Win Beneath My Wings
Typo? Yes and no. I text myself after my run with notes so I can post a blog later. With such BIG hands (heehee he) I make typos and I typed "Win" instead of "Wind". I was going to change, it but it was seredipity. I realized I'm a WINNER!!! I'm doing something I love that I haven't done it years. I'm taking on my mental and physical obstacles that have been my excuse for years. I'm winning because when I succeed everyone benifits. My family and friends will get a healthier, balanced, and happier person. It's starting already . . .Yea for me!
Ok, back to my running notes. Today I decided I would concentrate on breathing, and my pace. I had to tell myself every 2 minutes, "It's not the distance, it's the Journey, so enjoy . . .Mr. Competitive". So I tried to listen to my breathing and pace myself based on my breathing. I think I improved my breathing but I know I need to do some research on it. ( that's the google geek in me )
Two of the biggest things were my recover time and my mind. It was awesome that my recover time to get my breathing down during the brisk walks were short. By the time I started to run again, I had totally relaxed my entire body . . . so when taking inventory I realized that I'm improving. The other great thing was my wandering mind. I was able to let my mind go and during the walks I found my mind wandering off in to never-never land and me not remember that time. It was like an out of body experience, minus the walking up with a hang-over. Then when the 5 minute cool down came, it only took a minute or two to get back to normal so I really got to enjoy it again!
Today's Success 8.5
Why? My body feels great! I enjoyed myself and my recover time and my wandering mind made me feel that I am still on the right track.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Training Day 6 Stats
Mileage: 1.9 Miles
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 219
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by 6 intervals alternating 90 seconds jogging and two minutes of walking and finishing up with a 5 minute cool down.
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 219
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by 6 intervals alternating 90 seconds jogging and two minutes of walking and finishing up with a 5 minute cool down.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Training Day 5 Stats
Mileage: 2.09 Miles
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 239
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by 6 intervals alternating 90 seconds jogging and two minutes of walking and finishing up with a 5 minute cool down.
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 239
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by 6 intervals alternating 90 seconds jogging and two minutes of walking and finishing up with a 5 minute cool down.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Training Day 4 Stats
Mileage: 2 Miles
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 233
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by 6 intervals alternating 90 seconds jogging and two minutes of walking and finishing up with a 5 minute cool down.
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 233
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by 6 intervals alternating 90 seconds jogging and two minutes of walking and finishing up with a 5 minute cool down.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Training Day 3
Competetive Ed stricks again
So for those of you that know me, I'm pretty competitive, not crazy competitive like the two other people in my household, but I'm out there. Well, that was my downfall today. The day started off great because my body and my mind were on the same page. ( go figure ) No fighting no disagreements, they were both ready to go. While, I wanted to push myself I have only been doing it a week, I knew I could push it a little bit. WRONG. I thought I could get more distance, but I didn't. Life is about balance, when you increase something basically something else decreases. Ying - Yang Twins ( for my Hip Hop Homies ) So I increased my running, which in turn decreased my walking pace cause I was exhausted. So instead of increasing my distance my walking stride decreased and so did my distance. BUMMER.
Luckly my lack of distance didn't kill my run. I did enjoy the fact that I was able to look outside more and enjoy the outdoors, while being warm indoors. I didn't freak out that my knees, heart, and lungs were all going to stop at once. So that was good. The bad thing was I relaxed everything except my shoulders. So after I took an inventory of my body, I realized my shoulders were hurting cause I my upper body was tense the entire time. OUCH!
After all is said and done, the first week is down and I feel very good about it. I'm overall less stress and I am really looking forward to runnning again. I am also really proud of my body that it has responded in a positive way.
Today's Success 7.5 cause of distance
Why? My body feels looser and my knees do not hurt, but because I was so competitive my distance went down, thus lowering my score.
Training Day 3 Stats
Mileage: 1.9 Miles
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 219
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by eight sets of 60 second interval runs. A 90 second recovery followed each interval and you'll finish up with a 5 minute cool down.
