Moving, Allergies and the Chaos it Causes

So, my running kind of took a bit of a hiatus.

Between moving to a new house, and starting allergy injections to get immune to that which makes me sneezy, wheezy and itchy eyes, my running has definitely suffered.  The last two-three weeks there's been very little running.  This past weekend I was suppose to run 12 miles, but thanks to a hit on the head that caused me to black out, I wasn't in much shape for anything let alone running.

Today, I went out for an easy six mile run and it turned into three because of the allergies that are causing me problems.  Legs felt fine, but my lungs were not happy at all with it.  Saturday is my 25k. My goal distance for 2011.  I've decided in order to make this happen, I will skip a dosage of the allergy injection so that I'm clear of body and mind when it's time for that to happen.

I know for a fact I WILL complete the 15.5 miles.  It won't be a spectacular time, because of my set backs, but it will happen.  I just need to focus on the fact that I've killed 10 miles three times before not too long ago, and another 5 miles is nothing!  Especially since I will be doing 5/1s to get it done.

I do need to come up with a game plan for tomorrow, Friday and Saturday for nutrition so that I don't end up having problems because of that.  Shouldn't be too hard,  I know how my body reacts to foods and what I need to make it work well.  Then I just need to get my feet moving one in front of the other and I will be flying to my goal.

I just need to remember:

1. Limits are a fabrication of the mind.
2. Goals are dreams with a plan.

Not Slacking... Really!

Well, I've not been really slacking.  I have been getting my runs in.

I got my 12 miler done on Saturday with some good results.  Again, I was running 5/1s for it, and that averaged out to being 9:06 min miles.  So that is 30 second per mile faster than the 11 miles last week!

I then took out all my runs and averaged them, and that came out to 8:31 for 11.1 miles.  The walks were 14:42 for 1.25 miles.  So, yes I did run 12.35 miles total.  I felt not too bad after wards.  The legs were pretty tired but I probably could have done 15 miles if I really wanted to push it.  I would have paid for it worse than I am now with just the 12, but I could have done it!

That was Saturday morning.  Saturday evening, I went with the Texas Outrigger Canoe Club and helped paddled around Clear Lake for the Kemah Christmas Boat Parade.  We paddled for about 2.5 hours total and I think it was around 10-12 miles that we did.  Not sure for certain as my watch was turned off for about 1.5 hours.

So with those two workouts on Saturday I've been pretty sore and stiff all over from it.  Yesterday I also went in for my first allergy vaccination shot.  Since then I have been feeling like my allergies (cat/dog) have been trying to come through, but I think the allergy meds I'm taking are keeping it bay, so I'm in a weird state of being ready to be all sneezy, wheezy and eye itchy but it just not happening.

With that in mind, I went for another run yesterday afternoon.  Tired, sore and stiff from the Saturday fun, then allergyish from the shot... It felt like a big suffer fest out there.  And I felt super slow, but managed to do the 3 miles in just over 26 minutes so that wasn't too bad after all.

I have 5 miles planned tomorrow, so we shall see how that goes, shouldn't be too horrible as I will be running with a friend and that usually makes running much more tolerable.

So, I've not been slacking on my running, just slacking on my updates a bit...

Making Ten Miles My Bitch

This morning I once again broke through that ten mile barrier.

Today, I knew I could get past it, but I still had the little doubts in my head. "Ten miles is a long way, you sure you want to?"  Well, the 11.35 miles I did today, says "YES!"  I still worry about running ten miles, just not as much any more.  I ran it doing 5/1s, but does that mean I ran at leaset 10 miles today or did I walk some of it?  Well, turns out, I actually ran 10.09 miles today.  While the rest of it was walking.

The entire run took me 1:48:56, which happens to be 3 miles slower than I ran the 10.35 miles last week. Right off the bat, I not only ran further today, but ran quite a bit faster.  Average pace overall was 9:36.  My average pace during just my 5 minutes of runs, 9:03.  There was one 5 minute interval where my pace was 11::34 but that was because I stopped off at my truck and swapped out water bottles.  If I did not need to do that, then I would have had a sub 9 min average for the runs.  It is all about fast transition times!

I did try to push myself a bit today, to see how it would work out.  I wanted better time than I did last week, and I achieved that.  Also, with this week, my legs didn't start to feel much until mile 9.25.  So that's also a 1.5 mile improvement over last week.  I would say that my training is going well for me.  Just need to keep with it.   Next week is 12 miles.  I'm quite comfortable, sitting here with tired and achy legs, in saying that, 12 miles should not be an issue on Saturday at all.  I probably could have pushed that out today if I really wanted to, but no need in going beyond what is prescribed and possibly doing some damage that could harm the goal.

My legs now know what 10 miles of actual running is again.  They aren't hating me.  My head is in a good place right now. Over all, today was a good day for breaking mental barriers and pushing physical limits.  Reminds me of a quote I came up with many years ago when I first started getting into shape...

"Limitations are a fabrication of the mind"

Easy 6 Miles... Wait. What?!

Yup.  Title says it all.  I went out and ran with a friend and we did an easy 6 mile run today.  Not doing 5/1s or anything... A couple of breaks so we could water up.  But nice and easy and completed it feeling great.

I remember towards the beginning of the year I was having problems running.  I was able to do 3 miles for a while, and my goal was at least 3 miles 5 times a week.  Yeah, that fell through, I'm still not running 5 times a week, that is way too agressive with all the other stuff I'm doing lately.  But, it was so bad I just stopped running for several months and would go do it, and then flake, and run and flake.  No real motivation to run since it was starting over, and that's always hard.

Now I'm being consistant, getting out there 3-4 times a week following my plan to get my 25k done this year on Dec 31st.  And I am now at a point where I can say I went out and ran an easy 6 miles and it is!  It's amazing to be able to say something like that after so many struggles through out the year that kept me out of it.   But, I'm not going to let it get fully to my head.  I know something can come along and derail my path here and I will have to start over, but knowing I can, and doing it so successfully now makes me think if I had to, I could.

And I'm still off the sugars since Oct 31st as well as caffeine, which was totally accidental.  But, when I cut out the energy drinks, I just never replaced it with tea like I was planning on.  I got too lazy to make a cup.  Not sure why it was so easy this time around, no real withdrawal issues or anything, just cold turkey and it worked... So far...

Always a struggle and always staying vigilant!

Ten Mile Break Through

I'm not a runner.  I can apparently run, but I don't think I have the mindset of a runner.  Yet.  I've been trying to be consistent on my running the past couple of months and with only a couple of minor set backs I've been able to maintain my consistency.

