Plodding Along

Back to work yesterday, but day off from exercise. My knee was feeling ok for most of the day. I tried to do some stretches at the end of the night, as they felt more tight than in pain. Last night was Curriculum night at the girls' school. Both girls got great reports from their teachers, and both of the teachers got great reports from my wife, so it was a success!

This morning I got up and went to the gym for strength training. I warmed up on the elliptical, did weights and then did another 30 minutes on the elliptical. My knee felt pretty good during the workouts, though there was some pain when I did the leg extensions and the leg press. Once I got off the elliptical I was sore, but by the time I got home and ate breakfast I was feeling better. Work was darn busy and I didn't think much about my knee most of the day and it didn't hurt enough to wedge its way into my mind.

After work I had soccer practice and that didn't turn out so well for the knee. The kids did pretty well today, listened better than the first practice and I did my best to wear them out. But the lateral movements and ball striking really did a number on my knees. Its pretty sore right now, so I took some advil and I'm going to put some bio-freeze on it. I'm planning to run in the morning so hopefully it'll feel alright. Tomorrow is the start of week 5 of the program, which starts with a 5 minute run, then an 8 minute and another 5 minute. I'm going to try to run in a different park this time, one that has a running trail that has less curves then the regular track. Still staying on track as best I can.

Today I looked up some future races, there's a nighttime 5K at a nearby park that runs through their holiday light display in November that looks pretty interesting.  Somedays I feel like I'm never going to be able to run one race, and the next day I'm thinking of when my first marathon will be.  OK, well maybe half-marathon.  honestly, I'll just be happy if I ever can even try to run Peachtree.  We'll see.  One step at a time.

Dejected

I started this post Friday afternoon, but didn't get to post it because I had family visiting for the weekend, so I'm going to post it now and then continue it with today's post ...

This morning I was really really down.  My knee started hurting so badly during my run that I couldn't finish. I hurt a bit on Wednesday after I ran, but started feeling better later in the day and felt ok most of the day on Thursday, until later in the day. Last night when I was sitting on the plane it got pretty sore. I figured this was because I was jammed into those little damn seats (I don't fly enough to get the fancy seats up front). It was sore walking through the airport and a bit when I got home, but nothing unbearable.  This morning I went to the track and everything started fine.  I did my first 3 minute run, no problem, then during my 5 minute I was tired but no pain. But when I slowed to walk after that run, my calves tightened up and my knee started really hurting. I kept walking and hoped that it would fade again when I started running again. But when I started to run this time it hurt more than before. I tried to go on, but made it halfway around the track and had to start walking again. At this point I totally lost my motivation and when I got back to the gate i walked out. I sat on a bench for a little while with my water bottle pressed against my knee and my face in my towel.

Now all these thoughts started running through my head ... what am I going to do now?  Is this over before I even got started?  What else can I do to keep myself going?  Am I going to have to go buy a bike?

I drove home and iced my knee on the couch for a half hour then limped up the stairs to take a shower.  it hurt the most trying to climb stairs.  I was really disappointed and my wife tried to cheer me up, but I don't want to give up on running. I took some advil and by the time I got to work, it started feeling better.  There were twinges of pain throughout the day, and also some times when it didnt hurt at all.

OK, now back to today ...


I felt pretty bad all day Friday. My knee was sore, though not terribly so, but thoughts of being derailed so early on in my effort swam through my head. I know a ton of people start journey's like this and never make the end. I know I've done that in the past, but this time its too important to me to give up. I thought that maybe I'd take a couple of extra days between runs, running every third day and realizing that I won't be up to 30 minutes before the race on Oct. 2, but if I have to walk that weekend, I'll walk. There are races after that one too.  I had family visiting for the weekend, so that distracted me a bit.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling ok, took some Advil anyway and then had my first soccer practice with the kids. Its tough to wrangle 10 5 and 6 year olds to try to run drills, but we got through it and I think most of the kids had a good time. Cutting back and forth and kicking the ball to play with the kids made my knee ache, so that was kind of a bummer.

Sunday should be run day, but a combination of waking up with a sore knee, being out with the neighbors too late, drinking a bit too much and having my houseguests leave early in the morning kept me from running early.  Instead I went to the gym early in the afternoon and tried to run on the treadmill. I think I've mentioned before that I don't like the treadmill because the pacing is hard for me, but I thought it might be easier on my knees, plus its hot outside here in the afternoon.

