One Down...

On June 19th I completed my first 5K race. I came in 183rd place (6 seconds behind my wife, she tripped me on the home stretch). For me, a sub 40 time was the ultimate goal, so getting under 39 minutes I'm very pleased with. On top of losing 30 lbs since I started this adventure, I'm content. But not too content.

I had a great time, and it was a lot of fun running with my wife. I've signed up for the next race, one of the largest 5Ks in New England. This isn't till Aug 12.

Next goals: 15 lbs (210)

36.5 5K

Back to the gym tonight!

Need to stay away from my house.

What a horrible horrible eating weekend (long weekend no less). I just need to stay away from my house.

AND the Y start their stupid 'summer hours' which means they are only open till 9pm. I'm going to have to adjust my workouts cuz usually I don't get to the gym by 8:15 and leave by 9:15. So now I have to get to the gym earlier... but I can't get to the gym earlier. UGH.

50 Miles!

I hit the 50 mile mark this month! I had to do 4.5 miles last night to hit the mark, but it was a good milestone. I realize there are 3 days left in May, but the Y isn't open on Monday and I don't usually run on the weekends.

And I was 224lbs this AM, but I believe that was due to severe dehydration :) Still nice to see.

Another week, more progress.

Having recovered from last weeks illness, I was looking forward to pushing myself this week. Hopefully work on stamina and get a little better pace. After all, its only about 3 weeks until the 5k.

The running went well this week so far, even though I chose not to run on Tues because my back, Mon and Wed runs were strong. Mon was a 42:30 5k, and Wed was a 40:45 5k. Mind you this is still on a tread mill (at 1%). I think I'll do an outdoor run this weekend and experience some fresh air when running.

I was 225lbs at this morning's weigh in. Thats 30lbs since March 30th. I'm trying not to obsess over the weight part too much, but the numbers (both running time and weight) are part of my motivation process.

I hope to be under 220 pounds by the time of the 5k. I think its doable.

On a side note, I'm using "Running Log" by Wink Pass on my iPhone to keep track of my running statistics. I love it! Its a very easy interface and can quickly give you your mileage totals for any given week, month, or year. This month I've managed 45.57 miles. As long as I get my runs in Thurs and Friday I'll be at 50 total miles in a month!

229! But...

A stomach bug and no eating for a day is what lead me to hit the 229 mark. It counts I guess. I did 20 straight minutes on Monday (0% incline), and Tues morning (around 2:30am) woke up with a stomach issues. So no exercise on Tuesday, and Wed my wife became infected, so no exercise again. Going to have to make up for it on Thurs and Friday.

Erika is doing the 5K with me! Even more motivation! It'll be a lot of fun. We never do anything together so this will be a treat.

Exactly one month to go. As it stands (based on my current treadmill performance), I'm looking at a pathetic 45 minute 5K (1% incline). That's just a little faster than a walk. There's still a month.

I signed up

I signed up for the 5K race on June 19th, so its official. Last week was ok in terms of running. I skipped Wed because I didn't get home from work till after 6 and I was still full by the time gym time came around, and Friday I was exhausted from a day trip with my kiddo so instead of running I boosted the incline and worked some different muscles.

This morning (Tues) I weighed 231 so it means the weight is dropping still, but slowly. I did a 5K yesterday in 44 minutes with an incline of 1%. My record to date is 42 minutes with a 0% incline, so I think my body is getting used to the incline which is great. Its amazing the difference the incline makes.

39 days to go. Hopefully next post I will be in the 220's, which I haven't seen in roughly 8 or 9 years.

Another week gone by

Did pretty well this week, despite having some gym and eating mis-steps. 

Went to the gym 5 times this week (m thru f) , and did a total of 14.74 miles and a total time of 3 hours and 32 minutes.     My pace is still horrible, but at least I have a pace.  There would have been more miles but one day I didn't have correct gym stuff and another day I was dead tired.  

Sat morning I hiked S. Uncannonuc.  

Last time I weighed I was down to 234.2.  I think I've hit a plateau,  Seeing thats 21lbs since March 30th, thats ok cuz it was bound to happen.    I'll just keep running.   

Really unsure about being able to run the 5k.  Treadmill is one thing, running a race is a whole different ball game.  Anytime I add an incline to the treadmill (used to simulate the difficulty of running outside)   it just kills me.   Got about 2 months for it not to kill me I guess. 

I need a better way to organize this info

After my workouts I edit a text document on my iphone to keep track of what and how I did. When I started I didn't think I would keep using this to track, so I didn't even have dates and its all a mess. Pretty much what I track is total time, time for a 5k, num of calories. I did lose data on 4/22, but I know I did the 5K in 44:00 minutes.

Two years later... still fat.

I forgot this blog was here. It was almost exactly two years ago to the day I made the 112 days... post. Like every other time I decided to lose weight, something happened and I went off that plan. I don't remember what, but I probably hurt my back, had issues at work or some other excuse. I know it doesn't take much to derail my efforts.

So I started again the end of last month, the 31st of March. No real goal in mind when I started. I just figured it was time. So I headed to the Y one morning before work and did a workout. Then the next day I went again. And the next day.

Its been 27 days and I've gone to the gym a lot, along with done other exercising. 255 when I started. 236 right now. I'm quietly proud of myself, while at the same time embarrassed I'm as overweight as I am.

I'm going to use this blog to track my status. I'm working towards... wait for it... a 5k race. But this time its not 112 days away, but instead 45 days away.

The gym has been basically all treadmill, which normally I hate running. I like the challenge and the different ways you can measure progress. Each day I do at least a 5k, even though I'm not even close to being able to run it non stop yet. On the first day, I couldn't jog for more than 45 seconds. Last Friday I did 13 minutes. Progress. I feed off of that.

112 Days to go. . .

I'm taking small steps.  First I'm getting my eating in order, which I've done a great job this week I must say.   I'm not going to blog about everything I eat, because that would just get tedious.  If I have trouble eating 'well',  I may start doing that.   Along with the eating, I've started getting out after dinner for a long a walk in the woods.   They've been averaging about 45 minutes.  There are lots of hills and uneven ground, so its not a casual walk, and my heart rate is raised the whole time.   And at the end of the walk I scale the ridge in the back of my house which gets my heart really pounding.   My wife is trying to figure out what I do back there that gets me so sweaty.   The idea is that my ankles and knees get used to doing some work (along with my heart), and skim off a little bit of weight before I try to actually jog.  Maybe I'll walk my neighborhood 5k this weekend.  Or maybe just half of it.

 

So I hopped in the car and drove out 3.5  miles( I realized a 5k is about 3.2) in my neighborhood.   Holy crap thats a long way.  And the 'route' I picked is incredibly hilly.   I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do that.  I'll be shocked if I can walk it in an hour, never mind run it in less than that. 

 

Oh, as of yesterday I'm down to 258.  Not a big deal seeing how when your as big as I am your weight fluctuates with the wind.