I believe that this is starting to show.  Not only in my running times and distances, but in my mental game as well.  10 miles was always my "That is a long ass way to run" distance and as such, I always had a mental block there.  This past Saturday, started off with a similar mental block.  Especially since I didn't make my 8 mile run the weekend before, nor did I actually run at all leading up to the ten miles.  Just a super busy week of parties, get togethers and the like which caused me to miss out on my runs.  So there it is, me thinking about all the missed runs leading up to 10 miles.  My Wall.  The point I struggle at.  I've run past it before, but it's been well over a year since the last time or two I've done it.

Because of those set backs last week, I went out with the goal of 10 miles.  But with the option to cut it short if need be. I decided that the best way to accomplish this would be to head to Memorial Park and just run the loop there, so I could quit after 3 or 6 miles if need be and figured if I hit 9 miles, I will just walk if I have to, to get that 10 miles.

I set my Garmin up for my 5/1s and set off.  And off I went!  I had no problems at all until around 7.75 miles when my legs started to tighten a little bit.  but I ran through it and finished my run with 10.35 miles in 1:43:01.  Even with my 5/1 run/walk pacing I managed a 9:57 minute mile.  Without the walks, my run average was 9:11.   I was rather happy with that.  Of course I didn't recover properly afterwards since I went to the car show here and walked around for another 3 or so hours afterwards, but still.  Things are looking good!  And I'm kind of looking forward to the 11 mile run scheduled for this coming Saturday.

Also, last night I ran 4 miles, nice and easy and didn't feel like I had too much residual issues from the run on Saturday.  4.13 miles in 35:56, means a  8:43 min/mile average  1) 8:52,  2) 8:35, 3) 9:01, 4) 8:21, 5) 8:53 (for the .13)  So it was mostly negative splits except for mile 3, which I don't know what happened there, but still not bad!

Let I said before, I'm mentally, not a runner... Yet.  But that may change soon....

Bad Nutrition = Bad Run

Yesterday, went to the Texas Renaissance Festival, which is always a lot of fun.  Great shows, interesting people to watch and yummy yummy bad foods.  This year, I was trying to be good and not eat too much crap food.  And I was quite successful at it.  I had one spiced almond (free sample), some fried alligator on a stick, a gyro, and a sausage on a stick.  Based on years past, this is a VAST improvement on how I would normally gorge myself stupid there.  For drinking, I had one beer and some mead, so again, not bad.

While that was not all that bad, that is ALL I had to eat and drink through out the day.  Obviously, firstly, not enough hydration, since I didn't have anything to drink aside the beer and mead.  Definitely should have had some water throughout the day.  And I knew I should have, but I didn't.  And I also didn't really eat much more than that food either throughout the day. Definitely, not enough to fuel my body correctly.

This all showed up today during my run today.  Went out to run 8 miles in the trails doing 5/1s.  I got 2.5 miles in and my legs were feeling pretty dead already.  Not looking good at all!  It's not from lack of rest, I slept almost 12 hours last night (was very tired and apparently needed that sleep!) I had a little bit to eat and drink before I went out for the run, but apparently my glycogen levels were very depleted.  I managed to run 4.5 miles and then had to stop, legs were not able to give me any more, so I walked the last quarter mile back to the truck.

This definitely shows me how important nutrition really is.  The run wasn't horrible, wasn't even bad.  Just had legs that didn't want to work because they were depleted.  Will definitely have to keep this in mind when I'm out there doing fun things again.  I know I can enjoy some of the bad foods out there, but also need to combine it with the good foods and be sure to drink plenty of hydrating liquids to make sure the body is fueled and ready to be used to it's fullest capabilities at all time.  This way I don't have problems with having fun and then running the next day like this again.

This week will be a challenge with Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Lots of yummy foods, both good and bad and so it will be a challenge to not gorge myself on either kinds and stay healthy and ready to run on Saturday!

A Week of Confusion.

What an interesting week this has been.  Started off on Monday with my 5k TT so I could take a measure of where I am so I can see some progress.

I also had a one pound weight gain, and 3% body fat loss.  Which for me meant I gained 7 pounds of muscle.  That seemed odd to me, so I just stuck with what I was doing and waited for today to see what the scale would say.  I'm taking these measurements on the same scale, and so it should be a bit more consistent. 

• Tue 11/08 - 224.8 Pounds  23.4% Body Fat
• Fri  11/11 - 224.6 Pounds  23.8% Body Fat
• Mon 11/14 - 225.2 Pounds 20.9% Body Fat
• Fri  11/18 - 222.2 Pounds 23.1% Body Fat

As you can see, Monday was a strange day there. 

My 5K TT was just as strange.  I had an average pace of 8:18 min/mile.  Which I was a little bit disappointed with as I was hoping for closer to 8:00-8:05 or something.  But I did have some struggles with my stomach on it, as such, I took it in stride (pun intended!)

Last night, I went for a 3 mile run, which is only .1 mile shorter than 5k.  I went out to do a nice easy run to loosen up a bit and see how things felt after the core workout in the morning, and the 4 mile run I did on Wednesday.  I also went in yesterday morning to the Asthma and Allergy specialist and they poked me 64 times with various things to see if I have any allergies I should be made aware of and the only ones that came up were cat and dog (knew about the cat one, but not the dog one.)  Anyways, I went out nice and easy, not breathing too hard or anything, and the first mile ticked off, I didn't look at the watch as I didn't really want to know, it was an easy run.  I didn't want to start getting competitive with myself. 

I finished the run, and saw the time: 23:35.88

Wait. What?!  How was that possible? It was an easy run, I wasn't breathing hard at all!  So I got home and dumped the data.  Yeah.  First two miles I averaged 7:55 minute miles.  The third mile was 7:41 minute mile.  So the average for the three miles was 7:51.  My average pace over all was 25 seconds a mile FASTER on this easy run.  My average heart rate was 173.

How can one go out, with the mind set to run as fast as they can, and be so much slower than going out for an easy run?  This I don't know. 

But I do know, if this is the case, I am getting slower closer to my speeds I was at back in 2007/2008, and I like it.

5k TT and Disappointments

Today I had planned to do a 5k time trial run.  This is so I can figure out where I am currently, and watch my progress over the next month when I have another one scheduled on my training program.

Over the 5k (3.1 miles) I averaged 8:18 min/mile pace.  I was really hoping for something closer to 8:00.  I did have some stomach issues while I was out there, basically it felt like my stomach was punching itself which I think was due to various pills (vitamins, Advil, etc) I popped too close to the run time.  Next time, I will take the vitamins, etc after the run so that they won't interfere.  I haven't run a 5k TT in years, and last time I don't remember my time, just that it was between 21-22 minutes.

