Greg's Running Blog

Yup, I went running again. I did the same 2.24 mile 3 lap run I did yesterday. The only addition was the extra lap afterward that I walked as a cool down lap. My time has improved from 20:40 to 20:13 which actually puts me right at the 9 minute mile mark. It will need to improve if I want to be any kind of serious about running but until then it will suffice. I felt good about running and the new shoes felt great as well. It was a good exercise and burned some pretty good calories in a short period of time. My average heart rate is lower than yesterday’s due to the extra lap that I walked.

My legs were pretty sore in the morning and they’re even more sore now after this second running session. I lack muscles in my legs, no doubt. I will have to build them up and bear the pain in the meantime. I thought my legs were still pretty strong but I was sorely (no pun) mistaken.

Run/Walk

• 31 minutes
• 151 avg heart rate
• 413 calories
• 3 miles

Today I did something I didn’t think I would do for a while. I ran. My most avid commenter Andrew from Andrew Is Getting Fit is probably going to love this. I was a runner when I was 13. Then I quit and things went downhill for me and the weight piled on. I have always felt that running is for skinny and fit people and someone who weighs 200 lbs should not be running as it’s a recipe for disaster and it’s only a matter of time before permanent knee damage will occur. But the closer I get to my target weight the more I’m itching to finally start running. So today I went for a test run.

It wasn’t long and I didn’t go far. I only ran up and down the street where I live. We got some slopes in the terrain so it wasn’t all flat. I used to walk the same loop as my cardio exercise before we got the elliptical machine for the bedroom so I knew the distance and I knew the time and calories it took to walk it. One lap is 1,200 meter. I used to walk 6 laps, 4.47 miles in 66 minutes and I’d burn 660 calories. That was back in October when I weighed 230+ lbs.

Today I ran 3 laps, 2.24 miles in 20 minutes 40 seconds. That is a 9:12 pace mile on slopes. My average heart rate was the highest I have managed during any cardio I have done so far at 161 bpm. I have burned 310 calories which is surprisingly little. It means I burned the same amount of calories now running with 200 lbs as I did walking with 230+ lbs. I guess it makes sense but I was expecting a bit more calories, although 310 calories in under 21 minutes is not something I can achieve on the elliptical.

The only problem was that I was running in some crappy worn out shoes and it was a bit chilly around 36 Fahrenheit, 2 Celsius. I hope I can remedy both of these things soon. I quit the run at the 3 lap mark because we needed to leave the house and run errands and my knee started to hurt a bit towards the last 200 yards. It might be letting me know that running might be a bit too early for me. But the whole running experience was exhilarating and I’m really looking forward doing it again soon.

I also did my usual cardio on the elliptical in front of the TV watching ‘Taken’ by Liam Neeson. I was a pretty good movie, I enjoyed it.

Run

• 20 minutes 40 seconds
• 161 avg heart rate
• 310 calories
• 2.24 miles

Elliptical

• 60 minutes
• 131 avg heart rate
• 623 calories

You might have wondered where yesterday’s cardio entri went but the truth is that I just didn’t do any. I felt pretty bad about it but not bad enough to actually do it. And not bad enough to keep with the regime the next day. Today I did my 30 minutes at work but then I was so tired once I got home that I felt I was not going to do any cardio at night. And i went to bed. And started watching TV. The only thing missing from my old habit was the bag of Cheetos from my hands. So I went and grabbed bag. No no no! I’m just kidding! Instead I got out of bed and got on the elliptical. I only did 40 minutes instead of the scheduled 60 but it was more than I anticipated after going to bed for the first time.

Elliptical

• 30 minutes
• 133 avg heart rate
• 332 calories

Elliptical

• 40 minutes
• 125 avg heart rate
• 382 calories

I did do my lunchtime cardio just fine today. But I have skipped my evening one. We’re supposed to get some massive cold front tomorrow and I thought it was coming tonight so I spent the evening cleaning the garage to be able to park both our cars inside, I’m just not a big fan of cleaning icy windows in the morning. Then I also went ahead and wrapped our sago palms with some cloth and Christmas lights under the cloth to keep them warm. Their leaves died off when we got the snow storm on Christmas Eve but I’m worried that the roots and the rest of it would die if I didn’t wrap them. Sagos are not very cold resistant and it’s supposed to get down to 10 F (-12 C). After doing all that I just didn’t feel like putting in any time on the elliptical.

