It's been a minute or two since I last posted here.

Back in September 2020, I decided that I needed to get into gear and be better about my health. The short of it is that by September 2nd, 2021, I had dropped down to about 187 pounds and was sitting below 24% body fat, meeting two of my three major goals; the lowest I'd seen on the scale was about 183, just a hair over my third goal of reaching 180.

On October 30th, 2021, we moved into a house on an acreage about an hour from where we had been living, also 45 miles and roughly 50-60 minutes from my job. There were lots of things to do in getting packed up to move, getting the old house ready to sell, and getting unpacked in our new place, so it was understandable that I'd miss a lot of my regular exercising, but I was able to do a bit of walking on the treadmill and some band/bodyweight exercises for a month or two, though I'd been letting my nutrition slip.

January 2022 hit me hard mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and I definitely dealt with some depression. Part of it stemmed from having to adjust my drive times, and at that time of the year this meant leaving for work in the dark and getting home in the dark. Part of it was feeling overwhelmed with the various fix-it projects I could see around the property. Part of it was just the general upheaval I was experiencing; in almost every move I've made during my life, I have lost contact with virtually all of my connections, and the two years leading up to this particular move I didn't have many connections built in the first place. I talked with a counselor a few times once I got on to working 10 1/2-hour shifts (which left my Mondays free for appointments), but being gone from 6 AM - 6:30 PM to handle my 7-5:30 schedule was too much.

Pretty much all of 2022 I did no regular exercise. I snacked a lot more, and wasn't watching my portions or the makeup of my food. I was not happy with the negative changes happening in my body, but finally over New Year's weekend I made the conscious choice to actually get up and do something about it.

January 4th, 2023, I weighed in at 212.6 and my body fat was hovering around 30% again. I had used the treadmill a few times in December, but that gave up the ghost, so I decided that I would need to walk outside. And hey, if I'm going to be doing that, I might as well kick into the C25K program again, right? As I write this, tomorrow will be my last day of Week 6, and while I'm not fast (though I never really was), my endurance is coming back, which is great because the gravel roads I run/walk on are a lot hillier than the sidewalks I was using in Des Moines in 2020.

The second week of January I also pulled out the resistance bands, starting up the 6-month routine from Theology Geek Fitness that I'd started in January 2021. I'm now halfway through the first week of Month 2 and am pleased to see that, even with the yearlong absence of regular strength training, I have made some gains in my abilities, somewhat assisted by adding some different bands to my supplies in the last few weeks.

This morning, I weighed 201 with a bodyfat of 25.9% (however accurate my bathroom scale is on that front). I'm in a mode for more rapid weight loss and fat burning, so I'm trying to hit at least 10,000 steps/day, get resistance training 4-5 days/week, and consume approximately 1,500 calories. I'm planning to follow this general scheme for another 2-5 months, depending on how my progress goes. I'm hoping to get below 18% body fat as a minimum goal, wouldn't mind dipping to 14-15% before I work on bulking.

I don't mind weighing 201, honestly, but the body composition isn't where I want it. Running the numbers, if I were to stay 201 but get down to 14% body fat, I would have to eliminate basically 23 pounds of fat and put on 23 pounds of muscle. I have my doubts about being able to put in the amount of work needed for that type of transformation. Whereas weighing 185 with 14% body fat, I would need to burn 26 pounds of fat and put on only 10 pounds of muscle.

This all has to be held in balance, of course. If I neglect my family, job, church, or other obligations in order to achieve these goals, they're not worth achieving. But having something on the table is incentive for me to at least keep working at it.

Here we are again...

Hello all,

I'm not sure if anyone still sees this blog, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it still exists. No need to delete free resources, I guess.

I honestly don't know how much I will maintain this blog as life keeps me rather busy, but I thought I would share a bit of an update. Since I last wrote, I've had one more semi-major event with the discs in my back and a couple of minor ones, but I've seen some dramatic improvement and maintenance after finding the right chiropractor.

Dr. Lance Kellow of Authentic Spinal Care in Urbandale, IA, is a NUCCA (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association) practitioner. The whole process fascinates me. He has a device with what I am calling calipers for lack of a better term that measure how sideways and twisted a body is, and there is a scale under each foot to measure weight distribution. Then he takes several x-rays of the back and neck and determines how the spine is off-kilter from a healthy spine. There is a lot of geometry and trigonometry involved, and using those measurements he can determine how to adjust the Atlas in the cervical spine (vertebrae C1, the one holding your skull). I started seeing Dr. Kellow in August 2015 and am doing well with appointments every 4-5 weeks. I need to be better about stretches and strengthening exercises to hold my adjustments, but I would say it's almost miraculous how I can walk in with a super tight low back, some twisting in my pelvis, and my torso leaning way forward, and after 10-15 minutes be more or less straight up and down with no twist and standing back on my heels. A major principle behind what he does is getting the head to sit in the appropriate position, which the spine then adjusts to accommodate.

