2011 Race Calendar

Now that my 2011 LA Marathon is in the bag, what's next?

I've been a recovering lazy butt for 12 days now, and I have a 10K this Saturday!! Time for me to get some races down and get back on that horse.

Tentatively, here's what I have so far for this upcoming year.

4/2       Seal Beach 10K
             http://sealbeachrun.com/

6/12     Redondo Beach Triathlon, Mini-Sprint, 400M/3mi/1mi
             http://www.rbtriathlon.com/

6/18     Old Goat Hill Climb Trail Half-Marathon, 13.1mi
             http://www.oldgoatrunners.com/old_goat_50_home_page_015.htm

Ain't But One Hill! 2,400 Feet Elevation!

(credit: @GWJones00 http://therunningfatguy.blogspot.com )

*9/18   Long Beach Triathlon, Sprint 800M/11mi/3mi
             http://www.pacificsportsllc.com/long-beach-tri-event-info/

9/25      Kaiser Permanente Thrive LA Triathlon,
              Sprint 800M/14/1mi/3.1mi
               http://www.latriathlon.com/general-info/
               - or Olympic Relay... 24mi bike or 6.2mi run

10/9       Long Beach Marathon
               http://runlongbeach.com/

*10/29   Fearless Races Triathlon,
               Super-Sprint X2, 250M/5mi/2mi/250M/5mi/2mi
                http://www.fearlessraces.com/races/1

11/27      San Dimas Turkey Triathlon, Sprint 800M/14mi/4.5mi
                http://bit.ly/SanDimasTurkeyTRI

3/18/12   2012 LA Marathon
                http://www.LAMarathon.com

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

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)

Heart Damage and Marathon Running

As a doc who underwent major open heart surgery in 2006, and is now trying to lose weight and get healthy by training to run the 2011 Los Angeles Marathon, and do Triathlons .. this article was very interesting to me!

For those that are not familiar with my cardiac escapades, you can peruse more here:  About Me (& my heart)

Marathon runners suffer temporary heart damage

Decrease in blood flow impairs function, may explain sudden deaths, study finds

In brief, Canadian researchers looked at twenty runners (70% were men), and ran a battery of tests before, immediately after, and several months after, the Quebec Marathon (that's 42.195 Km for us metrically-challenged Yanks). Testing included VO2max and cardiac MRI. They found temporary changes immediately after the race, including edema and inflammation. From this, they suggest possible cardiac damage, possibly from transient decreases in blood flow to the cardiac muscle itself. This was felt to be most evident in the less-fit runners, and also exacerbated by dehydration. All seems to make sense to me. None of these 20 runners died or had any events during the marathon. And, all the cardiac changes resolved and reverted back to normal baseline several months after surgery. The study speculates that this temporary heart damage might explain sudden deaths during marathons, or like the recent death of Fran Crippen during a 10K open water swim competition. While Mr. Crippen was clearly fit and in peak cardiac condition, it sounds like the conditions of the race were arduous, hot, and he was indeed dehydrated.

Here are a few quotes from the article, followed by my quick thoughts.

"We know that regular exercise reduces cardiovascular risk by a factor of two or three in the long run, but while we're doing vigorous exercise such as marathon running, our cardiac risk increases by seven,"

Yes, I can believe that. But, I think it is actually a seven fold transient increase in risk, during exercise. (like the death of swimmer, Fran Crippen) On the other hand, the profound 2-3 fold decrease in cardiovascular risk is permanent, every day for the remainder of your life.

"One 2007 study, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at 30 years of marathon data and put the risk of dying at 0.8 per 100,000 runners. According to the researchers on that study, running a marathon is half as risky as driving the same route on a normal day."

Driving the same route in Los Angeles, the risks of dying might be about equal.


My take home message from this article is that I am aware of the risk. As I've mentioned in my "About Me (& my heart)" page, I know that there is a very small chance that something bad might happen during the few hours that I am running, biking, swimming, or racing. But, I am fairly certain that something equally bad (or worse) will happen someday, while sitting on the couch, being fat and sluggish. I'll go with the lifetime 2-3-fold decrease in my cardiovascular risk, looking better, feeling great, being energetic, playing with my kids, etc.

