Had enough of winter

This weather has got to end! It is driving me crazy. I can not get outside to run or bike and more snow is expected. I hear all the time about how it is 70 in the south and it is driving me crazy!!

SO whats been going on? Well Marathon training has been coming on ok. I'm not a huge fan of long long distance running and don't normally run more than 3-4 times a week. I been stepping it up to 5-6 runs a week and i think it is hurting me. I am going to go back to not running more than every other day and cycling/swimming on the off days. I been doing the 100 push up challenge again and now i can safely do 60-75 push ups in a row.

I have recently been listening to Jillian Michael's podcast from Itunes which i am really liking. She talks about inside the food industry and about finishing with biggest loser on season 10. I have got some much needed insight on myself from these pod casts.

I finally got my new rear wheel for my road bike. I have been  wanting a new road bike this spring but it is not going to happen. My rear wheel including fitting and adjustments came pretty close to $200 and i put some new grip tape on the handle bars also.

My next race is a Half Marathon on April 16th in Osh Kosh. Then a Duathlon on May 1st.
Still on Weight Watchers plan, however i switched to online only for the spring/summer period.

I have been swimming 1 -2 times per week.

Tomorrow i have a root canal that needs to be done and i am not looking forward to it at all. I am trying very hard to not let it mess up the rest of my week and just deal with it when i am there. I have a tendency to let things like that make me really depressed on the days leading up to it.

Seroogy's 15k Green Bay WI

2.11.11 was the Seroogys 15K in Green Bay hosted by Midwestsportsevents.com
Seroogys is a maker of chocolate here in Green Bay that is truly amazing and truly very very bad for you. You can visit their site at http://www.seroogys.com/

The weather all week had been -25F but it was meant to warm up on Saturday. This year Midwest is using disposal timing chips which actually works out really good because when you pick up your packet the day before you get your timing chip. Pretty much all you have to do on race is find a parking spot, get to the start line and go! I really like this idea. It did not warm up  as much as expected. It was about 20F was was much better than -25F! However the crazy warm temps of 36F did not come until the day after.

My plan was just to drive up park and spend the least amount of time as possible outside before the gun went off. The race to start at 8 and i found a parking spot at 7.45. Waited in my car until 7.55 and then jogged over to the starting line. Because of this plan the only picture i got was the one above on my phone. Last year they had about 1000 races and this year 1500. A good turnout for such a cold run.

I had looked up the winning times for Cydesdales from the previous year and knew if i wanted to place i would have to go at least 8.30 min/miles! That's fast for a 5k for me! I wanted to give it a shoot anyway. I came out the gate fast. I started at the back which was probably a mistake but i secretly love overtaking people that weigh much less than me. I planed to go by the drink stations as i knew it would upset my stomach.

I had no breakfast as i already know from many previous experiences i will get sick if i do. I don't recommend this it just is the only thing that works for me.

At the 2 mile point i was doing good. My Nike Plus on my itouch was saying i was keeping a pace of 8:45min/mile ish so i was doing good. The gloves i had were not warm enough so i pulled my fingers into them and made balls with my fists to warm up. That seemed to work.

Some places on the course were really narrow and i had trouble going around people sometimes. There was still some ice around so i had to be careful.

Well to sum up i kept my pace and finished in 1 hour and 19mins. This was good enough for 3rd place in Cydesdale div! Yes i had placed!!

I had a great time. I kept my strides fairly long and had achy legs the next morning but not too achy.

I had made plans to meet my family in Green Bay for my daughter Emily's birthday lunch and see if i could meet them at a 10am movie. I was cold and sweaty so i had a good idea. I just upgraded my Planet Fitness membership so i can visit any PF in the country for free. I found one in Green Bay that had just opened so i went over there via Blackberry and Garmin and showed there. I made to the move by 10.30am and enjoyed a kids movie with the family!

Next we had lunch at HuHot and headed home after my wife wanted to look at some new cars (yes shes got the bug again) We even looked at Honda Elements which is one of my fav cars right now. I was disappointed to find out they are discontinuing them.

