I had my annualish eye exam today and nothing unusual to report. My near vision is slightly worse, as to be expected of “men of your age”, as the doctors like to phrase nowadays. To be especially thorough, the optometrist put drops in my eyes to fully dilate the pupils. I had 20 minutes to kill while the drops did their thing, so I went to the bookstore, which is about the most useless place you can go if your pupils are dilated because everything is keeningly bright and out of focus. After my less-than-satisfying browsing at the bookstore, I went to the washroom and checked out my eyes while washing my hands. The look is alarming. By that it means I looked like I was alarmed and it wouldn’t stop.
I have an updated prescription and I think I may opt for a new pair of glasses with polarized lenses. Unlike the last few times I will probably drag along a friend to make sure I come out stylin’.
Two days ago I resumed my weight-lifting regime after taking a number of months off to focus on my running. Because of the lengthy time away, I started with my ‘sissy’ 10 pound dumbbells. The workout went fine and all was well. I woke up around 3 a.m. that evening and was surprised that I did not feel sore at all! I reminded myself that I still had some time before I was out of bed.
The morning after I was sore as hell. It’s amazing how many muscles you don’t use while jogging. 😛 I am now re-acquainted with all of them.
Tomorrow I limber up with a 10k run then the next day I am back to the weights. I should be past the initial soreness within a week, I suspect.
the percentage classified as overweight or obese [since 1981] rose from 14 per cent to 31 per cent among boys, and from 14 per cent to 25 per cent among girls aged 15 to 19
based on BMI, 19 per cent of males and 21 per cent of females aged 20 to 39 years were classified as obese. By age 60 to 69 years, the percentage was about one-third.
A BusinessWeek story painted a similar picture for the U.S. with the “good news” being “obesity in the United States may finally be stabilizing instead of increasing”. One of the findings from the studies south of the border:
the adult study found the prevalence of overall obesity was 33.8 percent — 32.2 percent in men and 35.5 percent in women
I have written about weight loss and exercise before and I am utterly dismayed at these figures, especially after I found out something myself: unless you have some kind of medical condition that prevents or complicates it, achieving a healthy weight is simple. Here is all that’s required:
Don’t eat junk food.
Don’t eat fast food.
Eat plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and lean meat.
Avoid processed food that is loaded with sugar and/or fat.
That’s it. Eat properly and your body will maintain its own natural weight. You may still be a bit thin or thick depending on your actual body type, but you’ll be the right weight for that body type.
Add in a modest exercise routine three times a week for 20-30 minutes to help out. More if you’re into it.
In June 2008 I weighed 187.5 pounds and was probably on my way to 200. I am a thin person so a lot of this weight was packed around my middle. I changed my diet to something sensible. This morning I stood on the scale and came in at 144 pounds. No magic pills, no special powders or drinks needed. Just a bit of willpower and the desire to stop feeling uncomfortable about my own body.
I wish more people would have the same sort of epiphany I did a year and a half ago (okay, so a doctor also told me I was pre-diabetic. That was the “epiphany-assist”).
And what’s the deal with McDonald’s being an Olympic Sponsor, anyway? Somehow I don’t see the medal winners chowing down on Big Macs and fries before they go for the gold. Or maybe they do and their freakishly perfected bodies somehow transform that junk into something with real nutritional value. Or they’re all fembots. Well, except the guys. They’d be malebots.
Today’s run was around 11 a.m. on a cool but sunny Saturday (around 12ºC). I opted to go with just the usual short and t-shirt and will confess my hands felt like a pair of ice mitts by the time I got to the park. I resisted the urge to overdress and rightly so — I was sweating lightly within a few minutes.
However, in my rush out the door I had forgotten to make a stop in the loo and by the time I was at China Creek, my bladder was pointedly reminding me of this fact. A port-a-potty had been placed at the northwest corner of the park as part of a pilot project (a sign explained that it might be removed at the end of the month, based on public reaction).
Now, portable toilets are one of those things that are gross. No one ever says, “Wow, that sure was a nice port-a-potty!” You hold your nose, go in and do your thing as quickly as possible and without touching anything. I braced myself and opened the door. To my surprise, there was no odor at all, despite evidence that the toilet had indeed been used. I speculate the chemicals used to completely remove all trace of foul smell must be the kind powerful enough to bore straight through to the molten core of the planet and the toilet itself must therefore be made from the fused material collected from said core. There is no other explanation.
