Pre Disney Warm Up (updated)

Yes its that time of year again, its my company's annual Adventureland trip. Back to the land of Iowa's own hidden Mickey. (you can spot it in the photo above) This year things will be a little different because my wife has to work. So what do you do when your alone in the park with your kids who each brought a friend and want to go do their own thing? You exercise of course.

With less that two weeks until our WDW I am going to use today to test out my feet. I visited "map my run" today and plotted two courses that are just over a mile. My goal (if my feet can handle it) is to complete some non stop loops. How many will I complete? We'll find out.

Of course a ride on the Tornado is a must today.

And something for those who are a little more laid back.

Post park update: I managed to get in five dedicated miles in at the park earlier today. Two miles back to back in the morning and then three individual loops during the day. These miles were done without stopping for rides and shows. I'm sure I put in couple more miles during the day but I am only counting the walking loops. My right foot is a little sore this evening but not to bad. I think I can safely begin some walking miles during the week. I have great success in treating my foot by rolling a pepsi bottle filled with frozen water under my arch.

Will be working the late shift this week so I am planning on a couple more YMCA visits this week. For those of you that have me on Skype feel free to give me a shout this week.

Canoe

I hate to admit it, but I let an entire week go by without exercise. Taking last Wednesday off was on purpose, but then I just sorta let life get in the way again. Ugh!

Last Friday was a stressful 15 hours at work. Made even more so because of an indecisive supervisor. A member on my team offered the solution we needed earlier in the day but it took my super the extra seven hours to finally come full circle and agree. I'm sure the the fine folks over in (undisclosed city) Illinois really liked not having any TV during prime time on a Friday night. I took my frustrations out on a thin crust supreme pizza. The whole pizza. I know, I know, wrong move.

So the result of stress and lack of exercise equated to a 4.4lb gain on Monday.

OK that's enough of that. On to other more pleasant things.

Last night after work I asked my wife if she wanted to run up to the local YMCA. She is a member and I have a one week pass. (still not sure I want to give up the 24hr availability I have at SNAP) She said sure and then for some reason I asked if she would rather go canoeing.

Recently my Father gave our family an Old Town Canoe. This would be our first time using it. So we backed out the van, lowered the canoe from its suspension in the garage and began loading. Its not very heavy but it is a little bit of an awkward thing to handle. Soon we had it up on the luggage rack and strapped down. Our destination "Big Creek Lake."

I bet its been over 35 years since I was on the water at Big Creek. When I was a kid we fished there nearly every weekend. We mostly caught Blue Gill and Bass. I always enjoyed when Dad carefully took the boat back into the inlets. They were cool because there were a lot of big trees growing straight up out of the water. You had to be cautious of submerged stumps and we often lost hooks due to snags. But it was great fun.

Last night we put in at the Williams Drive ramp and after a humorous start we were off. Neither of us had paddled a canoe in years but we soon got the hang of it. The lake was very calm and quiet. At one point I told my wife how nice it was to do something peaceful. We counted about seven other boats and three kayaks while we were there. We paddled down to the spillway that feeds Saylorville Lake and back. We came very near to a deer feeding on leaves along the bank in the spillway channel. As we floated by she never took her eyes off us. In all, our round trip was four miles in a little under two hours.



Oh and I nearly forgot, at one point my wife began singing "Just Around the River Bend." Disney is clearly on our minds. We leave in just two weeks!

Quick Check In

Just a brief check in. Walked a couple miles yesterday and biked 25 in the afternoon. Feel pretty good this morning although my right arch feels tight. Going to give my legs a break today.

Hope your having a good week.

Caption This

"Ride Like the wind, Wasowski!"

For my sisters in laws birthday celebration yesterday, we went on a photo scavenger hunt. I was the lucky team member who got to "sit on a childs attraction." I just smiled and thought hello Team Voice as the Picture was taken. There is also a photo of me in which I am suppose to be standing like a zebra. Not sharing that one. haha.

