Trudging along...

Slow start this a.m.; seems to happen when I've got nothing official scheduled. Nothing really eventful to speak of; went to work, came home for lunch, shaved my head after work (well, OK, not quite), hit the gym for a run, talked to a friend for 20+ minutes, mostly about something I don't really want to talk about at the moment, and headed home. Mi vida loca.

Good thing, I've gotten two of my three runs done for the week and it's only Tuesday. Gotta see if I can get in all three this week without a break. Take it from me, breaks suck.

The downhill:
yogurt
grapefruit
3-4 pieces of jerky
6 M&M's
salmon salad wrap
2 glasses of milk
candy bar
2 small quesadillas
4-5 crackers

The uphill:
3.06mi/583C/42min

Not quite the man

Well I didn't make my dream Monday morning workout (bike ride at the gym), but it would have been a long shot anyway, especially considering NM kept me up on the phone all night. I did get in a short road run at about 9:00 tonight. My knees hurt, my hammy hurt, my heel (STILL F---ing) hurts, but I did it. In the dark. And the cold. All alone.

Nice job on the weigh in NM...you're my hero. I on the other hand stuck true to my word and did not weigh myself this AM, my feeling is that there may only be a 15 lbs difference between us.

Ate OK, missed breakfast - that whole first day back to work after spring break thing had me running a lot behind this AM.

The muy malo:

foot long subway hot italian sandwich. This was supposed to be 6" for today and 6" for tomorrow, but due to my continued lack of will power, it all went down today. Hey, at least I didn't get the chips and cookie.

2 pop tarts
too many servings of an otherwise healthy taco salad
2 cans of diet pepsi


I guess not too bad. Word on the street is that for the Pikes Peak races, 1 pound = 1 minute. seems to be the rule of thumb for many people. With that in mind, all I need to do is drop 184 pounds to get to the course record/ That of course would leave me in the 80 pound range, which of course wouldn't be enough strength to hold my head upon my neck.

Who'da thunk?

So day started with a pleasant surprise when I hopped on the scale. Even did it a second time to make sure I was seeing things correctly. And here I thought I'd had a relatively lame week, workout/eating right-wise. Huh.

Then, stayed true to my goal of hitting the gym at lunch. Was almost talked out of it by the some of the boys making an indian food run, but thankfully another of my pals was steadfast and hit the mills. Ate a little worse snack wise than usual, but I'll get that back in line for tomorrow. Think part of the snacks were just things other than work/working out sucking a bit. Just gotta deal with it. Especially since my postponed brewpub lunch looms tomorrow.

The Forward:
3.03miles/574C/42min

The Backward:
yogurt
grapefruit
3 pieces of jerky
6" turkey/ham sub
small bag of Sun Chips
bag of Skittles
6 jellybeans
7 crackers w/dip
spinach salad
toast w/butter & jam
3-4 bite size snickers
glass of milk

He's Alive!!! And I'm still an idiot!

Just got off the phone with CS. He's alive, Mrs. CS is alive, and so too are the little CSes. Glad to hear they weren't caught up in the cartel wars, swept out by a tsunami, run over by a cruise ship or eaten by a giant squid.

So I took that hard-earned lesson from last weekend and promptly ignored my advice, and waited until late in the day when the wind was up before jumping on the bike. Thankfully not quite as windy as last week, so a little slower going upriver, little faster coming back downriver. In any case, had to go for the ride just to get out of the house. Somehow managed to get myself involved in not one but two fantasy baseball leagues this year, and both leagues had their drafts today. So not only am I an idiot about the bike riding in the wind, but also a loser just in general!


(And though apropos of nothing but speaking of baseball and geekdom, check out this photo I ran across. Can't decide if I'm amused or ashamed that this is happening at the home of my favorite team.)

The Hurt:
big bowl of cereal w/grapes
toast w/butter
6 pieces of leftover sushi
big gulp cherry coke
bag of chips
spinach salad
decent sized glass of milk

The Heal:
18.57mi/1h22m57s/1557C

Hola amigo

Yes I am back, no I wasn't kidnapped, and yes "F-off." I had a great time in Mexico, relaxed, swam, got to hang out with the kids and the extended family and I even got in a ton of workouts.