As usual, the start of the run was good but I was feeling a little logey by the 15 minute mark. It was also then that a shoelace came untied and I had to pause the workout to tie it, lest I stop running and do more falling on my face. There was a soccer practice/game underway and at one point an errant soccer ball made its way onto the path ahead of me. Today I would need to be vigilant not for delinquent girls but rogue sporting equipment. I continued on and right near the 5-minute mark a fellow jogger passed me. As you know, this is the official sign that It Is On. He widened the gap between us a little but not by much. I turned it up a notch, closing the gap and then passing him.
At the 2-minute mark The Competition passed me again. At this point in the run I am on my final lap and usually pick up the pace for the finish. The Competition was increasing his position ahead of me and it flickered through my mind that I may have to cede him the victory. But then I looked to the fountain by the path and realized that I was within reach of it — something I had never done before on the final lap. The Competition’s pace then flagged slightly, perhaps due to being comfortable with the lead or maybe due to tiredness. It didn’t matter. I turned on the afterburners. I intended to pass him and reach the fountain before the nice lady in my iPod announced the 35 minutes was up.
I felt good at this point — my stamina was easily keeping pace, the second wind having kicked in a few minutes earlier. My calves were holding up. The space between us began to shrink. I entered the final bend at the southwest corner of the trail, the fountain mere meters ahead on the right. I caught up and then strode ahead of him, reaching the fountain as I did so. A moment later, as if on cue, the iPod lady announced 35 minutes up, run complete. I came to a halt, allowing The Competition to pass me. He probably thought I was dicking around with him at this point. Just a coincidence, though — this time!
I went to get a victory drink from the fountain and found it wasn’t working. My one defeat.
I achieved a raft of personal bests on this run and Lance “I did not take steroids” Armstrong came on the offer his congrats. In all, I had my:
fastest km — 4.54/km (previous: 4:58)
fastest average km — 5.19/km (previous: 5:23)
greatest overall distance — 6.6 km (previous: 6.53)
Overall I have to say I’m pretty pleased with how it went. I feel pretty good tonight, too — none of my body parts are screaming at me.
After over-exerting my calves with last Friday’s run, I opted to delay Monday’s run to Tuesday morning. It was cool and a bit showery so I wore a jacket for the first time since starting. Across from the park a truck was unloading at a warehouse, so coming around the northeast corner of the trail I was met with the smell of diesel. Bleah. That was soon replaced, however, as the big metal doors were rolled up to accept delivery. As mentioned before, it’s a fish warehouse, so the ripe smell of raw fish was soon wafting over into the park. Fortunately with little wind to move it, it mostly hung to the one side of the trail. The run itself was deliberately low key to insure I did not re-injure my tender calves.
I had an annoying pain in my abdomen that had plagued me Tuesday night. It seemed unrelated to running since it didn’t hit until after I was in bed, which leads me to wonder how exactly I sleep. A webcam could shed disturbing and possibly amusing light on this but I think I’ll not go there. The pulled abdominal muscle delayed my usual Wednesday run to today (Thursday) but with the muscle no longer bothering me, I decided to push myself a little harder. Success came as I clocked my fastest km, breaking my previous mark of 5:01 by coming in at 4:58 and also my fastest mile, which my iPod informed me of at the end of the run via the voice of Tiger Woods. As we all know, golfers are pretty hardcore athletes. My overall distance was 6.52, a shade off my best of 6.53 and close enough to be a draw. I am going to try to do my usual Friday run so we’ll see how it goes with 24 hours between runs instead of the usual 48 or so.
Regarding the midgets and mud: the trail was a bit soft in a few spots due to earlier rain but it didn’t present a problem. Likewise, the wee lads playing soccer for the first half of my run did not punt a ball at my head, so all was well there. At a glance they really do look like midgets in their striped uniforms and shorts. Given that it was cool, cloudy and threatening to rain, I was the only one out on the trail jogging, though a few people were walking their dogs, none of which ran in my way and threatened to knock me down. Good boy(s)!
You don’t need to spend $150 or so on the shoes as a number of companies sell pouches that attach to the laces of whatever shoes you own, allowing you to insert the sensor in a secure fashion that prevents your wallet from crying, a definite bonus.
I have a nano and found setup very simple. I opted for the default female voice who perkily counts off the time in five minute increments and kept the distance to kilometers since I am working around the idea of 5k runs. My first run, set to 30 minutes, went without any hitches last Friday. This week I moved up to 35 minutes and created a few unofficial goals for myself based on Monday’s run. On that day I ran 6.48 km at an average pace of 5:27/km. My fastest pace was 5:12/km. On Friday I improved the distance to 6.53 km, the pace to 5.23/km and fastest pace to 5.01/km, just missing my goal of 5 minutes even.