In the meantime, I always keep a mindful eye on training smartly, safely and being prudent. I will also look into the VO2max parameter, as I am unfamiliar with that. And, be a little more cognizant of avoiding dehydration. When I run, I'm liberal with my walking breaks. Primarily, I am interested in finishing the distance, not hitting a blistering pace or PR.

I know what's at stake, and I don't plan on going anywhere soon. What do you think about this article?

2010 Long Beach Half-Marathon

Finished my second half-marathon, ever. Felt much better finishing this time, compared to my first effort (2010 Disneyland Half-Marathon). And, I achieved a new PR by 7 minutes, 13 seconds. I'm still doing too much walking. But overall, my running is improved, so I'm happy about that!

Breaking Rules..
Everyone says.. DO NOT try anything new on race day. (eg. shoes, gels, supplements, etc)  Throwing caution to the wind, I cautiously tried a few new things, and I lived to tell the tale.
 - new socks
 - Hammer Endurolyte Capsules
 - New GU Gel, sort of.. GU Roctane vs my usual GU Espresso Love

Carb-Load Dinner #1:   Sole Runners!
The Sole Runners met at a Long Beach Pizzeria for an excellent pizza/pasta dinner to launch their upcoming Fall/Winter Training session. I finally got to meet TheRunningGreenGirl in person, as well as Sole Runners Founder/Coach Steve Mackel. What a great group of friendly & positive runners! Also, briefly met Love2Mags. Signed up for the next training session. One of the mentors gave me this tiny satchel with a handwritten inspirational quote that the Sole Runners hand out to runners on the course.   How cool is that? Really nice!

I was going to save it for during the race, like mile 11.. when I would be sucking wind and really needing it. But, I had enough gear, and decided instead to open it up right before I left early Sunday morning. 

Saturday Expo

Went to the Expo late afternoon, right before a carb-loading pre-race Tweetup arranged by Glenn (@GWJones00 of TheRunningFatGuy). Registration & bib pick-up went very quick and smooth, almost without a hitch. They didn't have any more of my size expo shirts. Not entirely unexpected, since I strolled in with only an hour left in the expo! Hopefully, @Chicrunner can help me out here .. because the shirt looks AWESOME!!

Earlier in the day, I had almost the worst luck a runner could have the day before a race. My 3-yr old daughter dropped a book on my right little toe. Not just any book, a large picture dictionary. She can not even read yet! What is she doing walking around with a dictionary? It was not that bad, and actually didn't even hurt.. but I decided I did not want it rubbing against my 4th toe for 13.1 miles. I was going to use a bandaid or wrap it in a tegaderm from my work. At the expo, I found these cool Injinji Performance Toesocks, which looked interesting and felt great. They have 5 separate little sleeves, one for each toe and all seamless.

I bought two pairs for $20 cash .. still undecided if I was going to wear them or stick with my cheapo Champion C9 socks from Target. It would be a game-day decision.

Carb-Load Dinner #2
Tweet-up pasta dinner at La Parolaccia in Long Beach. Bunch of running tweeps! Did not get to meet everyone, but it was a fun lively bunch of us, and the food was great. Service was ok, especially for a pretty large group. Got to chat with TheRunningGreenGirl, Love2Mags, and our gracious host, Glenn, TheRunningFatGuy. There were others, but unfortunately I didn't catch tweet handles. I think Carol.. and Trevor (who was running his first-ever Half-Marathon!).

I went home, procrastinated, ate some more, and finally got around to arranging my music, and getting my gear together. Surfing the web while songs loaded, I reread @RunnrGrl 's Chicago 10-10-10 Recap. Great read. I liked the idea of chopping a race into parts, each with it's own "plan". Speaking of music, I guess I should add one more new thing.. I decided to go without my iPod this race. Instead, I just loaded my music on my Droid phone using this program called DoubleTwist. I have been running with Nuun water for my long runs, but my wife says the race is so well-supported, I should just use the water stations. I decided to pack a few capsules of Hammer Endurolytes, which I have never tried before. Directions say take 1-3 capsules every hour. Hmm.. I did NOT tell my wife about the electrolyte caps or the new Toesocks. She would just call me crazy and tell me not to use them on a race day. She did tell me to try the GU Roctane for my first gel.. which I did.

