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!
5 comments:
If you want someone to run a 1:54 Dam to Dam next year with you, let me know. I'm up for it.
I like your goals. I understand your frustrations. I'll listen and comment anytime you need it. Your situation sounds so similar to mine and so do your goals. I can't wait to hear your progress.
I love the idea of a family Biggest Loser competition. That would help motivate me.
I'm impressed that you got a bike and did 15 miles. Its great to see the Team Voicers out there with their bikes now. Would you consider a triathlon?
Your goals sounds reasonable and I know that you can do it. I'll be cheering for you. :-)
Best of luck with your goals. I must say that I hav been very much slacking lately on the running front. I also need to get my butt in gear and work on getting back in shape and losing some weight.
Ok so I knew you did a gain, but Holy Cats!!!!
So I see you got things in order, and I have skype on my iphone, but I can only text from it. What to do here.....think think....think.... I guess I am going to have to check in more often and send an e mail or two more and Start kicking some Disney Butt!!!
Glad you are riding,I enjoy it alot.
So what happen here loose the spark?? Get running.{get your gear on and get out the door} No excuses, move it. I want to here good mileage, even if it is biking. Move it!!!
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