Diet and exercise

So, I decided I'd go all in.. Rather than doing the half-assed "I'll cut back" approach to eating (which WAS working, thankyouverymuch), I decided I'd join my wife doing Weight Watchers. The idea of writing down what I was eating and calculating the points and all seemed so... intriguing.. that I had to do it. I'm most of the way through my second week. I have been doing better in my food choices.. A couple of nights ago, I got home, and rather than eating chips or something to that effect, I grabbed an apple. Go me. I've been skipping various free food offerings at work. Eating more salad. On and on. And, yes. I'm hungry. lol I definitely am seeing weight come off.. The shorts are looser, the belly is smaller. (Get in my belly!) I've also been doing the 30 day shred thing now.. Not daily.. About 4 times a week.. I banged on level 1 for a couple of weeks and said "oh, sure, let's roll up to #2". Level 2 has totally been whipping my ass. I think I've been shredding for about a month now. It definitely is doing some good. I've also managed to squeeze in running two days a week. Pretty non-eventful runs, no real goals in mind.. The mid-week one is generally hilly, and the weekend one is generally "long". Long being around 4-5 miles. It's a start. There's a half marathon in May in the area, and maybe I'll work toward that. Losing weight is certainly helping the running.. doing the 30 day shred is helping too, just to even out the muscles in my legs a bit. So, all in all, it's a good start to a comeback. Certainly a well rounded approach to running now. Keep on rockin'!

A new direction

Well, it was a hell of a week here. Our area had record flooding, and shizz is totally messed up. We made it through fine, and are quite quite grateful. The fam made it through as well.. Just some friends that are under water, and certainly a lot of other people are as well. Our biggest problems were:
1) Boil water advisory. Inconvenient, but I am more than happy to live with that.
2) Mini-Raul has cabin fever. Inconvenient is putting it mildly.

So, to get caught up with where I am.. I ran the 5K Thursday a week ago, and promptly followed up with a run on Saturday. Awesome. Getting back into it!

I tweaked my back somehow while running, and later while I was screwing around with mini-Raul, I did a number on it even worse. I decided at that point that I really need to do some whole body conditioning. Rather than being a 200 pound weakling, I need to at least get some tone going, and some reasonable and appropriate strength in my core.

So, I couldn't run.. All of my routes were flooded, and it really wasn't safe to go in another direction. Swimming in the river water didn't seem like an appropriate way to start triathlon training.. What to do? What to do..

30 day shred. I'm on day 2. I must admit, it's a pretty decent workout. If this works, and I can keep up working out every day, I'll see what I can graduate on to next..

Keep on rockin..

Baseline

Well, I did it. Last night, I went out and did a 5K. I'm not in race shape, and it was obvious during my performance, but I'm really glad I did it. It was fun being around a pool of another 150 or so runners.

The course was generally flat.. some very small hills. It was at a local park, so there was no traffic to speak of.

I've started running totally by feel. I don't use my Garmin, I don't carry a watch of any sort.. Just go out and do what I need to do. I was curious how I would do racing, as I never did do a lot of racing.

The crowd was quite a mix. This was a run/walk 5K, so there were all kinds of people. They lined up based on where there was space in line. Not really the best plan, of course. The first quarter mile had a lot of weaving going on in order to not crash into people.

First mile, 9:28. OK.. Well, not what I used to be able to do a mile in, but not terrible, either. At this point I figured I was doing well, but maybe had gone out slightly fast.

Water station.. A friend of mine was volunteering at the race. Always fun to hear your name (plus get water!).

Turn around.. OK.. generally flat, with some uphills. Can. Do. This. Stop to walk, stretch out the knee and ITB a little bit.. carry on running.

Second mile, 19:21. Well, a bit slower, but not terribly off, pace-wise.

For the last quarter mile or so, I turned up the gas and ran faster.. I didn't want to snake out beating someone right in the last 5 seconds. I think I turned the gas up a bit too early, as I was ready to pass out a tenth of a mile away. :)

I saw the clock ticking up to 30 minutes.. 29:52, 29:53... Sprint.. must. get. under. 30.

Nope. 30:01. Ah well.

So, my pace slowed, but I stayed in the same ball park. Today, I have no additional pains from my body apart from the normal ones. One hamstring is tight, but nothing serious.. Should work out over the next couple of days.

Plus, I have a good baseline and will know how much I improve over time.


Two notable sights from the race:
- 2 people ran while pushing strollers. (One guy, one girl). I'm impressed. (The guy totally beat me, too)

- One guy was at the park, probably to work out.. his friends convinced him to run in the race, 2 minutes before it started. Yeah, he came in second.


I'm glad I did it. Just for something a little different.

Have a good long weekend, and keep on rockin'!

Decisions

Well, tonight after work, there's a 5K race. Decisions, decisions.

The pros are:
- A chance to race
- Not a long distance
- Run with people again

The cons are:
- I'm not in race shape
- I haven't trained to run anything like this

I've done some long runs of 5-6 miles over the past couple of months, and most runs are 4 miles a pop, so I can certainly *do* the distance. I think the pros are outweighing the cons right now.. 80/20 split on pro vs con.. We'll see what happens tonight.

The long road back

Hey everyone! Long time no write. Over a year. Wow.

Not saying that I can keep up the pace I used to, but I'm going to give this a go again.

Let's see, where to start? Well, mini-raul is now an exuberant 2 year old. He does not care to sleep through the night, but he has an endless reserve of energy. Truly a perpetual motion machine. I give mad props to all parents out there. I had no idea how difficult parenting would be (nor how rewarding).

As far as training goes, well, after he was born, it was a quick and steady decline into a sedentary lifestyle. At first it was eating the same without running, and then it became eating a bit worse without running, etc etc.

So, a few months ago, I hopped on the scale for the first time in 2 years. I quickly hopped off, and flipped it over to recalibrate it. Stepping back on, it turns out that the scale was accurately representing what I wasn't quite ready to admit, that I reached an all-time high. Not necessarily a good thing, there.

I started then, getting back into running. I was doing twice a week, but I'm now consistently running once on the weekends, and going for 2 or 3 walks a week. It's not what I used to do, but it is certainly better than nothing.

My wife has started Weight Watchers too, so I've started eating better as a result (or perhaps its because there's nothing to eat in the house?).. That's helping too.

So, fast forward to today, I'm down 12 pounds from the all time high, and starting to get back in shape.

Short term, I'd love to do something like P90X or even a 30 day shred sort of thing, but I don't think I can commit to working out every.single.day.

But, that's where I stand. I'll try to post a bit more, and stop around to the blogs a bit more.

Of course, keep on rockin'..