I was looking back at my various runs over the last several months.  Most of them were easy when I run the jogging path at Memorial Park, and then I stumbled across one I did in early October, where I ran 3 miles with a 8:24 min/mile pace.  That kind of stung.  How was I able to run that fast with out really trying?  And yet when I was trying I barely did better?  One of the things was the stomach issue that's for sure.  I had to stop to a walk for about 15 seconds twice to try to set aside the pain.    I'm thinking the another thing, was I had a super busy weekend.  I ran 5.5 miles on Saturday morning, where I didn't use 5/1s.  Simply because I forgot until after the first mile and decided to go with it.  That was a surprisingly  quick run from and I was quite happy with it.

After that run, I went mountain biking, which I was feeling the run while pedaling around.  So, the legs were well worked on Saturday.  Sunday, I went outrigger canoeing.  Not a leg workout but definitely a back workout.  And last time I had planned the 5k TT I had to stop because it was a day after an OC practice and my back gave out.  Today, I did feel my back a little bit, so I had prepared for it with a super hot shower and stretching, and Advil (yeah those pills I popped too soon to running time.)  I think if I ease off the weekend activities just before the TT, then I should have better times.  Plus, with all the training I'm putting in between now and then to get myself back into shape, I am hoping for something better.

Am I disappointed about this run? Sure.  But it was a learning experience like always and I know what not to do next time and as well, what to try.  I do think I am on some correct tracks though with nutrition and the training, just need to keep at it and keep an eye on things.

Rough Week

I had a bunch of goals set for November, after a successful October, but this was cut short because of several things going on.  First, was my fridge flaking out on me.  This meant I had no means of keeping foods after cooking and had to toss a bunch out.  This makes it hard to cook ahead and stay healthy.  Second was/is work.  I don't normally let work get too involved in my non-work time, but the last several weeks it's been hard with two weeks of training and then a major planned power outage at work today.  That meant I couldn't plan on anything this weekend for getting out and doing stuff as I don't know when I go in or for how long.  Yesterday I got there at 6:45am and left at 11:15pm, then didn't know if I was coming in today in the morning or evening when the power comes back.  As it turns out, it will be this evening.

Because of that it's been hard to keep up with my work outs and eating.  But, I have been not too bad with eating and making good choices by going to the grocery stores and getting chicken and salads and veggies for lunches while at work.  I did have pizza last night, but it was ordered in for the group of us working and I didn't gorge too badly on it.  And I had some gnocchi for breakfast today, as it was thawed out from the fridge and needed eating.  And some mexican food as well today, grilled chicken with onions, mushrooms and cheese, with rice and beans.  So not great, but I never over ate and don't feel bad about doing it.  I know the coming week will also be a challenge as I need to get back to working out and eating healthy and restocking my fridge.

All in all, it wasn't a bad first week of November for my goals, not meeting them all, but still meeting some of them.  Again, this goes back to my thinking that goals need to be flexible since you never know what life is going to throw your way and you just have to go with the flow and do your best.

Goals: Flexible or Not?

Today I had a goal to run 8 miles.  I woke up this morning feeling a bit cruddy, so I adjusted my goal to run 5 miles and see how I feel.  The weather here in Houston is awesome currently.  As I headed out, the temps were in the low 50s.  After a summer of record weather: most days in the 100s, highest temperatures, no rain, to name a few; these cooler temps which wouldn't feel that cold in years past but this morning it felt cold to me.  I don't know if it was because I was feeling cruddy, or just not use to the temps for so long but I was feeling the cold this morning, so I waited a bit before going out when I had planned to.  Another goal, running by 8.

So, for those keeping track, that's two goals today alone: 8 miles, and running by 8.  I didn't make either goal, I adjusted them.  I ended up getting to my run around 10:20 and ran around 6.4 miles.  So, I guess I technically made the adjusted goal of run 5 miles and see how I felt.  At mile 5 I was feeling a bit tight in the legs so knew I should push past it too much further, but I also was in the back of the trails when that happened so running back was the only option I had.

As disappointing as not running 8 miles should have been since I didn't make that goal, it was one of the most enjoyable runs I've ever had.  For me, this means more than reaching any goal, original or adjusted.  It's documented quite well how much I'm not a fan of running.  So any time I have an enjoyable run, I think that trumps any goals I have.  And since this was the most enjoyable this counts as a good run.  And I will take it.

This brings up the question.  Should goals be flexible?  I mean, I didn't reach my goals as I wanted, but still feel great about the run.  I didn't make the 8 miles which means I'm behind on the training I am trying to accomplish, but does that much? Will next weeks run goal (10 miles) be achievable because I had a good run this week even though it was 1.6 miles short?  I guess I will find out next week!

Why all this talk about goals now?  I came across a revelation recently.  I set myself a goal for the month of October to not eat out at a restaurant all month.  Now, I didn't reach that goal because I did eat out a couple of times, but much less than I normally do, which had a surprising effect on my bank account.  So, even though I didn't reach the goal, I had positive results.  This has got me to thinking that I really need to start creating myself more proper goals.  I always say "my goal is whatever" and although I say that, I don't actually make it happen.  I once saw a sign that said "Goals are dreams with a plan."  

Time to start planning out my dreams and turning them into goals.

Addictions and Distractions

Yes. I know.  I need to be better at writing up here.  But, I have really bad excuses for not doing it. "Tomorrow" "Nothing good to write." "blah blah blah."

Anyways.

So, the last couple weeks I've been in training for work.  Basically 8 hour days in front of a computer in a hot conference room.  Sitting around eating bad foods and coming out totally unenergized.  So, I have not ridden my bike.  I have not ran since last Wednesday.  I did partake in some Dragon Boat races on Saturday though.  So I have not been a complete slug.  I was suppose to run 4 miles Monday, but did not as I was suppose to head to Clear Lake for a birthday celebration, but did not because traffic was horrible.  So instead, went for a burger and beer.

Yesterday I was suppose to run 4 miles, to make up for the four missed on Monday, but got out of training zombiefied and so, I didn't.

I've been eating like crap because it is free food and well, free food when you are low on money is a good thing!  This week I have been making better choices (no chips, extra fruit cups) but I still find myself buying and eating sugar loaded pies, cakes, what have you with out thinking about it until after the fact.  This is something I continuously fight with.  I keep trying to find that zone that I was in several years ago when I did not have any sugar related items for a couple of years, but it continuously eludes me.

I keep trying to get on the Paleo Diet which I have done before for a couple of months and had great success with it, but then I fell off that fairly hard and just haven't been able to get back on there. Right now, the hard part is because of these distractions at work of free meals.  But luckily for me they end this week and I can get back into a schedule next week that I'm familiar with for work outs and eating.

