Summary
Date: 04/09/2010
Start: 06:00:00
End: 06:34:00
Time Taken: 00:34:03
Total Distance: 4.05 mi.
Workout Stats
Pace: 08:24 (avg)
Speed: 7.1 (mi/hr) (avg)
Friday, April 9, 2010
Quick Update
First off, I apologize for the delay in my posts, but this week has been especially busy for me. I am going to try to post as often as I can, but with the "busy season" of work and the end of the semester coming together like a perfect storm these next couple months, I can't promise anything.
Secondly, since I know that my last two (or first two?) posts were pretty heavy and deep (and as Michael Scott would say, "that's what she said..."), so I am only going to give some quick updates.
Quick updates:
Quitting Smoking My (not) smoking has been hard, but overall, I feel good about it. With the exception of 2 cigarettes, I have been smoke-free since April 1st. (I know that even 1 cigarette means that I am starting over again, but I am optimistic because I still haven't had one since Tuesday.) The first week was brutal, but this week has been a little easier. I expect it to get even easier as I go along, but still need to be careful not to ever think it is actually "easy." I also set a goal for myself that once I go 2 months without a cigarette, I am going to strongly consider getting a motorcycle. (I know that some of you see that as counterproductive- giving up one thing that could kill me for another, but that is something I have wanted for a while now. I also figure it would be a great reward with the summer coming up...and I think my girlfriend will like the motorcycle more than she realizes.)
Dieting I haven't really been focusing too much on being really strict on what I eat, but I have been more conscientious about it, since I think that quitting smoking is more important that losing weight right now. I am hoping to maintain or lose a few pounds the first few weeks of quitting smoking, and I think that the running will help with that as well. I did step on the scale for the first time in a while, and I am up to 209- 20 pounds more than my lowest weight, but still below what I have been in the past (for those who were wondering, 265 pounds in 2001 was my highest). My eventual goal is somewhere around 175-180. That being said, I am focusing on eating well when I am at home and during the work week- the only times I haven't been as disciplined is when I have been eating out.
Half-marathon training Although it has been less than a week, this is the aspect that has been going flawlessly so far. I ran 3 times this week, and am on pace with the training schedule for the half-marathon. My training plan has me running 4 times per week, and my first "long run" (only 4 miles) is this weekend. I am also going to try to figure out how to post my running routes and times up on this blog as I do them, but haven't figured it out yet. I also want to give thanks to my sister for running with me in the mornings- it is always much easier to do it with someone else.
UPDATE: I figured out how to post my routes on the blog, I will try to post them once I finish them now.
I am going to try to find some time to post something this weekend which has nothing to do with this stuff, since I promised that this blog was going to be entertaining, and I feel like it has just been the equivalent of a therapy session. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Secondly, since I know that my last two (or first two?) posts were pretty heavy and deep (and as Michael Scott would say, "that's what she said..."), so I am only going to give some quick updates.
Quick updates:
Quitting Smoking My (not) smoking has been hard, but overall, I feel good about it. With the exception of 2 cigarettes, I have been smoke-free since April 1st. (I know that even 1 cigarette means that I am starting over again, but I am optimistic because I still haven't had one since Tuesday.) The first week was brutal, but this week has been a little easier. I expect it to get even easier as I go along, but still need to be careful not to ever think it is actually "easy." I also set a goal for myself that once I go 2 months without a cigarette, I am going to strongly consider getting a motorcycle. (I know that some of you see that as counterproductive- giving up one thing that could kill me for another, but that is something I have wanted for a while now. I also figure it would be a great reward with the summer coming up...and I think my girlfriend will like the motorcycle more than she realizes.)
Dieting I haven't really been focusing too much on being really strict on what I eat, but I have been more conscientious about it, since I think that quitting smoking is more important that losing weight right now. I am hoping to maintain or lose a few pounds the first few weeks of quitting smoking, and I think that the running will help with that as well. I did step on the scale for the first time in a while, and I am up to 209- 20 pounds more than my lowest weight, but still below what I have been in the past (for those who were wondering, 265 pounds in 2001 was my highest). My eventual goal is somewhere around 175-180. That being said, I am focusing on eating well when I am at home and during the work week- the only times I haven't been as disciplined is when I have been eating out.
Half-marathon training Although it has been less than a week, this is the aspect that has been going flawlessly so far. I ran 3 times this week, and am on pace with the training schedule for the half-marathon. My training plan has me running 4 times per week, and my first "long run" (only 4 miles) is this weekend. I am also going to try to figure out how to post my running routes and times up on this blog as I do them, but haven't figured it out yet. I also want to give thanks to my sister for running with me in the mornings- it is always much easier to do it with someone else.
