I haven't officially worked out since my last run on Saturday so I was a bit surprised to see I came in at 217 pounds this week. However, a few factors may have contributed.
1. Less fast food. I had Quizno's on Tuesday and then a fast food breakfast from Hardee's on Sunday, but that was it fast food wise.
2. No official work outs, but I had been working to get my house ready for a visit from the parents. And according to this page that means I burned 223 calories per hour. So, while I wasn't off running, I was at least active.
I know a lot of people who listen to music while they run. I've never actually done this. I like to experience the nature of the run, plus I'm a big fan of being able to hear trucks and/or the neighbor's dog as they chase you around.
That said, I listen to music before I head out on runs. I have to. It stops the monotony that is stretching. Plus, it can get you pumped up, give you an adrenaline rush and just get you going.
Periodically, I'm going to offer up a song from my collection that I listen to. To lead off...Never Enough by Dream Theater.
Why I like it: I thoroughly enjoy rocking, and coming off of the album Octavarium this fits the bill. Plus, its got this angry, vengeful vibe that's awesome. I'll delve into this later, but its a very primal feeling I get when I run. Its a raw emotion I feel. This song taps into that for me. For optimum rocking, I love the guitar solo that begins at 4:23 and proceeds to do the musical equivelent of mix red bull and amp together until the 6:03 mark.
Plus, doing air drums has to double as some sort of warm up exercise right?
Today is the first day of what I hope will be an ongoing feature on the site. That is, the Wednesday Weigh-In. I think its pretty self explanatory, but I'll go through the motions of it anyways.
Each Wednesday I will weigh myself. Then I'll post it here. I picked Wednesday because it has alliteration with Weigh-in and I'm clever and witty like that.
(That was sarcasm, btw)
So, to kick things off...I come in at 220 pounds.
Or 99.79 kilograms for my Australian friends.
Here's to seeing that number go down. No workout today, but hopefully something to come tomorrow.
Overcast day today in Salem, but I managed to drag myself out of bed early (for me) and get in a one mile run.
Just a loop and an easy one at that. Not much in the way of hills in this town. Despite my soreness, I felt pretty good and maintained my pace of before. It was good enough to get me a little sweaty, which is a good feeling in the morning.
Well, I didn't properly rehydrate after yesterday's run, mostly because I'm lightly retarded. This led to a massive headache throughout most of the afternoon. I finally downed a gatorade and some water before bed. I slept pretty well and this morning the headache was gone. Moral of the story: drink water, moron.
This morning, both my legs and abs are fairly stiff. I was going to blame this on lactic acid, but that, I guess is not the case.
Its harder to move around today, but its not bad. I expected this to happen. Going from not working out to 20 minutes of working out isn't going to be easy on the body. I'll stretch things out tonight, maybe go for a walk this evening, and try to bring the legs back to a comfortable level before I head out again.
Sundays, I work morning at a radio station. This entails waking up at 4 am. However, I also get to go home at 12:30. Sometime between there I decided to go for a run today. The sun was out and it was a good temperature, around 60 out. Light breeze made it pretty comfortable outside.
After work, I came home and I wanted to go then. Stretching, while necessary, is something I don't look forward too. Prep is something I just don't enjoy. I'd rather have my pasta now. None of this boiling noodles stuff.
I stretched anyway, even downed some glasses of water, and stepped off.
Here's the route:
As a former cross-country runner, I don't like linear paths. This route isn't the most efficient, but it was tweaked to get to the 2-mile mark. I didn't really know what to expect in the run. I figured my calves would bitch at me during it (they always do) and I would not have been surprised if I walked for a bit.
Then I got to mile 1. Halfway done with it. I hadn't walked. I wasn't going fast either, but no walking. I told myself I was halfway through. I didn't care if my legs were tired. I was going to finish this thing off.
The last mile was not pretty. I'd classify it as a struggle. But, I did not walk. I did have to stop at an intersection because of a van, but I got right back to running right afterwards.
Finally, 20 minutes after I left my house, I stepped back onto the porch. 10-minute miles aren't anything to be proud of, but considering my lack of inactivity in recent times, I was pleased. It’s a start, and a good one.
We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'm thinking a walk might be in order to loosen up the legs without pushing them to hard.
One of the things that got me excited to go running again was a website. Map My Run
Map My Run allows you to...well, uh...map your run. It uses Google Maps and allows you to plot your course, gives you a distance on your course, and gives you a whole host of options. I'm planning on a run when I get of work here and I'll give you a closer look at how the site works.
In the meantime...check it out and enjoy plotting your courses!
Back in the day, I loved running. I was addicted to it. I wasn't fast, never won races, but I loved to run. When cross country season ended, I got depressed. Running always made me feel good (endorphins...FTW) and I felt better after a good run too.
My senior year of high school, I decided to run the Seattle Half Marathon, a good month and a half after XC season. I finished the race, but had both arches in my feet collapse. The blister on one foot was longer than I care to remember. (Sidenote: I had purchased an Australia Akubra hat the day before, and wearing it to school on Monday, combined with the limp, earned the name "Hop-a-long" from a few friends.)
And then I quit. I didn't ever say "I'm not doing this again!" I just stopped running. I didn't do track my senior year. When I went off to college, my dreams of being one of those joggers you see at 7 am was replaced by angrily shutting off alarm clocks and sleeping a few extra hours.
There were a few runs here and there. I bought new shoes to try to spark a comeback to the roads, but I could never get into the flow.
I graduated college, I got a job, and then I got the itch to run again. And, I will admit it, its because of this commercial:
I was sold. I wanted to run again. But, how do I get back the motivation?
Answer: I blog. I blog a lot. I run a personal blog, ran a blog about my study abroad experience to Australia, contribute to a few sports blogs. So, I figure'd I could blog about running.
The site will be more than posts consisting of "I went for a 2 miler today. Sunny outside, I enjoyed it...except for the hills LOLZ!" I want to do a lot more with this site than that. I want to help motivate, I want to put up training tips I find interesting, I want to explore what it means to run.
Also, I can't run everyday. Expect posts about biking, and maybe even lifting weights.
I should point out that I'm not a fitness freak. Far from it. I have a terrible diet, brought on mostly due to my house's close proximity to a Hardee's. By nature, I detest mornings, which is the only time I'll have to run. I drink more pop than should be legally allowed. Lets just say, this getting into shape and running and exercising on a regular basis thing is going to be hard.
One last thing, I feel I should explain the title. I tried to figure out what to name this thing for awhile. I wanted something better than "Alans Running Blog" but that seemed boring. I thought about a music lyric or a running quote, but nothing seemed to fit. And then, I started thinking about what I found rewarding about a run, and I thought of...a sweaty t-shirt. Its probably a quote somewhere, but sweat is your bodies reward system. It lets you know you had a good workout. At least for me, there is something highly rewarding about getting to admire the back of your own shirt before hopping in the shower.
