Activity 5/20 - 5/26

A pretty good week:

Monday - 1.25 mile walk. I did a quick walk at lunch.  It was hot enough that I actually came inside and walked in the tunnels a bit.
Tuesday - 4.0 run and walk in 1:00.  Jesus it was hot and humid out.  I did my walking warm up and then started 2:00/1:00. Then 1:00/1:00. Finally I just switched to running between the zone 2 beeps on my watch and then walked back to the office.
Tuesday - 30 minute Core Workout.  Such a good core workout.
Wednesday - 1.5 walk.  I would have done more but a hard day at home left my workout out of the question. While the wife laid down with our daughter to put her to bed, I went for a neighborhood walk.
Thursday - 3.3 in 1:05 walk.  I walked to the dry cleaners and back to drop off the clothes.  Very hot out 88 with 85% humidity.  Nice to do an errand.
Friday - 3.05 in 40 minutes run (13:06) plus 1.00 walking warm up/down.  First chance to use the new/used treadmill.  It was too hot and still in the garage so I cut the running short.
Saturday - Strength training. I did the Coach Jeff total body workout for the first time in months.  Very challenging. I need to start doing some strength training at least 2x a week.
Saturday - 3.05 walking in 1:00.  Treadmill walk in the garage. My son watched an episode of Doctor Who, then came out to nag me to stop.
Sunday - 4.5 in 1:00 (12:53) plus .5 walking warm up/down.  A good run at 2:00/1:00 with the fan moving the hot/humid air around. I don't know if I could do this in temps 15 degrees warmer without passing out. I wanted to run longer but my son nagged the entire time for me to stop.  I was not feeling supported at all...

Weight:
Sunday 167.3 so I'm down .3 for the week and 2.7 overall.  Obviously I'd like to be seeing better results....

Steps:
Monday - 10,073
Tuesday - 10,829
Wednesday - 9,600
Thursday - 13,663
Friday - 12,387
Saturday - 8,032*
Sunday - 18,579

* Saturday I checked the step count while I was on the treadmill for an hour.  It recorded around 1000 steps.  By my calculation it should have gotten around 7200.  So that should be well over 13,000 or even 14,000 steps.

2013 Goals

Well it's 2013 and what are all the cool kids doing?  Setting their goals.  Setting their fitness goals. 

I only set two goals last year and I didn't reach either of them.  So ... what's the purpose of a goal? Should it be specific and measurable such as "I will lose x pounds by March 1 blah blah blah..."  Or should they be more vague and less measurable?  I think that's up to the individual.  I haven't felt driven to setting goals but now I've been thinking of it a lot.  Maybe I'll set motivations for the year such as:

Motivations:

• Run >750 miles and Bike > 750 miles OR Run/Bike > 1500 miles
• Do >75 core workouts
• Run a half-marathon in <2:35:59
• Be more fit
• Love more
• Laugh more
• Make love more
• Volunteer at some races
• Give more
• Forgive more easily, more quickly, more thoroughly
• Pay better attention
• Be more present

2012 Running/Riding Totals

Last year I posted that I wanted to run 1100 miles and break 2:30 in the half marathon in 2012.  I achieved neither of those goals but I had a good year. 

 

I ran 709 miles in 2012 which was markedly down from 2011. But that was because I began to focus on a more varied exercise schedule which included more strength and cross training.  You can see from the graph that in the early part of the year when I was just running, I was logging more miles than in the later part as I became more flexible in my workouts. 

 

 

The graph at the top shows my running miles and the one at the bottom show all miles.  In the later part of the year as I started to do more biking, my miles increased although my running miles decreased. 

 

Although I did not reach my goals in 2012 it was a good year.  I ran a 2:41 half marathon which was a 9 minute improvement from my first effort.  I stayed relatively healthy and had no injuries. 

Running Totals - January to June

At the beginning of the year I joined a 1000 mile challenge on the Nike+ site.  I've never managed 1000 miles in a year and I would like to reach that this year.  Through 06/30 I have run 538 (not all those are synced because Nike + is having some sort of connection issue).  I'd say I'm on pace to reach my goal if I just keep on. 