UPDATE: I figured out how to post my routes on the blog, I will try to post them once I finish them now.
I am going to try to find some time to post something this weekend which has nothing to do with this stuff, since I promised that this blog was going to be entertaining, and I feel like it has just been the equivalent of a therapy session. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
The Hill Ahead
This past weekend, I spent at my Uncle’s place in Vermont on a much needed vacation with my girlfriend, sister, roommate and a few other friends. As you drive up to the house here in Vermont, there is a long, steep road that leads up to the driveway of the house, and I think that it is about a mile long. Ever since I came up here for the first time, I fantasized about running up this hill, but I never had the balls to try it, because I feared the feeling of failure that would come along with not being able to do it.
The same can be said about this blog. What scares me the most about telling people that I am quitting smoking and achieving my “ideal body weight” is not that I have never been able to do these before, but that by telling people, I am most scared of the failure that will come along with it. I have tried to quit smoking and lose weight many times before (and there was even a time when I started training for a marathon), but when usually when I did it, I didn’t tell many people, because I was afraid of letting all these people down if I didn’t do it. However, I was amazed at the encouragement and well-wishes that friends and family posted after my first entry, and although my fear of failure is still there, I realize that I was misguided in thinking that by failing and struggling, I was going to be going through this alone.
This weekend, I took another step towards making “history” in my life. Before I really had time to think about it, I threw on my running shoes and shorts, and began running down this hill. Boy, did that suck. Running downhill for a mile is no fun, especially on asphalt. For those of you who have ever run a long distance downhill, you know that it is not “easy,” but it is certainly easier than running back up. As I was running down this hill, I was thinking to myself, “damn, if it is this hard to run down, it is really going to suck running back up.” I finally got to the bottom of the hill, I slapped the stop sign that signified the end of the road, took a deep breath, and began my ascent back up the hill. (This is the feeling I got when I first told my girlfriend a month ago that I was going to start a blog about this – I knew that making the decision to stop smoking and lose weight was hard, but I also knew that it was nothing compared to actually doing it.)
I started the ascent up the hill slowly, as I knew it was going to be a long mile uphill until I reached the friendly confines of the porch. Each step was harder than the last, but as I went along, at probably a 15-minute-mile pace, I could see I was slowly making progress. Soon, my lungs started to burn, my thighs ached, and my heart was pounding, and after the first quarter mile, I saw the hill get even steeper. Luckily, before the hill got steeper, there was about a 20 yard stretch where the road was relatively level, and it gave me a chance to catch my breath a little bit. As I caught my breath (barely), I put my head down and began pushing myself up the hill. I was scared to look ahead at what I was going to have to go through over this stretch, so I kept my eyes fixed to the road directly underneath my feet and focused on putting one foot in front of the other and just going forward.
At about the half mile point, I started to get light headed, and a little nauseous, but I kept pushing myself thinking about how the pain I was feeling was only in my head, and how so many people had pushed through things even harder than I had ahead of me. There was my girlfriend, who just ran her first half-marathon about 6 months ago, and was about to run the Boston Marathon in a couple weeks. There were the students I worked with who were the first in their families to ever go to college. There was the sibling of one of my closest friends who just passed their 1 year anniversary of being sober. What I had ahead of me was only a half-mile of a climb and it would be over in less than 15 minutes, and it paled in comparison to what these people had done. As I thought about this, I pushed on. Right, left, right, left…
And then my worst fear happened. I stopped running. I don’t know why I did this: I am not sure if it was because I literally couldn’t run another step, or if it was because I mentally gave up, but I stopped running. However, I didn’t stop altogether. I was still walking, I was still going forward, and I was still getting closer to the top of this monstrous hill. Best of all, after a couple minutes of walking, I started running again. The remaining climb wasn’t any easier, but I still managed to keep my feet and arms moving, and I made it. As I stepped foot onto the driveway of the house, I put my hands on my knees and I struggled to catch my breath. My lungs burned, I struggled to get air into my chest, and I felt as though I may pass out at any moment, but I smiled anyways. I made it. It wasn’t easy, but I finally did it- I ran up that hill that had taunted me for years.
I think that becoming that person I strive to be will be much like this run – it will be hard, very hard. At times, I may think that there is no way I can make it. There may even be times that I am not moving forward at the pace that I want, but I have to keep moving forward anyways. I am sure that there will be times that I want a cigarette or a week that I don’t lose weight. However, anything worth achieving is going to be hard. The one thing I need to do is to remember that no matter how hard it seems, reaching that goal will make the work and pain it took to get there worth it.