Sunday: walked from our unit to the pool (about 42 steps) at least 6 times. Also swam up to the bar for a cerveza
Monday: repeated the same walk, but this time I also pushed kids around the pool - a little resistance training.
Tuesday: actually had a 44 minute run on the beach complete with: dead fish (3), walk of shame college students (2), waves crashing on me and wetting my shoes (4), fishing lines to duck under (2), and "chicle" sellers (1).
Wednesday: played about an hour of soccer with Veronica. I also had a beer on the beach while she got her hair braided.
Thursday: returned to the beach and played paddle ball for about 30 minutes. Also played in the ocean...more resistance training.
Friday: lots of lifting...had to finish all the beers in our condo
Saturday: push, pulled, dragged and carried luggage all over the frickin' place.

I may "forget" to weigh in tomorrow.

A Little Improvement...(very little)

Alright, so probably figured by now that Friday was bunk (no workout, didn't eat as well as I should've), so I didn't show my face around here. Don't know if Saturday was much better, so let's go to the videotape.

Last week we moved our running our running group up an hour to try escape the increasing temps during the day as our runs got longer. Of course, as soon as we did that, big cold front comes in, drops snow all over the place (except here in River City of course...dry as a bone) and lowers the temps by a good 15-20 degrees. So the start this a.m. was pretty brisk, but with the right clothing it was pretty comfortable once I got into my pace. Ran my 6 and felt like I'd done it a bit faster than past long runs and I think the numbers below bear that out. Goal this week is to keep the pace up just a bit and to get in all three training runs, starting with one actually on Monday so I'm not trying to squeeze all three in at the end of the week.

AND WHERE THE HELL IS CS!? Won't call, won't write, won't tell me to F-off...He get kidnapped in Mexico?


Coming:
1 packed oatmeal (pre run)
8oz amino vital
Brazilian Blast Smoothie at Keva Juice
1 Hershey's kiss
1 lg Sapporo
small bowl of soup
8-10 pieces of sushi
reese's blast @ Sonic (hey, felt like I'd earned it on the day)

Going:
1h25m40s/6.05miles/917C

Damned slippery horse...

Day started well. Got up early (not early enough to get to gym before work, but early enough to pack a lunch and get stuff together for gym at lunch). Spent all morning cooling heels in court and then hightailed it to gym for lunch. Got in a good run at a slightly faster pace than I'd been doing (yeah, I know, the numbers below are still glacially slow). Went back to the office, ate my lunch and had been a good boy up to that point.

By the time I got home, however, I was pretty hungry and had a snack before I met the rest of the family for dinner to celebrate my father's 69th(!!!). Had a fairly decent thai style green curry with shrimp (wicked tasty), but as is usual when we go out to eat, there were appetizers (stir fry veggies and small plate of asian bbq ribs), drinks (or beer in my case) and dessert. All that good work I did earlier to day, for naught. I shoulda run home from the freakin' restaurant. Could I be any weaker? (Actually yes; I could've had another rib and another beer. Guess that counts for something.)

Well, at least I got the workout it and the muscles worked out. See if I can get back on the horse (again) tomorrow. Not bloody likely, though, since I'm meeting a friend for lunch at one of my favorite brew pubs. Dammit.

The Ins:
yogurt
grapefruit
corned beef sandwich (that's the end of the Patrick's day brisket)
handful of cracker
candy bar
coke zero
7-10 crackers and dip
one small rib
some stir fry veggies
shrimp and veggies in green curry sauce
pale ale
chocolate silk cake w/small scoop of ice cream

The Outs:
3.05miles/590C/42min

When am I going to learn

Didn't feel like getting up at pre-crack o' dawn hours and decided to stay in for lunch, so plan was to go to gym after work today. Of course, as soon as I was halfway through lunch, got an invite to dinner right after work. At some point I'll learn to take advantage of the first opportunity that presents itself and go then. Plan now is to hit mill at lunch tomorrow. Gotta do it, as two weeks in a row w/o hitting all the training runs is pretty pathetic.

