Tumbling Off The Couch

I’m scheduled to run two 5K races this weekend. On sat it’s the Camp Ojibway 5K then...

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:35:45 -0500

I’m scheduled to run two 5K races this weekend. On sat it’s the Camp Ojibway 5K then sunday is a Wolf Run 5K. Both are fundraisers for kids camp programs.

However, today I’m setting off for Texas for my uncle Tom’s funeral on Saturday. Obviously won’t be showing up for those races. I’ve already paid for them, so Steph is going to packet pickup to at least get my race shirts that I paid for.

This really isn’t a conflict to me. The decision is a no-brainer. It’s frustrating that it’s my only race opportunities in May and they aren’t going to happen but priority wise there’s no comparison here.

WIW

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:24:21 -0500

Starting Weight (1/18/2012): 386 lbs

Last week (5/8/2013): 311.8 lbs

Current weight (5/15/2013): 308.8 lbs

Soo… a 3 pound loss. I’ll take it. Not exactly happy about what I’ve done to get there though. Back to “starvation mode”.

However, I’m learning not to get to excited about a single loss. There needs to be a trend. A single week of loss is not a win when there’s a long term trend of gaining.

But I’m happy for the loss and excited for it to continue!!

sabbyrunsatl replied to your post: Hot Ride Home (almost..) How long is that ride? I am not very...

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:43:04 -0500

sabbyrunsatl replied to your post: Hot Ride Home (almost..)

How long is that ride? I am not very heat tolerant, even with heat tolerance training. I bring a big water bottle filled with ice water, more ice than water, and it’s gone by mile 5 of my 7 mile ride.

The full ride would be 19-20 miles. Today I was only able to do 14 - took a little over 50 minutes (I forgot to stop my garmin). The first 10 miles only took about 33 minutes though.

I had a water bottle but that didn’t last long. When I stopped, it was at my church and I went in and filled bottle. Getting off the bike it was pretty obvious I wasn’t getting back on though - legs were toast.

Hot Ride Home (almost..)

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:04:06 -0500

I was really looking forward to the bike ride home today but at the same time I was dreading it. It was 97 degrees when I set out for my ride today!

Good news is, it was one of those dry heats. It actually felt really nice outside with only 14% humidity. That being said, I was sweating buckets and the heat did eventually get to me. I made it 3/4 of the way home before my calves could take no more and cramped up. Steph was out and about at that time and wasn’t far away so I hitched a ride the last 5 miles home.

It’s really kind of funny because I was FLYING across bloomington. When I was riding (and with all the stoplights that didn’t feel like very often), I managed the mid-to-upper 20’s for speed. Totally blew me away but I had a real nice tail wind. That just made me want to push harder and harder and it was great fun when I actually got to pass cars on the road - very motivating.

However, when I got to the big climb after crossing the river I was TOAST. Just nothing left after that so the ride south was a totally different story. With over 400 feet of climbing I really should have conserved a bit on the first half of the ride. Oh well, I was having fun.

Bike commute

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:15:46 -0500

Rode the bicycle into work today.

I copped out on the first half of my ride. Got too late of a start because I was dragging really bad this morning. Not really sure why, I slept well. Even now after my ride, I’m just DRAINED. Since my wife was going to her bible study this morning she just dropped me off at a park that’s right off the highway she takes - pretty convenient.

Had a pretty good ride. I got passed by a guy and decided I’d try to keep up. Oh my…. That kicked my ass. I did catch up to him twice. While he was waiting at stop lights. He took off from the light rested and I was just catching up - out of breath.

Time wise wasn’t too bad though. I’m definitely frustrated with how slow I still am but there’s improvement - so it’s a good trend.

Sweaty 3 miles on the treadmill. It was raining outside plus I...

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:33:07 -0500

Sweaty 3 miles on the treadmill. It was raining outside plus I was in a crappy mood. But, I rocked the treadmill pretty good. 34 minutes for an 11:17/mile pace.

Dude!

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:06:20 -0500

Today’s run averaged 10:13/mile! I did 2 miles alternating between 12:00/mile and 8:30/mile on the treadmill ( it was raining outside) in 20:26. My legs are toast.

Originally was going to do an easy 3 miles because of the riding yesterday and the terrible leg cramps I had last night. But when it got to be time to hit the gym I was running late and had a meeting coming up and had to make it a fast workout.

Glad I did!

Sad sight. It’s raining. I was hoping to get another ride...

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:48:19 -0500

Sad sight. It’s raining. I was hoping to get another ride into work on it today.

Headwinds and stoplights

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:00:30 -0500

I was so jazzed on my ride home because it seemed every time I looked at my watch when I was cruising it was clocking in between 18-22 MPH. Of course there were uphills and downhills that were outside of that (43 MPH peak speed!! Woot!!) but I was confident I’d have a good summary when I plugged into the computer. There’s was also a nasty headwind too, which made me even more jazzed by the speed I was seeing on the GPS that I was able to go that fast against the headwind.