On the food front: I am going back to work today following a 4 day weekend. I made some good and bad choices over these days. Certainly room for improvement, some small tweaks here and there could have made a bigger impact on today's weigh in. I'm not grumbling, just stating a fact.

On the exercise front: This area continues to go well. Staying consistent here is what is paying off for me right now. Without in I would not have lost weight this past week. Saturday my daughter purchased a new bike she has been saving for. Last night I asked her to go for a ride with me. When we got near the house we were at 11 miles and she said she was not tired and wanted to bike some more. I thought "cool" so we made another 5 mile loop and finished with 16.17 miles.

Weight loss: Even though I could have made some better food choices I managed to lose 2 pounds. I was pleased to see that on the scale. Two weeks in and Mike and I seem to be staying pretty close in our efforts.

More fun with the Simpsons. Updated 6/12

These pictures in no way go together but I was having so much fun with the Simpsonizer tonight that I could not resist trying this out on the Progressive Insurance Girl and Walt Disney himself. I think they turned out pretty good.
You can Simpsonize your own photos here. Simpsonize Me.





I am surprised that no one discovered my hidden Disney podcast reference in the last post. Mike noticed the Presto poster behind the window but did not connect its meaning. Presto is a magician and by placing him behind the window you get "Window to the Magic" Get it?

If you click the picture to enlarge it you can see the detail better.

Update: Made it out this afternoon. Took a trail that I have not been on in roughly 20 years. The North trail toward Saylorville Dam & Big Creek Lake is full of rolling hills. So far everything I have been doing has been flat. I forgot how far out this trail went, but I was determined to make it all the way out to the marina. Nine miles out it began to sprinkle, by mile ten it was a steady drizzle. I finally reached the marina just past sixteen miles. The uphills going back were longer and tougher. I changed gears between 3-7 all the way down to 1-1 more than once. Lots of blind turns mixed with the wet trail made for an interesting ride. The rain never let up and when I finally made it back I was just shy of 33 miles so I lapped the parking lot until I reached that. Hopefully I've got some Oxy clean to clean the white shirt I wore.

My foot is still improving and I plan to go out walking this weekend. Think I'm going to hold off just a little longer before reintroducing the impact of jogging again.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Thinking Like an Imagineer

It seems like I am always tinkering around with the various audio and photo things I come up with. Once more I have made a room addition to All About the Corn/Intro Studio. This should not be too hard. Can you name the reference? Remember think like an imagineer.

Biked another 10.2 miles yesterday with plans to go biking after work today with Taarik, he is part of the Digital Video team I am on at work. So far I am pleased to have had a week of consistency. What is it they say? Three weeks makes a habit? Well here's to the next two weeks.

Cheers!

Update: Completed 25.4 miles with Taarik tonight. Woo Hoo!

Midwest Intro Guy Weightloss Update.

Well for some reason Monday is my weigh in day. Mostly because that's when I weighed in last week. Not sure if weighing in right after a weekend is such a hot idea. Regardless I am down 6.4 pounds. A nice start and although I did get three days of biking in last week I think it is mostly due to simply sticking to a few choices like only having two diet sodas last week instead of two a day. Better choices means results.

So OK Mike, its on brother. Hey besides the Aerosmith hidden Mickey is there anything else we need in the studio?

Improvements

"Dude, I got us a new rug. It really ties the room together!"

Got in another Bike ride tonight after work. My Daughter joined me for this one. We completed 10.8 miles before she was ready stop. She did really good especially for only having the one speed and having to deal with a few hills. I have a co-worker who wants to get some biking in next week also. My foot is still improving. A short jog down the hallway at work today told me to hold back a little longer though. If my foot continues to improve I will begin adding some walking back in next week. Hoping I will be jogging again soon.

I Want One

OK maybe I would look a little silly riding one of these down the road, but it would sure be fun.

Went out and biked another 14.42 miles this morning. I explored some different trails from the other day. There seems to be no shortage of bike trails near by. The only trick is finding the ones that are not all chopped up with intersecting roadways.

