Monday, January 25, 2016

Cabin in the Woods

This week, I was completely focused on the upcoming weekend.  A few college buddies and myself were heading to Brown County to celebrate a birthday with a weekend away.  The birthday boy decided he wanted to spend a couple nights in a cabin in the woods and just hang out.  So, that's exactly what we did.

However, I still had to get in my workouts.  I made it through my Wednesday pace workout just fine.  I did try to push myself a little during this one.  Thursday, I could tell I was a little sore, but my legs still felt good to go.  This was an "easy" workout so I took it easy and got going.  About halfway through I could tell that my dinner was catching up with me as I tend do do most of my workouts in the evening.  My stomach started to cramp and I decided to call it there rather than make it worse.  I could run through a side stitch, but this was beginning to get a little worse than that so I decided to listen to my body.

Friday, I spent the day getting ready to head down to Brown County to check in to the cabin.  We rented the home through Hills O' Brown.  If you have ever rented a cabin around the Nashville, IN area, you have probably gone through them.  The cabin was great!  We stayed at the hilltop hideaway and enjoyed every minute.  We basically sent ourselves back to college.  Saturday we drove into Bloomington and went bowling and the rest of the time we spent hanging around the cabin and playing video games.  It was a fun time.

I got home on Sunday and needed to change the battery in Mrs. Re-Dan-imation's (she got all of her workouts in this week by the way) vehicle as it had finally kicked the bucket.  It lasted about 7 years.  Not too shabby.  After doing that, and eating dinner, I spent the remainder of the evening watching football and planning on catching up on some sleep.

This morning I woke up and found that I felt a little more rested.  I got on the scale and well let's just say I am beginning to lose faith in its accurate measurements.  Most days I get on the scale and get a few different weights and I go until one repeats itself.  This morning I only stepped twice and it said that I gained over 4 pounds.  I have quite a hard time believing that!  So, for this week I am going to forgo the actual weight portion and just go with how I feel.  I will be getting my workouts in and constantly improving my fitness.  I can feel myself getting stronger during my runs and I am looking forward to more of that.  With that said...Until next week.  Food. Feet. Water. Repeat!!

Monday, January 18, 2016

Back on Track

The NordicTrack that is.  After finally assembling the treadmill last week and then becoming ill on Sunday, I was actually able to get in all my workouts this week.

I'm glad to be back on the right track concerning my fitness.  I was able to complete easy, pace, and long runs this week...which according to my training plan appears to be what my workouts look like for the foreseeable future.  I did a little better than I thought I was going to, but I obviously have a long way to go before I will be ready for the Mini.  My workouts consisted of 40, 50 and 70 minutes and I came in at a total of 13.2 miles for the week including my warm ups and cool downs.  Mrs. Re-Dan-imation even took a picture while I was using the treadmill for the inaugural run.


If you remember I talked recently about the accuracy of my new Garmin Forerunner 235.  I tried it again recently on the treadmill and again, the pace was way off what I was actually running.  So, I did some research.  It turns out that I am not able to calibrate the watch on a treadmill and that instead I need to do some runs outdoors and it will learn my pace based on my arm movement in association with the GPS.  I'll be honest, it's been pretty cold lately and outside is not something I have been up for since we purchased a treadmill.  I will get back out there, but I plan on doing it at a point when I can dress appropriately for the weather while maintaining my comfort as well.  Plus, I am a SWEATER, and I don't feel like overheating in the cold and then freezing stiff as a board when I start to cool down.

Mrs. Re-Dan-imation has decided that this new treadmill is definitely not just for me.  This week she worked out on it twice.  Gotta say that I am proud of her.  Running has never been her thing, but hopefully she begins to learn to love it.  She also downloaded the Couch 2 5K app and just started that.  Hopefully it helps her build some stamina and confidence.  It's funny that she is asking me questions about running although I weigh 2.5 times as much as she does.  She was understandably a little aggravated when she got on the treadmill the first time and the "enter weight" portion wouldn't drop down all the way to her weight.  (You can stop cussing at her now) ;)  Good Job!! Maybe one of these days I will get her to sign up for a 5K with me!!

I have noticed lately that monitoring my calorie intake has taken a turn in the wrong direction.  I was doing so well before Thanksgiving with this and since then I have been hit or miss on actually entering the data into MyFitnessPal.  I'm a little mad at myself about it.  I feel like even through the holidays I could have done much better monitoring myself, but now we are significantly beyond that point and I am still not back at it.  I will do better, I have to.

Stepping on the scale this morning was honestly a bit of a surprise to myself.  I weighed in at 261.3 lbs.  I really was a bit pissed to be honest.  How could I have run 13.2 miles in workouts this week and not have lost weight.  I went up 0.3lbs.  And no, it wasn't muscle, as my body fat percentage was higher as well.  It all goes back to that food monitoring point.  I am putting in way more calories than I am burning.  Simple math.  That's ok.  I know what I need to work on.

Until next week...Food. Feet Water. Repeat.


Monday, January 11, 2016

Some Assembly Required

This is how I feel about any fitness program.  Obviously there is some work to be done, or some assembly, before the final product can ever been seen.  This week has provided me some opportunities for assembly.