Roll call:
cup of yogurt
cup of grapefruit
3 pieces of jerky
6" turkey subway (2nd half of the 5..$5...$5 footlong; anyone else sick of that jingle yet?)
handful of crackers
bag of skittles
1/2 handful of m&m's
chips/salsa
2 beers
crab meat enchiladas
bowl of grapes

Yeesh...

It was a day

At some point, I'll probably feel more disposed to talking/typing. Today ain't that day.

The Montagues:
2.32mi/32min/430C

The Capulets:
cup of yogurt
cup of grapefruit
6" turkey subway
small bag of sun chips
med Dr Pepper
2pc beef jerky
coke zero
8ish crackers w/Irish cheese
sm. bowl of lobster bisque

Better than expected

Was happily surprised this morning when I got on the wheel of fortune and saw that I actually lost a pound or two last week even without getting my weekly runs done. Apparently digging up and removing most of your backyard is a kind of workout on its own.

Spent most the day jumping through foolish hoops at work and then had to boogie after work so I didn't get a workout in on the day.

Down the hatch:
yogurt
grapefruit
corned beef sandwich
1 1/2 handfuls of baby carrots
2 handfuls of crackers
2 pc. beef jerky
chipotle chicken pasta
sm piece o'bread
2 cups of root beer

Back here tomorrow with working #'s.

It both sucked and blew

So, 'member that post a few days ago where I may have mentioned that spring in New Mexico is not particularly pleasant (I was 20 years old and living in DC before I learned that spring can actually be beautiful)? Well let me tell you about today to illustrate my point.

I knew even yesterday that I wanted to go for another long bike ride today. Went out to get the paper (yeah, I'm one of the six people in America that still gets a paper paper), and the morning could not be better for a ride: slightly overcast, temps in the mid- to high-50's and dead calm. So of course I decide to saddle up and go run a bunch of errands (in my partial defense, one of the stops I had to make was for a new inner tube so I didn't spend 20 minutes refilling my front tire, twice, like I did on my last ride). Finally got home about 2, had a late lunch, watched some of the Madness, and then decided to get on the bike and see if I could fix it up, go for a ride and be back in time for Amazing Race.

Tube change took a little longer that it should have because I spent a lot of time pulling goathead bits out of the tire, but got it up and running and was off a little before 5:30pm. By then, the clouds had long since burned off, the temps were in the low- to mid-70's...and the wind was blowing out of the south at 25mph, gusting at up to 38mph. Yeah, that's right.

So you can imagine the blessing and the curse this turned out to be. Unfortunately, it was blowing out of the south, and I, of course, was going to the northbound leg first. (You know, I'm quite the idiot where this is concerned; the same trail goes quite a distance to south of me too, but I always end up going north and then riding back into the wind which always blows from the south. Of course, my choice may have something to do with the fact that the trail doesn't go through the nicest of neighborhoods when I get that far south of home.) Anyway, I positively FLEW for the first half of the ride. Seriously, averaged 3-3:30 minute miles (approx 20mph...on a mountain bike) headed up. And then I had to turn around. It was like I was trying to cycle through a brick wall. For 9 miles. Lovely.

Next time, do the pinche ride first thing. You'd think 30+ springs would've taught me that by now.

The damages:
Small (1pkt) of instant oatmeal
cup of chai
5 crackers w/jelly
slice Costco pepperoni pizza
Lg Dr Pepper
G2
Corned beef
Boiled veggies
Lg skim milk
Grapes
5 crackers
2 baby carrot sticks

The benefits (cycling):
18.47miles/1h24m/1552C

Getting slower by the day

Well, didn't make it out for any of the three training runs this week, so you can imagine how well the 8 today went (the evidence in a moment). It's a cruel irony that going through some very unhappy personal shite can just suck the desire to workout right out of you when working out is probably the one tried and true (not to mention healthy) way to deal with unhappy personal shite. Pinche Joseph Heller.

In any case, got back with the program and ran the long run today. All 8 of those miles, and may I say, at about my slowest pace yet. I'm so proud. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got out there and did it at least.



The ups:
8.05m/2h7min/1258C

The downs:
2 plain blueberry eggo waffles (pre-run)
handful of trail mix
3 slices of toast
cup of grapefruit
cup of mandarin oranges
regular schlotzky's sandwich
bag of chips
large root beer

Fell down a hole...almost literally

So, remember how I said that the digging theme was going to be present for a few days? If only I had known...