The title is "Addictions and Distractions"  and I have discovered they go hand in hand.  My addiction to sugar is amplified by distractions to being healthy.  The less active I am and the poorer my food choices are, the more I crave the sugary, chocolaty foods.   Right now my distractions in life are this this training for work.  It will end soon and I can better refocus myself against the addictions again.  I will also attempt to get back on the Paleo wagon again once I have time to start cooking and getting things ready.  I have always been trying to do it cold turkey.  Cutting out the dairy, grains and other processed foods all at once, but this time I am thinking about doing it in sections.  Cut out dairy first, then grains, then processed foods (or some order of the three.)

Right now I have been doing "enough" to maintain my weight, which is not a good thing, as if I cut out the extra calories I mindlessly consume (damn you chocolate fudge pies!) I would probably drop weight very fast, with the running I am doing.

Speaking of running.  That has been going not too bad all things considered.  I have been fairly good at being consistent with it (up until the last two weeks) and so my distances and speeds have improved quite a bit.  I have been happy with it and am looking forward to getting back into it so I can continue to improve.  The running goal right now is to get up to 15 miles for two long runs, then I can ease off and reintroduce resistance training.  I feel this will help me maintain the distance and speed and also rebuild some lost muscle mass, which will in turn help me burn more fat in a healthy manner.  Plus, 15 miles has always been my goal distance to have at a moments notice.  "Want to go run a 25k this weekend?"  Sure! I can do that without thinking!  So, we shall see how that goes over the next month as I'm about that far away from getting there!

Until next time (hopefully much sooner than last time!)

Coming Back!

Hey hey hey... (Always reminds me of Fat Albert)


So here it is, many many many months since I last posted.  There have been some ups and a whole lot of downs since then, mostly why I have not posted.  But things are slowly creeping their way back up again.  I have been back to training, and getting more and more happening there.  Third week and this is my first week where my morning workouts (yes, I know it is only Tuesday, but I am 2/2!) have actually fully happened.

Been working on my biking, as I was asked to be a part of a triathlon relay as the biker for it.  So, decided that was a good place to start.  I have my hard workout tonight which last week, after I was done, well, never finished, because it was the closest I have come to vomiting ever in a work out.  It is a rough one!  Basically it is 50 minutes long.  5 minute warm up with a cadence around 85-95.  Then I spin up to 100-125rpm.  Then 5 min rest at 85-95.  I do 5 repeats of that.  Then, a 10 minute cool down afterwards.  Ouch.  

I have noticed though after my run yesterday that these spin ups actually sped up my cadence on my run as well.  So I had some extra speedy feet last night! I do not know my stats from last night as I have not uploaded them yet, but I know my first mile was sub 8:30 which is quite painful for someone that has not been running much lately and caused me to be super slow on the next two miles! Ended up with a 27:30ish time for 3 miles, so not horrible and a good start!

I have been doing weekly trail runs with a friend as well. I am sure these runs have helped with the running, but we do 5/1s and last night I was not doing 5/1s.  But I could tell I had been training for them, as I kept wondering when I could start walking!

Eating wise, yeah, a different story.  I have not been good at all here.  I am trying to behave and go back to eating Paleo like.  But, it is a struggle as I try to find some foods that I can cook in batches so I do not have to worry about cooking during the week.  The main problem is breakfasts.  Always so rushed in the mornings, that I end up eating from the cafeteria and I have managed to limit the damage there, still would prefer not to (not only for the waistline but the wallet line!)

Anyways, that is the update for today, and I will be back sooner than last time! Promise!

Enjoy!

Biking - Good and Bad

So I've been putting time in on the bike.  Doing the Shiner GASP in May has got me a bit motivated which is good.  I've been using my mountain bike lately because I need repairs on the road bike which I can't really afford right now.  And unfortunately turns out the mountain bike needs some repairs too, and I just got it back from the shop, so I will be taking it back in tomorrow to see what's up.  Just some loose spokes so it shouldn't be a big deal, but still.  So that's the bad.

Anyways, today I was suppose to ride an easy 15 miles with a friend.  But he got a migraine and so canceled out.  No worries, I headed to MP myself and was thinking about my workouts this week and how they just won't fit into the schedule too well because of other things going on.  I started thinking about doing more than the 15 miles so my Thursday ride can be shorter since I'm busy that day.  But after the first 5 miles, I realized how fast I was going and decided to keep the tempo going and see just how fast I could do the 15 in on the mountain bike.  Then as I got closer to the 15, I decided to up it to one hour to see how far I can go in one hour at a good tempo. And as it turns out I managed 17.32 miles.  Which is not a bad speed for the mountain bike and for me being out of shape!  I can totally see me getting quite a bit faster with the consistent training.  After that, I spun easy for another 9 miles, so got a total of 26ish in tonight.  Meaning Thursday will technically only need to be 15 miles, but I might just do 5 since it's St Patrick's day and I'm going to be hanging out at Howl (You should come out! Tell them Steve sent you to get in free and a couple cheapo drinks!)

This past Saturday I put in 30 miles and that felt pretty good until I got off the bike. My legs and butt just didn't want to move around too much, but after a nice hot shower things became flexible again and I was good.

I've also started doing weights again last week.  And I'm noticing improvements already on that.  So that's also motivating.  I'm suppose to do it tomorrow but Wednesdays are optional, if I get up and feel good or feel good after work then I will do it, if not, I will do it on Friday, which is not an optional day.

So things on this front are seeming to be pretty good.

Now if I can get the rest of my life cleaned up like this, it would great.  Latest truck news, someone tried to break into it. They failed but they screwed up the passenger door lock.  So that will have to be replaced once I can save up the money for that.  My poor truck... Always getting beat up on.

I'm still here...

Don't know if anyone really reads this, but I am still here. 

I was kind of down and out with a sickness the last two weeks.  But I'm getting back into the swing of things now. 

Yesterday I realized I have less than ten weeks left before Shiner GASP (a 100 mile bike ride from Austin to Shiner.) This prompted me to get a biking schedule figured out.  So for the next 9+ weeks I have biking three times a week, trying to get my mileage up to where I need it to be so I can enjoy the ride.  I could probably survive it now, but yeah, enjoying it would be much better.

With that, I will be adding some strength training as well, trying to get my lean muscle back.  This sitting around doing nothing has definitely put a toll on my body that it's not use to, and it's time to get things back to where they need to be.