Nothing comes without a price, though, and my calves, already stiff going into the run, were what scientists call “really really sore” even before I had completed the run. I definitely exerted them in a way I didn’t intend to, but now I have a much better idea of where my limits are and I can begin working toward improving my speed and time without yoinking my muscles silly in the process. On the plus side, my stamina held up nicely and if I had been running at a consistent pace instead of bursting the first and last few laps, I could have kept going without any problem.
I find one of the best motivators when jogging is to have someone on the path ahead of me. I always want to pass them. In most cases I do, so yay me. On Friday a guy started jogging ahead of me and I was already a good six or seven laps in, so not exactly bursting with energy. I decided to at least keep pace with him but eventually decided to pass. About half a lap later the cheeky bugger then passes me and it was on. If you pass someone and they later pass you, you are now dueling. It’s like the law of running. I picked up the pace, opting to get close to judge whether he would start flagging or not. He kept moving steadily along and we neared the northeast corner of the path where it dips down into a bend and then back up. There was a woman ahead of us doing the equivalent of Grandma driving below the speed limit. She was on the right, he was on the left and the gap between them was rapidly closing. I made my move and burst ahead into the dip, picking up speed and putting a little distance between myself and my duelist. I didn’t check back but I think he stopped not too long after. It didn’t matter. I had won. Woo!
This is what endorphins do to you.
I’m undecided on next week’s course of action, but will likely continue on the 35 minute runs, looking to improve my performance while avoiding injury. A summary of my last five runs is now available on the right side of the blog near the bottom. It looks just like this (and for some reason seems to gently inflate the results):
On Friday there were more dogs at China Creek Park than I’d ever seen in four months of jogging there. It was weird, like it was some sort of Take Your Dog to the Park Or Else day. I always keep my eye on dogs when I’m running, especially the ones not on leashes (about half of them, typically) because, like gravel-throwing little girls you never know when a dog might do something you don’t expect. As it turns out, a chocolate lab came running up from behind and on my left and I didn’t see him until he was cutting in front of me close enough for a little dog-human contact. If he’d been a toy dog I probably would have crushed him under a foot. Unintentionally, I mean.
The actual jog went fairly dismally even if you don’t count dog collisions, as I checked my time at only 19 minutes in and called it quits just short of 23. I’d skipped the previous jog due to tender muscles around the shins and man, even skipping one run is noticeable.
Today’s went significantly better, however. I ran for 31:46 and have decided to add an extra minute onto each run for awhile and see how it goes. I have some plans for tracking distance and time that I may be implementing soon.
No, not some sort of sushi dish, it’s Yet Another Jogging Update.
I completed the Couch-to-5K plan on schedule, running about 6.38k on the final day. I then took the next two days off as the muscles around my shins were a bit tender and I wanted to avoid shin splints. The jog after the days off was a wee bit harder, as a result. Perhaps slightly more than a wee bit.
Today I jogged for 30 minutes under the influence of a head cold and it was surprisingly not that bad. Stupid cold.
My ambitions for the rest of the week are modest — just run 30 minutes. This coming Saturday I may try hooking up with the FrontRunners group for their Saturday morning jog. Can I be at Stanley Park by 9 a.m.? We’ll find out!
I am in the final week of the Couch to 5k program (Week 9) and on Monday I did my first run in wet weather. The path at the park had a few puddles along the edges and was a bit squishy in spots but overall the experience was fine. Pretty much anything is better compared to the 30°C weather we’d been having (I will revise this after the first snow of the winter). I completed the mandated 30 minutes but something seemed amiss.
Going with how the plan equated time and distance I early on concluded that one circuit of the path — which takes about 3 minutes to run — equaled about 1 km. The final 30 minute runs in Week 9 would therefore require running 10 laps.
I started my run and by lap 7 I was thinking it was going faster than I expected. I decided to check the time after the 9th lap, which would put me at about 27 minutes in, more or less. Instead, I found only 18 minutes or so had elapsed. I kept running until I hit the 30 minute mark and by final count had done 14 or 15 laps instead of the expected 10.
