Time to Rethink Things

Well, it seems like things have not gone the way I wanted them to. They've actually gone better! I set two goals when I started running. After my first week of averaging around 3.5 miles in my 60 minute run, I set the first goal of hitting 4.5 miles by the end of March and the second goal of hitting 5 miles by the end of April. Well, I hit the first one last weekend a week earlier than expected. After taking off Wednesday, I hit 5.01 yesterday a full month early! Now, I have no idea why I was able to jump a full quarter mile between my two runs. Could be any number of things. Conditioning is my most educated guess. I have been eating better yet. Smaller portions! I snack about 3 times a day on stuff like Chex Mix or beef jerky. I think my body is just getting used to it. I didn't sweat nearly as much as I would have a week ago. When I started getting close to my first mile, I noticed that it was just about 12:30 minutes in. At twelve minutes a mile, I'd end up at 5 miles in the hour. The second mile was almost equally close. By the time I was hitting the third mile I kinda laughed to myself because I thought "There is no way I am gonna do this already". When I hit the fourth mile at 48:05 I knew it was on!

I think I ran more often at speeds of around 7.6-8.0 mph than usual. It used to be that my high running speed was around 5.5- 6.0 mph. I also started running earlier in. Typically, I will start with around 3-4 minutes of walking at about 4 mph. I'm definitely gonna go back to that tomorrow afternoon when I hit it up again. Today's Friday and I take it off. My legs feel great! I am nowhere near as muscle-sore as I used to be. I think a realistic goal for me is to hit 5.25 miles by the end of April. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will plateau somewhere. God knows I'd love to keep advancing at this rate though! For a visual of where I started and where I am check out the graphs to the left. The top one represents my distance run and the bottom is my caloric burn.

Now that I have hit 5 miles, I am going to start working on my abs. Gonna start out doing about 100 crunches a day maybe 3-4 times a week. We'll see what happens with that.

Hill Climber Kicks Butt!!!

My Butt anyway. I did the hill climber tonight for 15 minutes. I did 1.1 miles. It was a tough one! The rest the workout didn't seem as bad after that!!! I'm not sure of the calories. It said like 162, but I didn't have my hands on the sensors to get an accurate reading. I'll be back in a few days to rock it out further!

Keeping on

I started yesterday with a 3 mile walk on the towpath in Navarre. I couldn't gage calories, but it was a nice walk. It took an hour exactly. I then went to work for 8 hours, then to the gym. I hit the hill climber for 5 minutes. I did have intentions for more, but it just wasn't happening. I then continued on to upper body, including: Triceps, Biceps, Shoulders, abs, back, sides. It was a good workout. I'm noticing it a little in the mirror now.

Cause to Celebrate

If I was a stock, I'd say buy now. I'm on the rise. Yesterday was a new high for calories burned in my run as I hit 627 in sixty minutes. This is almost 30 higher than my previous high. I fell .01 miles short of tying my high of 4.73 miles. I was still very surprised and happy to hit it though. Each day, I feel like I am not going to be able to hit the goal or come very close to it. I know it's not gonna be long before I run into a plateau. I was talking to my wife last night at dinner about that actually. I told her that as I keep track of all my running, I will keep the running average over the previous two weeks as my goal. For instance, I started out a few weeks ago hovering 3.4 miles. Now I am up to 3.92 as my overall average distance. If I can hit that or higher, then I will be pleased. The more highs I keep getting, the higher that average will be. I'd like to keep my two week average at around 4.75 - 5.0 miles in the end. Once the average stays up there, I will really start to focus on my core with crunches and chest exercises.

Dinner was absolutely delicious! My wife was cooking pork chops on the grill when I got home last night. She made an awesome marinade with red peppers and soy sauce. For sides, we had corn and sliced potatoes/cabbage on the stove. I come home and the house smells so good, I just want to totally ruin all the progress I just made! I use portion control and eat slower and everything seems okay. Also, gotta make sure to drink plenty of water in there too. The first thing I do when I get home from working out is to drink at least 16 ounces of water. This helps fill me up prior to dinner, especially if it's gonna be another half hour or so. This is on top of anything else I might have had to drink at the gym. When dinner comes, I put a slightly smaller helping on my plate, and my stomach doesn't seem to notice.

At about ten o'clock last night I made smoothies for my wife and I using frozen strawberries, a plum, banana, mango yogurt, and some fruit juice in the fridge. The frozen strawberries were nice because they give the cold, blended feeling you get with ice, but without as much watered down flavor. About 16 ounces later, I was ready to shower and go to bed. First, we had to finish watching 24 though!

Goal Number One Reached

I went to the gym yesterday to run and I pounded it out. I reached my first goal of 4.5 miles in an hour! I had set the goal for myself to be reached by the end of the month. I am very excited to announce that I hit 4.56 miles yesterday. This is up from 4.44 on Thursday. Yesterday was also the sixth straight day of setting a new high. Of course, the caloric burn has gone up each time too. The last two times I have gone, I have burned 598 and 596 calories. I would love to cross the 600 mark. I know that I will do this soon. Not a huge deal, but it would be nice. The next goal I have is for 5.0 miles in the hour. I had originally set the goal for the end of April. Looks like I will be beating that on too. That is of course if I continue at my pace.

How have I been eating? Pretty good actually. I had a salad for lunch yesterday with romaine lettuce, onion, small amount of cheese, red wine vinegar, small amount of granny Smith apple, ranch and dried sesame sticks and corn nuts. Very good. It's probably only good to me. I'd tell y to make it if you happen to have all the ingredients lying around though. For dinner, I had some Swedish meatballs and noodles. One bowl. Not a lot. Afterwards, I went to see a movie and had a few handfuls of popcorn and one of those Nestea Enviga drinks. For breakfast today, I had a bowl of cereal and a banana. Naturally, I've been having water all the live long day. Gonna run later today. I have no idea if I can beat the 4.56 miles or not. I told myself to take it easy today. It's tough though when you keep beating your highs. You keep wanting to beat it over and over. Check back to find out how I did.