I still need to get my sugar addiction under control.  I had a good couple of days this week, but then fell backwards yesterday. ... Interestingly (just now thought of this) yesterday was the only day this week I didn't have my smoothie for breakfast.  If it's helping me stay away from those other things, I need to redouble my effort to making sure I have a morning smoothie every day. 

Will start posting my frequently again now that I'm getting back into things...

Still Struggling

There hasn't been much to post about lately.  I've been on the bike a couple of times, but that's about it.  Still struggling with my bad eating habits as they go down hill as well still. 

Trying to dig myself out of this whole I seem to be burying myself in.  Probably won't be posting much over the next couple of weeks still as I work my way through this.

Rough Week - Hard Times to Come

Here it is Friday around noon.  I've not run at all this week.  So the goal for this week is not going to be met.  I'm OK with that.  I've stepped back and noticed some other things that need to be paid attention to right now.

Running isn't one of my favorite things. I need to work to get myself out there.  This week has been rough because of dealing with truck problems, bike problems, and as of last night phone problems. So with all this other stuff going on, I can't get the energy to get myself out to run. 

I'm an emotional eater.  When things start getting bad, I will eat.  I will eat things that don't taste great, and are bad for me.  When things get really rough, I gain weight.  Which, in turn, makes me depressed more, and the cycle becomes a spiral and heads downward quickly.  It then becomes hard to break out of. 

This is where I'm at now.  In the spiral.  I know this. I know what needs to be done to stop all of this from continuing on.  But, it's hard to break that spiral.  Emotions is stronger than logic (try arguing with someone who is very emotionally upset about something, using logic.) 

I don't want to be here, in this spiral.  It makes me tired, lazy, fatter and just all around unhappy.  There is a lot I want to do this year and next, but this spiral is pointed the wrong direction to make this happen...

I am declaring war.  War on my health. Mental. Emotional. Physical.  It's all getting a make over and attitude adjustment.  This weekend the war plan will be formulated and the execution of said plan will commence immediately forth with!

Some people have said my previous posts were kind of rough on myself.  I reread them and didn't think they were rough at all.  And I don't think this one is rough on me either.  It's the simple truth of where I'm at, and what needs to be done to fix things.  I'm not upset at myself, I just know now is the time to make the changes needed to find the happy Steve that dwells inside.

Rough Time Lately

Last week I didn't make my goal exactly.  I missed out on running five days.  But I had five runs in.  I doubled up on Thursday because I knew I wasn't going to get a run in on Saturday because of having to take my truck in for supposedly an oil change.

I got to the dealership to get the 115k service (just basic oil change and some other things) and waited around.  I did tell them that there was some funky squeaking happening as well so they were going to look into that.  After waiting for three hours they came back to me and let me know what was going on.  Needed water pump replaced and some bushings on the tie-rods and struts and stuff (not a car guy so no real clue here.)  This immediately brought me into a bit of a depression.  Broken trucks and bad finances will always do this.   

Sunday, went out biking, and got in 20 miles in about an hour forty.  I was feeling pretty down still and this ride was actually pretty hard.  A 20 mile ride shouldn't be that hard at this point.  So, that contributes to the downward spiral. 

Monday morning, I wake up at the alarm, and hear it raining and decide I didn't really want to go through the hassle of getting dress to run in the rain.  Plus I was really feeling the bike in my legs still.  So I went back to sleep with the plan of going running in the evening.   Everyone talks about getting your work out done in the morning because something may come up later in the day which makes you miss out on it.  And this was definitely true yesterday.  I had a scheduled meeting after work, and because of the weather it got delayed about 30 minutes.  Then it also went on a bit longer than I had anticipated at this time as well.  But that's ok, still plenty of time to go run.  Get into my truck, and the battery is dead.  Crap.  So my mood sinks again, and running is completely out now. 

I call up Triple-A and they come out in about an hour, and I get going.  Running is out, because it's too late, I would be too wired from it to be able to sleep.  Plus I just don't feel like it at all.  I stop at Whataburger for dinner.  It didn't really taste great, but it was comforting.  Yup, I eat crap when I need comforting even when it doesn't taste good. 

I get home, and get everything ready so I can run in the morning.  It will be a new day and things are going to be good tomorrow!

Alarm goes off at 4am, and it awakes me from a dream where some lady crashed into my truck because she was driving down the wrong side of the road.  While waiting for the cops to show, I find out she has no insurance I start going into a bit of a rage fit, but before anything really happens, that's when the alarm went off.  So I wake up pissed off.  And my knee is locked.  I slept funny and it won't move or anything.  And I also have a bunch of blood in my mouth from biting through my tongue again.  Great start to the day. I'm going back to sleep.

My goal for this week is in a flux, I'm not sure I will make it.  But, goals are things to reach for.  And the real goal is 3 miles a day, 5 days a week for 2011.  There will be weeks when I don't make that happen.  There will be weeks when I do make it happen.  And I expect down the road, I will have much more mileage than just 3 miles a day.  So, I will continue to reach for this goal. 

I will also take lessons learned here, to always make sure to get that run in, in the morning, because YES, you don't know what will happen through out the day, which may cause you to miss out on the run or whatever.  

Another lesson is some times you do need to just step back and take a break, breathe a little and don't worry about hitting all your goals bang on.  In the end it doesn't really matter, as long as you can keep yourself happy and continue to be happy doing what you are doing.  Don't beat yourself up because you missed out on a work out, or a financial goal in a certain time or something.  Life happens, and it passes you by while you are berating yourself.  Something happens deal with it, move past it and get on with the good stuff again.

Supposedly I will be going running after work tonight if my knee behaves it self.  If not, then definitely in the morning.  We shall see if it happens or not either way.  It is OK.

Running Times Two

Woke up this morning when the alarm went off at 4am.  I grumbled. I was exhausted. I was set to reset the alarm when I remembered that this morning I was actually meeting someone at 5 to run, so up I got.  Headed to Memorial and was cursing the clouds since it was a full moon last night.  It would have been awesome to run in that moonlight.  Oh well.

Met up with my running partner and off we went.  We chatted and I didn't have much problem at all today keeping with her.  I'm not sure if she slowed down a bit because she was running with me, or was just taking it easy, but yeah today was much easier than when we ran the first time week ago this last Monday.  It did take us longer, and I noticed when I uploaded the data off my watch that we were running 9:30s instead of the 8:30s last time.  Will have to ask about that when we meet up on Monday again.  "Make me work! I need the push!"  But was also glad it was easy since my plan was to run trails tonight as well.

That's right.  You heard me. Or saw me as this case is.  Two runs in one day!  I did it because I forgot I was going to run with my morning running partner until after I had already posted saying I was going to run trails.  So in case anyone showed up (and no one did) I would be at the trails to run with them.