I've gone up and down some with my weight, maxing out around 250 and generally holding steady around 240. I've had momentary dips to 235, but nothing really below that for several years. Not that I place a great deal of stock in the body fat calculator on my bathroom scale, but that has also stayed at roughly 40%.

It really hit me during my vacation earlier this month, and I've thought for years that I wanted my 40s to be better than my 30s in numerous ways (not just physical health, but that's definitely a component). I'll be 40 on August 16th, which is now 46 weeks away. I've decided to follow through on what I am calling my 40 by 40 Initiative. At the bare minimum, I want to drop my weight by 40 pounds to an even 200 (although I'm shooting for between 170 and 190, depending on fat loss and muscle gains). A secondary goal is to decrease my body fat percentage by a minimum of 40% (which works out to carrying a max of 24% body fat, although I want to get that closer to 15%).

To help me on my journey, and at the recommendation of a few friends, I'm trying out the Noom app. I have used it for 5 full days and so far I am really enjoying it. The app is designed to use psychology to help you understand things like triggers for unhealthy eating and replacing bad habits with good habits. There is a food logging component, which usually takes me about 10 minutes/day (no more than 15), and that has been eye-opening. Last Wednesday, my first day using the app, I logged my breakfast and lunch before I left home and was shocked by the calorie load my intended lunch was carrying. Just based on that initial assessment, I'd say I was easily consuming a minimum of 2700 calories/day, and likely exceeding 3000 on a regular basis; the fact that I had been staying fairly steady at 240 pounds was even more astonishing. I've got my daily calorie goal set at about 1800, so I've definitely had to reevaluate what and how I'm eating.

When it comes to nutrition, Noom is looking at calorie density. An example that came up multiple times the first couple of days was a comparison between grapes and raisins. Raisins are more calorie-dense than grapes and are less filling/satisfying, so they are classified as a Red food; grapes are a Green food because they are not very calorie-dense. Then there is an in-between category, Yellow foods. Don't let the color scheme throw you, this is not to say that a Red food is to be avoided at all costs, but you will want to moderate your consumption. I don't know if this will change, but right now my recommendation is to take my calorie allotment and get roughly 30% from Green foods, 45% from Yellow, and 25% from Red. I've found it immensely satisfying to bring a huge salad to work for lunch (2 1/2 cups salad greens, 1/4 of an onion, 1/4 - 1/2 each of bell pepper and cucumber, 2 Roma tomatoes, a celery stalk, a couple tablespoons balsamic vinegar, a little salt and pepper, and a can of tuna or a few slices of lunch meat; I might add in a boiled egg if I take the time to boil some up).

Noom has a pedometer included, and you can track other exercises somewhat subjectively (i.e., weight lifting for x number of minutes at Low, Medium, or High intensity). In order to maintain a calorie deficit, the app only adds half as many calories as you've burned to your daily allotment. If you burn 250 calories during your workout, you are given 125 to eat.

The app comes with a two-week trial that you can request be free (although they give you the opportunity to pay something to defray their costs), and the 8-month subscription is listed at $179, so that is something for you to consider if you think you might want to go this route. From what some have told me, I might be able to cancel my subscription by the end of the first 8 months and use a free app like My Fitness Pal; I would just have to carry over the lessons about calorie density and my triggers for poor eating habits.

We bought a treadmill in April and I got started at a pretty good clip right away, I think I used it every day for a solid 3-4 weeks. That was good, because I had taken a new position at work in March, a position that has me sitting down a lot more and includes an office where I can eat at my desk, so snacking and lack of movement contributed to about 10 pounds in weight gain. Stopping my snacking and hitting the treadmill daily reversed that, thankfully. Now that the weather is cooling off (rather quickly, at that), I have taken to walks outdoors. I'm looking to start the C25K running program again and see how far I get into it before it's too cold for me to exercise outside; then it'll be the treadmill through the winter until it warms up again. On the non-jogging days I would plan to still walk for 3-4 miles.

I'm also getting setup in my house for some dumbbell training. I have a set of Bowflex Select Tech weights, adjustable from 5 to 52.5 pounds, and while the P90X program itself is probably too intense for my back, it provides numerous exercises that I can do at my own pace. My goal is to get up at 4:30 each morning (probably Monday-Friday) to do my weight and ab routine, and walk in the afternoons 7 days/week. I'd love more space in my house for a more involved home gym, but I'll make do with what I have. I could always move weights to the garage if I felt it necessary; extra incentive to get it done early in the summer (before it gets too hot) and get it done quickly in the winter (so I don't freeze).

