No More Pizza

Yesterday, I ate a good amount of pizza. Too much, in fact. I felt the effects of this in my run today. A pretty sluggish 17:31, a full minute (and then some slower than my PR). Started P90X w Bubba as a precursor to BCT. Getting late.

12 year Mile PR

A New 10 year street mile PR is upon us (read: me). Time: 8:47. It's unofficial, but I ended up burning 160 cals in the process. It's probably closer to a 12 year record, due to my last mile I've ran in earnest was when I was 17 (which ended up right at 7:00). I need to beat that record. It will happen.

A quick note about Taco Bell nutrition
Calories in Taco Bell Fresco Bean Burrito: 370 sodium: 1100
Calories in Chicken Burrito: 420 sodium: 900
Wow. I had 2g of sodium for lunch. It works when I'm working out. That is, it replenishes the sodium I've already lost whilst running.
But wow. 2 grams is a lot of salt for a meal. I suppose Taco Bell uses that much sodium as a preservative. At least I won't get the TB employee dirty hand squirts.

It may be 88 outside...

...but it's flippin' hot on the surface of my head. It feels like god has a magnifying glass trained on my scalp, as he laughs hysterically, while I suffer on the track. Oh well, he (she, it?) works in mysterious ways. It seems that if we applied the same logic to convicts...
<end digression>
I finished today's run in 18:08. Not bad at 47 points, but it still needs to drop. It seems that it is more difficult to exert myself in the middle of the summer heat. And while it may be easier to run as time goes on, and my times are dropping (or at least the average times are dropping), it's still no easier. On the bright side, It is getting a bit easier to exert myself in those back 4 laps.
Let's see what Elena thinks:

Why don't you want to hug me after my run, honey?

Oh well. Here's my progress:

That's not dandruff, that's salt crystals
 from my sweat on the camera lens.
"Mmm...salt crystals" said the deer.
PS - Kathie Lee Gifford (see TV in bkg) had to
have been lobotomized at some point in her life.

I haven't yet done any pushups or situps regularly, an oversight I'll live to regret here in about 2 weeks. However, I'll start working on those starting today.
Pushups: 21 (41 pts)
Situps: 18 (0 pts)
These need improvement. However, as I lose weight, (I weighed in at just above 240), I'll be able to perform more reps.
Tomorrow we go to Johnson Shut-Ins, but it's no vacation from PT. I'll do my next post when I have a decent signal. Either way, it'll be more spartan than my normal posts. See you then.

13 mile hike

Today i hikes 13 miles from several trails in Greensfelder Park to Rockwoods Reservation, with mom. Our original intent was to take the northern portion of the Eagle Valley trail, but got turned around for a few miles, due to the confusing signposts along the trails. There needs to be trail signpost reform at Greensfelder. Regardless of this, we found the trail we were looking for after a few twists & turns.
Great hike, about 13 miles, I recommend it, and I will definitely do it again. Maybe next week I'll get back on the trail for a proper, brisk hike.

Edit: Started hike at 09:38, ended at 14:20

Yesterday's run (not hot at all)

A New 2 Mile PR!

My time is 16:29.11 (65 pts.)
Lap times:
1. 01m 56s .70
2. 02m 03s .00
3. 02m 06s .44
4. 02m 05s .60
5. 02m 07s .08
6. 02m 08s .26
7. 02m 06s .86
8. 01m 55s .14

Still working toward 16 minutes!

A hot Lunch

I had lunch today before my run.
I timed the laps of my 2 mile. They are as follows:
2:04, 2:10, 2:13, 2:14, 2:20, 2:15, 2:23, 1:59 (total 17:39, 52 points)
My quickest so far. On the final lap, I really caught a second wind on the back stretch of the track straightaway. However, the curve taxed my endurance. I want to strive for laps like that from now on. I have to rest tomorrow, but I'll work on striding out Friday.
The shoes helped too. I wore more snugly fitting sneakers I usually wear to work. I think I'll stick with those for running. My other tennis shoes are too broad.

A hot mile

Supplemental 1 mile run in the afternoon to prepare myself for the balmy SC August. I ran on the street, and my time was a sluggish 9:36. I seem to have trouble getting my stride. It didn't feel too hot, but it was still a tough run. That first hill kills. My goal by the end of the month is to diiminish my time by 1:30 to 8:00. I'm sure I can do it, but I have to work my ass off to get there.
Stay focused.
Don't give up.
Stride, Stride Stride.
I get the privilege of sleeping tonight, to recover my body from such punishment. Since tomorrow's a new day, I'll have another chance to tackle that 2 mile monster, and shave some time off my mile.

This picture of the mile course I ran today, was provided as a personal reference only.