SO...Sunday you could find my daughter and myself down at Rays Indoor mountain bike park again,...(we have season passes now!)  http://raysmtb.com/   What a great weekend i had!

Here is a picture from Rays. You can see the Bananergy we needed.

Two weeks from He##

Sorry it has been quiet. The last two weeks have been CRAZY at work and i buckled a good bit from my decent eating. It started with a week of meeting from Sunday through Friday and then a week of teaching school in the factory from Monday through Friday which just finished today.

Very stressfull but i am glad its over. I have lots of things to report fore you.

My running suffered the first week but i started to get it back on the second week.

I have a RACE tomorrow. Yes i have a 15k to do in Green Bay tomorrow so i will try and get some pictures and make a report on it.

I have been doing alot of indoor mountain bikeing at Rays. I just went ahead and bought a season pass for me and my daughter. I lost a filling, cut my knee and nearly broke my nose but i am getting much better!

I have not weighed myself in the last 3 weeks and i fear it is going to be really bad :( But i am already back on plan to lose more weight.

More sooon my friends...

Keep your eye on the Prize and Happy Birthday

What am i doing?
I was running this morning after a 2 day break from doing anything about why i am running. Is it to make my next triathlon faster? is it to make sure i can complete my first Marathon? is it that one day i would like to do a Iron man? Well it is all of these reasons and more. I want to live a long time and be healthy! If i keep up an hour of exercise and day and eat right i am fairly confident i can be around for a good while and be healthy while i am around.
I want to be the old dude that is very healthy into his 90's and then one day suddenly just drop dead without a big long number of years where i can barely move around.
Now i know i could go done suddenly tomorrow from a disease or get hit by a bus but i want to do everything possible i can to be healthy. I also recently heard that just 15mins a day working out can reduce your chances of getting altzimers.

Going through the motions
As you may imagine getting up at 4am in the morning to go run/swim or bike is NOT fun. My bed is very warm and it is cold in the house and very cold outside. Everything in my body wants to stay in that warm bed. The thought of a 8 - 10 mile run will keep you in bed also. No one is barking orders at you, if you don't go no one will be mad at you. It is at these times i have to go through the motions. I just get up and not think about anything else. Then i just get my stuff on without thinking about where i am going. If i thought about it too much i would stay home. Then i head to the gym. The car park can be particularly challenging as i want to just sit there in my nice warm car. I think just go in and walk on the treadmill for 5 mins. Once i am actually on the treadmill and running all the bad thoughts disappear. I start to feel alive. Yes it hurts but the feeling of moving beats it. A smart man once said 'The worst thing you can do for your body is not move it'.

Happy Birthday to ME
Instead of counting the years i want to make my years count! So here is a list of firsts for me in the last 2-3 years.

• Went from 440lbs to 220lbs
• Got my life threatening high blood pressure done to a healthy normal
• Ran
• Ran a 5k, 10K, 15K, 1/2 Marathon
• Biked to work (12 miles)
• Ran to work
• Joined a hardcore cycling group
• Did  sprints, Olympics and a Half Iron Man Triathlons
• Had my mountain bike leave the ground both wheels and landed it (mostly)
• Fit nicely in coach class on planes
• Can buy clothes ANYWHERE
• Learned to Ride a motorcycle

Wow the list can go on and on.

smash bang boom

Been working hard at tracking EVERYTHING this week. Normally i accurately tack to about 90% of all i eat. Well because the the last 2 weeks i have gained weight i was tracking 100% very closely this week. I feel exhausted right now from keeping track of every tiny bite but guess what...it worked. I dropped 1.6LBS this week. It goes to prove if i track everything i can drop weight still.
I feel a little down as it was a massive effort to get that 1.6lb loss. I will just keep going..what choice do i have. As a wise person once said 'the only thing holding you back it you'.