Elliptical

• 30 minutes
• 131 avg heart rate
• 317 calories

Today was the first time I have actually managed to put in two cardio sessions in one day since 12/23/09. I’ve been on vacation and yesterday I have skipped the evening one for a movie. I did two pretty decent cario sessions and the both felt fine. I was watching Biggest Loser while doing the one in the evening. That show is just getting out of hand. 500+ lbs people on it? Come on! It is becoming a freak show! I’m not sure what kind of message this show is sending now but I’m starting to dislike it. Jillian also pissed me off today, I saw her in an ad on TV at lunch on the Food Network advertrising her 12 day cleansing formula. What kind of BS is that? She refused to do product placements on Biggest Loser because she didn’t believe in the product and now she’s selling supplements that must be utter garbage! Everyone knows you can’t do much if anything about your weight in 12 days. It has to be a lifestyle change. So It was a double let down today as far as Jillian and the Biggest Loser goes.

Today was the first day that I was back at work and I did my lunch time 30 minute cardio session. I just remembered how much more I like the Precor machine at work compared to the Sole that I use at home. Then again it cost 4x as much so it makes sense that it feels better. I’m not knocking my home machine too hard but if I had the choice I’d use the Precor any day over the Sole.

The workout went great, I had almost the highest average heart rate ever and I burned a good amount of calories. But then I skipped cardio in the evening. Since my father-in-law is leaving on the 6th me and my wife had to use the time and opportunity to go to the movies. We watched Up In The Air. It was enjoyable and we were the only two people in the entire theater which was kind of weird. I guess on the first Monday night of the year at 10:00PM not a lot of people go to the movies. By the time we got back it was way too late to do any cardio so I had to live with the 30 minutes I got in at lunch. Since I have hit my diet perfect today I felt it was a good sacrifice for the day. I won’t get to do it again for a long time, not until we visit my family in the summer and can leave the kids with the grandparents.

Today I watched Journey To The Center Of The Earth while doing cardio. It was a crappy movie and my cardio wasn’t all that great either. I felt weak and I wanted to quit about 25 minutes into it. But I kept going and said to myself “I’ll do 45″ then at 45 minutes I kept on going and ended up with my usual 60 minutes. It wasn’t as intense as yesterday’s but it was a solid LISS cardio session.

I had an awesome cardio session today. My average heart rate was 149. I haven’t had a cardio session with this high of an average heart rate since 11/03/09 when I hit 156. But back then I weighed 231 lbs and my resting heart rate was probably 20 beats higher than now. I was watching the movie Fracture while doing my cardio and I don’t know if it was the suspense or just the fact that I have upped the resistance to 10 from 9 has made the difference. I started out on this machine at a resistance of 3 when I started doing my cardio 2+ months ago. Now I’m doing 10 on the scale of 20. At work I use the Precor machine with a resistance of 15 now and I have started at 7. It’s just amazing how much more efficient my body is now. It also sucks as it takes a lot more effort to burn the same amount of calories. I take this situation over the alternative any day though.

Wow! I have almost forgotten that this category even exists, that’s how long ago it’s been since I have written an entry for it. As much dedication and determination I have started my holiday break with things didn’t exactly work out as planned. I have skipped four consecutive cardio days in a row.

For two of them I kind of have an excuse. Me and my wife went to the movies. Sicne we don’t have family in town it’s very seldom that we get to leave the house without the kids. Since my father-in-law is spending Christmas with us this year we managed to sneak out after the kids went down for sleep two nights in a row. Right at the same time when I usually get comfortable in front of the TV on my elliptical machine. So I skipped the cardio on these two nights as well as two other nights to which I don’t even have a good excuse. I actually kind of do. I was putting together a toy for my son and I was up until 2AM tinkering with it instead of doing cardio. Not a solid excuse but an excuse nevertheless. I’ll post more about the toy once I take some pictures of it.

As to what we watched at the movies the first night we saw “It’s Complicated” which was a pretty decent movie for the time and the next night we watched “Avatar 3D” which was excellent. I’m usually not into these kind of movies but this one was done so well it was mind blowing. The 3D was fantastic and the visual effects were awesome. My friend has called it a ‘visual feast’ and he was absolutely right. I could certainly see how the movie ended up costing so much but it was so worth it. One of the nicest most amazing visual effect movie you could see for sure. I highly recommend it.Star Wars can’t even hold a candle to it. And watch it in 3D if you can, it’s great.

As for the cardio session I had it was rather uneventful, I could feel that I haven’t done any cardio in 4 days, my heart rate stayed pretty low the entire time and my calories burned matched it.