Today was day 9 of training (out of 87 scheduled runs)I am very proud of the fact that even though it has been cold and rainy (today was just cold) I have done every one of my training runs scheduled to date. Today was a short run (20 minutes) in which I ran at a pace it took me 9+weeks of training for the Bellingham race to achieve so I am really excited about that given that I really took about 6 weeks off of training after the Bellingham race so I was expecting to be more back to square one than I am.
I was reading an article the other day that said that you go 2 seconds per mile faster for every pound of weight you lose so when (not if, when) I achieve my goal weight loss for Eugene that should mean that just on weight loss alone (never mind better cardio and strength) I should be able to run the race 17-18 minutes faster than I ran Bellingham in so if that isn't incentive enough to lose the weight amongst all the other reasons I have, I don't know what is.
I felt really good today although it was windy and cold and that always makes the first 5-7 minutes hard to get going as you try to "catch your breath" from the wind. I would prefer to run in the rain over running in the wind so given that I was really pushing the pace today I was pleased with myself for trudging through the wind.
Anyway, day 10 tomorrow, I have a short run scheduled but I think I might go for a longer easy run instead depending on the weather...Feels good to be back running with a purpose again.
til next time,
Mike
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Road to Eugene 2011 - and so it begins...again...
So here I sit with insomnia at 4:10am in the morning on a Tuesday thinking about how Christmas is 11 days away and other things in life are in full flux and so I decided to get up and write because it's better than lying in bed not being able to sleep.
Yesterday morning I completed training run #8 of my plan for the 2011 Eugene Oregon Half-Marathon which is going to happen on May 1, 2011. The last few months since Cheryll and I ran in the Bellingham half have been spotty running for me at best. I have managed to get out a couple of times a week for the most part but no real commitment. Over the past two weeks I have gotten back into “training mode” and last weekend as a family we ran the 2010 Santa Shuffle 5K (well Cheryll and I plus our oldest son ran the 5k, our 9 yr old son and 4 yr old daughter did the 1K walk with Grandma). It was good as a family to be able to do that and I love running with my wife in these kinds of fund-raising runs. It's just so nice to see how our family is changing with us all becoming runners (well for me it's becoming a runner "again"). My 9 yr. old ran his first year of cross-country this year and loved it. Cheryll and I are so excited for both him and our 15 yr. old as we train more, we will be able to run with them as well so that will make things even more fun for all of us (although my 15 yr. old has to run "down" to dad's speed it's still nice to be able to do that together from time to time).
Anyway, back to Eugene training. Last year about this time I made the commitment to myself to run a half-marathon. I thought it was going to be Vancouver but it turned out to be Eugene through a weird series of events. Now here I am one year later and not only have I already registered for the 2011 race but so has my wife. Last year my goal was to get healthier and re-start my running career. Weight loss was something I would hopefully see as a by-product of the running. A year later I can say I am definitely healthier than I was a year ago and I have lost some weight (about 22 lbs.) and that is great but this year I have some new goals that will make a huge difference for my 2011 race.
Goal #1 - Set a Personal Record (PR) - Last year in Eugene I ran the half marathon in 2 hours and 53 minutes on the nose. My goal for this year is to cut that time by a minimum of 25 minutes to finish in less than 2 hours and 28 minutes (I ran Bellingham in 2:43:13). I believe this very doable if I stay committed to my running training plan. In fact I am really hoping to break 2:20:00 but I would be extremely happy if I hit 2:28:00 and ran the whole race (I had to walk some portions last year because of a tight hamstring and some of the hills). The past two half marathon races I have had “down” times during my training (especially in the weeks leading up to the races) and I know those have affected my ability on race day. I want to make sure that I complete 90+% of my training runs for Eugene 2011 and barring sickness or injury if I do that I should be able to smash my current PR.
Goal#2 - Cross-Train - For the past year I have been focused on running, and pretty much only running. While this has been good for my cardio, I know that if I want to get more toned and stronger (which will ultimately help my running even more) then I need to cross train as well. Cheryll and I have invested in a number of different types of cross training games for our Wii (Wii-fit, Biggest Loser and most recently EA Active which I am really excited about) plus I have previously done the Escape your Shape program. Now that I am comfortable with my running plan it is time to focus on getting my "whole" body in shape. So as I go through the months of January to May I will continue to work on core strength training and will continue to modify my "cross-training days" to include the programs that work best for me. I will probably start with Escape your Shape as a foundation because I know the program and I have seen in the past what it did for me a few years back but I like that we have options that will allow us to switch things up and keep things fresh while we keep running.
Goal #3 - Lose Weight - and not just a little bit of weight, a significant amount of weight. My goal for between now and race day is to lose 40lbs (which is a little over 2lbs/week starting in January) which I truly believe is doable if we are focused on exercise and diet. Learning from last years "pre-Christmas start-up" running training experience, I am not silly enough to start focusing on meal plans 11 days before Christmas but Cheryll and I have agreed that as of January 3rd we will begin focusing on our diet very deliberately. Understand we are not going "on a diet" because that is a temporary solution to a bigger problem. Rather we are going to start eating an even "healthier" diet than we have been for the past year. One of the major steps in doing this is to eliminate and get rid of all truly "unhealthy" foods out of our house (this will happen on January 1st/2nd). Our kids have been warned, the days of having any chips, chocolate, ice cream or any other high-calorie/low-nutrition foods in our house are done. Sure there will be "special" treats from time to time (like Easter eggs for the kids) but there will not be food like that sitting around in our house anymore. Ultimately it is about eating the right foods 90% of the time in the right portions, at the right times. I have not focused on my diet at all this past year and I know that at times I fell into the “I’m exercising so I can have this” mode of thinking, all I really did was not lose weight I would have otherwise lost if I hadn’t thought that way. So starting January 3rd Cheryll and I will be putting together weekly meal plans for ourselves that will give us all the necessary nutrients we need (because if you eat right you really don’t need a lot of vitamin supplements, did you know that…) and the necessary fuel we need for our running. For me it will be about eating “more often” in smaller portions. I’m not an over-eater by nature but I’m a sporadic eater (and usually at the wrong time of the day).
Goal #4 – Get more sleep – I just don’t sleep enough (says the guy typing this at 4:30 in the morning). My plan for sleep is much like my training or eating plan. As my goal for work is to not travel much (or at all) I should be able to get into more of a routine of sleep. I am a night person by nature but get up with Cheryll in the morning so the combination turns into getting 5-6 hours of sleep a lot of nights. This is not good enough and will not result in me getting healthier and losing weight. Therefore I need to be much more deliberate about when I go to bed so that I am getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night. This will have a profound effect on me physically I know so I need to be focused on it.
Goal #5 – Become a “water-monster” again! – When I lost a huge amount of weight back in 2005 prior to joining World Vision I would drink about 120-130 ounces of water a day, EVERY DAY! I need to get back to that person. I believe getting back into a more routine office environment will help me with both the water and the food as I will be more focused on meals and snacks taken to work and I am definitely a “sipper” of water when I am in meetings or in my office but like running and food I need to have a plan for my water consumption every day (which I used to have) and I need to be focused on sticking to it. Besides good hydration equals strong running! Stay tuned on this one.
Goal #6 – Focus on God (I know this should always be number 1) – He has given me the ability to still run when I took my body for granted for so long. I need to spend more time studying His word and be more deliberate about my Devotion, Worship and Prayer time. I have been blessed to be able to run again and I know it, now I need to keep my commitment to be a stronger, more spiritual me.
Goal #7 – Post my progress on my blog. Part of this is to keep myself accountable and part of it is to encourage others who may be going through similar plans of their own. As I posted earlier this year I would love to have my friends and family join “Team Mike” in re-committing to themselves to whatever it is that they want to do to change their lives. I know that I was encouraged to start running again by seeing my friend Kevin doing it in 2009 and I hope that Cheryll and I can be an encouragement to others in the same way (I know that I have been for one person at least already and he has already started changing his life!). Some updates will be short, some will be long, but I need to keep them going.
So there you have it, Eugene 2011 is going to be great, I’m hoping that I will have a number of friends joining Cheryll and I this year in running (or walking). Some have already started and one has already committed on running with us in Eugene. I would love to have others come down with us and run (or walk) and am hopeful that another couple who are pondering it will make the commitment to themselves to do it. If you want to join us please let me know and share with us your plans for 2011
Part of being successful in life is about setting goals and staying focused on them. Whether it is running a race, accomplishing a home project, completing a project at work, losing weight or even going on a trip, you must have a destination in mind and a plan to get there. I am excited about all the “destinations” and “plans” I have for 2011 and they all start with my commitment to myself on all these fronts and the first real measuring stick of how successful I was in doing that will be EUGENE 2011!
Til next Time…
Mike
Yesterday morning I completed training run #8 of my plan for the 2011 Eugene Oregon Half-Marathon which is going to happen on May 1, 2011. The last few months since Cheryll and I ran in the Bellingham half have been spotty running for me at best. I have managed to get out a couple of times a week for the most part but no real commitment. Over the past two weeks I have gotten back into “training mode” and last weekend as a family we ran the 2010 Santa Shuffle 5K (well Cheryll and I plus our oldest son ran the 5k, our 9 yr old son and 4 yr old daughter did the 1K walk with Grandma). It was good as a family to be able to do that and I love running with my wife in these kinds of fund-raising runs. It's just so nice to see how our family is changing with us all becoming runners (well for me it's becoming a runner "again"). My 9 yr. old ran his first year of cross-country this year and loved it. Cheryll and I are so excited for both him and our 15 yr. old as we train more, we will be able to run with them as well so that will make things even more fun for all of us (although my 15 yr. old has to run "down" to dad's speed it's still nice to be able to do that together from time to time).
Anyway, back to Eugene training. Last year about this time I made the commitment to myself to run a half-marathon. I thought it was going to be Vancouver but it turned out to be Eugene through a weird series of events. Now here I am one year later and not only have I already registered for the 2011 race but so has my wife. Last year my goal was to get healthier and re-start my running career. Weight loss was something I would hopefully see as a by-product of the running. A year later I can say I am definitely healthier than I was a year ago and I have lost some weight (about 22 lbs.) and that is great but this year I have some new goals that will make a huge difference for my 2011 race.
Goal #1 - Set a Personal Record (PR) - Last year in Eugene I ran the half marathon in 2 hours and 53 minutes on the nose. My goal for this year is to cut that time by a minimum of 25 minutes to finish in less than 2 hours and 28 minutes (I ran Bellingham in 2:43:13). I believe this very doable if I stay committed to my running training plan. In fact I am really hoping to break 2:20:00 but I would be extremely happy if I hit 2:28:00 and ran the whole race (I had to walk some portions last year because of a tight hamstring and some of the hills). The past two half marathon races I have had “down” times during my training (especially in the weeks leading up to the races) and I know those have affected my ability on race day. I want to make sure that I complete 90+% of my training runs for Eugene 2011 and barring sickness or injury if I do that I should be able to smash my current PR.
