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Some days are just What About Bob? days. What can I say? Today was one such day.
However, repeating the phrase above didn’t help me as much as my run, which, for the most part was fabulous. Today was my last day of intervals for Couch to 5k. I can’t believe it. It called for a 10/3/10 run/walk sequence. I did the first ten minutes with ease and I felt great! I’ll admit, I walked a little longer than the three minutes, but not much. The second 10 minutes was a bit broken. I ran about 5 before I needed a walking break…just about a minute, and then ran three more. So, in total, 18 minutes of running…I really should have tried to get those other two in…I probably could have done it. However, I had a pace of 14:44 (second best) for one of my longer distances. I’m still quite happy about it.
However, I am a bit nervous about my remaining three weeks. I’m supposed to run 25, then 28, and finally 30 minutes without any walking breaks. Not gonna lie. I’m bit scared. But I know I can do it. I know I can do it. I know I will do it. It may not be perfect, but it will get done.
Here’s to a great week!
My wife is the champion of this household. I can say that with confidence after she brought our little boy into the world. We went into the hospital at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, and on Thursday afternoon at 1:12 p.m. little boy finally arrived weighing in at 6 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 19.75 in. I love this little boy…
Needless to say, my running suffered this week, but really, I didn’t care…I had the best excuse in the world. My sister-in-law, along with a great quilt she made, sent these “Little Runner” socks that look like running shoes for him. I thought to myself, if there are just a handful of things I hope to pass on to him…running is definitely one of them. My dad was a long distance runner when he was young…this is something I didn’t know until I was much older and overweight. My son is my motivation for all of this! I hope he’ll learn to love it as much as I have when he gets older.
Couch to 5k continues…I had a great run yesterday and am looking to get some serious training done as the first 5k is in three weeks…I’ll be sure to keep you updated!
Here’s to you, Gladys Knight…I really gotta use my imagination…for a better blog post title! 
Friends, I ran today, and though I felt completely sluggish the entire time, I did a good distance with a decent pace. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t get 20 minutes down yet. It’s going to be a while. So, instead of trying to run until I get the 20 minutes down, I’m going to finish out the days of Couch to 5k that are interval runs…and then try to run 20…then 25…then 28…the finally 30 minutes straight. I know I can do it…I just need to do it in a manner that my body will let me.
SO, I found out that I’m going to be a dad TOMORROW. Like, yes, we’re going to the hospital and Ms. Fat Guy (who is, not-so-ironically, neither fat, nor a guy) will be induced and hopefully our little boy (whom we sometimes lovingly refer to as Chico) will arrive quickly and without too much discomfort. Wish us luck!
Since we’re not going to have our last date like we had hoped for, we’re going to choose one of our favorite teenage girl, soccer movies…either Bend It Like Beckham or She’s The Man…to watch tonight (JohnT if you’re reading this, remember I told you my man card was taken from me a long time ago…slowly, but surely, I’ll get it back).
I know everyone who reads this might not be religious (or a Christian for that matter), but I hope you’ll indulge me in sharing something with you that has kept me going all these weeks…
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. –Isaiah 40:31
Here’s to running and not being weary!!
OK, guys…this post was replete with my ADD, so I’ll stop here. Hope your weeks are off to great starts and I’ll be back as soon as the little guy is here!
Friends, it’s been a few days. It’s the end of my summer term and I’ve been scrambling to finish some assignments. But never fear…I am here…with a LOT of stuff to write, so bear with me. Let’s see if I can succeed at not making this entry too obnoxiously long…
- Goal Reassessment. Most of you have probably noticed that I was supposed to have completed the 100 push up challenge by now. I have not. I have decided that I need to reformat how I am going to accomplish this, rather than kill myself trying to do it. I am a big guy, but my upper body strength is not sufficient to heft my 352 pound body off the ground that many times yet (hence the entire reason I’m doing the challenge). So, I’m going to start on my knees and work my way up to 100, and then try the legit push ups. My new date is September 30.
