17. Week 4 – The alternate schedule

Normally Sunday is a rest day.  This week however, I’ll be out-of-town from Wednesday until Friday evening.  I am a chaperone for my youngest son’s field trip to Barrier Island near Charleston South Carolina.  I am obviously looking forward to this trip.  The only problem is my training schedule.  In order to get the correct number of workouts in by next weekend Kevarcen and I decided to begin the workouts today.  Now, this seemed like a really good idea yesterday.  Then today rolled around.  The weather looked crappy from the time I got up to walk the dog, which was about 8:00 a.m..  I walked the dog for about two hours.  We had planned to meet at the YMCA track at 1:30 p.m. to run ( 2.25 miles today) and then we were going to go in and lift.  The problem was that I just wasn’t feeling the exercise.  I won’t bore you with any of the myriad reasons I came up with not to exercise.  Excuses, excuses, excuses… nothing more.  Kevarcen called and was feeling me out for my motivation level.  He quickly deduced that the level was extremely low.  He had a few things to do in town and would call again around 2:00 p.m. and we would re-evaluate our workouts.  Now, I knew that we could run and lift on both Monday and Tuesday morning and then do it again on Saturday and still get all the proper workouts in.  I also knew that we wouldn’t get up at 4:30 a.m., and get to the YMCA to squeeze in both workouts prior to work.  Quitting today would fuck up the plan for the week.  I really didn’t want responsibility for that.  Before he called I got dressed to work out.  I thought that would motivate me, or at least get me in the right frame of mind.  I think it worked to some degree.  When Kevarcen arrived we quickly headed to the track before we talked ourselves out of the workout.  As we got to the track it was beginning to rain.  Fabulous.  This couldn’t have gotten any better.  Kevarcen asked me what my goal was for the run.  I knew he meant with regard to time.  “My goal is to finish” I told him.  He was responsible for keeping the lap times, as my iPod was very low on battery and I didn’t think it would make it.  It was the hardest run we’ve done in the past 4 weeks.  I wasn’t mentally prepared.  I am suffering from head congestion, due to pollen I think.  As we started running it felt like we were simply crawling.  After 9 laps I was just glad it was over.  The end result was a time of 19:54 I believe, which was very respectable!  I was shocked.  Our lap times for the first mile were actually pretty good.  I had felt like my pace was holding Kevarcen back today.  If he would have made any kind of speed burst (which I was expecting at any time, but especially the last lap) I had half convinced myself I would just walk the rest of the laps.  After the run I felt better and going into the YMCA and lifting really wasn’t that bad.  It feels really good to have pushed, shoved and clawed my way through the muck of my lack of discipline today!

16. Don’t you just love Fridays?

I woke up before the alarm clock, again.  I didn’t get the recommended (who comes up with these recommendations anyway?) 7 or 8 hours of sleep.  I stayed up and played a little World of Warcraft last night.  Wow is a guilty pleasure of mine.  I’ve played for about a month with my youngest son and it’s been a total blast.  It reminds me of playing Dungeons and Dragons back in the day.  I’m proudly displaying my nerd card for you guys this morning.

Right now (5:28 a.m.) I’m getting into the mental state to run this morning.  I stretched a little already and I’ve gone outside to check the weather.  I hoped Kevarcen and I would not be running in the rain.  I’m happy to report there is no rain.  The weather report I just googled for my happy little town says that it is 57 degrees outside now and mostly cloudy.  Perfect weather for a run.

——- time-lapse ——

Well that was quick!  I was ready to get going today.  I got to the track at the YMCA and waited for Kevarcen.  He showed up within a few minutes and we stretched and got started.  Now, Monday is the day that we generally try to run for speed.  It was not our intent to try to bust out a better time today.  Here are the lap times:

Lap 1 – 2:02.6

Lap 2 – 2:05.7

Lap 3 – 2:09.2

Lap 4 – 2:10.5

Lap 5 – 2:16.0

Lap 6 – 2:18.4

Lap 7 – 2:16.0

Lap 8 – 2:01.9

Total time for 2 miles – 17:20.7

I have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised by that time!  Here at the end of week 3 of Hal Higdon’s 5K torture program all is well!  My fastest mile to date was today.  I ran the first mile in 8:28.0, an improvement of just over 20 seconds.  Doesn’t sound like much does it?  I’ll take any improvement I can get though.  I’m looking forward to the weekend off.  I have a movie lined up for tonight, soccer games tomorrow, and the oldest son wants us to go driving so he can work on his straight drive skills.  Of course I have to take Jade on her customary 5 miles or so walks on both Saturday and Sunday.  Hell, at this point after getting up at 5:00 a.m. every day getting up at 7:00 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. will seem like sleeping in!  Hope everyone reading this has a great weekend.

15. Is this what progress feels like? Boring?

This morning I once again beat the alarm clock.  This used to bother me more when I wasn’t getting enough sleep but this week I’ve focused on getting to bed a little earlier so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on that last 15 to 30 minutes of sleep.  I’ve been sleeping with ear plugs for a few weeks now.  They have  made a huge difference in my ability to sleep through the night.  I am apparently a light sleeper.  Once I wake up I tend to watch the clock and this keeps me from falling back asleep.