BTW: the headwind sucked for more than the obvious reason. The wind in my ears was so loud I couldn’t hear my headphone without cranking it so loud I was afraid I wouldn’t hear something I needed to hear. Besides, I don’t like to make my ears bleed.

Anyway, plugging in I only averaged 14.4 MPH. That’s still not a bad average but I had pumped my expectations up for more. Stupid stoplights seemed to make a big difference. When you are sitting at them for 2+ minutes at a time it makes a big dent! Plus you have to get back up to speed. On the way to work it seemed I hit every light but most of them just killed my momentum. They changed right after I got to them. On the way home, I didn’t hit as many but the one’s I did hit changed to red just before I got to them so I had to wait the whole time.

Still a LOT of fun and a great way to unwind after work.

First ride into work

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:42:25 -0500

Today was my first ride into work with the new bike. Man, it was nice. Had my wife drop me off at a park about half way as I didn’t want to try to tackle the whole 20 miles the first ride nor did I really have the time.

I averaged 15 mph even with getting stopped by almost every stinking light. Getting used to the new pedals (Time RXS) is making my starts a bit problematic - I’m sure that’ll improve quite a bit once I get used to different pedals. I did come unclipped several times while riding which is worrisome. Not sure if there’s an adjustment that’ll improve that or if I should look at a different pedal.

The ride where she dropped me off still has plenty of climb - over 200 feet. It’s one very steep climb out of the river crossing for the first half of it then a continuous uphill over the next several miles. Yet I didn’t have to shift down to spin up the steep hills like I did on the other bike. On the steep section I was about to maintain 10-11 MPH where on my other bike I was 6-8 MPH.

Awesome.

WIW

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:31:00 -0500

Starting Weight (1/18/2012): 386 lbs

Last week (4/24/2013): 302.4 lbs

Current weight (5/8/2013): 311.8 lbs

I honestly don’t understand what happened, was not expecting this. Just dumbfounded - almost 10 lbs gained in two weeks. I’ve been eating good and working out.

Only real difference is now that the half is done my training has been lower miles and much, much, higher intensity. Also have been getting more weight lifting in and that is higher intensity too.

I think I’m too shocked by this to be pissed off - yet.

Maybe eating the extra calories that lose it/my fitness pal tells me to eat isn’t the right way to go. It feels like I’ve tried just about everything and the results are the same and I’m just stuck here no matter what.

I got to run outside!!!!

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:09:11 -0500

With the weather we’ve been having this is quite the achievement to get outside. Did a short, but intense interval workout today.

Took 23 minutes to run 2 miles. Nothing too structured, I’d just pick a point and run to it as hard as I could. Then walk for a minute to recover my heart rate and do it again. I hit a heart rate above my “max” - that was an intense interval.

Relatively short run, but felt really really good. Average pace wasn’t all that great but the intervals were sub 9:00/mile and sometimes sub-8:00/mile.

What's this crazy lookin' guy doing?

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:28:14 -0500

I had a crazy good run today so I took a crazy looking pic…

Really, I’ve been checked out for a few days. Just needed a reset I guess. Last week after doing my lunges my muscles were SORE so I opted out of my friday run. Then Sat I was at a training event with my dog and Sunday night I did some weightlifting and racquetball. So it’s been about 5 days since I last ran.

Man it felt good. 3.1 miles in 33:36. Can’t believe I got a sub-11/mile pace! That’s rare for me. Alternated between 12:00/mile and 10:00/mile for most of the run until the last quarter mile where I pushed hard.

Of course it was on a treadmill… oh well. It’s beautiful outside but after some side effects of allergy medicine I didn’t trust myself to play in traffic. I can’t even walk down the hallway straight. Almost fell off the treadmill 3 times.

If this doesn’t wear off in a couple of hours I’ll have to have my wife come pick me up from work because I don’t dare ride my motorcycle!

Weightlifting

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:03:00 -0500

After yesterday’s intense run I decided to do weightlifting today as my legs are SORE.

Not much to report - lots of upper body stuff. Bench press, bicep curls (dumbbells and cable) tricep presses and pushdowns, chest fly, row… etc…

I’m shot. I’d take a picture but I’m not sure I have it in me to flex my arms.

Here’s an orange instead…

I did do lunges - thee sets of 20. Holy… I thought my legs were sore before…

Lunch is leftover spaghetti and a protein shake (plus the orange above). I thought ahead for once and reminded myself to use a paper towel as a bib because I can guarantee that there will be a spaghetti incident involving my shirt. It worked.

However, when I opened my shaker to drink my protein shake it splooged all over my shirt AFTER I removed the paper towel. Awesome.

First post half-marathon run

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:34:57 -0500

I did intervals for 2 miles. 7min/mile for 1 minute then 2 minutes walking. Took 23:33 with my short warmup.

Followed up with 67 pushups.

