay, Me!

Having the envelope and shirt next to me as I drove home brought on a mild case of butterflies. :)

Envelope had the bib, made out of Tyvek, which explains how they hold up in the rain. :) It also had the chip and a zip tie to attach it to your shoe. I was surprised how big the chip was. I expected something the size of my thumb or so.


Night Before
A few minutes to get everything together, including some new DriFit skivvies (TMI, I know, but highly recommended. :)) Tried out the chip and the new Nike foot pocket for keys, id, and parking money. The pocket worked pretty well. I was worried it would come off, but it worked fine the whole race, and it meant I didn't have things bouncing around in my pockets while I was running. Decided that with a mid 40s and 30% of rain forecast I'd wear my SS DriFit and my new horribly bright running jacket and gloves and haul a hat along.
Got to bed around 10:15 despite having to spend 4 hours at the emergency vet with one of our cats (she's OK, and will be even better after she sees our vet to get some things sewn back together), and slept really well, surprisingly. I ate a full calorie load for the day for the first time in a few weeks too. It was a short run and I probably didn't need to worry about it, but better safe than sorry.

On the Way
Alarm went off at 6:00. I laid there and did the thing I do every time the alarm goes off the morning of an 'event', "What in the name of heck am I doing getting up early?" and then got up, dealt with the dog, had some OJ, took a shower and shaved, dressed, and got on the road by 6:50. Stopped for gas and was really on the road by 7:00. Holy crap, am I really doing this?

On the drive down I ate a pair of granola bars (the two in a package) and had about half a bottle of water. This turned my intestinal tract on. I was really glad the rout we had to leave the Quest Field parking garage was right by an indoor bathroom. As an aside, I really hate driving downtown, despise it might not be too string. I'm a good suburban boy who learned to drive in Nebraska. This city crap is for the birds. I was so glad I grabbed $5 in quarters (I was only going to grab $3) because with that and the $5 in my shoe pocket I was able to pay for parking. Friggin' city...

Walked out of the parking garage, and right there were the shuttle buses to the start in front of me and the finish line to my right. The buses were right in front of me, but the line to load then was a block long (at 7:30). Apparently it got longer, Val said when she showed up to get a good spot to see me come in, it was closer to 3. I'm really glad I decided to run it as a timed, competitive event and go in the first, Green, wave. It started at 9, and I only had to wait for 35 minutes or so.

Pre Race
The school buses (god it's been a long time since I rode one of those) got us up to the Key Arena and we dismounted and I wandered over to the start lines. The had water, gear drops and porta sans, so I made a visit. Walked in circles for 30 minutes. There were a lot of groups and families, it seemed odd to be a singleton. I wasn't really able to strike up a conversation with but one or two people, and that toward the end as things started getting crowded. One of the things that did start up a conversation was the announcers warning any one slower than 5 to 6 minute miles to get 10 yards back from the start, or they would be asked to move. WE just laughed since we were standing in the back 3/4 of the wave's corral. (I probably should have started a bit further forward, but it all worked out. ) I was probably glowering, since I was a little nervous. I actually did the 'runner' thing and ran a block or two to warm up. I did it too early, but it's a start. :)

I though I saw Eat Drink Run Woman, but I wasn't sure, and wan't feeling random enough to go harass a complete stranger. If her husband had a green hat with orange 'sideburns', I was the guy slightly uphill with the red baseball hat. :)

About 5 till 9 I rolled up my jacket since it had finally warmed up a bit ( apparently it was about 38 or so, not cold for some of you, but I think I heard the wind chill and humidity took it down to 34 or so) and tied it around my waist. Then we had a pair of false starts, apparently since then couldn't get the the last buses off the course. As we were waiting one of the announcers quoted 15500 people registered for the race. Finally at about 9:10 the air horn went off and we started moving.

Race
Map for the course.

We started soooo sloooww. Which was probably good since it let me warm up rather nicely. :) I remember the announcer saying "It's 2 minutes since the horn and the Green wave still hasn't finished getting through the gates". I was about 30 seconds away at that point.