I expect things will slow down a bit here, but I've had some early success, losing about 5 1/2 pounds since my first weigh-in last Wednesday. My wife and I are working out the details for meal prep and leftovers, and I'm trying to remind myself that the occasional overage in daily calories isn't the end of the world. It's still too early in the process for me to feel comfortable having ice cream, chips, or other such snacks because I like those things SO much, and I'd really like to get a solid month under my belt (and hopefully another 5 pounds lost) before I give myself that break, but it's nice to know that this sort of readjustment in thinking is meant to allow the occasional treat.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this works and being able to share it with anyone taking the time to read this.

Suh - WEET!

I hit the treadmill right after work last night and got busy with the Freeway to 10K, Week 5, Day 2. I had a great time, hitting all of my jogging intervals at 5.7 mph, my walks at 4.2 mph, and my warm-up and cooldown at 4.0 mph. I'm wondering if 5.7 mph is the right treadmill pace for me at this stage in my running career because it seemed super easy to maintain. In comparison, a little slower or faster both seem to mess with my stride or something because it's a lot more difficult. Guess I'll just have to play around with it. I'm still planning to do Friday's run at 5.8 mph, so we'll see what happens.

As the runs get longer, I'm also considering dropping the speed to 5.3 or 5.4 mph to decrease the intensity and perhaps drop some weight by burning a bit more fat. I haven't for sure made a decision there because I also know I haven't been tracking my food lately and it's possible my weight loss has stalled from eating too much junk and/or not enough calories overall.

My distance this time was 4.95 miles, so a little bump in speed next time should guarantee 5 miles or better. That's pretty exciting!

Next week the sessions will surpass 60 minutes for the remainder of the F210K program. That's pretty cool from looking at the progress I'm making, but it's also frustrating because the treadmills automatically go to a cooldown phase at 60 minutes. The speed can be bumped back up right away, but that momentary blip could mess things up if I'm not careful.

In other news, I found out tonight that P90X3 was just released. One thing that really grabbed my attention is that the workouts are all 30 minutes long (and there are 16 of them!). I think it's designed to be done 7 days/week instead of the 6 for P90X or 5 for P90X2. I wouldn't be using the program until next summer, so there's still plenty of time to do more research and, should I decide to buy it, save up the money I would need. I like variety in my strength training workouts, and I've been quite pleased with the original P90X on that point.

I hope you've been able to find time to get some exercise, too. Every little bit helps, and as I always know (even though I sometimes have to convince myself of the truth), staying active is one of the best ways to simply feel great. See you soon!

Did you wonder where I was?

So I've been a little lax with posting lately. I guess that's kinda okay since I was a little lax with exercising last week, too. I managed to get in two runs last week (4.79 and 4.87 miles), but that was it. Sometimes it's rough trying to get to the gym when I have a day off, which is why I didn't get my third run in.

This week, I got things started back up a little more the way I like it. Sunday night I did my Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps workout from P90X, and I think it's probably my least favorite upper body routine because of the various push-ups included (slow, fast and slow, one-arm, clapping/plyometric).

I got a run in Monday night, 4.88 miles, and was pretty tired at the end, so we'll see what happens tonight after work. Up until the last couple of runs, I'd been using 4.0 mph as my walking pace for warm-ups, cooldowns, and walking intervals. Now I've been using 4.2 mph as my interval speed, and I think that has helped my transitions. Tonight I'm going to try getting 5.7 mph on all of my runs (7 minutes each) and then 5.8 mph on Friday.

I was quite tired last night when I got home and opted to do P90X this morning. Today's routine was Back & Biceps, which I think is my absolute favorite upper body workout in the program. There was only one exercise I really didn't care for, the Superman, where you lie on your stomach with your arms stretched out, then you raise your arms and legs and hold for 10 seconds. I only got through it twice before the tweaking down my left leg got the better of me. Methinks it's time to get to the chiropractor again and see if I can get some of that taken care of.

So that's the news for now. Check back later this week for further updates.

Last run of the week...

Whoever thought exercising during the holiday season was a good idea is crazy. I mean, who would want to get out and move around when there are ten pies and fifteen other dishes on the table?

I guess that puts me into the field of crazy. I had to work yesterday (slightly frustrating because we're an hour away at my in-laws' for the rest of Thanksgiving), but it worked out well because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten in my Friday night run.

Since it was the third run of the week, I planned on running each interval with increasing speed. I made it through the first five intervals this way, but during the fifth one I was feeling pretty wasted at 6.0 mph. So, in order to be sure I'd get all the way through, I dropped back to 5.6 mph for the sixth interval and was able to finish the workout.