The same can be said about this blog. What scares me the most about telling people that I am quitting smoking and achieving my “ideal body weight” is not that I have never been able to do these before, but that by telling people, I am most scared of the failure that will come along with it. I have tried to quit smoking and lose weight many times before (and there was even a time when I started training for a marathon), but when usually when I did it, I didn’t tell many people, because I was afraid of letting all these people down if I didn’t do it. However, I was amazed at the encouragement and well-wishes that friends and family posted after my first entry, and although my fear of failure is still there, I realize that I was misguided in thinking that by failing and struggling, I was going to be going through this alone.
This weekend, I took another step towards making “history” in my life. Before I really had time to think about it, I threw on my running shoes and shorts, and began running down this hill. Boy, did that suck. Running downhill for a mile is no fun, especially on asphalt. For those of you who have ever run a long distance downhill, you know that it is not “easy,” but it is certainly easier than running back up. As I was running down this hill, I was thinking to myself, “damn, if it is this hard to run down, it is really going to suck running back up.” I finally got to the bottom of the hill, I slapped the stop sign that signified the end of the road, took a deep breath, and began my ascent back up the hill. (This is the feeling I got when I first told my girlfriend a month ago that I was going to start a blog about this – I knew that making the decision to stop smoking and lose weight was hard, but I also knew that it was nothing compared to actually doing it.)
I started the ascent up the hill slowly, as I knew it was going to be a long mile uphill until I reached the friendly confines of the porch. Each step was harder than the last, but as I went along, at probably a 15-minute-mile pace, I could see I was slowly making progress. Soon, my lungs started to burn, my thighs ached, and my heart was pounding, and after the first quarter mile, I saw the hill get even steeper. Luckily, before the hill got steeper, there was about a 20 yard stretch where the road was relatively level, and it gave me a chance to catch my breath a little bit. As I caught my breath (barely), I put my head down and began pushing myself up the hill. I was scared to look ahead at what I was going to have to go through over this stretch, so I kept my eyes fixed to the road directly underneath my feet and focused on putting one foot in front of the other and just going forward.
At about the half mile point, I started to get light headed, and a little nauseous, but I kept pushing myself thinking about how the pain I was feeling was only in my head, and how so many people had pushed through things even harder than I had ahead of me. There was my girlfriend, who just ran her first half-marathon about 6 months ago, and was about to run the Boston Marathon in a couple weeks. There were the students I worked with who were the first in their families to ever go to college. There was the sibling of one of my closest friends who just passed their 1 year anniversary of being sober. What I had ahead of me was only a half-mile of a climb and it would be over in less than 15 minutes, and it paled in comparison to what these people had done. As I thought about this, I pushed on. Right, left, right, left…
And then my worst fear happened. I stopped running. I don’t know why I did this: I am not sure if it was because I literally couldn’t run another step, or if it was because I mentally gave up, but I stopped running. However, I didn’t stop altogether. I was still walking, I was still going forward, and I was still getting closer to the top of this monstrous hill. Best of all, after a couple minutes of walking, I started running again. The remaining climb wasn’t any easier, but I still managed to keep my feet and arms moving, and I made it. As I stepped foot onto the driveway of the house, I put my hands on my knees and I struggled to catch my breath. My lungs burned, I struggled to get air into my chest, and I felt as though I may pass out at any moment, but I smiled anyways. I made it. It wasn’t easy, but I finally did it- I ran up that hill that had taunted me for years.
I think that becoming that person I strive to be will be much like this run – it will be hard, very hard. At times, I may think that there is no way I can make it. There may even be times that I am not moving forward at the pace that I want, but I have to keep moving forward anyways. I am sure that there will be times that I want a cigarette or a week that I don’t lose weight. However, anything worth achieving is going to be hard. The one thing I need to do is to remember that no matter how hard it seems, reaching that goal will make the work and pain it took to get there worth it.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
3 Buckets
The original purpose of this blog is that I want to knock 3 things off of my "Bucket List." In addition to the journey towards accomplishing these things, I know that there will be other things along the way which I will want to accomplish, and I hope to also throw in plenty of humor, thoughts on life and other things which may entertain only me.
Now, let's get started (and I warn you, I am going to be getting deep right from the start), the (first?) 3 things I want to knock off my bucket list are:
1) Quit smoking. If there was one thing in my life I would go back and change, it would be having ever picked up my first cigarette. As my friends and family will tell you, I have struggled with smoking since before I was even legally able to buy a pack. I know that this is terrible for my health, and it kills me (literally) that I can't stop. As anyone who has ever smoked will tell you, the physical addiction is only part of it- the routine is also hard to break. I think about smoking when I am driving, walking, bored, hungry and stressed out to name a few. I am hoping to break these habits, and I expect that this is going to be the hardest thing to do.
