I woke up this morning with a lot of pain in my hip. I know it was something I did during our run yesterday since it hurt when I went to bed. When I stood up out of my bed, I felt like my leg was gonna shoot straight up through my hip and into my rib cage. It hurt real bad.
I popped a few advil and iced it at the recommendation of my wife. That made it feel a little better.
Throughout the day, I was wondering if I would be able to do our bike ride tonight. It was supposed to be 20 miles, but I wasn't even sure I could do 2. As the day went on, my hip started feeling better. By the time my wife got home from work around 4:30, I had decided that I was gonna give it a try.
Boy did I. And when I say I, I mean we.
We did the same route we did last Monday. Except this time, we cut 5 minutes off of our time and averaged a full mph faster. 16.4 to be exact. There were a few times that I felt like an engine. My legs were like pistons firing away. I think I had a cadence somewhere between 90 and 100 while on slight inclines that made me feel like I was going down hill. It was wonderful.
Lesson for me today? Don't make decisions too soon. Wait it out and see what happens. You may be surprised at what you can accomplish if you just give things time to develop.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Day 15
My wife and I went for a long run today. 6 miles.
I spent my day at work dreading the very idea of this run. 6 miles is far for a big guy like myself. I also wasn't sure that I would make it through pain free. Turns out I didn't, but isn't that running?
I had to remind myself periodically that I cannot set limits for myself. I can do anything. It's nice to surprise yourself sometimes.
I used the idea of "chunking" to get through it all. I divided the run into a few different parts in my head. It's easier to get through when you feel like you're making progress. I also managed to map a run that was basically three of our normal runs combined. I got through the first one, no problem. Moved into the second part and I felt like I was flying. There was a large section of trail, which is fun, but it's definitely more difficult than road running... easier on the knees, but harder to run on. The last bit on the road felt like I was finishing up our normal 3 miler. Maybe because it was the same end, maybe because I was feeling good.
I noticed a little tweaking of different joints and muscles here and there. Foot, knee, hip, shoulder. Yeah... shoulder. When I got home, I took my shoes off really quick because I thought I had something in my shoe that was bothering me. Wrong. I have a blister. A big one. I'm hoping that it heals up before I need to run again on Wednesday.
The Garmin we use to track our speed wouldn't find the satellite, so we just clocked it. 58:23. That averages to a 9:41 mile. Not bad. I think our natural pace is somewhere between a 9:30 and 10:00 mile. I'm happy with our run tonight. Lots of workouts scheduled for the rest of the week. Looking forward to it.
I spent my day at work dreading the very idea of this run. 6 miles is far for a big guy like myself. I also wasn't sure that I would make it through pain free. Turns out I didn't, but isn't that running?
I had to remind myself periodically that I cannot set limits for myself. I can do anything. It's nice to surprise yourself sometimes.
I used the idea of "chunking" to get through it all. I divided the run into a few different parts in my head. It's easier to get through when you feel like you're making progress. I also managed to map a run that was basically three of our normal runs combined. I got through the first one, no problem. Moved into the second part and I felt like I was flying. There was a large section of trail, which is fun, but it's definitely more difficult than road running... easier on the knees, but harder to run on. The last bit on the road felt like I was finishing up our normal 3 miler. Maybe because it was the same end, maybe because I was feeling good.
I noticed a little tweaking of different joints and muscles here and there. Foot, knee, hip, shoulder. Yeah... shoulder. When I got home, I took my shoes off really quick because I thought I had something in my shoe that was bothering me. Wrong. I have a blister. A big one. I'm hoping that it heals up before I need to run again on Wednesday.
The Garmin we use to track our speed wouldn't find the satellite, so we just clocked it. 58:23. That averages to a 9:41 mile. Not bad. I think our natural pace is somewhere between a 9:30 and 10:00 mile. I'm happy with our run tonight. Lots of workouts scheduled for the rest of the week. Looking forward to it.
Start of Week 3
Discouraging morning so far. I am back to square one on weight... 259.
I'm more annoyed about it than I am concerned, though. I hate to make excuses, but it was my birthday weekend. I drank and ate farm more than was necessary, but damnit I had a good time. The lack of concern comes from what I know will be my week this week.
We changed our training schedule for the half marathon to try to hit our peak a little sooner so we can do the Atlantic City Half Marathon. Because of my bike ride on Saturday, it threw off our normal training week. In order to fit in our long runs, still have a few bike rides, and some shorter runs... here's what the next 7 days looks like...
