by

Hill runs, Carbs, Bagels and Pizza. What could go wrong?

As I promised I want to explain what I have figured out in regard to dieting, running and carbs.

But first, hill runs!  Yesterday was my first hill run day since before the half marathon (over a month ago).  The day overall was a long day.  I woke up at 4:00am as usual and didn’t get home until after 5:00pm – not usual.  So needless to say, I wasn’t in the mood to run up a huge hill, let alone several times.  Fortunately TJ was home and asked if I wanted him to come with me.  That was a huge help.  We ran a couple of miles and then headed for the hill (or mountain as I call it in a previous post).  In the end, I ran up and walked down (to preserve my knees) 3 times.  The hill is really steep for an eighth of a mile and then medium steep for another eighth.  We ran up the whole way the first time.  The second we only ran up the steep part, but ran as fast as we could (I’m sure TJ had no problem keeping up with me).  Finally we ran the whole thing again.  It was tough, but the benefits outweigh the incredible effort that I had to exert.  The last time up, I stopped at the end of the steep hill and said I couldn’t go on.  It was only for a second and then I continued.  TJ reminded me that you are never to make a decisions while running up hill.  Good advice.  So it was a good run, made much more fun with TJ along for encouragement.

Now on the carbs.  My love hate relationship with carbs has been well documented on this blog.  If I eat them I gain weight.  If I don’t eat them I can last a couple of days, but finally I crash and devour half a pizza.  My question has always been, how to run, not gain weight and still eat carbs for energy.

The answer…

I thought to myself, what if I eat carbs every day?  If I can eat some carbs, that will help my running and maybe I won’t crash at the end of the week.  So I went to the grocery store and looked down the bread isle.  I looked at the bagels.  I’ve always been warned that bagels are the worst food for anyone trying to loose weight.  They are great before a long run or a race, but not on a daily basis.  Then I found what I wanted.  I picked up Thomas’ Hearty Grains 100% whole wheat bagels.  I scanned the barcode with my fooducate app (great app BTW) and it came back as an A-.  Wow, very few foods are ranked that high, let alone bagels.  These bagels had only 2g of fat and 49g of carbs.  They are not heavy.  In fact they are rather light for a bagel.

So I eat one on Tuesday morning as a snack.  It helped.  I didn’t feel like I had to eat junk that night.  I eat one each day this week and felt great.  It took the edge off and I lost the 4 lbs I had put on last weekend.  I am back to 180 and feel so much better.  Tonight will be the test.  Pizza night…  I’ll try to report the results, but pizza is my favorite.  I may end up doing what my brother suggested and just eat plain cheese pizza so that I don’t get too much junk in me.  Also I have to stop at a piece or two and not go on to eat 5.

On to my busy day at work and then a 6 mile regular run this afternoon.  Looks like rain all weekend.  I guess I’ll be running in the rain.

Life is good.

by

Days like yesterday are the reason I love running

Awesome day running yesterday.  There has to be a correlation between tempo runs and performance.  Before my tempo run, I was having a hard time to get below 9:00 pace.  Last Sunday for my long run I was way over a 9:00 pace.  Yesterday I started out a bit slow, just because I was sore from the tempo run the day before.  After the first mile it was all “down hill from there”.

Here are my splits:

8:45
8:14
8:04
8:10
8:04
7:51

And it felt great.  I was a bit tired at the end, but not bad and I had almost no pain, except a little in my knee.

Now to the amazing part.  Those who follow this blog know that TJ and RS run also.  Yesterday RS had a great run and is getting back into the game after getting over some injuries.  As I got home from my run, HM was playing a video game.  HM doesn’t like to run but I keep trying to get him going anyway because I know he would do great if he just tried.  Anyway, I got home after my 6 miles and he looks up at me and says, “Hey dad, do you want to run a mile with me”.  Two thoughts go through my head.  First, wow he rarely asked that before.  Second, he thinks I am so tired I’ll say no. Before I could think, I said, sure, get on your shoes and let’s go.  After 5 minutes of trying to find his shoes (they haven’t been warn much), we go for the run.  RS joined us and we went for a slow mile.  It was a recovery mile for me and a good starting mile for HM.

