Monday, August 12, 2013

2 Miles....

Yes, I reached the 2 mile mark. Not fast at all but I did reach it. I figure speed will come in time. For now I am just enjoying the ride.

I went to the doctors and he took me off one of my Blood Pressure medications with the stipulation that I have to check it a couple times a day, under stress and what not. So I know where it really is. So far we are still in the normal range so keep your hopes up!

Running is getting easier and days off are starting to bother me. It's hard to NOT run now. I even take walk breaks at work and walk about 1/4 mile 2 or 3 times a day. (can't be gone too long). The other day it rained so hard it turned into a 1/4 mile run :) I didn't even break a sweat and I wasn't breathing hard at all when I got back in the office.

I love my garmin, I love being able to see what I did and why I slowed down/sped up. I am keeping a pretty steady pace now as well. But I would like it to be faster but again, that will come in time. It's only been 7 weeks, I am running 2 miles, what more can I ask for. Yeah I know i could be going further but I don't want to risk another 3 years for it. I like not hurting all day :)

Just wanted to check in, will post more soon.....


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Week 6 ..... DUN!

Wow week 6 is done. Wasn't as bad as I thought to be honest. My pace was a little slower but the heat is coming back and I over did it on the hills this week so my legs are sore.

I need to work on pacing and resting. I really hate taking a day off. I want to run all the time but I know I am not ready for that. Today though there will be no running cause we are visiting a college for my daughter. She is looking at a school in Columbus. She is looking at the school I am looking at how flat the campus is and how good it would be to run on. Am I sick or what?

Also, I bought my garmin finally! I just got it yesterday so I can't wait to try it out. Tomorrow starts week 7 no more walking all running all week. I would worry normally but I haven't had a day I couldn't do yet. So while I am getting faster, I am gaining distance again. That 5K can't come fast enough :)


Friday, July 26, 2013

The Dreaded Mile.

So I am doing the Couch to 5k plan with my daughter. I did this before alone but I never totally finished it the program.

We just finished week 5 this morning. :)

When we started the program, I think it was about 90 on day one, with about 80% humidity. We also ran in a field that is across the street from my house instead of on the road. Today was only 60 and there was a nice cool breeze. It was absolutely incredible.

Now, I live 5 miles from anything. I mean if you Google map me there is nothing around except for farms. I love it out here, but the roads are narrow country roads and some of the cars tend to not pay attention. My thought was run the field, but it's a training ring for horses so the ground is really rutted from them.

We have been going out to a track as well that is near us ( nothing is near us but it's as near as you can get ). I like running a track sometimes, but it can get boring. The roads however, well they are awesome, but really hilly. But to be honest I think when I am at the track I miss the hills more than anything. To give you and idea of how cool it is to run here, the other night I was running out the road alone ( my daughter had a prior commitment ) and while I was running I looked over and there were deer running in the field next to me. I was really peaceful to see that.

But that isn't what this post is about. This post is about the MILE. I have read that once you run a mile it's easier. There is a barrier that you break through, perhaps more mental than physical, but it's there. I run slow, I am getting faster, but I am running slow so no more shin splints.. no more injuries at all. I just want to run, time is nothing to me right now. But I run like a turtle, but I am running!!!

So today, we had to run for 20 minutes straight. Normally, I would go to the track the first time for this distance, but today, I just didn't want to. I don't know why, I wanted the hills. So we started from our front door up the hill with our 5 min warm up walk and then when we hit the flat part of our route we were still walking. The program never told me to run.. I looked and when I locked the phone I also paused the program. We walked most of the flat part where we could have been running. :/ So we resumed it and kept moving forward, (the route we chose to do today was a little over 3 miles we figured we could walk the end of it so we didn't' have to do an out and back ) we started running on the longest hill, it's not that steep, just very long. Now we have run this before, but not with 20 mins of running, usually 5 minutes then we walk. We ran up it and kept going... out and out. My calves were telling me, HEY DUMMY we could have done the track today. But I didn't, I chose the hills.

The top of that hill is a little downgrade, my daughter was cheering the downhill and I was snickering cause I knew what was next.. A huge fairly steep hill, (she didn't know it was coming :) ). We didn't give up, mostly i didn't give up, she made it look easy, and in the end we did the 20 mins with NO stopping NO walking and although it was slow 14min/per mile. We did it!!

The mile has been conquered again... the barrier has been shattered!!! It's so good to be running again :) Bring on the Marathon!!! ok yeah 5k :)

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wow 3 Years!!!!

I can't believe it has been 3 years since I posted on here. :(

I am sorry I have been away. Life had been getting the better of me and well, I got lazy.....

So lazy that I stopped running, I gained weight...

I was pushing back into the 270s again, and I was not proud of it. My body decided that it needed me to start paying attention to it again and kicked me by destroying my Gall Bladder. I had to have it removed and while I was in there, in recovery, waiting to go home one of my doctors came in and told me, you know you are going down the same path I was on. High Blood Pressure, gall bladder failed, next your are going to start getting chest pains. Then you'll have a stroke.