Goal#2 - Cross-Train - For the past year I have been focused on running, and pretty much only running. While this has been good for my cardio, I know that if I want to get more toned and stronger (which will ultimately help my running even more) then I need to cross train as well. Cheryll and I have invested in a number of different types of cross training games for our Wii (Wii-fit, Biggest Loser and most recently EA Active which I am really excited about) plus I have previously done the Escape your Shape program. Now that I am comfortable with my running plan it is time to focus on getting my "whole" body in shape. So as I go through the months of January to May I will continue to work on core strength training and will continue to modify my "cross-training days" to include the programs that work best for me. I will probably start with Escape your Shape as a foundation because I know the program and I have seen in the past what it did for me a few years back but I like that we have options that will allow us to switch things up and keep things fresh while we keep running.
Goal #3 - Lose Weight - and not just a little bit of weight, a significant amount of weight. My goal for between now and race day is to lose 40lbs (which is a little over 2lbs/week starting in January) which I truly believe is doable if we are focused on exercise and diet. Learning from last years "pre-Christmas start-up" running training experience, I am not silly enough to start focusing on meal plans 11 days before Christmas but Cheryll and I have agreed that as of January 3rd we will begin focusing on our diet very deliberately. Understand we are not going "on a diet" because that is a temporary solution to a bigger problem. Rather we are going to start eating an even "healthier" diet than we have been for the past year. One of the major steps in doing this is to eliminate and get rid of all truly "unhealthy" foods out of our house (this will happen on January 1st/2nd). Our kids have been warned, the days of having any chips, chocolate, ice cream or any other high-calorie/low-nutrition foods in our house are done. Sure there will be "special" treats from time to time (like Easter eggs for the kids) but there will not be food like that sitting around in our house anymore. Ultimately it is about eating the right foods 90% of the time in the right portions, at the right times. I have not focused on my diet at all this past year and I know that at times I fell into the “I’m exercising so I can have this” mode of thinking, all I really did was not lose weight I would have otherwise lost if I hadn’t thought that way. So starting January 3rd Cheryll and I will be putting together weekly meal plans for ourselves that will give us all the necessary nutrients we need (because if you eat right you really don’t need a lot of vitamin supplements, did you know that…) and the necessary fuel we need for our running. For me it will be about eating “more often” in smaller portions. I’m not an over-eater by nature but I’m a sporadic eater (and usually at the wrong time of the day).
Goal #4 – Get more sleep – I just don’t sleep enough (says the guy typing this at 4:30 in the morning). My plan for sleep is much like my training or eating plan. As my goal for work is to not travel much (or at all) I should be able to get into more of a routine of sleep. I am a night person by nature but get up with Cheryll in the morning so the combination turns into getting 5-6 hours of sleep a lot of nights. This is not good enough and will not result in me getting healthier and losing weight. Therefore I need to be much more deliberate about when I go to bed so that I am getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night. This will have a profound effect on me physically I know so I need to be focused on it.
Goal #5 – Become a “water-monster” again! – When I lost a huge amount of weight back in 2005 prior to joining World Vision I would drink about 120-130 ounces of water a day, EVERY DAY! I need to get back to that person. I believe getting back into a more routine office environment will help me with both the water and the food as I will be more focused on meals and snacks taken to work and I am definitely a “sipper” of water when I am in meetings or in my office but like running and food I need to have a plan for my water consumption every day (which I used to have) and I need to be focused on sticking to it. Besides good hydration equals strong running! Stay tuned on this one.
Goal #6 – Focus on God (I know this should always be number 1) – He has given me the ability to still run when I took my body for granted for so long. I need to spend more time studying His word and be more deliberate about my Devotion, Worship and Prayer time. I have been blessed to be able to run again and I know it, now I need to keep my commitment to be a stronger, more spiritual me.
Goal #7 – Post my progress on my blog. Part of this is to keep myself accountable and part of it is to encourage others who may be going through similar plans of their own. As I posted earlier this year I would love to have my friends and family join “Team Mike” in re-committing to themselves to whatever it is that they want to do to change their lives. I know that I was encouraged to start running again by seeing my friend Kevin doing it in 2009 and I hope that Cheryll and I can be an encouragement to others in the same way (I know that I have been for one person at least already and he has already started changing his life!). Some updates will be short, some will be long, but I need to keep them going.
So there you have it, Eugene 2011 is going to be great, I’m hoping that I will have a number of friends joining Cheryll and I this year in running (or walking). Some have already started and one has already committed on running with us in Eugene. I would love to have others come down with us and run (or walk) and am hopeful that another couple who are pondering it will make the commitment to themselves to do it. If you want to join us please let me know and share with us your plans for 2011
Part of being successful in life is about setting goals and staying focused on them. Whether it is running a race, accomplishing a home project, completing a project at work, losing weight or even going on a trip, you must have a destination in mind and a plan to get there. I am excited about all the “destinations” and “plans” I have for 2011 and they all start with my commitment to myself on all these fronts and the first real measuring stick of how successful I was in doing that will be EUGENE 2011!
Til next Time…
Mike
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Can one voice make a difference? YOU BET IT CAN!
While at times I'm sure we have all sat there thinking that something is wrong and we don't agree with it, we also sit there and think "what difference would it make if I said I didn't agree with it, I'm only one voice". This is a very natural feeling that we all have and unfortunately in 99% of the cases stops someone from standing up and speaking their mind.
I'm afraid to admit that I am probably one of those people more often than most of my friends/colleagues/acquaintences realise because if you ask them about me they will tell you that I am very vocal about what I believe and feel (and they are right to an extent) but what they don't realise is there are many many times where I just sit back and keep my mouth shut for fear of "what difference would it make if I did say anything, nothing is going to change" and I wait to hear if someone else feels the same way and then if they stand up and speak I get behind them and support them (safety in numbers you know).
The question I have to ask myself is what if everyone in the room felt the same way about something being wrong and they all thought "what difference would it make if I said I didn't agree with it, I'm only one voice" and so no one got up and spoke their mind? In that case even though the majority of the people in the room don't agree with a decision or a direction and they are entrusted to be a part of that, they end up doing exactly what none of them want to do because not one of them had the strength to stand up for what they believe in. And yet if only one of them had done spoken up then all of them would have agreed that this is the wrong thing to do and it wouldn't happen.
Recently, there have been some things happening in an organisation that I am involved in where I am not comfortable with the way things are being handled/done and yet while I have tried to approach certain individuals key to the decision making process in the organisation I have not publicly gotten up and stated my feelings about these topics in an open forum of that organisation. Why you might ask? Well for one, I do believe it is always better to go to a person one on one before bringing something public to see if there is information you can get or a resolution to an issue you have before making it public. However if that doesn't work you need to be prepared to speak your mind in a forum appropriate for that to happen. In this case there hasn't been an open forum that was available to address the specific issues I felt needed to be dealt with and I have already tried the direct one on one (or one on group) approach.
Having said that, something happened this past week that has made me realise that it is important at times to create a public forum when none exists in order that people can have their say and be heard. While it is not common there is precedence for major change to happen by these types of public outcries. I think in particular about the Philippines and the People Power marches that toppled governments, I think of Jesus going into the temple and turning over the tables of the loan sharks and merchants. In both these cases it was a statement of unhappiness over something that was being done that was wrong and an unwillingness to stand by and let it just happen.
In the past 3 days I have received numerous calls from individuals who have said "I am not happy about this or the way things are being handled" and they felt exactly the way I have been feeling about things and are basically saying the same thing. "There must be something we can do about this, what do we do?" they ask and I have had to respond that I truly believe we need our voices to be heard and we need to hear "all sides" of the story because right now we don't have enough information in order to make a proper judgement on what we truly feel about things, only a somewhat informed feeling that requires us to deal with it in a frustrated uninformed manner.
Honestly, if it weren't for all of those calls I would probably have let the situations that brought me to a feeling of discontent to linger on and eventually cause me to evaluate whether or not I wanted to continue to be a part of that kind of organisation. However because of these "single voice" calls I have discovered that I am not alone and that many many others are seeking the same answers to the same questions as I am and because of that each of their single voices, making a phone call to me makes me realise that one voice can make a difference. How many others have already made their evaluaion, decided their voice won't make a difference and have just left. I'm sure many of them.
So where does one go from here. Well in my case it is to work with some of these people together so they can share with each other what they are feeling and allow us to put together a plan of action that results in us getting the answers we seek to the concerns we have. If we can't get those who should do it to create an appropriate public forum than we may have to be the creators of that forum. We may discover through this process that things aren't what we thought they were and with the right information in hand may feel better about what is transpiring. However we might find out that by stepping out with our "one voice" that a lot more people are feeling the same way and in fact upon getting the necessary information will have the responsibility to call for change and "fix" the problem we perceive to be there. In either case we end up with a conclusion to an issue that is causing many people to be concerned and/or upset.
So I guess what I'm saying is, don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in, or question what you think is wrong. Speak your mind, because you may just be that one voice that causes everyone else who was too afraid to say anything because "what will my one voice do" to stand up and say "we agree" and instead of a bunch of frustrated individuals all feeling bad, you end up with a united group of people who make the right decision for the common good.
So can one voice make a difference? YOU BET IT CAN!
I'm afraid to admit that I am probably one of those people more often than most of my friends/colleagues/acquaintences realise because if you ask them about me they will tell you that I am very vocal about what I believe and feel (and they are right to an extent) but what they don't realise is there are many many times where I just sit back and keep my mouth shut for fear of "what difference would it make if I did say anything, nothing is going to change" and I wait to hear if someone else feels the same way and then if they stand up and speak I get behind them and support them (safety in numbers you know).
The question I have to ask myself is what if everyone in the room felt the same way about something being wrong and they all thought "what difference would it make if I said I didn't agree with it, I'm only one voice" and so no one got up and spoke their mind? In that case even though the majority of the people in the room don't agree with a decision or a direction and they are entrusted to be a part of that, they end up doing exactly what none of them want to do because not one of them had the strength to stand up for what they believe in. And yet if only one of them had done spoken up then all of them would have agreed that this is the wrong thing to do and it wouldn't happen.
Recently, there have been some things happening in an organisation that I am involved in where I am not comfortable with the way things are being handled/done and yet while I have tried to approach certain individuals key to the decision making process in the organisation I have not publicly gotten up and stated my feelings about these topics in an open forum of that organisation. Why you might ask? Well for one, I do believe it is always better to go to a person one on one before bringing something public to see if there is information you can get or a resolution to an issue you have before making it public. However if that doesn't work you need to be prepared to speak your mind in a forum appropriate for that to happen. In this case there hasn't been an open forum that was available to address the specific issues I felt needed to be dealt with and I have already tried the direct one on one (or one on group) approach.