I racked up 4.4 miles in my 50 minutes. That comes out to an easy 5.3 mph average speed, which is the minimum I want to maintain during the half-marathon (that will yield a 2 hour, 30 minute time). I'll have to be sure to get some speed work into the mix once I start training specifically for the half, because it would be fantastic to get as close to 2 hours as possible.

Now it's time to get my son through a bath and head over to my wife's uncle's house for our actual Thanksgiving dinner (everyone was still arriving on Thursday). I'll be sure to consume in moderation.

See you soon with the start of a new week!

Beginning of Week 4

After a fun weekend with company (and still doing my fitness things), it was time tonight to get back to running. Week 4 of the Freeway to 10K series involves a 5-minute warm-up walk, six 6-minute jogs followed by 60-second walks, wrapped up with a 3-minute cooldown, all for a total of 50 minutes. By the end of the warm-up walk, I was a bit sore in the shins and expected the first couple of jogs would be tough, which they were. And a couple of times throughout I started thinking how nice it would be to just quit for the night and try again some other time. Thankfully I squelched that line of reasoning and powered through.

The end result kinda speaks for itself. I racked up 4.24 miles. That's still a far-cry from 13.1, but it's definitely progress. It's also encouraging to know that for the first few weeks of the half-marathon training my Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday runs will all take less than 50 minutes to complete.

I did a little research tonight on speed work and found a couple of interesting programs. I will try to remember to find the links again and share them here at some point, but here are the basics.

The first program has you figure out your 5K pace, then knock off 20 seconds. After an easy 5-minute warm-up jog you run 3 minutes at 20 seconds faster than your current race pace and then take it easy for a minute. Do that five times, then have an easy 5-minute cooldown, and do the routine twice a week.

The second is a pyramid plan. After the warm-up, run 1 minute at your race pace, then 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute (all with an easy 1-minute interval afterward).

I'm not sure when or how I will get speed work into my life, but I know I'm going to want and need it if I make plans to run faster.

Have a great day today, and be sure to find time to be a little active.

A lot to catch up on here...

Happy Saturday (or Sunday, in an hour and a half)! I've been busy the last couple of days, and it's time to share with you what I've been doing.

Thursday night after work I hit the treadmill to get in the second run of the week. I struggled a bit, but pushed through and successfully completed it, racking up 3.94 miles. I was able to leave work at 9 PM on Friday and hit the treadmill for my third run, a distance of 4.06 miles. That brought my total mileage this week to 11.89. Next week I jump up to six 6-minute jogging intervals with six 60-second walk for a total of 50 minutes each time. It even works out that I only have Thursday off for Thanksgiving, so I'll be able to run on schedule Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. I'm guessing I'll hit close to 4.25 miles each night, which is pretty exciting!

Today was the Ugly Sweater Run. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as nice as I'd hoped. It was about 10 degrees when we left home at 10:30 and the high was only 19 or so. Lukas thankfully fell asleep at one point so we were able to put the blanket over his head before we had to walk straight into a frigid north wind. The bright sunshine really didn't do anything to take the edge off, and I was glad to walk the six blocks or so to the indoor farmer's market where my in-laws had a booth to warm up before coming home.

Then, if all that wasn't enough, I just now finished Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X. I feel great, but I'm sure I'm going to pay for it, especially in the thighs, tomorrow and Monday. It's all good, though. Recovery just means getting stronger, and getting stronger in the legs equates to running faster. A couple of bonuses tonight: I was able to go considerably longer on the wall squats (probably my least favorite exercise in the entire Legs & Back routine) and I was able to do at least a few reps for all 11 of the Ab Ripper X moves.

I had the opportunity to exchange some text messages with a good friend of mine today, too, and found out that he is a month into the Insanity program. He said it's a lot like the Plyometrics workout from P90X, which is definitely the hardest workout for me. However, he's also dropped to a 34-inch waist, something I haven't seen since I was in high school. A bonus to Insanity, the workouts are only 40 minutes long, which would make them easier to complete in the morning here at home. I'm saving up for a Garmin GPS watch for my half-marathon training (actually, I have the funds now, but I don't want to wipe my fun money down to zero), and depending on what other funding I'm able to come across in the next few weeks, I might go ahead and order Insanity so it's here by the time I'm done with P90X and getting started on the half-marathon training. Since Insanity is only 60 days, I'm thinking I could start the program the same week I start training for the half-marathon and be done before the mileage gets super high. Since I want to drop at least 20 pounds (and ideally 40) by May, this could be a great way to get me there. I'll let you know if I decide to go this route, and of course you'll be getting updates throughout if that's my decision.

Tomorrow I'm going to do X Stretch and get started on using P90X Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights like I mentioned previously. It'll be great to have Saturday evenings off so I can get to bed earlier for church, not to mention getting a run in the night after Legs & Back to help loosen things up more quickly.