First things first. I only got in two workouts last week, partially because I ended up doing a one-day trial that took the better part of 3 days to get done. Due largley to my own mismanagement of time, I didn't get in all three sessions, but I did make at least two:

3/11 - 2.22mi/416C/32min
3/12 - 2.92mi/559C/42min

Saturday morning came and my running buddy got started a bit late and it became readily apparent that we weren't going to make our group on time. Since I already had my trailer hooked up, I decided to skip the long run for the day and instead go out and start excavating my yard. Easier said than done. Between the river rock and caliche, this was a nearly impossible task. Took two loads of dirt out on Saturday. Then Sunday, took two more. By this time, my legs, arms, shoulders and especially by lower back were really protesting. Feel fine when I sit down, but my back takes a few minutes to loosen up when I stand and start walking. And the digging continues. Took another load out Monday night and going to head home and see if I can finish this part of the project tonight. I'm telling myself that the work I'm putting into the digging is compensating for the not running, but I'm not all that convincing. Hopefully I'll be able to get two real running workouts in before Saturday and its 8 freakin' miles gets here.

Yeesh...

BTW, very good to see CS is back in here. Now let's see if we can get it together enough and get in here at more or less the same time.

Who's Right???

So my home weigh in this AM said 255, which is good news and gets me within 3 lbs of my March goal of 252. When I got to the gym I stepped on the "real" scale, you know the kind with the sliding weights. and it read 261. I'm obviously sticking to the home scale since it's the one I've been using for a few years now. Unfortunately the gym scale is probably more accurate and I assure you I wasn't wearing 6 lbs of clothes (maybe 3).

6:00 workout at the gym: 25 minutes on the bike and then some lifting. Pretty easy, HR never above 110 and my average was 6.2 miles, in 25 min with a AvHR of 98. BTW I think my HRM is on the fritz. Saturay it showed that I was flatlining and today my HR was in the 220's. Got in my PM speed workout: 1 mile warmup and 10:00 of 1 min. hard and 1 min. off. Not bad, did well for about 3.5 of my 5 minutes hard.

Ate like crap!

Not even close

Put in the amazing 11.8 miles this week...nuff said.

Next week will probably be even less...nuff said again.

The Subplots

The Diet
So my wife decided that we needed to start a diet together. This would be a first for us, mainly because she hasn't needed to be on a diet. She's hoping to drop a few swimsuit pounds prior to Spring Break in Mexico and decided for me, that I needed to join her. So we're doing the pirated, non-meeting, non-weigh in version of Weight Watchers. The main advantage to this "diet" is that it simply forces you to log what you eat and record the points (aka calories) for everything you eat. It's a simple way to get the portion control and unhealthy snacking back under control. I've never done it for more than three weeks at a time, but I've always lost a few pounds...so why not a gain. This will however be sort lived as we head to Mexcio, tacos, Coronas, salsa, and butt sitting in seven days.

The Workouts
Started running again for the first time in about three weeks on Wednesday. Did an easy (31:00/ 2.2 mile) jog Wednesday morning - at 5:00 frickin' o'clock in the AM. Did a slightly harder and faster 30:00 min. on the 'mill in the pm with some ups (incline - more on this later) thrown in. Did a Friday AM 30:00 minute run again, this time went a bit farther and a bit faster (actually only 28:??). Saturday AM got in a "long" run for an hour. Felt good, was able to push the last 10 min. and most importantly didn't overdo it. Not a bad first week back in the game.