Having said that, something happened this past week that has made me realise that it is important at times to create a public forum when none exists in order that people can have their say and be heard. While it is not common there is precedence for major change to happen by these types of public outcries. I think in particular about the Philippines and the People Power marches that toppled governments, I think of Jesus going into the temple and turning over the tables of the loan sharks and merchants. In both these cases it was a statement of unhappiness over something that was being done that was wrong and an unwillingness to stand by and let it just happen.
In the past 3 days I have received numerous calls from individuals who have said "I am not happy about this or the way things are being handled" and they felt exactly the way I have been feeling about things and are basically saying the same thing. "There must be something we can do about this, what do we do?" they ask and I have had to respond that I truly believe we need our voices to be heard and we need to hear "all sides" of the story because right now we don't have enough information in order to make a proper judgement on what we truly feel about things, only a somewhat informed feeling that requires us to deal with it in a frustrated uninformed manner.
Honestly, if it weren't for all of those calls I would probably have let the situations that brought me to a feeling of discontent to linger on and eventually cause me to evaluate whether or not I wanted to continue to be a part of that kind of organisation. However because of these "single voice" calls I have discovered that I am not alone and that many many others are seeking the same answers to the same questions as I am and because of that each of their single voices, making a phone call to me makes me realise that one voice can make a difference. How many others have already made their evaluaion, decided their voice won't make a difference and have just left. I'm sure many of them.
So where does one go from here. Well in my case it is to work with some of these people together so they can share with each other what they are feeling and allow us to put together a plan of action that results in us getting the answers we seek to the concerns we have. If we can't get those who should do it to create an appropriate public forum than we may have to be the creators of that forum. We may discover through this process that things aren't what we thought they were and with the right information in hand may feel better about what is transpiring. However we might find out that by stepping out with our "one voice" that a lot more people are feeling the same way and in fact upon getting the necessary information will have the responsibility to call for change and "fix" the problem we perceive to be there. In either case we end up with a conclusion to an issue that is causing many people to be concerned and/or upset.
So I guess what I'm saying is, don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in, or question what you think is wrong. Speak your mind, because you may just be that one voice that causes everyone else who was too afraid to say anything because "what will my one voice do" to stand up and say "we agree" and instead of a bunch of frustrated individuals all feeling bad, you end up with a united group of people who make the right decision for the common good.
So can one voice make a difference? YOU BET IT CAN!
Friday, September 3, 2010
I am...therefore I run...a years reflection...
Well, I'm back after a crazy month of August with work and camping with the family, etc.
Today's post is getting back to my journey to good health. As many of you know last year about this time I was in Ethiopia getting ready to come home from my last international trip with World Vision. In fact it was 1 year ago tomorrow that I went for my last "training run" in Addis. I remember at the start of the trip in Kuala Lumpur Gary and I had been working out in the gym in the hotel almost every night. TALK ABOUT DUMB!!! Here it had been years since I had done any sort of meaningful workouts (yes off and on commitments but no real consistency) and I was going to work out every day. Needless to say by the time I got to Addis I was probably in pretty bad shape physically but I was going to train no matter what...Well I went downstairs to the gym and decided to start my "run"...Now remember Addis is at about 800o ft elevation so no small feat for a guy my size who is out of shape to get air at that elevation. So off I start walking until I am warmed up and then I start to run and within about 5 minutes I am gasping for air (I wasn't doing this in KL, what is wrong I think)...So I jump off of the treadmill and because there is no one in the gym I walk upstairs to the front desk "GASPING" for breath...the poor girl at the front desk is all concerned "Are you ok sir, do you need an ambulance?" and I'm trying to tell her I'm ok but I just need to get my breath and make sure someone was around because there was no one in the gym (OK yeah I was a little freaked out at this point). After a minute or so my breathing gets back to semi-normal and I tell her I'm fine it's just the elevation (and years of not exercising and being obese!...OK I didn't say that part to her...), So off I go downstairs and instead of running I walk the remainder of my 45 minutes at a speed that quite frankly made me mad. Because of my "over-training" I ended up in Physio-Therapy for 2 months with achilles issues. When I finally got back to good health I re-committed myself (after some words from my son but you can read that in an earlier post), but ironically almost a year later that lesson about listening to your body and not pushing things has stuck with me. There have been days over the past year where I have been tired, not feeling so well, coming off of a long run within the previous 2 days and it would be easy to just stay home and not go for a run but I remember that it is better to workout at a lesser intensity for a shorter period of time then to do nothing at all.
Just this past Tuesday I went out for my normal Tuesday morning short run. On Sunday afternoon I did an 11 mile run and while I was feeling really good by Tuesday morning it was raining and I was a little tired and so I thought as I started to run that instead of pushing for a fast time today like I normally would I was just going to "take it easy" and do a comfortable run watching to keep my heart rate in a specific zone lower then I normally run at. What a difference a year makes. 8 months of training in 2010 (starting on January 3rd.) and one half-marathon down later, my easy run on Tuesday resulted in me running a faster pace for 4 miles that at any point or distance (including my short 1.89 mile run)during the four months of training I did for the Eugene half-marathon. How could this be? Well it could be because repetition and commitment will always result in success achieving better health and fitness. Last night I ran 6 miles in just a little over an hour. 4 months ago my goal was to run 5 miles in an hour. A year ago I would have been so proud of myself to be able to run 10 minutes at 5.5 miles an hour speed, yesterday I ran 5.7+ mph for 6 miles.
Today less than 13 hours after finishing a 6 mile run I am going out for my normal Friday morning run (4 miles). It is not what I want to do on a normal basis (I am a morning runner now and last night's run ideally would have happened in the morning), but it is what I have to do in order to get in today's run. The difference now, I have no fear about doing it, it is only a 4 mile run (when did 4 miles become "only"?) and if I am not feeling it I know that I can give myself permission to "take it easy" and just run to how I feel. Why? Because I now know that I am...therefore I run...and nothing is going to stop me now!
So whether you have been working out or not, running or not, walking or not. It is never to late to start. I have now last over 25lbs since I left World Vision last fall. I have not gone on any "meal plan" or "crash diet" I have simply decided to run...to run half-marathons, to run/walk at times but mostly just to get out there and move. God has given me the benefit of a second chance to rediscover the athlete in me, it may have taken 25 years, I may be a lot slower than I used to be, I may be over 100lbs heavier than I was then, but I'm healthier today then I have been at any time over the past 25 years and in the next year I plan on getting even more so. My next race is the Bellingham Bay Half-Marathon on September 26th, 2010. I am going to be running that with my wife and my former assistant (and still friend!) from World Vision. Cheryll is doing her first half-marathon and she started out with a goal of "walking" the race, over the past few weeks walking has just been too slow for my very a-type wife and she has now started running and walking. Megan is 15+years younger than me and she is much fitter and so I expect that even though this is her first half-marathon she will do it no problem and will more than likely finish well ahead of me. In May in Eugene I ran the race in 2 hours and 53 minutes. My goal for Bellingham is to finish in under 2 hours and 33 minutes (yes that's right a 20 minute improvement). At this point I am feeling pretty good about my training and that if I don't experience any unforseen complications during the race (can you say muscle cramps!) then I should be able to achieve that goal. But through it all I keep reminding both Cheryll and Megs that the goal for the race is to finish...No matter what the time...
So "Team Mike" as I have started to think of the three of us (I know it's a little self-absorbed but hey I'm the one who got them to commit to the race) is a cross-section of what running is all about. It is not about how big or small or fast or slow you are, it's about, as Nike would say, "Just Doing It!" A year ago, I was all pumped up because I wanted to lose weight and do something BIG...8 months ago, it was about running a race (weight-loss was no longer a motivation, just an assumed by-product)...2.5 months ago, it was about not losing momentum and keeping my commitment to myself to better health...Today, it is about who I am. I am a runner now, I am someone who has the power to show others that it's never too late to start exercising/running and that no matter how small (or BIG) you are it is something you can do. I have a dream that in the next year I can have at least 12 other people join "Team Mike" in doing something they would never have thought possible, but I realise through all of this that the reason people will join the movement is not because I talk a good talk, it is because I walk the walk. And in that I thank God for teaching me that it's like my faith in him. I can't just talk the talk, I need to walk the walk, that is how people will come to know the joy and love I have in God. It is only in that way that you truly can be a testimony to him.
So let God be your example that all things are possible through him. John Bingham in his book "Running for Mortals" talks about the day he became "a runner". It happened one morning where he finally decided to go out and just do it. He ran as hard as he could as fast as he could as he headed out of his driveway and lasted...8 seconds...but then after catching his breath he stood back up and continued his "run" as far as he could. How did he know he was a runner? Because he decided to be one and kept going...plus once he got back to his house he hopped in his car to measure how far he went (can you say runners mind). And just so you get the picture of what it is to "be a runner" he went a grand total of...one-quarter of a mile...yes, that's right 1/4 mile, 4/10th's of a kilometer. But he did it, and he hasn't stopped since then. He has run marathons in Greece (the original course), New York, Chicago and many other places but it all started with an 8 second commitment...
So if you haven't done it recently, get out there and walk (or run) and if you feel like you can't do it, you can, I know you can...why? because I did and I will guarantee you if a guy who started this journey at 300lb+ can do it so can you. Oh and if you want to join "Team Mike" then I would love to know about your commitment to yourself. I will continue to post the races I am going to do and I hope that you will be able to join me on one of them, but even if you can't run the race I am doing you can run your own.
Well I need to sign-off now because I have a run to do.
Til Next Time...