2) Reach my "ideal body weight." I don't think that I will ever be skinny, that much I can accept. However, I am not sure that I have ever been comfortable at the beach with my shirt off and I hope that one day I can be. I know that much of this fear is not so much how I appear to others, but more how I feel about myself. That being said, I can certainly stand to lose a few pounds, and I hope that I will one day not have to worry that my gut is hanging over my bathing suit.
3) Run a half-marathon. There was a day when my thoughts on running were "why wear yourself out just to end up back where you started?" (This thinking obviously contributed to my weight problem...) However, it was not too long ago that I was biking 7 miles a day and running 3.5 when I got home. Therefore, I signed myself up for a half-marathon, which I will run with one of the people on this planet that I respect and admire more than anyone else- my girlfriend, Tricia. I imagine that crossing the finish line with her (ok, maybe eleven seconds ahead of her...) will be one of the best moments of my life.
Why am I spilling my guts out to everyone in the world on this blog? Because I know that it will keep me honest. These 3 things are things I have been trying to accomplish for longer than I can remember, and I know that by putting it out there for the world to see, I am going to have to be accountable for them. And the second logical question is "why now?" The answer to this question is a little more complicated, but put simply, I know that by completing all three of these things will make me healthier and hopefully I will live longer as a result of them. Additionally, I have more going for me now than I ever have before (hence the homage in the blog title to the awesomely titled Timbuk3 song): I love my job and where it is taking me, I have a lot of great friends and a tremendous family and, for the first time in my life, I have a girlfriend who has filled a gaping void in my life.
Therefore, I am enjoying my last couple hours of being a "lazy, overweight smoker," and beginning tomorrow (April 1st), I will be attempting to go smoke-free. Followed soon afterward (after a weekend away), I am going to eat healthier. And to top it all off, on Tuesday, I begin my training for the half-marathon (my first run is a 3-miler at about 5:30am, anyone want to join me?). I know that this journey won't be an easy one, but I also know that I won't be going it alone. Here's to my first step in what hopes to be an amazing journey.
Now, let's get started (and I warn you, I am going to be getting deep right from the start), the (first?) 3 things I want to knock off my bucket list are:
1) Quit smoking. If there was one thing in my life I would go back and change, it would be having ever picked up my first cigarette. As my friends and family will tell you, I have struggled with smoking since before I was even legally able to buy a pack. I know that this is terrible for my health, and it kills me (literally) that I can't stop. As anyone who has ever smoked will tell you, the physical addiction is only part of it- the routine is also hard to break. I think about smoking when I am driving, walking, bored, hungry and stressed out to name a few. I am hoping to break these habits, and I expect that this is going to be the hardest thing to do.
2) Reach my "ideal body weight." I don't think that I will ever be skinny, that much I can accept. However, I am not sure that I have ever been comfortable at the beach with my shirt off and I hope that one day I can be. I know that much of this fear is not so much how I appear to others, but more how I feel about myself. That being said, I can certainly stand to lose a few pounds, and I hope that I will one day not have to worry that my gut is hanging over my bathing suit.
3) Run a half-marathon. There was a day when my thoughts on running were "why wear yourself out just to end up back where you started?" (This thinking obviously contributed to my weight problem...) However, it was not too long ago that I was biking 7 miles a day and running 3.5 when I got home. Therefore, I signed myself up for a half-marathon, which I will run with one of the people on this planet that I respect and admire more than anyone else- my girlfriend, Tricia. I imagine that crossing the finish line with her (ok, maybe eleven seconds ahead of her...) will be one of the best moments of my life.
Why am I spilling my guts out to everyone in the world on this blog? Because I know that it will keep me honest. These 3 things are things I have been trying to accomplish for longer than I can remember, and I know that by putting it out there for the world to see, I am going to have to be accountable for them. And the second logical question is "why now?" The answer to this question is a little more complicated, but put simply, I know that by completing all three of these things will make me healthier and hopefully I will live longer as a result of them. Additionally, I have more going for me now than I ever have before (hence the homage in the blog title to the awesomely titled Timbuk3 song): I love my job and where it is taking me, I have a lot of great friends and a tremendous family and, for the first time in my life, I have a girlfriend who has filled a gaping void in my life.
Therefore, I am enjoying my last couple hours of being a "lazy, overweight smoker," and beginning tomorrow (April 1st), I will be attempting to go smoke-free. Followed soon afterward (after a weekend away), I am going to eat healthier. And to top it all off, on Tuesday, I begin my training for the half-marathon (my first run is a 3-miler at about 5:30am, anyone want to join me?). I know that this journey won't be an easy one, but I also know that I won't be going it alone. Here's to my first step in what hopes to be an amazing journey.
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