Monday - 6 mile run
Tuesday - 20 mile ride
Wednesday - 4 mile run
Thursday - 3 mile run
Friday - 57 mile ride
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - 7 mile run
The training is too intense to even want to drink alcohol. As long as I can manage my food intake a little better, I should be fine for weight loss. I might even get back on track. Wish me and my legs luck.
Also, I did my push-up test this morning. I got 30.
I'm more annoyed about it than I am concerned, though. I hate to make excuses, but it was my birthday weekend. I drank and ate farm more than was necessary, but damnit I had a good time. The lack of concern comes from what I know will be my week this week.
We changed our training schedule for the half marathon to try to hit our peak a little sooner so we can do the Atlantic City Half Marathon. Because of my bike ride on Saturday, it threw off our normal training week. In order to fit in our long runs, still have a few bike rides, and some shorter runs... here's what the next 7 days looks like...
Monday - 6 mile run
Tuesday - 20 mile ride
Wednesday - 4 mile run
Thursday - 3 mile run
Friday - 57 mile ride
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - 7 mile run
The training is too intense to even want to drink alcohol. As long as I can manage my food intake a little better, I should be fine for weight loss. I might even get back on track. Wish me and my legs luck.
Also, I did my push-up test this morning. I got 30.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Healthy Meal 1: Chicken & Spinach Tacos
Tonight my wife and I were relaxing in front of the TV when she told me she was starting to get hungry and generously offered to let me cook by saying, "Want to try to make one of your healthy meals tonight!?"
Sure. What do we have?
So I look around in the fridge and in the pantry to start generating an idea. I start with the chicken and spinach. How can I make this work well? Not too hard to do, I guess, but I wanted to make it interesting. I decided on chicken tacos. But what else can I use?
Ingredients:
1 package of chicken
1 bunch of spinach, washed
4 hard or soft taco shells
1/3 sweet onion
1/2 tomato OR 1/2 can of diced tomato, drained
shredded cheddar cheese
extra virgin olive oil
garlic powder
salt
pepper
I chose to use a can of petite diced tomato with green chili peppers for my recipe.
Start off with the prep work. Rinse your baby spinach well in a colander.
Next, dice up your onion into small pieces.
Last for prep is to slice up the raw chicken. Slice it thin, about a half inch wide, and make strips that are about 2-3 inches long.
Now it's time to start cooking.
Heat about 1-2 Tbs of olive oil in a large pan. Once the oil is hot, throw the onions into the pan.
Once the onions are translucent, add the tomatoes. Let this mixture simmer for a few minutes until the juice reduces. Put the mixture into a bowl for later.
Rinse your pan and toss a little more oil on it. Let that heat up and then put your chicken on. Season the chicken with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Cook until the chicken begins to brown.
Once the chicken is done, it's time to eat.
Put down a layer of spinach on a soft taco shell and then layer the chicken, tomato and onion mixture, and then top it with a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese.
My wife eats gluten free, so she doesn't normally eat soft taco shells. She made hers in hard taco shells and they looked beautiful!
If you decide to make this recipe, let me know how you like it! I'm not sure what the calories are in it, but I know that it's healthy. My wife always tells me to "eat the rainbow." That's not a skittles commercial. She means to make sure I eat lots of foods with a large variety of color. Just look at the picture and you can see the different colors. I've got red, green, white, and orange all on one plate. There's plenty of protein, at least 1 serving of fruits/veggies, if not two, as well as some dairy and a grain. That hits all of the major food groups and I must say... this tasted pretty delicious. Try it out!
Push-ups
We forgot to do our push-ups yesterday. Maybe forgot isn't the right word. We chose not to do the push-ups after our 50 mile bike ride... except we continually reminded each other that we had push-ups to do yesterday until we ran out of time. So we did them this morning.
Today, our push-up workout was 5 sets in the amounts of 16, 17, 14, 14, and then a max out set of at least 20. That's a minimum of 81 push-ups.
This was going to be the first time I would attempt to go beyond my initial max-out test results of 19. And I was gonna try to do it after 4 sets.
Turns out the push-up workouts are working. My abs were still sore from the last workout we did. Also, I was breezing through the first few sets. When it got to our max out set, I was a little nervous, but I was also feeling pretty good. I hit 5, 10, 15, and then 20 push-ups. But kept going. I squeaked out 24. 85 push-ups this morning.