Mike
Today's post is getting back to my journey to good health. As many of you know last year about this time I was in Ethiopia getting ready to come home from my last international trip with World Vision. In fact it was 1 year ago tomorrow that I went for my last "training run" in Addis. I remember at the start of the trip in Kuala Lumpur Gary and I had been working out in the gym in the hotel almost every night. TALK ABOUT DUMB!!! Here it had been years since I had done any sort of meaningful workouts (yes off and on commitments but no real consistency) and I was going to work out every day. Needless to say by the time I got to Addis I was probably in pretty bad shape physically but I was going to train no matter what...Well I went downstairs to the gym and decided to start my "run"...Now remember Addis is at about 800o ft elevation so no small feat for a guy my size who is out of shape to get air at that elevation. So off I start walking until I am warmed up and then I start to run and within about 5 minutes I am gasping for air (I wasn't doing this in KL, what is wrong I think)...So I jump off of the treadmill and because there is no one in the gym I walk upstairs to the front desk "GASPING" for breath...the poor girl at the front desk is all concerned "Are you ok sir, do you need an ambulance?" and I'm trying to tell her I'm ok but I just need to get my breath and make sure someone was around because there was no one in the gym (OK yeah I was a little freaked out at this point). After a minute or so my breathing gets back to semi-normal and I tell her I'm fine it's just the elevation (and years of not exercising and being obese!...OK I didn't say that part to her...), So off I go downstairs and instead of running I walk the remainder of my 45 minutes at a speed that quite frankly made me mad. Because of my "over-training" I ended up in Physio-Therapy for 2 months with achilles issues. When I finally got back to good health I re-committed myself (after some words from my son but you can read that in an earlier post), but ironically almost a year later that lesson about listening to your body and not pushing things has stuck with me. There have been days over the past year where I have been tired, not feeling so well, coming off of a long run within the previous 2 days and it would be easy to just stay home and not go for a run but I remember that it is better to workout at a lesser intensity for a shorter period of time then to do nothing at all.
Just this past Tuesday I went out for my normal Tuesday morning short run. On Sunday afternoon I did an 11 mile run and while I was feeling really good by Tuesday morning it was raining and I was a little tired and so I thought as I started to run that instead of pushing for a fast time today like I normally would I was just going to "take it easy" and do a comfortable run watching to keep my heart rate in a specific zone lower then I normally run at. What a difference a year makes. 8 months of training in 2010 (starting on January 3rd.) and one half-marathon down later, my easy run on Tuesday resulted in me running a faster pace for 4 miles that at any point or distance (including my short 1.89 mile run)during the four months of training I did for the Eugene half-marathon. How could this be? Well it could be because repetition and commitment will always result in success achieving better health and fitness. Last night I ran 6 miles in just a little over an hour. 4 months ago my goal was to run 5 miles in an hour. A year ago I would have been so proud of myself to be able to run 10 minutes at 5.5 miles an hour speed, yesterday I ran 5.7+ mph for 6 miles.
Today less than 13 hours after finishing a 6 mile run I am going out for my normal Friday morning run (4 miles). It is not what I want to do on a normal basis (I am a morning runner now and last night's run ideally would have happened in the morning), but it is what I have to do in order to get in today's run. The difference now, I have no fear about doing it, it is only a 4 mile run (when did 4 miles become "only"?) and if I am not feeling it I know that I can give myself permission to "take it easy" and just run to how I feel. Why? Because I now know that I am...therefore I run...and nothing is going to stop me now!
So whether you have been working out or not, running or not, walking or not. It is never to late to start. I have now last over 25lbs since I left World Vision last fall. I have not gone on any "meal plan" or "crash diet" I have simply decided to run...to run half-marathons, to run/walk at times but mostly just to get out there and move. God has given me the benefit of a second chance to rediscover the athlete in me, it may have taken 25 years, I may be a lot slower than I used to be, I may be over 100lbs heavier than I was then, but I'm healthier today then I have been at any time over the past 25 years and in the next year I plan on getting even more so. My next race is the Bellingham Bay Half-Marathon on September 26th, 2010. I am going to be running that with my wife and my former assistant (and still friend!) from World Vision. Cheryll is doing her first half-marathon and she started out with a goal of "walking" the race, over the past few weeks walking has just been too slow for my very a-type wife and she has now started running and walking. Megan is 15+years younger than me and she is much fitter and so I expect that even though this is her first half-marathon she will do it no problem and will more than likely finish well ahead of me. In May in Eugene I ran the race in 2 hours and 53 minutes. My goal for Bellingham is to finish in under 2 hours and 33 minutes (yes that's right a 20 minute improvement). At this point I am feeling pretty good about my training and that if I don't experience any unforseen complications during the race (can you say muscle cramps!) then I should be able to achieve that goal. But through it all I keep reminding both Cheryll and Megs that the goal for the race is to finish...No matter what the time...
So "Team Mike" as I have started to think of the three of us (I know it's a little self-absorbed but hey I'm the one who got them to commit to the race) is a cross-section of what running is all about. It is not about how big or small or fast or slow you are, it's about, as Nike would say, "Just Doing It!" A year ago, I was all pumped up because I wanted to lose weight and do something BIG...8 months ago, it was about running a race (weight-loss was no longer a motivation, just an assumed by-product)...2.5 months ago, it was about not losing momentum and keeping my commitment to myself to better health...Today, it is about who I am. I am a runner now, I am someone who has the power to show others that it's never too late to start exercising/running and that no matter how small (or BIG) you are it is something you can do. I have a dream that in the next year I can have at least 12 other people join "Team Mike" in doing something they would never have thought possible, but I realise through all of this that the reason people will join the movement is not because I talk a good talk, it is because I walk the walk. And in that I thank God for teaching me that it's like my faith in him. I can't just talk the talk, I need to walk the walk, that is how people will come to know the joy and love I have in God. It is only in that way that you truly can be a testimony to him.
So let God be your example that all things are possible through him. John Bingham in his book "Running for Mortals" talks about the day he became "a runner". It happened one morning where he finally decided to go out and just do it. He ran as hard as he could as fast as he could as he headed out of his driveway and lasted...8 seconds...but then after catching his breath he stood back up and continued his "run" as far as he could. How did he know he was a runner? Because he decided to be one and kept going...plus once he got back to his house he hopped in his car to measure how far he went (can you say runners mind). And just so you get the picture of what it is to "be a runner" he went a grand total of...one-quarter of a mile...yes, that's right 1/4 mile, 4/10th's of a kilometer. But he did it, and he hasn't stopped since then. He has run marathons in Greece (the original course), New York, Chicago and many other places but it all started with an 8 second commitment...
So if you haven't done it recently, get out there and walk (or run) and if you feel like you can't do it, you can, I know you can...why? because I did and I will guarantee you if a guy who started this journey at 300lb+ can do it so can you. Oh and if you want to join "Team Mike" then I would love to know about your commitment to yourself. I will continue to post the races I am going to do and I hope that you will be able to join me on one of them, but even if you can't run the race I am doing you can run your own.
Well I need to sign-off now because I have a run to do.
Til Next Time...
Mike
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Sometimes when we talk...or change...stuff happens
Have you ever noticed that sometimes the words we speak are not the thought we mean to convey?
I often think about this as I write because emails or blog posts or documents can convey words but not emotions or intent. Many people on Facebook or other mediums post their feelings or what they perceive to be their feelings only to have others "mis-interpret" their posts completely.
In the same vein company or organisational leaders in an attempt to provide transparency or inclusiveness (is that a word?) to the employees or members of an organisation can, without intending to, create a bigger issue for themselves just with the use of a misunderstood word in a communication. The same holds true for providing "too much" information. When individuals receive information overload their brains naturally seek out those things they understand and in many cases they will make presumptions about the rest of the information or take the information they process and put it out of context. The obvious situation occurs when "too little" information is provided. People will naturally come to their own conclusion of what is not said and that perception will become reality.
Recently I've been discussing this very situation with a good friend of mine about both too much and too little information being provided to a group of very age diverse individuals. Add to this the fact that certain words used in communications can have completely different meanings (both good and bad) to people of different ages and how in the world to communicate effectively to all?
I used to struggle with this very issue daily, especially given my nature as a talking thinker, people would assume I had already made up my mind about something and was just trying to get everyone to come to my way of thinking when in fact I was verbally "processing" my thoughts. It was why my dive into the world of Organisational Change Management (that was introduced to me by a former colleague) was so important and impactful. One of the biggest failures in any organisation when undertaking a major project, initiative, or operational shift is understanding clearly the impact of change on the masses (or the few) and effectively coming up with a clear and concise communication strategy which most importantly includes a key stakeholder engagement strategy.
This issue of poor Organisational Change Management is most evident when you are talking about a multi-generational organisation where people come to it with different backgrounds, education, life experience, work experience, beliefs, etc. All of these things can provide vastly different perspectives on anything communicated to them. The one common thought they all share however is "how will this affect me and what I care about?" The problem is when you try to communicate the same way to vastly different groups you end up with one of them (or many of them) drawing their own conclusion about "what this means to them" and this is when the trouble starts. Therefore it is important BEFORE YOU START to really sit down and think about what your different stakeholder groups care most about and then map those issues/areas into your communication strategy for each of those groups. The groups might be different departments, regions, or age groups, they might be education based, they might be occupations based. In an organisation like a Church or other Charitable Organisation it can be all of the above.
Key to this communication strategy will be direct engagement of key "influencers". These are the people in a specific group that others within the group look to for guidance, advice and general acceptance. In cases where someone doesn't necessarily understand what is being done/proposed/etc. they will look for the reaction of that key "respected" individual within their group. If that person is accepting of the change typically those people will accept it as a good thing because they trust this individual.
So remember, when undertaking change, not everyone understands what you are saying, or are listening to what you think you are telling them. Make sure you have a feedback loop, a communication strategy and that you engage key stakeholders who can become your champion because without them...STUFF HAPPENS!
I often think about this as I write because emails or blog posts or documents can convey words but not emotions or intent. Many people on Facebook or other mediums post their feelings or what they perceive to be their feelings only to have others "mis-interpret" their posts completely.
In the same vein company or organisational leaders in an attempt to provide transparency or inclusiveness (is that a word?) to the employees or members of an organisation can, without intending to, create a bigger issue for themselves just with the use of a misunderstood word in a communication. The same holds true for providing "too much" information. When individuals receive information overload their brains naturally seek out those things they understand and in many cases they will make presumptions about the rest of the information or take the information they process and put it out of context. The obvious situation occurs when "too little" information is provided. People will naturally come to their own conclusion of what is not said and that perception will become reality.
Recently I've been discussing this very situation with a good friend of mine about both too much and too little information being provided to a group of very age diverse individuals. Add to this the fact that certain words used in communications can have completely different meanings (both good and bad) to people of different ages and how in the world to communicate effectively to all?
I used to struggle with this very issue daily, especially given my nature as a talking thinker, people would assume I had already made up my mind about something and was just trying to get everyone to come to my way of thinking when in fact I was verbally "processing" my thoughts. It was why my dive into the world of Organisational Change Management (that was introduced to me by a former colleague) was so important and impactful. One of the biggest failures in any organisation when undertaking a major project, initiative, or operational shift is understanding clearly the impact of change on the masses (or the few) and effectively coming up with a clear and concise communication strategy which most importantly includes a key stakeholder engagement strategy.