I got up, went downstairs and jumped on the scale.  I was hoping for 211 pounds.   I see now that merely “hoping” won’t cut it when it comes to losing weight.  I have got to start logging my dietary intake.  I keep saying that, but I keep NOT doing it!  Insanity.  After weighing myself (B.A.N.) I got my coffee ready and logged on to see how many hits I’d had yesterday.   I find myself obsessing a bit about the number of hits I’m getting, which is kind of ridiculous.  I simply need to concentrate on the content of my posts and not worry about hits and/or comments.  It’s nice to get feedback, but that is not why I’m doing this.  I need to remind myself of that and stay focused.

I will say that it is nice to leisurely sip my coffee while getting ready to go work out.  Having 45 minutes to mentally prepare has been making a difference in how I approach each days exercise.   I have been dreading the running days this week mainly because it has been so cold.  It’s been in the low 40′s every morning and I’m really just ready for spring to take hold.  Weather  was not an issue this morning as it was a weight lifting day.  I know I’ve made some progress because the routine we are doing now was more difficult for me two weeks ago.  This is the point where I begin to think that I have to start adding weight to the exercises.  This is also the point where I begin my inevitable decline because I start to make the workouts a bit too hard and I want to quit.  It’s such a delicate balance between not doing enough and doing too much.  I think originally Kevarcen and I had said we wanted to reevaluate the weight training at the end of every 4 weeks.  We’ve got another week to think about it but maybe our program needs a little tweeking to keep it from becoming boring.  Boring or not I’m going to get through the exercises though, quitting simply isn’t an option.

Tomorrow we run 2 miles to finish out week 3 of Hal Higdon’s 5k torture program.  It’ll be cold again, and possibly rainy too!  It’s going to take a little mental discipline to work through that.  I’m going to be prepared though!  I will dress for success!  The run will be much more pleasant if I’m not freezing.  The goal for tomorrow’s run is to finish in 18 minutes or under.

14. Two weeks of blogging goodness!

I can’t believe that I’ve managed to post on this blog for two full weeks!  If you knew me, you’d be surprised as well!  I don’t normally have the discipline to follow through with this type of thing.  So in addition to being shocked at the blogging, I’m pleasantly surprised at the follow through with the exercise as well.  Kevarcen and I ran 1.5 miles this morning, I don’t have the exact times but I believe it ended up being in the 13:30 neighborhood.  After the run I came home and walked Jade for a few miles.  The weather today was absolutely beautiful.  After walking the dog I came home and took a nap which was fantastic!  Then I went and picked up the youngest from school.  We came home and got dinner ready, a noodle casserole that went over quite well with everyone.  This was followed by soccer practice from 6 to 8, and then we watched Survivor.  Bye Tyson, Bye James!  Now it is time to go to bed and get some sleep before the weight lifting session in the a.m..  I’m hoping that I weigh 211 tomorrow morning B.A.N. (Butt Ass Naked).

13. Epic dietary fail!

Today was a weight lifting day.  Thank God!  I can’t believe I just said that because I historically have not liked the weight training days of my exercise regimen.  I was so glad that it wasn’t a track day because it was freezing outside this morning at 6:00 a.m..  Tomorrow morning will not be any warmer though and I’m beginning to dread the morning run.  Fear not!  I will not let Kevarcen or myself down though, I will be at the track at 5:45 a.m..  I feel like Wednesday’s are the easiest workout days of the week.  I mean come on, it’s only going to be a 1.5 mile run.  I probably don’t even have to wake up to run that.  After the run I’m going to come home and drink a pot of coffee before I wake the dog up for her mid week walk.  I plan on doing somewhere between 6 and 8 miles with her tomorrow. 

O.K., I’ve been avoiding the title of this post.  I totally blew the diet today.  I did fine until I came home from work, but then I lost it.  I ate everything that my grubby little paws could get a hold of.  I just can’t seem to get the diet and exercise regimens together.  I’m losing some weight, and that’s great but it’s just not coming off like I know it could be.  Somehow I’ve got to apply some discipline to my diet and my work life (you listening Kevarcen?) because it’s just not all coming together.