Either my pace was significantly better than expected or my math sucked. Knowing how this whole thing began I suspected the latter. I was compelled to find out for certain and purchased a pedometer from MEC. My first task was to measure my stride length. To do so I took the tape measure to the walk in the backyard and marked out a 10 m section. I then walked it twice and verified 11 steps. 10×10= 100m and 11×10 = 110 steps, therefore my stride length is 100 ÷ 110 = .90 m or 90 cm. I set the pedometer to this and set off for a walking tour of the path at China Creek Park.
One full lap of the path gave me a distance of .58 km, which is more than I thought. 10 laps would equal 5.8 km, not 5 km. (8.5 laps would be just under 5 km.)
Since I had run about 15 laps in the half hour, I’d actually covered 8.7 km — 3.7 km more than the program expected of me. I am fairly boggled by this. I knew my pace was definitely faster but I had no idea it was that much faster.
In a few weeks I’m going to try to run a full 10k, which should work out to 17 laps. I’m going to recalibrate the pedometer tomorrow to match my stride length while jogging (8 steps vs. 11) and see how far it says I run in half an hour. More to come!
Started Week 8 of jogging tonight and was scheduled for 28 minutes. I like to avoid checking the time as long as possible so I don’t get bogged down by seeing I have more time left than I thought. My sense of time is pretty good so I’m usually pretty close when I check. Tonight I was jogging along merrily and when I looked I was 29 minutes into my run — oops. I decided to round it off and jogged until 30:13, completing the final goal of the 9-week program a week early.
August 2nd, to be specific. But more August activities in another update.
Here’s a quick rundown (geddit?) of Week 7: Redux of my jogging.
I restarted Week 7 — a straight 25-minute run — on Monday. I switched from late afternoon to early evening as we were still in the middle of a fierce heatwave. Even an hour before sunset the air was still furnace-like. As I jogged, I noted several girls in the play area and mindful of the recent past, looked upon them as the Eye of Sauron might as I jogged past them. It was apparently too hot for them to think delinquent thoughts. Really, it was too hot to jog and it was only the sweet mercy of the fountain that sustained me. I made three quick pitstops for a couple of sips of water. The problem with the fountain is you have to come to a full stop to use it and when it’s already very hot out and you yourself are also very hot, coming to a sudden stop results in your body heating up like a nuke plant. You definitely don’t dawdle.
Wednesday’s run was much the same but maybe even hotter. I went a we bit earlier because I was catching the fireworks that evening. Three pitstops once again but I managed to make it through. Both nights there were points where qutting felt like The Right Thing to Do, but I pressed on, not wanting to lag behind in the program even more.
By Friday evening the heatwave finally broke and while temperatures are still above normal, it’s now just really warm. By evening there is actually a slight cool breeze. I was curious how the lower temperature would affect my run. I ended up not making any stops and ran the full 25 minutes (plus 45 more seconds out of the park) uninterrupted. The difference was astounding. My only disappointment was a guy with a radio-controlled plane never actually flew it the whole time I was there. There was a soccer scrum in the middle of the field, so perhaps he was concerned about creating a miniature replica of an air show disaster. Several smartypants (including one guy in a kangaroo jacket — this is in weather that is over 30ºC) ran past me in great manly strides during my jog, outpacing me without trouble. Each conked out after half a lap. The kangaroo jacket guy was only wearing a t-shirt the next time he attempted the feat. I kept motoring along for a full 8 laps.
Overall, I feel I am in good shape for Week 8’s 28-minute runs if the weather doesn’t turn icky hot again.
Wednesday’s jog didn’t happen as I was still feeling a bit too much pain in parts that would hurt even more if I was running around. It was too bad as it was overcast — perfect jogging weather.
Today it was back to sunshine and it was warm but not hot, so I decided to salvage one part of Week 7’s regimen. About 15 minutes or so into the 25 minute jog my legs turned to lead and the sun became malevolently hot. I came very close to packing it in but decided I’d try to reconstitute myself at the fountain first, assuming it had not been vandalized yet again. Good news on two counts — the fountain provided the gulp of cool water I needed and I was able to finish out the jog without further pain or discomfort. I still find it slightly amazing that I can jog for nearly half an hour without stopping now. A year ago I’d have curled up in a ball by the side of the path ten minutes in.
Since I only completed one of the three parts of Week 7, I’m planing on a re-do starting Monday before moving onto Week 8, stretching the 9 week program to a total of 10 weeks (counting my initial week of runs where I expertly botched the timing every day).
The sty is also mostly gone, too, so hooray for my body still being able to recover from junk. Excelsior!
