I missed a group run this morning, but I got up and ran for about 40 minutes by myself! I feel pretty good about that. I'm going to start doing some light lifting in my off days, anything to keep my metabolism up.
Tomorrow will be 2 weeks without caffeine! I'm doing pretty well about that now, I'm just afraid I'll "accidentally" have a soda or tea one day because I'm not thinking about it. Given that there's a 12 pack of Dr Pepper in my refrigerator, I'm pretty suprised that I haven't given in, but I've only felt a strong craving once...
I'm going to gear up this weekend, I need a stop watch, and maybe some other tech that measures heart rate, stride distance, etc...
The UXO Premier event was a blast! I got to meet a lot of long time players for the first time, and we finally got to chat openly about UO's new sister product that Stellerex, Calandryll and others have been working on for the last 18 months. Checkout the new website at http://uxo.ea.com!
I've decided to join the 21st century and start using some decent blogging software to update my site. MovableType seems to be very popular and was relatively easy enough to setup. Kudos to them!
Now, I know I haven't been updating the site regularly. Things have been pretty crazy ever since I took the new job on UO. I'm hoping that a nicer set of tools will make it a simpler process, and that will yield more frequent updates. Whaddya think? Perhaps not? We shall see...
My goal was to run 3 miles today. I was unable to even complete the first mile. I'm telling you this because it's just as important that I acknowledge my failures as well as my successes.
Oh, and since I appear to be officially "blogging" now, I might as well do it right. I'll begin using "Moveable Type" sometime this week. I've already got it installed, but I need to finish configuring it (styles mostly).
I almost didn't run at all. As a matter of fact, I got about 20 feet and turned around for a moment. But that just made me angry. I turned back around and ran on. But my stomach was in bad shape and I turned back at the half way point. I was very angry about it but I knew if I pushed it I would just sleep poorly and have a difficult day at work. And there was no way I was going to complete 3 miles.
My goal to run a marathon is more real to me now than it was when I began running 3 weeks ago. But if I'm going to try to become an athlete, I'm going to have to start training and eating like one. I ate terribly this weekend and now I'm paying for it. For the past few weeks I've been eating better than I have over the past 10 years. This weekend, I blew it. But if I'm going to run a marathon in 6 months, it's going to take more than excersize, I'm going to have to change my whole lifestyle. Tomorrow, I'm going to get up 2 hours earlier than normal. That's the first change. I'm not going to promise to run, but I'm going to get up and have breakfast. I need to create a routine.
I'm fairly embarrassed about my failure tonight. Let's see if I can do anything about that...
I changed things up and ran before dinner tonight (of course, it's unusually cool here in Austin right now). I did the first mile without walking at all! The second mile, I walked less than 30 yards.
Yesterday was a day off...
I jogged another mile lastnight. I had hoped to do 2, but we met some friends for dinner a little bit late and by the time it was 11:30, my stomach handn't quite settled down. Mexican for Lunch AND Dinner != pleasant running experience.
Good news is that I cut out another of the walking areas, so now I'm down to 1!
I ran at about 11:30 Monday night, between thunderheads. My knee started bothering me this morning, so I suppose I need to get on with the Dr. appointment. I think I may have slightly fractured my leg just below the knee a few years ago. It didn't bother me during the run and it hasn't bothered me in over a year, but I'm sure the pounding of my "oh so lithe" body is as likely as anything to make an issue out of it.
I improved my run/walk ratio to 9.5/.5 (vs. 9.25/.75) and my distance to first walk improved some. Yay. Monday was a "light day." Back to 2 miles Tuesday. And that Dr.s appointment. Yeah.
Well, my business trip threw me off a little bit, but tonight I got back on track. I did run a mile Tuesday night, but tonight I ran 2! So I got in my five miles in one week. Next Sunday, I'm shooting for 3 miles in 1 session. I know that doesn't sound like much to you regular runners, but that sounds like a heart attack to me. My second short term goal is to run at least a mile 6 days this week.
Oh, I also signed up for Team in Training (http://www.teamingtraining.org) with my intent to run the Motorola Marathon on February 15th. You'll probably hear from me more about Team in Training and this marathon stuff soon.
That's right. I jogged another mile Sunday night. Today, I can really feel that nice burning sensation of muscle repair. I'm taking Monday off an starting some interval training Tuesday. I'm in San Francisco Wednesday through Friday, but I'm hoping to keep up my exercise. I'd like to do at least 5 miles this week.