Running …

… because I can … because it's fun … because it's healthy … just BECAUSE.

Tag Archives: nutrition

Specific, but simple, goals

I set a personal worst last month with number of blog posts in a calendar month. It was also the lowest running mileage month for me in a couple of years. The two are definitely somewhat related.

I also moved again in June. I ate too much crap in June because it was easy to. I pushed myself to the exhaustion limit as I stayed up way too late too many times.

Even when I tried to do something great with my running in a 5k, the race distance came up short. I guess that was fitting as that just felt like the theme of my month when it comes to my overall health.

It was a great month, though, in that my wife and I de-cluttered. We had a successful yard sale over the weekend; tons of boxes of stuff that didn’t sale were donated.

While some work remains, I feel a huge burden lifted off my shoulders with endless stuff I don’t need out of the way.

I flip the calendar without any other rehashing of specific areas of June. For my 13 goals for the year, things mostly stayed on track surprisingly. I don’t feel like sorting through the details, though, as I am ready to move on and focus on these next couple of months.

While I’ll still focus on those overall goals for the year, I want to make a list of 3 specific, yet simple, things this month and then revisit them at the end of the month to see how I’m doing. These goals take me back to a time a few years ago when I focused a lot on numbers – they worked well then, so I want to see how I feel about doing this again.

1. Weigh in on July 2 and be 2.5 pounds lighter by July 30

As I said, June was a bad month. I don’t know if I gained weight or what, but I feel bad. And if weight is “just a number,” right now that number feels bad. This will also help in my overall goal of the year of getting below 180.

2. Bike 30 miles
I’m less than halfway to my 200-mile goal for the year and going above what I’ve done in previous months will help.

3. Run 80 miles
In March, April and May I ran a little more than 80 miles each month. I was feeling pretty good in early June, but didn’t even hit 60 for the month. 80 miles will build consistency and base miles for more training in August.

Moved.

moving, Richmond

It’s been one hell of a week with getting out of my apartment and seeing boxes of stuff from there, storage here in Richmond and from my mom’s house in Bedford come together.

I feel overwhelmed by these strange things that I have kept my whole life, and by what my wife and I taken from place to place.

Enough is enough.

I’ve given myself a deadline for several things with this move and with running: July 1. It’s the new Jan. 1.

  • No boxes in my house that I have to go through. Some boxes – just a small handful – may have to go to the attic to be unseen, but my wife and I are making tremendous progress de-cluttering our lives. I have to go through these things so they don’t just continue to collect dust.
  • Pick a paint color for the baby’s room, or at least have it narrowed down. The project to finishing his room also will have a deadline soon.
  • Refocus on my diet. Moving in the past week has led to some really bad choices to eat quickly. The reset process has started this week; the major focus comes in a couple of weeks. I have to at least celebrate my birthday next week before I eliminate some things, right?
  • Develop a training plan to get to the 5k PR mark. I’m signed up for a 5k on July 4 in Ohio (that I know is a 5k since I’ve done it before), but I know that I’m not in PR shape. That race will really be the benchmark to see where I stand.
  • Read blogs again. I miss my virtual running friends, but as a way to stay focused on other things, I had to make a cut to blog reading temporarily.

As for some other things going on, my 35 “streak” was going great until the move. It wasn’t that I didn’t think about it, but I was so exhausted at the end of every day Friday through Sunday that nothing else got done.

It was a nice challenge for a little while, but it wasn’t such a great goal with what I had going on. That doesn’t mean I won’t stop doing some things related to that number this month though.

I also slipped in an extra soft drink this weekend, which once again dampens my “13 goals” for the year. Just as I did in April, though, I think I can get through July before I have another one. I simply wanted an extra caffeine boost on Sunday to keep opening boxes.

The slow return

What’s worse: an injury or the flu?

I guess that’s a loaded question because it depends on the injury, but from my experiences I can confidently say that getting the flu is worse. Not only does it drag you down for a couple of weeks, there’s the lingering cough.

Halls wrapper

Some inspiration from Halls while I had the flu.

And more coughing. And more coughing.

It’s been two months since I had the flu. It’s only been a few weeks that I haven’t had a cough.

Running in the past couples of months has been a struggle. While I’ve talked a lot about needing the downtime, I didn’t want that to include not running at all for a week, then only running less than 10 miles in a week for two weeks after that.

In hindsight, it seems like a miracle that I even did Disney. But I also know that Disney led to someone as a setback for me as my cough returned after that trip following a small break.

When I’ve been injured, getting out of shape was only my fault. Feeling sorry for yourself is stupid and unnecessary. I’ve learned that the hard way.

With the flu, though, I simply couldn’t do anything.

Now, though, I’ve had a couple of weeks that have felt like major breakthroughs. I’ve managed a couple of short tempo runs with my pace right around 8 minutes a mile. I did a progressive run last night in which I was able to close out the final mile in 7:51.

I’ve also been eating better. My wife and I now have a Customer Appreciation Card for a local market that gives free food after a minimal purchase.

This week, for example, we spent $12 on apples, strawberries, potatoes, squash, avocado, bananas and blueberries and got a head of cabbage and 2 pounds of apples for free. More on that in a future post.

I’ve added more cross training than usual, but I could be doing more. I go to our apartment’s gym a couple of times a week to do about 20 minutes on the bike and then weights. I’ve been consistent with that for several weeks now and I can’t wait to do more.

Getting the flu in December was like pushing the reset button for me, even though it’s not something I wanted or needed. That said, it’s given me a fresh perspective and a greater appreciation for all things running.

3 things Thursday: Cookies, marathon, cookies

1. Cookies. I’m removing them from my diet until after the Richmond Marathon. I’ve been eating way too many lately.

2. Good runs deserve shout-outs. Yesterday I did an 8-mile run with a 4-mile tempo thrown in at an 8:19 pace. I could have easily gone farther at that pace and I could have easily lowered that pace. I didn’t look my watch for much of it.

With each run I’m growing more and more confident about what will happen at the Richmond Marathon on Nov. 10.

3. Speaking of cookies and the marathon, this training cycle has been one of the best when it comes to running and one of the worst with eating stupid stuff. It’s all kind of weird how that happens, but it’s time to change a few things.

I’m not going to make any drastic changes, but my two-plus-month soda free streak will continue and now cookies/cupcakes/brownies and the like are gone for a while. The sweet tooth has got to go.