All that to say, days like yesterday are the reason I love running.  I haven’t had one of those days in a while, so it was great getting to enjoy a fun, fast run and run a mile with two of my kids.  Quoting from the Christmas Story, “All was right with the world”.

Tomorrow: I think I figured out the carb/diet/running problem that has plagued me for the past year!!!

by

A good tempo run… Go figure!

Yesterday I started my run with some trepidation.  Yes, I have never used that word before in a sentence, but it fits here.  My plan was to run my first tempo run since the week before my half marathon.  So it has been quite a while since I have attempted this run.  What scared me most was my body’s reaction to the workout.  My goal was to run 2-3 miles at tempo pace which is somewhere between 7:23 – 7:29.  Last time I was doing tempo and hill workouts was when my hip, knees and body in general rebelled and I was in a lot of pain almost every day.

So I began my run.  I ran 2 miles at a normal pace just trying to get warmed up.  My first mile wasn’t good.  My right hamstring had been hurting for two days and actually started hurting at work walking down a hall.  On my run it felt fine, but my left hamstring began hurting.  Crazy.  I really considered trashing my plans and just running a normal run.  By the time I got done with 2 miles, I felt better and decided to go for it!!!

I ran well.  I felt good.  The first two miles weren’t easy, but weren’t hard.  I decided to go for the third mile.  It was getting difficult to keep up my pace for the third, but I did.  I ending up running those 3 miles in an average pace of 7:17.  This put me just 40 seconds behind my 5K PR.  That was where I needed paramedics to look at me because I ran too hard.

Finally I ran a SLOW cool down mile.  I ended all 6 miles at a 8:10 average pace.

I haven’t been running well lately.  I seem to be slow and feel blah in my runs.  This run pumped me up.  I can still run the hard runs and with 15 lbs off of my body, it wasn’t nearly as bad.

So today is an easy day and tomorrow a hill run.  Hill runs have really hurt in the past.  I’ll be interested how my weight loss has helped in that area also.

by

It’s an honor to be nominated…

liebsteraward

Thanks StriveBalance (strivebalance.com) for nominating me for the Liebster award. You would have been one of my nominees, but someone beat me to it. 🙂

She has a good summary of what Liebster means on her blog along with a lot of other great posts. Check it out.

I am rather new to blogging, so I wasn’t sure what to do next. The idea here is to post the image, tell 11 random fun facts about yourself, answer 11 questions and nominate other bloggers for the award. So, here I go…

11 random facts about me:

  1. My mom went into labor with me at a Penn State football game.
  2. My mom and dad were married over half a century.
  3. I’ve been married over a quarter century to my lovely wife.
  4. I have 5 kids who make me proud each day.
  5. I became a Christian in August 1982.
  6. My dad ran marathons from his mid 50’s through his mid 70’s.
  7. I have 2 brothers and a sister who passed away almost 10 years ago (who I miss terribly).
  8. I am a VP of Information Technology at a non-profit.
  9. I’ve had my current job for almost 6 years and I still enjoy it.
  10. My lovely wife and I moved 13 times in 11 years, but have lived in the same house now for 10 years.
  11. I live in the South, but love the north.

11 questions asked by StriveBalance:

