Trials and Declarations

It is unusual for me to get two blog posts in during a single day. I consider myself lucky if I get one in per week. I wrote earlier today I was going to start Couch to 10k. It is advertised that by following this regime and doing the workouts 3 time per week, in 13 weeks, I will be ready to do a 10 k without stopping. I did indeed start this evening. I started shortly after I got home and let the dogs outside for their "yard time." It took about 40 minutes and it was a lot more work than I expected.
For those of you who are interested in the stats, the first step was to walk for 4 minutes 30 seconds and then run for 30 seconds. This interval repeated itself 7 times. During this workout, I went just a little over 2 miles and burned 230 calories.
These are the lessons that I learned from trying this method.

1) My workout playlist needs a serious makeover. Those who have read some of my previous posts know that I need to have my tunes during my workout. I set the playlist to random and I definitely need to get some songs with more energy. I will be working on that correction. I am open to suggestions.
2) After trying a couple of different approaches during the workout, holding on to my iPod worked best. I did have event where the iPod flew off the bookshelf of my treadmill. Who reads while running on the treadmill anyway?\
3) I am still very happy with the shoes I wrote about in a previous post. I definitely want to continue to use them and get another pair for running outside. I have a different pair of shoes that I can use in the meantime.
4) Running on the treadmill is loud, so I will have to do it after work. I don't want to wake my wife up in the early morning hours.
5) I am not very flexible. Stretching is very difficult for me, so I think I am going to have to start doing it daily. When I stretched this afternoon, it sounded like the whole upper half of my skeleton was resetting. I dont expect to be goalie flexible when I am done, but, I hope to be able to be competitive in a limbo competition. Speaking of competition....

I know I have talked about 10k's and working out, losing weight and a little about stress reduction. I am something of a goal oriented person. The 10k races will be a step in my progression toward the my goal, as will half and full marathons as well as bike races. The goal that I have set for my self is to complete an Ironman Triathlon at the age of 40. I figure that gives me 3 years to train. Now that I have said it and published it, than I need to get it done. I don't plan to talk a whole lot about the triathlon at this point, rather focus on the running or bike race that is right in front of me.

I appreciate your support, prayers and comments. Keep the music and informations suggestions coming.

Addition: In response to Lindsay's comment, I have read the Couch to 10k online before as a post from Cool Running Magazine. I am actually using an app for the iPhone that uses the same process. This blogging software doesn't appear to like links, so if you want the link, send me an email at 1pairofshoes@gmail.com and I will send it to you.

Routines

I am back at home and back to work, trying to get settled back into something close to what my daily routine is. Admittedly, my training routine has been erratic to say the least. I have been back on the treadmill a few times and actually ran outside once since I have been home. Happily, I have lost some weight while everything has been changed. I am down to 253 as of this morning. We didn't eat very much or on a regular schedule while I was gone, so I am not sure how much that was a part of the change. I can say that my in laws eat mostly organic, so that may have been a factor.
I am going to start Couch to 10K this evening. I have read through the process and there is an app for the iPhone that I can get to faciliate the process. I hope that I have not lost all of my progress to this point, but, I think having something consistant will help. I am also looking for a 10K to run in the next few months. Something local (around Portland, OR) would be preferred.
Something that I have learned is that having a consistant routine is very helpful. Also, running, even on the treadmill, is a better stress reliever than I realized.
As always, I am open to suggestions for training tips, or playlists.

Losses and Gains

I referred in my last post to my Brother in Law's battle with Hodgekin's Lymphoma. He fought bravely against the disease. Sadly, Aaron passed away on 8 March, 2010 at approximately 6:30 in the evening. He was only 23 years old.
As the family has come together this past week, I have had the opportunity to hear stories, see films and listen to music that he created. He was a soldier, an actor, a musician and singer. I think that I have learned more from him in the past two weeks than I realized at the time. He looked for the positive things in life and chose to focus on those. He had a strict rule that there was to be no negativity in his room and didn't want to see people crying in front of him. I had the chance to help him in ways I would have never imagined.
He didn't complain about not being able to lie on his back, be comfortable or even having cancer in the first place. His passing has taken a lot from the family, but it also reminded us of what he gave us.
His funeral will be this coming Monday. I am looking forward to hearing new stories, meeting friends of his that I haven't had the pleasure to in the past. While we will return to our routines, the routines will not be the same completely. I plan to take his positive attitude his "Let's do it" spirit and apply it to the elements of my life in new ways.
Life, Love and Happiness.