I was able to get through the entire workout on the treadmill without too much pain. I still get some pretty wicked tightness when slowing from a run to walk, especially after the longer runs, but I was able to get through it. But, as soon as I was done the last run, the pain came on. I had to cut my cool down a little short. I went home and iced it again for a full 30 minutes and I started feeling better. Now its a few hours later and I can get around without limping, but if I keep the knee in the same position for a couple of minutes, its gets stiff.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I think that I'll get up tomorrow and do some weights and the elliptical and see how I feel.  Then I'll take Tuesday off and try running again Wednesday morning. Then I'll run again Saturday and plan the next weeks from there.

On a high note, I got through all the runs today pretty well.  I was struggling a bit for the last one and I slowed the pace down a lot, but I finished.

Chasing Storms

I'm out of town for business this week.  I got the last run of W3 of the program in on Sunday morning. I woke up a bit late and got to the track around 8am, so this was my first run in the sunshine. I didn't realize that the track ran straight into the sun on one side. This run was a bit of a struggle but I got through it. My right knee has been pretty sore since then. The rest of Sunday was a fun day with the kids and a trip to Wal-Mart where I bought some cheap "tech" gear. I guess "tech" is a fancy name for polyester, but its much more comfortable to run in than cotton. Cotton absorbs water so as you sweat it gets heavier and hangs on your body. So I bought socks, undershorts and a t-shirt. Today I ran with them on and I do feel a difference.  I'm in South Florida and its damn hot, even at 6:30.  I sweat a lot, but the shirt didn't hang, was very comfortable.

So I took Monday and Tuesday off from exercise, got a lot of work done and was able to catch up with old friends for dinner each night. Lots of fun. I have to admit it was tough to get up and run this morning, but once I got started I felt pretty good.  Today the intervals went up to 3 minutes and 5 minutes.  I was struggling at the end of the last 5 minute run, but I got through them all.  No pain during the run, but the knee is sore again.  Just sat here in the hotel room for 30 minutes with ice on my knee, now I'm into the shower and off to the office.

Seems like the hurricane is going to miss Florida, so I'll be able to get out of here ok tomorrow night. I was on the phone with a couple of people back at the office in Georgia yesterday when the earthquake hit.  They all noticed the building moving and were a bit freaked out, but when I called my wife, she and the kids hadn't felt anything. Pretty crazy to have a quake that big on the east coast.  The movement was actually really shallow, so that's why it was felt so far away. The paranoid conspiracy theory part of my mind wonders if there was some type of experiment gone awry at some secret government laboratory, but I left my tin foil hat at home, so that thought will be quickly erased by the mind control satellites. 

If all things go well, I'll be home Thursday night and will run again Friday and Sunday. Saturday will be our first soccer practice.  Oh, and my dad and step-mom are coming to visit this weekend too.  Keeping busy!

My Goals Saved Me

Yesterday was the perfect example of why I exercise better with a concrete goal to achieve. Thursday was a difficult day for me and I was still excited to run on Friday. I got up early and headed to the track in the dark. This was the second day of the 90sec/3min intervals. During the first 3 minute run, I started to feel a cramp on the outside of my right calf. I ran through it, but when I slowed to walk it got really bad. If I didn't have this goal to work towards, I would have stopped right there. But I didn't. I pushed myself through the two minute walk and then it started to feel better during the 90 sec run. The last 3 minute run actually felt pretty good, though I still struggled to keep up my pace near the end. I really want to get myself to run this 5K and I will!

I felt more spent during the day than I had all week. I started to feel a little soreness in my knee throughout the day. So I decided that Saturday would be a day off. I had worked out 4 days straight so I'd rather recover for a day and do my final run of week 3 well on Sunday.

I've been a bit lax lately with my eating.  Nothing totally out of whack, but I'm going to start being more careful with my choices. I was convinced to go to 5 guys by a couple of saboteurs yesterday. At least I only ate a small burger, no bacon.  I didn't order any fries, but when these evil souls poured fries on my bag, I caved and ate some. These are my struggles!  With friends like these, who needs McDonalds.