Tomorrow, we'll take a test to see if we can continue on to week 3 or if we need to repeat week 2.
I'm pretty confident that I'll move into week 3, but I'm a little nervous about the workouts that are coming. If I get into the third category, which I fully expect to, I'm going to be doing A LOT of push-ups next week. It's scary, but I also know that I'm setting limits for myself that I shouldn't.
If you set limits for yourself, ignore them, and bust through them. Don't hold back on anything just to make life easier for yourself down the road.
Today, our push-up workout was 5 sets in the amounts of 16, 17, 14, 14, and then a max out set of at least 20. That's a minimum of 81 push-ups.
This was going to be the first time I would attempt to go beyond my initial max-out test results of 19. And I was gonna try to do it after 4 sets.
Turns out the push-up workouts are working. My abs were still sore from the last workout we did. Also, I was breezing through the first few sets. When it got to our max out set, I was a little nervous, but I was also feeling pretty good. I hit 5, 10, 15, and then 20 push-ups. But kept going. I squeaked out 24. 85 push-ups this morning.
Tomorrow, we'll take a test to see if we can continue on to week 3 or if we need to repeat week 2.
I'm pretty confident that I'll move into week 3, but I'm a little nervous about the workouts that are coming. If I get into the third category, which I fully expect to, I'm going to be doing A LOT of push-ups next week. It's scary, but I also know that I'm setting limits for myself that I shouldn't.
If you set limits for yourself, ignore them, and bust through them. Don't hold back on anything just to make life easier for yourself down the road.
Day 14: Birthday Update
Hey, did anyone know that a hurricane came through here last night?
I haven't been posting much in the last few days because we've been really nervous about Irene coming through. My family has a beach house in Cape May that I'm still worried about, but it looks like we're gonna be fine here in PA.
Because of the state of emergency along the NJ coast, we couldn't get down to the beach house to secure it. My parents told me that they were having some friends down there move some furniture inside for us, but I really wanted to get down there to do some stuff to secure the house last week. If we find out that things were real bad down there, I'm sure I'll be down this week at some point to pick up the pieces.
I learned that I'm a little bit of a control freak. I don't like to feel like I have no control in a situation, whether it comes to small stuff like driving, or big stuff like weather. Maybe I need to work on the little stuff.
Yesterday was my 26th birthday. To celebrate, my wife, brother, and friend went on a 50 mile bike ride with me. It was a lot of fun. We were hopeful that we wouldn't get hit with the hurricane before we made it back, at least to the cars if not the apartment. After the second rest stop at mile 25 or so, we got annihilated with rain. Luckily, the downpour only last about 15 minutes or so.
We got to ride wet for a while, but eventually made it back to the start/stop area and had a great lunch. The rest stops on this ride were also really great. Lots of baked goods, shot blocks, gels, and one stop even had a gluten free section that my wife could enjoy.
When we got back to our apartment, we had a few beers, showers, and then relaxed until a few more friends showed up. We went out to dinner and then came home to enjoy some more beverages before going to bed.
This morning, my friends left early. Now I'm at home with my wife, relaxing, and enjoying some time with her. Today's also a rest day from working out, which is great. Although, I am looking forward to my run tomorrow...
I haven't been posting much in the last few days because we've been really nervous about Irene coming through. My family has a beach house in Cape May that I'm still worried about, but it looks like we're gonna be fine here in PA.
Because of the state of emergency along the NJ coast, we couldn't get down to the beach house to secure it. My parents told me that they were having some friends down there move some furniture inside for us, but I really wanted to get down there to do some stuff to secure the house last week. If we find out that things were real bad down there, I'm sure I'll be down this week at some point to pick up the pieces.
I learned that I'm a little bit of a control freak. I don't like to feel like I have no control in a situation, whether it comes to small stuff like driving, or big stuff like weather. Maybe I need to work on the little stuff.
Yesterday was my 26th birthday. To celebrate, my wife, brother, and friend went on a 50 mile bike ride with me. It was a lot of fun. We were hopeful that we wouldn't get hit with the hurricane before we made it back, at least to the cars if not the apartment. After the second rest stop at mile 25 or so, we got annihilated with rain. Luckily, the downpour only last about 15 minutes or so.