This issue of poor Organisational Change Management is most evident when you are talking about a multi-generational organisation where people come to it with different backgrounds, education, life experience, work experience, beliefs, etc. All of these things can provide vastly different perspectives on anything communicated to them. The one common thought they all share however is "how will this affect me and what I care about?" The problem is when you try to communicate the same way to vastly different groups you end up with one of them (or many of them) drawing their own conclusion about "what this means to them" and this is when the trouble starts. Therefore it is important BEFORE YOU START to really sit down and think about what your different stakeholder groups care most about and then map those issues/areas into your communication strategy for each of those groups. The groups might be different departments, regions, or age groups, they might be education based, they might be occupations based. In an organisation like a Church or other Charitable Organisation it can be all of the above.
Key to this communication strategy will be direct engagement of key "influencers". These are the people in a specific group that others within the group look to for guidance, advice and general acceptance. In cases where someone doesn't necessarily understand what is being done/proposed/etc. they will look for the reaction of that key "respected" individual within their group. If that person is accepting of the change typically those people will accept it as a good thing because they trust this individual.
So remember, when undertaking change, not everyone understands what you are saying, or are listening to what you think you are telling them. Make sure you have a feedback loop, a communication strategy and that you engage key stakeholders who can become your champion because without them...STUFF HAPPENS!
Bellingham Half-Marathon - Training Day 16
So in truth my 16th training session was actually yesterday but I didn't get around to posting until now...
Well it's been 4 weeks since my last post and it has been a tremendously busy month. At the end of June I travelled to Bangladesh to meet with a prospective client and on the way home I got food poisoning which put me in the hospital in Hong Kong for 2 days. That little episode cost me 1 weeks training (missed all 4 runs that week). However I am happy to say that since I have returned home I have completed 9 straight training runs and am now full on into my training for the race.
Each day I feel stronger, my speed is being relatively maintained as I go further and further distances however with each passing run my average heart rate continues to go down. This means I am getting stronger cardio-vascularly and I expect that to only continue to get better as I keep training. Right now I am averaging speeds on my runs that would allow me to complete the half-marathon in under 2 hours and 30 minutes which is my goal for this race.
My average heart rate over my last 9 training runs is sitting 12 bpm less than what it was for the Eugene half-marathon I ran in May while my average speed is up almost half a mile per hour over what it was at this stage of my training for Eugene. I am feeling particularly good about this especially given the fact that due to all the vacation and business trips I had in March/April this year in advance of the Eugene race May 2nd, I only got in about 55% of the training runs I had scheduled for that period of time. If I can maintain my current commitment to my training through race day, that is just going to make me that much stronger this time around.
On another good news front, my lovely wife Cheryll has decided that she is going to walk the Bellingham race and has started her training for it as well. This is something that makes me very happy as it gives us something else that we can do together (albeit I will run and she will walk but I'll be at the finish line cheering her on!). She was inspired in some part by our new friends Jim and Sue whom I raced with in Eugene. They are speed walkers (and I mean "Speed") who are in their 60's and are two of the most amazing people I know. Jim is a real inspiration to me and I hope that when I am his age I am running races as strong as he does.
On the weight loss front, I have lost almost 25lbs. in the last 6 months. I don't see it obviously day in day out but others who don't see me all the time notice it. Plus while I have only lost 25 lbs. overall I have definitely lost more lbs of fat then that. Last night our family went to a movie and met my sister and her daughter there and when my niece saw me she says "Uncle Mike look at you, you have lost a lot of weight!". Now I haven't seen her in about 6 weeks but if it is that noticeable what I have lost in 6 weeks I guess I'm going in the right direction.
I'm still not worrying overly about my nutrition as we usually eat fairly healthy (movie theatre popcorn last night being an exception not a rule) but I am watching it carefully. They say you don't want to lose too much too fast when you are training and I can understand why, however if I can maintain a 1 lb. a week or so average weight loss then I think I am doing ok and will be able to maintain that loss in the long run. I still have 35 lbs. to lose to get back to where I was before I joined World Vision but I will get there this year and then look out as I continue to work my way down to my ultimate weight goal.
Next week I am leaving on a roughly 2 week trip to Toronto, Manila and Phnom Penh and that is going to be a true test to my training commitment but I really believe I am up for the challenge as even though I made this crazy journey to Dhaka, Bangladesh I got my training run in in Dhaka even when the hotel gym's air conditioning wasn't working properly and I was running 33 plus degree heat (and humidity).
I can't express how much encouragement I get from family and friends comments when I post updates on facebook and here but it is those encouraging words that keep me going and make me realise that I can have an impact not just on my life but on others as well. Oh yeah, my former assistant from WVI, Megan is also going to be racing in Bellingham and I'd like to think I had a little to do with that (ok maybe all my nagging her about coming and running it with me was a part of it!). Megan will likely kick my butt on race day (she is 15+ years younger than me) but I am ok with that, it just gives me something to shoot for in my next race!
Right now I am planning on running Bellingham and then another half-marathon race sometime in January before running the Eugene Half-Marathon again next May. I will start to run shorter distance races in the midst of my training (5 and 10k's) but my focus will always be on the "big" races. As I get stronger I will race more often but at this point I would like to do a minimum of 4 big races a year. People have asked me about whether I am going to run a marathon and right now my answer is I don't know about the future but I will not run one until after I run next years Eugend Half as I want to do a direct comparison about the difference in me one year later over the previous year's race. Not just in how fast I can run but where I am at physically, spiritually and emotionally. Then and only then will I consider whether I even want to run a full marathon. 13.1 miles (21.08 km's for those of you who think metric) is a LONG distance, and I may just be happy racing that distance for the rest of my running days. I suspect I won't and will want to challenge myself further but that is 10 months down the road and a lot can happen in that time.
Well, my insomnia seems to be waning and I need to get more sleep so will sign-off for now. Thanks for continuing to read my thoughts and I'll "talk" to you next time.
Mike
Well it's been 4 weeks since my last post and it has been a tremendously busy month. At the end of June I travelled to Bangladesh to meet with a prospective client and on the way home I got food poisoning which put me in the hospital in Hong Kong for 2 days. That little episode cost me 1 weeks training (missed all 4 runs that week). However I am happy to say that since I have returned home I have completed 9 straight training runs and am now full on into my training for the race.
Each day I feel stronger, my speed is being relatively maintained as I go further and further distances however with each passing run my average heart rate continues to go down. This means I am getting stronger cardio-vascularly and I expect that to only continue to get better as I keep training. Right now I am averaging speeds on my runs that would allow me to complete the half-marathon in under 2 hours and 30 minutes which is my goal for this race.
My average heart rate over my last 9 training runs is sitting 12 bpm less than what it was for the Eugene half-marathon I ran in May while my average speed is up almost half a mile per hour over what it was at this stage of my training for Eugene. I am feeling particularly good about this especially given the fact that due to all the vacation and business trips I had in March/April this year in advance of the Eugene race May 2nd, I only got in about 55% of the training runs I had scheduled for that period of time. If I can maintain my current commitment to my training through race day, that is just going to make me that much stronger this time around.
On another good news front, my lovely wife Cheryll has decided that she is going to walk the Bellingham race and has started her training for it as well. This is something that makes me very happy as it gives us something else that we can do together (albeit I will run and she will walk but I'll be at the finish line cheering her on!). She was inspired in some part by our new friends Jim and Sue whom I raced with in Eugene. They are speed walkers (and I mean "Speed") who are in their 60's and are two of the most amazing people I know. Jim is a real inspiration to me and I hope that when I am his age I am running races as strong as he does.
On the weight loss front, I have lost almost 25lbs. in the last 6 months. I don't see it obviously day in day out but others who don't see me all the time notice it. Plus while I have only lost 25 lbs. overall I have definitely lost more lbs of fat then that. Last night our family went to a movie and met my sister and her daughter there and when my niece saw me she says "Uncle Mike look at you, you have lost a lot of weight!". Now I haven't seen her in about 6 weeks but if it is that noticeable what I have lost in 6 weeks I guess I'm going in the right direction.
I'm still not worrying overly about my nutrition as we usually eat fairly healthy (movie theatre popcorn last night being an exception not a rule) but I am watching it carefully. They say you don't want to lose too much too fast when you are training and I can understand why, however if I can maintain a 1 lb. a week or so average weight loss then I think I am doing ok and will be able to maintain that loss in the long run. I still have 35 lbs. to lose to get back to where I was before I joined World Vision but I will get there this year and then look out as I continue to work my way down to my ultimate weight goal.
Next week I am leaving on a roughly 2 week trip to Toronto, Manila and Phnom Penh and that is going to be a true test to my training commitment but I really believe I am up for the challenge as even though I made this crazy journey to Dhaka, Bangladesh I got my training run in in Dhaka even when the hotel gym's air conditioning wasn't working properly and I was running 33 plus degree heat (and humidity).
I can't express how much encouragement I get from family and friends comments when I post updates on facebook and here but it is those encouraging words that keep me going and make me realise that I can have an impact not just on my life but on others as well. Oh yeah, my former assistant from WVI, Megan is also going to be racing in Bellingham and I'd like to think I had a little to do with that (ok maybe all my nagging her about coming and running it with me was a part of it!). Megan will likely kick my butt on race day (she is 15+ years younger than me) but I am ok with that, it just gives me something to shoot for in my next race!
Right now I am planning on running Bellingham and then another half-marathon race sometime in January before running the Eugene Half-Marathon again next May. I will start to run shorter distance races in the midst of my training (5 and 10k's) but my focus will always be on the "big" races. As I get stronger I will race more often but at this point I would like to do a minimum of 4 big races a year. People have asked me about whether I am going to run a marathon and right now my answer is I don't know about the future but I will not run one until after I run next years Eugend Half as I want to do a direct comparison about the difference in me one year later over the previous year's race. Not just in how fast I can run but where I am at physically, spiritually and emotionally. Then and only then will I consider whether I even want to run a full marathon. 13.1 miles (21.08 km's for those of you who think metric) is a LONG distance, and I may just be happy racing that distance for the rest of my running days. I suspect I won't and will want to challenge myself further but that is 10 months down the road and a lot can happen in that time.
Well, my insomnia seems to be waning and I need to get more sleep so will sign-off for now. Thanks for continuing to read my thoughts and I'll "talk" to you next time.
Mike
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Bellingham Half Marathon Training-Day 5
Well today was day 5 of my "offical" training for Bellingham with my new orthotics. Between being in better shape and the new feet (ok well the feet are the same but you get the idea) I am feeling so much stronger than when I was training to run Eugene.
Today I ran at an average speed that was as fast as the fastest training run I had during my whole training program for Eugene. If I was to put it in a timeline that aligned my training for Bellingham with the Eugene run this is a run that I did 5 weeks from today, so that gives me a 5 week headstart on my speed training and I am currently running .64 mph (1.03km/h) faster today than I was at this point in my training for Eugene.
