My WordPress Blog
This last week I was reminded how hard it can be to find time to run, but with my commitment to run the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (Fitness Friday: Setting Goals) I know that I need to find the time. This week with Jacob’s extra Hockey day and unexpected night in the ER, It’s been hard to get out there. I did manage 3 runs this last week which is better than I had done for most of the month, but not enough if I plan to run my race faster than I did in the spring. Looking at the the calendar, I have 17 days till the race. With my last training day being the 14th, I have only 15 days to get my ready.
Time to step up my training. To help me focus on my training I’m going to share my training schedule on my blog, and keep it up-to-date. I’m listing my runs from now till Race Day. Each time I run I’ll update the widget with my time and a link to the Runkeeper event. If I miss one I hope that some of my readers will bug me about it. I need to get out there and run. Not just for the big run either, going forward I hope to continue posting my schedule and want to be held to it. Here is what my schedule looks like for the moment. I’m hoping to run 10 of the 15 days I have before my race. With Sunday’s being my long runs, and Saturday being my day off. It could change, but for now here it is:
Fri Sep 30 – 5K Run
Sun Oct 2 – Long Run
Mon Oct 3 – 5k Run
Wed Oct 5 – 15k Run
Thu Oct 6 – 5k Run
Fri Oct 7 – 10k Run
Sun Oct 9 – Long Run
Mon Oct 10 – 5k Run
Wed Oct 12 – 15k Run
Fri Oct 14 – 10k Run
Back in march when I was coming off a disappointing winter of running, I signed up for the for my first Race (First Race). In fact at the time I signed up for 3 races, a 5k, 10k and my first Half Marathon. As we switch seasons from Summer to fall, I realise that I didn’t run nearly as much as I had hopped this summer. So now as the weather cools I want to get back out there and prepare to run my first full marathon next year. So once again I’m setting a goal. This time it’s the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. I’m running the Half-Marathon in memory of my aunt-in-law Debbie who passed away after battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. So I’m hoping that my friends and family will support me and give to Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto:
Please support the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Charity Challenge.
This is also the kick off for my larger goal of running a Marathon in 2012. I’m still undecided of when that Marathon will be, so stay tuned. You can also expect to see a lot more posts about running in the coming weeks and months.
I wrote this post on Friday during my trip to and from work. I had hopped to edit and post it on Friday, but with the unexpected date night I never found the time. Yesterday was filled with the trip to the baseball game and an evening at the park, so this morning I found my self looking at my blog wondering what happened to my fitness Friday. So I read it over and finished it up and decided to post it today. I’ve also decided to leave the text as it is, so think of this as if it was posted on friday. I hope to have next weeks fitness Friday actually posted on Friday next week.
As I sit down to write todays post I am unsure of what I want to write. I had planned on discussing the dilemma I am facing about my runs. Should I focus on longer runs, or do more 5ks to try to get my time running 5k down to under 25 minutes. Unfortunately, this week has been terrible for my running. Since last Friday I have only run once. That’s not acceptable. At first it was logistics, not wanting to run after Melissa got home, and not taking the time to ask someone to come site with the kids so I could run. But last night was just laziness. I just didn’t push myself. And so I have done what I never wanted to do, not run in 4 days.
On top of my not running I’ve only been semi successful with my for logging. I have managed to track 60% of what I ate, but I never seemed to track the late night freeze or bag of candy I picked up at the Banana Store. I have cut out some of my snacking and seemed to established a rhythm of tracking my Breakfast and Lunch and the failing to track my dinner and any evening snacks.
My failure to run and to get a handle on my snacking was reflected on the scale this morning, my weight is up over 3 pounds putting above my first weeks weight. I am hoping that seeing the numbers on my blog will help me focus on getting back on track. But I don’t think that’s enough, I need something more. With the prospect of a week camping with the family starting next Sunday looming I know I should establish the habits now so I can carry them through our time away.
It could have been a great week, I have taken the kids to the pool 3 times since Friday, and even went on a ride with the kids in tow. If I had added to that even 2 more runs It would have been a different result this morning. So now I am left scratching my head looking the motivation to get out every night even if that’s at 12am when Melissa gets home from work. Going forward I have a plan, but instead of writing it out here I’ll put it into action and discuss it in next weeks Fitness Friday post.
Continue reading “Fitness Friday: One step forward, two stepts back”
Last Friday I stated my plan for getting back on track with my running and by extension my weight loose. As the days slipped by I did find myself running more, I got out for 3 runs since my last Fitness Friday post. Of course over that time I tried to watch what I ate, but it seemed when I had the choice of being good and being bad, I always choose bad. So each morning when I’d get on the scale to get a feel for how I was doing it didn’t look good. Though as Friday approached and I knew I’d have to face the blog I started getting a little better, and with last nights 10.27 run I managed to come in lower than I expected. A lower. This weeks weight is 224 lbs. That’s a loose of 2.5 pounds, a number that is probably unrealistic to expect to repeat next week. I’m thinking about taking fat burners and finding something on the internet, I’ve read about this alpha lean 7 reviews and I’m curious, I could try it out, can I get the same result or more? Unless of course I stop the evening freezer raids for Freezes and the occasional chocolate bar on my way home from work.
The key I’ve been told by many different diet plans is to track my food. Record every thing you eat so that you can see where the calories are coming from. Every morning this week I’ve said today is the day I will log my food, then I’d have a granola bar and a bowl of cereal for breakfast and say, tomorrow I’ll start. Today marks a week of saying that and I know that has to stop, so I look at the calendar and think Monday, have one last weekend without being accountable for what I eat. Or even, why start Monday, the family is heading off on vacation in 3 short weeks, do I really want to track while on vacation? Maybe I should wait till we get back or maybe after my vacation ends and I get back to work?
