Running my @ss off

45 minutes, 2.7 miles, 468 calories, avg speed 3.56 mph

I think I finally figured out how to measure my success. I happen to like the course I've been running, so I'll stick to it the majority of the time. And I think that average speed will be a more accurate measure than just time, although I suppose both will improve as I get more fit. But if I stick with average speed, it will be able to track it if I run on the treadmill, or a different route, or a shorter or longer distance.

But anyhoo, it was an awesome run. My legs felt great. I did a little stretching after a warm-up and at the midway point, and I think that might've helped. Like I said, all around awesome run. And after a run like that, its safe to say, I love running. Now that is a phrase I never would have expected to come out of my mouth (or fingers in this case).

That is why I'm thinking about changing my blog's name to, or possibly just adding, the title of this post: Running my @ss off. I don't really know if doing that would affect the few readers I have. But if anyone has any experience doing this, changing blog names, let me know.

Just figured I'd add, yesterday I went for a swim, and spent my evening expanding my personal blogosphere. Stumbled upon some good blogs, won't list them here, but they'll probably be mentioned later. And I do have to see, it is completely awesome to see people (close to) my own age doing the weight loss thing. No offense to people who are older than me, I'm 22 if it hasn't appeared on this blog prior, but its cool to see people turning their lives around relatively early in life.

Last thing tonight, I think I'm bi-polar (not literally). Like 2 days ago I was all depressed about not losing weight fast enough, and here I am tonight talking about how happy I am and whatnot, in case you haven't noticed I'm happy tonight. Haha, I guess a couple days, and an awesome run, can make a helluva difference.

Ad-libbing

I figured I'd do something different today. So I took the exercises I mentioned a few days ago while talking about Pilates, look back over the past few posts if you're interested, tried to do a few yoga-ish exercises on my own with no pictures or anything, and did a couple other exercises that seemed to fit the mold.

The result: an actually decent workout, not overly difficult, but enough to get my blood flowing and wear my muscles out decently.

To be perfectly honest, I'm kind of floundering right now. I don't know why. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I missed my first deadline for 230, and it looks like I'll miss this one too. I think that I'm motivated, I mean I know that I want to lose weight and hit my goals and everything, but its like, I dont really know how to explain it. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself with the deadlines, maybe that isn't a good way to go about it. All I know is that its fucking frustrating as hell when it seems like I'm doing well, then I gain half a pound, then another half, then next I know, I'm a month and a half behind, and I STILL havent got to 230 lbs. I think I really need to figure out a way to eat healthy while being poor, living with fat people, and working a job that makes it difficult to eat very healthy.

What I really need is to find a new and better job, but right now I don't know if I'll be able to find one that I'll make more than I do now. And since I can't even accomplish my own damn goals, I'm certainly not ready to try to get a job as a trainer yet. I dont really know what to do. Anyone got any advice? I think I could use some right now.


Oh, I also feel like I need to say, RIP Ted Kennedy. The man spent the better part of 40 years trying to get unviversal health care, hopefully they can do it now in his honor.

Good Ol'

Stationary bike. Gotta love the thing.

45 minutes, 12 miles, 280 calories

Its amazing how much difference there is between biking and running. 3 runs ago I got my heart rate up to 190, not on purpose, but running just makes my heart rate sky rocket. Today, the first time I rode the stationary bike in quite a while, I was going as hard as I could, about 17 mph on level 5, and it was all I could do to get my HR up to 140. Should've probably stepped it up to level 6 or 7, but oh well can't change it now.

Also, I just happened to be looking over my goals, specifically the running ones, and I noticed something. They're a tad outrageous. I think I should be able to work my way to a 10 minute mile by the first of the year, but after that, there's no way anyone can drop 2 minutes off of their mile time every 4 months. If that was possible everyone would be turning out 4 minute miles. So yeah, I'm definitely going to have to rework the time frame for those 2 goals. Heck, I might even drop the target dates all together, from those two. I mean, those are secondary goals, something that I want to do, but the weight loss is far more important for now. On the other hand, maybe I should focus on the performance and let the weight loss happen as a result???? Any ideas? I dont really know what I'm going to do right now, just that I'll have to do some adjusting.

Weigh-In 8-24 + workouts

232.8 Lbs --- Up .8 lbs

Honestly I'm pretty pissed about it. I messed up really bad last week. I think I actually lost a little bit this week, when I weighed myself last week I was 233 and some change. I gotta get my eating under control, I need to start taking lunch to work again. I was doing that for a while and doing pretty well on the scale, but now I eat out all the time, and I'm thinking its at least partially responsible for the bad numbers I've been having lately. So now, here I am, one week away from my goal date, and a whopping 3 lbs away, yet again. Last time it was 4 lbs, so I guess I'm ahead of the game, not. I have to kick some ass on the workout front this week, and hopefully taking lunch will help.

Sunday Workout---- Went on a run, got about a mile out and my shins felt like they were about to explode, so I had to turn around and limp my ass home. It sucked big time. Can't remember the numbers exactly, but it took me like 35ish minutes and was a total of like 2.1 miles, well over half was walking.

Monday Workout--- Didn't want to run, due to the aforementioned shin issue, so I was going to go up and ride the stationary bike for a while. But then I was reading my daily emails from MensHealth.com, and they had this "15 minute workout to shred your abs" or some such title. It ended up being a short Pilates workout, so I decided to do that instead. And damn was it ever difficult. It consisted of (my short explanations) one legged push ups, a sort of reverse crunch where you start in the up position and lower your torso towards the ground, and a sort of bicycle crunch where you tap your feet on the ground. As I said, it was pretty tough, I was definitely sweating. I think I'm going to make it part of my normal routine. I'm also thinking about purchasing a Pilates dvd and doing that as a total body strength workout. I'll have to look into that.