Yeah, it was that bad. I was a mess, but he suggested I read a book called "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman http://www.drfuhrman.com/. I read it, I loved it, the facts that he provided were enough for me.

So I became a Vegetarian (more Vegan). My primary care physician told me I was nuts. I already knew that though. :)

I started to not only loose weight but I noticed that my clothes were starting to get too big, then they got too big and started falling off. I went from a 42 inch waist to a 33 (at this point) and I am still dropping.

I started to run again...and it was so much easier I guess loosing 51 lbs will have that effect on ya huh?

My resting heart rate is below 60, my max heart rate when I run is only 160 and I mean run hard.

I love running again and my daughter is running with me. We started the couch to 5k plan and we are killing it. Every run gets easier, I don't dread going to the next week. I look forward to the challenge of it.

So I am back, I thought about abandoning this blog, starting over fresh with a new one but this is me, my history!

I'll be here more, it won't all be about running, I'll tell you about food adventures too. :)

It's really good to be back...

Monday, April 19, 2010

My New Running Partner

I found a running partner. Someone I can run with every time I run.

Over the past week, My daughter has expressed interest in running with me. I have been trying to get her to run with me since I started this. But, she really wanted to run this time. So, on Saturday, we headed out to a running store and had her fitted up for shoes. She is very anti-pink which made me laugh because the first pair of shoes they suggested were pink with a flower pattern on them.

We bought her a pair of shoes and some socks at the running store, then we went to Target to get her some running clothes. She bought wicking everything, and I mean everything. Then we headed home, it was late, we all had a long day so we decided that we would start her running on Sunday.

Sunday morning was cold, rainy and downright miserable, so we waited, hoping the rain would stop at least. It finally did around 6 pm so we went out for a run.

I did not want to push her to hard her first day out. So we decided on a mile, trying a 30 second run 30 second walk method. We did really well and had a great time. Tomorrow we are going to try and go to the track at her high school and run there. I also got her excited on trying a 5K. That will be really fun :)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I'm Back

Don't worry, I didn't die. I took some time off to allow my dang shins to heal up properly. 15 weeks, no running. It was tough, I missed it. I groaned at the loss, but now I am running again... did I mention pain free.

I decided to start over from the begining. To take it slow and easy and not push myself to far. So I am doing just that. Slow, easy, every other day. Not pushing it. If I don't feel right I back off and redo the day. If I think there is any chance of injury, I wait.

So far, I haven't missed or had to redo a day yet. There was one bad day, I couldn't make it the last run. I stopped 20 seconds short. But I trucked on the next time out and it felt like I could go on forever. I didn't though. I am still waiting.

Yesterday, was my first day of week 3. 5 mins of warmup followed by 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, 3 mins running, 3 mins walking then repeat the 90s and 3's again. It was hot, like 80 and humid so it was tough, but I did it. Then I walked for 10 mins to cool down and relax.

It was a good day, there are a lot of good days ahead.

As for racing, not yet, to much too soon. There are plenty of races in the future and besides I have other things planned as well for the summer. But that my friends is another post.

Till then :)

Monday, October 12, 2009

So....


So I came home Friday to a huge surprise. I have been wanting a dog to run and hike with cause the vast majority of my workouts are just me out there and to be honest, I get bored with it. It's not that I don't want to do it, it's the scenery being the same all the time has gotten old. So I have been looking for a dog, and to my surprise my wife found one, picked her up and had her at the house when I got home. Her name is Lucy and she is a sweetheart. She loves everyone and other than some pulling issues on the leash, she is awesome.

Tonight, her and I are going to go out on a long walk, with a few little jogs mixed in to see how she does. I don't want to push it with her and she is too young yet to go very far running.

As for me, I am sure you all are wondering what is going on. Well, I am still nipping away at this running thing. the time I took off did wonders for my shins and they don't hurt at all anymore. Also I have been doing Pilates at work once a week and those sessions are really strengthing my Core and legs.

I have commited myself to do the Rachel Carson Hike next year. All 35 miles of it. So I have been training for that a lot as well. it's also helped my endurance out a ton. Pushing those hills even walking makes you get stronger I tell ya.

Speaking of hills, well it's getting colder, and I am itching to try the steps again. I set a goal pf 12 times up by the end of winter, that would be one vertical mile up. So keep checking in for my progess on that.

For all of you who's blogs I follow, I am in catch up mode. I am sorry I haven't been there. Life gets in the way of everything. But things are slowing down, it's that time of the year again.

My next 5K I believe will be a turkey trot of some kind. Just not sure which one I am going to do.

Also, I have been doing a lot of reading lately, my last book which I finished yesterday was Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer. Highly suggest reading it, and while you are at it try Into the Wild by John as well. Both are on the tops of my all time best reads.... but that is for another day...

Till then.....