It’s that kind of thinking that I need to change. I need to start tracking now, I need to stop waiting for tomorrow and start living for today, so I will not wait till my vacation is over, I will not wait till Monday. I wont even wait till tomorrow morning,. Once I’m done this blog post I’ll sit down and write what I’ve had today, as best I can and keep track from then on. To be clear, I am not planning on changing what I eat, not yet at least. What I plan is to write down what I eat, what ever it is. To take owner ship of the calories I’m consuming. Then when I have a log for a week or two, then I’ll begin trying to change what I eat. In the past I’ve not longed because I would eat questionable things, and it was easier to ignore them if they weren’t on paper. That changes now.
Continue reading “Fitness Friday: Hits and Misses of Week 1”
We I started working on my fitness Friday post for today I pulled up my running log(pictured above). Added the runs I had done in the month of June and I was surprised to find that I was less than 300 metres away from reaching 1000km run in the last 13 months. It amazes me that I’ve gone that far. Of course all that running has had an effect on my weight, a few weeks ago Melissa put together the picture below to remind me of the change. I’ve been waiting for the right time to share it with the world, and today is that right time.
Today is July first the half way mark of the year, and so it seem like a good time to refocus on my health and fitness. So far this year I’ve had some good months and some bad, it’s now time to take a step back and get into a proper rhythm. After I started the month of June running so hard, and ended up costing through the month. I need to get serious moving forward and set some goals and picking some races. My goal is simple, run more and run faster. I want to be running 4+ times a week, but with our schedules I know that would be impossible. So I am setting a simpler goal of at running at least 7 times ever 2 weeks. I’m still working out the distances of my runs but I am thing around over 40k a week. As for the races, I’m still figuring them out. I know I’m going to be running the Half Marathon in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, I now just need to find a race between now and then to run. Perhaps the Acura Toronto 10-Miler & 5K, Toronto Canada. More on that in the weeks to come.
To go with the increase in my running I’m also going to start publicly posting my weight. All year I’ve been struggling with it, after a winter where I gained 15 pounds I’ve managed to get as much as 10 pounds of it off, but haven’t been keeping it off. So now I’m setting my goal My goal is to be under 200 lbs by the end of the year. That’s 26 pounds, in 26 weeks. I’m still working on the widget I’ll use, but for now I’ve added Health & Fitness to the side panel and will be updating it in the days ahead.
[wprunkeeper activity=38216489]
Almost 3 weeks ago I pushed myself to run longer then I ever had before. I ran for 2 hours and 46 minutes. While I was running I felt pretty good, a little thirsty, but I handled that by refilling my water bottle with Gatorade about 3 quarters into the run. My pace was a little slow, but I wasn’t out there for speed. It was my Sunday run. My long run. I am trying to push my sunday runs from the 2 hours I have been running over the last few months up to somewhere between 3 and 4 hours. I want to try running 30km. My goal on Sundays is to leave early for my runs. Usually 9 or 10. On the faithful day I started my run at 11:15am. So I found myself running during the hottest part of the day, and that was my biggest mistake.
After my run I was tired, but I didn’t think anything was wrong. As the day went on it became clear I had used up all my energy and I could barely function. So I slept away most of the evening and all through the night expecting to wake refreshed and ready to work. It didn’t work out that way. I woke up tired, and with a headache. I tried getting up with the kids, making them breakfast and even went through the motions of getting ready for work, before I accepted that I was in no condition to work. So i climbed into bed. Melissa had her hands full that morning, Jacob was also sick he’d thrown up the night before, and started his day the same way. Lucky for us he mostly got it in the bucket. So Melissa and Violet took care of Jacob and I. The day is a bit of a fog, I do know Melissa kept insisting I drink water and Gatorade. I missed 2 days of work, though on the second day I was able to do some work and really didn’t feel 100% till the weekend.
Today was the big day, today was the day I run my first Half-Marathon. While training for this run I read an article that said after you finish your first Half-Marathon you will either decided it’s not for you or you’ll get hocked. Well I’m officially hooked. My time today was 2 hours and 10 minutes and 32 seconds. That beat my personal goal of 2:15, though it has me thinking of changing my time-table for running a full marathon. When I came to the part of the course where you could either keep going straight for the half, or turn right for the full marathon, part of me was tempted to take the turn. I wouldn’t have, but I had always planned on running a full next September (2012), now I’m wondering if I might not want to run it this September (2011). I’m sure reason will set in and I’ll settle for trying to beat 2 hours on the half this fall, but I have to admit I’m tempted by the full 42.2km.
Last week before my big 10k run, I found my way to the a couple of Running Room Stores. There I got a bunch of Goo which I shared last week and some other things. It’s the other things that I’m sharing today. My new Running Belt, Hat and Shoes. It’s great to be running with new shoes again and having a belt to hold my phone when I run is so much better. Of course I’ve got some more new running stuff, but you’ll have to wait for another day to see them.
Today on the eve of the anniversary of my first run I took part in my second race. The distance was double my last race, the Harry Rosen 5k Spring Run-Off. Today’s race was the Sporting Life 10k. My Time was 57:18.3, only .4 seconds behind Dan’s time of 57:17.9. The running felt great, our pace was 5 Minutes and 44 Seconds a km. Making it the fast I’ve ever run for a sustained amount of time. Now I’ve got 2 weeks to prepare to more than double todays race distance. On May 15th I run the Mississauga Half-Marathon. You can pledge your support here. I’ll be writing more about it in the coming days.