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 219
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by eight sets of 60 second interval runs. A 90 second recovery followed each interval and you'll finish up with a 5 minute cool down.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Training Day 2
My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me
Ok not really my mind more of ever muscle in my body that I have paid little attention to over the last 37 years! ( BTW, "My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me" is a great song by the Getto Boys song from the 90's) So since I had put one training session down I figured that I would have no problem with training day 2. Wrong. Although, I was really excited about working out in the morning before work, my mind and body teamed up against me to give me 27 excuses to NOT run. Even though, I am still worried about me knees, they were not an issue, so I should have been ready right. Wrong again. I felt tightness in my quads and my back was a little stiff. There goes all the junk in my head trying to to convince "Da Running Man' that those two things would keep me from running and finishing. Well I overcame my mental blockage and had a great run.
Why was it great you ask . . . it doesn't matter if you asked or not I'm just going to tell you. Well the main reason was I knew what to expect so I could concentrate on one thing instead of it all. So I picked relaxation and breathing. I wanted to make sure that I was relaxed. ChiRunning teaches that it is harder to hurt a relaxed muscle. So with this in mind, that's what I did relaxed. It's harder than you think, because as I took a physical inventory every 5 minutes while I ran, I found that when I tried to focus on my alignment and my posture, I would start to tense up in my shoulders. And when I relaxed I realized how much tention I was actually carrying, and God knows I didn't need any extra baggage, physical or mental.
Another thing ChiRunning teaches you is to be aware of your body. Being aware of what hurts or how tense an area is let's you know if you are doing things right . . . or wrong. I knew I was running better because of three things. 1) Quads hurt afterwards. I read that runners usually get injured because the little muscles are taking a beating, the cause of shin splints. Since my shin, my calves nor my knees were not hurting, my form was getting better. 2) My Back didn't hurt ( as much ). I felt tightness, but nothing like the first run. I I knew I my alignment was better because the tightness was across my back not just on one side like the first run. This tells me that I was aligning my body better and my spine was rotating correctly to take the strain off of my back. 3) I could talk while I ran. If you are breathing right with a good pace you are suppose to be able to carry on a conversation. Although I have great conversations in my head that doesn't really help you. So although I looked crazy every 5 or 10 minutes I would say something out loud to myself to see if I could carry on a conversation if someone was actually with me. And I could!
Well, no that Day 2 is done, I'm taking two days off for recovery and will run again Friday. At the moment, I'm very excited but I know my body and mind are meeting as I type to test my committment to the cause . . . "Fight the Power"Anyway, they can try their hardest but they can't take this run away from me. It was a total success, when I looked at my pedometer, I had increased my distance by .3 ( I know not a lot ) but it was great because not only did I increase my distance I was less tired and less sore than my first run. AWESOME I say!!
Today's success: 8.5
Why? Felt good to do it in the morning. Back pain less. No major knee pain. Increased distance in the same amount of time.
Ok not really my mind more of ever muscle in my body that I have paid little attention to over the last 37 years! ( BTW, "My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me" is a great song by the Getto Boys song from the 90's) So since I had put one training session down I figured that I would have no problem with training day 2. Wrong. Although, I was really excited about working out in the morning before work, my mind and body teamed up against me to give me 27 excuses to NOT run. Even though, I am still worried about me knees, they were not an issue, so I should have been ready right. Wrong again. I felt tightness in my quads and my back was a little stiff. There goes all the junk in my head trying to to convince "Da Running Man' that those two things would keep me from running and finishing. Well I overcame my mental blockage and had a great run.
Why was it great you ask . . . it doesn't matter if you asked or not I'm just going to tell you. Well the main reason was I knew what to expect so I could concentrate on one thing instead of it all. So I picked relaxation and breathing. I wanted to make sure that I was relaxed. ChiRunning teaches that it is harder to hurt a relaxed muscle. So with this in mind, that's what I did relaxed. It's harder than you think, because as I took a physical inventory every 5 minutes while I ran, I found that when I tried to focus on my alignment and my posture, I would start to tense up in my shoulders. And when I relaxed I realized how much tention I was actually carrying, and God knows I didn't need any extra baggage, physical or mental.