So today when the girls wanted pancakes, we took them to IHOP but I had fake eggs with turkey bacon, 400 calories.  And last night when I was playing poker with the neighborhood guys, I didn't drink at all.  You'd think it would have helped being the sober one at a table of drunks, but my cards sucked and I got wiped out.  

Motivation

This morning I woke up with very little motivation. I went to bed way too late last night and I was prepping my mind for some stressful work stuff today that I just couldn't break out of my head to focus on working out. I got a late start but I dragged myself to the gym and did 35 minutes on the elliptical. Once I was rolling I felt ok, but this was definitely a "just get through it" kind of day. Tomorrow is another running day, 90 second and 3 minute intervals on tap, so I'll do my best.

My gym has a bank of 6 TV's all set to different stations hanging in front of the cardio machines. I usually try to get the machine in front of ESPN, which I did again today. I noticed that one of the other TV's was playing this infomercial for the latest fancy new bra that will make every ladies' boobs look perfect and perky. There was a guy working out on the machine in front of that TV and it was really funny to see that he was kind of embarrassed that he was stuck in front of it. Don't know if I would have survived that one today.

Today I officially became a soccer coach! I volunteered to coach my girls' U6 soccer team in the Y league this fall. After work I went to the coaches meeting and got my bag of soccer balls and pinnies. This will be my first time doing it. I'm actually a little bit nervous because I am never totally comfortable taking care of other people's kids, but I'm sure it'll be fun. The girls played their first season of soccer last spring and really liked it. Brings back a lot of memories for me because soccer was my sport as a kid. I do really love the game. Fortunately, there is no keeping score in this league, so I can never lose!  Yay me.

Stepping Up

So I missed yesterday's blog post because I was busy doing things other than blogging, but I did get my run in and that's what this is all about in the end. I got to the track at my regular crack of dawn starting time and there were three other runners there. and they were fast runners.  I was a bit intimidated for a minute, but then I realized I'm not in high school anymore and don't really care what these young fast runners think of me, so I fired up my Ipod and hit the track. This was the first day of the third week of the program, so the intervals moved up to 90sec run, 90 sec walk, 3 minute run, 3 minute walk repeated twice. I'm not going to lie, 3 minutes had never felt like such a long time before. I made it through pretty well, but my calves burned pretty badly after slowing to a walk after each long run.

For a minute, I thought I was going to go a day without seeing a hot air balloon, but as I was rounding the last turn on my final cool down walk, there it was hanging in the distance.

The rest of the day I felt pretty good.  I'm certainly not feeling as sore after my runs as I was last week, so I know my body is getting stronger. Today I went to the gym and just did some strength work, lifted weights, no cardio. I don't know if I feel like I'm getting stronger yet, but I'm feeling like I'm starting to make this a habit and to me that's an important start. Finally a productive habit!

Tomorrow I think I'll do some light cardio, keeping my HR in the 70% range and then Friday back to the running.

I saw a great quote today in a tweet by Tim Sanders. He quoted Carl Erskine, Dodger pitching great who said "Bad thinking got me into more trouble than bad pitching did". Its our thoughts that lead our actions, so if you think correctly, you'll act correctly.

Day Off ... Except for Work

So today was my rest day, no workouts for me. I got up and helped the girls get ready, then walked them to the bus with my wife. Got home, relaxed, took my time getting ready. When I got dressed I accidentally grabbed my running shoes instead of my dress shoes. Yea, its kinda sick but I really wanted to go running today. Must fight the urge to do to much too soon. I had originally planned to go to the gym tomorrow and run on Wednesday, but I've decided to switch those days because I'm anxious to get to the next week of the program.

Next week is going to be a challenge as I have to travel a couple of days for work. If I keep my current schedule I'll only have to run one day while I'm away, but I'll have two cross training days to do.  I might try swimming at the hotel pool or use the gym there. I think there's also a gym at the office I'm visiting that I might be able to use. I'm glad to have these types of challenges during my training, as it'll help me further prove to myself that I can accomplish this.