What does this all mean? Well it means that I'm in better shape, I'm lighter, My feet are working better because along with this speed I am not having any ankle or calf pains on my left side (like I did the whole time I was training for Eugene)
Speed and weight loss are both like snowballs, once they start picking up steam they just keep getting better. Now the trick here is as I start to run further distances I want to keep the speed up. If I were to be able to run at the speed I did today for the whole half marathon I would come in at a little over 2 hours 18 minutes for the 13.1 miles. I have set a target this race to run sub 2:30 so that would be a wonderful achievement to keep building on this speed.
As for weight loss once again I have not set a goal for myself. I am going to eat right, get sleep and keep on running and see where it takes me. I believe that by doing this and paying attention to my weight this is sustainable weight loss (even with my travels) and that is the most important thing. I do have two training runs to do while I am in Bangladesh so that will be fun but they are short ones so I am not worried about getting them in because I can do them at the hotel gym.
13 weeks 3 days to race day!
Til next time,
Mike
Today I ran at an average speed that was as fast as the fastest training run I had during my whole training program for Eugene. If I was to put it in a timeline that aligned my training for Bellingham with the Eugene run this is a run that I did 5 weeks from today, so that gives me a 5 week headstart on my speed training and I am currently running .64 mph (1.03km/h) faster today than I was at this point in my training for Eugene.
What does this all mean? Well it means that I'm in better shape, I'm lighter, My feet are working better because along with this speed I am not having any ankle or calf pains on my left side (like I did the whole time I was training for Eugene)
Speed and weight loss are both like snowballs, once they start picking up steam they just keep getting better. Now the trick here is as I start to run further distances I want to keep the speed up. If I were to be able to run at the speed I did today for the whole half marathon I would come in at a little over 2 hours 18 minutes for the 13.1 miles. I have set a target this race to run sub 2:30 so that would be a wonderful achievement to keep building on this speed.
As for weight loss once again I have not set a goal for myself. I am going to eat right, get sleep and keep on running and see where it takes me. I believe that by doing this and paying attention to my weight this is sustainable weight loss (even with my travels) and that is the most important thing. I do have two training runs to do while I am in Bangladesh so that will be fun but they are short ones so I am not worried about getting them in because I can do them at the hotel gym.
13 weeks 3 days to race day!
Til next time,
Mike
Monday, June 7, 2010
On the Road to Eugene (Day 13 and 15)
January 3, 2010
So I’m back at it after missing 5 workouts. I should have known that trying to do something over the Christmas vacation was really dumb but hey I’m forever the optimist. the good news is I only gained 0.6lbs (just over half a pound) over the Christmas vacation, the bad news is that I am so freakishly out of shape cardio-vascular wise that it sucks. After my 5 minute warm-up I started my “running” which took my heart rate up to 164bpm before I had gone 3 blocks. But I fought through it and walked and ran and walked and ran and I am determined and I am going to make this run in May happen. It is 4 weeks until I start full “running” so I need to keep building up my cardio and keep pushing through those moments of self doubt.
January 5, 2010
So second day back after my Christmas to New Years break, on a good note I pushed myself a little harder today and most of my “running” was on the uphill’s as opposed to Sunday where they were mostly the downhill’s. I’m going to keep pushing. Again, I’m not supposed to be at full run until the beginning of February so I just need to keep reminding myself of that fact. Food is still going to be a problem for me for awhile. I “snacked” late last night which was not good and when I finished my run this morning I didn’t eat at the right time either and then lunch was not the best (Wendy’s). but I’m back running and I will take that positive with me right now. I need to keep focused and get things going. I will do a full weigh-in and measurements this Sunday in order to set the milestones for each week leading up to the race. In the meantime, baby steps and I’ll just keep plugging along
So I’m back at it after missing 5 workouts. I should have known that trying to do something over the Christmas vacation was really dumb but hey I’m forever the optimist. the good news is I only gained 0.6lbs (just over half a pound) over the Christmas vacation, the bad news is that I am so freakishly out of shape cardio-vascular wise that it sucks. After my 5 minute warm-up I started my “running” which took my heart rate up to 164bpm before I had gone 3 blocks. But I fought through it and walked and ran and walked and ran and I am determined and I am going to make this run in May happen. It is 4 weeks until I start full “running” so I need to keep building up my cardio and keep pushing through those moments of self doubt.
January 5, 2010
So second day back after my Christmas to New Years break, on a good note I pushed myself a little harder today and most of my “running” was on the uphill’s as opposed to Sunday where they were mostly the downhill’s. I’m going to keep pushing. Again, I’m not supposed to be at full run until the beginning of February so I just need to keep reminding myself of that fact. Food is still going to be a problem for me for awhile. I “snacked” late last night which was not good and when I finished my run this morning I didn’t eat at the right time either and then lunch was not the best (Wendy’s). but I’m back running and I will take that positive with me right now. I need to keep focused and get things going. I will do a full weigh-in and measurements this Sunday in order to set the milestones for each week leading up to the race. In the meantime, baby steps and I’ll just keep plugging along
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sunday in Halifax Nova Scotia (with Flat Stanley...)
Shane's Flat Stanley meeting another tourist in Niagara Falls
Well good morning from FOGGY Halifax. I've had a really good week so far (not enough sleep but I never do when I travel). I met 7 amazing candidates for a new sales job I am recruiting for in Toronto. I said before I left that I wanted to have a really difficult decision when I got back because that meant I would get someone really good and that is how it is going to be. Maybe more difficult than I want even :-) but not a bad problem to have. I'm in Halifax as I am going to be meeting with a former colleague who is now the VP of an organisation that I believe we can help. Having said that, I've never been to Nova Scotia before (I know in all my travels I've missed out somewhere in Canada go figure) so this is actually a neat thing to be able to do.
Today I will be taking a road trip around the island with my son's "Flat Stanley". Flat Stanley is a story book character who Grade 3 classes in my son's school make a copy of and then mail him to different people they know to "experience" life where they live. The people take pictures of Flat Stanley doing things they would do, exploring their part of the world and telling a story about his journey's. Well this year my son's class is studying Canadian Pioneer times and quite frankly they ran out of time to have everyone send out their Flat Stanley's. When his teacher found out I was going to be travelling to Ontario and Nova Scotia she and my wife talked and Cheryll suggested that I could take Flat Stanley on a road trip with me. Needless to say his teacher thought this would be a great idea and so with that, Shane and one of his friends Ralph, made two Flat Stanley's for me to take with me.
So far on this trip Flat Stanley has been seen on a plane, in an airport and while we were in Toronto we took a road trip to Niagara Falls for Flat Stanley to see one of the wonders of the world. I had so much fun getting people to take pictures with Flat Stanley and I can't wait for the kids to see the pictures and hear the stories. Today Flat Stanley and I are going to go around the island here but most specifically we are going to go to Peggy's Cove (site of the Swissair 111 crash on September 2, 1998) I'm hoping to get more pictures of Flat Stanley with some other people but even if I don't I'm sure he'll have a great time.
Well it's 7:20 am here now so I better get going and have breakfast so I can get on the road. Going to visit my friend and his wife this afternoon so it's going to be a busy day.
til next time...
On the Road to Eugene (Day 3 and 4)
Decemeber 24, 2009
Well today, I forgot to turn on my HRM watch properly so my Kcal numbers are based on calculations from my last half-marathon workout. I started out feeling crappy at the beginning of my walk but by the time I finished I was actually feeling pretty good. Tomorrow is Christmas Day and the gift I am giving myself this year is this commitment to me. I have a busy day ahead of me today but I’m going to try to be responsible with food and make better choices. 2 more training sessions and then I start the run-walking so that will be encouraging (and I’m sure challenging to start).
December 25, 2009
Yeah, who was I kidding, working out on Christmas day! It was a wonderful day today with the kids. It is nice that our kids have Christ in their lives and understand that Christmas is not about the toys but about the birth of our Lord and Saviour.
Well today, I forgot to turn on my HRM watch properly so my Kcal numbers are based on calculations from my last half-marathon workout. I started out feeling crappy at the beginning of my walk but by the time I finished I was actually feeling pretty good. Tomorrow is Christmas Day and the gift I am giving myself this year is this commitment to me. I have a busy day ahead of me today but I’m going to try to be responsible with food and make better choices. 2 more training sessions and then I start the run-walking so that will be encouraging (and I’m sure challenging to start).
December 25, 2009
Yeah, who was I kidding, working out on Christmas day! It was a wonderful day today with the kids. It is nice that our kids have Christ in their lives and understand that Christmas is not about the toys but about the birth of our Lord and Saviour.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
On The Road to Eugene (Day 2)
December 23, 2009
Well Day 2 was supposed to be a full EYS work-out but 25 minutes into it I realized that I had made a massage therapy appointment and so had to cut my exercise short. The other thing I unfortunately realized is that I am now so big in my stomach that anything that I need to do on the floor (crunches, some stretches, etc.) that pushes on my stomach then pushes up into my lungs and makes it hard for me to breathe. This is not a good thing and even more a reason to get my weight down as until then I am going to be challenged to do all the floor work of EYS. I think I will do some “substitutions” for those crunches by using our exercise ball but at this point I am not sure. Not a great eating day yesterday as while we had McDonalds for dinner and I did not super-size my fries, I still had them and then after a long Worship Team music practice at the Church (almost 2.5 hours) I came home and indulged in some chocolate covered almonds (my weakness at Christmas...) But I need to take that I have worked out two days in a row and that if I hadn’t done that the almonds would have been more damaging than they were. At Christmas this is to be expected but I will be glad when the season is over.
I am most proud of myself for working out today because quite frankly I felt really crappy when I woke up and the old me would have used it as an excuse not to work out. But a little cold is not going to stop me this time.
Until tomorrow…
Well Day 2 was supposed to be a full EYS work-out but 25 minutes into it I realized that I had made a massage therapy appointment and so had to cut my exercise short. The other thing I unfortunately realized is that I am now so big in my stomach that anything that I need to do on the floor (crunches, some stretches, etc.) that pushes on my stomach then pushes up into my lungs and makes it hard for me to breathe. This is not a good thing and even more a reason to get my weight down as until then I am going to be challenged to do all the floor work of EYS. I think I will do some “substitutions” for those crunches by using our exercise ball but at this point I am not sure. Not a great eating day yesterday as while we had McDonalds for dinner and I did not super-size my fries, I still had them and then after a long Worship Team music practice at the Church (almost 2.5 hours) I came home and indulged in some chocolate covered almonds (my weakness at Christmas...) But I need to take that I have worked out two days in a row and that if I hadn’t done that the almonds would have been more damaging than they were. At Christmas this is to be expected but I will be glad when the season is over.