Another thing ChiRunning teaches you is to be aware of your body. Being aware of what hurts or how tense an area is let's you know if you are doing things right . . . or wrong. I knew I was running better because of three things. 1) Quads hurt afterwards. I read that runners usually get injured because the little muscles are taking a beating, the cause of shin splints. Since my shin, my calves nor my knees were not hurting, my form was getting better. 2) My Back didn't hurt ( as much ). I felt tightness, but nothing like the first run. I I knew I my alignment was better because the tightness was across my back not just on one side like the first run. This tells me that I was aligning my body better and my spine was rotating correctly to take the strain off of my back. 3) I could talk while I ran. If you are breathing right with a good pace you are suppose to be able to carry on a conversation. Although I have great conversations in my head that doesn't really help you. So although I looked crazy every 5 or 10 minutes I would say something out loud to myself to see if I could carry on a conversation if someone was actually with me. And I could!
Well, no that Day 2 is done, I'm taking two days off for recovery and will run again Friday. At the moment, I'm very excited but I know my body and mind are meeting as I type to test my committment to the cause . . . "Fight the Power"
Today's success: 8.5
Why? Felt good to do it in the morning. Back pain less. No major knee pain. Increased distance in the same amount of time.
Training Day 2 Stats
Mileage: 2.0 Miles
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 229
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by eight sets of 60 second interval runs. A 90 second recovery followed each interval and you'll finish up with a 5 minute cool down.
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 229
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by eight sets of 60 second interval runs. A 90 second recovery followed each interval and you'll finish up with a 5 minute cool down.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Training Day 1 Stats
Mileage: 1.7 Miles
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 200
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by eight sets of 60 second interval runs. A 90 second recovery followed each interval and you'll finish up with a 5 minute cool down.
Time: 30 Minutes
Calories: 200
Brisk five minute walking warmup followed by eight sets of 60 second interval runs. A 90 second recovery followed each interval and you'll finish up with a 5 minute cool down.
Training Day 1
And Da Running Man . . . starts the journey with a bang. Today I started my walk into the unknown and as I go I know I will learn more and more about who I am. It started with the fact that I decided that I was going to a nearby lake to do my first run. I wanted to go by myself so that I could concentrate on the task at hand and have some alone time. That was short lived as my family wanted to go, which turned out to nice. It kind of shifted my focus, quickly. I was extremely nervoius this morning and praying and hoping I could do this. You could even say I was scared, really scared. As I got dressed, my body felt old, as I stretched I felt unprepared, and as I got closer to leaving the house I felt like I couldn't do it.
As I look back I realized that it wasn't that I was afraid that I couldn't do it, I was afraid I could. If I started and was successful, then what. As I ran I concentrated on the pod cast "From Couch to 5K" by Robert Ullrey. I also tried to work on my ChiRunning form. It was good to have the podcast tell me what I needed to do without looking at my watch. I know I will get better and faster, but it will be nice to not focus on my form and just enjoy the surroundings and my run.
So what was I thinking . . . ON MY GOODNESS!! I thought about my family. Could I do it, and would they become proud of me. I thought of my knees. They feel great now, but will I be able to walk to the car. I thought of my back. Wow this hurts am I doing something wrong? I thought of the future. Can I really do this? What if I can't? Who will I let down.
All the answers were great. My wife who I knew would be supportive, but the surprise was from my 4 year old who asked me several times how was the run and why I was doing it. I was able to tell him, that it went well and that Daddy wants to do it to get in shape to be around longer for him. Daddy wants to do it for himself so that I can feel good about my body. Daddy also wants to do it to give to others. I couldn't tell him that I wanted to run a charity 5k for breast cancer. I have seen what it has done to families, and I think that if it ever affected my wife, I would be devastated. Although I couldn't tell him everything, I think he kind of got it, but most of all . . . he made me think of why I was really doing it. Although those were the first things that came to my mind, deep down I knew there would be more that will come out the more I run.
Today's scale of success: 8
Why? My knees do not hurt. I shared it with my family. I faced my fears. I started and finished!!!
As I look back I realized that it wasn't that I was afraid that I couldn't do it, I was afraid I could. If I started and was successful, then what. As I ran I concentrated on the pod cast "From Couch to 5K" by Robert Ullrey. I also tried to work on my ChiRunning form. It was good to have the podcast tell me what I needed to do without looking at my watch. I know I will get better and faster, but it will be nice to not focus on my form and just enjoy the surroundings and my run.