  1. What did you do today? Being 3:00 AM, I woke up, read my Bible, drank coffee and wrote this post. It is going to be a long day.
  2. What is your favorite movie? The Matrix (movie #1) – Sometimes reality makes more sense to me when looking at it in the context of this movie.
  3. What is your biggest dream for the next 5 years? Qualify and compete in the Boston Marathon.
  4. If you could snap your fingers and be anywhere right now, where would that be? Right where I am. I love my life and wouldn’t change it for the world.
  5. What is the last book you read? Steve Jobs.
  6. What keeps you motivated to blog? I love feedback and “likes”, but I mainly blog keep a journal of my “journey” so I can look back and remember where I came from, where I am and where I hope to be one day. Also, hopefully to help and encourage others to run and learn from my successes and failures.
  7. Who do you admire most, and why? My lovely wife. Not many people know her like I do. She has always supported me (even in some dumb decisions). She lost 90 lbs, even with a bad back and little exercise. Everyday I go running, she says, “Run fast and don’t get hurt”. I can go on and on. She is truly a grand old flag (inside complement).
  8. What did you want to be when you were a kid? A dog. Yeah, I didn’t aspire to much. I looked at my dog and she just got to lay around, play outside, eat and sleep. I thought, what a great life. I’m glad I grew up and got motivation to experience life.
  9. What is your favorite kind of run? Any run ( or race ) where I set a personal record. That is the best feeling in the world.
  10. What is your biggest pet peeve? People chewing in my ear. Either in person or on the phone. Especially chomping gum. It is like fingers on a chalkboard to me.
  11. What fills your heart with joy? Wisdom. To be honest, much of what I do is way beyond my ability. I can work for hours on a programming problem and just be stuck. I’ll tell my lovely wife and she will alway ask, “Have you prayed for wisdom”? After I do, I usually figure the issue out in a short time. That is the best feeling in the world. At work or at home. To be “stuck” and pray for wisdom and have the solution almost immediately. It is awesome.

Here are my nominees…

by

The running/carbs balance – Ugh

Today is a much needed day off.  I ran a lot last week and I feel it.  The good news is that my hip hasn’t been hurting much and I am still taking no meds for pain!!!  The bad news is that I carbed out over the weekend.  Yes, I eat Pizza and a couple cupcakes and…  I won’t go on, you get the picture.

As I was running Thursday and Friday, I could feel that my carbs were low.  Those runs we not easy and I felt like I was doing everything I could just to keep going.  Friday night I bought the family some pizza.  I was famished. I had 5 pieces.  The rest of the weekend, I didn’t do much better.

I gained 4 lbs over the weekend.  I assume some will leave if I eat well this week, but with 2 work lunches and a work breakfast on the calendar this week, it is going to be hard.

Anytime I hit a wall, I try to figure out how to get over that wall.  My plan this time is to eat my low carb diet this week, but eat 1 whole wheat bagel each day.  These bagels got an A- on my Fooducate app, so I thought I’d give them a try.  My thought here is that one bagel a day will give me enough carbs that I won’t go crazy by the weekend and I can continue running without feeling like my legs are going to collapse.  Since today is my day off, I won’t eat one today, but starting tomorrow, I am going to give it a try and see if I can’t reach some type of balance.

I hate this whole running/dieting thing.  According to my app, I used up 1,400 calories in my run yesterday, and I still gained 2 lbs from what I eat.  This is crazy if you ask me – which you didn’t – which is why I am writing about it in my blog in order to blow off some steam.

Thanks for listening – reading – whatever.

Ultimately, balance is the key.  It is the key to life, running, eating, sleeping, just about everything.  I hope I can figure out the balance between eating and running.  If anyone has ever been successful in this area, let me know.

by

10 painful miles – but at least it was 10 miles

Two weeks ago was my first week back running since my two weeks off.  I ran 23 miles.  This last week (ending today) I ran 35.  I really wanted to get my mileage back up so I could begin my workouts next week with TJ.

Today was my long run day. I wasn’t looking forward to it and evidently for good reason.  I ran 10 miles (the most since my half marathon) and it was painful.  My legs hurt and the rest of my body wasn’t much better.  I did 10 miles at a 9:18 pace, the worse time I’ve had in a long time.

Ultimately my goal was to run 10 miles and that is what I did, so I accomplished my goal.  It wasn’t pretty, but I don’t think anyone was watching. 🙂

Tomorrow is my day off.  I really need it this week. Next week starts my workouts for our 5K in May.

Here we go again.

by

I’m philosophical about running today

I run because I want to run, not because anyone is making me or because it gives me a great “high”.  I run because my family needs me to live longer than a few more years.  I run because it makes me feel better about myself.  I run because it gets me away for a few minutes with few distractions beyond the neighborhood kids playing football in the yard or the cars that move over to give me room.

I choose to run.

A few days ago I learned that a colleague I had met with several times in another state passed away.  He was much younger than me and probably much smarter than me.  It was a shock, even though I didn’t know him well.  That has made me a bit more philosophical lately.  He was young and very successful in his line of work.  He had a wife.  He was a nice guy, at least from my interactions with him.  What does this have to do with running?