Running - Marathon training is going good. I manage another 2 hour run on the treadmill making it to 11 miles last week. I am teaching myself to deal with the pain of the long runs. For the long runs i do run 9 minutes and run 1 minute. This type of walk run seems to be working the best for now. I kept the treadmill at 0.5 grade for 1.5 hours of the run. Also at least once every 10 mins i stretched my stride so I'm not teaching my muscles to keep shorts steps and this seems to help break things up also.

Biking - For fun at the last minute i went down to Rays Mountain bike park again. I had a bad landing of one of the jumps and as you can see above my wheel is totally shot. I had only been there a few minutes before i wrecked and thought at first i would have to go home after that long drive down there. Thank gosh they have rentals!. It cost me an extra $10 but i was glad i could stay. I actually had a really good time on the rental. It was a single speed which seems to be perfect for the park there.

Swimming - I managed to make to the high school pool last night and got in 45 mins of non stop laps. I varied my speed on some sets to get up to race speed. Of course i could not of done it with out my trusty swim mp3 player. I should be going one other time this week. 2 times a week seems to work great for me swim wise.

100 Push ups - Still working my way though this app on my itouch. Last night i did 170 push ups total. Broken down into 5 sets.

200 Sit ups - Working through this ipod app as well. Still early days.

This week on Thursday is my Birthday and i will be 36. This year i know it seemed rude but i sent my family a wish list. I am very hard to buy for. I already got a Performancebike.com gift card in the mail - Thanks Daughter!!!! and there is a brown box in the cupboard that i am trying not to sneak a peek at.
I asked for gift cards to performance bike or i tunes, new bigger itouch, wetsuit so i don't have to keep renting, a locker bag etc... looks like they listened!!

Hanging in there and self evaluation.

Weight loss wise it has been a bit of a downer the last two weeks. I was really hoping to lose 20 pounds much faster than it is going. In fact the last 2 weeks i have gained 3lbs total somehow.

I have been counting everything i eat on WW but i think somehow i have been making tiny mistakes and these add up. So i have been SUPER careful this week and sure enough i found points i was not taking into account.

I have been though various stages in weight loss. When i was over 400 i could not have to be super careful and i would still lose like crazy. This went all they way down to 260. Then at 260 i had to ramp it up. Now i find anything in the 220-230 range i have to be amazingly careful as it seems my body just wants to stay at the 230 range.

My Goal is 199 right now. I do have some loose skin (yuck) i know its horrible to admit but you don't go from 440 to 225 with out a bit of lose skin. If i want to have surgery to  get it removed its is going to be 5000-8000 dollars. Now mine is not nearly as bad as some. Because mine is minimal it means it is not a medical problem so insurance will not pay for it. I wonder how much that skin weighs? I am guessing 5-7 pounds but who knows.

I am just going to keep going and try not to think about it to much but be extremely mindful of what i am eating.

Managed to get to the pool to swim for lunch today!

10 Week Fittness Challenge

My local YMCA and Weight Watchers have teamed up for a 10 week fitness weight loss Challenge. Enrolled are 190 people! I managed to get on a team for my $15 and they are doing all kinds of activities.

SO to kick off the 10 weeks we had to take a prefittness challenge at the YMCA. For this i had to to first see how fast i could do a mile in.

Most people were walking the mile but of course being the overachiever i am i wanted to run. I managed an OK 8.08 min mile. I am thinking i should of  sandbagged a little as they are going to measure me again after 10 week but it just didn't seem right.

Next up was as many push ups as you can do in 1 min. Thanks to my 100 push up challenge on my itouch i manged to do 60 in 1 min! Proper push ups too.

Next was as many sit ups as you can do in 1 min and i managed just 30. I need to work on this one. I just got the 200 sit up app! Then there was a stretch test but i have no clue how i did in that one.

Some people have asked me for a new Podcast. Well it seems i have a little more time in the evenings now (If i put down Call of Duty Black Ops) so i am going to try working hard on that.

O the picture is a beautiful Crumpet shop in Seattle Washington. I love Crumpets!!!