The Plan
Always a f---in plan, we'll see how this one goes. They never seem to last long becasue lfe always gets in the way and then it all goes to sheet. But here it is:
Monday AM: bike and lift
Monday PM: speed work at a nearby track. I'll vary what I actually do in terms of 1 min. on/1 min. offs and ?# x 100 yrds etc.
Tuesday AM- my short little 30:00 min run Trying to keep these easy/ Back in the day when I got down to 236 it was with the extra little workouts. Besides, it's a good (and frickin' early) start to the day
Wednesday PM - semi-long run. Most likely at the gym on the mill or around their 13 laps to the mile track. The goal is to increase the milage here every other week. Last spring I got this workout up to 10 miles.
Thurday AM - 30 min
Thursday PM - pretty hard tempo run. Eventually this will move to the Barr trial
Friday AM - a nice bike ride and lifting at the gym
Saturday - long run
Sunday - possibly something different (skating, swimming, lawnmowing, etc)

The Race
Registered for my fourth Pikes Peak Ascent!!! That explains the ups doesn't it? August 15 is now committed. NM, if you can qualify before Aug you can join me - economy hit this race hard - there are several hundred slots open (after 1600 slots filling in 21 minutes last year.)

Two steps forward...

...and you know the rest.

Weigh in this morning showed some progress. That was highlight of the morning though. Daylight savings kicked my arse and I was exhausted most of the day. Didn't make it to the gym before work (who knew it could be that dark in the morning?), and stayed in the office for lunch and took a nap, feet up on the desk and everything. Thought I was going to start a trial today so didn't even take the gym gear with me, but then opposing counsel went all panties on us and sent in a note from his mommy, er, doctor. Anyway, end of the day rolled around and all I wanted to do was go home, have dinner and go to bed. Should've skipped that middle part.

The damages:
2 cups yogurt
breakfast burrito (egg, cheese, taters, sausage, chile)
small bag cheetos
small bag cheezits
2 large handfuls jellybeans
5-7 little candy hearts
full rack of ribs

Yeah that's right. I'm a weak willed idiot.

Gym tomorrow, hell or high water.

Off day?

So I didn't work out per se today, but I did spend about an hour on the working end of a pick axe this afternoon breaking up dirt in my backyard in a looooong overdue effort to get the yard done. Since I'm already a little tight tonight, I'm guessing I'll be a little sore tomorrow, so I think that counts as a workout. And it will not be the last time I'm doing that kind of labor, either. Expect/hope to see much more mention of that made here. Gotta get that thing done once and for all.

The Sunday Funnies:
bowl of cereal w/grapes and two slices toast
bottle of G2
2 small bowls of green chile stew
2 tortillas
salad greens w/tomato and some cucumber ranch dressing
2 small scoops ice cream
4 ginger snaps

Weigh in tomorrow. Am I being unreasonable in hoping to see some progress?

By the way, talked to CS today. Sounds like he needs to get back in here. Sure hope he does.

Ahhh, the Spring Yuks

Knew going in to the day that I was flying solo to the group run. The GF has got herself a nasty bug that just won't let go of her so knew she'd be in no shape to go this morning. And after I got out there, I was jealous.

Looked like a nice spring morning from the window when I got up, but this is New Mexico. There ain't no such thing as a nice spring morning. When I lived in DC, we had spring. Here, we have summer, fall, winter, and blowing dirt. AND there's a nice cold front that's dropped in, too. Great day, can you tell? Oh, and this was the longest run I'd done since Santa Anna's Revenge in San Antone (yeah, yeah, I know, he won at the Alamo, so what's he got to avenge...work with me).

Felt long, took forever and was glad to get out of there when it was done. Tell me again how I did 26 in November?

The Frick:
small nut/fruit bar
handful of trail mix
Brazilian blast smoothie
chicken salad sandwich
cherry coke zero
chicken club sandwich
fries
Dr. Pepper

The Frack:
6mi/1h 26min/910C

Yeah, well...had to happen sometime

Yeah, so Thursday went all kinds of sideways right out of the gate. Didn't get up early enough to get to the gym before work, friend of mine called to invite me out to lunch, and then got tied up in a bunch of pointless shite at the office until almost 7. By that time I'd just had it, called it a day and went home. In short: Bustorama.

The tally:
cup of yogurt
cup of grapefruit
Blake's Lotacombo (green chile cheeseburger, fries, soda)
1/2 seafood salad
crabcake
rice

But today was a different story. Even though I fudged yesterday, I was bound and determined to get in my three training runs for the week, so bounced out of bed and got the gym before work. Still really slow, still really fat, but got it done. Now, just gotta figure out if I can do the 6 tomorrow.

