Week 6 - Big weigh in

Well, I haven't weighed in for a month because my goal isn't really about the scale, it's about training for a marathon to fight alzheimer's disease. But I will get to that in a minute.

I could say quite a bit about week six, but why spare you the time, lol. Let's just say it was HOT, HOT, HOT.

Monday was a good 4 mile run, had my best 4 mile time since I started. I know I have been saying that a lot lately but I tend to get in shape pretty quick so my times are dropping on a regular basis. Not by very much but they are dropping. Tuesday was a 5 mile run and it was agonizing. I ended up pouring about 4 bottles of water on me that my wife would ride by on her bike and give me. It was only about 94 degrees... Ouch!! Thursday was a 3 miler so what I wanted to do is, even though it was still pretty hot, was to go out and just run as fast as I could. My first mile was .18 seconds away from breaking into a high 9 minute mile. I was pretty excited about that, and even though my last two miles fell of bit, I still managed to blow away my previous 3 mile time. Now, here is where I messed up this week, I SHOULD know better than this. Let's just call it a lesson learned. I normally get up early saturday morning to do my LSD, this week it was six miles. I had a late night friday and just couldn't get up early. I ended up going out about noon to do my run hoping the heat wouldn't get to me. But, when the souls of my shoes started sticking to the melted, bubbling tar on the road, I knew I was in trouble. My wonderful wife was out there again giving me water but it just wasn't enough. I ended up getting too hot and had to walk a little, but then was able to do some hard sprint intervals. And what's funny, with the sprinting I was doing, my last mile was faster than my first.. lol.

Now, for the weigh in. When I first started I weighed in at 295 pounds, which was around the end of May. Sunday morning was my weigh in date so I get up, stand on the scale, and preceeded to grin very big. I weighed in at 274. I have lost 21 pounds. Which is about 6 pounds over where I wanted to be at 280. So i'm 6 pounds ahead of schedule and my next weigh in is on July 4th. My goal is to be around 265.

Thanks to everyone for your support and remember, i'm doing this to fight Alzheimer's so please donate if you can.

Week 5

Wow, was it hot or what? The heat drained my energy almost every run this week. I would start off really well, but by the time I would hit two miles, "ZAP," and that was all she wrote. I did finish all my runs without any walking, I just finished them slowly.

I ran my longest distance to date which was 6 miles Saturday morning. I was up pretty early to beat the heat and it was actually my best run of week 5.

I'm pretty excited about the condition i'm getting in. My legs are starting to feel great, and after many years of smoking, my breathing is getting SO much better while i'm running AND not running.

I will be adding 2 more miles to week 6 brining my total up to 18 miles. Unfortunately, it supposed to be hotter than last week. Oh well, no pain no gain right?

Week Four

Well, week four wasn't very nice to me!!

Monday I went out for a 3 miler and ran extremely well. Beat my previous best 3 mile mark once again. It set the tone for me thinking the rest of the week was going to be awsome. Not so!

Tuesday I went out for my 4 mile run and struggled. I did not expect it to be so hot and humid. It really drained my energy and I didn't run so good. But I pushed through it.

Thursday was a little better. I ran 3 miles. It was much cooler because of some storms what went through the area. I'm still building and trying to get into shape so i'm not quite there yet. I was ok with it knowing I had put in 7 miles between Monday and Tuesday.

Saturday morning was my long run. And right now that's only 5 miles. I went out with a long sleeve shirt on around 8am not thinking it would be so hot and humid so early. I did pretty good for the first 3 miles but struggled on my last two. I made it through but my time was very slow. But that's ok! I'm trying to practice running slower on LSD because I know as I get to the 10 milers and up I am going to need that experience.

I put in 15 miles for the week. Week 5 is essentially the same schedule except I run a 6 miler on Saturday morning.

I would like to take a minute to thank someone very special to me. This would be my wife. This woman is my world and she has been going out on her bike with me on my runs, supporting every step I take. I love her with all my heart and I know I could not do this (and a lot of other things) without her. Thank you Sarah, I love you!

731 miles to go!

If you would like to donate for the 46 miles I have run so far, please click the donate button below. Funds will be given to www.alz.org

Week Three

Week three is in the books. I logged 13 miles last week with my longest being 4 miles. I am running much smoother. my legs don't feel so heavy and my times are coming down just a little.

I have 3 sons, 2 of them have there birthdays on back to back days. They turned 7 and 10 over the weekend. So needless to say it was a crazy weekend. We had 12 boys I think running around our house friday night until about 4am when they decided to crash. I had very little sleep when my alarm went off at 7:30am saturday morning for my long run. Didn't end up rolling out of bed until 8:30.

I had an incredible run thursday. It was my fastest three miles yet. I took over 2 minutes off my previous fastest 3 mile time. So i'm deffinately showing signs of getting in shape.

Overall, it was a tough week in life, but a good week in running.

746 miles to go!

If you would like to donate for the 31 miles I have run so far, please click the donate button below. Funds will be given to www.alz.org

Fought all my Demons Yesterday.

Monday 5-10-10 was not my day. It was day one of week 3 and nothing was going my way. I had a bad day at home, I had a bad day at work. I forced myself to get out and run, but once I got out there it was extremely windy, rainy, and my route was very hilly. But i'm on a mission. I'm doing this for a greater cause than just me. I pushed myself to get through my 3 miles and I did. I will normally only post my weekly update but I just wanted to share my day with everyone. Even on the days that seem like will never end, you have to get out there and do it!

Week Two

Week two was tougher than week one. My legs felt heavy, my back was killing me and my breathing was very labored. Of course all this is to be expected after many years of smoking (I quit cold turkey the day before I started running).

I pushed through another 9 miles this week.

759 miles to go!

If you would like to donate for the 18 miles I have run so far, please click the donate button below. Funds will be given to www.alz.org

Week One

Week one was rough. I haven't done any physical activity in over 3 years. I'm currently weighing in at 295 pounds.

I ran 9 miles in week one with my longest being a 3 miler.

768 Miles to go!

If you would like to donate for the 9 miles I have run so far, please click the donate button below. Funds will be given to www.alz.org