On a non running topic, today I read the op-ed piece that Warren Buffett wrote in the NY times this weekend. He has always seemed to me to be a reasonable man. If you haven't read it, take a look here. I never understood the widespread opposition to taxing the rich. Has the debt ridden "McMansion" culture of the middle class made these people believe that they are rich? Why are some middle class people so adamantly against taxing the wealthy? I think a big part of it is that a lot of people either think they are rich, or they think they will be rich in their lifetime. For most of them its just a delusion and they end up voting against their own interests in favor of this illusion that they are protecting themselves.

I also don't understand the argument that taxing rich people will stifle investment. What else are they going to do with their money? As Buffett says, I've never heard of someone refusing to make money because they may have to pay more taxes on that money. Especially the kind of people who feel that they need to earn $50 million a year to be happy. Just saying.

More Hot Air Balloons

There's something about waking up early on a weekend morning and getting out of the house that I just love. The world is different, calmer and mellower. Today was my 3rd running day of this week's cycle, so I got up at 6 and headed out of the house towards the park at 6:30 or so. I was heading down the road when I rounded a bend and looked to my right to see three hot air balloons lifting off from a field next to a super market. I stopped at the light right next to the field and thought how disappointed the girls would be to miss this.  Then I remembered my phone and I pulled it out to take pictures. I pulled into the parking lot next to the field and fired up the video camera on my phone and took some video of the final balloon taking off.  I was a little late starting my run but this was a cool way to start the day.

The run went well.  My new shoes and socks felt pretty good and after the first two running intervals I felt like I could have gone longer. The one part that is giving me trouble is the transition between running and walking. My calves burn pretty badly for the first 30 yards or so after I slow to a walk. I'm not too worried about it because as the weeks go on there will be fewer intervals with longer runs. I went about 2 miles in just about 30 minutes, which felt pretty good. My next run will be Wednesday, where I'll start the 3rd week of the program. Tomorrow will be a full day off and Tuesday I'll cross train, probably weights and maybe some time on the stationary bike.

The rest of the day was nice and relaxing, watched the A-Team movie while the wife napped. Went to the pool and grilled some steaks for dinner. Tomorrow, back to the salt mines.

Saturday in the Park, Everyday's the Fourth of July!

Wow, had an awesome day today. Today is a cross training day for me, so i did 45 minutes on the elliptical at a low HR.  I kept it between 135 and 140 the whole time and felt pretty darn good. On Saturday mornings there is a boot camp workout at the gym, and they work out in the row that's right in front of the machines I use. It looks pretty tough. I feel like a creep watching these ladies working out in front of me, but its not like I can turn around and look backwards.  right?  I'm really beginning to respect anyone who gets up and gets moving, no matter how they work out.

When I got home, I had breakfast with the girls and then my wife asked me to get them out of the house so she could do some housework. We loaded their bikes into the truck and headed to the park.  There's a loop at the park that's about .35 miles around the soccer fields and they love to ride their bikes around the loop. I brought the new camera and we all had a ball. They rode around and I snapped a few pictures.  OK, maybe more than a few.  OK, maybe 350 pictures.  I got a little carried away with the continuous shooting, but that's the joy of the digital camera, you can waste as many shots as you want. I got some fantastic shots of them too.

Had some lunch and then I headed to the running store to get some shoes. They were very nice and patient with me, and after trying on about a half dozen different pairs I picked the ones I liked. I almost bought a shirt that says "I may not look like a long distance runner, but I sure smell like one," but I decided against it. I got some socks though and now I'm pumped for my run tomorrow.  Yep, tomorrow is the last run of Week 2 of my program. I'm really looking forward to it.

I've been reading some awesome inspirational stories over on the forums at runnersworld.com. There are some great supportive people there who run at all levels. I read some of their stories and they almost make me want to run a marathon.  almost.  Its just a great group, who don't take themselves too seriously but are serious about their love of running. One thing I've seen there several times which really got to me was this: "Even if you finish last, you've lapped everyone who never got off their couch."

W2D2

Today was all about 2's.  My 2 daughters had their 2nd day of school and I did W2D2 of my program. It was a gorgeous morning, the sky was brightening as I got to the track and I noticed a hot air balloon rising over the park. I wished I had my camera as I started my warm up.