The numbers:
cup of yogurt
cup of grapefruit
2 small quesadillas
handful of jellybeans
Cherry Coke Zero
fish and rice burrito
5-7 chips and salsa
Tecate Light
grapes

More numbers: 2.23mi/421C/32min

Day 4 in a row (really, when's this gimmick gonna end...)

Holy cow! For the second day running, I rolled out of the house and got to the gym before work. Gotta say, the getting moving that early is tough, but it sure feels good to have the day's workout out of the way by 9AM. And I'm actually surprised the gym isn't more full at that hour. There was NOBODY on the 'mills at 7:45. Let's see if I can keep this up one more day.

And I think I'm getting the right frame of mind about this eating thing. I feel like I ate too much today, but when I finally write it down, it doesn't look all that terrible. See if I can keep that up, too.

Today's score:
cup of yogurt
2 cups of grapefruit
quesadilla
glass of milk
handful of jelly beans
Vanilla Coke Zero
1/2 seafood salad at Landry's
2 crab-stuffed mushrooms
handful of jelly beans

Workout: 42min/2.92mi/522C

Day 3 in a row...and then the collapse

And it started so well...

Got up bright and early and made it to the gym before work. Put in my time on the 'mill, stopped for a smoothie on the way to the office and behaved myself for most of the rest of the day. Then a buddy of mine suggested that we go out for a pint or two and, well, you can imagine the rest. Better yet, don't. It'll disappoint us both.



Today's score:

cup of yogurt
grapefruit cup
Brazilian Blast smoothie (Apple and raspberry juice, raspberry sherbet, blueberries and Acai)
two pieces of banana laffy taffy
vanilla coke zero
6inch ham/turkey
Small bag of cheezits
small bag of cheetos
two pints of beer
and then it all went to hell...

Workout: 2.25miles/32:00/425C

Good news is I can try again and do it right tomorrow.

F-in Chuck Norris.

Day 2 in a row

OK, so I'm not going to get a good workout in today, but since I don't have anything first thing in the morning, going to try and hit the mill first thing. Hit the scale outta bed and gotta admit, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It wasn't good, don't make any mistake, but it wasn't as bad as I was worried it'd be. I'm dropping 20 before DC/Denver. At least.

In the meantime, the goods:

4 pieces of beef jerky
cup of chai
6inch turkey ham subway
small bag sun chips
20oz soda
small spinach salad
chicken salad sandwich
grapes
glass of milk

Seriously. First thing in the morning. In the meantime, day of rest...


Like that? That's Van Gogh, beeotch. Classing up the joint.

Day 1 in a row

Slow start on the day, and too many carbs. Big bowl of cereal with grapes in it with two slices toast for breakfast, cheeseburger, tots, cherry lime slush for lunch, spinach salad and grapes for dinner. Not great, but wait...

Needed a little head clearing activity so spent a little time giving a good once over to my oh so cluttered garage and took a load (probably just the first) to Goodwill, and then came back and jumped on the bike for a nice long ride. In fact, due to the fact that my front tire lost air not once but twice during the ride, it was longer than I'd intended. Looks like I've got some work to do before the next ride.

18.26mi/1:23/1587C

Weigh in tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it.

I'm baaaaaaaack...

Yeah, so much for New Year's resolutions. After stumbling (badly) out of the gate in keeping up with this little project, decided I wanted to wait until it looked like I was really back on the wagon before I wandered into these parts again. That took a wee bit longer than expected.

Finally, here I am. This week I got in all three training runs and the "long" run on Saturday (OK, we were only supposed to do 3 miles this week, but still, I was out there, right?). In what I'm sure will come as a surprise to no one, I am not where I was at the end of last year; my pace has fallen off noticeably and I know my weight's shot up a bit since the last time I posted it. I'll get to that car crash with Monday's posting. I'm also going to start keeping track of the eating. I've got to see significant improvement in that this year so that I can see significant improvement in the race(s) later this year. I want a marathon time I can actually talk about without thinking that John Belushi could've run the same time on his training diet of cigarettes and Little Chocolate Donuts.



Now I've just got to hope that CS hasn't completely given up on this little project. I'm a bad friend.

Saturday's run: 3.05mi/44min/468C