It was colder tonight running than it was this morning too.  There was quite a wind blowing which I have problems with.  I can handle cold, cold and wet.  But not wind.  That just cuts right through me, so I bundled up in my big fleecy orange shirt and a wind breaker.  And off I went.  The trails were closed so I hopped the fence (relax!) and ran down Purple until it came to the trail that has logs across it to keep the bikers off, and heads towards the railroad tracks.  I ran along the tracks to the street and then down to the Triangle since it doesn't close.  I figured a nice quick lap of that and back would get me about three miles.  Of course it had been a loooong time since I've been to the triangle.  And it's always been on bike before.  I found a trail that I wasn't familiar with at all and it took me to the horse stables of the polo field.  Oops.  No idea where I was on the trails at this point and was also pretty close to the 3 mile mark at this time, along with thoughts of "this is going to turn into a 6 mile run!"

I back tracked my steps to where the road and trail met and found another trail, and it was short and sweet and dumped me at the rail road tracks. Cool! And I followed that and it went straight to Memorial Drive and was a lot closer than I was expecting! So my 3 mile run, which I was starting to think was going to turn into a 6 mile at least turned into only at 3.7 mile run.  Which I did in about 42 minutes.  Not too shabby considering I did a little walking wondering where I was going, and hopping over logs and through tunnels and such.  And it was ... enjoyable.  I definitely will have to be doing a lot more trail running if I want to keep with my running goals.

Speaking of.  I may not make my 5 days this week, so I'm cheating a little bit and using one of my two runs today as a second run.  It's going to depend on what happens with my truck on Saturday as I need to take it into the shop for it's 115k checkup.  Hopefully won't take too long and I can get a quick run in, but if not, then yeah, I'm fudging my numbers a bit, and am OK with that.

Lack of Biking Motivation

It seems I'm currently lacking motivation to really bike.  This isn't so great, considering I have quite a few miles to ride in May.  I did get on it, and I did about 11 miles in 45ish minutes.  Fairly slow and easy going, but I was very tired from the run this morning and non stop go go go all day.  I almost fell asleep at my desk the last two hours of work.

I'm starting to think I might have to nap at work during lunch so I get energized for my afternoon workouts after early morning ones.  I'm doing a double run tomorrow so we shall see how I feel for that second run which will be a trail run.

At least I'm not lacking motivation for the running these days, so that's good.  Just sad I am on the bike since I like it most.  But I'm sure once things start flowing again with a routine that will change and I will be hammer out the miles without second thoughts!

Early Morning Run in the Moon Light

First favourite way to run is in the rain.  But after this morning a very close second is now running under neath a (near)full moon.  The bright glow of the moon radiating on the still earth that early (4:45am) in the morning was positively brilliant. 

My run sucked still, but it was a good run. Did the 3.04 miles in 27:03, so yeah, not horrible.  Mile paces: 8:37, 9:04, 8:54.  So yeah, not horrible at all.    The first mile did feel more fluid than I did last night, and it slowly got rougher, but over all it was more fluid feeling. 

If you get the chance, go out and run in the moonlight. 

Still Feeling Off

So I am still feeling off.  Running felt pretty crappy too because of it.  But, I did get out there and do it.  And today the Suunto decided to work again correctly, so I got my stats and realized no wonder it was a bit rough.  The first mile was done at 8:35, followed by 9:02 and then 8:58.  I was hoping for a nice easy run, and that wasn't really it.

While I was running I felt like a lumbering troll.  Everything just seemed to be moving awkward like.  I need to refind the fluid motion I once had, even if it didn't look like it, it felt fluid to me.  That made runs a bit more enjoyable.  But ah well.  I'm still out there running and that's what's counting!

It's late, I'm tired.  Night!

Don't Feel Like It.

I didn't get up this morning to run.  The person I was suppose to run Mon/Wed emailed last night saying they weren't going to because they had the day off and wanted to bike instead.  So, that has been one run out of three since saying we were going to do it.  So much for accountability there.  Plus I was just totally exhausted, so the sleep was good.

I woke up in a blah mood, didn't want to go run after work.  Work was blah, still didn't want to go run after work.  After work was blah and still didn't want to go run. But I ran.  Don't really feel like blogging about it, but oh well, I ran so I should write it up here.  I had forgotten my watch at home, so no exact distances (not that I would have probably had them since it's been flakey lately.) and just used my iPod's stop watch to time myself on the loop at Memorial.  26:41 was my time.  So my nice and easy run tonight was my fastest in a while.  There were no stops no walking no nothing, I just ran.  While running I didn't want to be running.  Hopefully tomorrow I will not be so blah and things will be good again.

Gooooooaaaaallll!

Did it! Got my first weekly goal done of the year! 5 runs of at least three miles!  It was pretty rough today though.

I woke up not able to breathe very well at all.  My asthma was effecting me and I think there was also some allergy issues at work.  I've been pretty bad lately at taking my Claritin so I'm sure with the whacky weather, it's the root cause of it.  But I do plan on seeking out an Asthma specialist and getting my Asthma completely under control soon, which should help a bit.

Last night I said I wouldn't run only if my leg was broken, well, leg wasn't broken so I went for my run, even though I couldn't breathe.  I really did hum and haw on going, but decided I really wanted to reach my weekly goal this week, so out the door to Memorial Park I went.

I got there, and I'm still struggling a bit with that breathing thing, but it's better and manageable.  Off I went, running down the path.  It didn't feel too bad considering I had ran 4 days already this week.  I was a bit tight, but loosened up quickly. I managed to get about 1/2 way around the loop before I had to walk because of my breathing issues.  I walked for a minute or two and started up again, and managed to only slow down to a walk when I took a drink until the last mile.  That's when I had to slow down a couple more times just to get breathing under control.  But, I managed the full loop and got my three miles in today to complete my weekly goal!  I did it in 27:36, which, considering the slow downs and walks I did was pretty good!

I came home and cooked up a nice pork cutlet with red potato hash browns and fried egg with toast and pomegranate green tea for recovery foods. Yum!

Now I can veg out the rest of the weekend! (not)

Here's the weekly stats:

Day	Miles	Time	Avg Pace
Monday	3.13	28:48	9:12
Tuesday	3.01	27:15	9:03
Thursday	3.27	41:56	12:49
Friday	3.01	27:01	8:58
Saturday	3.01	27:26	9:10
Totals	15.43	2:32:26	9:50 (avg)

I am hoping that next weekend I can add a long run, of 6 miles to this.  But we shall see how things progress this week.  Definitely off to a good start!

