2 is the number of the day

2 is a good number for me today, I am another 2 pounds down and another 2 miles up. My wife and I jogged today for her first time since the baby. It was fun. I am now at 195 pounds, 10 to go to hit my final goal.

Pounds keep droppin

I have been able to stay at 199 for about a week and this morning I had a good surprise. I am down another 2 to 197. That means I have lost 13 pounds to date and I am a little over half way to my goal of 185. I had a good workout the other day, a 2 mile run followed by a 5 mile clip on the bike. Actually, it was 5.5 miles at 19:37, an average of 17 mph. I will post the run when I can but it was actually quite fast also at 8:30/mile.

I am thinking about going for another vegetarian stint this week, maybe 5 days. It is kind of time consuming though to cook 3 meals a day for 3 people and have them all want or need different things.

Today I think I will make a large batch of vegetable pocket pies and stash them in the freezer. I also need to make bread and I would like to make a few dinners to freeze so I do not have to kill myself all week.

I had a goal of a record 5K that I have not hit yet but I have only run one this year. I am not feeling great about ponying up the money for them at the moment. I need to put something on the calendar to work toward, my workouts are sporadic because I am working on the house constantly.

Veggie - Day 3

Day 3 went well, I had no problems sticking to the diet and still feel good. The big news is that I hit my first goal. I am now 199 pounds. I also checked my body fat percentage which is now at 17%, down from a high of 22.5%.

Breakfast:

Coffee, Oatmeal with flax seed, half bagel with olive iol

Lunch:

veggie pizza, penne a la vodka, beer

Dinner:

Spinach and cheese ravioli in marinara

Vegetarian Day 2

Today was a much better day than yesterday. Here is what I ate:

Breakfast:

Coffee
Oatmeal

Snack:

Cheerios

Lunch:

Veggie Burger

Snack:

Fried Okra

Dinner:

Pizza with broccoli, peppers, onions, and cheese

I feel like I ate plenty and ate well. I also went for a 2.33 mile trail run that really gave me a beating. I was able to use some different muscles jumping and sidestepping and dodging rocks and roots.

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarianism - Day 1

Today was my first day of going veggie. I am curious to see how it feels and thought I would try on 3 days at first and see what happens. It will certainly not be a lifestyle change but perhaps a plateau breaker. So, day 1 here is what I ate.

Breakfast:

Coffee
Fried Egg on 1/2 of an Asiago Bagel

Lunch:

Spinach and Mozz stuffed bread
Potato and Carrot soup
Beer

Dinner
Veggie Burger made with Chickpeas
Beer

I guess the real question isn't whether or not I was able to stay veggie but if I set out to do what I was trying to do. The answer is no, not really. I am looking to eat healthy. I made two major mistakes. The first is that I did not eat near enough calories today. My body needs 2800 calories just to maintain its weight. I might have taken in 1000 today if I am lucky, that is terrible. The second is obviously beer, and plenty of it. I had probably 3.5 beers today. I should limit that to 1, maybe 2. I will try to do better tomorrow.

A Slow Week

It has been a slow week for me in running. I have been very busy but I did manage to get an 8.5 mile bike ride in that was pretty good. I was pushing pretty hard and it was windy. I spent as much time as I could on the aero bar to get used to it and it was finally starting to feel confortable. Here is the route that I usually ride.




Also, I am at 200 pounds now. My first goal was to get under 200 so I am getting close. I have decided to try a vegetarian diet for a few days to see if I can break through. I think I will try 3 days starting tomorrow.

Run and Back on the Bike

Sunday I went for a pretty good run, I am still averaging aroun 9:14/mile on my runs but I have dropped weight to about 201 and am feeling a lot more coordinated. My lungs seem to have plenty to go all the time. My legs still get tired but I have extended my rund to the 3-4 mile range.



Today I really got back on the bike. I went for an 11 mile ride to the next town over to pick up some medicine for the dog. I averaged about 16 mph but it was a bit cold out.

A Crazy Week

Ok, the last week has been pretty crazy. On the 27th we had a baby boy so we were in the hospital through Sunday. I took a week off of work to spend with the family and then on Thursday was laid off. I have had a lot of time to run this week and looks like I will have more coming.

On Monday I went for a short run of 2 miles. I took my toddler and his library books in the stroller and ran him to the library to return the old books and get some new ones. So even though it was a short run I was pushing a good 60 pounds the whole time.