Workouts 5/28 - 6/03

I had a relatively crummy workout week last week. Geez. I just couldn't get myself out the door to even try. I believe it was a combination of stress (job) and tired (?) and sad (dog). Hopefully this week will be better. Last week: Monday - 6.0 miles 1:10 (11:39 mm) plus the walking warm up/down.It was Memorial day so I got to take my second daylight run in a row. I just ran on the sidewalks/streets in the neighborhood but it was quite nice. I did a 1:00/1:00 but maintained a nice pace.

Monday - You are your own Gym Week 5 Day 4 and Week 6 Day 1. I did the core workout from the week before and then the Arms/Pushing supersets from Week 6.

Tuesday - You are your own Gym Week 6 Day 2 - Legs, Supersets. Such a good workout.

Saturday - 3.9 in 1:03 walk. The entire family walked to the park and then played and then home. ChocolateDaughter rode her balance bike.

Sunday - Long Slow Hot Run of 9.5 in 2:15 (14:12 mm) plus the walking warm up/down. I'm not sure why this run was like this. I felt ok, just hot and sluggish. My first mile I covered just over 4.5 which is about normal for a LSR but then it just dropped and dropped. I'm going to blame the weather and the rest of the week. At a 1:00/1:00 ratio it was slow.

Sunday - You are your own Gym Week 6 Day 3 - Arms Pulling Supersets. A good workout although I do let me ins rather than pullups. I just can bring myself to try to do a pullup on the door.

The biggest news of the week is that I signed up for the Austin LiveSTRONG half-marathon for the 3rd straight year on Friday. I'd like to raise > $1500 this year to fight cancer and support those living with it. I'd also like to run a 2:35 or better half-marathon.

Last Day Blue!

Today should be my last day to be Blue in Nike Running. I turned blue on May 9th of last year so it's taken me nearly 11 months to go from 999 km/620 miles to 2499 km/1552 miles (932 miles). Purple goes to 5000 km/3106 miles so I'll probably be purple for at least 18 months before I turn black.

2011 Running Totals

It's the first of the year and time to revisit my running goals. At the start of the year I signed up for various Nike + challenges. I did not really expect to meet the 1000 mile challenge and I didn't. In a way I'm glad I didn't come closer. If I had been within 15 or 20 miles, I might have gone a little crazy trying to meet it the past week. As it is, I'm pretty happy with nearly 962 miles over 221 workouts.

Next year I want to run/walk > 1100 miles including breaking 2:30 in a half.

October Running

My October running numbers are not bad.  87.31 miles on a month that included a taper week and didn't include my scheduled half-marathon.  At the beginning of the year I signed up for some annual challenges on Nike Running.  I have achieved all of them but two at this point: Run across Texas (941 miles) and Run 1000 miles.  I'm about 20 miles ahead of pace to achieve the first one but 30 miles behind pace to reach 1000 miles.  To run it, I would need to run about 98.5 miles a month for the last two months of 2011.  Given that I've never run 98.5 miles in any month, I think it's unlikely. 

We'll see...

2011 Goals

Last year I posted 3 goals. My progress on them:

• Donate Blood Platelets 12x or more. I just looked and it looks like I did 16 double donations this year. So I beat that goal pretty handily. I've got a new boss at work and I don't feel as comfortable regularly taking time off to donate so it's pretty much stopped at this point. I may just donate blood at the drives we have at work this coming year since they're easier to get to.
• Volunteer at a few rides or runs. Pretty vague. I volunteered at the Austin Marathon on Valentine's Day handing out Water and drinks. That was it.
• Be more forgiving - I actually think I'll give myself a thumbs-up on this one. I have felt like I wasn't holding on to issues as long and I've been praying a lot to help me give up being angry or resentful.

So what are my 2011 goals?

I can't say that I have very many specific goals for 2011. I want to feel happy, to be relaxed, to be a good parent and a loving partner. And I want to run.

• Run the Austin Livestrong Half-Marathon 2/20. (Committed).
• Raise >$750 for said Half-Marathon (I'm at about $500)
  

How far, how much do I want to run this year? Do I want to set these goals?

• Run 500 miles (9.61 miles per week)
• Run 750 miles (14.42 miles per week)
• Run 1000 miles (19.23 miles per week)

I've joined Nike Running challenges for the first two distances. I've also joined one that purports to be running across Texas from Orange to El Paso (1476 km or 915 miles).