Another Click

Race day pic

2011-09-26T00:57:00.001+02:00

How could I not post a pic.

Race Day!

2011-09-26T00:45:00.000+02:00

Today I ran the 5k, along with a friend too! My knees were still in a lot of pain. I doped up on ibuprofen pills and diclofenac cream in order to somehow ease the pain. It worked somewhat. I walked way more than I originally planned to (which was zero walking). The weather was fantastic. I managed a time of 30min49sec!!!

Although I didn't get under the 30 minute mark I'm very happy to have ran what I did, especially taking into count my physical condition (which I believe is plica syndrome due to overtraining). I had a blast today.

I did learn an important lesson though. If the majority of sources give a 5-6 week program for running a 5k, it might not be worth it to cram it into 2 weeks ;)

At the finish line we got a medal, a bottle of water, an issue of Runner's World, and a box of crackers! People were also cheering us along the way. Good times and I honestly can't wait until another running event.

Day 16 - Yesterday's Catch-up

2011-09-24T09:02:00.000+02:00

Yesterday's rambunctious day in the capital took it's toll and today I'm at 114.4kg. But I'm sure it will only be temporary. Knees are hurting but a lot less. Today's a rest day anyway before tomorrow's big race.

Day 15 Weigh In

2011-09-23T23:21:00.000+02:00

This morning I weighed in at 113.4kg. I went to Warsaw today catching the train before 6am. A very uncomfortable ride as my knees are giving me hell. I wish I could have put them up on the seat, but there was no way how. The additional walking didn't help today either. No exercise today and tomorrow is going to be another rest day, or maybe the pool. But for now, I'm off to find some pain meds :(

Day 14 - Weigh In

2011-09-22T09:44:00.002+02:00

I ended up not going anywhere yesterday (even though I was set for a bike ride, but one thing led to another and I didn't go). I'm justifying it with the knee pain and that I needed a break. Today I'm at 113.0kg.

Update:
I decided to go for that bike ride and measure out the distances. The distance that I run measured out to be extremely close to 5km (and therefore agreed with Google Maps).

The 5k I will be running might actually be 5.2km. But it seems like a nice course.

And the ODO is 141.38km on the bike.

Day 13 - Weigh In

2011-09-21T08:10:00.001+02:00

My knees are really hurting today. But not with every step and all. Just at certain times or angles. Today might be a rest day with pain cream or something. I weighed in at 113.3kg.

Day 12 - Non-stop

2011-09-20T16:12:00.000+02:00

Today is the first day I've actually ran the 5k non-stop. Timed at 29min40sec. Felt good although a little painful on the left knee. Now to simply start improving that time :D

Day 12 - Weigh in

2011-09-20T06:27:00.003+02:00

This morning I'm at a lovely 113.2kg. I'm getting a new door installed today. And then maybe a jog or something will be due.

Day 11 - A change of routine

2011-09-19T08:59:00.002+02:00

Yesterday was my grandfather's birthday, which meant a bit (but only a bit) of drinking, lots of food (meat and potatoes literally), and some singing to an accordion. It was fun.

I decided to skip the evening jog and go today morning instead. After a grueling wake-up I managed to get out the door at 8am. I also managed to eat a soft boiled egg and half a cup of coffee. Today went like so:

10 jog
1 walk
10 jog
1 walk
7:56 jog
Total: 29min56sec

And today felt like the slowest pace of all the days, and being dressed in sweat pants and long sleeve t-shirt didn't help as it was getting warmer by the minute with the sun coming up and all.

Day 10 - Weigh In

2011-09-18T08:25:00.001+02:00

I'm currently at 112.8kg, which doesn't seem like any magical number until you convert to pounds, which translates into 249 of them. Now that's a neat milestone, to be under the 250lb line. I have 7 days left until the actual jog.

Day 9 - Conundrum

2011-09-17T21:34:00.001+02:00

I forgot to weigh myself today. I was in the middle of breakfast when I realized it. My weigh-ins are done in the morning after waking up and before breakfast. Oh well.

I also almost didn't go jogging today. I loved the rest day I had and thought, why not just jog every second day. That, and the fact that I have one pair of athletic shorts and they just came out of the wash. I eventually put on longer pants and did the following.

15 min jog
2 min walk
15:18 jog

Which adds up to 32min18sec. Somewhere near a minute and half longer than the previous workout which included more breaks. But, I'm happy with today's jog for a number of reasons:

I had trackpants on. I've noticed it's a little harder jogging with full length pants (and sweatshirt/long sleeve t-shirt)
The two 15 minute sessions are the longest non-interrupted jogs so far, which is a good thing.
In general, I'm closer to making these 5 klicks a non-stop jog. Once that happens, I just have to work on intensity. And good joggers will tell you, either increase intensity or distance, but never both at the same time.
It is possible that a rest day may have helped. I've increased the intensity straight after a day which followed a rest day, which in itself had an increased intensity. So all in all, I don't think I'm doing too bad.