RACE DAY 

Hand-written inspiration quote from Sole Runners. THANK YOU!!

Alarm: 4:15am, ugh. Stuck to my routine here. Toasted english muffin with a little peanut butter. Coffee. Tried to go to execute a pre-emptive strike against the runner's trots.. nada. Drove to the Metro station to take the Blue line to the race. Still hadn't decided about my socks, so I brought my old C9 socks with me. One more trip to the porta-potties. Felt some rumbling.. but still, nada. Guess I'm bringing it with me. I knew some of the runner tweeps, bloggers, and some work friends of mine, were going to meet at the back of Corral #4, so that's where I headed. My knees felt great. Feet felt great. Socks felt great. I ditched the old socks and decided to roll the dice on my fancy new Injinji socks. Runners started packing in, and still no sign of anyone I recognized. Something didn't seem right here..

I notice the neon green pace sign. "4:15".. hmm, that would be a 2:07.30 half-marathon pace!! Sh*t.. I'm in the wrong corral! Idiot! I took a picture of the sign marker at the front of corral #4, while standing in the back of corral #3. Duh.. too late now. I hugged the fence and let these Wave 3 guys run by, hoping to merge back into the stream near the back of Wave #4.

My race started, and I was off running. Felt pretty good, and once the crowd thinned, who do I run into? Glenn.. (TheRunningFatGuy). I also met a friend of his, blogger Slomohusky. We ran together for a few minutes and chatted before they pulled away. I mainly did run/walk, and tried to stay in a higher heart rate zone, to determine my walk intervals. I'm not sure that worked out too well. My heart rate never really got too high, or too low, so it ended up just being random run/walk intervals. I managed to stay well-below 170 and realized that I'm way undertrained. For averaging 146bpm, I wasn't moving very fast. I need to work on my cardiac conditioning, and losing a few more pounds. But more so, I just need to get more medium and long runs in. What ended up bothering me most were my knees & hips. After Disneyland Half, I was sidelined with a left quad injury for 3 weeks, so I really only got in 2-3 mediocre long runs before Long Beach, with mainly crosstraining (swimming & rowing) in between. Definitely undertrained. Oh well..

No real drama out on the course. I used 2 GU gels.. first the Roctane GU at around Mile 3-4. No noticeable difference over the regular Espresso Love GU. Alternated about every 3-4 miles gel breaks with water+Endurolytes. I was worried about stomach pains so I only took 1 Endurolyte capsule (instead of 2-3). Early on, I felt like I had to pee, and possibly more. Surprisingly, I just kept passing bathrooms and felt like I could make it to the next bathroom. Around midway, my bladder and bowels decided to stop bugging me and go along with my plan. From the start, I felt like I was sweating a lot for some reason. I missed the first water station that was on the left. I was on the right and couldn't cut across the herd of stampeding runners. I hit all the other water stations, but skipped the gatorade/powerade, on the advice of my wife. Along the beach path, around Mile 6-7, it got really crowded. I don't know why I was in such a rush, since I'm so slow.. but I decided to pass some walkers on the right, in the sand. I did not twist my ankle, but as soon as my right foot hit the sand, I got a sharp pain in that ankle. That's about it. Ran thru it and it went away. Humbling.. I saw a lot of fit-looking runners along the way, stopped, leaning on trees, fences, each other.. stretching out their legs with pained looks on their faces. I hoped they weren't running the full marathon, because they still had a long way to go! Maybe I paced myself better this time, but I didn't have any cramps until the very end. My legs felt good. Feet felt good, and pretty light & cool. I noticed the lack of any seams or stitching rubbing across top of my toes (unlike my old socks). Preliminary two thumbs up for the Injinji socks! Around Mile 12, I had a few fluttery twitches in both calves. Stopped for a few seconds to get my calves sprayed with Kool 'N Fit .. which really did seem to work nicely.. or maybe it was just a cool refreshing placebo. Whatever works..

Was really starting to feel some pain around mile 12.5 in my right hip and knee, but I was still running. I heard my name and looked left.. saw my wife and 3 kids jumping up and down screaming my name at mile 13. This time, I managed to actually smile and RUN across the finish mat:      3:06:59

Sorry no race pics. Major props to Glenn and others who seem to do full video documentaries and tweet while running a marathon. Don't know how you guys do it?! I just focused on not falling or dying. I did have to switch up my playlist on my phone at one point, so this was my chance to take my only race shot.