My right heel is improving. Will most likely stick to the biking through the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend be sure to wish Justin and his family a nice Disney Vacation. I believe he told me they leave for Orlando this Sunday.

And let's also remember to wish Rae all the best on her Dualathon this weekend.Go Rae Go!

Aftermath

Dam has come and gone and now it’s time to look ahead and come up with a plan that will carry me through WDW 2010 in the way I really want to run that race.

For too long now I have not been very active and that ends today. I knew going into this past weekends run that it might prove more challenging that I gave it credit. One thing it did was drive home in a powerful way how much I have given up in the past seven months.

A year ago when I ran Dam 2008 I was down to 200lbs. This year I weighed in at 248lbs. That’s an extra 372lbs of force in every heal strike. I have to tell you I feel every bit of it in my right foot. After the run on Saturday I was feeling good. My feet felt tired, but I knew that I had somehow avoided blisters. I felt perfectly fine up until I returned home and went to step out of my car. I was surprised to find I could hardly bear weight on my right foot. My left foot which gave me so much trouble last October was perfectly fine.

We were supposed to attend a graduation party that afternoon but I had to skip it. Yes I was stuck at home with a frozen bag of corn on my foot. After a nap it only felt worse. The pain was coming from right in front of the heel. I could feel some swelling and it felt like I was walking on a golf ball.

Each day it has gotten better but I am not ready to run on it yet. Besides healing my foot there are some other health concerns that only getting active and losing weigh will improve. A month ago I went to the blood center and donated double reds. I was surprised by high blood pressure and also caught off guard by the rise in my resting heart rate. When I was jogging 25+ miles a week my resting rate was in the mid 40’s. On this day it was in the upper 70’s.

So I have some goals to reach in the months ahead.

1. Lose the 48 lbs.
2. Exercise regularly to reduce my blood pressure and improve my resting heart rate.
3. Rebuild and reclaim my endurance.
4. Connect those wogging dots and get my average jogging pace back into the range of a 10:00 to 10:30 minute mile.
5. Achieve a new PR for a single mile run. My current best was 7:16 set back in 2006. My goal is a 7:03 mile. (The exact time it takes to listen to Junior Brown’s Surf Medley. It taunts me every time it comes on my Ipod. Damn surf music!)
6. Run a 5k in under 35 minutes
7. Run a 5k in under 30 minutes
8. Match or beat my personal best 5k of 24:36 (Yes I had a tail wind but it still counts)
9. Jog the entire WDW 2010 half without walking.
10. Return to DAM in 2010 and finish 1:54 and not 2:54
11. Eat right through better choices and planning.
12. Use the scale.
13. Use the scale.
14. No excuses
15. Did I mention use the scale?
16. Sleep. (hey it’s important, and besides I am bad about getting enough)
17. Don’t give up.

How am I going to achieve this? Well, I can only do this if I am consistent and I do have some new motivation. On Monday my wife’s family began a Biggest Loser competition. Its individuals not couples. Everyone is putting $20 dollars in the pot and the final weigh in is in December.

I also need to make a decision about the Gym I attend. Currently we have a family membership at SNAP Fitness which is only a few blocks from home and is open 24/7.
My wife’s work just announced that employees can join the YMCA for $50 a year and families can join for $20 per month. This would save us some money but I am concerned about the hours. The YMCA has limited hours. Ours is open 5am -11am and 3:30pm to 8:00pm. To me this could be a bust. I like to exercise in the evening. However the Y membership allows access to other YMCAs. Some have swimming pools and more interesting to me is the fact the three locations have indoor running tracks. I would really like an indoor track in the winter over the dag blasted dreadmill.

I did make a decision a couple of weeks ago to add biking into my workouts. I went to Walmart and picked up an inexpensive bike rack for my car. Today I finally hit the trails and put in just over 15 miles. My foot felt perfectly comfortable with the pedaling so I may stick with this in the short term.

I know this is a long post but as I told Mike recently my blog has been full of fluff lately. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Let’s all have a great week!