Running in the Rain and Suunto is Unhappy

Today was run number four of the week. I've almost reached my first full weekly goal of 2011! Just one more run and I will have done it.  One week out of two, isn't bad, 50/50 is a good result for me at this time!  But I won't be counting those eggs just yet.

Had a decent run today, it started to rain while I was out there running the Memorial Jogging Path, which made it more enjoyable for me.  Not sure why, but the more miserable the weather out there, the more I enjoy the run.  Yes, I'm odd, but most of you (is there anyone out there?) probably already knew that.  It was just a nice easy run, one three mile lap in 27:01.  So that was a nice time for getting back into things especially since last week I couldn't even run the entire thing.

I'm not sure what my paces were for the mile splits, because my Suunto T6c is acting up again.  It took about 10+ minutes to get linked to the satellites.  This seems to be happening more and more frequently.  I've not done any research on it yet.  Just change batteries and hope for the best.  I might have to think about changing out for a different GPS+HRM system.  But we shall see what happens there.

Sort of looking forward to my run tomorrow.  Will mean meeting my goal of running for at least one out of the 52 weeks this year.  So, here's to hoping I don't break a leg in my sleep!

Biking and Running

So I didn't get my entry in yesterday for my biking as I just ran out of time and fell asleep early.  And now it's late and I'm tired but need to get this off before I get too far behind.

Had a nice chilly bike yesterday.  I did my first lap and realized I needed more layers, so quickly stopped tossed on my fuzzy orange shirt and that was much better.  About a month ago I did buy a nice cycling jacket specifically for protecting against the wind and rain during these cooler months, and it definitely is doing it's job well.  So quite pleased with that purchase.  The biking wasn't overly great, but I got 13.5 miles in.  I bonked at mile 12, and figured it was time to stop before something stupid happened.  I definitely need a lot more saddle time ASAP!  As well as getting better at my nutrition again, since I'm bonking after twelve miles, which is pretty bad!  But over all it wasn't bad.

Today, I ran in the trails a bit.  Was a nice change of pace.  I think I will feel it tomorrow, as I'm not use to that kind of movement.  And I can say that I definitely enjoy running trails much more than I do road.  The extra challenges of dodging the roots and hills and rocks and low hanging branches... Forgot about those ones I did.  I had a good reintroduction to what it's like to run into a branch with my head.  Then as I grabbed my head in pain, I kind of forgot I had a bike bottle in my hand and stuck the spout into my eye.  Talk about a double whammy! (Yes you may laugh, as this is funny and I'm sure the sight of it all was hilarious!)

For those of you familiar with MP, I ran from the rugby pitch, to Yellow, keeping left.  Then left at Purple and left onto Orange immediately there.  Ran along that until Purple popped up, then left until Orange intersected, followed that to where it dumped out onto Purple again.  Then I ran Purple back to where Orange dumped out onto Purple, ran Orange back to where I started on Orange, and then back on to Yellow, to Purple then out onto the rugby pitch again.  So it was sort of an out and back, just ran Purple back instead of the little Orange trail, to make sure I got some mileage in.

As it turns out, I ended up running about 3.25 miles in 41 minutes.  Which isn't bad, as I was taking it slow and several stops and walk breaks.  I will keep this path in mind and try it again in a couple weeks to see if there is much improvement.  I like how technical it is without being too technical at this time since I'm so prone to injury running trails when first starting out.

Tomorrow should be a nice boring run on the jogging path again to get loose and ready for a longerish run on Saturday.

Refresher on Running Etiquette

Today class, I would like to go over some basic running etiquette.  Brought about from todays run (more on this later.)

1) When running on the trail, side walk, whatever, run no more than two abreast.  If on single track, then single file please.  This makes room for people coming from the opposite direction.  If you do happen to be running more than single file, then when you see people coming at you from the opposite direction, and you are in their way, then YOU move out of their way by going single file!

2) Keep right when not running on the road.  The reason for running on the left side of the road, is for safety reasons.  You move away from the vehicles that you can't see, and move towards the one you can see.  This allows you to dodge idiot drivers, instead of them hitting you.  When on the trails or side walks or whatever, on this continent, we drive on the right, so we run on the right.  Everyone around you is running on the right, and this is a good instance to be a sheep and join in for safety.  Big people don't like to dodge idiots, so we run through you (more on this later.)

3) If you need to spit or blow a snot rocket, look around and make sure you won't nail someone else with your bodily fluids.  We don't want to know what they feel like.  We have our own that we are trying to get rid of, no need to add yours to ours.

OK. Everyone clear on those?   Good.

Moving on.

Today's run was not too bad. I actually made the entire loop without stopping.  And that included when I collided with someone.  They were running 4 abreast and didn't move out of my path, and at this time I was tired of the people in my way, so I didn't slow, or move, I just was doing my own run in my own lane.  About half a mile earlier there were 3 people walking on the wrong side of the path, and I went around them shaking my head and decided that was dumb.  Then when I saw this next joker, I decided screw it, he was moving I wasn't since I didn't have any place left to go.  So I ran through him.  It was a hard thud on my arm that I felt.  I heard some kind of noise, but didn't look back because I was too busy having a good run.  There. I said it. I had a good run. 

I did the three miles in about 27:15 or so I think (I haven't checked the watch yet) and yeah, it felt good.  The last mile felt really long though, but it got done with out a walk break.  So, I am finally pleased with a run this year.  Things are looking good!

Tomorrow morning's run should be interesting.  25F at 5am.  I wonder how many people will be out there in the (actual) freezing temps.  This kid for one will be just to see who's there and to enjoy the rare cold down here (=

Weekend Camping and Todays Run

Well this weekend was spent at Hill Country State Natural Area near Bandera, Texas.  It was a lot of fun.  The Bandera 25k, 50k and 100k was going on this weekend so went up there to check it out and to cheer on the friends that were there running the various races.  While I didn't do any running this weekend, I did do some hiking. It ended up being close to 5 miles of very hilly and rocky terrain that was hiked in amongst the runners.  Then afterwards did another 2ish mile walk down the road.  So while there was no running, the legs were still moving and so I think that counts, especially in those hills.  Reminded me of almost like back home.  It was a good weekend!

This morning I was up at the crack of too damn early, and went running.  First morning run in a long time. I met up with someone who is also training for IMTX, we are going to meet Mon and Wed to hold each other accountable for getting there and getting our runs in.  She's much faster and more along in her running (as she's a runner!) so hopefully she doesn't get to sick of me tagging a long as much as I can.  But because she was there, I got up and ran.  And it wasn't a horrible run.  She did push me, and we did the proper 3 mile loop, starting at mile zero and ran around to the mile 3 marker which is past the zero mile marker, since the loops isn't quite 3 miles.  My GPS tracked us at 3.11 miles though so not sure who to believe here.  But either way, did it in under 28 minutes and it was longer than my previous runs so it was all good.  It was good to be running in the morning again.  Hopefully I can continue this and be able to get my morning runs in again!