12. Self placed mental stumbling blocks.

I just re-read post 11 because I seem to remember writing some bullshit about trying to get myself into the correct frame of mind for Hal Higdon training week 3.  If you haven’t read it yet or are too lazy to spend 45 seconds scrolling down and reading it for yourself, I’ll give you a the executive synopsis.  When I wrote that post I honestly believed that Kevarcen and I would have no difficulty completing today’s 2 mile run in under 18:00 minutes.  Reality was something altogether different.  After I posted last night I made my first mistake.  I stayed up way too late.  It was right at midnight when I made it to bed.  Not only was I going to get a mere 5 hours and 15 minutes of sleep (if I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow) but I started to dwell on the fact that it was storming outside.  I can’t recall torrential rains like we had last night in a long time.  I was lying in bed listening to the rain, and just hoping it wouldn’t still be raining in the morning because I’m sickly sweet and will melt in the rain don’t you know.   Time continues to tick on.  Art continues to lie in bed awake.  I managed to wake up a few minutes before the alarm went off.  I went downstairs to get a cup of coffee and realized that it wasn’t raining anymore.  So far so good so what… I was tired (surprise, surprise) and not into the idea of running.  I threw on some running clothes and headed to the YMCA.  I realized before I even got to the car that I was under dressed for the weather.  It was cold (low 40′s) and a bit damp and windy.  I needed a hat and gloves, by the time I processed that bit of information I was already on the way to the track.  When I got to the track Kevarcen wasn’t there yet.  I checked my text messages and he hadn’t sent me the infamous “Not gonna make it” text.  Damn.  I was kind of hoping he would.  Within a minute or two I saw headlights heading toward me and I knew it was him.  No one else in our town of 20,000 was stupid enough to be out this morning getting ready for another Hal Higdon torture session.  We limped around the track for a warm up, and followed that by the standard stretches.  I got my playlist ready (Scott Sigler’s Kissyman Novella) and got the stopwatch on the iPod Touch ready.  Just like that we were off!  Just like that I was ready to quit.  My heart truly was not into it this morning.  I glanced down after the first lap to see where we stood with regard to lap time and was pleasantly surprised to see the first lap at 2:08.  The rest of the run was just pure mental anguish.  Particularly the last lap.  Kevarcen started to pull ahead of me a couple of steps.  Now that doesn’t sound like much right?  A few measly steps.  I called that mother fucker so many names in that last 3/4′s of a lap while trailing him two steps that it would have made hardened sailors blush.  In the end though, I have to thank him.  He motivated me through actions this morning, not words.  Had he not shown up, I very well may have turned the Jeep around gone back to bed.  As it was, we ended up running the 2 miles in a total of 17:41.  No land speed record sure, but I’m happy with it.  Thanks man, I needed you this morning!

Lap 1 – 2:08

Lap 2 – 2:16

Lap 3 – 2:15

Lap 4 – 2:16

Lap 5 – 2:17

Lap 6 – 2:16

Lap 7 – 2:16

Lap 8 – 1:53 (Can you see the source of my frustration?)

Hardcore Art has disappeared by the way.  I was searching for him in that nice, warm, steamy shower this morning but he was nowhere to be found.  Damn, I’ll miss that guy. 

11. Time to get psyched up for week 3.

I have had a very relaxing day, for that matter I’ve had a relaxing weekend.    This morning I got out of bed and headed downstairs towards the coffee maker.  My ever-present weekend shadow came down the stairs with me.  She can tell when I’m not getting dressed for work that it’s most likely going to be a day that we go for a walk!  As I’m drinking my first cup of coffee the dog is sitting there watching me.  Every few seconds she will grunt at me, it’s not exactly a growl or a bark… just a vocalization that I’ve come to realize translates to “get your ass up and let’s go”!  I didn’t get a chance to walk her yesterday so I was determined to take her this morning.  The weather the past two days has been sunny and in the low 70′s, but today it looked overcast already at about 8:00 a.m..  I checked the weather online and sure enough it looked like it would likely be raining, albeit lightly, all day.  I decided to just get it over with and get out on the road.  We walked a total of 9.2 miles this morning.  I’ve read that a sleeping pit bull is a happy pit bull.  My dog was definitely a happy pit bull all afternoon.

I cooked dinner tonight for the family, my specialty Chandran’s Chicken Curry with a side dish of Curried Cumin Potatoes.  I’ve made the Curry pretty much every two weeks for the past six months so needless to say it is one of our favorite dishes.  The Curried Cumin Potatoes I had never made before but the entire dish was polished off before the dishes left the table and that is usually a pretty good sign.   I’ve got a feeling we’ll be having that again pretty soon.

I’m ready to get started on week 3 of the Hal Higdon 5K novice program.  Tomorrow morning will see another .25 mile added to my current run.  That will make a total of 2 miles, which I’m not worried about.  I’m hoping to keep the pace around 9:00 minutes per mile.  I feel pretty confident that my training partner Kevarcen and I will have no trouble maintaining that pace.  I can’t wait to reward myself with another cold shower!  WooHoo!  You guys that have been dropping the “hardcore” label on me can feel safe to remove it… I didn’t exercise today so I decided to take a nice hot shower after walking the dog.  Apparently Clark Kent’s kryptonite is walking the dog in the rain.

I’m looking forward to the second episode of Pacific on HBO tonight.  The first episode was pretty good, although it was only about 45 minutes long and I felt a little cheated.  I watched Band of Brothers years ago and I know it’s early in Pacific but it hasn’t started off quite as good.  I really liked the way Band of Brothers followed the main characters through basic training prior to them heading off to war.  The Pacific just kind of jumped right into the fray so to speak.  It’s always kind of hard to keep track of all the different characters in any war movie so maybe as I learn to distiniguish everyone I’ll get into it a little more.

My goal for this week is to lose 5 pounds by next Sunday.  I plan on tracking everything I eat this week, as I think that’s where I’m falling short.  So as we head into the next week I want to wish everyone success in your dieting endeavors and I’m rooting for you!