I hope you've been able to make good use of your day today. It'd be great if you can take tomorrow to rest and reflect on God and what He has done for you through Jesus Christ (if you haven't received Jesus as your Savior, it'd be even better to look into that). God bless, and I'll see you soon.

Two more for the price of one...

Hello, faithful readers!

So it seems I've developed the unfortunate habit of only posting every other day. It hasn't been intentional, but it is difficult to come home from the gym or finish a workout at home and pop onto the computer when it's really time to be getting to bed. Then, in the mornings, it's difficult to sit down and write with a little one crawling all over and wanting nothing more than to touch the keys on the laptop.

Monday night after work I hit the treadmill for F210K Week 3. This week the workout consists of six 5-minute jogs followed by 90-second walks. I found it easier to hit my stride this time around, and I noticed my thighs loosening up more quickly, too. I definitely want to capitalize on that and increase the flexibility in my legs; other exercises show me just how far I have to go in this respect. I covered 3.89 miles, and with my planned speed increases for the second and third workouts this week, I should be closing in on 12.25 or even 12.5 total miles. Add to that a planned 5K for Saturday, and we could be seeing a great week!

Last night I came home and got going on P90X Chest & Back. I can tell that there have been some improvements when I flex my arms, which is encouraging. However, I still need to get my nutrition more fully under control if I want to see the fat burned off and muscle built up. Ab Ripper X is still tough, and a lot of it is from too-tight hamstrings and lower back, it seems.

Hopefully I'll be reporting in the next day or two to let you know how things progress. Until then, stay active!

One of these days...

Hi there, friends! I have to apologize yet again for doubling up on my blog post. When I got home Thursday night I was pretty wiped out and opted for going to bed instead of working out. It's probably good that I did because my son woke me up at 8 AM. I was able to sleep again from about 9:30-11:30 and did my Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper X routines at that point. Shoulders & Arms went very well (despite the scratched and skipping DVD requiring me to stop my workout and bring the laptop upstairs to watch my backup files) with increased weight on several moves and a plan to increase again next week. Ab Ripper X is still challenging because of some muscle tightness/tweakiness in my left leg. I will hopefully get in to see my chiropractor sometime next week to see if I can't get some of that under control.

Last night I hit the treadmill at work for the third run of the week. Like last Friday, I started my first interval at 5.6 mph and increased my speed by 0.1 mph for each subsequent interval. Doing so allowed me to rack up 3.48 miles, bringing my weekly total to 10.2 miles. Crazy to think that in a few months 10 miles will only cover my Saturday run!

Next week's runs (Week Three) will be six intervals of 5-minute jogs and 90-second walks, a total of 47 minutes after the warm-up and cooldown are added in. Weeks 7-10 will all be 68 minutes long...it's going to be interesting to see how those extra 20 minutes make me feel!

On the agenda for today: spend time with my wife and son, possibly do a little thrift store shopping (we need ugly Christmas sweaters for our 5K on November 23rd), watch the extended version of "The Hobbit," and get my Legs & Back routine in as well as another round of Ab Ripper X. I was so sore Monday from last Saturday's Legs & Back that I'm going to be sure to get a walk or something in on Sunday to keep things loosened up.

Enjoy your weekend, be sure to be a little active, but also take time to rest. Your body will thank you for it.

Catch-up post...

Sorry I missed posting yesterday, gang! I had a bit of an adventure getting in my Tuesday night workout. With sleep-training my son and moving him into his big crib in the second bedroom, we've put him in what had been my exercising room. He was already in the crib and sleeping by the time I got home from work, so I didn't want to wake him. I started moving my gear downstairs and found out that my chin-up bar doesn't fit in the living room coat closet. Grr! So I moved everything back upstairs but into the master bedroom. Then the DVD player wouldn't play my DVD, so I gave up and went to bed.

Never fear! I did complete my Chest & Back workout, but I did it shortly after waking Wednesday morning. I was mercifully free of stiffness and soreness and really enjoyed the workout at least until almost the end when I started feeling sick, probably from not having had anything to eat for a good 12 hours. Reinforcement that I should be exercising after work when it's only been about 4 hours since I last ate.

I struggled during the ab routine and had to cut it way short because of some tweakiness in my left leg, and that was disappointing. There's still some muscle tightness to cope with there, hopefully I can get that taken care of sooner rather than later.

Last night, then, I hit the treadmill after work for the Week 2 Day 2 of the F210K program. It was a great run, with all of my jogging intervals taken at 5.6 mph. I logged 3.38 miles. I'm excited about Friday's run when I will do the incremental setup I did last Friday. Since there are six jogging intervals this week instead of five, I'll start at 5.6 mph and finish at 6.1 mph. Completing the workouts is more important than adding distance, but I'm pretty sure I should be able to clear 3.5 miles and I find that amazing!