- Couch-to-5k update. I am euphoric, people. I am on week 7 of running (week 5 of the program). Monday called for a 5/3/5/3/5 run/walk interval sequence, and I’m happy to say I ran every 5 minute interval. I kid you not, in the very same spot where I passed the snide firefighters, I saw a group of kids running with a couple of older guys…I assumed they were a youth track club, or something of the sort. As I passed them, the two older guys’ faces lit up as they waved when we passed each other. Then the kids started cheering! I couldn’t believe it…they just kept clapping and yelling for me to keep up the good work. Their coaches and parents should be proud…that was sportsmanship. I loved it. And to top it off, today’s run was an 8/5/8 run/walk…and I did it!
- Last, but definitely not least, MY COACH. I am blessed with a great “team” of supporters. My family, friends, and definitely you all who read and support me definitely inspire me to keep going. I have, however, a good friend of mine who is one amazing, inspiring athlete who has been with me on my journey, who, for all purposes intended, is my coach. Aaron Shamy is nothing short of amazing. He is an X-Games gold medalist in speed climbing (rock climbing), a former Cirque du Soleil performer, has completed at least one ultramarathon that I know of, and runs “regular” marathons on the side…just for fun. He is energetic, inspiring, and he’s helping me a great deal. Aaron is also working on furthering his education, and if there’s anything I can do to help him with that, it’s this: He has entered a scholarship contest that is based on votes through YouTube, so please, help me help a great buddy of mine and watch his quick four-minute video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTohVkO2dew or http://www.wgu.edu/landing/video_repeat.asp. You be able to catch a glimpse into his unique life, and help him and his family for the better by helping him with one of his biggest goals. I’ll definitely be writing more on Aaron later, but let the video be your first introduction to my amazing friend.
Well, that’s it for now…see you on the flipside!
Wednesday morning I woke up feeling (and probably looking) like a chubby Keith Richards.
It was the first time in the six weeks I’ve been doing this that I deliberately decided I wasn’t going to run in the morning. Maybe I was adjusting to the time change from our trip, but I just wasn’t having it. After a somewhat crappy day, I decided I wasn’t going to miss a day of my program so long as I was healthy and able to run, so I went out in the evening.
I didn’t have any plans in mind other than to do what Couch-to-5k asked for that week. I tried my first five minute interval, and it wasn’t quite successful. I managed four minutes, walked for 45 seconds, and then ran another minute. After the other intervals, I walked for a while and then on the way back home, I felt a new kick of energy and decided it was time to try again. I didn’t look at my watch, and my music was too loud to hear the time go off, but the time was all zero’s when I checked it.
I’ll be darned. I ran for five minutes straight.
On top of that, I was able to do 3 miles in exactly 45 minutes. Needless to say, I was highly satisfied!
Initially, I wasn’t going to push it, but as I was approaching mile one, I saw two firefighters from the nearby station running toward me. Anytime I run past someone, I usually greet them and pause my music so I can hear. I did so, and they both kind of nodded and smirked. “Dude looks like he’s gonna die,” one of them said as they passed, “maybe we should run him in…ha ha ha.” Great, I thought…these ripped Mario Lopez and John Cena lookalikes just mocked me…and that’s all the motivation I needed to turn it up a notch. I went out again this evening and did it again. Believe me when I say, I am on cloud nine…
Furthermore, I happy enough knowing that I don’t have to compete with Slater and a pseudo-wrestler…my wife is more than content picking this sweaty guy over anyone any day…
Am I blessed, or what?
Else, where would I be in this fight to drop pounds and get healthy?
The one thing I have absolutely treasured in the past five weeks is that not one person has told me, “No, you can’t.” I had a soccer coach in middle and high school who would make us run laps if we ever used the word ‘can’t.’ I learned early on that it was not taken lightly, and after a decent amount of laps due to that violation, I learned to keep my mouth shut and just do it.
For the most part, I have eradicated the word ‘can’t’ from my vocabulary.
Now, I do know my limits, but rather than say that I can’t do something, I just postpone it…or rather, make it a long-term goal. Truth of the matter is, I can do most of what I’ve set out to do. Even with this week’s setback of struggling with the five minute interval, I’ve realized I just need a little more time. I know I can do it.
I have been doing my best to eat well while we’ve been traveling. There are some really good cooks in our family, especially my sister-in-law who makes quite delicious white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. They have been hard to resist, and I’ve only had one so far, and I fear that will be my limit. However, a plus to being in Nevada these past few days is all of the runners and walkers we have in the family. We’ve hit the track the past fews days – my mother-in-law, two of my sisters-in-law, and myself – in an effort to “keep on a goin’” as we like to say. They’re all really great motivators, and are pretty disciplined. I get lapped by each and everyone one of them, but that’s okay…someday I’ll be able to keep pace with them.