When we passed under the Aurora overpass (4 lanes or more wide) everyone started hooting and hollering. It was really loud, and very cool. It reminded me as I ran of what I had read about the tunnel in Boston. I did a small amount of moving around and passing people trying to get better position, but I tried to keep it to a minimum

We did this 2 block u-turn that didn't make any sense to me until I just looked at the map in detail, it was to get us into the Battery Street Tunnel. Which interestingly was pretty quiet, there were some people making noise, but most people were just running. The start of the tunnel is just after a mile. The tunnel is apparently about .6 miles long. It sure seemed long. It was nice and out of the wind and warm at the beginning, but by the end it was hot and humid, and when we broke free into the fresh air on the Alaskan Way Viaduct it was amazing. I did a lot more passing in the tunnel. Mainly because a lot more people started walking. I don;t know what the etiquette is for that, but it seemed a bit squirrely. But... there were a hell of a lot of people, and not a lot of places to go.

The Viaduct has great views, but to be honest I was so intent on just running and not hitting people I didn't 'stop and smell the roses' but a few times. Really neat place to run, and and amazing view when I did look up. I ended up picking 'Pink Shoes' and her partner as my pace people and stuck with them. They seemed to be running at a pace a little harder than mine, but one that wasn't going to leave me puking. I followed them all the way to the finish, and thanked them for the pace.

The last quarter mile or so after you turn in front of Qwest Field was some work, but Val and Kaitlyn were there, and she got a shot of me running off. Since she wasn't able to see me coming. She says that me being one of thousands of other runners, and the fact I came in 3 minutes earlier than my slowest predicted time, made it hard for her to notice me. I called her name and she got this shot of me with both feet off the ground. I guess that means I really am a runner. :)


Val got this shot before I came by that really shows how many people were out there running today (look above the people at the offramp of the Viaduct):


Crossed the line at 35 and change, watch time of 33:03. We'll see what the stats look like when they post them tomorrow.

Post Race

Hooked up with Val and Kaitlyn shortly after getting the chip clipped off my shoe. That was the only thing about the race that seemed a bit flaky. The chip clippers were down on the ground, clipping chips, apparently randomly scattered. It would have been nice to have them have a balloon or something marking their location.

We wandered through the swag tents and then bailed for home.

I'm feeling really good, so I don't think I pushed too hard, which is good.

I've tortured you long enough. If you're still with me, thanks for reading.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Packet Pickup

Picked up the packed for the Dash. My first race.

Now I'm starting to get some butterflies. :)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Plan - 2008, v.1.0

Warning, long post with a running plan created for the entire year by an obsessive new runner. I'd love input, but if you want to skip it, I won't feel hurt. :)

I've created this plan by combining a couple of other plans available online and then tuning a bit. I'll present each section of the plan and then make comments under that section. Miles are listed as numbers, time runs are qualified with a unit.

Goal for the year, if you're new here, is to run the Seattle Marathon on November 30, 2008. If it seems more sane closer to the race to run the Half for my body and run a marathon in 2009 I'll do that.

Most of the Tuesday/Thursday runs will probably move to Mon/Wed since I'm running with the group at work now. When I get to 4 days a week, I'm thinking Mon, Wed, Thur, Sat. We'll see how that works out.

I have no idea why blogger is inserting so much white space in front of my tables. I apologize.











DateWeek TitleMTWThFSSuNotes
31-Dec
7-JanC25K - 1
14-JanC25K - 2
21-JanC25K - 3
28-JanC25K - 4
4-FebC25K - 520 min
11-FebC25K - 625 min
18-FebC25K - 725 min25 min25 min
25-FebC25K - 828 min25 min28 min
3-MarC25K - 930 min30 min3Marathon Club runs start
10-Marrace/transition30 min30 min?2?St PatsSt Pats Dash - 3.58mi



Obviously this is almost over. This was the Couch to 5K phase (I've left out the complicated days).

The only question here is if I run on Friday, and I'll let my body tell me that tomorrow. :)












DateWeek TitleMTWThFSSuNotes
17-MarHH5210 mod - 1333
24-MarHH5210 mod - 2333.5
31-MarHH5210 mod - 3334
7-AprHH5210 mod - 4334
14-AprHH5210 mod - 5334.5
21-AprHH5210 mod - 6335
28-AprHH5210 mod - 7335.5
5-MayHH5210 mod - 8336sat may 10 mothers day 10K Tacoma?-? Maifest?



This is a modification of Hal Higdon's Novice 10K program. I didn't want to go backward mileage wise, so I just really kept how he makes the mileage changes on the long runs. Not really sure if doing that 10K will work, or if we do a Bernese Mountain Dog Club function instead.