I felt pretty good, relatively speaking. I got through each 90 second segment without struggling the last few seconds. I tried to concentrate on keeping my stride short, my breathing steady and relaxing my body. Back when I was playing sports (waaayyyy back), everything I did was focused on quickness, so my instinct is still to try to tighten up and explode through each stride rather than relax and move my body. The breathing was hard, but I didn't feel terrible. I was going so well that I was surprised when the podcast announced my last run.  Thought I had 2 left at the time. Besides the general struggling, the only pain I had was transitioning from the run to the walk. Each time my calves would feel like they were tightening up for the first 20 yards or so of walking. After the run I took some time to stretch my legs, focusing on my calves.

I did notice that I stopped about 100 yards shorter on the track today than I did on Wednesday, but I have no idea if that's because I ran less or more because I haven't been counting my laps.  Not that I really care at this point.  I'm focusing on the time more than the distance.  I'll worry about distance later.

Yesterday I registered for the race, so now there's money on the line if I don't make it! Tomorrow I'm going to go to the local running store and get a new pair of shoes. I want to be very careful about doing everything the right way and not injuring myself. Its been a long time since I put my body through this type of stress.

So to review the last 7 days ... Saturday I did 45 minutes on the elliptical, Sunday I did weights and 30 minutes on the elliptical, Monday I did the same though I tried to run a bit on the treadmill too.  Tuesday I took off. Wednesday I did W2D1, Thursday I did weights and Friday I did W2D2.  Overall it was a good week, what I would deem my first full week of training.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to do cardio again, either bike or elliptical, then Sunday run W2D3 and take Monday off.

Thanks to everyone who is reading and who have sent me good wishes.  I promise to write some more interesting posts in the next couple of weeks so this doesn't just become me droning on about my exercise.

First Day of School

Well, I'm now officially the father of two kindergartners. The first day of school was a success. I was really proud of the way both girls got up and got ready for school. They were so excited. I took a ton of pictures with the new camera of them walking to the bus stop, them standing at the bus stop, them getting on the bus, them sitting on the bus and even took some of the bus as it came around the block to leave the neighborhood. There were no tears at all.  1 day down, 13 years to go.

After getting the girls on the bus, I went to the gym and did some weight training. I want to make sure that I don't burn myself out by doing too much, but I know that strength training is important. I felt pretty good, definitely getting stronger than I was 2 weeks ago. Today I felt soreness, especially in my legs, but no joint or back pain.  Tomorrow I'll do another day of running. I'm still in that "excited to see how I can perform" stage.  I know there is going to be suffering, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I had a great chat with my neighbor Romeo last night. He's a really positive guy and very good at crystallizing the thoughts and motivations that are going to be important for me going forward. I tend to minimize my accomplishments, especially in light of the challenges I'm still facing.  Romeo takes the time to remind me of what I've done.  I've lost 40 pounds, which is a feat in and of itself even if I have more to do.  Its ok to be proud of an accomplishment without resting on your laurels. Long road to go still, long road to go.

Wake Up!

OK, so ... I did my first running workout today. It was a wake up call for sure. Thankfully, I decided to start with the Week2 workouts, which consist of a 5 minute warmup walk, then 6 intervals of 90 second run and 2 minute walk, then 5 minute cool down. About halfway through the first run I realized that this was not going to be an easy task. During the second run I was thinking about pushing my first 5k out a few more weeks. But I settled in and decided I would trust the system and not make rash decisions on the first 20 minutes.

On the positive side, I did not have any pain when I was running. There was soreness throughout the day, but nothing overwhelming. Nothing that felt wrong. I was definitely working hard during the runs, and my pace was pretty slow, but I'm still looking forward to trying it again. The track that I ran on is asphalt and I was a bit worried that it would hurt to run, but it wasn't too bad. As I get into longer distances I'll probably have to find somewhere else to run.

One thing I did learn ... there's a lot of stuff bouncing around when I run. I wonder if they make a sports bra for a guy's belly, because that thing is flopping all over the place. Just another incentive to keep losing weight.

I found these podcasts for C25K that play music and give you cues for when its time to change paces, so that was really helpful. It made it a lot easier to not have to worry about watching a clock, just listen and run.

I feel pretty good now and think I'll probably go to the gym for weights and low impact cardio tomorrow morning after getting the girls off to their first day at school. I plan on doing the running workouts on wed, fri and sunday.  I'll take Monday's as a full day off, and leave Saturday as an optional day depending on how I feel.  Tuesday and Thursday I'll do cross training, weights, maybe the bike or the elliptical machine.