Reflections..
I can not be anything but happy. I may be slow, but I am blessed to be able to move. I was undertrained for Long Beach, and still managed to PR by 7 minutes! Even sweeter.. this time my legs did not feel totally wrecked and useless after the finish. The whole event was so nice and well-run, well-supported, awesome shirt, nice medal, etc. I can see why it is one of my wife's favorite marathons. And now, mine too. I used to think running was just about shoes and running. I can now see how so many bloggers get freebies and post reviews for products. Without even trying, I feel like I could review a half-dozen different products from this race alone! (but, I'll spare you) Finally, typing up this race recap, I realize how much goes into other people blog posts.. and for all of that, I am grateful. This is my first "real" recap, so my apologies if this is too long, too short, or too rambling. Thanks for reading this far. Time for me to go look for my next race..

Running Form: Biomechanics, Efficiency, or your own "Authentic Run"?

I have a half-marathon coming up in 6 days, and my knee hurts today. I just figured it's from propelling my Clydesdale body around for 8 miles on Saturday. My marathoner-wife says, "I think sometimes you over-pronate, and you crossover the midline." (I just think I'm too fat still)

She sends me this L-O-N-G- but very interesting 12:44 min video.

Watch at least the first 5 minutes, where they dissect and critique the running form of superstars Ryan Hall, and Meb, and contrast them vs. the revered "Kenyans". Also, the animations are quite amusing too. Near the end, my attention span started to wane, my eyes glazed over, and I got the feeling they were selling some snake oil. But, the first 2/3 of the video was pretty fascinating. I think I do all these mistakes.



Here are my fast-n-dirty calculations:

1 marathon = 26,200 strides (multiply times each inefficient factor, like "Bounce/Drop")
(so, luckily, that's only 13,100 strides for my upcoming Half-Marathon)

For Ryan Hall:
1 marathon = 26,200 strides X an inefficient 4" bounce drop
= additional 3.3 grueling extra miles
= 6,812,000 lbs added impact

For Me:
(I figure I'm about 100lbs heavier than Ryan Hall)
= about 12,052,000 lbs added impact!!

No wonder my knee hurts!

I've seen marathoners like Ryan Hall run, and they look like awesome speedy gazelles to me. But, what the heck do I know? Is there truly one "perfect" running form? The concept of efficiency makes sense to me. It reminds me of the endless arguments for/against the "perfect golf swing". Or.. does everyone just have their own unique, Zen, discombobulated-but-works, golf swing? If anyone has read the book or seen the Will Smith/Matt Damon/Charlize Theron movie, "The Legend of Bagger Vance", you'll know where I'm coming from.

"Yep... Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing... Somethin' we was born with... Somethin' that's ours and ours alone... Somethin' that can't be taught to ya or learned... Somethin' that got to be remembered... Over time the world can, rob us of that swing... It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas... Some folk even forget what their swing was like..."

- The Legend of Bagger Vance

Does the elusive perfect golf swing or running form even exist? What do you think?

Running a Marathon is like looking in a Mirror

My first Half-Marathon.. a PR!!

Run-Walked the Disneyland Half-Marathon on September 5, 2010. Started off good, and probably a bit too fast. Pretty nice marathon, except for all the industrial streets around Anaheim. Best part by far was running around the bases at Angel's Stadium and seeing yourself on the JumboTron TV. (I, of course, missed this sublime moment because of the acute pain shooting down my legs). My wife, the "real" Marathoner in the family, finished the race and circled back to collect what was left of her husband. She caught up to me around mile 10, when I was really starting to hurt. Around mile 12, I was doubting I could finish. Another back-of-the-pack'er trotted by me. She stops and looks back and trots back to me. Asks if I'm ok, and fishes into her fanny pack to give me a packet of icy massage gel. I thank her, and my wife rips it open and starts rubbing my calves and quads. Wow.. what a relief!! Thank you and good karma to the good samaritan runner who came back to aid the fallen. Maybe it was just the break from running (limping).. anyways, I felt rejuvenated to run another few feet until hobbled again. I hobbled across the finish line, but tried to look better for my first-ever FINISH PHOTO.