Have a great day, and be sure to make time to be a little active yourself.

Run like the wind!

I was off yesterday because it was Veteran's Day. Add in my Legs & Back workout from Saturday and the ensuing soreness (a lot of squats!) and trying to sleep train my son, and Monday was an exhausting day. I had thought about getting up around 10 or 11 and heading to the gym at work, but there was just no way. But, after running a couple of errands and spending an evening with friends, I made it to the gym around 11 PM.

This week, the routine is six 4-minute jogs with 90-second walking intervals. The total workout time is 41 minutes. Getting started was kinda rough with sore muscles, but as I got going things loosened up. And what a blessing, the looseness has continued through the night.

Total distance last night, 3.34 miles. I'm looking forward to upping that as the week goes on.

See you tomorrow for an update on my strength training tonight.

One week of running down...

Once again I hit the treadmill after work last night. I had a great time going through the workout and am actually a little bummed to know I won't be running again until Monday. It's funny how even just a week working out after a few weeks off makes me realize how much I miss exercising when I'm being lazy. At least I've got the Legs & Back routine from P90X to look forward to later today (I won't be doing it after midnight like the other 5 workouts this week because I need to get up tomorrow morning for church).

I opted for the more intense of interval options I'd suggested in my post on Thursday, running the first interval at 5.6 mph and increasing by 0.1 for each subsequent jog. My total distance was 3.15 miles, a nice increase.

Next week will have six 4-minute jogging intervals and the walks will drop to 90 seconds for an overall time of 41 minutes. Looking beyond, the routines increase in length to 47, 50, 56, 62, and 68 minutes. Weeks 7-10 are all 68 minutes long, the difference being longer and fewer jogging intervals, Week 10 being two 29-minute jogs with a minute walk in between. I can't wait!

It's a gorgeous day here in Des Moines, so hopefully you all are having good weather, too. Get out and enjoy the day while you can!

Run run run run run run run!

Happy Thursday! I trust your day is off to a good start. If not, don't let circumstances get you down. There's a lot to be said for forcing a smile (advice I personally need to take more often). I'm quite satisfied at the moment, having just finished a late breakfast (well, you could call it lunch since it's now noon, but seeing as we don't get up until 10 or 10:30 most days, I don't define my meals so much by the time they are consumed).

Part of the delay was from needing to go to the store to pick up eggs. I love eggs for breakfast, and usually make them at least twice a week when we have them on hand. This morning I took a leftover Klement's Italian Sausage, which is the size of a brat, diced it and sauteed it with about 1/4 cup diced onion in 1 Tbsp coconut oil. Then I added in 6 scrambled eggs and cooked them long enough to be solid but still a bit moist. In another skillet I fried a diced baked potato in 1 Tbsp olive oil with a little bit of fresh rosemary and a dash of Real Salt (I had to do this twice because the pan wasn't big enough to hold two potatoes). I split the eggs between two plates so Abi could have a meal, too. It was all very tasty, and now Abi only needs to put together a very small lunch to be eaten around 2 before I go to work.

On to the exercising. Last night I hit the treadmill after work, continuing on with the F210K program. In my 38 minute session I managed to squeak out 3.04 miles (an extra 0.01 mile compared to Monday night). It felt great to be moving, and I'm looking forward to Friday night's run. This week's program consists of five intervals of 4 minutes jogging and 2 minutes walking. I've been using 5.5 mph as my jogging speed and 4.0 mph as my walking speed. For Friday, I've got a couple of ideas in mind. I will either do the first four jogs at 5.6 mph and hit the last one at 6.0 mph, or I will do a progression of 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, and 6.0 mph. Each Friday I will try to push harder than the other two workouts of the week.

Thanks for checking in with me today. Stop by tomorrow to find out how tonight's strength training session went.

A journey of a thousand miles...

Well, check me off for the first day of my "Freeway to 10K" (or F210K) program. I'm very excited about the build-up, and it feels fantastic to have started on a new regimen. The goal behind using this training program is to be in shape for the half-marathon training (I'm looking at Hal Higdon's Novice 2 program, hereafter refered to as "HHHM"). Since I want to do the strength training aspect of P90X (which takes 13 weeks), I will do Week 10 of F210K three extra times before starting HHHM. That will leave four weeks and a day before my half-marathon in May.