I am most proud of myself for working out today because quite frankly I felt really crappy when I woke up and the old me would have used it as an excuse not to work out. But a little cold is not going to stop me this time.
Until tomorrow…
Saturday, May 22, 2010
On the road to Eugene (even if I thought it was Vancouver at the time)
OK so here is excerpt one from my journal of my journey to Eugene...Sometimes our kids say the darndest things...I hate it when my kids are right...and I love that they make you think about what is right...
December 22, 20009
And so it begins…
So this is day 1 of my journey to a healthier, happier me. It starts today with my first training session to run the Vancouver half marathon on May 9, 2010.
I have to be honest I’ve started and stopped so many times that I feel almost hypocritical, especially after yesterday when I was having a discussion with my son Nathan (who is 14 and a typical teenage boy) and I’m telling him how he talks about being passionate about things but only if he doesn’t have to work at it. I used the examples of how amazingly talented he is musically but he doesn’t want to practice which of course got us into a great argument about how his mom and I ruin everything for him by making it “not fun” because we nag him to practice or try to challenge himself and take him out of his comfort zone.
At this point we get into the conversation about his supposed new found love of running. I should explain that in his early childhood Nathan’s calf muscles did not grow as fast as his skeletal system and so it actually hurt him to run (not to mention he looked very interesting when he did “run”). After over 2 years of physio-therapy where he did a multitude of home stretching exercises his muscle length finally caught up to his skeleton. Now in middle school Nathan had as part of his Physical Education (P.E.) class the joy of having to do road runs and when he started the year Nathan would always be last or near last. As the year went on he persevered and got better and better and faster and faster to the point where he was finishing in the top 5 most of the time. The following year he kept working at it and by the end of the year there was only one boy in his class who he couldn’t beat. Ironically it was the school’s best athlete, more ironically his name just happened to be Mike Rogers (must be something about that name and high school sports!). So along comes this year, Grade 9, his freshman year in high school and he decides that he loves running now so much that he wants to race cross-country. I’m proud to say that by the end of the racing season he was the top finishing junior boy on his school team in the provincial championships.
So, getting back to the passion conversation and not working at something. Having given you the background on Nathan’s new found running love. I was telling Nathan that even though he supposedly “loves” running he did not work as hard as he could have, nor did he train in advance of the season. In fact the point his mother and I were making to him on this day was that if we hadn’t hounded him to go do his weekend runs he wouldn’t have done them at all; and the fact that he missed some weekend runs because we weren’t there to hound him how much better could he have run this year? Well, obviously this went over really well with him and he immediately shot back at me “Dad, you said you love running but how come your not doing it?”
This one hurt because in the summer this past year I had started running again and was really feeling good when I injured my Achilles and was in physio for 8 weeks. In the past 6 weeks since being “allowed” to run again, I have felt really down and just didn’t “do it”. Well Nathan’s comment hit me hard and made me realize that he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t working at it. I have struggled with my weight for years and 4 years ago lost 40 pounds prior to going on a missions music tour to Italy. After coming back I gained back about 10 pounds during my wife’s pregnancy with our daughter but had held onto that level pretty good. Then I joined World Vision and put on 60 pounds in about 8 months (I traveled all over the world A LOT). I have managed to lose about 10 of those 60 pounds and kept it off for over a year but I am still 20 pounds heavier than I was when I started losing the weight prior to Italy.
After getting upset at him for calling me out, I spent the rest of the day thinking about what he said and wrestling with my own inability to “commit” to my health. So I decided to do something about it. I went back and found my training schedule for the half marathon I was planning on running before I got injured in September and decided that if I was going to lose this weight once and for all I would need a goal (or goals) so I decided that my first goal would be to run the Vancouver Half Marathon in May 2010. This type of motivation had worked very well for me before when I was getting ready to go to Italy, the problem was when I got back from Italy I just stopped (there were a lot of really good excuses for it at the time or so I allowed myself to believe and buy into…) This time it needed to be different and whereas last time it was about “losing weight”, this time it was about “re-gaining my life”.
This morning I woke up at 7:45 am (Christmas vacation is a beautiful thing) and feeling pretty good about things and my new found commitment I decided that today was the day for me to start training and changing my life once and for all. Now I know that beginning an exercise program 3 days before Christmas for most people would seem ridiculous but I was tired of saying to myself “next week on Monday I start”. Today was day 1 of my training plan for the race and so I needed to do my “run”, which at this point was actually a walk.
I know myself well enough to know that I am going to struggle with certain types of foods over the next few weeks it being Christmas and all but I also know that taking one small step is better than not taking any step. I also have spent the past 8 years learning about water and food and exercise, and I know that one without the other doesn’t work well. I’ve always tried to do this by starting with the food and “working towards” the exercise doing things I don’t enjoy, eating food that is “prescribed” only to discover that I can’t sustain it, so with that in mind I began this journey in a different way. I am committing to a training program for a race, and on my “rest” days from running, depending on how I am feeling I will either actually “rest” or do a workout program called “Escape your Shape” (“EYS”) by Edward Jankowski which I had started doing a number of years back, loved it but like everything else just kind of “lost” momentum. This time instead of being the focus of my training, Escape Your Shape would be the supplement to my training. In conjunction with that I committed that I would eat more responsibly over the next 2 weeks and that I would start planning more of my meals starting January 2nd. I’m not going on some food program, I’m not going to buy “special” meals. I’m going to make better choices, more often and keep “portion control” in mind at all times. I know that Wendy’s or McDonalds or some other fast food restaurant will call my name from time to time but I won’t “super-size” any meals any more. This is realistic for me and while not what the doctor would order for successful “weight loss” it is what I need to recognize about me for long-term success. I cannot eliminate all the things I love as that will destine me to failure because I will have something and then get mad at myself at then 1 will turn into 2 will turn into 20 of those types of choices and exercise will fall off…well you get the picture. So no “low-Carb, low-fat, low-sodium, low this or that focus” it will be about “balanced eating. In other words, I will eat more of the right foods, (fruits, veggies, whole grains, low sugar) more of the time while keeping up with my training.
And so here goes…
Week 1 Tuesday, Dec 22, 2009 to Monday Dec 29, 2009
Down the stairs to the gym in our basement I go. I can’t weigh myself on our regular scale because I am too heavy so I am going to weigh myself using my Wii Fit program (which is wonderful for those of you who want to start “moving” again by the way). I wanted to take measurements of myself this morning but my wife and I could not find the tape measure so I need to buy a new one today. I will fill in my “measurements” tomorrow. I have determined that I will only weigh myself twice a week, maximum but always on Sunday’s as this will be my “weekly weigh-in day”
Day 1 – Dec 22, 2009 – Half Marathon Training - 20 minute walk – 30 minute workout.
So onto the treadmill I got this morning to start my commitment to a new healthier me. Per my plan I will be doing my EYS workout only on Wednesday’s, Saturday’s and/or Monday’s. But today I will be doing a 30 minute workout starting with a 5 minute warm-up walking, 20 minutes of walking at 4 mph and then a 5 minute cool-down, followed by stretching.
As I start my workout I am surprised at how good I feel and how comfortable it is for me to get up to 4 miles per hour on the treadmill. I guess all that on-again, off-again working out was not completely a waste of time although I know I can’t possibly run at this point without gasping for air. My heart rate peaks out at about 132 beats per minute (BPM) at about the 20 minute mark and I make it through my 20 minutes at 4 mph without feeling “stressed”. This is how I need to start, with a pace that I can build on, not too fast, not too slow. I don’t even start my running at all on the training plan for the half marathon until next week and then it is a combination of running and walking. My first week where I am “running” the whole time is not until week 7 of my 20 week training program which is the 1st week of February. I am determined to train properly so as not to get unnecessarily injured and thereby derailing my efforts once again.
I finish my workout feeling really good about myself and then in keeping with my commitment to eating better I have a breakfast that includes 2 eggs scrambled with a little bit of cheese (less than an ounce) and some ham/bacon. I top that off with 8 oz’s of V-8 Juice and away I go. The rest of the day will be spent finishing my Christmas shopping and starting the other commitment I’ve made to myself which is to see our house “de-cluttered” (which also takes time). And that is day 1 of the rest of my life. Tomorrow is an Escape Your Shape day so I am looking forward to getting back on my elliptical and doing some resistance training as well (ok maybe not looking forward to it, but I’m definitely committed to it).
December 22, 20009
And so it begins…
So this is day 1 of my journey to a healthier, happier me. It starts today with my first training session to run the Vancouver half marathon on May 9, 2010.
I have to be honest I’ve started and stopped so many times that I feel almost hypocritical, especially after yesterday when I was having a discussion with my son Nathan (who is 14 and a typical teenage boy) and I’m telling him how he talks about being passionate about things but only if he doesn’t have to work at it. I used the examples of how amazingly talented he is musically but he doesn’t want to practice which of course got us into a great argument about how his mom and I ruin everything for him by making it “not fun” because we nag him to practice or try to challenge himself and take him out of his comfort zone.
At this point we get into the conversation about his supposed new found love of running. I should explain that in his early childhood Nathan’s calf muscles did not grow as fast as his skeletal system and so it actually hurt him to run (not to mention he looked very interesting when he did “run”). After over 2 years of physio-therapy where he did a multitude of home stretching exercises his muscle length finally caught up to his skeleton. Now in middle school Nathan had as part of his Physical Education (P.E.) class the joy of having to do road runs and when he started the year Nathan would always be last or near last. As the year went on he persevered and got better and better and faster and faster to the point where he was finishing in the top 5 most of the time. The following year he kept working at it and by the end of the year there was only one boy in his class who he couldn’t beat. Ironically it was the school’s best athlete, more ironically his name just happened to be Mike Rogers (must be something about that name and high school sports!). So along comes this year, Grade 9, his freshman year in high school and he decides that he loves running now so much that he wants to race cross-country. I’m proud to say that by the end of the racing season he was the top finishing junior boy on his school team in the provincial championships.
So, getting back to the passion conversation and not working at something. Having given you the background on Nathan’s new found running love. I was telling Nathan that even though he supposedly “loves” running he did not work as hard as he could have, nor did he train in advance of the season. In fact the point his mother and I were making to him on this day was that if we hadn’t hounded him to go do his weekend runs he wouldn’t have done them at all; and the fact that he missed some weekend runs because we weren’t there to hound him how much better could he have run this year? Well, obviously this went over really well with him and he immediately shot back at me “Dad, you said you love running but how come your not doing it?”