Tueday was a bike ride to the grocery and back again with the toddler in the baby seat. I have been spending a lot of time with him to get him out of the house.

Wednesday I went for a longer run, 3.4 miles. It felt pretty good. Here is the graph.



Thursday was another bike ride, this time to the park with the toddler. Then I found out I no longer had a job.

Friday I needed to go for a long run to relax and think. I put in about 4 miles along the water listening to my mello mix which consists mostly of Bob Marley. I have to say when I was looking out over the water and Bob kept telling me "Everyting would be alright" I felt pretty good. Here is the graph.

A little Behind in Mileage

So I am a little behind in mileage right now. I really have not been getting my runs in. As much as I try I am just busy all hours of the day. This past Friday and Saturday however I played in a Volleyball tournament so that was a lot of calorie burning. I was still sore on Tuesday from it and found it hard to move. I am feeling better today though and will run tomorrow. I am also going to pull the road bike out of the shed and get it ready for Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat rides. I am sure I will only get 1 or 2 in a week but I have to try.

Quick Pic From the Race

A Rough Week but a Nice Recovery

So I ran my 3 miles 2 Saturdays ago and then I had a couple weeks of traveling and an illness that ran the gamut of nose to sinus to throat to lungs. It was terrible and sidelined me for a while. So after about 2 weeks of very minimal running I was feeling demotivated. The cure of course for me is to race. Get out there and do something fun. Lucky me there are St Pattys day 5ks starting up everywhere and New Haven had one such event, the PLR Shamrock and Roll. I decided the night before to head down to New Haven and regain my motivation. It worked, it was a nice day and a fun race. There were bands on the course and Guinness afterwards. It was no steller performance but it was my second best 5k and more importantly I have successfully regained my focus.

The race was Sunday and already I have put a lift in on Monday, a lift and a run today and I am feeling great.

Saturday 3-Miler

Great Morning Run

I woke up this morning and it was 40 degrees, just beautiful. I decided to take advantage and sneak my run in before work. I blazed a quick 1.5 miles in 12:36. I know it doesn't seem that fast but it is about 1.5 min per mile of my normal pace. I just felt like moving and moving fast this morning. On to the details:

Ran with the little one again

Today was a bit colder than I expected. It looked nice out and about 40 but I guess it was 32 degrees. I tool the little one out int he jogging stroller again, this time I remembered to put a nice 40 pounds of pressure in each tire so it felt a little easier. Still, he is no infant anymore. He is still yelling "Daddy run, fun" all around the house. I am sure glad it was fun for him.

Sick Run Today

That was a rough run. I have had a lung and throat thing since the midle of the week that is just starting to loosen up. I was scheduled for 3 miles today but decided to drop it back to 2. Surprisingly, my lungs felt strong, it was the rocks on the back of my legs that just wouldn't loosen up. It must be the hour and a half of volleyball I played on Friday. Either way, it was a good run altogether.

Windy Run

Its blowing 50 mph gusts out there. I picked up the pace today because I really didn,t want to be out there long. It felt pretty good but what a nasty day.

First Stroller Run of the Season

Tonight was a lot of fun, I took the jogging stroller out for the first run of the season. It got up to about 43 degrees today so I thought the little man might want to go with me and give mom a break. I forgot to pump up the tires and they were completely flat. It was tough but I still managed to crank out 2 miles at 9:15 pace. Overall I am happy and feel good and I think he will want to go along on Thursday.

The Last Week

It has been a busy week since the last post. Although I was traveling Thursday through Sunday I did get quite a bit of exercise in. I got my Thursday run in in Annapolis. It felt good and I like the change of scenery. 1.25 miles done, 9 min/mile. Friday I headed into DC to go to a couple museums and the zoo. Overall I walked about 6 hours so that made up for the fact that I did not get a run in at all during the weekend. This week I got my Tuesday run in. I sneaked in a quick mile and half to my in-laws for dinner. It was another beautiful snowy night run. I averaged 9:16/mile for that run. I missed my workout on Monday and Wednesday due to being on the road but I did get a treadmill run in yesterday. The details are below.

Running for Travel

Today was a new experience for me. I had to get a run in and I had to put my car in the shop. The solution for me was to drop the car off and then run the 1.25 miles home. It was awesome. It is so much more fun running from point A to point B then to go for a loop or an out and back. I call it running for travel and not exercise and it was a lot of fun.

Cold Night Run

It was cold and it was dark out and it didn't feel great, but I did it.