Posts Tagged ‘malcolm’
35 Weeks to Go And Counting: A Run For Your Lives Update
I have decided to write a post every weekend, detailing our training for the upcoming Run For Your Lives. Tired of hearing about it yet? I’m not. I’m so excited I can barely stand it!
And yet… I realize I have a LONG way to go.
I’ve always been jealous of runners. The very notion of running is antithetical with being a fat kid. I never managed to complete the one mile run that was held in P.E. class every year. I just couldn’t do it. Didn’t want to do it, frankly.
I villainized running. I made it the enemy. Not me. It. Running is stupid.
And I’m finding myself slowly changing.
Even in the last two years that I’ve been a part of the weight loss blogging world, my attitude has begun to change. Before, I held the attitude, “I only run when I am being chased.” (Rather ironic, then, that I WILL be chased during the first 5K I’ve signed up for.) Then, as I got fit, my attitude turned to envy. I can’t run without pain, and I was extremely jealous of those of you who would go out and run a 5K (or 10K… or half… or full marathon) with no more energy than I would devote to an hour long workout in the gym.
I’ve tried Couch to 5K more than once. I’ve never made it past week three.
So what am I doing to prepare for this race? I’m not EXACTLY tackling Couch to 5K again, but I am breaking out the jogging shoes.
Last night, my knee was terribly swollen. It’s just something that’s wrong with me. I don’t even know if I can blame it on my obesity, because my left knee NEVER swells. But it was pretty tight, and it hurt to do too much activity on it. I wasn’t overly sweating it, because I know that pain will go away in two to three days, and it was almost over. But how can I work out on it?
Ah, I know! I’ll do Couch to 5K in the pool! So last night, Tina and I went to the gym, changed into swim gear, and walked and jogged in the pool a la C25K style for thirty minutes. It was a better workout than I was expecting.
The activity helped my knee, and today, I woke up almost pain free. We went to Russell Sims Park here in town, which has a nice one mile track.
Knowing our past attitude toward C25K, Tina and I decided we were going to just walk and run as we felt like it, gradually increasing the run time. In other words, we didn’t do sixty seconds of jogging after ninety seconds of walking. We probably did less jogging than we would have otherwise. As we walked, we would pick out a light post and jog until we had passed two more. We did that four times over the course of a mile, and I stuck to my slow, plodding, painfree pace. Tina is considerably faster than me, which is perfectly fine by me. She has crazy long legs and she’s a LOT lighter than I am, so it stands to reason she would be faster.
I know I have a LONG way to go in training for this run. We want to do an actual 5K before it, just so we know what it’s like to run a 5K that isn’t infested with zombies.
So what does the rest of our week look like? This is my proposed training plan for the rest of the week.
Sunday – An hour on the elliptical at the gym (to build lung and heart endurance) and a 5K walk with Malcolm (our dog) at a local park in town
Monday – An hour of Zumba, followed by an hour of Aqua Zumba
Tuesday – I have a late meeting at work, so in-between regular work hours and my late meeting, I’m going to hit the gym for an hour of cardio on the elliptical.
Wednesday – Finally, a weight session!
Thursday – Another weight session!
Friday – Cardio recovery day from two days of weights
We normally do a lot more weights than that, but this is what’s going to fit with my work schedule. We need to get back into the groove of doing more weights, but I also need to strengthen my heart and lungs. I’m surprised at how weak they got from just taking about two weeks off from my eye infection. It’s so hard to gain that endurance but so EASY to lose.
We’re continuing to do ten minutes of stretching yoga every night before bed, courtesy of Netflix Watch Instantly.
Oh, and to stay in the zombie mood, we’re going to watch the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.
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Week Two is 2/3rds Done!
Today is the first day of fall! I have completed the second day of the second week of Couch to 5K!
I look so worn out because this is after the run AND a session with our brutal, loving personal trainer. Plus I just have sucky hair.