Something I've decided is that I'm going to have to totally give up pop and most or all coffee and other caffeinated beverages if I'm going to be successful. I already dealt this weekend with the withdrawl headache, so I should be clear in that respect. This won't be such an issue at home, but I'll have to be disciplined at work where coffee drinking is a social activity if nothing else. I've noticed, though, that if I'm drinking things other than water, I tend to drink very little water, sometimes not having any at all through the course of a day, and that's just begging to cause problems with the physical stresses I'm planning to place on my body. Yesterday I started logging food on MyFitnessPal.com again, and this will also be instrumental in my success.

I'm sure I've said it before, but having a plan is of great importance. It's difficult if not impossible to achieve something, especially in the long-run, if you don't have a plan in place.

And now, for those of you who are interested in the numbers and such, here are the stats from my late-night run (Note: I was using the Podrunner Intervals MP3s from www.djsteveboy.com). I gerbil-belted 3.03 miles in 38 minutes. This first week has five jogging intervals of 4 minutes each with 2-minute walks, plus a 5-minute warm-up and 3-minute cooldown. It feels slow, but building up is good and necessary, especially considering that I haven't really done any running for over a month. Don't worry, the amount of walking compared to the amount of running will quickly drop and my times and distances will look a lot better.

If you didn't manage to get out and do anything yesterday, today is a brand new day, and there's plenty of time to work something in. Have fun with it, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Hello friends!

Well, it wasn't planned, but October was kind of a bust for exercise. I could blame it on being stiff and sore in the mornings or on my week-long vacation at the beginning of the month, but in reality it all boils down to laziness. Yes, it's hard to believe, but even I am afflicted with this malady.

Yesterday was my first official 5K, and my lack of training during the past month made itself known. I was unable to run the entire distance, taking probably three walking breaks, and completing the course in 34 minutes, 47 seconds. On one hand, it's disappointing, but on the other hand, it's motivating. Knowing that I could have finished the race at least a couple of minutes earlier if I had been consistent with my training, I've got a bit of an extra mental push to keep at it.

Taken in my apartment after the race as my family couldn't make it to the race with me.

Tonight after work I will be starting the "Freeway to 10K" training program. Now that we're in November and the weather isn't going to necessarily be cooperative during the day, I've decided to move all of my training to the treadmill after my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday shifts at work.

In addition, I've decided that after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometime in the evening on Saturdays I will go through the strength-training sessions of P90X. I'm going to start with lighter weights, probably in the 7.5-12.5 pound range, in order to acclimate myself to 50-60 minutes of strength exercises. I'm hoping to see improvement in my overall muscle growth and development, but my primary focus is to drop some weight, especially around my belly. I weighed 221.4 pounds yesterday, and getting down below 200 would really help take pressure off of my lower back as well as allow me to run faster since I won't have to cart around so many pounds. I'm looking at this especially for the half-marathon I signed up to run in May, the Med City Half-Marathon in Rochester, MN.

Are you struggling to maintain a fitness schedule and proper nutrition? You're not alone! Let's keep each other accountable, eh? If you're blogging about this sort of thing, too, feel free to share the link to your blog in the comments.

An evening run...

Ah, Saturday. I had such plans laid out, and none of them worked liked I'd anticipated. First on my agenda was a nice morning run at the park. Then lunch, perhaps a little shopping with my family, then picking up a free TV offered by someone in the area.

We got going quite late today, glad for a bit of rest after the long week. I ended up making lunch around 1, got tired after eating, then started feeling sick to my stomach. I laid down for a while, that didn't help too much. Lukas took a nap, too, so going out for the afternoon was out of the picture. Then I found out that the TV was too big to fit into my car and the person getting rid of it was gracious enough to put it in his car and bring it over. We got it into the apartment, and now Abi and I are trying to figure out how to rearrange things so we can actually put it into a usable location. It will likely require eliminating one piece of furniture in our bedroom, and we're working on consolidating and tossing clothes to make this all possible. Then we'll have to have someone come over and help me move the TV upstairs because Abi and I won't be able to do it.

Finally, though, we made it to Gray's Lake for an evening run (well, she walked, pushing Lukas in the stroller). It took longer than I expected (we didn't leave until 8:30), and it was getting quite dark by the time we finished.

Tonight I decided to use the GPS only for the running portion of my workout. Wow, what a difference that made in my pace! I covered 2.97 miles in 27:50, which comes out to a 9:22 pace. It also means I've surpassed my goal of running a 5K in less than 30 minutes. One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to run a 5K in less than 28 minutes, and gosh if I might not achieve it!

I have to say, this is incredibly exciting news...and kind of a shock. I had no idea I would be able to run this well at this point in time. Now I'm more motivated than ever to keep going with this.

Tomorrow is Sunday, my day off from working out, and I hope to use it to full advantage. May you, too, find rest. God bless!

A messed up schedule...