Next run planned is tomorrow after work.  So, no chance in missing out that one! Unless I over sleep at work and miss going home!

Update: (9:50pm 1/10/2011)
Just uploaded the stats from my watch and realized the first two miles were done at a pace of 8:34 and 8:22, no wonder I was hurting!  The last mile was 10:22 because of that short walking break.  So yeah, if I can keep that up, I will be back in no time!

Running Pains, Asthma and Pacing Issues

I woke up Wednesday and my legs were really feeling the running from Monday and Tuesday, so I decided to call it a rest day.  My calves, shins and quads were all super tight, and quads were a bit sore.  Since the major goal of 2011 is no injuries I won't go for a run if my legs are already hurting or are super stiff, as I'm kind of prone to running injuries.  Better to take a rest day and be able to run tomorrow than to run today and not be able to run for a week or two. 

I then made the plan to wake up Thursday and go for a run in the morning.  I use to be a super early morning person, but not sure what happened as I really have been struggling the last year to wake up at all in the mornings.  Is it age? Change in diet? Change of stress levels? I don't know, but I'm going to get my morning workouts back! And yes. I woke up Thursday morning at 4:45am, ready to go, the alarm went off and I was ready.  But again, my legs weren't so happy with that idea.  So I decided I would run after work instead.  But I didn't go back to sleep.  I need to get use to this waking up early thing, so I stayed awake and puttered around the house to keep myself awake and get ready for the day.

After work I did run.  My legs were feeling a bit better, just a bit heavy at this point, but better.  I headed out to Memorial Park and headed out for the run.  I did the three miles in just over 27 minutes.  Still really slow for me.  But there was lots of walking involved, which means I was probably starting off way too fast, since it's just over 9 minute miles with long walking periods mixed in.  I need to get better at pacing myself, more on this in a bit.  I also started to have some breathing issues.  It was hard to breath out there for some reason, and it's been a long time since I've had asthma issues while running. 

I've had asthma since I was two.  Before it was cool to have it, I'm a trend setter like that you know?  And I never had a daily medicine, just emergency inhalers growing up.  Several years ago, I got put on some daily meds and it helped quite a bit, but I stopped with it last year due to needing new prescriptions and needing to find a new doctor.  Unfortunately, my current medical insurance really sucks and so it's expensive to go to doctors and such. But I know if I want to make the most of this athletic stuff, I really need to get my lungs under control.  So, I will be looking for a good doctor for that, and see what I can do to get all that dealt with.

After the run, I was still having some breathing issues and coughing a bit.  Today, I wake up in a similar state, and I'm now worried I'm getting sick.  Hopefully I can fend this off quickly and keep moving forward.

Back to the pacing issues.  From the people that I know, it seems like when they are running, they find a groove and just start running with it, and know what their pace is.  Everyone has a built in metronome I believe.  This allows them to keep beat with songs, create new beats, etc.  I have a broken one.  I struggle to keep beat in songs, which made it very hard for me to dance, but also makes it hard for me to keep a steady cadence when running and biking.  Because of this, I wear myself out faster than I should.  I start off too fast, too slow, change pace, speed up, slow down, all the while trying to find that sweet spot where I can just go forever.  


When I was really consistently training I was closer to having it figured out, but after a couple of years of no consistent training, I've totally lost my cadence keeper.  Now I am struggling to refind it, which is why I think I also don't like running.  It just wears me out too fast.  I think if I can find my pace, I can then not worry about what's going on and just get into a zone and go.  Yes. I think this is why I don't like running.  


But enough of that, and this morning I woke up feeling not too bad. I probably could have gone for a run but had to get to work early since I'm leaving work early to go camping this weekend.  So, I don't see myself hitting my 5 runs this week, but I'm OK with that.  It's an over all goal of 2011, not a goal of the first week of the new year!  As long as I can mange to hit that goal for the majority of the year, it will be a successful year for this goal.

Running and the Rain

Today's run was not too bad for a run.  Well, yes and no.  The running part of it was not great.  But it was fun in the rain.  It wasn't raining too hard, just kind of misting which was kind of nice.

So, I did the 3ish miles in about 31minutes, which was slow and painful.  I had to walk a bit because of side stitches and my left leg started to feel like it was going numb towards last third of the run.  So slowed down and walked quite a bit.

But, really didn't mind too much because walking/running in the rain is enjoyable.  No puddles to splash the cars with though, maybe tomorrow!

I have decided that my brain likes to walk around a bit too while I'm out there.  Just start thinking random thoughts, some good, some bad, but does indeed help to decompress from the day especially after a long day.

But day two is done and I'm good to go for number three!

First Run of 2011!

Well the first run of 2011 is now done!  And I'm glad since it was not fun at all!  But I met the first goal of 3 miles (3.04 to be approximately exactish.)

I've not run since the beginning of December, and it showed.  I sat around gained weight, lost fitness and it showed. Bad.  I couldn't complete the full 3 mile loop at Memorial Park running.  I had to walk a little bit which I didn't like at all.  But oh well, I'm back at it and getting into the swing of things once again. I'm sure that as I do more and try to keep the goal of 3 miles (at least) five times a week (at least) I will be back to where I was in no time.

So today I didn't have auto lap on so don't know my mile splits, but it was the 3.04 miles in 28:59.  I guess it's not too horrible considering I had to walk several times.

Anyways, that's it for today, check back tomorrow to see if I'm still alive!

Goals for 2011

So 2011 has started.  And I needed some goals to kick my rear in gear.

Sure I have another silly little race planned (Ironman Texas) but that won't really do it for me as we can see from my last little attempt at a silly little race.  So, I decided that 2011 will be the year I run.  My goal is to run three miles, five times a week at least.  This will hopefully help my running a lot and get me where I really want to be with it.  Which is the ability to just go out and go for a 15 mile run without thinking about it.

So, the first run will be today after work.  My first run in about a month as well since my knee started bothering me, so will have to be careful that it is back to being healthy as the other goal, which is the same as my 2010 one (which I made!) is no serious injuries.  A serious injury will be defined as keeping me from being able to do anything for more than 1-2 weeks.


I think I need another race goal for towards the end of the year, since I have Ironman Texas in the first half, I need to find something for the second half.  If anyone is out there, any suggestions?