My knee was causing me a bit of trouble recently. Allow me to age slightly as I say this…
My right knee is bad. It flares up every so often.
*sigh* Yeah, I know that makes me sound a million years old, but I DO have a bad knee, and it DOES flare up every so often. I’ve kept it wrapped the last two days and iced it and all of that fun stuff, and today, while it is a tiny bit stiff, it feels mucho better. I took TWO days off between my first run and my second run for week two; I was a little afraid to take THREE days off, though.
But to my extreme pleasure, I found that I missed it! I was not happy about having to miss out on my “run” last night, and I had an absolute blast hitting the neighborhood with Tina (soon-to-be Mrs. Logsdon) and Malcolm (still a rather stupid, if handsome, puppy). This one was a little tougher than some others, I’ll be honest, but it still felt great to just get out there and do it.
It may be fall here, but the weather is not exactly following suit. It’s been in the 90s around here. Fortunately, it is VERY dry, and we’re hoping that the dryness holds out until October 8th, which is our wedding day. I’m hopeful that the trees will have a little color in the leaves. We’ll see. No matter what happens, I’ll definitely be posting the pictures and video here when we return from Antigua.
And speaking of going to Antigua, I’ll be gone for a week. Even if I have internet access, I’m pretty sure I won’t be blogging. But I’d like to keep my blog going. Would anyone like to (or be willing to?) write a guest post for my honeymoon week? Please email me at jeremy@stellarpath.net if you would! I’d be very grateful!
Oh, and one quick thing to share about my diet. I made a very conscious decision to eat cleaner today, as I had come to the realization I was eating a lot of crap. Today felt like a much cleaner day, and I found that I was both less hungry and I had more energy. Why can’t I remember how I feel on days like this the next time I’m craving a Pop Tart or a bag of doritos?
The most vile junk food known to man… and the tastiest…
My biggest problem in eating is that I don’t always know what to eat, and I’ll end up grabbing the first thing I can find. That’s not always healthy. For the last two days, I have planned out my food for the next day. I’m allowed to go off track if I need to, but if I am hungry, I can just look at what I’ve planned for the day and I know what I am “supposed” to eat.
How do you keep from mindlessly snacking?
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Week One was Survived!
Gah, I’m so fricking fickle. That’s probably why only about three and a half people read my blog a week. But I’ve always said this is a blog for me, so my blogging schedule will probably always be ridiculously variable.
What did I say I was going to do? I said I was going to post my food and my weight daily.
I’ve already changed my mind. If I’m honest with myself, I skip over food entries in blogs unless they have cool pictures or an awesome recipe, and I like to read people’s weekly weigh-ins. So that’s what I’m going to do, starting tomorrow.
Today’s post was made because I have completed Week One of the Couch to 5K!
Oh, and what’s that note I have on my page today? Yeah, Tara at 263andcounting.com is completing her first triathlon this weekend. I was reading Tara’s blog when she was doing Couch to 5K. Tara, you rock, and I can’t wait ’til I’m there with you. 
(Except for the triathlon part. Totally run with you, but I suck at swimming and I suck harder at biking. I’d probably end up looking like this about twenty feet into the cycle portion.)
But back to C25K, seriously, you have NO idea how big of a deal this is for me. I am prouder of having finished Week One than I probably will be of completing my first 5K in (what I hope is) a few months.
Running outdoors (well, slogging (i.e. – slow jogging)) is the key for me. I can’t do it on a treadmill; I’ve tried and it causes joint pain. Outdoors, I’m with Tina (my fiancee) and Malcolm (my puppy) and I just concentrate on shifting my weight to the ball of my foot rather than my heel. I suspect I probably look a little goofy when I run (not that I would look not-goofy otherwise), but it’s completely eliminated joint pain for me. I can already feel my heart and lungs getting stronger.
I am SO excited to start running 5Ks and adding t-shirts to my closet. (The raising money for charity part is nice, too.) I want to have Jess make me a sign. I want to see what it feels like to run for thirty plus minutes without… well, dying.
