Ain’t nobody rainin’ on this parade…

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…

1. 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.
2. 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!
3. 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!

I did it! Finally got the five-minute interval down…

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?

Inspiration and Influence

In the past six or so weeks that I’ve been blogging my health and exercise updates, I’ve become keenly aware of the people and things I have been influenced by, for better and for worse. In 27 years, I don’t know that I’ve been involved in anything so life-transforming as the past six weeks. Surely, some might doubt that, and that’s okay, but let me break it down in terms of some ‘causality’ that my little journey is experiencing…

I am happier than I’ve been in a long time. I have more energy. I have a more positive outlook on life. I have spent years being skepitcal and nonchalant about exercise.  But let’s face it…the hardest thing I have had to admit is this: I am was lazy. Nobody ever likes to admit that.  Now, that’s not a universal laziness…there were some things that took a rather high priority with me that I ensured never fell by the wayside. Such an example would be my schooling, which, for the most part, I have always taken very seriously. Some time ago, a friend of mine asked, “Why can’t you apply that same drive you have for knowledge to your health?”

Sadly, I never thought about it before, thereby making me realize it had never been that important.

What?!

Seriously, I needed to change. And the time was then, is now, and will be in the future. This is not a fad diet. This is not me slimming down to look good for a 10 year reunion. This is for life.

Having more energy will allow me to work more efficiently and will allow me to accomplish more, and in turn will hopefully make me a better husband and father, a more productive scholar, and hopefully a better friend. Losing weight and exercising…let’s face it..the more of that I do, the longer I have on this earth. I really do believe it to be that easy.

I have had so many inspirations and good influences that it would be nearly impossible at this point to stop and ever go back to my old self. You — readers, friends, family — have all been of tremendous positive influence, and I can’t thank you enough. My initial design was to keep this blog on the down low and not share it with any friends and family. Believe it or not, I was embarrassed…only of myself…because so many people have seen me fail, I didn’t want this blog to chronicle yet another flop. But I’m invested.  I’ve heard from many of you through comments, blog posts, e-mails, etc. on how I’ve inspired you in some way…and it is so very humbling. All I can say, is thank you for believing in me, but more importantly, thanks for believing in yourself and recognizing that you too…anyone…can make these changes. I promise you they will be well worth the challenges, pain, tears, frustration, anger, difficulty…and sheer joy of what you can accomplish.

You will not see me flop. You will see me succeed. I will be challenged, but I will seek creative ways to overcome obstacles. I will move more, eat better, improve, and dammit, I will endure like I never have before.

Thanks to all of you who have inspired me and influenced me for the better. Thank you for not giving up on me, and for continuing to cheer me on.

And even those of you who lost track of me, who aren’t reading this, who made fun of my weight as a kid…thanks for your juvenile remarks and cowardice. They only made ME stronger.

The time is now 3:04 EST. Who’s up for a run?

End o’ the trip: Leaving Clark County for Clarke County

Well, our fun family-filled trip is over. We’re in Las Vegas at the airport waiting for our flight to board. Then we get four hours of airplane bliss to Atlanta, and another hour and a half to Athens. Sweet. My wife and I equally hate airports (and flying) , but I am thankful for free internet to write a brief update.

I have learned that it is well worth it to program workouts into a trip. This trip in particular was quite fun since I was able to run with family…I’m really grateful for them because it seems as if we’re pretty good at motivating each other…in any case, they’re certainly good at motivating me. Yeah, I had to battle food issues, but I still managed to run six times, when I was trying to be realistic and had only planned for four.

Getting up at 5:30 this morning for a quick 1.5 miler made me realize that I am committed to doing this.

Can you say obsessed?

We had a great time…I’ll be sure to post a few pics as soon as we get home.

Hi from the Silver State

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…

“Some weeks are just better than others…”

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.

Back in Black: another Couch-to-5k update

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!

I hurt

Oy. I hurt. I kind of feel like I’ve hit a brick wall…literally.

Wednesday’s run was a short one, but not terrible. I managed to keep a pace under 16:00 still, and what made me even more happy was the fact that I was able to do the 90s run/120s walk intervals without much difficulty. It seems as if the second week repetition was worth it.

That said, I came home, did my usual, and then at night went and played some ball with the boys. I had run in the morning with my cross-trainers and seemed fine afterward. However, after about 20 minutes of basketball, my legs, ankles and feet started to strain. Needless to say, it wasn’t my most productive night of basketball. I came home, and I was tired, and my feet and ankles were killing me. I busted out the Ben-Gay and went to sleep.

So what happened? I have been pretty consistent these past three weeks. I’ve stretched, I’ve hydrated, I’ve eaten well, and for the most part (there have been some exceptions) have gotten a decent amount of sleep. But yesterday, it just seems like my body told me, “Look, pal, I know this is good for me, but I need a break.” Thus far, I have avoided brick walls.  I tend to have Wednesdays be my light run days specifically because I’m going to get another hard workout, but yesterday didn’t hold up.

Anyway, I am going to go ride my trusty stationary bike and work up a sweat and then get a good night’s sleep before a long, slow run tomorrow.

Happy Independence Day weekend to everyone!!  (Or at least my American readers! Happy weekend to the rest of you too! )

It’s an improvement, but I’m still repeating…

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!