Life Balances

While the primary arc to this blog is about working out and losing weight, there are other aspects of life that this fits into. I have written a little bit about goals and trying to strike a balance in life.
It has been about two weeks since I posted for one of those life balance kinds of reasons. There are a few places in the Bible that basically say that a person who doesnt take care of their family is worse than a non believer. I very much believe that to be the case. As some of whomever may be reading this, my Brother in Law has been battling Hodgekin's Lymphoma for about a year now and he is at a very important point in his fight. Without going into the details of another person's story, I have been focusing more time on being involved in his treatment, including taking time off of work and as a result, I have not been training much. I know now that taking care of someone who cannot take care of themselves clues you into things you didn't know you could do. Just from working with Aaron this past week, I think I have grown as a person, even though I have lost over two pounds.
I have read in a few places that there is a mindset in the Triathelete culture that causes life to become focused around training and workouts. While my current goals and ambitions are more consistant with becoming a Triathelete, I do not intend on letting that become the center of my life. I am OK with the consequences of that decision. There are battles out there that are exponentially more important than the one that I am preparing for.

Audience

A huge part of being an athlete is performing in front of an audience. I am not stranger to this. Having played football and ran track in high school as well as hockey in my early 20's, I have played in front of an audience many times. That has never been an issue for me before. I have discovered, however, that working out at home does have an unexpected audience problem.

My wife and I have a lot of pets. Four cats and two dogs to be exact. They are all rescues and we have not had a day in our married life when we didn't have a pet. Our older cats do there own thing when I am doing a workout at home The same cannot be said for the dogs or our youngest cat. The dogs are a couple of Jack Russell Terrier mixes, so they are about the same size as the cats. Their names are Max and Eddie. The kitten is a fearless eight month old named Indy. She likes to pounce on the dogs for sport and I have come home to find her up on top of the curtain rod.

The dogs and the cat have an unnatural fascination with our treadmill. When I was doing my workout late last week, I had a really hard time concentrating on what I was doing. The cat looked like she was trying to figure out how to hop on the treadmill, or she was trying to play with the string on the emergency stop. The dogs did try to get on the machine while I was on it. They also ran all through the house, chasing after the other cats and barking. This didn't make for a very good workout.

Based on this, I have decided that the best place for the dogs to be when I am working out at home is for them to be outside. Doesn't matter if it is raining, snowing, hailing fire and brimstone. I don't plan to workout at home everyday. I know that for me to meet my goals, both for weight loss and other things that I have not stated yet.

My workout yesterday went a lot better. The cat was happy to be in our room, someplace she is not allowed to go to of her own free will. I got the whole workout in and all I heard was my iPod and rhythm of my feet.

New Shoes

I have never thought of this as being a forum for suggestions to give to the rest of the world about what to use for workouts, or anything else in life. I actually want to encourage others to give me ideas since I am learning this as I go along.

Up until recently, I have been using a pair of cross trainers to do my workouts in. I fairly comfortable pair of Nikes that I have had for a couple of years, but, I have only used in a gym or on our treadmill at home.

Last weekend, my wife and I went to an outlet store about an hour from our home and I went into a Nike store to find a new pair of shoes for just living in. I am a fairly tall person (about 6'4") and I have big, wide feet. A consequence of this is that finding shoes that fit is a major challenge. I looked at and tried on 5 or 6 pairs of shoes, ranging from basketball shoes all the way to walking shoes. I even tried on a pair of Air Jordans. Hey, at an outlet store, why not? I couldn't find anything that I was happy with, or wasn't expensive, even for an outlet. I had just about given up one of the employees suggested that I try on a pair of shoes that he wears almost on a daily basis and is the most comfortable for him.

He brought out a pair of running shoes. That really wasn't what I was looking for to wear while hanging out with friends and such, but, I decided to try them on anyway. It felt like I was just wearing socks, they were so light and comfortable. For those who might be interested, they are Zoom Vomero+4's and I am excited to be using them. My cross trainers, great shoes in and of themselves will be my hangout shoes and I will be using the running shoes during my workouts. I may even get an second pair when the weather is better for running outside. They have the space in the sole for the Nike iPod sensor. I don't have that yet, but I am considering that for tracking my distances when I start working out outside.

As of yesterday's weigh in, I am 256.4 lbs. We have gone out to eat way too much and I have worked out way too little. This is no way to prepare for a 10k or anything bigger.

Even Life Can Have a Ctrl+Alt+Delete

All I can really say about the long gap between posts is that life has taken me in places where the last thing that I have had time to think about is losing weight and getting into shape. Needless to say, I have gained most of my initial weight back. I was at my heaviest about a month ago at 258 pounds. I feel slow, weak and generally out of sorts. Like life is running at the wrong speed.

I am taking advantage of my privilege to start over. I have decided on some goals, long and short term that are not necessarily weight loss driver per se, but, by accomplishing these goals, losing weight will be a significant side benefit.

I am going to start using this as a tool, but, exactly how is still taking shape, in a way, kind of like I am.