Ouch

My legs hurt. For some reason my shins seem to be kind of flaring up again. Its happened the last couple of times that I've ran. I don't really know why, maybe its because I go faster when I run outside? That would be weird, because in the past, they've always killed me when I wasn't going fast, either trying to walk fast, or jog slowly. Like I said, I don't really know why, but it sucks, and it would be nice if it went away, lol. After I blog I'll do some good stretches and see if that helps.

Notice I said, after I blog I'll stretch. I just got done with my run. Walked in the door, sat down and got on the computer lol. Pretty good run tonight: 2.4 miles in 40 minutes, and burned 420 calories. I went out later than I normally do, about 8:30. So, I ran out on the trail, turned roughly (I'm guessing) 1/4 mile sooner than I normally turn around, went down to the road, and ran home on the side walk. Ended up about 1/2 mile shorter than my normal route, but not short by any means.

The GirlFriend has work tomorrow, so I'll get in another good hard workout before my weigh-in. So we'll see where that leaves us.

Now I'm off to stretch and watch the SeaHawks kick some Bronco ass.

Stupid Computer

It didnt let me post last night, and I barely got to the page tonight.

Anyways, its been two pretty good days. The thing is, I didn't do a particularly difficult workout either day. But they were two of the most rewarding workouts I've had. It took me quite a while, but I FINALLY got my girlfriend to workout with me. She's not really in any kind of shape, so we've done a couple of walk/jogs. Mainly walking, but thats not the point. Not knowing about the relationship we have, it might be kind of difficult to understand how happy it made me when she told me yesterday afternoon that she wanted to run with me.

Motivation is a funny thing, it takes very different forms from person to person. I workout for my health, and my future career, and so that I'll be able to have a happy and healthy family. Others do it to look good, or to set an example for their kids. There are obviously a million different reasons why we do what we do. But I think my girlfriend's motivation is truly unique. Of course, she has all the typical desires, get in shape, be a smaller size, blah blah blah, but thing that finally got her to start working out is a deal we made the other night. Well she just forbade me from giving the specifics, but suffice to say, I have an old couch (it was my great grandma's), that she doesn't like, so the deal is, once she hits a certain, unnamed, weight bench mark, I will get rid of the couch. The story kind of lacks pizazz without the details, but whatevvv, lol. That conversation was Wednesday, yesterday was Thursday and that was when she told me she wanted to run with me. So it didn't take very long to kick it into gear. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Anyways, I'm in considerably better shape than she is currently, so while I've been working out with her for the last couple days, I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep pushing myself, while training with her at her pace as well. It's probably going to take some work, but its most definitely worth it, so I'll figure it out. Additionally, I get to put my personal trainer skills to the test, yay, lol. Whatever happens, I'm sure it'll be a fun experience, and it might actually give me some professional experience as well, double bonus.


P.S. ----- Heres hoping I hit the MegaMillons jackpot tonight and can quit my job and just train myself and my girl full time, lol. I suppose that would be every weightloss warriors dream.

I'M BAAAAAAACCCK

Okay, well at least for one day.

Running: 3 miles, 47 minutes, 520 calories

Kick ass run. I've realized that I do run faster outside than I do on the treadmill. I end up walking more as a result. But it probably helps me burn more calories as well, they say intervals make you burn calories long after your workout, similar to weight lifting, as well as help you increase your speed faster than running at a steady, typically slower, pace. So, it might actually be a good thing, even though I am walking more. I'm sure it will all even out in the end, pretty soon the weather will be crappy and I'll be running on the treadmill most of the time. I guess its all good.

This even I went for a nice fun swim to escape the heat. Lets see, I: played with a beach ball, played with diving rings, rode a killer whale, and subsequently fell off of a killer whale. It was fun, and it felt really nice to be in a pool, it was another hot day. Record breaking heat yet again, okay the record ended up being like 95, a full 12 degrees cooler than it was a few weeks ago. But its still record heat.

I should probably mention that I didnt suddenly end up at SeaWorld or anything, it was an inflatable killer whale. I think its also worth noting that it is a pain in a ass to ride a killer whale. My girlfriend ended up pushing me across the pool, between attempts to flip me over. Think of it like a big, very oddly shaped stability ball, floating on water. Basically it was incredibly tough trying to stay on top of it, and eventually she got me into the water. And I think I might have some saddle sores as well. Haha, thats a bit of an exageration, but lets just say, it wasn't very comfortable.

On a side note, and completely unrelated, did you hear about the South African runner who's being required to be tested to prove that shes a woman. At first I want to say its funny, kind of reminds of me of the Cuba Gooding Jr. movie where he fakes his way into playing in the WNBA. Apparently the woman set the world record in the 800m today at the world championships in Germany. Let me just say, I absolutely love the sport of track, if I was rich I would've went to the US Championships down in Eugene Oregon this summer, but obviously I'm not rich, and its extremely expensive. This is just a very odd story that I suppose could have some interesting outcomes. What happens if its discovered that its actually a man pretending to be a woman? Even the IAAF doesn't know if they can strip medal and/or records if that is the case? And what if she is actually transgender? Do they need to create a whole new category for that group? Or where would they be forced to compete? And of course, if she really is a woman, does she end up suing the IAAF for a crap load of money? I really have no idea how its going to turn out, but you can bet your ass that I'm going to pay attention to it.