Day 8 - The Day after Rest Day

2011-09-16T20:07:00.005+02:00

So I may have lied a bit in yesterday's post with a false hope of going out to jog. Truthfully, I don't regret not going. There's a lot to be said for a rest day. I felt rejuvenated today (and the small beer and tea with friends yesterday also helped). With that being said, I highly suggest people take rest days seriously.

Today's tally amounted to 113.8kg and the 5k jog was 30min33sec with the following pattern.

6 run

2 walk

7 run

2 walk

6 run

2 walk

5:33 run

I don't know whether I want to increase the running times or decrease the walking times, wonder which would be the more economical approach?

Day 7 - Weigh In

2011-09-15T09:09:00.000+02:00

113.8kg (250.9lb). I wonder what kind of exercise will be for today? Maybe a jog?

Day 6 - Improvement

2011-09-14T19:34:00.001+02:00

My weight today was 114.8kg. I did the 5k route with the following (in minutes):
5 on
2 off
6 on
2 off
6 on
2 off
5 on
2 off
1:33 on

And ended up with a time of 31min33sec for today's jog. I'm pretty sure I could have kept it under 30minutes if I didn't take that last 2 minute walking break but I didn't want to change the plan. Still feeling great.

Day 5 - Just the music

2011-09-13T20:40:00.000+02:00

Today I'm back down to 114.5kg. I had to get a lot of paperwork done in the day, literally an ocean of it. I decided that today's jog would be non-timed in the strictest sense. So I went with 2 songs jog, 2 songs walk, and listened to a 'workout mix' I made, on shuffle of course.

One song lasted 10 minutes, that was killer. But being the man I am, I decided to stick to my initial plan. Felt great after.

Day 4 Weigh In and Exercise

2011-09-12T19:22:00.000+02:00

Today I saw 115.0kg again. I'm sure it will only be here for a short visit though ;)

Legs hurt a lot less and I did go for a jog today. Yesterday I decided to give myself a rest day in order to not burn myself out (even though I expect to [burn out] anyway once these 2 weeks are over). I did 5 minutes jog, 2 minutes fast walk. I ended up with a time of 33min10sec for today's 5km. The post-run feel was great!

Day 3 Weigh In

2011-09-11T15:58:00.001+02:00

Today's lucky number is 114.5. I knew some of that loss earlier was water! My legs have a pain like no other. But it feels good.

Swimming

2011-09-10T22:26:00.001+02:00

I forgot how awesome pools can be. Went swimming today (in spite of me thinking it was a bit expensive [roughly 4.50 USD for a 45 minute session!]).

I did 60 laps in a 25m pool in those 45 minutes. I just had to make use of every minute! All in all, not only did it feel great, but it was a much needed rest for my legs.

Day 2 Weigh-in

2011-09-10T06:41:00.000+02:00

So today I stand at 114.2kg. I'm amazed at how much you can lose within the first moments (literally) of working out and/or eating healthy. I'm thinking that a lot of weight has to be contained in water because that's really the only logical explanation I can think of for losing 1.6kg (3.5lb). But there could also be other factors: big meal sometime before weigh-in, lots of water, etc. etc.

My knees are also killing me. Thank God for Lumbolin (pain cream) ;)

First 5km time

2011-09-09T23:11:00.001+02:00

So I did that jog. Measured out 5km ob google maps and did it. Along with a few walking breaks my time was...

34min39sec!

Not bad for being quite out of shape in my opinion.

My weigh-in this morning was 115.8kg. So hopefully not only will my jogging time improve, but also my girth ;)

Preparations for a 5k

2011-09-09T15:23:00.000+02:00

I'm an impulsive person at times. And today I decided to sign up for a 5km run. I paid the registration fee already too. I was planning on going for a jog anyway today, but now I have a concrete goal ahead of me. The next 15 days will be hard core ;)

Another Day of Walking

2011-09-05T22:16:00.000+02:00

Today's walk took gathered up 11 469 steps accoding to my GoWalking Pedometer. This was of course all done with a baby and carriage. That's the plus side of having offspring and summer at the same time, you get to go walking often and far.

In keeping with Tradition

2011-08-31T13:33:00.001+02:00

And tradition being walking, I did 12600 steps the other day (this was not the 20k walk). Was walking around with a friend inspecting parking passes. We had some good conversations and the weather was really nice. Maybe I'll right about feedback mechanisms next post. A really interesting article was published in Wired magazine.

The 20km Walk

2011-08-30T10:40:00.001+02:00

So, in keeping with my tradition of walking a baby, I decided to do a 20.2km walk. And I did it.

It was awesome. Great weather. I even brought my Primus equipment (Trek Kettle, Express Stove, and gas cartridge) and warmed up some food for the baby. I found some hexagonal concrete blocks on the side of the road and made a chair and table. "Camp" was set up a tiny bit away from the main road so the cars wouldn't be too much of a problem. It was bliss being out there. I forget how soothing the simple sounds are against a backdrop of wind in trees (like the sound of a baby spoon gently scraping glass. I know, I'm a sap).