So, odds are, I will repeat Week 4 of the Couch to 5k into Week 6 of my training. Geez…just thinking that I’ve kept up with this for six weeks still floors me, but I know the repetition will be well worth it.
When we get back to Georgia, I’m a little worried about the next month. I’ll be starting classes again, my boy will be born shortly, and I have several projects that need some dire attention. I have a conference in Florida to go to in September, not to mention a work trip back to Arizona. Things are going to get crazy busy, and I feel that I have a huge challenge ahead of me in trying to maintain my training while I start to get busy with life again.
Can I do it??
I think I can.
Taking a cue from MizFit, I decided that I would make a video entry for Wednesday’s run. I uploaded the video, and 439 tries later, I couldn’t get the clips to work. So, I hope you’ll settle for the lovely picture of Arizona I found online.
But trust me, it’s no loss. Wednesday’s ‘run’ was horrible. It was probably already well over 100 degrees by the time I left around 7:15 a.m. Not joking. I picked a route along the Tempe Canal, and after my five minute warmup walk and got through the first three minute interval. Great, I thought, I’m going to actually do this.
Or not at all.
The sun was a killer that day. My energy was sapped in no time, and I walked most of the way. I was hot and disappointed. There are a million reasons excuses I could give, but it’s just a day I need to put behind me. I might need to repeat this week of Couch to 5k, but since my first 5k isn’t until August 30, it’s not going to hurt.
We made it to Nevada fine. We agreed to take our niece and nephew with us to relieve our sister who just had her third. They were quite well behaved, but it was probably too many hours in the car, thus making me a little stir crazy. My wife talked me out of the run (it’s just as hot in Nevada as it is in Arizona), because it was so hot, but I needed to get outside and do something. So, I went outside with my father-in-law and learned to vacuum a pool. I burned a whole five calories, I’m sure, but I just had to be outside.
Tomorrow we’re headed to the track and I’m going to try my intervals again: 3 min. run/90 sec. walk/5 min. run/2.5 min. walk/3 min. run/90 sec. walk/5 min. run. My brother- and sisters-in-law are in much better shape and better runners than I am, so hopefully I won’t keep them waiting too long!
I’ll be sure to return and report…
This is something my wife just reiterated to me.
I didn’t realize traveling would be so hard on my exercise plan…because let’s face it, I don’t want to consider exercise being hard on my traveling. I did a run this morning, and while I was still happy that I did the requisite 3 minute intervals, the course was not as long as I hoped. However, I guess I shouldn’t be too upset because I’m about to make a pivotal turn in my Couch-to-5k training. I’m starting week four (week five for me since I repeated a week) on Wednesday and am about to kick up the running time. I am truly excited for this…call me crazy, but I just can’t wait.
My diet has been crap, and I should have done better in planning ahead while traveling. The past few days will surely incur the wrath of my coach when I call him. He’s maybe 5′7″ tall and lives in Salt Lake City, but the distance is the only cushion…that fire of his will definitely burn through the phone line. But I deserve it…it’s a lesson learned, and I’ll need to do better in the future.
My back seems to be improving. It’s still sore when I’m sedentary or immobile, but seems to be fine when I walk, or even run. My father-in-law and I went to Massage Envy the other night and I greatly underestimated my therapist. She found all the right spots…nearly killed me, in the process, but I think it helped.
Friends, can I just tell you how great I feel despite all of this? Sure, I have complaints, but this is the best I’ve felt in a very long time. I am still flabbergasted that five weeks later, I’m still here, and I’m still doing it. I can actually see a difference in my body. My belly is shape-shifting, my man-boobs are shrinking, and I think I’m slowly going back to one chin. I run in the mornings and see people who smile and say “Good Morning.” This is the opposite, in fact, of a bad dream I had where I was running down the street with people pointing and laughing and making some really horrible remarks. Eh. If it happens, they can say what they want. I’m doing this to make a better me.
It’s been hard for me to say this, but whether one agrees with me or not, if one perceives something differently, regardless, I can now categorically state:
I am a runner.