My first PR:   3:14.12



The days and weeks after the marathon were rough.. but that is for another post.

In brief, I was saddled with a weird left thigh (quad) hematoma that was very painful and took about 4-weeks to recover. I've had it before (even worse), so it might have been due to a chronic blood-thinner medicine I take, and perhaps unrelated to my 13.1 miles. But, I needed to make a brutally honest assessment of myself, .. my health, my running, and my priorities. I came to the conclusion that at my current size, the long running feels great afterwards, but kind of wrecks my body for longer than I'd like.

I still maintain my goal to run the LA Marathon with my wife (or at least start the Marathon with her). But I will probably push back to 2012, as I really do not have the game for 2011 (less than 200 days away!). My wife, on the other hand, seems to be the type to remain uninjured and able to do several marathons a year. I'm not that kind of runner (yet?). I'm taking a long look at Triathlons, especially the Sprint and Olympic distances for now (not to mention Relays). Triathlons just seem to be less impact on my Clydesdale body than long distance running alone.

Next up for me..  Long Beach Half-Marathon  October 17, 2010

Excuses..

The April Showers brought May Flowers.. which bothered by allergies.. so I couldn't run. (Wait.. I don't have allergies!!!) Then, June Gloom set in.. so I couldn't run. Truth be told.. work projects got crazy, and I just felt burnt out.

Stepped on the scale today with much fear... 236.6
NOT BAD! Ok.. I'll take that.

Went for an "easy" 4-mile lunch run-walk in the hot sun... gasping, walking, crawling.
VERY BAD! Walked the last whole mile (slowly). Looks like back to square one.

Only 67 more days until the Disneyland Half-Marathon!!

Now, I'm just going out with the goal to just finish my first half-marathon strong (without getting picked up by the Minnie Mouse golf cart for going too slow). I'll probably run/walk the whole thing, and then focus on the Long Beach Half-Marathon in mid-October

On another positive.. I got my new Concept2 Rower. Looks sweet!!
Setting it up in the garage for cross-training. Will post pics and progress on that hopefully tonight!

Dreadmill Interval Training?

I'm sick-as-the-proverbial-dog.. so I haven't run since Monday night. Feel like a slug, but that hasn't stopped me from snacking! Finally broke down and started myself on some antibiotics. I need to shake this, so I can get back to running! I gotta get outside and run tomorrow.

So, my super-duper wife is training for the SF marathon, and CIM (Sacramento). She's on a training program and has yet to do any of the intervals, because we/she can not find time to get to a track. (I know, sounds lame). Anyways, she usually goes to the gym early, like 4:30am. Can she do these intervals on the treadmill? Seems like it would actually be easier. The program she is on lists specific distances at specific paces, (eg. 1600M at 7:39 pace, 400M RI, 1200M at 7:30, etc..). I heard people say treadmills are easier than streets or trails, so it's cheating unless you do it at an incline of at least, what? 2-5 degrees?

I think she's 4 or 5 weeks into the program, and hasn't done any hills or repeats, yet!

Starting to get nervous about those SF hills!

Back on Track

Been so busy with a new project at work, so have not been able to post in a few days. But, I've still been running and tracking my diet. I've realized that my geeky nature must really enjoy tracking data.. of any kind. (I run home faster down the final stretch, just to get my Garmin data uploaded!) I've also become just slightly obsessed with tracking my diet on FatSecret. I fudged my RDI (Rec Daily Intake) downward by switching to "Low Active" to bring my RDI down some. 3100 KCal RDI just seemed too high. So long as I'm not weak-and-dizzy, I figure I'm not being too malnourished at an RDI of 2700. Tracking on FatSecret & Calorie Counter has really helped me focus on food choices, and portion control. AND, I weighed-in a bit early, on Saturday morning: 242.4lbs, down 4.8lbs in 5 days?! Are you frickin' kiddin' me? I had to recheck it 3 times. Feel good about that! I'm attributing this to the running and especially the Calorie Counter on my Droid phone. My latest data quest is to now attack the Calorie Breakdown. The recommended "runner's diet" should have about 50% carbs, 25% fats and proteins (does that sound right?). I am APPALLED at my breakdown! While trying to make semi-sensible diet choices and keep it all under 2700 KCal, I seem to be parked at a low protein content, sometimes as low as 15%.. meaning some days, my carb/fat is over 40% each!! Years back, I did Atikins and lost almost 20lbs. I can cut out carbs if I want to.. but I'm surprised at the fat content in everything and how easy it is for fat to sneak into my diet in the most unexpected places. Example, I felt like I ate like a pig yesterday, 48% carbs, 37% fats, ugh, gross.. and I hadn't run since Friday morning. I needed to RUN!!!