One thing I've learned: it's hard to be funny, or to clown around when you're physically tired. Time for homework. Also, nonsequiturs abound when I'm out of breath. Time to quiet the monkeymind.

A hot run

Courtesy of  weather.gov

Another hot one. It's supposed to get up to 95° today with a heat index of 102°. Needless to say, I got my run in at 08:30 (I'm going to use military time from now on, just to get in the practice, btw.)
Here's the official summary:
2 Mile: 20:28.
Abyssal. This needs to improve, and drastically. In other words, I should have been doing this loooooooooong ago.
In spite of my currently sluggish two-mile time, an important fact remains: I need to whip myself into shape like I've never done before. That means running in the heat of the day with a 102° heat index. This means more push-ups and sit-ups. This means a more strenuous workout. It's go time, and I'm still fat.
Here's proof:

My manboobs seemed to have disappeared, sinking
their way into my sidefat (AKA lovehandles)
PS - to my future DI & CO: I made my bed after I posted this.

In high school, I remember that the kinds of working out I'd do seems comically intense today. However, I'm just as capable of getting into shape now as I was when I was 16. It'll be more difficult, though. My body doesn't recover as quickly, I can't take in as many calories, and my life is less flexible. All of these difficulties can be addressed with more exercise, more discipline, a better diet, and less "monkey minding."
This brings me to my state of mind when I'm running. Running is often best achieved on a half-full stomach and and an empty mind. The more I clear my thoughts, the less I think about running, the faster my times become. Running Zen serves as my best short-term strategy for improving my 2 mile time.
And now to address a few of my earlier posts:

"We're going to take a more fact-based and critical approach to good health."

This hasn't changed. For weight loss, my core strategy of CICO (Calories in, Calories out) will never change. This means a simple equation, BMR + CB =< CI, where CB = Calories Burned, and CI = Calories in (or calories consumed between 00:00 and 23:59). My current BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) at 29, 6'1", ~243 lbs, according to the Revised Harris-Benedict Equation is 2290, which means I can eat 2290 calories in a day, and maintain my weight for the day. However, without external forces (i.e. exercise) on this formula day-to-day, it's easy to fall back into a pattern of decay. Exercise, or CB speeds up the process of weight loss by adding additional calories burned, allowing for a more robust diet (as if 2290 C doesn't allow me to be robust enough).
In addition to this, I've done my best to eat well, but admittedly, I don't know where to start on good nutrition. I figured eating oatmeal & yogurt every morning, cutting out refined flours, trans fats, processed foods and fast-food (including pizza), and caffeine, in addition to using high HDL oils while cooking, and taking in as much protein as possible would do the trick. However, this, in addition to regular exercise, is the only way to go. I still get a few caffeine headaches, but I feel like my energy is more sustained over the day, after cutting it out.

"I promise not to DNF."

Screwed up on this one. Sorry 'bout that. At least I didn't take a 15 year hiatus. I will however, take a 9.5 week hiatus for BCT. in August.

"I'm still not sure who my target audience will be."

It's going to be me. I don't have the time or resources to build the blogging empire that once gripped my aspirations. This blog is just for my own good now, but comments/criticisms are welcome.

My next post will focus on the mile road run I plan to do in the extreme afternoon heat. Looking forward to this one. Time to eat 3 delicious eggs.

I was Fat for 2 years. Now it ends.

Quite a bit has occurred in the past few years, one of which has happened in the last few months. On June 25, 2013, I swore to uphold the constitution of the United States as part of the Army National Guard. Since I made this commitment, I'm subjected to some pretty stringent body composition requirements. As such, I've lost about 40 pounds since the beginning of this year. That's moving from a high of 283.5 in January to my current weight of 245. The Army tends to kick in a few points of motivation.
The primary reason I'm starting up this blog again, is to track my weight loss, and to track my physical conditioning overall. I'm about to get out to run 2 miles and test pushups & situps.
My first official 2 Mile Time on a track was Sat. 06 Mar. around 1200. Time: 18:20 Points: 45

Now it's gametime again. Time to do another 2 miles. Here goes nothing.
BAck inside. It's getting hotter out there, but nothing compared to the Ft. Jackson August heat. I accidentally skipped a lap, so my timer reads 15:25. Assuming I could have nailed that last lap in 2:30, I'll say I ran a solid 18:00. A decent improvement, but since it's unofficial, I get no points for my run today. Maybe I'll hit the track later today...
In the tradition of this blog, I'll track my progress visually. Here's the first picture, taken just before I write this:

PS - I'm still fat. While doing pushups, my gut hits the ground. Such a sloppy sagging can't be there at the end of the month. Time to hit the shower.