RUNiversary! My First Year Running and Blogging

One year has passed since I started on this fitness journey, and this blog.
I just thought I would throw out a few thoughts and some stats..


My main reasons for undertaking this marathon quest were to, lose weight, improve my overall health and energy, prolong my life, and ultimately all so that I can be a better husband and father. As some may know, I had a major health scare a few years back, which involved some pretty scary emergency heart surgery. You can read more about that here:  About Me (& My Heart)


I started walking right after the 2010 LA Marathon. In the weeks leading up to then, I had started trying to watch what I eat, and had lost a few pounds. But still, at that time, I was around 268lbs and felt pretty unhealthy.. lethargic, knee and hip pains as soon as I stood up from bed, very sedentary.
Juiced up with inspiration from the LA Marathon, and bloggers like @GWJones00, (http://therunningfatguy.blogspot.com/) I began.. slowly.


At first, it was pretty painful short walks around my neighborhood. I think my first "recorded" walk was only 2 miles, and it took me almost 45 minutes. I eventually progressed to walking the block, but trotting faster or jogging across the intersections, then resumed walking. It progressed from there. Unbelievably, 2 weeks ago, I was able to finish the 2011 LA Marathon. Pictorially, here's my year in a nutshell:

My first 2 mile walk in green is superimposed at the beginning of my recent 26.2mi LA Marathon run


I was not the best about consistently blogging or tracking my training and diet over the whole year. Still, I looked over my data on GarminConnect and DailyMile to gather some fun stats: 
Miles of Training:      800 miles
Calories Burned:      100,000
Donuts Burned:        500
Half-Marathons:         2
Full Marathons:         1
Triathlons:                 1
Weight Lost:           45 lbs
Blogs Started:           1

	Resting HR	Blood Pressure	Beta-Blocker Dose	Weight
2010-Feb	76	136/76	400MG (Max!)	268Lbs
2011-Mar	56	100/53	100MG	223Lbs

One year has gone by pretty quickly, and I am pretty satisfied with my progress. I still have some work to do, and my goals for the upcoming year include:
 - lose some more weight. Would like to get down to 190Lbs
 - improve my running. I've never been overly concerned about pace, and I still am not. I would; however, like to improve my running endurance and be able to run longer (even at slow pace) without taking so many walking breaks.
 - eat better
 - expand my running horizons, maybe incorporate some reasonable trail running, hiking, etc.
 - learn to swim better, and start doing a few more Triathlons, work up to the Olympic Triathlon distances
 - start my kids running, biking, swimming more
 - blog more consistently.. this blog, Facebook, Twitter, they all definitely keep me accountable and motivated!
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"  <geeks click here!>

Since I have acquired at least a few friends and followers over my first year, I guess this blog truly exists. I will try to blog more regularly, so I can "exist" more in 2012.

Thanks for listening!
 -J

A little Thursday Inspiration

The kids are all off from school today for Veteran's Day. As luck would have it, both me and my wife had easy morning work schedules today. A rare day that I could just have a relaxing breakfast with both the wife and kids. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun just watching cartoons with the kids. Too bad I couldn't call off sick and "waste" the whole day with the kids. A happy morning...

"The days are long, but the years are short" - Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project



This video is on YouTube and also here:   http://www.theyearsareshort.com/

For more on Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project, click here:
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/about.html

I found this video on the running blog,  Shut Up and Run.
Please consider visiting and following.

 Happy  Veteran's  Day! 
Thank you to all who have served or continue to serve our great country.
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Motivation! STAT!

Halloween sucks.
Can I just say that?
I don't even like sweets or chocolate that much.
The only thing that sucks more than Halloween is the week that I've had after Halloween..

Work-outs:  Zero
"Fun-Size" Snickers Treats:   about a dozen, but who's counting?

I was going to put off the scale for another week or month or so, but it's been awhile and I felt I needed this kick in the ass.

my nemesis this week.. +1.6lbs

Sh*t.. what's wrong with me this week? Is it the upcoming Daylight Savings Time? It is pitch black outside at 7:00AM now (but that shouldn't stop me from biking or rowing in my garage.. so that excuse is 99.9% lame).

Anyone else having trouble with motivation lately?

Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, right when you need it most, you get an inspirational tweet. I slept in and didn't work out this AM, but I did read Sam's latest entry on his awesome Operation Jack blog. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. In brief, in the days of his youth, Sam was thrown into a pool (bullies? he doesn't really say..) and broke his neck. Luckily, he not only survived and recovered, but thrived! Now, he has a wonderful family with a middle child named "Jack". Jack has autism, and Sam's cause has been to run 61 Marathons this year (with his healed broken neck), in honor of his son Jack and to raise awareness and money for the cause of autism (Train4Autism). Ok, what was my lame excuse for not running yesterday, and again this morning? I can't remember now.

That was a nice little shot of motivation in the butt.. but clearly not enough to fully revive this sleeping giant.

I need to snap out of it, STAT! (as they say in my field..)

Here's what I did today to grab the bull by the horns:

(1)  called a few patients in early, so I can hopefully get out early to run. Worked through my lunch to squeeze them in.
(2)  RSVP'd for the Sole Runners mid-week run.. TONIGHT. Yes!
(3)  During my working lunch I also printed out and penciled in an 18-week training plan. Thanks Glenn (TheRunningFatGuy) who steered me to Hal Higdon's Marathon training plans and website.


What else... there was one other thing I did.. what was it? hmm...

oh yeah..

this...

(4)

oh Sh*t.. my first marathon (I hope)

Video: What Makes a Triathlete

My alarm is going off in 4hrs, 49minutes! Then, I'm off to San Diego for my first Triathlon, a mini-Sprint. Pretty excited, which explains why instead of sleeping, I'm up watching YouTube Transition videos and blogging. Ok.. this will be me tomorrow. Ha.. not.

Thanks Jason Bahamundi for this inspiring and motivating video.
Man, I have a L-O-N-G- way to go!!

Life Of An Aspiring Triathlete: Inspiration and Motivation Friday - 10/22/2010
 >> check out 1:00 and 1:45 marks.. awesome!


Ok.. time for bed. My next post should be my recap of the Fearless Races Inaugural Triathlon.
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Just Doing It

I do not use Nike shoes.. but damn they make some good ads and commercials..

This is one of my favorite Nike commercials.. get's me pumped up and just makes me want to go run. It's called "Courage" and the killer soundtrack is by "The Killers"

"I got soul, but I'm not a soldier.."




Recently, I found this awesome Nike billboard ad that really spoke to me. Actually, these words have been speaking to me for years, as I lay on my couch watching TV and eating Cheetos cheese puffs.
I found it on OnTay's blog, TheRunnerGuy. Thanks OnTay!

JUST DO IT

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