As I've mentioned before, I'm a wimp when it comes to working out in the heat. After several days in the 60s and 70s, yesterday had a high of 90 and it was nearly 80 by the time I was ready to even consider heading out for my run. I decided to wait and hit my run on the treadmill after work, instead.

It was a great run, don't get me wrong, but I overslept today, not usually a major problem, but today it won't allow me to get in my strength routine because I have to go pick up one of our cars from the shop and make a stop on my way to getting to work early. So, weights tomorrow.

I put in 3.38 miles in my 38 minutes last night, which is an 11:14 pace. I'm glad to be holding pretty steady with my pacing and am planning to see what I can do with it outside on Saturday.

Sorry for the short post, but I have to get on to other things. Until tomorrow, happy fitnessing!

One foot, two foot, red foot, blue foot...

Welcome to Monday and the start of a new week. As I mentioned Saturday, I decided to pull out the bike for a little warm-up before stretching and going for my run. It's amazing how much the hills around my apartment adversely affected my ability to ride compared to Saturday. I made about a 1-mile circuit and was pretty much wiped out for biking. Looks like something else to work on. I think I'm up for it, though. I've heard the biking and swimming are two excellent exercises to help a runner improve, and heaven knows I want to be a better runner!

I popped over to Gray's Lake for my run today and enjoyed the breeze, overcast sky, and almost chilly temperature (it's 62 in Des Moines as I type this at 1 PM). There weren't very many people out today, which was okay, though people-watching while I run is a fun diversion.

My total distance today was 3.39 miles, covered in 38 minutes. This works out to an 11:12 pace. I had managed 3.1 miles in just about 33 minutes, I know I should have no trouble maintaining that goal come race day.

It's hard to believe that, even with skipping two weeks, this is the second-to-last week of the C25K program. Only 5 more runs and the program is finished, then it's speed and endurance work to prepare for the race. Once that's over, I plan to start working on the 8K trainer, then the 10K trainer, depending on how much time that would leave to prepare for a half-marathon. My friends and I don't have a date in mind for next year, so far as I know, so I'm going to have to be flexible in my training schedule.

Have a fantastic day! I look forward to sharing my exploits tomorrow.

A change of pace and scenery...

This morning I loaded up my bicycle and headed to Gray's Lake for a ride with several people from church. Two years ago while we were still living in Rochester I started riding my bike to work and did so several times. The distance by bike was maybe 2 miles, so not a lot of time spent on the bike nor was there a need to build up my...um...seat muscles. I hadn't ridden since then, and today I found out just how much work those muscles need. It was a fun ride, but the 10 miles have left me a little sore. However, I'm going to figure out a way to incorporate biking into my regular routine, maybe as a warm-up to my runs and/or strength training workouts.

Unfortunately, because of how early I needed to be out the door for the bike ride, I was short on sleep and ended up taking almost a four-hour nap this afternoon. Combined with getting supper ready and watching Lukas while Abi took a shower, I've run out of time for my strength routine today. It would have been great to accomplish both, but at the same time, a little break isn't going to kill me and might actually do me some good. Monday morning I'll be back into the swing of things with a nice run at the park, assuming the weather holds.

Have you found different activities to keep you motivated and interested in exercising? What strategies do you employ to keep from fizzling out?

Two runs for the price of one...

It was a short day yesterday between the time I got up and the time I had to leave for work, so I apologize for not posting. I offer this post in recompense. I trust it will meet with your satisfaction.

Wednesday night/Thursday morning after work, I hit the treadmill again to log my second run of the week. I'm grateful for the access because it was still too warm outside on Wednesday for me to feel comfortable getting out for a run. I went 3.07 miles in 35 minutes this time, dropping 2 seconds off of my pace for 11:24. Improvements are improvements, no matter how small. Plus, I felt considerably better after this run than my run Monday night/Tuesday morning.

Because I would normally run tomorrow and because I'm going on a bike ride with some people from church, I opted to get outside and run today instead. What a beautiful day for it, too! Not a cloud in the sky, and 67 degrees by the time I finished a little before noon. I'd take days like this every day!

I wasn't sure how my run would go, but I grit my teeth and got through it. Imagine my surprise when I finished and discovered I'd covered 3.15 miles in 35 minutes. That's a pace of 11:06, and considering 10 of those minutes were walking at roughly 4.0 mph (bringing my average speed down and increasing my per-mile pace), if I can maintain my running pace for the entire 5K distance I will easily break 33 minutes. It looks like I might need to up my goal for November to finishing the race in less than 30 minutes now.

I haven't fully decided on doing my Power 90 routine tomorrow afternoon or evening, though I certainly would like to. You should be hearing from me in any case, so keep an eye out for my post. In the meantime, I encourage you to do something active.

Happy Friday!