I was able to borrow a friends truck on Wednesday (thanks Joe and Shelley) to pick up our new treadmill.  We headed to Kokomo with my brother-in-law in tow.  The loading of the truck was easy as the store associates basically did it for us...It was getting it into the house where the real battle began.  Basically we had to "walk" it across the driveway and push it across the porch before we could get it into the house and onto some furniture sliders.  You may be able to judge the amount of fun had there by looking at the pictures.  There it sat, it its future home, until I was able to come back from a Jaycees meeting the same night.  I managed to get it unboxed and started the assembly before I headed to bed around midnight.

On Thursday, I continued the assembly.  I was able to get all of the work done that could be done by 1 person just as Mrs. Re-Dan-imation walked in the door after having watched a local basketball game. I asked for her help and I was a little surprised she agreed rather than heading to the shower and bed.  We got the brace attached to the bottom to allow the track to raise and lower and made sure everything worked.  Again, it was late so we headed to bed before having a chance to really give it a try.  She vows she won't get on it until I get a chance to try it out first.

Day 1 assembly on left....Day 2 success on right
Friday, we headed to another basketball game (kind of our winter agenda) and then went to celebrate the birthday of a family friend. Happy birthday Kath!  Yet another night we did not get to try out our new treadmill.  We slept in on Saturday and I had another project I needed to work on before I headed out to work at a festival being put on by a community organization.  I hit up a local establishment to warm up and have some food after standing outside for a few hours.  Again, I headed home and went to bed.  Another day down the fitness tubes.

Sunday...BIG PLANS!!!  Time for the treadmill!  NOPE!!!  Woke up at 7:30 with what I can only assume was food poisoning from some creamer I put in my coffee yesterday that I had held on to a little too long.  I spent most of the day trying to beat a fever and get a little energy back after a ROUGH morning.  I sit here today typing this having spent the day disgruntled by the fact that the energy was not there to go for a walk or run today.

Today is also the second anniversary/birthday of the loss of our son Korban.  We lost him after an extended struggle through infertility.  Today we spend time reflecting and trying to maintain a positive outlook on life including our future attempts at IVF.  We hope you attempt to do that same in any struggles you are having in your life.

I did manage to get on the scale this morning and the food poisoning sure did its job.  I was down to 261.0.  That a drop of 1.2 lbs.  I doubt that is all from yesterday, but I can't wait to see what happens when I am actually able to get back into the swing of things this week.  Until next week...Food. Feet. Water. Repeat.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Hello 2016!

The new year provides a time for reflection over the past year.  I have thought back about the changes I have made over the past year and I find that I am pretty proud of myself.  I did a lot of soul searching last year and decided that some things needed to change.  Not the least of which was my overall health.  So 39 weeks ago, I made a change for the better.  I decided to start eating better and moving more.  So far it has worked, but I have a LONG way to go.

As I think back, I also remember times I could have done better.  I remember times I have done well, but the more difficult times stick out in my mind.  I want to be better at remembering and celebrating the good times I have.  I will work on that.

True distance!
My plans for the next year are only looking up.  I have struggled during the holidays to maintain my fitness program, but to be honest, I kind of expected that.  I have a training plan to follow that I just started this past Sunday.  I am glad that it is laid out for me and should prepare me to run the entire 500 Festival Mini Marathon in May.  That seems like a long way away, but it will be here sooner than I know it and I have to be prepared.

Uhhhh????!!!
I did make some improvements this week regarding my running.  Yesterday, I was to complete my long run for the week.  The time for the long run was to be 50 minutes.  This is longer than I have run in the past.  However, this long run was supposed to be at an easy pace, so I did my best to push through.  I set the pace at 13:45/mile and headed off.  I managed to finish the entire run and I think it put me at about 3.6 miles.  I am not sure exactly because my overall distance included the warm up and cool down walking times.  This obviously was not record setting according to speed, but it was for length of time for continual running.  I also tried out my new Garmin Forerunner 235 during this workout because it has an indoor running feature.  However, apparently I need to calibrate it because it thought I was running a 10:00 mile the entire time and calculated that I ran 4.93 miles during the 50 minutes.  The heart rate was also off considerably.  I am hoping that using the watch more and more will continue to improve its accuracy.  I have a feeling completing an outside run at some point will help with that as well.

Thanks John!!
Also, this week I should be picking up our new treadmill when it arrives at the store.  I can't wait to get it and set it up.  This is not something I would have purchased in the past and it was a family purchase considering it was Mrs. Re-Dan-imation's idea to buy.  This will not only help me maintain my fitness, but it will also get Mrs. Re-Dan-imation a little more active as well.  I know she reads this every time I write it and I am not saying that she needs to increase her fitness, but I like knowing that she has the opportunity to do so.  I would LOVE it if she would sign up to complete a run with me in the near future, even if we have to run/walk it.  It isn't about the competition, it is about the sense of accomplishment.  Who knows if she will sign up for one, but if she does I will make sure that all of you are the first to know.

As the year begins, don't think about something to CHANGE but about a way to IMPROVE.  Strive to do better and and be better.  When I stepped on the scale this morning it showed 262.2 lbs.  That is an increase of 0.2 lbs which I basically consider no movement.  I'll take it.  Much better than the last couple weeks.  Now, let's see how I do in the weeks ahead as I get back into the routine of things.  Until next week...Food. Feet. Water. Repeat. (Speaking of that slogan...I have included a picture of that personalized medal/bib display after I hung it up...looks pretty good)