This one hurt because in the summer this past year I had started running again and was really feeling good when I injured my Achilles and was in physio for 8 weeks. In the past 6 weeks since being “allowed” to run again, I have felt really down and just didn’t “do it”. Well Nathan’s comment hit me hard and made me realize that he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t working at it. I have struggled with my weight for years and 4 years ago lost 40 pounds prior to going on a missions music tour to Italy. After coming back I gained back about 10 pounds during my wife’s pregnancy with our daughter but had held onto that level pretty good. Then I joined World Vision and put on 60 pounds in about 8 months (I traveled all over the world A LOT). I have managed to lose about 10 of those 60 pounds and kept it off for over a year but I am still 20 pounds heavier than I was when I started losing the weight prior to Italy.
After getting upset at him for calling me out, I spent the rest of the day thinking about what he said and wrestling with my own inability to “commit” to my health. So I decided to do something about it. I went back and found my training schedule for the half marathon I was planning on running before I got injured in September and decided that if I was going to lose this weight once and for all I would need a goal (or goals) so I decided that my first goal would be to run the Vancouver Half Marathon in May 2010. This type of motivation had worked very well for me before when I was getting ready to go to Italy, the problem was when I got back from Italy I just stopped (there were a lot of really good excuses for it at the time or so I allowed myself to believe and buy into…) This time it needed to be different and whereas last time it was about “losing weight”, this time it was about “re-gaining my life”.
This morning I woke up at 7:45 am (Christmas vacation is a beautiful thing) and feeling pretty good about things and my new found commitment I decided that today was the day for me to start training and changing my life once and for all. Now I know that beginning an exercise program 3 days before Christmas for most people would seem ridiculous but I was tired of saying to myself “next week on Monday I start”. Today was day 1 of my training plan for the race and so I needed to do my “run”, which at this point was actually a walk.
I know myself well enough to know that I am going to struggle with certain types of foods over the next few weeks it being Christmas and all but I also know that taking one small step is better than not taking any step. I also have spent the past 8 years learning about water and food and exercise, and I know that one without the other doesn’t work well. I’ve always tried to do this by starting with the food and “working towards” the exercise doing things I don’t enjoy, eating food that is “prescribed” only to discover that I can’t sustain it, so with that in mind I began this journey in a different way. I am committing to a training program for a race, and on my “rest” days from running, depending on how I am feeling I will either actually “rest” or do a workout program called “Escape your Shape” (“EYS”) by Edward Jankowski which I had started doing a number of years back, loved it but like everything else just kind of “lost” momentum. This time instead of being the focus of my training, Escape Your Shape would be the supplement to my training. In conjunction with that I committed that I would eat more responsibly over the next 2 weeks and that I would start planning more of my meals starting January 2nd. I’m not going on some food program, I’m not going to buy “special” meals. I’m going to make better choices, more often and keep “portion control” in mind at all times. I know that Wendy’s or McDonalds or some other fast food restaurant will call my name from time to time but I won’t “super-size” any meals any more. This is realistic for me and while not what the doctor would order for successful “weight loss” it is what I need to recognize about me for long-term success. I cannot eliminate all the things I love as that will destine me to failure because I will have something and then get mad at myself at then 1 will turn into 2 will turn into 20 of those types of choices and exercise will fall off…well you get the picture. So no “low-Carb, low-fat, low-sodium, low this or that focus” it will be about “balanced eating. In other words, I will eat more of the right foods, (fruits, veggies, whole grains, low sugar) more of the time while keeping up with my training.
And so here goes…
Week 1 Tuesday, Dec 22, 2009 to Monday Dec 29, 2009
Down the stairs to the gym in our basement I go. I can’t weigh myself on our regular scale because I am too heavy so I am going to weigh myself using my Wii Fit program (which is wonderful for those of you who want to start “moving” again by the way). I wanted to take measurements of myself this morning but my wife and I could not find the tape measure so I need to buy a new one today. I will fill in my “measurements” tomorrow. I have determined that I will only weigh myself twice a week, maximum but always on Sunday’s as this will be my “weekly weigh-in day”
Day 1 – Dec 22, 2009 – Half Marathon Training - 20 minute walk – 30 minute workout.
So onto the treadmill I got this morning to start my commitment to a new healthier me. Per my plan I will be doing my EYS workout only on Wednesday’s, Saturday’s and/or Monday’s. But today I will be doing a 30 minute workout starting with a 5 minute warm-up walking, 20 minutes of walking at 4 mph and then a 5 minute cool-down, followed by stretching.
As I start my workout I am surprised at how good I feel and how comfortable it is for me to get up to 4 miles per hour on the treadmill. I guess all that on-again, off-again working out was not completely a waste of time although I know I can’t possibly run at this point without gasping for air. My heart rate peaks out at about 132 beats per minute (BPM) at about the 20 minute mark and I make it through my 20 minutes at 4 mph without feeling “stressed”. This is how I need to start, with a pace that I can build on, not too fast, not too slow. I don’t even start my running at all on the training plan for the half marathon until next week and then it is a combination of running and walking. My first week where I am “running” the whole time is not until week 7 of my 20 week training program which is the 1st week of February. I am determined to train properly so as not to get unnecessarily injured and thereby derailing my efforts once again.
I finish my workout feeling really good about myself and then in keeping with my commitment to eating better I have a breakfast that includes 2 eggs scrambled with a little bit of cheese (less than an ounce) and some ham/bacon. I top that off with 8 oz’s of V-8 Juice and away I go. The rest of the day will be spent finishing my Christmas shopping and starting the other commitment I’ve made to myself which is to see our house “de-cluttered” (which also takes time). And that is day 1 of the rest of my life. Tomorrow is an Escape Your Shape day so I am looking forward to getting back on my elliptical and doing some resistance training as well (ok maybe not looking forward to it, but I’m definitely committed to it).
Friday, May 21, 2010
Bellingham Here I come!!!
OK so I sat down yesterday and thought about what to do next in my new found distance running career and I decided that I wanted to do something close enough that friends and family could come and cheer me on this time (OK Actually I just wanted something closer but feel free to come and cheer me on gang) so with that said I have decided that the Bellingham Bay Half-Marathon will be my next race. It is run on Sept 26, 2010. I actually wanted to do the Portland race with my friends Jim and Sue but it is sold out so unless I could get a charity spot I was going to be out of luck there.
I've heard from a few people that the Bellingham race is a nice race to do and end of September is a beautiful time of year in the Pacific Northwest so it should be a comfortable race. I will officially start my training for the race next Tuesday (May 25th). Over the course of the summer I'll fill in the blanks with some 5 and 10K races (just for fun) but Bellingham is now my focus. While I don't actually need 4 months to train for the race now I want to keep focused on my running and I am going to really be working on "off-day" strength training and low-impact aerobics.
I am feeling good about getting back "training" and today I did 4 miles of running/ellipticalling in my gym downstairs. It was an intense workout and I felt so comfortable with the running portion that I was doing interval sprints of 45-60 seconds getting up to 8 m.p.h. for the last few. I feel stronger now and know that with real focus and keeping an eye on what I eat over the next 4 months I could be racing in September 30-40lbs lighter than I am right now. I'll be updating on that part of my journey as well as I go along so stay tuned...
Til next time...
Mike
I've heard from a few people that the Bellingham race is a nice race to do and end of September is a beautiful time of year in the Pacific Northwest so it should be a comfortable race. I will officially start my training for the race next Tuesday (May 25th). Over the course of the summer I'll fill in the blanks with some 5 and 10K races (just for fun) but Bellingham is now my focus. While I don't actually need 4 months to train for the race now I want to keep focused on my running and I am going to really be working on "off-day" strength training and low-impact aerobics.
I am feeling good about getting back "training" and today I did 4 miles of running/ellipticalling in my gym downstairs. It was an intense workout and I felt so comfortable with the running portion that I was doing interval sprints of 45-60 seconds getting up to 8 m.p.h. for the last few. I feel stronger now and know that with real focus and keeping an eye on what I eat over the next 4 months I could be racing in September 30-40lbs lighter than I am right now. I'll be updating on that part of my journey as well as I go along so stay tuned...
Til next time...
Mike
Thursday, May 20, 2010
One Small Step for Mike...
OK so it's been over 2 years since I have posted to my blog. I kind of got caught in the natural busy-ness of being a Global Director of an International company and that meant way too many hours with not enough time for Mike.
As it says at the top of the blog I left World Vision in late 2009 after a wonderful 3+ years of service. Over those 3 years I got to see parts of the world I could have only imagined going to see when I was young. I got to meet many wonderful and fantastic people serving the poor around the world and in my own little way I hope that I made a difference and helped those people be able to better serve the poor.
I am forever changed by my 3 years at WVI, God knew when it was time for me to go there and he knew when it was time for me to leave. It's amazing to me that our time is not always his but that his is always the right time.
Thank you to all my colleagues and friends at World Vision. You people are amazing and I am forever grateful that you became a part of my life.
So fast forward to Christmas 2009, as many of you know last June I had decided to train to run a half marathon in Seattle in November 2009, however in September I injured my achilles requiring me to stay away from running for 7 weeks so no race in November for me...so after 3 months rehab we come to Christmas 2009 and I'm ready to try again so I sit down and go through the spring races and decide that I'm either going to run the Eugene Half-Marathon or the Vancouver Half-Marathon both of which are going to be run on May 2nd, 2010.
I decided not to tell anyone right away about this but just to start training right before Christmas, which I did December 22nd with a 20 minute walk.
Over the next few weeks I will post excerpts from my journal "Mikes Journey to good health" culminating with the big day on May 2nd (and beyond)...
I hope you enjoy Mike's "New" Journey (to good health)
As it says at the top of the blog I left World Vision in late 2009 after a wonderful 3+ years of service. Over those 3 years I got to see parts of the world I could have only imagined going to see when I was young. I got to meet many wonderful and fantastic people serving the poor around the world and in my own little way I hope that I made a difference and helped those people be able to better serve the poor.
I am forever changed by my 3 years at WVI, God knew when it was time for me to go there and he knew when it was time for me to leave. It's amazing to me that our time is not always his but that his is always the right time.
Thank you to all my colleagues and friends at World Vision. You people are amazing and I am forever grateful that you became a part of my life.
So fast forward to Christmas 2009, as many of you know last June I had decided to train to run a half marathon in Seattle in November 2009, however in September I injured my achilles requiring me to stay away from running for 7 weeks so no race in November for me...so after 3 months rehab we come to Christmas 2009 and I'm ready to try again so I sit down and go through the spring races and decide that I'm either going to run the Eugene Half-Marathon or the Vancouver Half-Marathon both of which are going to be run on May 2nd, 2010.
I decided not to tell anyone right away about this but just to start training right before Christmas, which I did December 22nd with a 20 minute walk.
Over the next few weeks I will post excerpts from my journal "Mikes Journey to good health" culminating with the big day on May 2nd (and beyond)...
I hope you enjoy Mike's "New" Journey (to good health)
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