So, I think I need more AC/DC on my iPod when I run…it just does something for me.
I did it! I got out there today and it felt great. My pace was 14:47…not my best, but only three seconds from it. I’m a slow runner…I know this, I will be for a while, so I don’t expect this number to be augmented altogether too much in the coming weeks, but it’s a hell of a lot better than that 16:00 from a while back.
I finally moved onto week 3 of the Couch-to-5k program — though for me it is technically week 4. This week called for the usual ‘brisk’ five-minute warm-up walk and then intervals as usual. This week’s intervals are 90s run/90s walk followed by a 3 min. run/3 min. walk. Lather, rinse, repeat. I can’t tell you what euphoria I had when I ran my first 90 seconds without hardly getting winded! It seemed so easy. I knew I had to enjoy it while it lasted (ahem…all 90 seconds) because the next interval wasn’t going to be as easy.
And it wasn’t.
I got up to about 2:45 of straight running before I puttered out. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to just do 15 more seconds, but the heart rate was a bit high and my lungs were telling me, “Stop now, before we do it for you, tough guy.” So I did, and I walked (perhaps a bit more than three minutes, but not too much longer) and then decided that I might need an extra day with this interval schedule. I was, however, able to do 90s intervals all the way home, and it felt pretty good. Ironically enough, this came when The Eagles Take it Easy was playing…wherein I substituted the lyrics, “Don’t let the sound of your on wheels make you crazy,” to “Don’t let the sound of your own heels make you crazy.” I know, I know…I’m weird, and ‘oh-so-creatively-funny.’ But not really.
To top it off, I came home, decided it was time to weigh again and to my amazement, had dropped roughly another 2.5 pounds. Happy day.
Let’s hope this week can continue to be a great one!
Well, I needed a little downtime yesterday to get some thoughts together, and have come to the conclusion that I will definitely repeat a week or two of the Couch-to-5k program. This morning I went out and did 2.5 miles with a 14:44 pace…a personal best up to this point, and a major improvement from the 16:07 I recorded just two days ago. These things take time, I know, and that’s why I’m willing to invest more time to improving and getting more comfortable with running.
Today I went back to the 60s run/90s walk intervals and it seemed to work in my favor time and distance wise. I don’t know if I’ll do that next week, but I just might. I haven’t made up my mind yet, because I want to work on the 90s run/120s walk intervals, and try to improve. But if something works in my favor–how long should I stick with it before I move on to the next step?
Either way, I feel pretty darn good about a longer distance and shorter time. A thankful shout out to MizFit for the inspiration to get over my bad day the other day and make this one much better!
Now for something a little different…
***
You all are going to think I’m nuts, but bear with me for a second.
This whole weight loss/running/health/self-improvement thing has provided a lot of emotions for me lately (maybe a little too much). You have to understand that I’m having a hard time believing that my body or weight could ever change, despite the fact that I am, in fact, running and losing weight. I can’t afford to give up…I really just can’t. So, I heard a song today very atypical to my listening pleasure that nearly brought me to tears.
What song could that possibly be, you ask? No, not Eye of the Tiger or any other Rocky song, and no Chariots of Fire…
Bet On It sang by Zac Efron (as Troy Bolton) from Disney’s High School Musical 2.
It’s okay, you can laugh. I give you permission, because it is funny, but I listened to the words and they just touched a nerve…here’s a small sampling:
I’m not gonna stop, that’s who I am
I’ll give it all I got, that is my plan
Will I find what I lost?
You know you can
Bet on it, bet on it
Bet on it, bet on it
(Bet on me)
I wanna make it right, that is the way
To turn my life around, today is the day
Am I the type of guy who means what I say?
Bet on it, bet on it
Bet on it, bet on it
And the video clip in it’s full glory (you’ll definitely find this funny…perhaps the mirror effect when he’s singing at the pond?)
Video length: 3m19s
For a guy who typically has a very eclectic taste in music and movies, I can’t say this song or movie is anywhere near my favorite, but it definitely asked the right questions.
As I’ve said before, I’m in this for the long haul. I will change. I will be healthy. I will lose weight. I will become a runner. I will kick fat’s ass like no tomorrow.
Am I the type of guy who means what I say?
Bet on it.
Cheesy, but true. Happy weekend, everyone!
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