I don’t know if I’ll stay on track and be done in seven more weeks, but we’re sure going to try. Any advice out there from you 5Kers?
Tomorrow is Friday, and in the past, Friday was my weigh-in day. I’m going to treat Sunday’s 337.9 as “last week’s” weight, and Friday’s will be my consistent day from here on out.
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Day by Day 001
Wasn’t this supposed to be a separate blog? Yeah, it was, but I ultimately decided to put ALL of my fitness, fatness, and other food stuff here. I won’t post more than once a day, so some days, this Day by Day section may just be a foot note at the bottom of a different post, but today, I’m only talking about food and exercise.
September 12, 2010
Sunday
Starting Weight 402.8
Today’s Weight 337.9
Total Lost 64.9 pounds
Yes, I haven’t weighed 402.8 pounds in over four years and a LOT less muscle mass ago, but I like seeing 64.9 pounds up there more than seeing… well, nothing. After all, this is a life long journey, and even if I am “restarting” on a new web host and a new focus and all that blah blah blah, 402.8 was still my biggest and I’m not going to forget that.
337.9 is a lot higher than I’d like it to be, but I honestly expect to see a significantly smaller number tomorrow. I truly expect to lose two pounds or so, at least. There are a few factors in why my weight is so high – a very high salt diet yesterday, and uhm… well… I haven’t pooped in like two days. TMI? Probably.
This is what I ate today. I made a few great food choices, a few bad food choices, and a few okay food choices. You know what? I definitely could have done without the Pop Tart, and I won’t lie… it was VERY tempting to not list it here, but really… who am I cheating? It doesn’t affect anyone but me. Chili dog probably wasn’t a very good choice, either… I’m suddenly feeling very self-conscious about my food choices today. I can at least point out that all of my bread choices were whole wheat with no HFCs.
Bacon, cheese, and green onion two egg omelet
Banana
Steak & cheese sub with mayo
Chili dog
Grapes
Pop tart
BBQ sandwich
Roast beef and veggies
Turkey and cheese on wheat
Pineapple sherbet
Approximately total calories = 2,600
Today’s food picture is of the omelet I made for breakfast. I love making omelets, and since I am good at this, I am the designate omelet cook of our household.
All in all, not a terrible day for someone of my weight and activity level. On my current “plan” of eating, I eat more on the weekends and less during the week. You’ll probably see my calories around 2,000 or so tomorrow. But I will make this promise: No matter what it is I eat, I’ll share it truthfully, even if I just end up going momentarily insane and binging at the Chinese buffet.
Exercise was a much better story. It was such a pretty fall morning today that Tina and I both felt motivated to do some exercise outdoors. I remembered a short experiment back in the summer with running in the Couch to 5K sense outdoors, and we both enjoyed it. It didn’t hurt my feet or joints, unlike the treadmill which is always excruciating (and boring), so we decided to restart Couch to 5K. If we do it as the program states, it will take us two months, which will be right smack in the middle of fall. Our honeymoon also falls in this two month period, and I REALLY like the idea of actually doing C25K in Antigua.
Anyway, before Tina strapped on her Vibrams and I put on my regular, non-toed sneakers, I had the bright idea to take a picture every day I do C25K. Maybe I’ll see a big difference by the time I’m holding up a sign that says “First Official 5K!”
The run went great. A little warm, but there was a nice cool breeze, and as with the last outdoor “run,” there was no pain! I mentioned that Tina went with me, but I had another running partner.
My buddy Malcolm. He’s still a puppy and as dumb as a sack of doorknobs, but we love him, and he helped pull me along when I was starting to get a little tired.
That wasn’t our only exercise, either. We went to the gym this afternoon and did forty-five minutes on the elliptical and about fifteen minutes in the pool. I feel very confident that I’ll post a loss tomorrow.
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