So what was I thinking . . . ON MY GOODNESS!! I thought about my family. Could I do it, and would they become proud of me. I thought of my knees. They feel great now, but will I be able to walk to the car. I thought of my back. Wow this hurts am I doing something wrong? I thought of the future. Can I really do this? What if I can't? Who will I let down.
All the answers were great. My wife who I knew would be supportive, but the surprise was from my 4 year old who asked me several times how was the run and why I was doing it. I was able to tell him, that it went well and that Daddy wants to do it to get in shape to be around longer for him. Daddy wants to do it for himself so that I can feel good about my body. Daddy also wants to do it to give to others. I couldn't tell him that I wanted to run a charity 5k for breast cancer. I have seen what it has done to families, and I think that if it ever affected my wife, I would be devastated. Although I couldn't tell him everything, I think he kind of got it, but most of all . . . he made me think of why I was really doing it. Although those were the first things that came to my mind, deep down I knew there would be more that will come out the more I run.
Today's scale of success: 8
Why? My knees do not hurt. I shared it with my family. I faced my fears. I started and finished!!!
Week One Stats
Here are the stats for my first week:
Weight: 197 pounds
Stomach: 38 "
Left thigh: 23 "
Right thigh: 22 "
Weight: 197 pounds
Stomach: 38 "
Left thigh: 23 "
Right thigh: 22 "
Saturday, November 3, 2007
In The Beginning . . .
In the beginning there was running and it was good. I ran track in high school, I wasn't fast I was quick. I could out run anyone in a 5 yard dash, but since you can't make it as a sprinter if you run the 100 yard dash in 1 minute 02 seconds, I switched to the mile and the 880. That was back in the day!
Now I'm older and a little wiser. I have missed running and the joy that I got from being in top physical shape . . . thus, here I am. I'm a 37 year old with 67 year old knees. My knees and back have taken the blunt of my life and I'm trying to get it back. Over the last month I have been doing some major soul searching and have come to the conclusion . . ."Something Just Ain't Right". I have realized my goals and values are not in line with who I am. The things I used to love out of life I don't do anymore and my spiritual and physical being needs fine tuning.
So now there is "Da Running Man". This is the new me or the improved me or the hope to be better than the yesterday me. In any case, my journey starts today. I have started back with Tai Chi which helped me mend a broken foot and now it should help me mend a broken spirit. I have been researching running and I'm starting the journey to run a 5k within a year and half marathon in two years depending on my back and knees.
Why now, you ask? Well at 37 I realize life is too short and I need to rededicate my spiritual and physical self to a more well balance and enjoyable life. With the future birth of my second child, my side business, and the death of a dear family friend and a father-like uncle it is time. Time to fine my inner joy, my inner, peace, my inner child. My tools for this journey will by my faith, my family, and Tai Chi. I have so much to be thankful for but I have allowed the devil steal my joy.
Lastly, I am stealing a line from Bill Clinton's book when he said, "I have always loved my wife, I just haven't always loved her well." I begin this chapter of my life with:
Now I'm older and a little wiser. I have missed running and the joy that I got from being in top physical shape . . . thus, here I am. I'm a 37 year old with 67 year old knees. My knees and back have taken the blunt of my life and I'm trying to get it back. Over the last month I have been doing some major soul searching and have come to the conclusion . . ."Something Just Ain't Right". I have realized my goals and values are not in line with who I am. The things I used to love out of life I don't do anymore and my spiritual and physical being needs fine tuning.
So now there is "Da Running Man". This is the new me or the improved me or the hope to be better than the yesterday me. In any case, my journey starts today. I have started back with Tai Chi which helped me mend a broken foot and now it should help me mend a broken spirit. I have been researching running and I'm starting the journey to run a 5k within a year and half marathon in two years depending on my back and knees.
Why now, you ask? Well at 37 I realize life is too short and I need to rededicate my spiritual and physical self to a more well balance and enjoyable life. With the future birth of my second child, my side business, and the death of a dear family friend and a father-like uncle it is time. Time to fine my inner joy, my inner, peace, my inner child. My tools for this journey will by my faith, my family, and Tai Chi. I have so much to be thankful for but I have allowed the devil steal my joy.
Lastly, I am stealing a line from Bill Clinton's book when he said, "I have always loved my wife, I just haven't always loved her well." I begin this chapter of my life with:
I have always loved my life, I just haven't always loved it well!
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