No one knows what will happen tomorrow, today or even in the next minute.  Life is what I make it by the grace and provision of God.

I don’t want to die saying I had no goals.  I don’t want to leave this world at 278 lbs and having a heart attack because I couldn’t spare the time to work out.  A lot of people plan on working out, running, walking or just getting into shape.  I planned on it every day as I approached the 300 lbs mark.  I never knew my grandfather because he died, overweight and in his 50’s.  I don’t want to be that person.  So I run.

Maybe I am a bit introspective today.  I thank God everyday that I get to live and make the choice to stay home, love my lovely wife and be with my kids.  I thank God that I am a 100 lbs lighter today than I was 18 months ago.  I thank God that I can get out each day and run 5-10 miles.  I really don’t enjoy the run, but that isn’t the reason I love running.

I love running because I can run. I have the freedom to run.  I have the health to run.  I can have the freedom and heath to believe that I can qualify for the Boston Marathon next year.

Who knows their future.  I don’t.  I don’t know if I will even be able to write this blog tomorrow.  I THANK GOD that I am able to write this and didn’t pass away this past week.  My colleague probably would have appreciated the same opportunities.  He didn’t get them.

I run for Him.  Good or bad, I am going to make the most of every opportunity.

by

Heart rates during my runs – interesting

I purchased a heart rate monitor during my 2 week break from running.  I just started using it last Sunday.  I mainly wanted it for my workouts, especially my tempo runs so I can see and not just feel how hard my cardiovascular system is working.

Sunday was my first 6 mile run since the half marathon.  My heart rate averaged between 150 – 156.  Not bad.  Monday was my day off.

Tuesday and Wednesday I felt good running and ran fairly fast for me (around 8:20 pace).  During those days my heart rate was down about 10 beats/minute at 140 – 145.  Okay, I wondered at this point, was Sunday “off” a bit with the monitor or was it my rest on Monday.  The other thing I did differently was eat a piece of plain bread right before I left for my run.  My dad used to do this and since I don’t eat many carbs, I thought it might help.

The plot thickens:

Yesterday I noticed a mile or two into my run that my heart rate was 160 – 170.  I wondered if my monitor was defective since I felt okay running.  Eventually I turned my phone off and just concentrated on my run.  It was one of those “hard” runs.  My legs started feeling like rubber and my pace got slower and slower as I went.  In fact, I would say it was the worse run since I started back.  As I looked at my heart rate, it stayed in the 160 and up range the rest of my run.

Now my thought was, maybe there was something going on in my body that was causing my heart rate to speed up during that run.  I did forget to eat the bread.  Also I lost a pound during the day and that included eating and drinking a gallon of water.  Maybe since I hadn’t had many carbs, my body had to work harder to get a similar result.

Was it the bread?  Was it just one of those hard runs?  Did my monitor give me insight into the fact that it was going to be a hard run?  Did I have a hard run because I saw that my heart rate was high and so psychologically it made the run harder?  Who knows.  I don’t.

So, I am going to keep wearing the monitor and see if I can glean anything from it to help my running.

If anything, it is interesting to watch.

by

Updates on running and dieting

Training has been a bit hard lately.  Not too bad, but I’ve increased my mileage this week quite a bit from last week.  Most people say to only increase 10% over your previous week, but I am trying to get back to my 35 – 45 miles a week.  I figure that I was only out of running 2 weeks, so it really shouldn’t be that big of a jump to go from last week (my first week back) running 23 miles to this week running 35 miles.  Overall it has gone well.  I am back to sub 8:30 pace and am taking no anti inflammatories or fish oil.  I really am trying to run without any meds now that I am in the low 180s in weight.  So far so good.  I am a little sore, and have a little hip pain, but that is all.

Next week I begin training to run my next 5K.  TJ has some workouts for me to do that he has been doing since last week.  I have just over 2 months to be able to bring my 5K time to 20:00.  As I’ve said before, this is my goal and I hope to achieve it, but if I don’t, that’s okay.  I just need something to shoot for that will motivate me to do these workouts.  Also, these workouts will help my overall running time and that will be crucial as we kick into training for our marathon beginning in July.