School Approaches!

So today was a rest day in the fitness arena.  I know it seems odd to take a rest day the day after I announced my big project, but I have been hitting the gym for a couple of weeks now and I worked out Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  I can do 45 minutes on the machine for which I do not know the name (the one that looks like a nordic track or something) keeping my heart rate between 135 and 145 the whole time, so I'm not too worried about the endurance to do the running. What I am worried about is my legs, my knees and my ankles taking the punishment of running.  I'm going to hit a track tomorrow morning and see how that goes.

Today was kindergarten open house for the girls.  We got to go in and meet their teachers, see their classrooms and write checks for lunches and PTA and all that fun stuff.  Quite a scene. You can tell the parents who have been through this before from those of us who are going through it the first time. We first timers have the same awed look as the kids, poring over all the paperwork that still needs to be filled out and trying to remember bus routes and emergency contact numbers. Having two of them in different classes makes it all the more nerve wracking. The girls handled it really well. Both of them have kids in their class that were in their pre-k program last year, and both seem to love their teachers, so it should be a good start to the year. School starts on Thursday.

We'd been thinking about getting a DSLR camera for a while now, and I've been doing tons of research. We had planned on waiting until later in the month to get it, but that planned changed a bit today. Neither of us wanted to take pictures of the girls first day on the bus with our cell phones, and our point and shoot is conveniently misbehaving, so we finally pulled the trigger on the camera. Quite different than what either of us is used to, but we're already having a great time with it. Between getting fit and learning to take cool pictures, I think the next couple of weeks will be pretty full.

Oh, and forgot to mention, thanks to my neighbor Romeo who will run the 5K with me. All I need to do now is pay my $25 and the miser in me will not let that money go to waste by quitting!

Goals

One thing that I've learned about myself over the years is that I need goals to be able to perform to the best of my ability, in almost any facet of life. Unfortunately for me I figured this out a little late and ended up having to dig out of a few holes that took some time to work through.  Over the last 10 years I got my career in order, my relationships with loved ones and finally my finances.  One glaring omission is my physical health. I let my body slowly grow and my fitness slowly deteriorate until I found myself at 317 pounds and winded from walking up the stairs. Over the last couple of years my doctor warned me of high blood pressure, bad cholesterol and finally this past March she uttered the D word.  I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. This one was  wake up call for both me and my wife, so I began changing the way I eat.

Gone were the cans of soda and bowls of ice cream. I started watching my portion sizes, eating more fruits and vegetables and choosing whole grains instead of simple carbs. Being as heavy as I was, the weight started melting off of me. By the middle of July, I had lost 40 pounds. I have a goal of losing another 30 pounds before Thanksgiving, but I know I'll need more than just diet to achieve that. The one piece that I was still missing was exercise.

My wife and I had been dream gym customers for two years. You know, the kind that pay their membership every month but only set foot in the gym 4 or 5 times a year. We had finally cancelled our membership two weeks before I was diagnosed.  So, a few weeks back we reinstated our membership (which they let us do at our previous rate, thankfully) and I've started going to the gym again.

Now is where I get back to my need for a goal.  Getting on the ski type machine thing (no idea what its called) and pumping my heart for 45 minutes is not going to last if I don't have something to work towards. So today I found a goal. I am going to train to run a 5K on October 3rd, just 8 weeks from now. I'm hoping to find a friend to share the experience, but I'm planning on using this blog to keep me accountable. I'm going to follow the "Couch to 5K" plan from coolrunning.com, modified slightly because I'm a bit more fit than the first two weeks indicate, plus I only have 8 weeks until the race.

Today I tried to run a bit on the treadmill at the gym, but i have a hard time adjusting to the pace of the treadmill, so I'm going to start running Wednesday on a track at a local park. My short term goal is to run this 5K race on October 3rd and finish. After that, my family is going on a vacation the week after Thanksgiving, and during that vacation there is a 5K run that I'd like to participate in.  Beyond that ... who knows.  Maybe a 10K, maybe even the Peachtree if I can get in, then maybe a half marathon.  Or maybe another fitness goal, I don't know, but I do know that I feel a lot better about exercising now that I have a purpose.  Stay tuned.