DateWeek TitleMTWThFSSuNotes
12-Mayrecovery336Beat The Bridge 8K
19-Maytransitionto4days2.532.55
26-Maytransitionto4days2.532.55
2-Juntransitionto4days3335
9-Juntransitionto4days3335
16-Juntransitionto4days3336June 21 Ilwaco Beach to Chowder 10K
23-Juntransitionto4days3336



So I decided to take a week to either recover from the 5K, or to run Beat The Bridge. Just one more week to build mileage. Everything I have read says no more than 10% per week, and I've seen 10% every other week. So I might have gotten carried away transitioning to 4 days a week. I may be pushing trying to do the marathon in 11 months, so it just seemed like a good idea to take my time early in the process.

























DateWeek TitleMTWThFSSuNotes
30-JunHHMN - 13336?Yankee Doodle Dash Fri, 4 July
7-JulHHMN - 23337
14-JulHHMN - 33435
21-JulHHMN - 43439
28-JulHHMN - 535310
4-AugHHMN - 63537
11-AugHHMN - 736312
18-AugHHMN - 836313
25-AugHHMN - 937410SJJ Half Marathon?
1-SepHHMN - 1037415
8-SepHHMN - 1148416
15-SepHHMN - 1248512
22-SepHHMN - 1349518
29-SepHHMN - 1459514
6-OctHHMN - 15510520
13-OctEmergency/Repeat Week
20-OctEmergency/Repeat Week
27-OctEmergency/Repeat Week
3-NovEmergency/Repeat Week
10-NovHHMN - 1658412Taper
17-NovHHMN - 174638Taper
24-NovHHMN - 18342MarathonTaper/Marathon



This is the core of the Marathon training. Unless something amazing comes out of the program at work, this is the plan I'm going to follow. It's Hal Higdon's Marathon Novice plan. With some extra weeks for emergencies obviously. It just seemed like a good idea to add them in as a buffer. I have them located before the taper just as an indicator that I can use them any time before the taper. Obviously the race isn't going to move, and thus the taper needs to stay pretty fixed. :)










DateWeek TitleMTWThFSSuNotes
1-DecHHRecovery22massage 24-48 hrs after
8-DecHHRecovery24230-60 min
15-DecHHRecovery34345-60 min
22-DecHHRecovery45460 min
29-DecHHRecovery55325K/10K?



Hal Higdon (big suprise, right) has a recovery plan that I think I'll use. Not sure about the last week, especially the race, but we'll see.

If you're still here, Thanks for hanging around. :)

Transition 2

An extremely slow 3 miles. (Or after looking at gmaps-pedometer it might be closer to 3.2 which makes me feel a bit better.) I just didn't have a lot of energy today. I went out solo, and didn't take my iPod, which was kind of nice, except I had to listen to myself wheezing along. I can blame that or two crappy nights of sleep and inadequate hydration. :)

Race in 4 days. Not really nervous right now, but I'm sure I will be on Saturday (day before). :)
Debating if I'm going to go for a short run on Friday to make sure I work the kinks out. It's not like I'm going to run 8 minute miles or something, so an extra run isn't going to hurt.

One nice thing about first races. They're all PRs, right. :)

Monday, March 10, 2008

Transition 1

This week is just more running. Heh. More running, like I've been doing this for years. Heh. :)

So another 30 minutes with my boss and most of it with one of the club "founders". 'I' has run 15 or so marathon or longer races, and was nice enough to run with us back of the packers and offer some advice. My boss is having some foot numbness issues (may be a nerve thing), so I ended up finishing alone and then going back for him

New shirts and pats are fabulous. I love new toys. :)

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Couch To 5K: 9-3

3 miles!!! And Couch To 5K is complete!!!

Felt faster than the rest of the week, but the watch tells me differently. I really needed this run to be 3 miles regardless of time, so that's what I ran. The run next week is longer than 5K, so I really needed to know that I could run 3miles at the end of the program. A little slower than I would have like (32:30 or so), but I have a couple more runs next week, so I know I can finish. Next year I'll work on going faster. :)

So far my plan for post Couch To 5K, and towards the marathon is to take a week to adjust to 3 mile runs (probably with the group at work), running Mon and Wed, possibly with an easy 2 on Fri. The race is on Sunday, so that should all work out well. Then starting the next Monday, I'm going to use a modified version of Hal Higdon's beginner 10K program. I've modified it by making the weekday runs 3 miles instead of the shorter runs he does, because I don't want to go backwards. Essentially it adds about 1/2 a mile to your weekend run over 8 weeks till on week 8 you are ready for the 10K. I'll either run the 10K at the Tacoma Marathon, of the 8 K Beat The Bridge a week after that. We'll see how this all plays out over he next couple of weeks.