Just an FYI on my weight.  I finished my diet at 177.  I got as high as 183 over the weekend which was rather depressing.  So this week, I have worked hard at trying to stay away from the carbs.  The main carb I eat is a piece of bread before I run, which seems to really help.  So I am, as of this morning, back down to 180.  That is exciting since I was afraid my body was dictating that it wanted to go back to the high 180s.  I hope to get back in the mid 170s if only to keep my hips and back out of pain and not need to go back on pain meds.

Keeping motivated!

by

“From 278 lbs to the Boston Marathon, one man’s journey”

I wrote yesterday about my running goals.  The main goal I have is to run Boston.  I am making this the purpose of my run each day.  This is a journey for me and not a destination.  After Boston, there will be something else.  Probably the Marine Corps Marathon.  This was the marathon my dad ran in for many years before he passed away.

Anyway, I was considering all this as I ran yesterday.  I really do love running.  I love the fact that an obese middle aged man who tried to run a mile and had to stop at a quarter mile, could, in two years, weigh 100 lbs less and run a half marathon.  Even outside of the weight loss, running is amazing.  I constantly hear of people who one day decide to run a marathon, get off the couch and a year or two later, run a marathon.  I was told that exact story yesterday by a sales rep about his wife and her friends.  She is still running marathons today.

I am not an athlete.  The only sport I ever participated in as a kid was sailboat racing.  That took a very logical mind, but no athletic skill.  In school, as a kid, we would have a physical fitness part of gym each year and we were made to run 600m.  I always came in last.  I hated it.

I’ve said this before, but running is an activity that levels the playing field.  There aren’t many sports that one can participate in and in a year have gone from nothing to winning 5ks.

So why not shoot for the best.  To qualify for Boston I have to run an 8:00 average pace in a qualifying marathon.  I ran my first half marathon in a 7:57 pace.  I really believe I can do this.  I can’t imagine even having that thought a year ago.  To run my first marathon 18 months after I started running and also qualify for Boston?  I am amazed at this sport.

Sorry for going on and on about me, but I guess that is what this blog is about.  One day, after Boston, maybe I’ll write a book about my experience.  I’ll title it, “From 278 lbs to Boston, one man’s journey”.

The cool thing about running is that anyone can do this.  I guess that is the point I am trying to get across.  I have NO athletic ability.  I’m just an IT geek.  But what I do have is a supportive Lovely Wife and two sons who run and help me keep on the path.  Also I have lots of other bloggers writing about their experiences and learn from their ups and downs.  I love my family, I love this community,  I love running!

by

The Boston Marathon!

I think goals are important when trying to keep motivated to run each day.  Let’s face it, running could be boring if you have no motivation or goals.  Losing weight is a good goal.  Becoming healthier overall and doing what you can to live a long life for your spouse and kids are great goals.

Personally, I like to set goals for my races that seem “out there”.  By doing so, I have continually amazed myself after each race I’ve run.  For instance, my new goal for my next 5K in May is to run it under 20 minutes.  Is that possible?  I don’t know, but if I don’t try (and train) I’ll never find out.  Each 5K I’ve run in the past year, I have finished close to 2 minutes faster than the previous one.  My last I finished in 22:10.  So, why not have a goal to reach for and see what I can do.  It makes running more fun for me.

I decided on my biggest goal of my short career yesterday.  Boston.  Yup, I am no longer going to say that I hope to qualify for Boston in the Jacksonville Marathon in December.  My goal is to qualify for it.  Once TJ, RS and I qualify, we have to be “chosen” and then we will run it.

So, to make this a real goal and have a constant reminder, I am changing the tag line at the top of my blog from, “The journey is the destination” to “My Journey to Boston”.

I may not make it.  Who knows.  I may not get under 20 minutes in my next 5K.  But if I don’t try and if I don’t set a goal that seems beyond my reach, I’ll never fail because I’ll never try. I would rather try and fail then never try at all.

So here is to the Boston Marathon.  I hope to see you soon!