The road back home was nice too although the baby was starting to act up. My sandles also gave me a tiny blister on my left foot. I've never done 20km straight in them, so maybe it was justified.

Not as I planned

2011-08-27T07:13:00.000+02:00

Well, this isn't going as I planned, lol. Only 125km done on the bike when I thought I'd be doing a lot lot more. Laziness? Not enough time? Don't know. But I am starting to slowly get back into this exercise thing. I've ballooned to an unacceptable size.

Today I woke up early (around 6am). What I mean by woke up, is actually stood up. The baby wakes my wife every morning around this time and then I'm promptly nudged in order to hand her the baby. I figured, this might be a good thing to take advantage of seeing as how I want to come up with a better routine.

And so far it's working. It's now 7:16am, I'm writing a blog post in a blog I seemed to have forgotten about. I've taken out the plastics and glass to the recycling bins. And I've gone on a walk (2712 paces to be exact. Yes, I have a pedometer). And I've got the whole day before me!

Additionally, the last few days I have been taking longer walks with a baby and a carriage. They've ranged from 9000 to 11 800 paces. I've even gone a walk with the trekking poles, Nordic Walking baby!

Almost to King's Bridge

2011-07-08T16:58:00.000+02:00

There's this place outside of Bstok called King's Bridge (as best as my translation can get it). I've gone there once before with a friend but we were totally unprepared for the distance. The problem wasn't the trip there, it was the oneback. There (luckily) was a road, albight a very busy one, that ran alongside the path we took. We simply bit off more distance than we could chew and by the time we got home both of us were beyond dead tired.

So I did a portion of this path, not all the way though, only about 11 clicks of it. I'm guessing there's a total of about 20 one way. It's definately on my to-do lists of paths but I'm playing it smart this time and slowly building up to it. The stats as of today are:

ODO 124.86km

DST 22.77km

MXS 53.7km/h

AVS 17.9km/h

TM 1:16:26h

(Did I mention I bested my max speed by 2.6km/h? :D)

First Forest Run

2011-07-07T12:42:00.000+02:00

ODO 98.7km

DST 16.8km

AVS 15.6km/h

TM 1:04h

I finally mustered the energy to get outside on the bike. Decided to go through the forest where I normally make my walks but a bit further North. There's a DIY BMX park (are there any non-DIY BMX parks in forests?). I'm not into that stuff, nor is my body (weight) made for that, but I simply love the complexity that these guys came up with in terms of intersecting paths, jumps, and ramps.

The ride itself was a little tiring as I tried going up one of the paths that lead downhill to a jump. All in all, I felt great after though. My bike is squeeking a little and I'm going to have to replace the thing that goes between the pedals. I think I have a chipped ball bearing.

I also have to check my chain. Pesky chains.

A Wild Goose Chase

2011-06-25T22:36:00.000+02:00

Today's stats bring in:

ODO: 74.2km

DST: 26.77km

MXS: 50.1km/h

AVS: 11.2km/h

TM: 2:23:38

I went out quite literally on a wild goose chase looking for a house today. Kept a leisurely pace on the bike for over 2 hours and didn't find what I set out looking for. Felt great after, although not exactly an exertive exercise.

Also, my odometer sum ups aren't matching up with the daily distances. I'm simply posting up random trips here and there. Previous 10 clicks were random errands.

Driving License!

2011-06-17T06:24:00.000+02:00

And no, not the bicycle one. I had to get a new one in this country because my other one from my original country expired. Went well. I got to drive there by bike and made a few errands here and there today.

ODO: 39.79 km

DST: 17.24 km

MXS: 50.1km/h

AVS: 15.9 km/h

TM: 1:05h

Random Errands

2011-06-15T00:01:00.001+02:00

I'm using an Atech F13 cycle computer. I punched in 2030mm as my roll distance (measured with me on the bike rolling it one full revolution and then measuring the distance rolled). Today I eked out:
ODO: 22.51km
DST: 10.50km
MXS: 50.1km/h
AVS: 16.2km/h
Time: 39:06

I don't think I'll be besting that max speed any time soon, or if ever.

Avoiding Pain?

2011-06-13T22:32:00.000+02:00

My great idea was to go riding last Friday for a tiny bit in order to help break in the derrière for the ride that was to be today. I figured the weekend would be enough to forget the pain that comes with getting on the bike for the first time every season.

I was wrong.

ODO: 11.99km
DST: 7.10km
MXS: 31.0km/h
AVS 13.7km/h
Time 31:15

First time Out

2011-06-11T03:57:00.000+02:00

High hopes for this one. So far, it looks like this:

ODO: 4.85km

MXS: 31.0km/h

AVS: 17.2km/h

Time: 17:06 minutes