I was able to free up some cash and buy some new running clothes. Turns out he Brooks Factory Outlet is a few miles down the road from me. I can fully recommend the Spartan Pant. Orders of magnitude better than my cotton sweats. Got a couple of SS DriFits and a pair of shorts, too. Yay, me. :)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Couch To 5K: 9-2

Another 30 minute lunchtime run with my boss. This one sucked. I swear the concrete here at work is harder than it is at home. :) My left lower leg is bugging me a bit. It might be that I walked in the ASICS with Toby last night... I'm going to stick to my 'running' shoes and see how things go.

Or it could be the cold I'm fighting... Unanticipated secondary benefit of the run: It appeared to clear out my sinuses, and I'm not blowing my nose every 30 seconds like I was this morning.

On a food note: I hate food marketing! I was wandering through the grocery store last night and saw a label I hadn't seen before, and the name made me think they might be 'healthy' snacks. They weren't, but I kept looking anyway. :) So I see the Sugar Free Gummi Bears...120 cal a serving. I see the regular Gummi Bears next to them...130 calories!!!! GAAAA!!! I really wanted some Gummi Bears, damnit :)

Monday, March 3, 2008

Couch To 5K: 9-1

Ahhhh... 30 minutes! The first run in the middle of the day. Also first group run. Ended up being about 2.9 miles (I thought it was over 3 given how hard I felt like I was working.)

We walked to Lake Union as a group, then started running, with a goal for the group of 15 minutes out, then return. The gazelles took off, I ended up at the same pace as my boss, and there were two gals who were run/walking were behind us. I really felt like I was pushing, and I would have sworn we were moving at a faster pace then my 28 minute run on Saturday night.

I'll run the 30 minutes on my home course and see how that goes. I know, I'm supposed to be running for time, not distance. It's really hard not to though, especially with my first race being a bit longer than a 5K (oops), I'm starting to be paranoid about distances.

I think I am running a bit harder than I would be, having a conversation was bit of a challenge. Once we free up some money, I'll see about getting a heart rate monitor (or I guess I could just do it the old fashioned way, but that means no new toys. :))

It's knid of nice being done with my run at this point in the day. I might even be able to go to be early. :)

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Portion Control

Obviously one of the biggest things in making the lifestyle change to eat healthily forever is portion control. And admittedly I'm still in the learning stage of knowing what a real portion is and how it looks on a plate.

But sometimes the measuring thing makes me...grouchy. I don't mind weighing. Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Good Eats, but getting out the digital scale I associate with cooking, not weight control.

And I don't mind measuring some foods. As I say this, maybe it was just the one food today... Peanut butter... I'm measuring two tablespoons of peanut butter so I can have a PB and banana sandwich for lunch (It was a craving... what can I say)(Wheat bread has HALF the fucking calories of the Whole Wheat White we've been eating? Where is a brick to hit myself in the head with?)

Anyway, I'm scraping the PB out of the tablespoon with my knife, considering going in after it with a finger so I don't waste a precious morsel like some addict, jonesing for a fix. Bah, humbug.

Went for a longer walk with Toby than I would normally have so I could have some desert. I run/walk to eat, I think. :)

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Couch To 5K: 8-3

Another week down!

I think I was able to keep my pace where I wanted it the entire run, which was nice. Some discomfort in my left calf, so we'll have to keep an eye on that.

Saw a 'real' runner, out in his shorts at 2100 in 40 degree weather. He looked fast. One day... :)

Monthly Weigh In - March

Another good month once all was said and done


01 Jan 01 Feb 01 Mar
Neck 16.25 16.25 15.75
Waist 44.75 43.25 41.5
Bodyfat% 33.5 31.5 30.1
Weight 208 200 193.5


Last couple of days were really hard. Lots of temptations, lots of stressors. Haven't been walking as much this month eaither. Did absolutely no pushups and situps, maybe in March.