My gluttony from yesterday:

So.. my motivation was really sagging last night. But, it's supposed to rain the next few days, and work is only getting crazier this week. So, I forced myself to do some night running (plus my wife said "go run!"). It ended up being nice.. cool evening, quiet, nice shadow running companion. AND.. I took exactly 1 minute off my 10K time from the Seal Beach 10K, finishing my 10K run in 1:29.10
(Whoo Hoo!! does that count as a new PR?)

ALSO, I started to have a few (brief) moments were I actually felt like a 'runner', not some fat guy huffing-n-puffing. I experimented a bit with my running style, like running more upright, with compact arms, and cushioning my impact at a slightly slower/longer stride. Still not running continuously for much more than 3/8-to-half a mile at a stretch.. but I think I'm getting better (slowly). Probably haven't hit that elusive "runner's high" I keep hearing about. I'm a bit worried that lots of the running training programs seem to suggest a running base where I can run continuously for at least 30 minutes. I feel like I'm a ways off from that yet.. still doing the run-walk thing for now. I don't really have a set strategy yet.. should I? I'm just trying to run 10K a week as my long run, and improve my time and overall performance each time.

Today, I feel great.. so, I'm glad I forced myself to go run last night. I'm re-encouraged and re-energized to keep going. I have about 7 weeks until my next 10K, the Wrigley River Run in Long Beach.

2010 LA Marathon

So how many times does one have to think "I really need to get off the couch and start running.."
before you actually DO IT?

My wife was a runner, and put that on hold while she popped out 3 awesome kids in 6 years, and then picked up running again, seriously.. about 2 years ago. She ran the LB Half last Oct 2009 and smoked an impressive 3:57:00. Set her sights upon the LA Marathon, which was not as satisfying for her. She ended up being a bit distracted, and fell off of some of her training runs, esp the long runs. Also, not mentally as tough, or logistically as prepared as she was for Long Beach (no Gel, no lytes? Why?!).
Result.. a very respectable 4:21:00 (but a drop in performance for her).

Regardless, the vibe at Mile 26 was electrifying, and watching her finish was inspiring.

Then, all the Twitter race reports via @LAMarathon started pouring into my Droid.. including an excellent video from @GMJones00 , aka TheRunningFatGuy here on Blogger. His race report.. was the BEST .. especially because he was not some lean, wiry, ex-Olympian regaling his sub-2:30 race.. He was just a local guy, living life, fighting the battle-of-the-bulge, trying to balance family, work, health, and life in general .. just like you and me.

A worthwhile read.. and you have to watch his video:
I'm Still in a Haze - LA Marathon Race Report by TheRunningFat Guy

Here's a link to go right to his full video recap:
   CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

So, thanks to my wife & the FatGuy, for getting me off the couch. It's been 6 out of 7 days running now, and I already feel healthier. Gotta get up for the Seal Beach 5K/10K. Also, thanks FatGuy for duping me into adding yet another distraction to my life.. blogging.

More to come..

To Blog, or Not to Blog

As if Facebook, Twitter, and several email accounts weren't enough!

After watching my awesome wife finish the amazing 2010 L.A. Marathon.. for the last 6 days, I've been trying to nurture and feed my fledgling enthusiasm for running.

More details about me and my motivations later...

But in brief, I want to track and post my progress as I work towards a few important life goals:

(1) lose weight

(2) be committed to exercise, healthier eating, and being healthy

(3) eventually finish a Marathon, for the purposes of (1) and (2) above

Hopefully, this blog will chronicle this quest, and keep me motivated and accountable.  We shall see..