My groin muscles are very angry with me. That’s probably a good thing.

sabbyrunsatl replied to your post: New Baby Which Specialized is it? Congrats! It’s a 2012...

Wed, 01 May 2013 07:49:50 -0500

sabbyrunsatl replied to your post: New Baby

Which Specialized is it? Congrats!

It’s a 2012 Roubaix Elite. I got lucky that they were closing out last years model and they still had one in my size. For anyone that’s a bike geek - it’s the cheapest model in the lineup that still had a full 105 component set.

My old Giant was a steel bike which does ride nice - a lot better than aluminum - but the carbon fiber is just in a different class. Not only does it soak up all the road vibration but it’s so much stiffer. When I’m cranking up hill I’m not losing half my power to flexing the frame.

New Baby

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:49:57 -0500

I’ve been drooling over one of these for a long time…

I really do like my old vintage Giant bike that I rode last year but it just doesn’t compare. This thing is sooo smooth and so much more efficient riding. I’m looking forward to putting a lot of miles on this thing and now I don’t have to be paranoid about breaking down all the time!

Get In Gear Half Marathon Recap

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:53:28 -0500

This was a day that right from the get go wasn’t going right. The race started at 9 but due to parking situation we needed to be up and out the door early so we could catch a train around 7:30. Sitting at the train station I made two realizations.

1) I forgot to take my pills (for diabetes and high blood pressure) which I wonder if that had something to do with my issues later on.

2) I forgot to put the little bandaids over my nipples.

I know that rachelfightsback was really hoping to hear a big write up about my nipples from this race. However, seems to be a non-issue for some unknown reason. Sorry to disappoint.

Getting to the race I had to pee like crazy. After spending about 15 minutes in line waiting for a port-a-potty, it moved about 5 feet and there was probably 40 or 50 people ahead of me still. The race started in 20 minutes and I just couldn’t wait any longer - I’d have to find one on the race course and take the time hit.

I lined up about middle of the pack - there’s a start line up there somewhere around that flag.

Evidently there was a moment of silence for the bombing at the Boston Marathon and the national anthem. That’s really cool. Unfortunately where we were we couldn’t hear anything over the PA so I didn’t know any of this was going on until after the fact. I was just happy go lucky, getting my picture taken.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day! 70+ degrees - somewhere in the high 50’s or low 60’s even for the start. It’s so nice to finally have nice weather.

The start of the race went really well! First three miles were 12min/mile or faster. I really felt great, except that I had to pee. Fortunately there was a potty at the 5K point and I had a chance to go - but there was a line and I had to wait - almost 10 minutes. It was a heck of a lot shorter than the lines at the prerace though!

The next few miles slowed me down a little bit with some shoe ties and the water stops. That’s fine. However, trouble started setting in after about 8 miles.

Cramps big time. I have no idea why by it started in my calves. Eventually it moved up my legs and back too. I noticed that my heart rate was running really high today - while I was running it was up in the low 160’s which for me is usually when I’m gasping and ready to keel over. When I was walking my heart rate was up as high - or higher - than my normal training runs. Crazy.

Eventually, about mile 10, I couldn’t run at all. As soon as I started running cramps would just lock up my legs. My calves were doing weird things too - when they cramped they flared out wide - like twice as wide as normal and looked like a bagel. There was a dimple in the middle of my calf that I could have put my fist in - I was excruciating. Evidently it looked pretty funky and freaked out one lady and she got the heck away from me.

So the next few miles were almost entirely walked. I was crushed. My plan of 2:30-2:40 was totally down the drain at this point. Every once in a while I’d try to run again and in a matter of seconds the legs would lock up in cramps.

By mile 11, just walking was causing cramping, so I was limping pretty bad and the walking had slowed. I knew that I wouldn’t make the finish line by the 3 hour time limit. Several occasions race volunteers and police officers tried to get me to take a ride to the end. But I turned them down. I was determined to finish even if the only people there waiting for me were my wife and kids.

The last half mile I was able to run a little - still not fast enough to close the distance to the people walking up in front of me. It was excruciating. But I pushed though and finished. Both my little ones ran with me the last block, cheering me on. That was very cool and wouldn’t have been able to happen if the race wasn’t officially over. The finish line was all packed up by that point so officially I did not finish. It took 3:18 - even slower than my first half marathon last October. However, at least I finished under my own power.

This experience has me re-evaluating my goals for the year. I’m not sure what went wrong but I think I need to do a lot of work before tackling a full marathon.

Get In Gear Half Marathon

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:34:00 -0500

One word summary: Suckage

More details to follow later. But remember that really bad treadmill run I had about a month ago that was “my worst run ever”. It just got knocked up a rung on the ladder.

Ugh.

So I’m standing at the train station waiting to go to the half marathon and just realized that...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 08:03:01 -0500

So I’m standing at the train station waiting to go to the half marathon and just realized that I forgot to put my little bandaid on. FML…