We got to ride wet for a while, but eventually made it back to the start/stop area and had a great lunch. The rest stops on this ride were also really great. Lots of baked goods, shot blocks, gels, and one stop even had a gluten free section that my wife could enjoy.
When we got back to our apartment, we had a few beers, showers, and then relaxed until a few more friends showed up. We went out to dinner and then came home to enjoy some more beverages before going to bed.
This morning, my friends left early. Now I'm at home with my wife, relaxing, and enjoying some time with her. Today's also a rest day from working out, which is great. Although, I am looking forward to my run tomorrow...
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Day 10
My wife and I had a run planned for today. 4 miles. It felt great.
We ran our normal 3 mile route with a few extra blocks here and there. On our way back, I was really feeling great. I got to wear a new pair of socks and a new pair of compression shorts. I'm not sure if that was the real factor, but it sure didn't hurt. I could have gone farther. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's 3 miles.
I want to discuss an element of wellness that I was thinking about today as well. I was at a Wawa, probably somewhere I shouldn't have been, but I was getting something for my wife... and ended up getting myself something as well. But that's not the point of the story. I was in line behind a woman who was walking up to the check-out with a 1/2 gallon of milk. When she got up to the counter, she asked the guy for a case of cigarettes. I forget what brand but that's not important. I happened to eaves drop on the price. 60 bucks. 60 BUCKS for a 1/2 gallon of milk and a case of cigarettes. I can't imagine the milk was more than 3 bucks.
Holy hell.
First of all, my personal experience with smoking has been a burning piece of bamboo when I was about 10. I felt nauseous for days. I obviously have no desire to ruin my health with cigarettes. Even if I did, I'm relatively certain that I would never be able to afford the cost of those things!
My birthday is this weekend, and I have been asked numerous times what I want for my birthday. I don't usually have a good answer for this question. Most of the stuff that I want costs much more than I think a birthday present should cost. But I know I can tell you quite a few things that I would want with 120 bucks, what I imagine that woman spends on cigarettes every month. A new pair of bib shorts for cycling. Running shoes. Gels (for energy). Books. Compression shirts. Shorts. Sunglasses.
I'm sure if I spent more time on it, I'd be able to come up with a bunch of other things.
Why would people spend so much money on something that causes cancer and ruins their health when they can buy so many things with that money that would enable them to be more healthy and enjoy life!? It just doesn't make any sense to me!
This does make me reevaluate my choices, sometimes. What am I spending money on that isn't necessary? What can I get with that money I saved that will make me more healthy and support my new lifestyle?
We ran our normal 3 mile route with a few extra blocks here and there. On our way back, I was really feeling great. I got to wear a new pair of socks and a new pair of compression shorts. I'm not sure if that was the real factor, but it sure didn't hurt. I could have gone farther. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's 3 miles.
I want to discuss an element of wellness that I was thinking about today as well. I was at a Wawa, probably somewhere I shouldn't have been, but I was getting something for my wife... and ended up getting myself something as well. But that's not the point of the story. I was in line behind a woman who was walking up to the check-out with a 1/2 gallon of milk. When she got up to the counter, she asked the guy for a case of cigarettes. I forget what brand but that's not important. I happened to eaves drop on the price. 60 bucks. 60 BUCKS for a 1/2 gallon of milk and a case of cigarettes. I can't imagine the milk was more than 3 bucks.
Holy hell.
First of all, my personal experience with smoking has been a burning piece of bamboo when I was about 10. I felt nauseous for days. I obviously have no desire to ruin my health with cigarettes. Even if I did, I'm relatively certain that I would never be able to afford the cost of those things!
My birthday is this weekend, and I have been asked numerous times what I want for my birthday. I don't usually have a good answer for this question. Most of the stuff that I want costs much more than I think a birthday present should cost. But I know I can tell you quite a few things that I would want with 120 bucks, what I imagine that woman spends on cigarettes every month. A new pair of bib shorts for cycling. Running shoes. Gels (for energy). Books. Compression shirts. Shorts. Sunglasses.
I'm sure if I spent more time on it, I'd be able to come up with a bunch of other things.
Why would people spend so much money on something that causes cancer and ruins their health when they can buy so many things with that money that would enable them to be more healthy and enjoy life!? It just doesn't make any sense to me!
This does make me reevaluate my choices, sometimes. What am I spending money on that isn't necessary? What can I get with that money I saved that will make me more healthy and support my new lifestyle?
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